As we approach the season of the Nobel Peace Prize, I would like to nominate the spiritual leader of Iraq's Shiites, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, for this year's medal. I'm serious.
If there is a decent outcome in Iraq, President Bush will deserve, and receive, real credit for creating the conditions for democratization there, by daring to topple Saddam Hussein. But we tend to talk about Iraq as if it is all about us and what we do. If some kind of democracy takes root there, it will also be due in large measure to the instincts and directives of the dominant Iraqi Shiite communal leader, Ayatollah Sistani. It was Mr. Sistani who insisted that there had to be a direct national election in Iraq, rejecting the original goofy U.S. proposal for regional caucuses. It was Mr. Sistani who insisted that the elections not be postponed in the face of the Baathist-fascist insurgency. And it was Mr. Sistani who ordered Shiites not to retaliate for the Sunni Baathist and jihadist attempts to drag them into a civil war by attacking Shiite mosques and massacring Shiite civilians.
In many ways, Mr. Sistani has played the role for President George W. Bush that Nelson Mandela and Mikhail Gorbachev played for his father, President George H. W. Bush. It was Mr. Mandela's instincts and leadership - in keeping the transition to black rule in South Africa nonviolent - that helped the Bush I administration and its allies bring that process in for a soft landing. And it was Mr. Gorbachev's insistence that the dismantling of the Soviet Empire, and particularly East Germany, be nonviolent that brought the Soviet Union in for a soft landing. In international relations, as in sports, it is often better to be lucky than good. And having the luck to have history deal you a Mandela, a Gorbachev or a Sistani as your partner at a key historical juncture - as opposed to a Yasir Arafat or a Robert Mugabe - can make all the difference between U.S. policy looking brilliant and U.S. policy looking futile.
Mr. Sistani has also contributed three critical elements to the democracy movement in the wider Arab world. First, he built his legitimacy around not just his religious-scholarly credentials but around a politics focused on developing Iraq for Iraqis. To put it another way, says the Middle East expert Stephen P. Cohen, "Sistani did not build his politics on negating someone else." Saddam Hussein built his politics around negating America, Iran and Israel. Arafat built his whole life around negating Zionism - rarely, if ever, speaking about Palestinian economic development or education. The politics of negation has a deep and rich history in the Middle East, because so many leaders there are illegitimate and need to negate someone to justify their rule. What Mr. Sistani, the late Lebanese Sunni leader Rafik Hariri and the new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas all have in common is that they rose to power by focusing on a positive agenda for their own people, not negating another.
The second thing that Mr. Sistani did was put the people and their aspirations at the center of Iraqi politics, not some narrow elite or self-appointed clergy (see: Iran), which is what the Iraqi election was all about. In doing so he has helped to legitimize "people power" in a region where it was unheard of. In Lebanon, Egypt and Palestine - where Hamas recently said it would take part in parliamentary elections - the ballot box and popular support, not just the gun, are showing signs of becoming real sources of legitimacy. Both Hezbollah and Hamas will have to prove - with turnout, not terrorism - that they are entitled to a larger slice of power.
Third, and maybe most important, Mr. Sistani brings to Arab politics a legitimate, pragmatic interpretation of Islam, one that says Islam should inform politics and the constitution, but clerics should not rule.
The process of democratizing the Arab world is going to be long and bumpy. But the chances for success are immeasurably improved when we have partners from within the region who are legitimate, but have progressive instincts. That is Mr. Sistani. Lady Luck has shined on us by keeping alive this 75-year-old ayatollah, who resides in a small house in a narrow alley in Najaf and almost never goes out the door. How someone with his instincts and wisdom could have emerged from the train wreck that was Saddam Hussein's Iraq, I will never know. All I have to say is: May he live to be 120 - and give that man a Nobel Prize.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
A Nobel for Sistani
conti2005 - 9:13 PM ET March 20, 2005 (#23875 of 23875)Democrats and Independents Get It RIGHT the FIRST TIME
Thomas is that you?
A Nobel for Sistani
I mean for real? This isn't like something you thought you might write to win people over?
You're right. You could not be more right. It is The Grand Ayatollah's destiny to be the First Ayatollah to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
His compassion, his passion, his longing for freedom and the caring of his flock for decades came to a pinnacle when he left a London Surgical Bed to rush home to Kufa/Najaf and declare a pilgrimage that would not only stop the USA Military and it's coalition dead in it's tracks, but, saved countless lives including those of women and children.
Those civilians were fearless. They weren't about to 'stand down' for any military on sanctified ground. No way. I knew that. I knew it would be a blood bath. A relished Neocon blood bath.
He literally 'flew' to the masses of people that trust him with their lives, their children's lives, their souls and their future in every way.
He managed that flock to keep them with him and obedient and mercifully away from genocide while adding just enough 'fear' to the mix for Saddam to realize 'Sistani was no one's fool nor was the only living decendant of the al Sadr family.
Yes, Thomas. Absolutely. A Nobel. There is no one else that deserves it. No one.
I can't believe these are your words but there they are in plain sight for the entire world to see. A conservative New York Times editor actually praising the one person most responsible for the lives of the Shi'ites and the peaceful future of the nation of Iraq.
You know, Allawi, couldn't bend low enough to Sistani upon his return granting al Sadr all his demands. Allawi knew. He knew NOW that the entire 'episode' that took Sistani away to London was a plot against the young cleric. What I wouldn't have given to be a fly on the wall to that conversation.
How do I say thank you to you, Thomas?
Don't turn around now and expect me to love Big Oil or Bush or Cheney. They are criminal to the destruction of Earth and the deaths of multitudes.
No slight of emotional hand now, Thomas.
Wow.
This is like nothing I EVER expected to read from you.
Wow.
I am grateful for your bravery.
Very kind and outreaching indeed.
Thomas is that you?
A Nobel for Sistani
I mean for real? This isn't like something you thought you might write to win people over?
You're right. You could not be more right. It is The Grand Ayatollah's destiny to be the First Ayatollah to win a Nobel Peace Prize.
His compassion, his passion, his longing for freedom and the caring of his flock for decades came to a pinnacle when he left a London Surgical Bed to rush home to Kufa/Najaf and declare a pilgrimage that would not only stop the USA Military and it's coalition dead in it's tracks, but, saved countless lives including those of women and children.
Those civilians were fearless. They weren't about to 'stand down' for any military on sanctified ground. No way. I knew that. I knew it would be a blood bath. A relished Neocon blood bath.
He literally 'flew' to the masses of people that trust him with their lives, their children's lives, their souls and their future in every way.
He managed that flock to keep them with him and obedient and mercifully away from genocide while adding just enough 'fear' to the mix for Saddam to realize 'Sistani was no one's fool nor was the only living decendant of the al Sadr family.
Yes, Thomas. Absolutely. A Nobel. There is no one else that deserves it. No one.
I can't believe these are your words but there they are in plain sight for the entire world to see. A conservative New York Times editor actually praising the one person most responsible for the lives of the Shi'ites and the peaceful future of the nation of Iraq.
You know, Allawi, couldn't bend low enough to Sistani upon his return granting al Sadr all his demands. Allawi knew. He knew NOW that the entire 'episode' that took Sistani away to London was a plot against the young cleric. What I wouldn't have given to be a fly on the wall to that conversation.
How do I say thank you to you, Thomas?
Don't turn around now and expect me to love Big Oil or Bush or Cheney. They are criminal to the destruction of Earth and the deaths of multitudes.
No slight of emotional hand now, Thomas.
Wow.
This is like nothing I EVER expected to read from you.
Wow.
I am grateful for your bravery.
Very kind and outreaching indeed.
The solar radiation is at the equator and heading north. There is a significant storm front formed in the 'eddy' of the North Atlantic Vortex. It is huge. The 'eddy' developed as the northern branch of the vortex flow is coming from the Arctic Circle and Ocean while the southern branch of the vortex is coming from the equator. The storm front headed for the panhandle of Florida (from this view) is significant and indicates a real potential for dangerous Climate Change and shifting hurricane seasons to earlier storms. Not only that but the storms that usually manifest in Africa first may have switched and we will see more storms out of the Gulf of Mexico. GOES EAST 3.20.05. The western satellite is a monster.
This is the Weather Channel colored Western Hemisphere Satellite. It is clear there is still heat distribution into Antarctica Continent as seen the Heat Transfer System from the South American Equator south and offshore Brazil and then into the Ice Continent. The North Hemisphere still hasn't received direct solar rays that are at the equator right now. It is still relatively cool with decending Arctic Air. 3.20.05
This is the GOES WEST satellite of UNISYS as only they can deliver it. This is the water vapor satellite. The Gulf of Mexico storm can be easily visualized. The significant system is the huge movement of 'hot equatorial' air to the North American continent and ultiimately becoming the southern branch of the North Atlantic Vortex which transports the heat to the Arctic Circle and the North Polar Ocean. 3.20.05 The Pacific System is huge.
Marchers carry flag-draped mock coffins during a demonstration to mark the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq (news
South Korean protesters shout slogans and raise a placard with a picture of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news
"Good Morning"
The Peace Movement
Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Okeydoke"
History missed the last few days...
March 17...
461, according to tradition, St. Patrick -- the patron saint of Ireland -- died in Saul.
1776, British forces evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War.
1910, the Camp Fire Girls organization was formed. It was formally presented to the public on this day two years later.
1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.
1950, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, "californium."
1969, Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel.
Missing in Action
1966 BALDOCK FREDERICK C. PITTSBURGH PA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1967 GOEDEN GENE WILLIAM CORNELIUS OR
1968 BARBER THOMAS D. AURORA CO LOST OVER WATER/SAR FAILED
1968 BENSON LEE D. SAN MATEO CA SAR FAILED
1968 COLLAZO RAPHAEL C. GARDENA CA REMAINS RETURNED 05/93
1968 DOSS DALE W. VIRGINIA BEACH VA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1968 HENSLEY THOMAS TRUETT LAFAYETTE LA
1968 HUBBS DONALD R. PALMYRA NJ SAR FAILED
1968 NIGHTENGALE RANDALL J. ONARGA IL SAR FAILED
1968 ROSS JLYNN JR. DETROIT MI REFNO 1092 REMAINS ID 14 JUN 96
1968 SHUMAN EDWIN A. MARBLEHEAD MA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV " ""NED"" ALIVE AND WELL 98"
1969 ARMISTEAD STEVEN R. LOS ANGELES CA
1969 DINAN DAVID T. III NUTLEY NJ
1969 FINNEY CHARLES E. SALTVILLE MS REMAINS RETURNED 03/15/00
1971 BAUMAN RICHARD L. COLUMBUS OH DEAD
1971 DIX CRAIG M. LIVONIA MI DEAD
1971 HESTAND JAMES H. OKLAHOMA CITY OK 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 96
1971 HARRIS BOBBY G. MISSION TX DEAD AT CRASHSITE
1971 LILLY LAWRENCE E. LOS ANGELES CA
March 18...
The U.S. Navy honored Ensign Jesse Leroy Brown when it launched a Knox-class ocean escort ship, the USS Jesse L. Brown (FF-1089), at Avondale Shipyards, Westwego, LA, in his honor on this day. Brown, at age 24, was the first Black naval aviator and also the first Black Navy pilot to die in the line of duty. On December 4, 1950, Brown’s F4U Corsair was shot down in Korea as it provided close air support to Marines in the infamous Chosin Reservoir. A member of Fighting Squadron 32, Ensign Brown was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. In November of 2002 a $2.6 million county tax services building was dedicated in his memory in Hattiesburg, MS.
1922, Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced in India to six years' imprisonment for civil disobedience. He was released after serving two years.
1931, Schick Inc. marketed the first electric razor.
1937, more than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas.
1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany's war against France and Britain.
1962, France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce.
1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.
1974, most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States.
1979, Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett, a day before deporting her and a companion for what were termed "provocations."
Missing in Action
1966 DAVIS BRENT E. SANTA CLARA CA REMAINS RETURNED 12/30/97
1966 MC PHERSON EVERETT A. NORFOLK VA
1967 MORRILL DAVID WHITTIER SAN CARLOS CA
1967 PARKER MAXIM CHARLES ROLLINGS HILLS CA
1968 DUNN JOHN G. 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1968 RAY JAMES M. WOONSOCKET RI
1968 SWITZER JERROLD A. PARIS IL
1968 WILLIAMS HOWARD KEITH STUBENVILLE OH REMAINS IDENTIFIED 26 FEB 92
1969 MURPHY BARRY D. CUTLER RIDGE FL
1971 BOFFMAN ALAN B. NORFOLK VA CRASH SITE EXCAVATION REMAINS RETURNED 1/90 ID 7/90
1971 BRANDT KEITH A. BELLINGHAM WA CRASH SITE EXCAVATION REMAINS RETURNED 1/90 ID 7/90
1975 CHRISTIAN GEORGE A. 08/75 LEFT SAIGON
March 19…
1967 AUSTIN JOSEPH C. MOUNDSVILLE WV SURVIVAL UNLIKELY
1968 BLAIR CHARLES E. CHATHAM VA REMAINS RETURNED 04/06/88
1968 ROMERO VICTOR SAN FRANCISCO CA
1970 AYERS DARRELL EUGENE ALDERWOOD MANOR WA
1970 PUGH DENNIS G. SALINA KS
1971 CRISTMAN FREDERICK L. SALISBURY NC
1971 GARCIA RICARDO M. DRISCOLL TX
1971 SPARKS JON M. CAREY ID
March 20…
Jan E. Matzeliger, inventor, patented the shoe lasting machine (patent #274,207) on this day and revolutionized the shoe industry. Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born on September 15, 1852, in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana (now Suriname). His family immigrated to the U.S. and first lived in Philadelphia where he learned the shoe manufacturing trade. His lasting machine could adjust a shoe, drive in the nails and deliver the finished product in 1 minute to turn up to 700 pairs of shoes a day compared to 50 done manually. Matzeliger’s invention revolutionized production because it increased consumer demand for shoes by making them less expensive. Matzeliger died six years later of tuberculosis at the age of 37. In 1992, the United States Postal Service issued a special stamp to honor the inventor.
1727, physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London.
1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel about slavery, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was first published.
1956, union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp.
1985, Libby Riddles of Teller, Alaska, became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.
1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule
1999, Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop.
1966 BEACH ARTHUR J. ORANGE COVE CA
1966 MULLIGAN JAMES A. LAWRENCE MA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1966 RATZLAFF RICHARD R ABERDEEN SD 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV " DECEASED-DIED OF LYMPHATIC CANCER, 2/28/81"
1968 FELLOWS ALLEN E. MINNEAPOLIS MN
1968 SAYRE LESLIE B. FAIRBORN OH
1968 THOMPSON FRED COLUMBUS NC 08/04/68 RELEASED HANOI
1968 TAYLOR WILLIAM B. HAMILTON NC 05/06/68 ESCAPED ALIVE IN 96
1969 DAVIS RICARDO G. CARLSBAD NM
1970 BUTLER JAMES E. BUIES CREEK NC IR SAYS BOTH CREWMEMBERS KILLED REMAINS IDENTIFIED 04 SEPT 97
1970 COZART ROBERT G. JR. HAMMOND LA SAR SAYS BOTH CREWMEMBERS KILLED REMAINS RETURNED 07/25/89
1971 BARKER JACK L. WAYCROSS GA "EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"
1971 CHUBB JOHN J. GARDENA CA "EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"
1971 DILLENDER WILLIAM E. NAPLES FL "EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"
1971 DUGAN JOHN F. ROSELLE NJ "EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"
THE PEACE MOVEMENT
World protests but Bush defiant
Tens of thousands of protesters against the war on Iraq marched through European capitals on Saturday, but US President George W. Bush said the invasion just two years ago had shielded the world from "grave danger".
"George Bush ... Uncle Sam. Iraq will be your Vietnam," chanted 45,000 protesters winding through central London as they put down a black cardboard coffin with the slogan "100,000 dead" scrawled on the lid outside the US embassy.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/no_keyword_story_skin/480384%3fformat=html
From "The Jordan Times"
His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday addresses representatives of Washington-based international groups advocating democracy, human rights and freedoms. To the King's left are Royal Court Minister Samir Rifai and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs and Government Performance Marwan Muasher (Photo by Yousef Allan)
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/index.htm
Diverging Sunni positions as Europe protests Iraq war
Protesters march Saturday in London against the war (AFP photo by Alessandro Abbonizio)
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's embattled Sunnis were of two minds Saturday about joining the political process as thousands of protesters in Europe demanded an end to foreign troop presence in Iraq two years after the US-led invasion.
And an Iraqi-Swedish Christian politician freed from captivity on Friday said he sympathised with those demands. Minas Ibrahim Yussufi, secretary general of Iraq's Christian Democratic Party, said his "kidnappers demanded the departure of US troops from Iraq. And we, with the Committee of Muslim Scholars, have one simple demand: A timetable for the withdrawal of American forces." Speaking at a press conference at the headquarters of the Sunni committee at Baghdad's Umm Qura Mosque, he said: "I urge [US] President George W. Bush to rethink his plans and leave Iraq to the Iraqis."
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news1.htm
GLOBAL ANTI-WAR PROTESTORS
20.3.2005. 10:29:54
Anti war protestors have marked the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq with demonstrations in many cities around the world.
In the United States and across Europe demonstrators called for an end to foreign intervention.
The biggest rally so far has been in London where police say about 45,000 demonstrators marched from Hyde Park past the American embassy and on to Trafalgar Square.
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=107606®ion=3
Tens of thousands of Europeans protest Iraq war on second anniversary of invasion
By Janelle Stecklein, Associated Press, 3/19/2005 15:54
ADVERTISEMENT
LONDON (AP) Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters demonstrated across Europe on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with 45,000 Britons marching from London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy to Trafalgar Square.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/078/world/Tens_of_thousands_of_Europeans:.shtml
Michael Moore Today
On the 2nd Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq...
Thousands Join Iraq Veterans and Military Families at Rally for Peace Near Fort Bragg
Tens of Thousands March Against War in the Streets of American Cities Big and Small;
"I can't remain silent on these issues, slap a yellow ribbon on my car and call it supporting our troops."
This Weekend Everywhere!
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Peace rally attracts about 3,000 near Fort Bragg
By Valerie Bauman / News & Observer
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- An anti-war rally organized in part by veterans and military families drew about 3,000 people to a park near Fort Bragg - home to more than 40,000 soldiers and thousands of other dependents.
Demonstrators attending the rally on the second anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq said they hoped it would build pressure to bring troops home.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1882
Activists Protest Iraq War on Anniversary
By Sam Dolnick / Associated Press
Anti-war activists marched in the streets of American cities big and small Saturday, stopping traffic and lying down alongside flag-draped cardboard coffins to mark the second anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.
Some of the demonstrators were arrested in New York as they demanded that U.S. troops be brought home.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1881
Reigniting the Anti-War Movement
By Medea Benjamin / Common Dreams
This weekend marks the second anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Over 1,500 US soldiers have been killed, more than 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives, violence continues unabated, and we—the US taxpayers—have sunk over $200 billion into invading and occupying the oil-rich nation. Many Americans feel this war has been a monumental disaster; others feel the US has brought democracy to the Iraqi people. But despite these opposite perceptions, according to the latest Harris poll, a larger majority than ever before—59%--believe the US troops should come home in the next year. The anti-war movement, which now represents the sentiment of the majority of the American people, is poised to mark this second anniversary by launching a new peace offensive. Here are several ways you can help.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1868
Thousands protest in New York on Iraq war anniversary
NEW YORK (AFP) - Police made dozens of arrests as thousands of anti-war demonstrators, some carrying flag-draped coffins, marched in New York to mark the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1879
The life of the party never came home
Wife of first Fort Carson soldier killed in Iraq still struggling 22 months later
By Jim Sheeler / Rocky Mountain News
Chris Schneider © News
Melissa Givens lights the candles on a birthday cake for her late husband, Pfc. Jesse Givens, who would have been 36 last Friday. It was the second year the family has celebrated his birthday without him. Two months after the Iraq war began, Jesse Givens became the first Fort Carson soldier killed there after his tank fell into a canal and he drowned.
Chris Schneider © News
Melissa Givens, 28, holds her youngest son Carson, 21 months, next to birthday balloons for her late husband. Before he left for Iraq, Jesse Givens left a tape-recorded message in a teddy bear for his then unborn child.
From left, Dakota Givens, 7, Elizabeth Fleisher, 8, Carson Givens, 21 months, Melissa Fleisher, Jalisa Fleisher, 6, and Melissa Givens, 28, pray last Friday at what would have been Jesse Givens' 36th birthday. Givens died in Iraq in 2003.
Carson Givens, at 10 months, sits next to a pillow with an image of his late father, Jesse Givens, on it. Jesse Givens was killed May 1, 2003, when his tank plunged into a canal in Iraq and he drowned. Before leaving for Iraq, he recorded a message and placed it inside a teddy bear for Carson, whom he'd only seen as an ultrasound image.
Photos by Chris Schneider © News
A balloon carrying a message written by Melissa Givens to her late husband, Pfc. Jesse Givens, awaits release last Friday - the day that would have been his 36th birthday - at their home in Fountain.
FOUNTAIN - Last Friday was not Jesse Givens' 36th birthday.
… 'This is where he died'
After the tank crew returned from Iraq, she asked them to tell her everything. She learned how the tank had fallen into the canal as U.S. troops tried to quash fires set by insurgents, and how they tried to rescue Jesse to no avail.
It wasn't enough. Eventually, she asked to see the place where he died.
One day, they agreed to let her inside the tank, which had returned from Iraq with the troops. The tank was nicknamed "Home Sweet Home."
"I went inside, and they closed the hatch," she said. "I just sat there thinking, 'This is such a little hole. And he's so much bigger than me.' I just kept thinking, 'This is where he died. This little hole is where he died.'
"One of the other guys had told me about scratch marks. I tried not to look, but I couldn't stop thinking about him trying to scratch his way out, and imagining what it was like as the tank filled with water. You take that last breath and you can only hold it for so long before you have to breathe again. And all there is is dirty water . . . "
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1874
Parents of slain soldiers protest U.S. involvement in Iraq
By Daniel Yee / Associated Press
ATLANTA - Two years ago, Patricia Roberts' world was in order. Her son, Spc. Jamaal Addison, had just gotten married and she became a grandmother. Four days into the Iraq war, however, the 22-year-old soldier was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade, the first Georgian to die in the war.
Addison's wife moved on. Roberts was left to care for Addison's son, Jamaal II, who was born prior to his marriage. The 44-year-old grandmother moved from Conyers, Ga., to Lithonia, Ga., in order to be near her son's cemetery.
"Once you die for this country, they forget who you are," Roberts said of the government. "Now I have a grandson they're not even helping raise. What about the rest of my life, the rest of his life? He'll never be able to see his dad."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1880
The Guardian
Irish terror groups 'to hit London'
· Police and MI5 issue warning to British businesses
· 'Substantial threat' from dissident republican groups
Martin Bright and Henry McDonald
Sunday March 20, 2005
The Observer
Police have issued a stark warning that mainland Britain faces a 'substantial threat' of an Irish republican bombing campaign, The Observer can reveal.
Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism section sent out an email about a new threat to businesses across London on Friday evening, following intelligence received from MI5 about an increase in activity from breakaway groups such as the Real IRA.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1441975,00.html
Qatar blast kills Briton
Tony Thompson
Sunday March 20, 2005
The Observer
A British man was killed and 12 people were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded outside a theatre in Qatar where a 100-strong audience was watching a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
The mostly British Doha Players Theatre cast was coming to the end of the play when the bomb went off. Nearby cars were smashed and some burst into flames.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1442084,00.html>
Mao's children seek their fortune
It is inevitable that just as they are embracing capitalism so the Chinese will have to address their political system
Will Hutton
Sunday March 20, 2005
The Observer
After the sack of Nanjing in 1841, then imperial capital of China, the British secured what the Chinese still call the unequal treaty; Britain won control of Hong Kong and the right to trade freely in opium; the Chinese got nothing. And it was at Nanjing in 1937 that the Chinese were again and more bloodily humiliated by foreigners. The Japanese murdered an estimated 300,000 civilians and soldiers in an atrocity whose calculated, indifferent cruelty rivalled a Nazi death camp, but to which the world has been curiously indifferent.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1441846,00.html
Top CNN e-mails 3.19.05
1 CNN.com - Notre Dame keeps Irish language alive - Mar 17, 2005
2 CNN.com - Embattled professor won't back down - Mar 18, 2005
3 CNN.com - Third-grader commutes to school by mule - Mar 16, 2005
The New York Times
Ask Them (All 8 of Them) About Their Grandson
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/national/20grandparents.html?hp
Haaretz
Aerial photos show extensive building in settlements
By Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent
The Defense Ministry has completed a widespread aerial photography operation revealing extensive building in West Bank settlements and outposts in recent months.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554152.html
EU to offer Israel benefits for easing Palestinians' lives
By Ora Koren, Haaretz Correspondent
The European Union intends to offer Israel economic benefits in exchange for relieving the restrictions on the Palestinians, EU sources said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554352.html
Me? An oligarch?
By Yossi Melman
The name of Russian-Israeli businessman Arcadi Gaydamak surfaced last week as the huge money-laundering scandal broke at Bank Hapoalim. In an interview with Haaretz, Gaydamak insists that he has nothing to do with it. Or with any of the other allegations - illegal arms dealing, corruption, bribery, tax evasion and more - swirling around him and his meteoric rise from stevedore to billionaire.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/553993.html
Arab FMs nix revision of normalization strategy
By News Agencies
ALGIERS - Jordan accepted amendments to its contentious proposal that aimed to revise the long-standing Arab strategy to normalize relations with Israel, after failing to persuade other Arab countries that it was not trying to dilute the conditions Israel must meet.
Arab diplomats said Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulki came under immense pressure from his counterparts to amend the earlier proposal, which had dropped specific references to Israel's return of land as part of any full normalization with Arab states.
Diplomats said Saturday that the initiative reaffirms the Arab commitment to peace with Israel in return for the land Arabs lost to the Jewish state in the 1967 Six-Day War.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554048.html
10,000 attend pro-disengagement rally in Tel Aviv
By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters
About 10,000 people attended a rally in support of disengagement Saturday night at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554094.html
Analysis / When to close off Gaza?
By Amos Harel
The order issued by Southern Command GOC Dan Harel last Thursday, banning anyone from moving to the Gaza Strip, is a further step in the countdown toward the disengagement.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=554126&contrassID=1
Memory without survivors
By Aharon Appelfeld
After the death of the last witnesses, the remembrance of the Holocaust must not be entrusted to the historians alone. Now comes the hour of artistic creation.
Sixty years have passed since the end of World War II, and now, it seems to me, we are entering a new period in our relationship with the Holocaust. At present I find it difficult to define this change precisely. It is transpiring because the survivors who went through the Holocaust are slowly passing away.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/553987.html
Grant them citizenship
Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz will present the ministerial committee on population with a resolution proposal to grant permanent resident status to the children of illegal aliens and to their parents and siblings living in Israel. The proposal relates to children born in Israel, who have lived here without interruption, and who have completed at least their 10th birthday by the date of the resolution's acceptance.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554151.html
The Sun Sentinel
Mandela Hosts AIDS Awareness Concert
By CLARE NULLIS
Associated Press Writer
Posted March 19 2005, 9:35 PM EST
and find out how to get one week extra!
Click here or call 1-877-READ-SUN.
GEORGE, South Africa -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela, playing host to his second AIDS awareness concert on Saturday, told a crowd of 20,000 that women bear the brunt of the AIDS pandemic that has infected some 25 million people in Africa.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/ats-ap_entertainment10mar19,0,5395114.story?coll=sfla-entertainment-headlines
Banks must warn of ID theft
FDIC issues rule on customer data
By Amy Strahan Butler
Bloomberg News
Posted March 19 2005
Click here or call 1-877-READ-SUN.
U.S. banks must tell customers when they suspect their personal account information, such as Social Security and identification numbers, may have been accessed by outsiders, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zfdic19mar19,0,7418381.story?coll=sfla-business-front
Lawmaker Seeks to End 'Sexy' Cheerleading
By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press Writer
Posted March 18 2005, 9:29 PM EST
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Friday night lights in Texas could soon be without bumpin' and grindin' cheerleaders. Legislation filed by Rep. Al Edwards would put an end to "sexually suggestive" performances at athletic events and other extracurricular competitions.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/custom/fringe/sns-ap-suggestive-cheerleading,0,83362.story?coll=sfla-news-fringe
The Washington Post
Ohio Utility to Pay $1 Billion in Pollution Case
Associated Press
Saturday, March 19, 2005; Page A07
An Ohio company will pay $1.1 billion in fines and cleanup costs at four power plants in the second-largest federal settlement with an electric utility over air pollution.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48230-2005Mar18.html
In Texas, A Model For Bush Proposal
County Opted Out Of Social Security
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 19, 2005; Page A01
GALVESTON, Tex. -- County workers here were confronted with a momentous choice nearly a quarter-century ago when Social Security's financial problems prompted ominous warnings that the program was headed toward bankruptcy. The employees could either ride out the federal retirement program's problems or leave the system altogether.
But those numbers do not tell the entire story. While retirement payments under the Galveston plan are fixed, Social Security builds in annual increases that not only protect participants against inflation but also allow them to keep pace with wage increases. Factoring that in, analysts have found that Social Security is a better deal for low-income workers.
Also, personal accounts are accompanied by the financial risk that comes with any private investment. In Galveston, the insurance company that handled the retirement system's annuity investments fell into financial trouble two years after the private plan was launched. County officials waited nervously for three years before they were able to recoup the money. "The system worked," Gornto said. "Nobody lost a dime."
Frank Carmona, 70, who served as a Galveston County commissioner for 20 years and then as a judge for eight years, was among the officials who approved the alternate plan. He said that the plan has done well by him but that he supported it only because he knew that Galveston workers would also be covered by the separate state pension plan that provides them with added retirement security.
Part of his reluctance to jettison Social Security stemmed from his family history. His father died in 1957, leaving his mother with three minor children to rely on the program to pull them through financially. Carmona likes knowing that similar financial guarantees are there for everyone. "It was those benefits that kept her and my three brothers going," he said. "It's a good program."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48305-2005Mar18.html
ONE OF THE FEW NEWS SERVICES THAT COVERED THE 'PEACE MOVEMENT' TODAY. THEY OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. THANK YOU, CHICAGO TRIBUNE.
The Chicago Tribune
In Chicago, 1,000 protest war
By Carla K. Johnson
The Associated Press
Published March 19, 2005, 6:59 PM CST
Hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear, lined the streets of downtown Chicago Saturday as anti-war protesters commemorated the second anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050319protest,1,3888438.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Arizona Republic
Stun gun maker gave options to cops moonlighting as trainers
Beth DeFalco
Associated Press
Mar. 19, 2005 12:00 AM
CHANDLER, Ariz. - Taser International Inc. openly credits its use of active-duty police officers as trainers as a major ingredient in the company's meteoric rise to become the No. 1 seller of stun guns.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0319taser-ON.html
Pravada
Iranian president answers USA
03/18/2005 10:26
Khatami ridicules Washington
In a clear and balanced reply to Washington's hysterical foreign policy, the Iranian President Mohammed Khatami presents the perfect answer: if Washington wants to stop nuclear weapons proliferation, start looking in Israel.
The Iranian President, speaking in Isfahan on Wednesday, told Washington to cease following its misguided policies on Iran and the Middle East. He told delegates who had arrived for the OPEC meeting that the tension around Iran and the USA is caused by Washington's wrong and misguided policies.
While admitting that nuclear weapons are clearly a danger for mankind, the Iranian President stated that "If the US is really trying to stop nuclear weapons, it had better go to the states which are neither member to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty nor are abiding by the international regulations and have large nuclear arsenals, the most dangerous of which in our region is Israel."
http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/15128_khatami.html
About Kahn's Nuclear Arabia
IAEA investigates Egyptian nuclear program
ISN SECURITY WATCH (05/01/05) – Diplomats told The Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday that the UN’s atomic watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs, but Egypt rejected those claims, saying its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes. The allegations come a few days after the former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, Ephraim Halevy, expressed fears that Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia might have acquired some kind of nuclear capability via the illicit weapons trafficking network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the chief architect of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. Israeli military sources also told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that, thanks to Khan, one of those three Arab states now had the potential to achieve a "significant nuclear leap".
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=10498
USA pushes Europe to develop close ties with Russia
03/19/2005 14:08
Russia has every reason to develop strategic relations with Europe, taking into consideration the traditional selfish position of the US administration
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a work visit to France yesterday. When Putin's plane landed in Paris, the Russian leader received a hearty welcome with orchestra music and the guard of honor. Vladimir Putin went to the Elysees Palace to have a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/365/15136_putin.html
Putin must withdraw invitation for Latvian president to visit Moscow on Victory Day
03/18/2005 14:24
The results of the online poll conducted on the Russian Internet became quite surprising
The majority of Internet users, who took part in the online poll on the Russian Internet, expressed such an opinion. Leading publications of the Russian Internet organized and conducted the poll, which was devoted to the negative attitude of the three Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) to Russia's Victory over Nazism.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/372/15131_poll.html
'Nazi camp prisoners' try to prevent demonstration of SS legionaries in Latvia
03/16/2005 17:34
Presidents of Estonia and Lithuania ignored Vladimir Putin's invitation to visit Moscow for the 60th anniversary of the Victory Day
People dressed as prisoners of Nazi concentration camps tried to hamper the march of the Latvian Waffen SS legion veterans in Latvia's capital, Riga. Tens of people, chanting slogans "Fascism will not work!" and "Death to fascists" blocked the street, on which the SS veterans were marching, RIA Novosti reports.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/372/15121_latvia.html
Ukraine leaves the USA aside, aims to develop close ties with Russia
03/17/2005 15:14
The US administration believes that it is useless to invest in the conflict between the two neighboring states
Latest actions taken by the head of the new Ukrainian administration, Viktor Yushchenko, prove that the new president has revised his views regarding Ukraine's foreign economic policy. The Ukrainian government is interested in the Russian business now. Yushchenko believes that Ukraine is going to intensify its relations with strategic partners and take them to a qualitatively new level. The short-term cooperation with the former ideological ally, the USA, is being currently nullified.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/370/15125_ukraine.html
China ready to attack Taiwan
03/14/2005 16:56
Tokyo and Washington issued a joint statement in February listing for the first time the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue
China's parliament enacted a law Monday authorizing force to stop rival Taiwan from pursuing formal independence, sparking outrage on the self-governing island and warnings that the measure would fuel regional tensions.
The ceremonial National People's Congress passed the law despite U.S. appeals for restraint. It came a day after President Hu Jintao called on China's military to be ready for war and followed a 12.6 percent increase in the country's defense budget for 2005.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/366/15106_china.html
Chinese coal mines: new explosions, new deaths
09:55 2005-03-20
The death toll from a gas explosion in a northern Chinese coal mine climbed to 42 on Sunday, with 27 still missing in the latest tragedy to strike the world's deadliest mining industry, media reports said on Sunday.
http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2005/03/20/58718.html
The Indy Star - It is my opinion the Social Structure of the USA is eroding. This is a prime example. Extremism begets extremism.
Slain girl remembered in playground design
Associated Press
March 19, 2005
CROTHERSVILLE, Ind. -- A school playground with equipment resembling a small castle and treehouse will serve as a memorial for a 10-year-old girl who was abducted and drowned after stumbling onto people making methamphetamine.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/230424-8586-102.html
Police seek leads in Northsider's slaying
Star report
March 19, 2005
Police had few leads today in the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old man on the Northside.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/230423-7356-102.html
Traffic accidents kill two city men
Star report
March 19, 2005
Two people were killed in separate traffic accidents on Indianapolis streets over the last two days.
The most recent fatality was at 1 a.m. today when 23-year-old Herman Vasquez, of Indianapolis, drove his 1999 Mercury Tracer into a utility pole's guide wires, according to a Marion County sheriff's report.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/230422-8628-102.html
Gary boy beaten to death, adults arrested
Associated Press
March 19, 2005
GARY, Ind. -- A 7-year-old boy was found beaten to death in his bed, and police arrested his mother and her boyfriend, authorities said.
Authorities found George Rawls' body in his mother's Gary home on Thursday. He died from blunt force trauma, Lake County Coroner David Pastrick ruled. Police said the boy's 61-pound body showed signs of being punched, kicked, pinched and bruised.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/230419-7210-102.html
Police: Man kills 2 women, himself
One of the victims was an ex-girlfriend
By Terry Horne
terry.horne@indystar.com
March 20, 2005
Sometime Saturday morning, police say, a former security officer at Circle Centre Mall walked into a two-story home in a Plainfield subdivision and shot to death his former live-in girlfriend and her sister.
The suspect's two children and a third child were inside the home at the time of the shootings and weren't harmed.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/230535-3042-092.html
3 children's deaths spur call to action
Rash of abuse deaths prompts child advocates to urge state to step up efforts to prevent such cases.
By Tim Evans
tim.evans@indystar.com
March 19, 2005
Three children whose families had prior contact with the state's child protection system have reportedly died at the hands of caregivers in recent days, prompting advocates to call on the state and citizens to step up efforts to prevent abuse and neglect.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/230412-2744-092.html
8 deaths from fires prompt campaign
City to renew push for all local homes to have smoke detectors installed, operational.
By John Tuohy and Tom Spalding
john.tuohy@indystar.com
March 19, 2005
Indianapolis is on pace for what could be the city's highest number of fire deaths in more than a decade, prompting officials to make a renewed push for smoke detectors in homes.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/230407-4594-103.html
Fla. police recover missing girl's body
By MIKE BRANOM
Associated Press Writer
HOMOSASSA, Fla. (AP) -- The news this small community feared finally came Saturday: Police had found the body of 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford, more than three weeks after she was snatched from her bedroom.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MISSING_GIRL?SITE=ININS&SECTION=HOME
High rate of smoking burns up too many dollars and too many lives
A common habit
• Indiana ranks 6th in the nation in percentage of adults who smoke.
• About 1.2 million adults (26 percent) in Indiana smoke.
• 23.4 percent of Indiana high school students smoke.
• About 20,900 children become regular smokers each year in Indiana.
• 19.1 percent of Hoosier women smoke while pregnant.
• Smoking is linked to about 10,300 deaths each year in Indiana.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control; Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
March 20, 2005
Our position is: Prevalence of smoking in Indiana is costing lives, increasing health care costs and hurting business.
Emotion leaks into Richard Feldman's voice as he talks about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. "I have two patients who are dying of lung cancer," the physician and former state health commissioner says. "There are people I see every week who are dying from diseases that could have been prevented."
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/230506-3198-021.html
Michigan governor seeks faith-based aid to needy
March 19, 2005
LANSING, Mich. -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm has created an office of community and faith-based initiatives, saying she wants state government to work with religious groups to help the needy.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/230235-2252-108.html
Wildlife Refuge photo open to misinterpretation
A plane flies over the refuge's 1002 Area this month, headed into the Brooks Range. Snow is present most of the year on the coastal plain, where oil drilling could occur. -- Provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
March 20, 2005
The Star ran a lovely, scenic photograph at the top of Page One last Thursday, a photograph that one reader said "borders on fraud" and another said is outright propaganda.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/230503-5430-021.html
Arab Cartoon
http://www.arabnews.com/cartoon/
The Jordan Times
Thousands rally for Gaza pullout
TEL AVIV (AFP) — Close to 10,000 Israelis marched through Tel Aviv late Saturday in a show of mass support for the proposed withdrawal of all troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in July as preparations gathered pace for the controversial evacuation.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news2.htm
Jordan going ahead with refrom — King
Petra
HIS MAJESTY KING Abdullah on Saturday reiterated that Jordan was going ahead with political, socio-economic and administrative reform plans.
“We, in Jordan, have set standards to develop the community and to be a model in the region,” King Abdullah said at a meeting with representatives of Washington-based international groups advocating democracy, human rights and freedoms.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/homenews/homenews1.htm
Mulki says no contradiction between Amman proposal and Beirut initiative
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
Foreign Minister Hani Mulki talks to reporters in Algiers on Saturday (AP photo by Amr Nabil)
AMMAN — Jordan's recent proposal on ending the Arab-Israeli conflict was not a deviation from the 2002 peace initiative, adopted in Beirut, a senior official said on Saturday.
Government Spokesperson Asma Khader said the proposal, to be presented by Jordan to the March 22-23 Algiers summit, reiterates commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative. “The proposal was based on resolutions unanimously adopted by Arab leaders,” Khader told the press yesterday. “It was not a new initiative or resolution. It seeks to revive and activate the Arab initiative.”
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/homenews/homenews2.htm
Lebanon's divisions deepen after bombing
A Lebanese policeman on Saturday guards the site of the Beirut blast (Reuters photo by Damir Sagolj)
BEIRUT (Reuters) — Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition dismissed the president's call for talks on Saturday, deepening political divisions hours after a bomb raised fresh fears of a return to the country's violent past.
Investigators sifted through the rubble left by the blast, which wounded 11 people and gutted the ground and first floors of a residential block in a Christian suburb of eastern Beirut.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news3.htm
Blast kindles fears of surge in factional strife
BEIRUT (AFP) — A bomb blast in a Beirut suburb rekindled fears of a return to sectarian violence Saturday at a moment of high political tension in Lebanon still shaken by the assassination of five-time premier Rafik Hariri.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news4.htm
No negative stand against Shiites, Khader reiterates
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
AMMAN — The government on Saturday reiterated that Jordan's ties with Iraq “was never based on a certain group or race,” stressing that the Kingdom has always dealt with Shiites there with respect.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/homenews/homenews3.htm
Arabs pledge $440m for rehousing
GAZA (Reuters) — Arab countries have earmarked $440 million for rebuilding hundreds of Palestinian homes demolished by Israel during four years of fighting, the Palestinian economy minister said on Saturday.
Mazen Sonnoqrot told Reuters that Arab ministers of finance and economy who met in Algiers ahead of a March 22-23 Arab League summit approved the plan to build new homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“We presented a comprehensive
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news6.htm
Israeli, Palestinian hardliners pose threat to truce
By Mohammed Daraghmeh
The Associated Press
RAMALLAH — Hardliners on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides pose a significant threat to a truce that 13 Palestinian factions agreed to extend this week.
Palestinian groups, some of which are believed to be funded by the Lebanon-based Hizbollah, remain outside the truce, which is underpinning the new momentum towards peace-making that has brought a recent drop in violence.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news8.htm
Practical options
The explosion that rocked east Beirut late Friday was a rough reminder that Lebanon can easily drift back into chaos and sectarian warfare.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/opinion/opinion1.htm
Palestinian scene, reforms in the Arab world make news in Arabic press
Thamer Abu Baker
The Palestinian scene has witnessed many developments recently, such as the truce declaration and Hamas' announcement that it will run in Palestinian parliamentary elections in July.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/opinion/opinion3.htm
The China threat, part two?
By Wenran Jiang
Lost in the debates about whether the European Union should lift its arms export embargo on China is a much broader and more pressing question: does the Bush administration once again see China as a strategic competitor, as it did in the early days of the Bush presidency, before the war on terror forced Bush to seek cooperation with China's rulers? That Japan has joined the United States in standing alongside Taiwan in opposing an end to the EU's arms embargo on China suggests that this is so.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/opinion/opinion5.htm
Yahoo
Media Alert: FDIC Wants Banks to Notify Customers of Identity Thefts - Banking Security Expert Available to Comment
Saturday March 19, 11:13 am ET
BATON ROUGE, La., March 19 /PRNewswire/ --
Background:
On Friday, March 18, 2005, regulators at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) voted 5-0 to approve a ruling that would force U.S. banks to warn their customers if they believe their customers have been subjected to identity theft.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050319/nysa011_2.html
The Jerusalem Post
Sharon to meet Bush in Crawford, Texas
By HERB KEINON
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will travel to Crawford, Texas, on April 11 for a meeting with US President George W. Bush at Bush's ranch, the White House announced on Friday.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111205275234
Four wounded, one seriously, in attack near Ramallah
By MARGOT DUDKEVITC
Three soldiers and a policeman were wounded in a shooting attack in the Al-Amari refugee camp south of Ramallah early Sunday morning while searching for stolen cars.
One of the soldiers, from the Combat Engineers Corps, was seriously wounded.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111205276552
Left-wing marches in support of pullout
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
An estimated 10,000 disengagement supporters marched through the streets of Tel Aviv from Kikar Rabin to Dizengoff Circle Saturday night, under the banner "Israel is leaving Gaza."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111205274372
Jordan ammends peace proposal
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, HERB KEINON AND JPOST STAFF
The peace proposal that was introduced Friday by King Abdullah of Jordan has been amended following intense pressure by several Arab states, namely Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen.
Pasted from <http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111116048516
The sorrows of young Bashar
By JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
DAMASCUS
President Bashar al-Assad had just conceded the only sliver of empire Syria possessed. In his March 5 address to parliament, Assad, fighting for his political life, appeared to alternate between pedantry and defensiveness as he served up a speech that destroyed all that his father, Hafez al-Assad, had built during a 30-year reign.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111030173051
Jailed Journalists
Can Too Much Praise For The Prophet Land You In Jail?
By Shahed Amanullah, February 23, 2003
Among Muslims, praise for the Prophet Muhammad is common, in that he provided an example for Muslims in all facets of their lives. But some Jordanian journalists found out the hard way that not all praise of the Prophet is looked upon kindly, especially when it comes to his family life. The three were jailed (although two were later released) for "insulting Islam" in an article that touched on the sexual life of the Prophet Muhammad. The journalists all claim that they were simply quoting sahih (trustworthy) hadith, or sayings of the Prophet, which can be found in any reputable Islamic bookstore. Afraid of a repeat of the violence in Nigeria fomented by fundamentalists over writings on the Prophet, the authorities said they had to act after Jordan's main Islamic party said the journalists would "burn in hell" for eternity. The jailed were defended by other journalists (although the Jordanian Journalist's Union expelled the trio), and the paper's publisher was defiant. "We have to cure the followers of Islam of rejecting criticism," says Al-Hilal publisher Ahmed Salama. "The fundamentalists are worshiping the prophet, not his revelation." All this happened a month after Jordan's King Abdullah extolled the value of free speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "Through laws and independent institutions," said Abdullah, "we are ensuring freedom of expression, speech and thought, including a free media."
Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of alt.muslim.
http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=937_0_26_0_C30
Pakistan rebels kill two journalists
February 8, 2005 - 7:34AM
Gunmen fired into a bus filled with journalists on their way back from covering the surrender of a suspected militant in a lawless tribal region on Monday, killing two reporters and wounding two others, security officials said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking-News/Pakistan-rebels-kill-two-journalists/2005/02/08/1107625169542.html
Above Two were previously posted. I thought they were worthwhile to do again.
Zimbabwe journalists flee threats
Three prominent Zimbabwean journalists who wrote for the international press have left the country after several days of police questioning and threats of prosecution.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=197886&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Latin American Writers Demand Cuba Free Jailed Journalists
Over 100 reporters and editors join global denunciation of Castro regime
18 March 2005
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- More than 100 prominent writers, editors and reporters throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have joined the global community in demanding that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro immediately release 23 jailed journalists. The demand, sent in a March 16 letter to Castro by 108 journalists in 19 countries throughout the Americas, said the two-year-long imprisonments of the journalists violate "the most basic norms of international law" and represent "an affront to human dignity."
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/m-news+article+storyid-8152-PHPSESSID-83d1691779aee385a16dd8bd386831b2.html
21 Cuban journalists remain detained
[World News]: FRANCE, France, March 18 : Twenty-one Cuban journalists remain jailed two years after their arrests during "Black Spring," Reporters Without Borders said Friday.
The Paris-based group fighting for press freedom called for solidarity with "these prisoners of conscience," who were among 75 dissidents and journalists detained on March 18, 2003.
http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=87865
Controversial reporter Judith Miller plans to defend journalism's role in a democracy — all the way to prison
/noticias.info/ BERKELEY – "[Journalists] are not perfect. We're not saints," New York Times reporter Judith Miller said acidly to a UC Berkeley audience last night (March 17). "But try running a functioning democracy without a free press."
If the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist seemed defensive, it is because she is under heavy fire on two fronts. In a few weeks, she may go to prison for as long as six months for refusing to reveal confidential sources. She has been subpoenaed as part of a federal investigation into the White House leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak.
http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=53218&src=0
Unwanted Pregnancy
Abortion
North Dakota Bill Would Ban Abortion, Problems Cause Pro-Life Opposition
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 8, 2005
Fargo, ND (LifeNews.com) -- A state Representative has proposed a bill that would ban all abortions, reintroducing legislation that failed last year. However, because the bill also targets women and would fail at the Supreme Court, pro-life groups say they will again oppose it.
http://www.lifenews.com/state829.html
Feminists face tough times after election
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press
NEW YORK - America's feminist leaders and their critics agree on at least one current political fact: These are daunting times for the women's movement as it braces for another term of an administration it desperately wanted to topple.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10604924.htm
NOW leader vows to fight Bush
By Patty Pensa
Staff Writer
Posted January 9 2005
LAKE WORTH · If it's not Social Security reform, it will be same-sex marriage. Or reproductive rights, pay equity and the war in Iraq.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pnow09jan09,0,6776941.story?coll=sfla-news-palm
Law may limit abortion access, advocates claim
By Pamela Brogan
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON -- The latest front in the war over abortion is a new law that makes it easier for health care professionals to refuse to perform the procedure.
Under the law, which President Bush signed Dec. 8, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and health plans cannot be required to provide or cover abortion-related services. Any state or local government that enforces such a requirement stands to lose millions in federal money for health care, education and unemployment programs.
http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/stories/20050109/localnews/1844902.html
Abortion conflict intensifies with new options for providers
Key language in new abortion law
The clause specifies that federal money will be denied to any federal, state or local government program that "subjects any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortion."
The clause defines a health care entity as "an individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization or plan."
-- Gannett News Service
On the Web
• American Center for Law and Justice: www.aclj.org
• National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association: www.nfprha.org
By Pamela Brogan
Gannett News Service
Washington — The latest front in the war over abortion is a new law that makes it easier for health care professionals to refuse to perform the procedure.
http://www.news-leader.com/today/0108-Abortionco-269860.html
THIS IS ALL BIGOTRY AGAINST 'CIVIL RIGHTS' AND 'PRIVACY' - IT IS A RELIGIOUS BIGORTY NO MATTER WHICH WAY YOU LOOK AT IT. Most of these abortion issues are and that then falls over into birth control and the like. As Civil Rights erode from the USA landscape the violence of the people will increase. Bush's doesn't mind. I am sure his philosophy is 'Go ahead, kill yourselves and others. We have ultimate control anyway." Ethnic cleansing is so much easier when it is done through civil unrest and chaos.
Republicans vow to use rare majority on gay marriage, abortion
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Tennessee Republicans are promising to use their first elected majority in more than a century to demand constitutional bans on gay marriage and restrictions on abortion rights.
http://www.whnt19.com/Global/story.asp?S=2783501
Pro-Life Costa Rica Under Fire from Abortion Advocates to Reverse Its IVF Ban
SAN JOSE, January 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) In March 2000, Costa Rica became the only country in North or South America to prohibit in vitro fertilization. The Costa Rican constitution protects human life from conception to natural death. IVF is a procedure that necessitates the killing of many of the embryos created for the process.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/05010702.html
Abortion Bill Introduced in South Dakota Legislature
PIERRE, South Dakota, February 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A bill proposing to make abortions illegal, with the exception of serious health risks to the mother, was put forward Monday in the South Dakota legislature.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05020208.htm
Parental Consent Abortion Law Could Be Re-Instated
By Thanh Tan
Boise -
The effort to re-instate a parental consent abortion law in Idaho is on its way to the house floor.
The law passed in 2000, but was struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court last year.
A new version of the bill would require parents be notified immediately following an emergency abortion. Sponsors say that rule does have a mini judicial by-pass provision.
http://www.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x63521&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154
This is Unconstitutional. It is obstructive than what is reasonable.
A summary of abortion clinic regulation bill
Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. - Summary of legislation to strengthen regulation of Kansas abortion clinics:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11181105.htm>
Conservatives won't revisit abortion
Alexander Panetta
Canadian Press
Saturday, March 19, 2005
MONTREAL -- The federal Conservatives formally rejected re-opening the abortion debate when delegates to a party convention voted Saturday not to push for new legislation on the matter.
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=1b58670b-c203-4866-a680-166783bac2c0
Canada Abortion Practitioner Gets Degree From University of Western Ontario
by Maria Vitale Gallagher
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
March 18, 2005
Toronto, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- An abortion practitioner is scheduled to receive an honorary degree from a Canadian university. The move has pro-life groups in the country up in arms.
Henry Morgentaler has been named to receive the University of Western Ontario's highest honor at its spring convocation in June.
http://www.lifenews.com/nat1238.html
… isms
The Soft Bigotry of Life Expectancy
Different Social Security messages for blacks and Latinos.
By William Saletan
Posted Wednesday, March 16, 2005, at 1:08 PM PT
Different strokes for different folks?
Why is President Bush's Social Security reform plan heading south in the polls? Maybe because he's selling different messages to different audiences and some audiences are overhearing messages meant for others. He's telling older people that nothing relevant to them will change. Meanwhile, he's telling the younger people who are propping up the system that it's a dead end and he'll help them get out. This is why Republican "town halls" that were supposed to boost the plan in the polls failed so miserably. The town halls were for the younger folks, but the older folks showed up. Oops!
http://slate.msn.com/id/2114957/
Just 1 in 3 Americans Trust Bush on Social Security, Poll Finds
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Just one in three Americans trust President George W. Bush on the issue of Social Security, according to the latest Newsweek poll.
Bush's handling of the issue appears to be a drag on his overall approval ratings, which have declined five percentage points in Newsweek's poll over the past six weeks, a period during which the president toured 15 states to tout his plan to overhaul the nation's 70-year-old government retirement program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=atrE8i1vXmX8&refer=top_world_news
Over 20 Baltimore City Police Officers File Charges of Discrimination Alleging Failure to Accommodate Their Disabilities
Download this press release as an Adobe PDF document.
A Baltimore area employment law firm, Snider & Fischer LLC, has recently been retained to represent a class of Baltimore City Police Department officers who will shortly be forced into resignation or retirement due to the Department’s decision to end its light duty program for injured police officers.
Baltimore, MD (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) March 18, 2005 -- A Baltimore area employment law firm, Snider & Fischer LLC (www.sniderlaw.com), has recently been retained to represent a class of Baltimore City Police Department officers who will shortly be forced into resignation or retirement due to the Department’s decision to end its light duty program for injured police officers.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb219843.htm
DA Jordan takes stand in discrimination case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan today defended himself strongly against charges of racial discrimination in a federal courtroom.
http://bizneworleans.com/109+M58d86be874c.html
Group will watch DMACC discrimination lawsuit
By MADELAINE JEROUSEK
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
March 18, 2005
Members of the African American Leadership Coalition said today that they will closely monitor the outcome of a discrimination lawsuit involving Des Moines Area Community College.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050318/NEWS02/50318005/1001
Disabled scientist alleges IIT discrimination
[India News]: New Delhi, March 18 : A physically challenged scientist Friday accused the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi of discriminating against him as it refused to reinstate him despite court orders.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=87455
Mbeki honoured for his fight against racism
March 19 2005 at 01:41PM
The Rotterdam City Council has awarded President Thabo Mbeki with an Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Racism Award, the home affairs department said on Saturday.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=6&art_id=qw1111227841613B251
Workers look for equal opportunity from new anti-racism plan
Unions say it’s time to end discrimination against newest working citizens
OTTAWA, March 19 /PR Direct/ - For the past three years, the Canadian Labour Congress marked March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, by calling for the federal government to do three things - develop a national anti-racism framework, adopt a national plan of action, and establish an anti-racism national council.
http://www.prdirect.ca/en/view_release.aspx?TrafficID=2243
Summit on Racism held in Grand Rapids
(Grand Rapids, March 18, 2005, 8:31 p.m.) The seventh annual Summit on Racism was held in Grand Rapids Friday.
Citizens and city leaders gathered in focus groups to talk about personal experiences
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3098551&nav=0RceXg4g
Fuente: University of Toronto
http://www.utoronto.ca/
University marks Elimination of Racism Day
Series of events on all three campuses to be held the week of March 21
/noticias.info/ Students, staff and faculty across the university are holding a series of events early next week to commemorate March 21 as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=53208&src=0
Racism column sparks tensions
By James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Saturday, March 19, 2005
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Black students at Wheaton North High School say they're outraged about an opinion piece in the school newspaper that called Black History Month racist against whites.
http://www.dailyherald.com/dupage/main_story.asp?intID=3843012
HIV/AIDS Numbers Up In Ohio Valley
By BETHENY HOLSTEIN
The Ohio Valley, falling in line with worldwide trends, has experienced a rise in the number of local people living with HIV/AIDS.
From the end of 2000 to the end of 2003, Jefferson County reported an increase from 31 to 41 people living with HIV/AIDS. Belmont County reports going from 22 to 23, and Harrison County reported three people during each year. Monroe County saw an increase from 1 to 3 people.
The West Virginia Health District 6 reported 67 people living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2000, which increased to 83 at the end of 2003. The district includes Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall and Wetzel counties.
http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/story/0319202005_new02.asp
James: CU must take racism seriously
By Wanda L. James
March 19, 2005
Has the University of Colorado lost all common-sense and perspective? As one of Boulder's very few black residents and one of CU's very few black alumni, I have had about all I can take.
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/opinion_columnists/article/0,1713,BDC_2490_3633516,00.html
Let's try to make society see it's okay to be different
Letters to the Editor
Published March 19, 2005
I would like to thank the St. Petersburg Times for running the story Endorsing only tolerance (March 17). This story captured the essence of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) as it strives to help families go through the trauma they feel when one of their members tells them he or she is gay. I am the father of two wonderful children who happen to be gay. My wife and I joined PFLAG 10 years ago, and the group helped us tremendously. We are still active members but now we spend more time helping others than we do receiving help.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/19/Opinion/Let_s_try_to_make_soc.shtml
Discrimination retaliation ruling overturned
By Jess Sullivan
FAIRFIELD - The state Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a jury decision that a former California Department of Corrections doctor suffered retaliation after she accused corrections officials of discrimination.
Dr. Margie McRae had worked at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville for five years when she was not chosen in 1997 for a supervisory position at the nearby California State Prison in Solano.
McRae filed a complaint claiming she didn't get the job because she is black. That complaint spurred a series of events that culminated with her leaving her job in 1999, according to her subsequent lawsuit.
A jury decided McRae wasn't a victim of discrimination but that she had suffered from retaliation by a pair of nurses and two other prison staff. Jurors awarded McRae $75,000 for her damages and the judge in the case, heard in Alameda County, ordered CDC to pay for her lawyers fees.
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/articles/2005/03/19/local_news/news06.txt
21 disabled officers file discrimination complaint
Originally published March 19, 2005
Lawyers representing 21 city police officers said yesterday that they have filed complaints of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that the disabled officers are being unfairly pushed into retirement.
Some of the injured and ill officers represented by the firm of Snider and Fischer were hurt in the line of duty, Michael Snider said.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/careers/bal-md.eeoc19mar19,1,132420.story?coll=bal-careers-headlines&ctrack=2&cset=true
Controversial reporter Judith Miller plans to defend journalism's role in a democracy — all the way to prison
/noticias.info/ BERKELEY – "[Journalists] are not perfect. We're not saints," New York Times reporter Judith Miller said acidly to a UC Berkeley audience last night (March 17). "But try running a functioning democracy without a free press."
If the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist seemed defensive, it is because she is under heavy fire on two fronts. In a few weeks, she may go to prison for as long as six months for refusing to reveal confidential sources. She has been subpoenaed as part of a federal investigation into the White House leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak.
http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=53218&src=0
Gender-specific reading classes coming
By Erin Elaine Mosely
Montgomery Advertiser
Andrea Garcia, 13, reads with her classmates Friday during a seventh-grade reading class at Wetumpka Junior High School. Reading classes are grouped by gender.
-- Photos by Julie Bennett Advertiser
WETUMPKA -- When Andrea Garcia attended Skyview Middle School in Oregon, the school separated classes by gender: all girls in one class and boys in another.
So 13-year-old Andrea wasn't surprised when her current school, Wetumpka Junior High, announced plans to do the same.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5/storyV5gender19w.htm
Gender Differences and Common Ground
Re "The Feminine Technique," Commentary, March 15: Deborah Tannen is always incisive when she delineates typical gender differences of thought, speech and action. But in using Maureen Dowd's column lamenting the lack of female Op-Ed writers as an occasion to present her gender types, Tannen skips over the fascinating particulars of Dowd's own style.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-women19.2mar19,0,299184.story?coll=la-news-comment-letter
Michael Kinsley:
Girl Problems in Op-Ed Land
When the New York Times anointed Maureen Dowd as a columnist nine years ago, I gave her some terrible advice. I said, "You've got to write boy stuff. The future of NATO. Campaign spending reform. Throw weights. Otherwise, they won't take you seriously." The term "throw weights" had been made famous by a Reagan-era official who said that women can't understand them — whatever they are, or were. But clearly the term had bubbled into the man's mind for reasons that many women understood better than he did himself.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kinsley20mar20,0,3449368.column?coll=la-util-op-ed
THE TROUBLE WITH RELIGION
- Wherever religions get into society’s driving seat, tyranny results
Salman Rushdie
Exception to European secularism
I never thought of myself as a writer about religion until a religion came after me. Religion was a part of my subject, of course — for a novelist from the Indian subcontinent, how could it not have been? But in my opinion I also had many other, larger, tastier fish to fry. Nevertheless, when the attack came, I had to confront what was confronting me, and to decide what I wanted to stand up for in the face of what so vociferously, repressively and violently stood against me.
Now, 16 years later, religion is coming after us all and, even though most of us probably feel, as I once did, that we have other, more important concerns, we are all going to have to confront the challenge. If we fail, this particular fish may end up frying us.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050320/asp/opinion/story_4506104.asp
Modi visa denial based on NHRC findings: USA
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington
Washington on Friday said its decision to revoke Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s US visa was a response to findings by the India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that implicated Mr Modi’s government in the 2002 riots.
“The fact of the matter is that it was the Indians who investigated the riots and it was the Indian Government who determined that state institutions failed to act in a way that would prevent violence and would prevent religious persecution,” State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
“So this isn’t a matter of the USA saying something happened or something didn’t happen,” he said. “It’s a matter of the USA responding to a finding by the NHRC pointing to comprehensive failure on the part of the state government of Gujarat to control persistent violations of rights.”
The US Embassy in New Delhi on Friday revoked Mr Modi’s US visa on grounds of his complicity in violations of religious freedom.
The US government’s decision has triggered a firestorm of emotion within the Indian-American community.
While secular and minority groups hailed the decision as a “great victory for the rule of law,” angry members of the community gave vent to their fury in venomous web postings.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050320/world.htm
Social Engineering
Audit: IRS employees susceptible to social engineering
by Marcia Savage
Employees at the Internal Revenue Service were apt to fall victim to social engineering scams, according to an audit by the Inspector General for Tax Administration.
Auditors placed phone calls to 100 IRS managers and employees, posing at IT helpdesk personnel needing help to fix a network problem. They were able to convince 35 employees to divulge their user account names and change their passwords.
"Using our test scenario, a hacker or disgruntled employee could obtain user names and passwords to gain unauthorized access to the IRS systems," according to the audit.
http://www.scmagazine.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsDetails&newsUID=9f65a874-452a-48cc-8af5-21fd3071dc84&newsType=Latest%20News
The Cheney Observer
Federal Court Rules Indiana Protester's Rights Violated During Cheney Visit
March 17, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org
EVANSVILLE, IN-In a victory for free speech rights and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, a federal judge ruled today that Evansville police violated a protester's constitutional rights by restricting his movement and arresting him for disorderly conduct before a 2002 appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney.
http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=17776&c=86
Argentina wants Shell Oil out of the country
03/15/2005 12:05
The Holland-British oil giant unilaterally raised fuel prices and blocked an ambitious deal with the Venezuelan PDVSA
In an official speech last week, Argentina's president Nestor Kirchner launched a loudly campaign to boycott Shell Oil operations in this South American country, after the Holland-British giant unilaterally announced an increasing in his retail fuel prices and frustrated an ambitious deal with the Venezuelan State owned PDVSA. Mr. Kirchner asked Argentineans not to buy anything from Shell, "not even a can of oil", as according to local sources, asked social movements to block its petrol stations.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/15112_argentina.html
Evansville can't afford White House visits
Associated Press
March 19, 2005
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- After being "used like a pair of work gloves" by the Secret Service, Evansville no longer can afford to provide security for presidential and vice presidential visits, the city attorney said.
Evansville City Attorney David Jones also criticized the Secret Service for refusing to provide evidence, testimony and witnesses to help defend the city against a lawsuit brought by environmental activist following a 2002 arrest outside a fund-raiser featuring Vice President Dick Cheney.
A federal judge ruled Thursday the city must pay undetermined damages to the activist for violating his free speech rights.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/230429-9346-093.html
Petroleum dealers to give strike call against illegal oil depots
KARACHI: The Pakistan Petroleum dealers association would give a strike call against illegal oil depots.
General Secretary Pakistan Petroleum Association Mohammad Hassan told Geo that currently there are 200 illegal oil depots in Karachi and the government is not taking any initiative for their
http://www.geo.tv/main_files/business.aspx?id=70275
Fuel prices climb on fear that supply increase won't meet demand
Bloomberg News
Published March 19, 2005
NEW YORK -- Crude oil and gasoline rose to record high closing prices Friday on speculation that OPEC's quota increase will be insufficient to meet growing global demand.
Crude for April delivery rose 32 cents, to $56.72 a barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Thursday, futures touched $57.60 a barrel, a record intraday price. Prices increased 4.2 percent this week.
"The market still wants to test $60," said Justin Fohsz, a broker with Starsupply Petroleum Inc. in Englewood, N.J.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0503190250mar19,1,3082181.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Now You See It: An Audit of KBR
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: March 20, 2005
S it prepared to attack Iraq in early 2003, the Pentagon gave a multibillion-dollar contract, without competitive bidding, to the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root to repair oil fields and import consumer fuels. Almost from the first, the Bush administration and the company were hounded by allegations of favoritism and reckless spending under that contract, for which KBR eventually billed $2.5 billion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/weekinreview/20eckh.html
Pentagon Hides Halliburton Fraud; Fall Guy Chosen
by CONSPIRACY PLANET
The Pentagon continues to protect the frauds of the Bush Regime's crony capitalist pals at Halliburton.
Most recently California Congressman Henry Waxman has accused the Pentagon of hiding a report from its own auditors on a $108.4 million overcharge by Halliburton for its services in Iraq
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=70&contentid=2010
The World According to Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart's Calif. Supercenters Delayed
By JIM WASSERMAN
Associated Press Writer
Posted March 19 2005, 7:02 PM EST
Subscribe today to the Sun-Sentinel
and find out how to get one week extra!
Click here or call 1-877-READ-SUN.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- As Wal-Mart Stores Inc. tries to plant dozens of new supercenters in California, lawyers aligned with a variety of opposition groups are using California's tough environmental laws to stall the nation's largest retailer.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/nationworld/ats-ap_business11mar19,0,3769329.story?coll=sns-business-headlines
The New Zealand Herald
EU fury grows at Wolfowitz appointment
US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was nominated by George W. Bush for World Bank president. Picture / Reuters
20.03.05 3.30pm
By Geoffrey Lean
The US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz has been summoned to Brussels to explain to an angry Europe how he would run the World Bank, in an escalation of the international row over his nomination to head the world's most important development body.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10116283
Fishermen swim for land from Korean vessel
The vessel was anchored 1km off Wellington Harbour. File picture / Mark Mitchell
20.03.05 UPDATED at 1.30pm
Crew members of a Korean fishing vessel have attempted to swim ashore in Wellington Harbour.
The squid fishing vessel was anchored 1km off Aotea Wharf when five men made the attempt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10116270
Cellphones create new texting illness
20.03.05 2.00pm
By Janelle Miles
BRISBANE - Cellphones have created a new illness dubbed "texting tendonitis".
South Australian general practitioner Robert Menz reported the case of a 13-year-old girl who walked into his surgery earlier this year with a swollen right forearm.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10116272
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Clear
-17.0°
Updated Sunday 20 Mar 7:59PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
32 °F / 0 °C
Clear
Windchill:
23 °F / -5 °C
Humidity:
20%
Dew Point:
-6 °F / -21 °C
Wind:
12 mph / 18 km/h from the North
Wind Gust:
21 mph / 33 km/h
Pressure:
29.82 in / 1010 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds (AGL):
Clear -
end
Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Okeydoke"
History missed the last few days...
March 17...
461, according to tradition, St. Patrick -- the patron saint of Ireland -- died in Saul.
1776, British forces evacuated Boston during the Revolutionary War.
1910, the Camp Fire Girls organization was formed. It was formally presented to the public on this day two years later.
1941, the National Gallery of Art opened in Washington, D.C.
1950, scientists at the University of California at Berkeley announced they had created a new radioactive element, "californium."
1969, Golda Meir became prime minister of Israel.
Missing in Action
1966 BALDOCK FREDERICK C. PITTSBURGH PA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1967 GOEDEN GENE WILLIAM CORNELIUS OR
1968 BARBER THOMAS D. AURORA CO LOST OVER WATER/SAR FAILED
1968 BENSON LEE D. SAN MATEO CA SAR FAILED
1968 COLLAZO RAPHAEL C. GARDENA CA REMAINS RETURNED 05/93
1968 DOSS DALE W. VIRGINIA BEACH VA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1968 HENSLEY THOMAS TRUETT LAFAYETTE LA
1968 HUBBS DONALD R. PALMYRA NJ SAR FAILED
1968 NIGHTENGALE RANDALL J. ONARGA IL SAR FAILED
1968 ROSS JLYNN JR. DETROIT MI REFNO 1092 REMAINS ID 14 JUN 96
1968 SHUMAN EDWIN A. MARBLEHEAD MA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV " ""NED"" ALIVE AND WELL 98"
1969 ARMISTEAD STEVEN R. LOS ANGELES CA
1969 DINAN DAVID T. III NUTLEY NJ
1969 FINNEY CHARLES E. SALTVILLE MS REMAINS RETURNED 03/15/00
1971 BAUMAN RICHARD L. COLUMBUS OH DEAD
1971 DIX CRAIG M. LIVONIA MI DEAD
1971 HESTAND JAMES H. OKLAHOMA CITY OK 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 96
1971 HARRIS BOBBY G. MISSION TX DEAD AT CRASHSITE
1971 LILLY LAWRENCE E. LOS ANGELES CA
March 18...
The U.S. Navy honored Ensign Jesse Leroy Brown when it launched a Knox-class ocean escort ship, the USS Jesse L. Brown (FF-1089), at Avondale Shipyards, Westwego, LA, in his honor on this day. Brown, at age 24, was the first Black naval aviator and also the first Black Navy pilot to die in the line of duty. On December 4, 1950, Brown’s F4U Corsair was shot down in Korea as it provided close air support to Marines in the infamous Chosin Reservoir. A member of Fighting Squadron 32, Ensign Brown was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal and the Purple Heart. In November of 2002 a $2.6 million county tax services building was dedicated in his memory in Hattiesburg, MS.
1922, Mohandas K. Gandhi was sentenced in India to six years' imprisonment for civil disobedience. He was released after serving two years.
1931, Schick Inc. marketed the first electric razor.
1937, more than 400 people, mostly children, were killed in a gas explosion at a school in New London, Texas.
1940, Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini met at the Brenner Pass, where the Italian dictator agreed to join Germany's war against France and Britain.
1962, France and Algerian rebels agreed to a truce.
1965, the first spacewalk took place as Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei Leonov left his Voskhod 2 capsule, secured by a tether.
1974, most of the Arab oil-producing nations ended their embargo against the United States.
1979, Iranian authorities detained American feminist Kate Millett, a day before deporting her and a companion for what were termed "provocations."
Missing in Action
1966 DAVIS BRENT E. SANTA CLARA CA REMAINS RETURNED 12/30/97
1966 MC PHERSON EVERETT A. NORFOLK VA
1967 MORRILL DAVID WHITTIER SAN CARLOS CA
1967 PARKER MAXIM CHARLES ROLLINGS HILLS CA
1968 DUNN JOHN G. 02/12/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1968 RAY JAMES M. WOONSOCKET RI
1968 SWITZER JERROLD A. PARIS IL
1968 WILLIAMS HOWARD KEITH STUBENVILLE OH REMAINS IDENTIFIED 26 FEB 92
1969 MURPHY BARRY D. CUTLER RIDGE FL
1971 BOFFMAN ALAN B. NORFOLK VA CRASH SITE EXCAVATION REMAINS RETURNED 1/90 ID 7/90
1971 BRANDT KEITH A. BELLINGHAM WA CRASH SITE EXCAVATION REMAINS RETURNED 1/90 ID 7/90
1975 CHRISTIAN GEORGE A. 08/75 LEFT SAIGON
March 19…
1967 AUSTIN JOSEPH C. MOUNDSVILLE WV SURVIVAL UNLIKELY
1968 BLAIR CHARLES E. CHATHAM VA REMAINS RETURNED 04/06/88
1968 ROMERO VICTOR SAN FRANCISCO CA
1970 AYERS DARRELL EUGENE ALDERWOOD MANOR WA
1970 PUGH DENNIS G. SALINA KS
1971 CRISTMAN FREDERICK L. SALISBURY NC
1971 GARCIA RICARDO M. DRISCOLL TX
1971 SPARKS JON M. CAREY ID
March 20…
Jan E. Matzeliger, inventor, patented the shoe lasting machine (patent #274,207) on this day and revolutionized the shoe industry. Jan Ernst Matzeliger was born on September 15, 1852, in Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana (now Suriname). His family immigrated to the U.S. and first lived in Philadelphia where he learned the shoe manufacturing trade. His lasting machine could adjust a shoe, drive in the nails and deliver the finished product in 1 minute to turn up to 700 pairs of shoes a day compared to 50 done manually. Matzeliger’s invention revolutionized production because it increased consumer demand for shoes by making them less expensive. Matzeliger died six years later of tuberculosis at the age of 37. In 1992, the United States Postal Service issued a special stamp to honor the inventor.
1727, physicist, mathematician and astronomer Sir Isaac Newton died in London.
1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe's novel about slavery, "Uncle Tom's Cabin," was first published.
1956, union workers ended a 156-day strike at Westinghouse Electric Corp.
1985, Libby Riddles of Teller, Alaska, became the first woman to win the Iditarod Trail Dog Sled Race.
1990, Namibia became an independent nation as the former colony marked the end of 75 years of South African rule
1999, Bertrand Piccard of Switzerland and Brian Jones of Britain became the first to fly a hot-air balloon around the world nonstop.
1966 BEACH ARTHUR J. ORANGE COVE CA
1966 MULLIGAN JAMES A. LAWRENCE MA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1966 RATZLAFF RICHARD R ABERDEEN SD 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV " DECEASED-DIED OF LYMPHATIC CANCER, 2/28/81"
1968 FELLOWS ALLEN E. MINNEAPOLIS MN
1968 SAYRE LESLIE B. FAIRBORN OH
1968 THOMPSON FRED COLUMBUS NC 08/04/68 RELEASED HANOI
1968 TAYLOR WILLIAM B. HAMILTON NC 05/06/68 ESCAPED ALIVE IN 96
1969 DAVIS RICARDO G. CARLSBAD NM
1970 BUTLER JAMES E. BUIES CREEK NC IR SAYS BOTH CREWMEMBERS KILLED REMAINS IDENTIFIED 04 SEPT 97
1970 COZART ROBERT G. JR. HAMMOND LA SAR SAYS BOTH CREWMEMBERS KILLED REMAINS RETURNED 07/25/89
1971 BARKER JACK L. WAYCROSS GA "EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"
1971 CHUBB JOHN J. GARDENA CA "EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"
1971 DILLENDER WILLIAM E. NAPLES FL "EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"
1971 DUGAN JOHN F. ROSELLE NJ "EXPLODED, FIRE, NO SEARCH"
THE PEACE MOVEMENT
World protests but Bush defiant
Tens of thousands of protesters against the war on Iraq marched through European capitals on Saturday, but US President George W. Bush said the invasion just two years ago had shielded the world from "grave danger".
"George Bush ... Uncle Sam. Iraq will be your Vietnam," chanted 45,000 protesters winding through central London as they put down a black cardboard coffin with the slogan "100,000 dead" scrawled on the lid outside the US embassy.
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/no_keyword_story_skin/480384%3fformat=html
From "The Jordan Times"
His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday addresses representatives of Washington-based international groups advocating democracy, human rights and freedoms. To the King's left are Royal Court Minister Samir Rifai and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Prime Ministry Affairs and Government Performance Marwan Muasher (Photo by Yousef Allan)
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/index.htm
Diverging Sunni positions as Europe protests Iraq war
Protesters march Saturday in London against the war (AFP photo by Alessandro Abbonizio)
BAGHDAD (AFP) — Iraq's embattled Sunnis were of two minds Saturday about joining the political process as thousands of protesters in Europe demanded an end to foreign troop presence in Iraq two years after the US-led invasion.
And an Iraqi-Swedish Christian politician freed from captivity on Friday said he sympathised with those demands. Minas Ibrahim Yussufi, secretary general of Iraq's Christian Democratic Party, said his "kidnappers demanded the departure of US troops from Iraq. And we, with the Committee of Muslim Scholars, have one simple demand: A timetable for the withdrawal of American forces." Speaking at a press conference at the headquarters of the Sunni committee at Baghdad's Umm Qura Mosque, he said: "I urge [US] President George W. Bush to rethink his plans and leave Iraq to the Iraqis."
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news1.htm
GLOBAL ANTI-WAR PROTESTORS
20.3.2005. 10:29:54
Anti war protestors have marked the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq with demonstrations in many cities around the world.
In the United States and across Europe demonstrators called for an end to foreign intervention.
The biggest rally so far has been in London where police say about 45,000 demonstrators marched from Hyde Park past the American embassy and on to Trafalgar Square.
http://www9.sbs.com.au/theworldnews/region.php?id=107606®ion=3
Tens of thousands of Europeans protest Iraq war on second anniversary of invasion
By Janelle Stecklein, Associated Press, 3/19/2005 15:54
ADVERTISEMENT
LONDON (AP) Tens of thousands of anti-war protesters demonstrated across Europe on Saturday to mark the second anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, with 45,000 Britons marching from London's Hyde Park past the American Embassy to Trafalgar Square.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/078/world/Tens_of_thousands_of_Europeans:.shtml
Michael Moore Today
On the 2nd Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq...
Thousands Join Iraq Veterans and Military Families at Rally for Peace Near Fort Bragg
Tens of Thousands March Against War in the Streets of American Cities Big and Small;
"I can't remain silent on these issues, slap a yellow ribbon on my car and call it supporting our troops."
This Weekend Everywhere!
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Peace rally attracts about 3,000 near Fort Bragg
By Valerie Bauman / News & Observer
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- An anti-war rally organized in part by veterans and military families drew about 3,000 people to a park near Fort Bragg - home to more than 40,000 soldiers and thousands of other dependents.
Demonstrators attending the rally on the second anniversary of the United States' invasion of Iraq said they hoped it would build pressure to bring troops home.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1882
Activists Protest Iraq War on Anniversary
By Sam Dolnick / Associated Press
Anti-war activists marched in the streets of American cities big and small Saturday, stopping traffic and lying down alongside flag-draped cardboard coffins to mark the second anniversary of the start of the war in Iraq.
Some of the demonstrators were arrested in New York as they demanded that U.S. troops be brought home.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1881
Reigniting the Anti-War Movement
By Medea Benjamin / Common Dreams
This weekend marks the second anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Over 1,500 US soldiers have been killed, more than 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives, violence continues unabated, and we—the US taxpayers—have sunk over $200 billion into invading and occupying the oil-rich nation. Many Americans feel this war has been a monumental disaster; others feel the US has brought democracy to the Iraqi people. But despite these opposite perceptions, according to the latest Harris poll, a larger majority than ever before—59%--believe the US troops should come home in the next year. The anti-war movement, which now represents the sentiment of the majority of the American people, is poised to mark this second anniversary by launching a new peace offensive. Here are several ways you can help.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1868
Thousands protest in New York on Iraq war anniversary
NEW YORK (AFP) - Police made dozens of arrests as thousands of anti-war demonstrators, some carrying flag-draped coffins, marched in New York to mark the second anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1879
The life of the party never came home
Wife of first Fort Carson soldier killed in Iraq still struggling 22 months later
By Jim Sheeler / Rocky Mountain News
Chris Schneider © News
Melissa Givens lights the candles on a birthday cake for her late husband, Pfc. Jesse Givens, who would have been 36 last Friday. It was the second year the family has celebrated his birthday without him. Two months after the Iraq war began, Jesse Givens became the first Fort Carson soldier killed there after his tank fell into a canal and he drowned.
Chris Schneider © News
Melissa Givens, 28, holds her youngest son Carson, 21 months, next to birthday balloons for her late husband. Before he left for Iraq, Jesse Givens left a tape-recorded message in a teddy bear for his then unborn child.
From left, Dakota Givens, 7, Elizabeth Fleisher, 8, Carson Givens, 21 months, Melissa Fleisher, Jalisa Fleisher, 6, and Melissa Givens, 28, pray last Friday at what would have been Jesse Givens' 36th birthday. Givens died in Iraq in 2003.
Carson Givens, at 10 months, sits next to a pillow with an image of his late father, Jesse Givens, on it. Jesse Givens was killed May 1, 2003, when his tank plunged into a canal in Iraq and he drowned. Before leaving for Iraq, he recorded a message and placed it inside a teddy bear for Carson, whom he'd only seen as an ultrasound image.
Photos by Chris Schneider © News
A balloon carrying a message written by Melissa Givens to her late husband, Pfc. Jesse Givens, awaits release last Friday - the day that would have been his 36th birthday - at their home in Fountain.
FOUNTAIN - Last Friday was not Jesse Givens' 36th birthday.
… 'This is where he died'
After the tank crew returned from Iraq, she asked them to tell her everything. She learned how the tank had fallen into the canal as U.S. troops tried to quash fires set by insurgents, and how they tried to rescue Jesse to no avail.
It wasn't enough. Eventually, she asked to see the place where he died.
One day, they agreed to let her inside the tank, which had returned from Iraq with the troops. The tank was nicknamed "Home Sweet Home."
"I went inside, and they closed the hatch," she said. "I just sat there thinking, 'This is such a little hole. And he's so much bigger than me.' I just kept thinking, 'This is where he died. This little hole is where he died.'
"One of the other guys had told me about scratch marks. I tried not to look, but I couldn't stop thinking about him trying to scratch his way out, and imagining what it was like as the tank filled with water. You take that last breath and you can only hold it for so long before you have to breathe again. And all there is is dirty water . . . "
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1874
Parents of slain soldiers protest U.S. involvement in Iraq
By Daniel Yee / Associated Press
ATLANTA - Two years ago, Patricia Roberts' world was in order. Her son, Spc. Jamaal Addison, had just gotten married and she became a grandmother. Four days into the Iraq war, however, the 22-year-old soldier was killed by a rocket-propelled grenade, the first Georgian to die in the war.
Addison's wife moved on. Roberts was left to care for Addison's son, Jamaal II, who was born prior to his marriage. The 44-year-old grandmother moved from Conyers, Ga., to Lithonia, Ga., in order to be near her son's cemetery.
"Once you die for this country, they forget who you are," Roberts said of the government. "Now I have a grandson they're not even helping raise. What about the rest of my life, the rest of his life? He'll never be able to see his dad."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1880
The Guardian
Irish terror groups 'to hit London'
· Police and MI5 issue warning to British businesses
· 'Substantial threat' from dissident republican groups
Martin Bright and Henry McDonald
Sunday March 20, 2005
The Observer
Police have issued a stark warning that mainland Britain faces a 'substantial threat' of an Irish republican bombing campaign, The Observer can reveal.
Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism section sent out an email about a new threat to businesses across London on Friday evening, following intelligence received from MI5 about an increase in activity from breakaway groups such as the Real IRA.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1441975,00.html
Qatar blast kills Briton
Tony Thompson
Sunday March 20, 2005
The Observer
A British man was killed and 12 people were wounded when a suicide car bomb exploded outside a theatre in Qatar where a 100-strong audience was watching a performance of Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
The mostly British Doha Players Theatre cast was coming to the end of the play when the bomb went off. Nearby cars were smashed and some burst into flames.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1442084,00.html>
Mao's children seek their fortune
It is inevitable that just as they are embracing capitalism so the Chinese will have to address their political system
Will Hutton
Sunday March 20, 2005
The Observer
After the sack of Nanjing in 1841, then imperial capital of China, the British secured what the Chinese still call the unequal treaty; Britain won control of Hong Kong and the right to trade freely in opium; the Chinese got nothing. And it was at Nanjing in 1937 that the Chinese were again and more bloodily humiliated by foreigners. The Japanese murdered an estimated 300,000 civilians and soldiers in an atrocity whose calculated, indifferent cruelty rivalled a Nazi death camp, but to which the world has been curiously indifferent.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,6903,1441846,00.html
Top CNN e-mails 3.19.05
1 CNN.com - Notre Dame keeps Irish language alive - Mar 17, 2005
2 CNN.com - Embattled professor won't back down - Mar 18, 2005
3 CNN.com - Third-grader commutes to school by mule - Mar 16, 2005
The New York Times
Ask Them (All 8 of Them) About Their Grandson
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/national/20grandparents.html?hp
Haaretz
Aerial photos show extensive building in settlements
By Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent
The Defense Ministry has completed a widespread aerial photography operation revealing extensive building in West Bank settlements and outposts in recent months.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554152.html
EU to offer Israel benefits for easing Palestinians' lives
By Ora Koren, Haaretz Correspondent
The European Union intends to offer Israel economic benefits in exchange for relieving the restrictions on the Palestinians, EU sources said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554352.html
Me? An oligarch?
By Yossi Melman
The name of Russian-Israeli businessman Arcadi Gaydamak surfaced last week as the huge money-laundering scandal broke at Bank Hapoalim. In an interview with Haaretz, Gaydamak insists that he has nothing to do with it. Or with any of the other allegations - illegal arms dealing, corruption, bribery, tax evasion and more - swirling around him and his meteoric rise from stevedore to billionaire.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/553993.html
Arab FMs nix revision of normalization strategy
By News Agencies
ALGIERS - Jordan accepted amendments to its contentious proposal that aimed to revise the long-standing Arab strategy to normalize relations with Israel, after failing to persuade other Arab countries that it was not trying to dilute the conditions Israel must meet.
Arab diplomats said Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulki came under immense pressure from his counterparts to amend the earlier proposal, which had dropped specific references to Israel's return of land as part of any full normalization with Arab states.
Diplomats said Saturday that the initiative reaffirms the Arab commitment to peace with Israel in return for the land Arabs lost to the Jewish state in the 1967 Six-Day War.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554048.html
10,000 attend pro-disengagement rally in Tel Aviv
By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent, and Reuters
About 10,000 people attended a rally in support of disengagement Saturday night at Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554094.html
Analysis / When to close off Gaza?
By Amos Harel
The order issued by Southern Command GOC Dan Harel last Thursday, banning anyone from moving to the Gaza Strip, is a further step in the countdown toward the disengagement.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=554126&contrassID=1
Memory without survivors
By Aharon Appelfeld
After the death of the last witnesses, the remembrance of the Holocaust must not be entrusted to the historians alone. Now comes the hour of artistic creation.
Sixty years have passed since the end of World War II, and now, it seems to me, we are entering a new period in our relationship with the Holocaust. At present I find it difficult to define this change precisely. It is transpiring because the survivors who went through the Holocaust are slowly passing away.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/553987.html
Grant them citizenship
Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz will present the ministerial committee on population with a resolution proposal to grant permanent resident status to the children of illegal aliens and to their parents and siblings living in Israel. The proposal relates to children born in Israel, who have lived here without interruption, and who have completed at least their 10th birthday by the date of the resolution's acceptance.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/554151.html
The Sun Sentinel
Mandela Hosts AIDS Awareness Concert
By CLARE NULLIS
Associated Press Writer
Posted March 19 2005, 9:35 PM EST
and find out how to get one week extra!
Click here or call 1-877-READ-SUN.
GEORGE, South Africa -- Former South African President Nelson Mandela, playing host to his second AIDS awareness concert on Saturday, told a crowd of 20,000 that women bear the brunt of the AIDS pandemic that has infected some 25 million people in Africa.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/ats-ap_entertainment10mar19,0,5395114.story?coll=sfla-entertainment-headlines
Banks must warn of ID theft
FDIC issues rule on customer data
By Amy Strahan Butler
Bloomberg News
Posted March 19 2005
Click here or call 1-877-READ-SUN.
U.S. banks must tell customers when they suspect their personal account information, such as Social Security and identification numbers, may have been accessed by outsiders, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/local/sfl-zfdic19mar19,0,7418381.story?coll=sfla-business-front
Lawmaker Seeks to End 'Sexy' Cheerleading
By APRIL CASTRO
Associated Press Writer
Posted March 18 2005, 9:29 PM EST
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Friday night lights in Texas could soon be without bumpin' and grindin' cheerleaders. Legislation filed by Rep. Al Edwards would put an end to "sexually suggestive" performances at athletic events and other extracurricular competitions.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/custom/fringe/sns-ap-suggestive-cheerleading,0,83362.story?coll=sfla-news-fringe
The Washington Post
Ohio Utility to Pay $1 Billion in Pollution Case
Associated Press
Saturday, March 19, 2005; Page A07
An Ohio company will pay $1.1 billion in fines and cleanup costs at four power plants in the second-largest federal settlement with an electric utility over air pollution.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48230-2005Mar18.html
In Texas, A Model For Bush Proposal
County Opted Out Of Social Security
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 19, 2005; Page A01
GALVESTON, Tex. -- County workers here were confronted with a momentous choice nearly a quarter-century ago when Social Security's financial problems prompted ominous warnings that the program was headed toward bankruptcy. The employees could either ride out the federal retirement program's problems or leave the system altogether.
But those numbers do not tell the entire story. While retirement payments under the Galveston plan are fixed, Social Security builds in annual increases that not only protect participants against inflation but also allow them to keep pace with wage increases. Factoring that in, analysts have found that Social Security is a better deal for low-income workers.
Also, personal accounts are accompanied by the financial risk that comes with any private investment. In Galveston, the insurance company that handled the retirement system's annuity investments fell into financial trouble two years after the private plan was launched. County officials waited nervously for three years before they were able to recoup the money. "The system worked," Gornto said. "Nobody lost a dime."
Frank Carmona, 70, who served as a Galveston County commissioner for 20 years and then as a judge for eight years, was among the officials who approved the alternate plan. He said that the plan has done well by him but that he supported it only because he knew that Galveston workers would also be covered by the separate state pension plan that provides them with added retirement security.
Part of his reluctance to jettison Social Security stemmed from his family history. His father died in 1957, leaving his mother with three minor children to rely on the program to pull them through financially. Carmona likes knowing that similar financial guarantees are there for everyone. "It was those benefits that kept her and my three brothers going," he said. "It's a good program."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48305-2005Mar18.html
ONE OF THE FEW NEWS SERVICES THAT COVERED THE 'PEACE MOVEMENT' TODAY. THEY OUGHT TO BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES. THANK YOU, CHICAGO TRIBUNE.
The Chicago Tribune
In Chicago, 1,000 protest war
By Carla K. Johnson
The Associated Press
Published March 19, 2005, 6:59 PM CST
Hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear, lined the streets of downtown Chicago Saturday as anti-war protesters commemorated the second anniversary of the U.S. led invasion of Iraq.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050319protest,1,3888438.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Arizona Republic
Stun gun maker gave options to cops moonlighting as trainers
Beth DeFalco
Associated Press
Mar. 19, 2005 12:00 AM
CHANDLER, Ariz. - Taser International Inc. openly credits its use of active-duty police officers as trainers as a major ingredient in the company's meteoric rise to become the No. 1 seller of stun guns.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0319taser-ON.html
Pravada
Iranian president answers USA
03/18/2005 10:26
Khatami ridicules Washington
In a clear and balanced reply to Washington's hysterical foreign policy, the Iranian President Mohammed Khatami presents the perfect answer: if Washington wants to stop nuclear weapons proliferation, start looking in Israel.
The Iranian President, speaking in Isfahan on Wednesday, told Washington to cease following its misguided policies on Iran and the Middle East. He told delegates who had arrived for the OPEC meeting that the tension around Iran and the USA is caused by Washington's wrong and misguided policies.
While admitting that nuclear weapons are clearly a danger for mankind, the Iranian President stated that "If the US is really trying to stop nuclear weapons, it had better go to the states which are neither member to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty nor are abiding by the international regulations and have large nuclear arsenals, the most dangerous of which in our region is Israel."
http://english.pravda.ru/mailbox/22/101/399/15128_khatami.html
About Kahn's Nuclear Arabia
IAEA investigates Egyptian nuclear program
ISN SECURITY WATCH (05/01/05) – Diplomats told The Associated Press (AP) on Tuesday that the UN’s atomic watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), had found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs, but Egypt rejected those claims, saying its nuclear program was for peaceful purposes. The allegations come a few days after the former head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, Ephraim Halevy, expressed fears that Syria, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia might have acquired some kind of nuclear capability via the illicit weapons trafficking network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the chief architect of Pakistan's nuclear bomb. Israeli military sources also told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that, thanks to Khan, one of those three Arab states now had the potential to achieve a "significant nuclear leap".
http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=10498
USA pushes Europe to develop close ties with Russia
03/19/2005 14:08
Russia has every reason to develop strategic relations with Europe, taking into consideration the traditional selfish position of the US administration
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a work visit to France yesterday. When Putin's plane landed in Paris, the Russian leader received a hearty welcome with orchestra music and the guard of honor. Vladimir Putin went to the Elysees Palace to have a meeting with French President Jacques Chirac.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/365/15136_putin.html
Putin must withdraw invitation for Latvian president to visit Moscow on Victory Day
03/18/2005 14:24
The results of the online poll conducted on the Russian Internet became quite surprising
The majority of Internet users, who took part in the online poll on the Russian Internet, expressed such an opinion. Leading publications of the Russian Internet organized and conducted the poll, which was devoted to the negative attitude of the three Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) to Russia's Victory over Nazism.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/372/15131_poll.html
'Nazi camp prisoners' try to prevent demonstration of SS legionaries in Latvia
03/16/2005 17:34
Presidents of Estonia and Lithuania ignored Vladimir Putin's invitation to visit Moscow for the 60th anniversary of the Victory Day
People dressed as prisoners of Nazi concentration camps tried to hamper the march of the Latvian Waffen SS legion veterans in Latvia's capital, Riga. Tens of people, chanting slogans "Fascism will not work!" and "Death to fascists" blocked the street, on which the SS veterans were marching, RIA Novosti reports.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/372/15121_latvia.html
Ukraine leaves the USA aside, aims to develop close ties with Russia
03/17/2005 15:14
The US administration believes that it is useless to invest in the conflict between the two neighboring states
Latest actions taken by the head of the new Ukrainian administration, Viktor Yushchenko, prove that the new president has revised his views regarding Ukraine's foreign economic policy. The Ukrainian government is interested in the Russian business now. Yushchenko believes that Ukraine is going to intensify its relations with strategic partners and take them to a qualitatively new level. The short-term cooperation with the former ideological ally, the USA, is being currently nullified.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/92/370/15125_ukraine.html
China ready to attack Taiwan
03/14/2005 16:56
Tokyo and Washington issued a joint statement in February listing for the first time the peaceful resolution of the Taiwan issue
China's parliament enacted a law Monday authorizing force to stop rival Taiwan from pursuing formal independence, sparking outrage on the self-governing island and warnings that the measure would fuel regional tensions.
The ceremonial National People's Congress passed the law despite U.S. appeals for restraint. It came a day after President Hu Jintao called on China's military to be ready for war and followed a 12.6 percent increase in the country's defense budget for 2005.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/366/15106_china.html
Chinese coal mines: new explosions, new deaths
09:55 2005-03-20
The death toll from a gas explosion in a northern Chinese coal mine climbed to 42 on Sunday, with 27 still missing in the latest tragedy to strike the world's deadliest mining industry, media reports said on Sunday.
http://newsfromrussia.com/accidents/2005/03/20/58718.html
The Indy Star - It is my opinion the Social Structure of the USA is eroding. This is a prime example. Extremism begets extremism.
Slain girl remembered in playground design
Associated Press
March 19, 2005
CROTHERSVILLE, Ind. -- A school playground with equipment resembling a small castle and treehouse will serve as a memorial for a 10-year-old girl who was abducted and drowned after stumbling onto people making methamphetamine.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/230424-8586-102.html
Police seek leads in Northsider's slaying
Star report
March 19, 2005
Police had few leads today in the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old man on the Northside.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/230423-7356-102.html
Traffic accidents kill two city men
Star report
March 19, 2005
Two people were killed in separate traffic accidents on Indianapolis streets over the last two days.
The most recent fatality was at 1 a.m. today when 23-year-old Herman Vasquez, of Indianapolis, drove his 1999 Mercury Tracer into a utility pole's guide wires, according to a Marion County sheriff's report.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/230422-8628-102.html
Gary boy beaten to death, adults arrested
Associated Press
March 19, 2005
GARY, Ind. -- A 7-year-old boy was found beaten to death in his bed, and police arrested his mother and her boyfriend, authorities said.
Authorities found George Rawls' body in his mother's Gary home on Thursday. He died from blunt force trauma, Lake County Coroner David Pastrick ruled. Police said the boy's 61-pound body showed signs of being punched, kicked, pinched and bruised.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/230419-7210-102.html
Police: Man kills 2 women, himself
One of the victims was an ex-girlfriend
By Terry Horne
terry.horne@indystar.com
March 20, 2005
Sometime Saturday morning, police say, a former security officer at Circle Centre Mall walked into a two-story home in a Plainfield subdivision and shot to death his former live-in girlfriend and her sister.
The suspect's two children and a third child were inside the home at the time of the shootings and weren't harmed.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/230535-3042-092.html
3 children's deaths spur call to action
Rash of abuse deaths prompts child advocates to urge state to step up efforts to prevent such cases.
By Tim Evans
tim.evans@indystar.com
March 19, 2005
Three children whose families had prior contact with the state's child protection system have reportedly died at the hands of caregivers in recent days, prompting advocates to call on the state and citizens to step up efforts to prevent abuse and neglect.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/230412-2744-092.html
8 deaths from fires prompt campaign
City to renew push for all local homes to have smoke detectors installed, operational.
By John Tuohy and Tom Spalding
john.tuohy@indystar.com
March 19, 2005
Indianapolis is on pace for what could be the city's highest number of fire deaths in more than a decade, prompting officials to make a renewed push for smoke detectors in homes.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/4/230407-4594-103.html
Fla. police recover missing girl's body
By MIKE BRANOM
Associated Press Writer
HOMOSASSA, Fla. (AP) -- The news this small community feared finally came Saturday: Police had found the body of 9-year-old Jessica Marie Lunsford, more than three weeks after she was snatched from her bedroom.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MISSING_GIRL?SITE=ININS&SECTION=HOME
High rate of smoking burns up too many dollars and too many lives
A common habit
• Indiana ranks 6th in the nation in percentage of adults who smoke.
• About 1.2 million adults (26 percent) in Indiana smoke.
• 23.4 percent of Indiana high school students smoke.
• About 20,900 children become regular smokers each year in Indiana.
• 19.1 percent of Hoosier women smoke while pregnant.
• Smoking is linked to about 10,300 deaths each year in Indiana.
Sources: Centers for Disease Control; Indiana Tobacco Prevention and Cessation
March 20, 2005
Our position is: Prevalence of smoking in Indiana is costing lives, increasing health care costs and hurting business.
Emotion leaks into Richard Feldman's voice as he talks about the dangers of smoking cigarettes. "I have two patients who are dying of lung cancer," the physician and former state health commissioner says. "There are people I see every week who are dying from diseases that could have been prevented."
http://www.indystar.com/articles/8/230506-3198-021.html
Michigan governor seeks faith-based aid to needy
March 19, 2005
LANSING, Mich. -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm has created an office of community and faith-based initiatives, saying she wants state government to work with religious groups to help the needy.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/2/230235-2252-108.html
Wildlife Refuge photo open to misinterpretation
A plane flies over the refuge's 1002 Area this month, headed into the Brooks Range. Snow is present most of the year on the coastal plain, where oil drilling could occur. -- Provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
March 20, 2005
The Star ran a lovely, scenic photograph at the top of Page One last Thursday, a photograph that one reader said "borders on fraud" and another said is outright propaganda.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/230503-5430-021.html
Arab Cartoon
http://www.arabnews.com/cartoon/
The Jordan Times
Thousands rally for Gaza pullout
TEL AVIV (AFP) — Close to 10,000 Israelis marched through Tel Aviv late Saturday in a show of mass support for the proposed withdrawal of all troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in July as preparations gathered pace for the controversial evacuation.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news2.htm
Jordan going ahead with refrom — King
Petra
HIS MAJESTY KING Abdullah on Saturday reiterated that Jordan was going ahead with political, socio-economic and administrative reform plans.
“We, in Jordan, have set standards to develop the community and to be a model in the region,” King Abdullah said at a meeting with representatives of Washington-based international groups advocating democracy, human rights and freedoms.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/homenews/homenews1.htm
Mulki says no contradiction between Amman proposal and Beirut initiative
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
Foreign Minister Hani Mulki talks to reporters in Algiers on Saturday (AP photo by Amr Nabil)
AMMAN — Jordan's recent proposal on ending the Arab-Israeli conflict was not a deviation from the 2002 peace initiative, adopted in Beirut, a senior official said on Saturday.
Government Spokesperson Asma Khader said the proposal, to be presented by Jordan to the March 22-23 Algiers summit, reiterates commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative. “The proposal was based on resolutions unanimously adopted by Arab leaders,” Khader told the press yesterday. “It was not a new initiative or resolution. It seeks to revive and activate the Arab initiative.”
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/homenews/homenews2.htm
Lebanon's divisions deepen after bombing
A Lebanese policeman on Saturday guards the site of the Beirut blast (Reuters photo by Damir Sagolj)
BEIRUT (Reuters) — Lebanon's anti-Syrian opposition dismissed the president's call for talks on Saturday, deepening political divisions hours after a bomb raised fresh fears of a return to the country's violent past.
Investigators sifted through the rubble left by the blast, which wounded 11 people and gutted the ground and first floors of a residential block in a Christian suburb of eastern Beirut.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news3.htm
Blast kindles fears of surge in factional strife
BEIRUT (AFP) — A bomb blast in a Beirut suburb rekindled fears of a return to sectarian violence Saturday at a moment of high political tension in Lebanon still shaken by the assassination of five-time premier Rafik Hariri.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news4.htm
No negative stand against Shiites, Khader reiterates
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
AMMAN — The government on Saturday reiterated that Jordan's ties with Iraq “was never based on a certain group or race,” stressing that the Kingdom has always dealt with Shiites there with respect.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/homenews/homenews3.htm
Arabs pledge $440m for rehousing
GAZA (Reuters) — Arab countries have earmarked $440 million for rebuilding hundreds of Palestinian homes demolished by Israel during four years of fighting, the Palestinian economy minister said on Saturday.
Mazen Sonnoqrot told Reuters that Arab ministers of finance and economy who met in Algiers ahead of a March 22-23 Arab League summit approved the plan to build new homes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
“We presented a comprehensive
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news6.htm
Israeli, Palestinian hardliners pose threat to truce
By Mohammed Daraghmeh
The Associated Press
RAMALLAH — Hardliners on both the Israeli and Palestinian sides pose a significant threat to a truce that 13 Palestinian factions agreed to extend this week.
Palestinian groups, some of which are believed to be funded by the Lebanon-based Hizbollah, remain outside the truce, which is underpinning the new momentum towards peace-making that has brought a recent drop in violence.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/news/news8.htm
Practical options
The explosion that rocked east Beirut late Friday was a rough reminder that Lebanon can easily drift back into chaos and sectarian warfare.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/opinion/opinion1.htm
Palestinian scene, reforms in the Arab world make news in Arabic press
Thamer Abu Baker
The Palestinian scene has witnessed many developments recently, such as the truce declaration and Hamas' announcement that it will run in Palestinian parliamentary elections in July.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/opinion/opinion3.htm
The China threat, part two?
By Wenran Jiang
Lost in the debates about whether the European Union should lift its arms export embargo on China is a much broader and more pressing question: does the Bush administration once again see China as a strategic competitor, as it did in the early days of the Bush presidency, before the war on terror forced Bush to seek cooperation with China's rulers? That Japan has joined the United States in standing alongside Taiwan in opposing an end to the EU's arms embargo on China suggests that this is so.
http://www.jordantimes.com/sun/opinion/opinion5.htm
Yahoo
Media Alert: FDIC Wants Banks to Notify Customers of Identity Thefts - Banking Security Expert Available to Comment
Saturday March 19, 11:13 am ET
BATON ROUGE, La., March 19 /PRNewswire/ --
Background:
On Friday, March 18, 2005, regulators at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) voted 5-0 to approve a ruling that would force U.S. banks to warn their customers if they believe their customers have been subjected to identity theft.
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050319/nysa011_2.html
The Jerusalem Post
Sharon to meet Bush in Crawford, Texas
By HERB KEINON
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will travel to Crawford, Texas, on April 11 for a meeting with US President George W. Bush at Bush's ranch, the White House announced on Friday.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111205275234
Four wounded, one seriously, in attack near Ramallah
By MARGOT DUDKEVITC
Three soldiers and a policeman were wounded in a shooting attack in the Al-Amari refugee camp south of Ramallah early Sunday morning while searching for stolen cars.
One of the soldiers, from the Combat Engineers Corps, was seriously wounded.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111205276552
Left-wing marches in support of pullout
By TOVAH LAZAROFF
An estimated 10,000 disengagement supporters marched through the streets of Tel Aviv from Kikar Rabin to Dizengoff Circle Saturday night, under the banner "Israel is leaving Gaza."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111205274372
Jordan ammends peace proposal
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, HERB KEINON AND JPOST STAFF
The peace proposal that was introduced Friday by King Abdullah of Jordan has been amended following intense pressure by several Arab states, namely Syria, Lebanon, Sudan and Yemen.
Pasted from <http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111116048516
The sorrows of young Bashar
By JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT
DAMASCUS
President Bashar al-Assad had just conceded the only sliver of empire Syria possessed. In his March 5 address to parliament, Assad, fighting for his political life, appeared to alternate between pedantry and defensiveness as he served up a speech that destroyed all that his father, Hafez al-Assad, had built during a 30-year reign.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1111030173051
Jailed Journalists
Can Too Much Praise For The Prophet Land You In Jail?
By Shahed Amanullah, February 23, 2003
Among Muslims, praise for the Prophet Muhammad is common, in that he provided an example for Muslims in all facets of their lives. But some Jordanian journalists found out the hard way that not all praise of the Prophet is looked upon kindly, especially when it comes to his family life. The three were jailed (although two were later released) for "insulting Islam" in an article that touched on the sexual life of the Prophet Muhammad. The journalists all claim that they were simply quoting sahih (trustworthy) hadith, or sayings of the Prophet, which can be found in any reputable Islamic bookstore. Afraid of a repeat of the violence in Nigeria fomented by fundamentalists over writings on the Prophet, the authorities said they had to act after Jordan's main Islamic party said the journalists would "burn in hell" for eternity. The jailed were defended by other journalists (although the Jordanian Journalist's Union expelled the trio), and the paper's publisher was defiant. "We have to cure the followers of Islam of rejecting criticism," says Al-Hilal publisher Ahmed Salama. "The fundamentalists are worshiping the prophet, not his revelation." All this happened a month after Jordan's King Abdullah extolled the value of free speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. "Through laws and independent institutions," said Abdullah, "we are ensuring freedom of expression, speech and thought, including a free media."
Shahed Amanullah is editor-in-chief of alt.muslim.
http://www.altmuslim.com/perm.php?id=937_0_26_0_C30
Pakistan rebels kill two journalists
February 8, 2005 - 7:34AM
Gunmen fired into a bus filled with journalists on their way back from covering the surrender of a suspected militant in a lawless tribal region on Monday, killing two reporters and wounding two others, security officials said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking-News/Pakistan-rebels-kill-two-journalists/2005/02/08/1107625169542.html
Above Two were previously posted. I thought they were worthwhile to do again.
Zimbabwe journalists flee threats
Three prominent Zimbabwean journalists who wrote for the international press have left the country after several days of police questioning and threats of prosecution.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=197886&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Latin American Writers Demand Cuba Free Jailed Journalists
Over 100 reporters and editors join global denunciation of Castro regime
18 March 2005
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- More than 100 prominent writers, editors and reporters throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have joined the global community in demanding that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro immediately release 23 jailed journalists. The demand, sent in a March 16 letter to Castro by 108 journalists in 19 countries throughout the Americas, said the two-year-long imprisonments of the journalists violate "the most basic norms of international law" and represent "an affront to human dignity."
http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/m-news+article+storyid-8152-PHPSESSID-83d1691779aee385a16dd8bd386831b2.html
21 Cuban journalists remain detained
[World News]: FRANCE, France, March 18 : Twenty-one Cuban journalists remain jailed two years after their arrests during "Black Spring," Reporters Without Borders said Friday.
The Paris-based group fighting for press freedom called for solidarity with "these prisoners of conscience," who were among 75 dissidents and journalists detained on March 18, 2003.
http://news.newkerala.com/india-news/?action=fullnews&id=87865
Controversial reporter Judith Miller plans to defend journalism's role in a democracy — all the way to prison
/noticias.info/ BERKELEY – "[Journalists] are not perfect. We're not saints," New York Times reporter Judith Miller said acidly to a UC Berkeley audience last night (March 17). "But try running a functioning democracy without a free press."
If the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist seemed defensive, it is because she is under heavy fire on two fronts. In a few weeks, she may go to prison for as long as six months for refusing to reveal confidential sources. She has been subpoenaed as part of a federal investigation into the White House leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak.
http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=53218&src=0
Unwanted Pregnancy
Abortion
North Dakota Bill Would Ban Abortion, Problems Cause Pro-Life Opposition
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
January 8, 2005
Fargo, ND (LifeNews.com) -- A state Representative has proposed a bill that would ban all abortions, reintroducing legislation that failed last year. However, because the bill also targets women and would fail at the Supreme Court, pro-life groups say they will again oppose it.
http://www.lifenews.com/state829.html
Feminists face tough times after election
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press
NEW YORK - America's feminist leaders and their critics agree on at least one current political fact: These are daunting times for the women's movement as it braces for another term of an administration it desperately wanted to topple.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/10604924.htm
NOW leader vows to fight Bush
By Patty Pensa
Staff Writer
Posted January 9 2005
LAKE WORTH · If it's not Social Security reform, it will be same-sex marriage. Or reproductive rights, pay equity and the war in Iraq.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-pnow09jan09,0,6776941.story?coll=sfla-news-palm
Law may limit abortion access, advocates claim
By Pamela Brogan
Gannett News Service
WASHINGTON -- The latest front in the war over abortion is a new law that makes it easier for health care professionals to refuse to perform the procedure.
Under the law, which President Bush signed Dec. 8, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies and health plans cannot be required to provide or cover abortion-related services. Any state or local government that enforces such a requirement stands to lose millions in federal money for health care, education and unemployment programs.
http://www.muskogeephoenix.com/news/stories/20050109/localnews/1844902.html
Abortion conflict intensifies with new options for providers
Key language in new abortion law
The clause specifies that federal money will be denied to any federal, state or local government program that "subjects any institutional or individual health care entity to discrimination on the basis that the health care entity does not provide, pay for, provide coverage of, or refer for abortion."
The clause defines a health care entity as "an individual physician or other health care professional, a hospital, a provider-sponsored organization, a health maintenance organization, a health insurance plan, or any other kind of health care facility, organization or plan."
-- Gannett News Service
On the Web
• American Center for Law and Justice: www.aclj.org
• National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association: www.nfprha.org
By Pamela Brogan
Gannett News Service
Washington — The latest front in the war over abortion is a new law that makes it easier for health care professionals to refuse to perform the procedure.
http://www.news-leader.com/today/0108-Abortionco-269860.html
THIS IS ALL BIGOTRY AGAINST 'CIVIL RIGHTS' AND 'PRIVACY' - IT IS A RELIGIOUS BIGORTY NO MATTER WHICH WAY YOU LOOK AT IT. Most of these abortion issues are and that then falls over into birth control and the like. As Civil Rights erode from the USA landscape the violence of the people will increase. Bush's doesn't mind. I am sure his philosophy is 'Go ahead, kill yourselves and others. We have ultimate control anyway." Ethnic cleansing is so much easier when it is done through civil unrest and chaos.
Republicans vow to use rare majority on gay marriage, abortion
NASHVILLE, Tenn. Tennessee Republicans are promising to use their first elected majority in more than a century to demand constitutional bans on gay marriage and restrictions on abortion rights.
http://www.whnt19.com/Global/story.asp?S=2783501
Pro-Life Costa Rica Under Fire from Abortion Advocates to Reverse Its IVF Ban
SAN JOSE, January 7, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) In March 2000, Costa Rica became the only country in North or South America to prohibit in vitro fertilization. The Costa Rican constitution protects human life from conception to natural death. IVF is a procedure that necessitates the killing of many of the embryos created for the process.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/jan/05010702.html
Abortion Bill Introduced in South Dakota Legislature
PIERRE, South Dakota, February 2, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A bill proposing to make abortions illegal, with the exception of serious health risks to the mother, was put forward Monday in the South Dakota legislature.
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/feb/05020208.htm
Parental Consent Abortion Law Could Be Re-Instated
By Thanh Tan
Boise -
The effort to re-instate a parental consent abortion law in Idaho is on its way to the house floor.
The law passed in 2000, but was struck down by the Ninth Circuit Court last year.
A new version of the bill would require parents be notified immediately following an emergency abortion. Sponsors say that rule does have a mini judicial by-pass provision.
http://www.kbcitv.com/x5154.xml?ParentPageID=x5157&ContentID=x63521&Layout=KBCI.xsl&AdGroupID=x5154
This is Unconstitutional. It is obstructive than what is reasonable.
A summary of abortion clinic regulation bill
Associated Press
TOPEKA, Kan. - Summary of legislation to strengthen regulation of Kansas abortion clinics:
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/11181105.htm>
Conservatives won't revisit abortion
Alexander Panetta
Canadian Press
Saturday, March 19, 2005
MONTREAL -- The federal Conservatives formally rejected re-opening the abortion debate when delegates to a party convention voted Saturday not to push for new legislation on the matter.
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=1b58670b-c203-4866-a680-166783bac2c0
Canada Abortion Practitioner Gets Degree From University of Western Ontario
by Maria Vitale Gallagher
LifeNews.com Staff Writer
March 18, 2005
Toronto, Canada (LifeNews.com) -- An abortion practitioner is scheduled to receive an honorary degree from a Canadian university. The move has pro-life groups in the country up in arms.
Henry Morgentaler has been named to receive the University of Western Ontario's highest honor at its spring convocation in June.
http://www.lifenews.com/nat1238.html
… isms
The Soft Bigotry of Life Expectancy
Different Social Security messages for blacks and Latinos.
By William Saletan
Posted Wednesday, March 16, 2005, at 1:08 PM PT
Different strokes for different folks?
Why is President Bush's Social Security reform plan heading south in the polls? Maybe because he's selling different messages to different audiences and some audiences are overhearing messages meant for others. He's telling older people that nothing relevant to them will change. Meanwhile, he's telling the younger people who are propping up the system that it's a dead end and he'll help them get out. This is why Republican "town halls" that were supposed to boost the plan in the polls failed so miserably. The town halls were for the younger folks, but the older folks showed up. Oops!
http://slate.msn.com/id/2114957/
Just 1 in 3 Americans Trust Bush on Social Security, Poll Finds
March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Just one in three Americans trust President George W. Bush on the issue of Social Security, according to the latest Newsweek poll.
Bush's handling of the issue appears to be a drag on his overall approval ratings, which have declined five percentage points in Newsweek's poll over the past six weeks, a period during which the president toured 15 states to tout his plan to overhaul the nation's 70-year-old government retirement program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=atrE8i1vXmX8&refer=top_world_news
Over 20 Baltimore City Police Officers File Charges of Discrimination Alleging Failure to Accommodate Their Disabilities
Download this press release as an Adobe PDF document.
A Baltimore area employment law firm, Snider & Fischer LLC, has recently been retained to represent a class of Baltimore City Police Department officers who will shortly be forced into resignation or retirement due to the Department’s decision to end its light duty program for injured police officers.
Baltimore, MD (PRWEB via PR Web Direct) March 18, 2005 -- A Baltimore area employment law firm, Snider & Fischer LLC (www.sniderlaw.com), has recently been retained to represent a class of Baltimore City Police Department officers who will shortly be forced into resignation or retirement due to the Department’s decision to end its light duty program for injured police officers.
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/3/prweb219843.htm
DA Jordan takes stand in discrimination case
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — New Orleans District Attorney Eddie Jordan today defended himself strongly against charges of racial discrimination in a federal courtroom.
http://bizneworleans.com/109+M58d86be874c.html
Group will watch DMACC discrimination lawsuit
By MADELAINE JEROUSEK
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
March 18, 2005
Members of the African American Leadership Coalition said today that they will closely monitor the outcome of a discrimination lawsuit involving Des Moines Area Community College.
http://desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050318/NEWS02/50318005/1001
Disabled scientist alleges IIT discrimination
[India News]: New Delhi, March 18 : A physically challenged scientist Friday accused the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi of discriminating against him as it refused to reinstate him despite court orders.
http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=87455
Mbeki honoured for his fight against racism
March 19 2005 at 01:41PM
The Rotterdam City Council has awarded President Thabo Mbeki with an Anti-Discrimination and Anti-Racism Award, the home affairs department said on Saturday.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=14&click_id=6&art_id=qw1111227841613B251
Workers look for equal opportunity from new anti-racism plan
Unions say it’s time to end discrimination against newest working citizens
OTTAWA, March 19 /PR Direct/ - For the past three years, the Canadian Labour Congress marked March 21, the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, by calling for the federal government to do three things - develop a national anti-racism framework, adopt a national plan of action, and establish an anti-racism national council.
http://www.prdirect.ca/en/view_release.aspx?TrafficID=2243
Summit on Racism held in Grand Rapids
(Grand Rapids, March 18, 2005, 8:31 p.m.) The seventh annual Summit on Racism was held in Grand Rapids Friday.
Citizens and city leaders gathered in focus groups to talk about personal experiences
http://www.woodtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3098551&nav=0RceXg4g
Fuente: University of Toronto
http://www.utoronto.ca/
University marks Elimination of Racism Day
Series of events on all three campuses to be held the week of March 21
/noticias.info/ Students, staff and faculty across the university are holding a series of events early next week to commemorate March 21 as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=53208&src=0
Racism column sparks tensions
By James Fuller Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted Saturday, March 19, 2005
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Black students at Wheaton North High School say they're outraged about an opinion piece in the school newspaper that called Black History Month racist against whites.
http://www.dailyherald.com/dupage/main_story.asp?intID=3843012
HIV/AIDS Numbers Up In Ohio Valley
By BETHENY HOLSTEIN
The Ohio Valley, falling in line with worldwide trends, has experienced a rise in the number of local people living with HIV/AIDS.
From the end of 2000 to the end of 2003, Jefferson County reported an increase from 31 to 41 people living with HIV/AIDS. Belmont County reports going from 22 to 23, and Harrison County reported three people during each year. Monroe County saw an increase from 1 to 3 people.
The West Virginia Health District 6 reported 67 people living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2000, which increased to 83 at the end of 2003. The district includes Hancock, Brooke, Ohio, Marshall and Wetzel counties.
http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/story/0319202005_new02.asp
James: CU must take racism seriously
By Wanda L. James
March 19, 2005
Has the University of Colorado lost all common-sense and perspective? As one of Boulder's very few black residents and one of CU's very few black alumni, I have had about all I can take.
http://www.dailycamera.com/bdc/opinion_columnists/article/0,1713,BDC_2490_3633516,00.html
Let's try to make society see it's okay to be different
Letters to the Editor
Published March 19, 2005
I would like to thank the St. Petersburg Times for running the story Endorsing only tolerance (March 17). This story captured the essence of PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) as it strives to help families go through the trauma they feel when one of their members tells them he or she is gay. I am the father of two wonderful children who happen to be gay. My wife and I joined PFLAG 10 years ago, and the group helped us tremendously. We are still active members but now we spend more time helping others than we do receiving help.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/03/19/Opinion/Let_s_try_to_make_soc.shtml
Discrimination retaliation ruling overturned
By Jess Sullivan
FAIRFIELD - The state Court of Appeals on Friday overturned a jury decision that a former California Department of Corrections doctor suffered retaliation after she accused corrections officials of discrimination.
Dr. Margie McRae had worked at the California Medical Facility in Vacaville for five years when she was not chosen in 1997 for a supervisory position at the nearby California State Prison in Solano.
McRae filed a complaint claiming she didn't get the job because she is black. That complaint spurred a series of events that culminated with her leaving her job in 1999, according to her subsequent lawsuit.
A jury decided McRae wasn't a victim of discrimination but that she had suffered from retaliation by a pair of nurses and two other prison staff. Jurors awarded McRae $75,000 for her damages and the judge in the case, heard in Alameda County, ordered CDC to pay for her lawyers fees.
http://www.dailyrepublic.com/articles/2005/03/19/local_news/news06.txt
21 disabled officers file discrimination complaint
Originally published March 19, 2005
Lawyers representing 21 city police officers said yesterday that they have filed complaints of discrimination with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, alleging that the disabled officers are being unfairly pushed into retirement.
Some of the injured and ill officers represented by the firm of Snider and Fischer were hurt in the line of duty, Michael Snider said.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/careers/bal-md.eeoc19mar19,1,132420.story?coll=bal-careers-headlines&ctrack=2&cset=true
Controversial reporter Judith Miller plans to defend journalism's role in a democracy — all the way to prison
/noticias.info/ BERKELEY – "[Journalists] are not perfect. We're not saints," New York Times reporter Judith Miller said acidly to a UC Berkeley audience last night (March 17). "But try running a functioning democracy without a free press."
If the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist seemed defensive, it is because she is under heavy fire on two fronts. In a few weeks, she may go to prison for as long as six months for refusing to reveal confidential sources. She has been subpoenaed as part of a federal investigation into the White House leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak.
http://www.noticias.info/asp/aspComunicados.asp?nid=53218&src=0
Gender-specific reading classes coming
By Erin Elaine Mosely
Montgomery Advertiser
Andrea Garcia, 13, reads with her classmates Friday during a seventh-grade reading class at Wetumpka Junior High School. Reading classes are grouped by gender.
-- Photos by Julie Bennett Advertiser
WETUMPKA -- When Andrea Garcia attended Skyview Middle School in Oregon, the school separated classes by gender: all girls in one class and boys in another.
So 13-year-old Andrea wasn't surprised when her current school, Wetumpka Junior High, announced plans to do the same.
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/NEWSV5/storyV5gender19w.htm
Gender Differences and Common Ground
Re "The Feminine Technique," Commentary, March 15: Deborah Tannen is always incisive when she delineates typical gender differences of thought, speech and action. But in using Maureen Dowd's column lamenting the lack of female Op-Ed writers as an occasion to present her gender types, Tannen skips over the fascinating particulars of Dowd's own style.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-women19.2mar19,0,299184.story?coll=la-news-comment-letter
Michael Kinsley:
Girl Problems in Op-Ed Land
When the New York Times anointed Maureen Dowd as a columnist nine years ago, I gave her some terrible advice. I said, "You've got to write boy stuff. The future of NATO. Campaign spending reform. Throw weights. Otherwise, they won't take you seriously." The term "throw weights" had been made famous by a Reagan-era official who said that women can't understand them — whatever they are, or were. But clearly the term had bubbled into the man's mind for reasons that many women understood better than he did himself.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-kinsley20mar20,0,3449368.column?coll=la-util-op-ed
THE TROUBLE WITH RELIGION
- Wherever religions get into society’s driving seat, tyranny results
Salman Rushdie
Exception to European secularism
I never thought of myself as a writer about religion until a religion came after me. Religion was a part of my subject, of course — for a novelist from the Indian subcontinent, how could it not have been? But in my opinion I also had many other, larger, tastier fish to fry. Nevertheless, when the attack came, I had to confront what was confronting me, and to decide what I wanted to stand up for in the face of what so vociferously, repressively and violently stood against me.
Now, 16 years later, religion is coming after us all and, even though most of us probably feel, as I once did, that we have other, more important concerns, we are all going to have to confront the challenge. If we fail, this particular fish may end up frying us.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050320/asp/opinion/story_4506104.asp
Modi visa denial based on NHRC findings: USA
Ashish Kumar Sen writes from Washington
Washington on Friday said its decision to revoke Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi’s US visa was a response to findings by the India’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that implicated Mr Modi’s government in the 2002 riots.
“The fact of the matter is that it was the Indians who investigated the riots and it was the Indian Government who determined that state institutions failed to act in a way that would prevent violence and would prevent religious persecution,” State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said.
“So this isn’t a matter of the USA saying something happened or something didn’t happen,” he said. “It’s a matter of the USA responding to a finding by the NHRC pointing to comprehensive failure on the part of the state government of Gujarat to control persistent violations of rights.”
The US Embassy in New Delhi on Friday revoked Mr Modi’s US visa on grounds of his complicity in violations of religious freedom.
The US government’s decision has triggered a firestorm of emotion within the Indian-American community.
While secular and minority groups hailed the decision as a “great victory for the rule of law,” angry members of the community gave vent to their fury in venomous web postings.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050320/world.htm
Social Engineering
Audit: IRS employees susceptible to social engineering
by Marcia Savage
Employees at the Internal Revenue Service were apt to fall victim to social engineering scams, according to an audit by the Inspector General for Tax Administration.
Auditors placed phone calls to 100 IRS managers and employees, posing at IT helpdesk personnel needing help to fix a network problem. They were able to convince 35 employees to divulge their user account names and change their passwords.
"Using our test scenario, a hacker or disgruntled employee could obtain user names and passwords to gain unauthorized access to the IRS systems," according to the audit.
http://www.scmagazine.com/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=newsDetails&newsUID=9f65a874-452a-48cc-8af5-21fd3071dc84&newsType=Latest%20News
The Cheney Observer
Federal Court Rules Indiana Protester's Rights Violated During Cheney Visit
March 17, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: media@aclu.org
EVANSVILLE, IN-In a victory for free speech rights and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, a federal judge ruled today that Evansville police violated a protester's constitutional rights by restricting his movement and arresting him for disorderly conduct before a 2002 appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney.
http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeech.cfm?ID=17776&c=86
Argentina wants Shell Oil out of the country
03/15/2005 12:05
The Holland-British oil giant unilaterally raised fuel prices and blocked an ambitious deal with the Venezuelan PDVSA
In an official speech last week, Argentina's president Nestor Kirchner launched a loudly campaign to boycott Shell Oil operations in this South American country, after the Holland-British giant unilaterally announced an increasing in his retail fuel prices and frustrated an ambitious deal with the Venezuelan State owned PDVSA. Mr. Kirchner asked Argentineans not to buy anything from Shell, "not even a can of oil", as according to local sources, asked social movements to block its petrol stations.
http://english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/15112_argentina.html
Evansville can't afford White House visits
Associated Press
March 19, 2005
EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- After being "used like a pair of work gloves" by the Secret Service, Evansville no longer can afford to provide security for presidential and vice presidential visits, the city attorney said.
Evansville City Attorney David Jones also criticized the Secret Service for refusing to provide evidence, testimony and witnesses to help defend the city against a lawsuit brought by environmental activist following a 2002 arrest outside a fund-raiser featuring Vice President Dick Cheney.
A federal judge ruled Thursday the city must pay undetermined damages to the activist for violating his free speech rights.
http://www.indystar.com/articles/6/230429-9346-093.html
Petroleum dealers to give strike call against illegal oil depots
KARACHI: The Pakistan Petroleum dealers association would give a strike call against illegal oil depots.
General Secretary Pakistan Petroleum Association Mohammad Hassan told Geo that currently there are 200 illegal oil depots in Karachi and the government is not taking any initiative for their
http://www.geo.tv/main_files/business.aspx?id=70275
Fuel prices climb on fear that supply increase won't meet demand
Bloomberg News
Published March 19, 2005
NEW YORK -- Crude oil and gasoline rose to record high closing prices Friday on speculation that OPEC's quota increase will be insufficient to meet growing global demand.
Crude for April delivery rose 32 cents, to $56.72 a barrel, on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Thursday, futures touched $57.60 a barrel, a record intraday price. Prices increased 4.2 percent this week.
"The market still wants to test $60," said Justin Fohsz, a broker with Starsupply Petroleum Inc. in Englewood, N.J.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0503190250mar19,1,3082181.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Now You See It: An Audit of KBR
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Published: March 20, 2005
S it prepared to attack Iraq in early 2003, the Pentagon gave a multibillion-dollar contract, without competitive bidding, to the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root to repair oil fields and import consumer fuels. Almost from the first, the Bush administration and the company were hounded by allegations of favoritism and reckless spending under that contract, for which KBR eventually billed $2.5 billion.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/20/weekinreview/20eckh.html
Pentagon Hides Halliburton Fraud; Fall Guy Chosen
by CONSPIRACY PLANET
The Pentagon continues to protect the frauds of the Bush Regime's crony capitalist pals at Halliburton.
Most recently California Congressman Henry Waxman has accused the Pentagon of hiding a report from its own auditors on a $108.4 million overcharge by Halliburton for its services in Iraq
http://www.conspiracyplanet.com/channel.cfm?channelid=70&contentid=2010
The World According to Wal-Mart
Wal-Mart's Calif. Supercenters Delayed
By JIM WASSERMAN
Associated Press Writer
Posted March 19 2005, 7:02 PM EST
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SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- As Wal-Mart Stores Inc. tries to plant dozens of new supercenters in California, lawyers aligned with a variety of opposition groups are using California's tough environmental laws to stall the nation's largest retailer.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/nationworld/ats-ap_business11mar19,0,3769329.story?coll=sns-business-headlines
The New Zealand Herald
EU fury grows at Wolfowitz appointment
US Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was nominated by George W. Bush for World Bank president. Picture / Reuters
20.03.05 3.30pm
By Geoffrey Lean
The US deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz has been summoned to Brussels to explain to an angry Europe how he would run the World Bank, in an escalation of the international row over his nomination to head the world's most important development body.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10116283
Fishermen swim for land from Korean vessel
The vessel was anchored 1km off Wellington Harbour. File picture / Mark Mitchell
20.03.05 UPDATED at 1.30pm
Crew members of a Korean fishing vessel have attempted to swim ashore in Wellington Harbour.
The squid fishing vessel was anchored 1km off Aotea Wharf when five men made the attempt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10116270
Cellphones create new texting illness
20.03.05 2.00pm
By Janelle Miles
BRISBANE - Cellphones have created a new illness dubbed "texting tendonitis".
South Australian general practitioner Robert Menz reported the case of a 13-year-old girl who walked into his surgery earlier this year with a swollen right forearm.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10116272
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Clear
-17.0°
Updated Sunday 20 Mar 7:59PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
32 °F / 0 °C
Clear
Windchill:
23 °F / -5 °C
Humidity:
20%
Dew Point:
-6 °F / -21 °C
Wind:
12 mph / 18 km/h from the North
Wind Gust:
21 mph / 33 km/h
Pressure:
29.82 in / 1010 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds (AGL):
Clear -
end
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