New Zealand Herald
Amazon rainforest suffers worst drought in decades
12.10.05
By Terry Wade
MANAQUIRI, Brazil - The worst drought in more than 40 years is damaging the world's biggest rainforest, plaguing the Amazon basin with wildfires, sickening river dwellers with tainted drinking water, and killing fish by the millions as streams dry up.
"What's awful for us is that all these fish have died and when the water returns there will be barely any more," Donisvaldo Mendonca da Silva, a 33-year-old fisherman, said.
Nearby, scores of piranhas shook in spasms in two inches of water -- what was left of the once flowing Parana de Manaquiri river, an Amazon tributary. Thousands of rotting fish lined the its dry banks.
The governor of Amazonas, a state the size of Alaska, has declared 16 municipalities in crisis as the two-month-long drought strands river dwellers who cannot find food or sell crops.
Some scientists blame higher ocean temperatures stemming from global warming, which have also been linked to a recent string of unusually deadly hurricanes in the United States and Central America.
Rising air in the north Atlantic, which fuels storms, may have caused air above the Amazon to descend and prevented cloud formations and rainfall, according to some scientists.
"If the warming of the north Atlantic is the smoking gun, it really shows how the world is changing," said Dan Nepstadt, an ecologist from the Massachusetts-based Woods Hole Research Institute, funded by the US government and private grants.
"The Amazon is a canary in a coal mine for the earth. As we enter a warming trend we are in uncertain territory," he said.
Deforestation may also have contributed to the drought because cutting down trees cuts moisture in the air, increasing sunlight penetration onto land.
Other scientists say severe droughts were normal and occurred in cycles before global warming started.
In the main river port of Manaus, dozens of boats lay stranded in the cracked dirt of the riverbank after the water level receded. Pontoons of floating docks sit exposed on dry land. People drive cars where only months ago they swam.
An hour from where it joins the Rio Negro to form the Amazon River, the Rio Solimoes is so low that kilometres (miles) of exposed riverbank have turned into dunes as winds whip up thick sandstorms. Vultures feed on carrion.
Another major Amazon tributary, Rio Madeira, is so dry that cargo ships carrying diesel from Manaus cannot reach the capital of Rondonia state without scraping the bottom. Instead, fuel used to run power plants has to be hauled in by truck thousands of kilometres (miles) from southern Brazil.
Dry winds and low rainfall have left the rainforest more susceptible to fires that farmers routinely start to clear their pastures.
In normal dry seasons, rains arrive often enough to put out blazes that escape from farms and spread to the forest. This year, the forest is catching fire and staying aflame.
In Acre state, some 100,000 hectares (250,000 acres) of forest have burnt since the drought started and thick black smoke has on occasion shut down airports.
"It's illegal to burn but everyone around here does it. I do it to get rid of insects and cobras and to create fresh grass for my cows," a man who would only identify himself as Calixto said while using bundles of green leaves to smother flames and control fires near a highway.
The drought has also upset daily life in communities scattered throughout the basin's labyrinth of waterways.
"We closed 40 schools and cancelled the school year because there's a lack of food, transport and potable water," said Gilberto Barbosa, secretary of public administration in Manaquiri. People whose wells have dried up risk drinking river water contaminated by sewage and dead animals.
Sinking water levels have severed connections in the lattice of creeks, lakes and rivers that make up the Amazons motorboat transportation network.
Many people in Manaquiri's 25 riverine communities are now forced to walk kilometres to buy rice or medicines.
Cases of diarrhoea, one of the biggest killers in the developing world, are rising in the region. Many fear stagnant water will breed malaria. In response, the state government has flown five tons of basic medicines out to distant villages.
It will be two more months before the river fills again during the rainy season. Even then, residents fear polluted water will float to the top, causing sickness and economic plight.
"I've never seen anything like this," said Manuel Tavares Silva, 39, who farms melons and corn near Manaquiri, a town 149 km from Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state.
- REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349745
Yacht rescue cost could be above $1m
12.10.05 1.00pm
The cost of rescuing two injured yachties stranded north of the Chatham Islands may be more than $1 million.
Precise figures of the cost for rescuing the two hurt sailors from their stricken 9.7 metre steel yacht Janette Gay in the past few days are almost impossible to determine.
However, some authorities believe the $1m estimate by one official, who did not want to be named, may be too light.
Christchurch couple Heloise Kortekaas and Bruce Cox were rescued from their stricken yacht by the crew of the P&O Nedlloyd Encounter just before 7pm yesterday, 750km north of the Chatham Islands.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10349882
Incest accusations in Christchurch
12.10.05 6.00am
A teenage girl removed from her family home at age three was the victim of incest by her parents a week after going back to live with them, police say.
The parents, 48 and 46, names suppressed, are accused of the offences against their daughter between February 18 and July 10 this year, when she was 17.
They appeared in the Christchurch District Court yesterday after having psychiatric examinations, and were released on bail to reappear this month to set a date for a depositions conference. The conference will decide if there is a case to answer.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349844
Grandmother survives 3 days in quake ruins
12.10.05 1.00pm
ISLAMABAD - A 75-year-old Pakistani grandmother and her daughter were pulled alive from the wreckage of an Islamabad apartment block on Tuesday, more than three days after a massive earthquake devastated northern Pakistan.
Pakistanis working with a British rescue team cried out "God is Great, God is Great" once it became clear Maha Bibi and her 55-year-old daughter Khalida Begum were safe -- though it took 16 hours to get the women out of the small pocket of space where they were crouched.
"I'm so sorry to put you through all this trouble," Begum told her rescuer, John Holland of Rapid-UK, a British emergency service team.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349864
Britain offers compensation for Basra prison raid
12.10.05 1.00pm
LONDON - Britain has offered to pay compensation for personal injuries and damage to buildings caused when its troops raided a prison in southern Iraq last month to free two British special forces soldiers.
"We regret the incidents that took place in Basra on 19 September 2005. We also regret the casualties on both sides and the material damage to public facilities," local British and Iraqi authorities said in a joint statement.
"The British Government is prepared to pay valid claims for compensation for casualties and material damage in the well-established manner," it said.
The statement was released by the Foreign Office in London.
The incident, in which the two soldiers who had been operating undercover in Basra were captured by Iraqi police after a firefight and then taken by militant militias, badly soured diplomatic relations between Britain and Iraq.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349884
Iraq link to British arrests
12.10.05 5.20am
Police and MI5 agents are probing possible links between insurgents in Iraq and 10 men arrested in Britain under the Terrorism Act at the weekend.
The men are all understood to be Iraqi nationals considered to pose a direct threat to Britain.
The probe is not being linked to the July 7 and 21 attacks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349814
Egypt uses new technology to solve pyramid riddle
12.10.05 1.00pm
By Anne Penketh
Egypt is preparing to use the latest technology to solve a 4,500-year-old riddle.
A robot is to be sent up two narrow shafts in the Great Pyramid in Giza to discover whether a secret burial chamber contains the real tomb of the pharoah Cheops, also known as Khufu.
The chief Egyptian archeologist, Zahi Hawass, is to inspect the robot designed by Singapore scientists later this week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349858
Norwegian smoking ban boosts health, study shows
12.10.05 1.00pm
OSLO - A ban on smoking in Norwegian bars, restaurants and night clubs has been a huge success in improving staff health, the government said.
Norway imposed the nationwide ban in June 2004, the second country in the world after Ireland to do so, to give waiters, cooks and other staff in the sector the same protection as workers in offices or factories which have long been smoke-free.
New Zealand introduced a similar ban in December last year.
"It's been even more successful than we had hoped for and means a cleaner environment and better health for all workers," Dagfinn Hoeybraaten, the labour and social affairs minister, said at the launch of a government study.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349862
First arrest following Bali bombings
12.10.05
By Rob Taylor
DENPASAR, Bali - Indonesian police have made their first arrest following the October 1 triple suicide bombings in Bali, detaining a man named "Hassan" during a raid in East Java.
The breakthrough came on Sunday night, eight days after triple suicide blasts ripped though three crowded restaurants in Jimbaran Bay and Kuta, killing 23 people, among them four Australians and three suicide bombers.
"This person is strongly suspected of having links with the Bali blasts," deputy national police spokesman Soenarko Ardanto said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349817
Indonesian man is latest positive bird flu case
12.10.05
JAKARTA - A 21-year-old man from the Indonesian island of Sumatra is being treated for bird flu, the Health Ministry said yesterday, bringing the number of positive cases of the deadly virus in the country to five.
Tests at a laboratory in Hong Kong had confirmed the results, said I Nyoman Kandun, director general of disease control at the ministry.
This took the number of Indonesia's confirmed cases of the deadly H5N1 strain of avian influenza to five, comprising three deaths and two people being treated, he added.
"He participated in the butchering of a sick chicken. The chicken meat was then shared with neighbours," Kandun told Reuters by telephone.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349812
US sees trade talks moving, poor want more action
12.10.05 12.20pm
By Richard Waddington
GENEVA - US trade chief Robert Portman has said he sees "real movement" in struggling four-year global trade talks.
However, key developing countries signalled they wanted big powers to do more on cutting farm subsidies.
The contrasting views were set out on the second of three days of meetings in Switzerland to inject new life into the talks, the Doha Round, which aim to create a new global pact to open world markets and lift millions out of poverty.
Portman was speaking to reporters in Geneva a day after the United States and the European Union presented new proposals on the key problem of cutting farm tariffs and reducing agricultural subsidies in rich countries.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349865
NZ to provide support for Fiji election
12.10.05 3.20pm
New Zealand will provide most of the help given by foreign governments in Fiji's general elections next year, which will again use preferential voting.
The NZ Government has already sent an elections expert to help review the logistics for the Fiji general elections from voter registration right down to the counting period, according to Fiji's deputy supervisor of elections Tomasi Tui.
The preferential voting system was blamed for the high number of invalid votes in the 2001 general elections as many voters said they were confused about picking party candidates as well as voting for the party.
The presence of the international community in next year's elections is expected to be further increased if the Commonwealth Secretariat takes up an invitation by Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase to send observers to the 2006 polls.
Fiji Electoral Commission chairman Graham Leung did not want to comment on elections preparations.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349887
California gang leader faces execution
12.10.05 10.20am
SAN FRANCISCO - Stanley "Tookie" Williams, founder of the notorious Crips gang in Los Angeles, could be executed for murder later this year after the US Supreme Court declined on Tuesday to hear his case.
Without comment or recorded dissent, the US Supreme Court declined to review the case in which defence attorneys argued that the prosecutor had racially discriminated in selecting a jury to try Williams, who is black.
Convicted of four murders, Williams could be executed in as little as 30 days, a state spokesman said, although the implementation of the sentence could be put off until early 2006.
The court's denial of Williams' appeal does not amount to a ruling on the legal merits of the case.
A California jury convicted Williams in 1981 of the murders two years earlier of a white convenience-store clerk in a US$120 ($174) robbery and of three Asian-American family members who owned a Los Angeles hotel in a robbery of US$50.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349860
Iraqis in late deal to ease bitterness before vote
12.10.05 1.00pm
BAGHDAD - Last-minute talks involving US diplomats persuaded one Sunni political party in Iraq to back a new constitution on Tuesday, just four days before it is put to a referendum, but others stood firm in a bitter sectarian feud.
On a day when suicide car bombers killed more than two dozen Iraqis, an offer by the Shi'ite- and Kurdish-led ruling coalition to discuss amending the charter four months after an election in December was intended to soften Sunni opposition.
"It's a breakthrough to win Sunni endorsement for the constitution," one senior government source said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349885
Quake tragedy hitting home
12.10.05
By Errol Kiong
How to help - see link at bottom of page
The scale of the earthquake in Kashmir was brought home to South Auckland's Hamid Abbasi when his mother in Pakistan rang on Sunday night to tell him the news.
His 52-year-old uncle had died in the quake, one victim among tens of thousands in Kashmir province.
The family had moved away to Islamabad 30 years ago, and Mr Abbasi said his uncle had only gone to the family's Balakot home to prepare it for the coming winter.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349841
Pier goes up in flames
11.10.05 6.20am
A fire has destroyed Southend Pier in Britain, believed to be the longest pier in the world and a major landmark on the southeast coast.
No-one was injured in the blaze, which the fire services believe was arson.
The wooden floor of the pier collapsed, taking with it the remains of a pub, a restaurant and the pier’s historic railway line. The iron structure remained intact.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349641
UN appeals for $22 million for Guatemala victims
11.10.05 1.00pm
The United Nations today sought US$22 million to help Guatemalan villagers who survived deadly rains and mudslides after Hurricane Stan struck Central America and Mexico last week.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, known as OCHA, has already contributed US$80,000, half of which was a grant from Norway, and sent its deputy director, Margareta Wahlstrom, to Guatemala.
Other emergency funds are coming from specialized UN agencies as the appeal got underway, the agency said.
The United Nations, working with Guatemala, has identified priorities for international aid that include water, sanitation and hygiene, food, shelter and household items, health services and communication.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349681
Vukovar trial starts at Hague war crimes tribunal
11.10.05 1.00pm
The Hague war crimes tribunal is set to begin the trial of three former Yugoslav army officers charged with complicity in the 1991 Vukovar massacre -- one of the most notorious atrocities of the Balkan wars.
More than 200 people perished after being removed from a hospital in the eastern Croatian town and taken to a nearby farm where they were shot and buried in a mass grave.
The incident came to symbolise the savagery of the wars that tore apart Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Mile Mrksic, Miroslav Radic and Veselin Sljivancanin -- known as the "Vukovar Three" -- are accused of crimes against humanity and of violations of the laws or customs of war.
They have pleaded not guilty.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349713
Lost children of New Orleans still desperately sought
11.10.05 4.00pm
NEW ORLEANS - Louisiana officials today said they were stepping up efforts to find 51 children in the state's foster care system still missing in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, as President George Bush arrived in town to inspect the area's recovery effort.
State child welfare officials said it was still uncertain whether the children -- among the nearly 2000 foster children displaced by Katrina -- were safe and sound, or had perished in the storm that ravaged the Gulf coast six weeks ago.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349716
Hopes of a nation pinned on polls
12.10.05
MONROVIA - Liberians vote today in the first elections since the end of a civil war in polls that many see as a historic opportunity to free the country from recurring violence and instability.
Millionaire soccer star George Weah, former warlords, wealthy lawyers and a Harvard-educated economist who could become Africa's first elected female head of state are all running for the presidency of the West African country.
Among Monrovia's derelict towers and mud-soaked shanty towns, polling booths have been set up in churches and schools.
In the dense jungle upcountry, huts and tents house the ballot boxes, some of them a walk of four days from the nearest road.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349807
San Francisco Chronicle
This was a really good read. I hesititate to say 'today' as I have to admit I am not a regular reader of the San Francisco Chronicle. I usually look for west coast news in the "Seattle Post Intelligencer" which I'll still do because geographically they fall into an interesting zone including the shadows of Mount Rainier which a very slow and slumbering volcano.
As I read through the San Fran Chronicle I realized I missed 'the focus' only a truly liberated community can bring. As the more 'Traditional' newspapers are 'affected' by this administration including the jailing of journalists there seems to be a subtle trend toward conservative language and subjects in a more and more dominate way. Reading the San Francisco Chronicle today was a reminder of the type of newsprint I normally read. I really and truly missed a newsprint that picked up issues near and dear to my heart in a way that makes sense with the freedom to ridicule openly the establishment in DC. Thank you. I appreciate the esteem afforded these subject and endeared to this newsprint. Boy. Have I missed you guys. I recommend anyone who enjoys this blog to stop in at the San Fran Chronicles daily. Evidently, they don't succumb to political pressure.
What Shriver won't talk about with Oprah
Schwarzenegger's wife backed candidacy but is declining to talk about his initiatives
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest dilemma in his uphill battle toward the Nov. 8 special election carries a catchy musical theme: "How do you solve a problem like Maria?"
Maria -- as in the California first lady, as in Democratic royalty, Kennedy clan member, and uber-campaigner for her famous husband.
Shriver is scheduled to appear today as a guest on "Oprah," but it's what she won't say that may speak volumes.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/12/SHRIVER.TMP
He used to be a player. Now F.P. Santangelo's making a play at KNBR. Hustle's a big part of the game.
On the wall directly outside the KNBR broadcasting booth hang portraits of the radio station's seven sports talk show hosts. One other spot is vacant.
Like the big blank expressions left on some faces at KNBR by the shock over the August firing of that eighth host, Larry Krueger, the empty spot on the wall is a clear indicator that something is missing at 55 Hawthorne St.
On KNBR last Tuesday night, former San Francisco Giant Frank Paul Santangelo, who is now jockeying for a full-time career in broadcasting, is on the other side of that wall answering a caller's questions about whether the 49ers should go after USC tailback Reggie Bush. Santangelo gives an honest answer.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/11/DDGKTF5BDS22.DTL
Chinese Crew Blasts Off for Space Mission
By STEPHANIE HOO, Associated Press Writer
(10-12) 03:33 PDT JIUQUAN, China (AP) --
A rocket carrying two Chinese astronauts blasted off Wednesday from a base in China's desert northwest, returning the country's manned space program to orbit two years after its history-making first flight.
The mission, reportedly due to last up to five days, is an efforts by the communist government to declare its status as a rising world power with technological triumphs to match its rapid economic growth. It is only the third country to launch a human into orbit on its own, after Russia and the United States.
The Long March rocket carrying astronauts Fei Junlong and Nie Haisheng lifted off at 9 a.m. from the heavily guarded Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/10/11/international/i180703D47.DTL
SAN FRANCISCO
Polk Gulch cleanup angers some
Gentrification pushing out 'hookers, hustlers'
Lee Cole recently decided to put a new coat of paint on the Polk Street building that houses his roller skate store, saying he wanted the place to look nicer, to fit in.
It didn't seem out of place before, when the lower Polk Gulch district was largely known as a seedy hot spot for drug dealers, hustlers and the homeless. But Cole says the neighborhood has changed, in part because of a new neighbor who opened a $6.5 million restaurant and is paying for improvements to buildings near his.
"Myles O'Reilly is a man who cannot look at ugliness," Cole said of the restaurant owner who also owns a popular Irish pub in North Beach. "He changed the neighborhood overnight."
Some say O'Reilly's actions have sealed the trendy transformation of lower Polk and pushed along the urban removal of an already marginalized group of people.
Gay Shame, an activist group that champions the rights of "radical queers," says gentrification is pushing out "hookers, hustlers, drug addicts, homeless people, trannies, needle exchange services, working-class queers and other social deviants."
"Polk Street is one of the last remaining places where there has been cross-class, cross-gender and cross-sexuality, an interaction between street cultures," said one member of the group who identified himself as Mary. (Gay Shame members have a policy of not using their real names when speaking with the news media). "To see that steadily replaced by high-end destinations for partying suburbanites is really heartbreaking and very intolerant."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/12/BAG1OF6TFR1.DTL
Author who unwittingly married gay man gets her groove back -- again
It took months of legal battling and embarrassing national publicity, but writer Terry McMillan has finally ended her celebrated marriage to a Jamaican man 24 years her junior -- whom she belatedly realized was gay.
"Our divorce was officially finalized on Oct. 4,'' the Danville resident wrote us this week. The best-selling author of "How Stella Got Her Groove Back'' said her ex-husband, Jonathan Plummer, is now "free to live anyway he sees fit.''
"I'm also free to move forward since I'm now out of this hellish holding pattern my life has been spinning inside of for the past nine months,'' McMillan said.
News of the messy divorce, which we first reported in June, made headlines around the country. And while the publicized split may have taken an emotional toll on McMillan, her financial losses, at least from the looks of things, were limited.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/12/BAG1OF6TEP1.DTL
Truce declared Microsoft settles with RealNetworks, promises to promote its online music
Microsoft Corp. and RealNetworks Inc. ended their acrimonious antitrust battle Tuesday and announced plans to join forces against Apple Computer Inc., a company they described as a mutual competitor in the digital entertainment market.
Microsoft agreed to pay $761 million to RealNetworks in cash and services, which will include promoting RealNetworks' Rhapsody online music service using MSN.com and the Windows Media Player. In exchange, RealNetworks has dropped a nearly 2-year-old antitrust lawsuit against the Redmond, Wash., software giant.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/12/BUGD6F6TGE1.DTL
What God Really Told Bush
Apparently, it wasn't just "invade Iraq and Afghanistan in my name." A special report
Scene: White House private residence, night, not long ago. President Bush present in his most favoritest guns 'n' bunnies PJs. Laura asleep, knocked out by a combination of too much Good Housekeeping and excessive hair-spray fumes. Suddenly, a burst of black smoke. A deep, resonant voice speaks:
"Psst! George! God here, taking a break from supervising the well-being of eight billion troubled souls along with infinite galaxies of unimaginable vastness to speak with you directly one more time because, well, you're special, aren't you, George? Yes you are! Yes you are! OK, stop giggling. I have more commands. Get off the damn hobbyhorse, George, and get a pen and a notepad. No, not a crayon. I don't care if blue is your favori-- George! Get a pen! OK? Good. Here we go:
"As you know, I'm not quite what everyone thinks. I am not all benevolence and love and light. In fact, I have a downright dark side, mean and nasty and cunning, and I want you, George, to continue to be my special right-hand man. My special little guy. In fact, you shall help enact my wrath, Dubya. Doesn't that sound fun?
http://sfgate.com/columnists/morford/
As locals struggle, migrants find work in New Orleans
New Orleans -- Two weeks ago, Geremias Lopez was picking grapes near Bakersfield, but when he saw an advertisement on Univision, the nation's largest Spanish-language television network, for work on the Gulf Coast, he and a friend called the 1-800 number flashing on the screen and were soon aboard a Greyhound bus headed east.
Lopez and the 80-some other Mexican and Honduran immigrants in his crew are now earning $100 a day covering torn and mangled roofs with blue tarps until the roofs can be re-shingled and restored to some semblance of what they looked like before Hurricane Katrina struck six weeks ago.
For New Orleans residents, most of whom have yet to return, life remains very hard, and very uncertain. But for Lopez and his migrant workmates, it's a noticeable improvement over their minimum-wage jobs as California fruit pickers or as poultry processors in Arkansas.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/12/MNG53F74SK1.DTL
OPINION: Mr. Galloway Goes to San Francisco
When George Galloway, a member of Parliament in Britain's Respect Party, visited San Francisco last month, he was greeted as a conquering hero.
Galloway was wrapping up his Stand Up and Be Counted Tour, which happened to coincide with the unveiling of his new book, "Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington." The book reportedly details Galloway's experience before a U.S. Senate subcommittee regarding allegations that he'd personally profited from the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.
In San Francisco for a book signing, Galloway certainly picked fertile ground for his leftist politics. Speakers at last month's anti-war rally described him in only the most glowing terms, and now it seems that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has decided to bestow an official commendation upon Galloway. Supervisors Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi, two frequent promoters of ridiculous resolutions, presented this one in September, and it was adopted by the board with nary an objection. According to the resolution, Galloway is being honored for "his efforts to promote peace in Iraq."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/10/12/cstillwell.DTL
BAY AREA
Bay Bridge lower deck to be closed weekend's wee hours
San Francisco side of span affected -- but BART to run
Those weekend backups on the San Francisco end of the Bay Bridge are about to get much worse -- with the closure of the lower deck of the bridge in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday, and the ramps closest to the span all weekend.
"This is going to be a real tough one,'' Bart Ney, a Caltrans spokesman, said Tuesday.
The consolation prize for people trying to get over to the East Bay: BART, which usually shuts down
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/12/BAG1OF74OS1.DTL
Angels put Sox to sleep
Chicago -- The Angels were weary. They had back-to-back red-eye flights, and they arrived in town for Game 1 of the American League Championship Series after 6 a.m., according to manager Mike Scioscia.
The White Sox, meanwhile, had the luxury of three days off after sweeping the Red Sox, along with the comfort of opening the series at home. They could assemble their pitching plans at their leisure; the Angels, in contrast, announced that Cy Young favorite Bartolo Colon won't be on the ALCS roster and that Jarrod Washburn, weakened by strep throat, will go today. On Tuesday, they had Paul Byrd starting on only three days' rest.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/12/SPGHLF6UMN1.DTL
Sydney Morning Herald
Corby's sentence cut by five years
October 12, 2005 - 6:32PM
Lawyers for convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby have vowed to take her legal battle to Indonesia's highest court after a Bali appeal court cut only five years from her original 20-year jail term.
The Bali High Court shortened Corby's sentence today to 15 years following a protracted legal appeal and several trial reopenings in the lower Denpasar District Court.
``There is a verdict. They reduced by five years to 15 years,'' lead lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea told AAP.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/corbys-sentence-cut-by-five-years/2005/10/12/1128796577582.html
Judge denies reducing Corby's sentence
By Mark Forbes Herald Correspondent in Denpasar
October 13, 2005
One of Schapelle Corby's judges has contradicted lawyers' claims that her 20-year jail term will be cut by five years.
The Bali High Court Judge Agung Dalem, one of three judges on the panel hearing Corby's appeal, said he had made no rulings on the case.
"I haven't made a decision. I haven't made any rulings on Corby," he said last night.
The clerk of the court also told the Herald she knew of no such decision. "We don't have a trial date yet … if there is such a trial, the information has to go to me first."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/judge-denies-reducing-corbys-sentence/2005/10/12/1128796590154.html
Protesters storm bombers' prison
October 12, 2005 - 7:34PM
Some 1000 protesters today stormed a Bali prison where some convicted Bali bombers are being held, shouting for their deaths on the third anniversary of the attacks on the Indonesian island.
The angry demonstrators at Denpasar's Kerobokan jail managed to remove the prison's main steel door from its hinges but police stopped them getting inside, an AFP correspondent reported.
"Kill Amrozi, kill Amrozi!" the crowd yelled, referring to one of three people sentenced to death by firing squad for the October 12, 2002 nightclub bombings that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.
Amrozi and the other two on death row, Imam Samudra and Mukhlas, were yesterday transferred to a high-security island prison off neighbouring Java island following earlier angry protests.
However still held in the jail are 19 of the minor players in the 2002 Bali bomb attacks.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/protesters-storm-bali-bombers-prison/2005/10/12/1128796584497.html
Deadly road rage: attacker cleared of manslaughter
By Natasha Wallace
October 12, 2005 - 3:34PM
The victim Beni Sarkis, left, and his attacker Maka Afu.
Moments after Beni Sarkis got out of his car to tell a driver to slow down or he would kill someone, Mr Sarkis was lying on the roadway with fatal head wounds.
Mr Sarkis, 60, who died shortly after the road rage incident in December last year, approached the driver, Maka Afu, 35, who allegedly gestured rudely to him on Glebe Point Road.
Afu was today found guilty of maliciously inflicting grievous bodily harm, a crime carrying a maximum penalty of seven years. He was found not guilty of manslaughter.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/deadly-road-rage-attacker-cleared-of-manslaughter/2005/10/12/1128796572257.html
Quake rips into militant stronghold
Survived ... Pakistani Kashmiri boy Waqas Ahmed, 4, who lost his elder sister, Samina Bibi, 6, and younger brother Alyas Ahmed, 3, when they were all buried under the debris of a school. Ahmed stopped talking and smiling following the catastrophy.
The massive earthquake that rocked Kashmir appears to have dealt a blow to the region's Islamic militants, ripping through their heartland along the mountainous frontier of the divided region and wrecking their network of camps, safe houses and weapons caches.
One former militant said that a temporary rebel cease-fire called after the quake was a "clear sign they are in trouble".
But he and other one-time rebels, Western diplomats and Indian officials cautioned that any setback to the insurgents - who work in small, flexible cells - is merely temporary.
And even if they can't launch major attacks, the surviving rebels in Indian Kashmir would press their fight, they said, citing a string of incidents in recent days.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/quake-rips-into-militant-stronghold/2005/10/12/1128796565482.html
23,000 dead, 2.5m homeless after quake
October 12, 2005 - 1:10AM
The mammoth quake which devastated parts of northern Pakistan killed 23,000 people and left 2.5 million homeless, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said today.
Aziz appealed to foreign governments to send more money, tents, blankets and other aid to help desperate survivors four days after the 7.6 magnitude earthquake.
"The latest loss of life, the number of people dead, is approximately 23,000, Injured is about 51,000," Aziz told
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/23000-dead-25m-homeless-after-quake/2005/10/11/1128796527031.html
Couple's '21 days of hell' at sea
By Jano Gibson and wires
October 12, 2005 - 3:23PM
A shot of the rescue taken from an Air Force Orion and published in The Dominion Post.
Photo: NZ Defence Force
An injured New Zealand couple who spent "21 days of hell" in a crippled yacht as 13-metre seas raged around them were today back on dry land.
After one aborted rescue attempt in mountainous 18-metre swells, Bruce Cox and Heloise Kortekaas were brought by helicopter to Christchurch Hospital after a cargo ship picked them up 780 kilometres north-east of the Chatham Islands.
"Apparently, being at sea is 95 per cent boredom and 5 per cent terror, but for us it was the other way round," Ms Kortekaas told the New Zealand Herald.
"We had one beautiful day and the rest was hell. The god of winds and the sea decided it was going to be hell ... you wouldn't believe the conditions," she said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/couples-21-days-of-hell-at-sea/2005/10/12/1128796573276.html
Saddam and insurgents to make their mark in Iraqi ballot
By Larry Kaplow in Baghdad
October 12, 2005
Saddam Hussein may take part in Iraqi politics by voting, with other prisoners and detainees, in the referendum on the country's draft constitution on Saturday.
The director of the United Nations office assisting the elections in Iraq said on Monday that booklets with the draft of the constitution had been delivered to the two prisons at Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca, near the southern city of Basra. Iraqi election officials told reporters that they had agreed to allow prisoners to vote, possibly before others do on Saturday, and that this would "theoretically" include Saddam.
If prisoners cast ballots it could also result in the first public accounting of how many people are held in Iraqi jails.
The UN official, Carina Perelli, said voting should take place at Camp Cropper, home to Saddam and about 100 other former regime figures awaiting trials.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/saddam-and-insurgents-to-make-their-mark-in-iraqi-ballot/2005/10/11/1128796527043.html
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