The Australian
US journalists wage war with the truth
Nicolas Rothwell, Middle East correspondent
February 03, 2005
MUCH like a swarm of locusts, darkening the skies in their descent upon a lush, crop-rich field, the US news media converge in unison when a well-signalled event demands their coverage: just as they arrived in Iraq, and departed again, in precise formation this past week for the tormented country's first democratic elections.
Reporting in such danger zones for a world-leading television network demands a particular kind of personality: not just brave but grandiloquent, not just quick-witted but inclined to narcissism. Hence the self-reflexive quality of much of the reporting that poured out of Baghdad and the other cities of Iraq over the election weekend, as celebrity correspondents filed their on-camera pieces: the stories produced were as much about the heroism of the authors as their subjects.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12128496%255E601,00.html
Annan told: act on Sudan or quit
AFP
February 03, 2005
WASHINGTON: Two leading US politicians have demanded UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan act immediately to end the killing in Darfur or else resign from the world body.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12128433%255E2703,00.html
Annan told: act on Sudan or quit
AFP
February 03, 2005
WASHINGTON: Two leading US politicians have demanded UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan act immediately to end the killing in Darfur or else resign from the world body.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12128433%255E2703,00.html
Prof steps aside
Churchill resigns chairmanship at CU amid 9/11 dispute
By Charlie Brennan, Rocky Mountain News
February 1, 2005
Embattled University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill resigned his chairmanship of the school's ethnic studies program Monday.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/local/article/0,1299,DRMN_15_3513399,00.html
Bird flu 'gaining momentum' in Vietnam
AP
January 23, 2005
HANOI: Vietnam on Saturday reported two more bird flu deaths, bringing the human toll to nine in three weeks and further raising the threat of the disease emerging as the next global pandemic, officials said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12025928%255E30417,00.html
Solar storm the largest in years
AFP
January 23, 2005
THE largest emission of radiation by the sun in 15 years could disrupt mobile telephone communications as well as television and radio reception, scientists said today.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12025622%255E30417,00.html
Protest over asteroid hunt
AP
January 23, 2005
MEXICO CITY: Scientists working off Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula began using sound waves on Friday to search for information about an asteroid that may have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12025926%255E30417,00.html
Habib 'warned wife of a big US event'
Martin Chulov
February 02, 2005
INTELLIGENCE officials allegedly intercepted a telephone conversation between Mamdouh Habib and his wife several days before the September 11 terror attacks in which he warned of a looming "big event" in the US.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12121615%255E2702,00.html
Excess weight doubles cancer death
Clara Pirani, Medical reporter
February 02, 2005
WOMEN who are overweight when they are diagnosed with breast cancer are twice as likely to die of the disease as women who are of normal weight.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12121632%255E2702,00.html
Bloody Geldof
AFP
February 02, 2005
LONDON: Bob Geldof, the Irish rock star known for founding the Live Aid and Band Aid events for charity, says he is sick of being "Mr Bloody Africa".
Geldof, former frontman of the Boomtown Rats, says in an interview with Radio Times magazine that he and U2 lead singer Bono get more press as campaigners for aid to Africa than as musicians.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12120200%255E2703,00.html
Congress obstacle to agenda of change
AP
February 02, 2005
WASHINGTON: George W.Bush will make his annual State of the Union address tomorrow burdened with the lowest approval rating of any US president entering a second term since Richard Nixon.
Yet he is in a feisty mood and is expected to urge Congress to back his ambitious agenda and even pass some measures it has flatly rejected before. He insists his re-election in November has given him a mandate for change. Mr Bush also will use the address to update Americans about Iraq following Sunday's successful elections, and discuss the way forward.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12116485%255E2703,00.html
Darfur 'criminal but not genocide'
Reuters
February 02, 2005
A UN commission says the Sudanese Government and militias carried out mass killings and probably war crimes in Darfur, but stopped short of calling the violence genocide as Washington contends.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12120195%255E2703,00.html
Son cuts out mum's pacemaker
Reuters
February 02, 2005
HOUSTON: A Texan has been arrested after cutting a pacemaker out of his dead mother's chest with a kitchen knife as part of a long-running dispute with a medical company.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12120185%255E2703,00.html
The Seattle Post Intelligencer
U.S. ships reach Antarctic science bases
WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- U.S. ships have delivered food, fuel and equipment to Antarctic science bases, despite fears they would not be able to pass through the ice pack formed behind the world's largest iceberg, officials said Thursday.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1501&slug=Antarctic%20US%20Supplies>
WHO: Tsunami hasn't spawned outbreaks
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- Precautions at the outset of the tsunami disaster in Indonesia's Aceh province prevented major outbreaks of infectious diseases, even though medical aid distribution was bedeviled by poor coordination, a World Health Organization official said Thursday.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Tsunami%20Public%20Health
Vietnam seeks U.N. help to fight bird flu
By TRAN VAN MINH
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HANOI, Vietnam -- Vietnam has appealed to the United Nations to help it fight a raging bird flu outbreak that has killed 12 people in the communist country over the past five weeks, officials said Thursday.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Vietnam%20Bird%20Flu
Archaeologist wins Desert Research award
By SCOTT SONNER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
RENO, Nev. -- An archaeologist whose research topics have ranged from Neanderthal hunters in France to the ill-fated Donner Party in the Sierra Nevada is the winner of a top research award typically reserved for more narrowly defined sciences.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1501&slug=Archaeologist%20Honored
U.S. aircraft carrier to leave Indonesia
By CHRIS BRUMMITT
ABOARD USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN -- A U.S. aircraft carrier with 5,300 sailors and Marines headed out of Indonesian waters on Thursday, the single-biggest drawdown of the American military aid effort for the Dec. 26 tsunami victims.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Tsunami%20US
Group: Oil, gas wells not inspected enough
By SUE MAJOR HOLMES
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
An oil pump is shown Dec. 18, 1998 near Monument, N.M. Oil and gas wells in New Mexico and four other states aren't being inspected often enough, and the inspections that are done are more likely for production rather than environmental concerns, an environmental group said Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2005. (AP Photo/Duane Tinkey, File)
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- An environmental group says oil and gas wells in five western states aren't being inspected often enough, and the inspections that are done are more likely for production than ecological concerns.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Oil%20and%20Gas%20Inspections
A move to curb drivers' cell use
Phone bill advances in state Senate; new study underlines risk
By KRISTIN DIZON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
At the same time that a new study says young people drive more like grandma and grandpa when they're on a cell phone, a bill limiting cell-phone use by drivers in Washington has passed its first hurdle in Olympia.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/210515_celldrive03.html
Red-light cameras backed
State bill would allow systems to catch drivers
By JANE HADLEY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Camano Island Democratic Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen attended a traffic-safety presentation at a national legislative conference last year that included a film of accidents where cars ran a red light and were hit broadside in the intersection.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/210503_redlight03.html
25 years later, the verdict is 'guilty'
Murder victim's family may never know the 'why,' but now they know the 'who'
By SAM SKOLNIK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
It took more than a quarter of a century for Seattle authorities to find and convict the man who murdered 25-year-old Sylvia Durante.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/210493_greene03.html
Boeing's profits fall, but outlook is good
Jet deliveries could soar next year
By JAMES WALLACE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER AEROSPACE REPORTER
The Boeing Co.'s commercial jetliner business appears headed for blue skies once again.
In its most upbeat assessment in some time, Boeing said airplane deliveries could soar by as much as 20 percent next year. The company is hiring again in the Puget Sound region as it emerges from the industry's worst-ever downturn, which saw thousands of commercial jobs eliminated.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/210439_boeearns03.html
The Moscow Times
Disbelief as State Says GDP Up 7.1%
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
The State Statistics Service announced Wednesday that the economy expanded by 7.1 percent last year, well above the 6.5 percent to 6.9 percent forecast by market watchers and the government itself.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/02/03/001.html
Banks Demand $540M From Rosneft
By Catherine Belton
Staff Writer
The legal tangle surrounding Rosneft's takeover of Yuganskneftegaz visibly tightened Wednesday as Western banks called for the state-owned company to immediately pay off a $540 million loan, and officials rushed to deny any links between the company's $6 billion loan from China and its purchase of Yugansk.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/02/03/002.html
Putin Questions Foreign Tsunami Aid
President Vladimir Putin thanked emergency workers Wednesday for their contribution to the Asian tsunami relief effort and questioned other governments' statements about the volume of aid they have provided, saying they may be inflated.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/02/03/012.html>
King Unveils New Nepali Cabinet
By Terry Friel
Reuters
KATMANDU, Nepal -- Nepal's King Gyanendra unveiled a 10-member Cabinet under his leadership on Wednesday, a day after he sacked the prime minister for failing to hold elections or end an escalating civil war with Maoist rebels.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/02/03/252.html
Putin Slams Anti-Terror Restrictions
Reuters
President Vladimir Putin has come out against parts of an anti-terror bill that would drastically restrict media reporting of militant attacks, Vedomosti reported Wednesday.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/02/03/014.html
The Gulf News
Deficit that you cannot refuse
By Jonathan Chait
Kay: It made me think of what you once told me "In five years, the Corleone family will be completely legitimate." That was seven years ago.
Michael: I know I'm trying, darling.
"The Godfather, Part II"
I don't mean to sound cynical, but it's starting to look as though the Bush administration does not seriously intend to get the federal budget in order.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=150255
Wise words from King Abdullah
There is no turning back." That summation by Jordan's King Abdullah, puts beyond doubt where reform in the Arab world is headed. In what will decidedly become a momentous chapter in history, Iraqis have done as much for Arabia as they have for their country by giving a defiant answer to the enemies of freedom.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=150261
Nepal king sacks government and declares emergency
Reuters
Kathmandu: Nepal's King Gyanendra sacked the government, declared a state of emergency and assumed power yesterday.
"I have decided to dissolve the government because it has failed to make necessary arrangements to hold elections by April and promote democracy, the sovereignty of the people and life and property," the king said in an address on state radio.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=150246
The Times London
Canada's debt relief move praised
Chancellor Gordon Brown has hailed Canada's decision to provide 139 million US dollars (£74 million) to help the world's poorest countries pay interest on their debts. Canada has agreed to make debt service payments directly to the World Bank and African Development Fund on behalf of heavily indebted poor countries. Britain has already agreed to do the same. If all other countries came on board, debt service payments could eventually be written off for the eligible countries.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/TGD/tgdBreakingNewsDisplay/0,,3,00.html
Castro attacks Bush and the EU
Fidel Castro called President George Bush "deranged" and belittled recent improvements in Cuba-EU relations in his first public remarks since Washington dubbed the Caribbean isle an "outpost of tyranny". In a televised address, Castro maintained his trademark go-it-alone attitude, saying his communist-run island is a paradise that is doing fine without the help of the US or Europe. Cuba "doesn't need the United States, it doesn't need Europe," he said. "What a wonderful thing to be able to say, that (Cuba) doesn't need any assistance -- it's learned to live without it."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/TGD/tgdBreakingNewsDisplay/0,,3,00.html
continued...
