The Chicago Sun Times
10 injured in helicopter aid flight
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- A U.S. Seahawk helicopter on a relief operation crashed in a rice paddy near Banda Aceh's airport, injuring all 10 aboard and causing the military to briefly suspend flights today.
Landfill at center of spat may reopen
January 11, 2005
BY DAN ROZEK AND DAVE MCKINNEY Staff Reporters
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The 94-acre Will County landfill that triggered a political feud within Illinois' first family when state regulators abruptly closed it can reopen next week if its operator cleans it up, attorneys and state officials said Monday.
"I knew it."
Bin Laden may be in eastern Afghanistan
January 11, 2005
BY STEPHEN GRAHAM
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KABUL, Afghanistan -- Osama bin Laden and other militant leaders could be hiding in eastern Afghanistan, the commander of U.S. forces along a key stretch of the Pakistani border told the Associated Press on Monday.
The International Herald Tribune
"I wonder who is living in comfort at the cost of the innocent? Not Osama bin Laden of course! Right Don?"
Afghanistan's addiction
Afghanistan confronts many problems, but none is harder to solve than the widespread cultivation of opium poppies and the smuggled exports of refined opium and heroin. The Afghan drug trade corrodes the institutions President Hamid Karzai's government needs to build, distorts economic activity and warps social structures
Israel and Palestine
Let's hope talk of peace isn't part of election posturing
January 7, 2005
When it became clear that Mahmoud Abbas would emerge as the successor to Palestinian chieftain Yasser Arafat, some Israeli leaders felt encouraged. They saw Abbas as a mediator in the style of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat: a moderate with less charisma than his predecessor but one who offered real leadership, not revolutionary symbolism, one who could find an accord with Israel.
Israelis hopeful but waryas polls give Abbas victory
By Dina Kraft
TEL AVIV, Jan. 10 (JTA) — Edna Bar-Or wants to be optimistic about the prospects for peace after this week’s Palestinian elections but, like many Israelis, she’s not sure she can be.
Boost for Ariel Sharon seenas religious party joins coalition
By Dan Baron
TEL AVIV, Jan. 5 (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took a step this week that appears to boost his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.
Ironically, that step was taken when Sharon convinced United Torah Judaism, a religious political party that opposes his withdrawal plan, to join his national unity government.
Of Course, Mr. Abbas extended every effort for peace. The only question is will the olive branch be laced with Hemlock?
Abbas extends olive branch
The Palestinian Authority president-elect extended an olive branch to Israel.
“We extend our hand to our neighbors. We are ready to make peace based on justice and we hope that the response will be positive,” Mahmoud Abbas said Monday on Palestinian television. “As we said before, we are committed to peacemaking and the peace process and the ‘road map’” peace plan, he said. But Abbas has ruled out a crackdown on Palestinian terrorist groups, as mandated by the road map.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is expected to speak to Abbas on Tuesday.
Deciphering Mahmoud Abbas
By Daniel PipesFrontPageMagazine.com January 11, 2005
There’s some puzzlement about Mahmoud Abbas, the new chairman of the Palestinian Authority. Does he accept Israel’s existence or want to destroy it?
AIPAC prober was transferred after rebuke
A top FBI official investigating a pro-Israel lobbying group was posted to lead the bureau’s Portland, Ore., office shortly after a group he headed was implicated in “inappropriate” conduct in the investigation of a Jew at the CIA.
David Szady, now in charge of the controversial FBI probe of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, was made special agent in charge of the FBI’s Portland division in May 1999, just a month after then-CIA Director George Tenet admitted that the National Counter Intelligence Policy Board was involved with “insensitive, unprofessional and highly inappropriate” language regarding the case of CIA attorney Adam Ciralsky, Portland’s Jewish Review reported.
According to the report, a spokeswoman for the FBI’s Portland office said Szady — who some Jewish communal officials have asserted has targeted Jews and blocked or slowed their clearances — served in Portland until May 2001. The FBI is investigating whether AIPAC staffers passed classified information to Israeli officials, though AIPAC has vigorously denied any wrongdoing. Ciralsky has left the CIA and is now a television news producer.
The News and Observer
Glaxo offers a 5-in-1 shotTots' vaccinations could decline by 6
By AMY GARDNER, Staff Writer
That stunned look when the needle goes in, the deep intake of two lungs' worth of air, and then, the scream -- all could become a little bit rarer for North Carolina babies thanks to a five-in-one vaccine available now.
Reuters
Weekly sales mixed
Gift card redemption, big ticket purchases rose but weather slowed sales in some parts of the nation
January 11, 2005: 10:03 AM EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. chain store retail sales were mixed last week, according to two separate reports Tuesday, as weather woes in some parts of the country hampered sales while retailers also saw a rise in gift card redemptions for the period.
The Star (Canada)
U.S. hopes Canada will join missile plan: EnvoyCellucci expects announcement by end of MarchU.S. ambassador anticipates Canada will take part
OTTAWA—The United States is optimistic Canada will sign on to President George W. Bush's missile defence plan before the end of March, American Ambassador Paul Cellucci has told The Canadian Press.
Cattle die after feedlot seizedSickness blamed on `overloaded' feed mixture, rancher says`It's horrible ... I've never seen anything like this before'
PONOKA, Alta.—More than 150 cattle found dead on an Alberta feedlot were incorrectly fed, causing bloating and ultimately death, says the veterinarian who is investigating the case.
Weather delays damaged sub's tripCrippled Chicoutimi stuck at Scottish baseHigh winds prevent transport ship sailing
FASLANE, SCOTLAND—The homeward voyage of Canada's crippled submarine has been delayed by bad weather in Scotland.
Editorial: Beef industry still faces uphill battle
Coming only days after Washington announced its readiness to ease border restrictions on live Canadian cattle, the news last week that another Alberta cow had tested positive for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy, or mad-cow disease, could not have been worse.
Bloomberg
USDA Reviewing Import Plan After Canada's 3rd Mad Cow Case
Jan. 11 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. will review its plan to renew cattle imports from Canada after that country announced its third confirmed case of mad cow disease.
Tsunami Disaster Aid
Death toll passes 150,000 in tsunami disaster
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia-- Rescue workers pulled thousands more rotting corpses from the mud and debris of flattened towns along the Sumatran coast Saturday, two weeks after surging walls of water caused unprecedented destruction on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The death toll in 11 countries passed 150,000.
Region gives $500K to tsunami victimsYork `one of the most multicultural regions' on continentBut many municipalities in Canada choosing not to donate
MIKE FUNSTON AND MEGAN OGILVIESTAFF REPORTERSYork Region will donate $500,000 for tsunami relief, becoming the first municipal government in the GTA to approve a direct cash contribution — and overshadowing donations made by a handful of other local governments across Canada.
Final numbers may be months away'News is very encouraging,' PM says 285 Canadians still `unaccounted for'
BRUCE CAMPION-SMITHOTTAWA BUREAUOTTAWA - Canada's list of missing in tsunami-ravaged southern Asia plunged to 37 from 146 yesterday, while the known dead went to six from five.
Aid distribution must be equitable
U.N. chief's tour sparks controversy
Jan. 9.
From the very government that declared the tsunami had not discriminated and equitable distribution of aid was vital, emerges a political agenda that had been under a humanitarian facade. The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan was barred from visiting the northern regions held by the Tamil Tigers, because of fears they would be "gaining any added political legitimacy at a time when they are shunned by most Western governments."
Jewish group meets Bush on tsunami
An American Jewish group was among 19 nonprofits that met with President Bush to discuss tsunami relief efforts.
President George W. Bush focused on “efficient collaboration and the idea of staying for the long haul,” said Ruth Messinger, president of the American Jewish World Service, who attended Monday’s meeting at the White House on last month’s Southeast Asian tsunami, which killed more than 160,000 people.
The president was “fiercely interested in the idea of giving money in a way that avoids dependency and in a way that encourages economic opportunity,” Messinger said. AJWS has collected $5 million so far and expects to grant more than $1 million to 34 groups in the affected area by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, more than 40 faith-based development, relief and grassroots advocacy organizations, led by AJWS, released a letter calling on President Bush to support bold action to address the debt crisis in the region. The groups called for the United States to press for a debt moratorium and urged the United States and G-7 nations to support the cancellation of all debts owed by Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Somalia.
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From disaster, diplomacy
An El Al jet delivered tsunami aid to Indonesia, a rare open contact between Israel and the world’s most populous Muslim state.
The El Al airlift landed Tuesday in Indonesia, which was hard hit by last month’s tsunami, after behind-the-scenes coordination between Jerusalem and Jakarta. Indonesia does not recognize the Jewish state, but Israeli officials expressed hope that ties could be normalized following the donation of clothes and food.
The last open contact between the two countries was in 1994, when then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin passed through Indonesia briefly on his way to Japan.
Aceh refugees hoping for food, waterInstead, they got another load of tarps
ANDREW MILLSSTAFF REPORTERStar reporter Andrew Mills is following a shipment of Canadian aid from Toronto's Pearson International Airport to the neediest of the needy in tsunami-ravaged Banda Aceh, Indonesia. This is his fourth dispatch.
BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA - What the 1,200 people attempting to live in the grounds of the Social Building here really needed yesterday was food, toilets and more fresh drinking water.
Tsunami aid: Devil is in the detailsBad weather haunts DART missionAmpara already haven of aid angels
MARTIN REGG COHN
ASIAN BUREAUCOLOMBO—Two Canadian military convoys rumbled out of the Sri Lankan capital this morning — their humanitarian mission threatened on two fronts.
Wilmington Star News
Mudslides bury homes in storm-battered CaliforniaParts of California and Nevada have had 19 feet of snow, while floods have hit the Midwest.
LOS ANGELES - A huge mudslide furiously crashed down on homes in a coastal hamlet Monday as a deadly Pacific storm hammered Southern California for a fourth straight day, boosting rainfall totals to astonishing levels.
"You'll excuse me be I thought he was everyone's president? Am I wrong? Besides there is such a thing as separation of Church and State, it is high time this administration respected that."
Inauguration route ban on crosses draws Christian fire
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A conservative group is threatening to sue the Secret Service for religious discrimination over security guidelines that would ban Christian crosses from President Bush’s inaugural parade route.
