The Rooster
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Click on this title to watch 12 hour loop.
July 12, 2005. UNISYS GOES East Satellite, Water Vapor. In case one likes to follow the Water Vapor than Enhanced Infrared.
Enhanced Infrared UNISYS GOES East Satellite
July 12, 2005. This is the Enhanced Infrared Satellite to monitor "Dennis" and the possible shuttle launch. Click on title to follow link.
The Kennedy Space Center is still experiencing weather from "Dennis"
July 12, 2005. This is the Enhanced Infrared Satellite of the Southeast United States. The title above can be 'clicked' on to monitor any and all changes in weather pattern that might cause issues with the shuttle.
June 12, 2005. Using local resources to spawn a business. This entrepreneur harvests mud from the Delaware River Basin as a basis for a "Resin" that assists Baseball Players to 'rough' new balls. I think it is great newsprint like "The Philadelphia Inquirer" and "The Chicago Tribune" are putting issues important to their communities on the front page along with the big issues.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Morning Papers
Rooster "Cock - A - Doodle - When - Do"
"Oak - He - Doe - $he"
History …
July 12 …
100 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar was born.
1817, Henry David Thoreau, writer and naturalist
1854, George Eastman (1854-1932), who developed film processing techniques and started the Eastman Kodak Company.
1864, George Washington Carver, scientist and educator
1895, Buckminster Fuller, engineer and inventor
1904, Pablo Neruda, pseudonym of Neftali Ricardo Reyes y Basoalto, Chilean poet, whose verse helped shape 20th-century Latin American literary and political consciousness. He won the 1971 Nobel Prize for literature.
1937, Bill Cosby, comedian and actor
1908, Milton Berle, comedian
1971, Kristi Yamaguchi, figure skater
1543, England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.
1690, Protestant forces led by William of Orange defeated the Roman Catholic army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.
1817, naturalist-author Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Mass.
1862, Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.
1906, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, found guilty of treason in a case that divided French society at the turn of the century, is cleared of the charges. Soon after, he is awarded the Legion of Honor.
1972, George McGovern won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Miami Beach, Fla.
1974, Former Nixon White House adviser John D. Ehrlichman is convicted of a charge connected with his supervision of the "plumbers," a covert group aimed at stopping press leaks.
1984, Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman on a major-party presidential ticket in the U.S. when Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale chooses the New York congresswoman to be his running mate.
1985, doctors discovered what turned out to be a cancerous growth in President Reagan's large intestine, prompting surgery the following day.
1990, Boris Yeltsin, chairman of the Russian congress of deputies, announces to a meeting of the Soviet Communist Party that he is resigning from the party.
1993, 196 people were killed when an earthquake measuring a magnitude of 7.8 struck northern Japan.
1998, Led by two goals by midfielder Zinedine Zidane, host country France wins the soccer World Cup 3-0 over Brazil, the defending champion.
Missing in Action
1967 ALMENDARIZ SAMUEL MC ALLEN TX
1967 DOVE JACK PARIS SR. BLUEFIELD VA REMAINS RETURNED/IDENTIFIED 07/25/95
1967 FRANK MARTIN S. 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1967 HENRY NATHAN B. FRANKLIN NC 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG INJURED ALIVE IN 98
1967 MC MURRAY CORDINE DETROIT MI 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 00
1967 NEWELL STANLEY A. PEKIN IL 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE & WELL 12/95-98
1967 PERRICONE RICHARD R. UNIONDALE NY 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1967 SCHIELE JAMES F. GRANGER UT
1967 SQUIRE BOYD EDWIN SACRAMENTO CA REMAINS RETURNED/IDENTIFIED 07/25/95
1967 SULLIVAN ROBERT J. EAST ALSTEAD NH
1967 VAN BENDEGOM JAMES L. KENOSHA WI WOUNDED DIED SEVERAL DAYS AFTER CAPTURE
1969 BANNON PAUL W. HUEYTOWN AL
1969 PIKE PETER X. NEW YORK NY
1972 SHIMKIN ALEX
1972 HUARD JAMES L. DEARBORN MI REMAINS IDENTIFIED THROUGH DNA 01/27/97
1972 O'DONNELL SAMUEL JR. DEARBORN MI
July 11 …
1979, Skylab tumbles back to Earth
The US space laboratory, Skylab I, plunged to Earth this evening scattering debris across the southern Indian Ocean and sparsely populated Western Australia.
All week there has been mounting speculation over where the spacecraft would come down. It has been in orbit six years - for the past five of those it has been unoccupied.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_3867000/3867739.stm
1995, Serbs overrun UN 'safe haven'
The Bosnian Serb army has seized control of the United Nations "safe area" of Srebrenica after Dutch peacekeepers were forced to withdraw.
Some 1,500 Serb troops overran the lightly-armed Dutch troops, despite two Nato air strikes on Serbian tanks inside the enclave.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_4080000/4080690.stm
2000, Britain pioneers HIV vaccine
The World Aids Conference in South Africa has announced trials for a new HIV vaccine will begin in Britain.
Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris will be one of 18 healthy volunteers who will take part in the first toxicity tests.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_2499000/2499925.stm
Missing in Action
1966 SHATTUCK LEWIS W. VAN COUVER WA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1966 WILKINS GEORGE H. GOLDSBORO NC REMAINS RETURNED 10/30/96
1972 CRODY KENNETH L. GRIFFITH IN
1972 HENDRIX JERRY W. WICHITA KS
1972 LESESNE HENRY D. FLORENCE SC 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 MASTERSON FREDERICK J. OAKLAND CA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 RANDALL ROBERT I. NEPTUNE NJ 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
Michael Moore Today
Play the news conference and film loop to understand the content alone but it gets real interesting when you play both the McClellan news conference at the same time as the film loop.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/scotty_rove_71105.mov
http://www.ericblumrich.com/right.html
"...if anyone in this administration was responsible for the leaking of classified information, they would no longer work in this administration." (VIDEO)
--Scott McClellan, October 6, 2003
Q Is there any plans for the administration to follow up and talk to Syrian officials or even the leadership about what has occurred?
MR. McCLELLAN: Again, we continue to make our views known. And they know that we take these issues very seriously, and they know what they need to do.
Q Scott, the President just expressed his desire to get to the bottom of this CIA leak issue. And he said he wanted to hold accountable whoever was responsible --
MR. McCLELLAN: Absolutely.
Q -- responsible for this. But can you confirm that the President would fire anyone on his staff found to have leaked classified information?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think I made that very clear last week. The topic came up, and I said that if anyone in this administration was responsible for the leaking of classified information, they would no longer work in this administration. This is a very serious matter. The President made it very clear just a short time ago in the East Room, and he has always said that leaking of classified information is a serious matter. And that's why he wants to get to the bottom of this. And the sooner we get to the bottom of it, the better.
Q Scott, can I ask you a separate question?
MR. McCLELLAN: You may ask me a separate question.
Q On Kibaki. Did he specifically ask the President for help in resuming IMF loans, and what was the President's response?
Loose Lips
Matt Cooper's Source
What Karl Rove told Time magazine's reporter
By Michael Isikoff / Newsweek
July 18 issue - It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. "Subject: Rove/P&C," (for personal and confidential), Cooper began. "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation..." Cooper proceeded to spell out some guidance on a story that was beginning to roil Washington. He finished, "please don't source this to rove or even WH [White House]" and suggested another reporter check with the CIA.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3275
Sink Ships
Democrats urge Bush to fire Rove in leak scandal
By Adam Entous / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The White House faced mounting Democratic calls for President Bush to sideline or fire his top political aide Karl Rove on Monday over his involvement in a CIA leak scandal.
After publicly defending Rove two years ago, the White House responded to the barrage by saying it would not comment at the request of the prosecutors investigating who leaked the identify of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3290
Press Corps Finally Grills Scott McClellan on Rove
Press Batters McClellan on Rove/Plame Link
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK - At numerous press briefings last week, not a single reporter asked White House Press Secretary about emerging allegations that top presidential aide Karl Rove was a source, or the source, for Time magazine's Matthew Cooper in the Valerie Plame case. Then on Sunday, Newsweek revealed a Cooper e-mail from July 2003 that showed that Rove indeed had talked to him about Plame and her CIA employment, although he apparently did not mention that she worked under cover.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3285
(VIDEO!:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/scotty_rove_71105.mov
Box Score)
Scott McClellan Needs A Thesaurus
Finally! The White House press corps at long last woke up today and started asking questions about Karl Rove. They wanted to know if White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan stood by his previous statement that anyone involved in leaking undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity to the media should be fired. But when the going tough, McClellan fell back on his handy list of Phrases To Use To Dodge Questions. Here’s Scott McClellan, by the numbers:
23: Number of times McClellan could’t answer a question because the Rove investigation is “ongoing.”
10: Number of times McClellan couldn’t answer a question because it was “related” to the investigation or in the “context” of the investigation.
16: Number of times McClellan said he just wouldn’t “comment” on a question.
5: Number of times McClellan assured reporters he “appreciates the questions” about Rove’s involvement in the Plame case.
8: Number of times McClellan told reporters he and the president were “helping” the investigation with their silence.
8: Number of times McClellan said he and President Bush want to “get to the bottom of this.”
3: Number of times McClellan said he and the president planned to “cooperate fully” with the investigation by not answering questions.
10: Number of times McClellan claimed he’d already “responded” to a reporter’s question.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/11/scott-mcclellan-needs-a-thesaurus/
Scotty Says So Much by Saying Nothing At All
White House Won't Comment on Rove, Leak
By Pete Yost / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - For the better part of two years, the word coming out of the Bush White House was that presidential adviser Karl Rove had nothing to do with the leak of a female CIA officer's identity and that whoever did would be fired.
But Bush spokesman Scott McClellan wouldn't repeat those claims Monday in the face of Rove's own lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledging the political operative spoke to Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, one of the reporters who disclosed Valerie Plame's name.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3288
Prisoners escape US Afghan base
BBC
Four "dangerous enemy combatants" have escaped from the main US base in Afghanistan, the US military has said. A huge manhunt was launched around the Bagram air base north of the capital Kabul, after the men, said to be Arabs, escaped at about 0500 (0030 GMT).
The US says it is the first time any prisoner has escaped from Bagram.
Hundreds of detainees, most of them Afghan nationals but a number of senior foreign al-Qaeda suspects, are held at the detention centre.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3279
Iraq Shiites in campaign for foreign troop pullout
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Radicals within Iraq's Shiite majority community launched a petition for the withdrawal of US-led troops, which they said was drawing support from across the sectarian divide.
Supporters of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, who led a bloody six-month uprising against the coalition last year, said they were aiming to secure one million signatures inside four days.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3287
Nat'l Guard Misses Recruiting Goal Again
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Army National Guard, a cornerstone of the U.S. force in Iraq, missed its recruiting goal for at least the ninth straight month in June and is nearly 19,000 soldiers below its authorized strength, military officials said Monday.
The Army Guard was seeking 5,032 new soldiers in June but signed up only 4,337, a 14 percent shortfall, according to statistics released Monday by the Pentagon. It is more than 10,000 soldiers behind its year-to-date goal of almost 45,000 recruits, and has missed its recruiting target during at least 17 of the last 18 months.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3289
President Discusses War on Terror at FBI Academy
WhiteHouse.gov
FBI Academy
Quantico, Virginia
10:37 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. It's my pleasure to be back here at Quantico, at the FBI Academy. I'm honored to be with so many courageous men and women who have stepped forward to protect our nation.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3284
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Pennsylvania ruling favors Santorum
By Carrie Budoff
Inquirer Staff Writer
A Pittsburgh-area school district lost its bid yesterday to recover tuition it paid to a Pennsylvania cyber school to educate U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's children, who live primarily in Virginia.
In a case that evolved into a political controversy for the two-term senator, a state hearing officer recommended that the state education secretary dismiss the Penn Hills School District's request for a refund - estimated to be from $34,000 to $67,000 - because it took too long to raise its objections.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109774.htm
Major-league mud
A Delran man digs up the muck to be rubbed onto new baseballs.
By Joel Bewley
Inquirer Staff Writer
Jim Bintliff has pretended to be a scientist, a college professor and a government geologist - all for the sake of baseball.
"I don't like to lie to people," the Delran, Burlington County, resident said recently as he shoveled runny, brown muck from a creek into five-gallon buckets. "But if they see me out here, I have to make up something. I can't have people knowing this is where I get the mud."
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/12109777.htm
Risky paths for getting out of Iraq
Whether quick, timed, or with extra might, leaving, analysts say, will be hard.
By Ron Hutcheson
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - In the swirling debate over Iraq, all sides agree on one thing: There is no easy way out.
Every approach to ending U.S. involvement carries the risk that President Bush's ambitious effort to transplant democracy will end in chaos and create an oil-rich haven for extremists.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109773.htm
State sues Pentagon to save Willow Grove
By Marc Schogol
Inquirer Staff Writer
In a novel attempt to keep Willow Grove air base open, Pennsylvania sued the Pentagon yesterday to prevent it from deactivating an Air National Guard unit at the base, claiming it's illegal without state consent.
The Pentagon in May recommended closing Willow Grove Naval Air Station and Joint Reserve Base and reassigning nine of the 15 planes attached to the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard to Maryland, Idaho and Michigan. The remaining six would be taken out of service.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109776.htm
Editorial G-8 now must act
The two main agenda items at the Group of Eight industrialized nations' summit were obscured by terrorists who aimed their bombs at London commuters. Decent citizens of the world - and that's the majority - still shed tears for the hundreds of injured, for the families of the dead, and for the missing.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush and other G-8 leaders showed strong leadership by carrying on with their important discussions on helping Africa out of poverty and combatting global climate change.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109805.htm
All eyes on Rove in leak probe
He says he never said the CIA officer's name. Some say fire him. The White House has gone quiet.
By Steven Thomma
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The White House refused yesterday to repeat earlier assertions that any administration official who leaked classified information would be fired, days after Karl Rove, one of President Bush's top aides, was identified as the source of a news leak that exposed a CIA undercover officer in 2003.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109775.htm
Haaretz
At least two killed in suicide bombing in Netanya
By Roni Singer, Haartetz Correspondent, Haaretz Service, and Agencies
At least two women were killed and 24 others were wounded Tuesday evening when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Hasharon mall at the entrance to the coastal town of Netanya.
Six people were seriously wounded in the attack, and 18 others sustained light injuries. The wounded were taken to Laniado Hospital in Netanya, Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava and Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera.
Miriam Feinberg, the mayor of Netanya, where much of the Maccabiah Games is taking place, told Israel Radio that she witnessed the attack. Click here to request or provide information on family and friends in Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599195.html
Police, Gaza settlers clash over arrest of far-rightist
By Nir Hasson and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondents
Settlers and police clashed in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, following the arrest of a Jewish extremist at the settlement of Shirat Hayam in the Gush Katif bloc.
Noam Livnat, the brother of Education Minister Limor Livnat, has been staying at the settlement in recent weeks. He was detained for violating a restraining order keeping him away from Gaza.
Ahead of the arrest, police closed off the road leading to the settlement, in order to prevent right-wing activists hindering Livnat?s arrest. Settlers who were at the scene crowded around the vehicle in which Livnat was sitting, in a bid to prevent his arrest.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599174.html
PM: No opposition to MK approval for Egypt's Gaza deployment
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday that he has no opposition to seeking Knesset approval for the deployment of Egyptian troops along the Philadelphi Route, which runs the length of the Gaza Strip border, once Israel has withdrawn from Gaza this summer.
In the wake of a High Court of Justice petition demanding a Knesset debate on the issue, Sharon said Knesset agreement on the matter is important to him.
Nevertheless, Sharon did not specifically say he would bring the matter before the Knesset plenum for a vote.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599171.html
ADL Survey: Americans stand firm behind Israel
By Haaretz Service
Americans continue to stand solidly behind Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and overwhelmingly support Israel's disengagement from Gaza as "a bold step for peace," according to an Anti-Defamation League survey of American attitudes toward Israel and the Middle East released Tuesday.
According to the survey, 71 percent of those polled expressed support for the disengagement plan; 52 percent believe Israel is working harder towards peace than the Palestinians and 43 percent said they sympathize with Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599204.html
The Miami Herald
Dennis not as dangerous as past Panhandle storms
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD, PHIL LONG AND MARTIN MERZER
mmerzer@herald.com
PENSACOLA - Shingles flew through the air. Sea invaded land. Power lines didn't stand a chance. It seemed so familiar, except for this: Hurricane Dennis may not have been costly in lives and damage, at least by Florida's recent standards.
''We need to say a little prayer tonight,'' said Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby, ``because the good Lord took care of us.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12102938.htm
2 deaths apparently storm-related
Two mysterious deaths in Broward County appeared to be related to Hurricane Dennis.
By ROBERT L. STEINBACK AND KEVIN DEUTSCH
rsteinback@herald.com
Hurricane Dennis appears to have caused at least two deaths in South Florida -- a drowned swimmer and a man electrocuted by a downed streetlight line -- though the eye of the powerful storm missed a direct hit on Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12102969.htm
DNA can't tie Lionel Tate to robbery
By WANDA J. DEMARZO
mailto:wdemarzo@herald.comcom
Tests on DNA samples from the armed robbery of a pizza delivery man outside a Pembroke Park apartment complex do not positively identify Lionel Tate as the masked man.
In fact, the tests results say the DNA found on a mask used by the bandit in the May 23 robbery could belong to five other men.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12106623.htm
Body of U.S. commando found in Afghanistan
DANIEL COONEY
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - The body of a missing U.S. commando has been located in eastern Afghanistan, the military said Monday, bringing an end to the desperate search for the last member of an ill-fated, four-man special forces unit that disappeared last month.
One of the four men was rescued July 3; the other two were found dead the next day.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12103828.htm
Cycling continues to be unmonitored
OUR OPINION: UCI SHOULD AGGRESSIVELY TEST TO CURB DOPING
Since January 2003, the cycling world has lost nine competitors, all under the age of 35, to unexplained heart failures. What should have been treated as nothing short of an epidemic was instead cautiously swept out of the spotlight by the International Cycling Union. The secrecy surrounding these cases has highlighted suspicions about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in cycling. With attention now focused on the Tour de France, it's time for the UCI to get serious about curbing this harmful practice.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12105194.htm
For storm weary, another big test
Residents of the Panhandle are thankful Hurricane Dennis wasn't so bad - but wonder how much more they can take
BY MARC CAPUTO, PHIL LONG AND ERIKA BOLSTAD
mcaputo@herald.com
BAGDAD - Robert Daw navigated his electric wheelchair through the fallen oak tree branches and roof debris outside his beat-up house and stopped at the corner when the man in the car hit the brakes to offer bags of ice.
''Taco Bell ice, free. God bless,'' said neighbor Thomas Fisbeck, a cleaning captain at the chain restaurant on U.S. Highway 90. ``We gotta look out for each other, because not a lot of people from the outside do.''
The little acts of generosity -- the bags of ice, a loaned chain saw or electrical cord from a generator -- are a necessity in the storm-wracked and little-known Panhandle towns such as this one, where many like Daw and his family found it tough to make ends meet long before cleaning up the mess Monday from Hurricane Dennis. It was the second blow in a crippling one-two punch after Hurricane Ivan struck 10 months ago.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12110116.htm
White House won't comment on Rove leak
PETE YOST
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The White House is suddenly facing damaging evidence that it misled the public by insisting for two years that presidential adviser Karl Rove wasn't involved in leaking the identity of a female CIA officer.
Rove told Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper that the woman "apparently works" for the CIA and that she had authorized her husband's trip to Africa to assess allegations that Iraq was trying to obtain yellowcake uranium for nuclear weapons, according to a July 11, 2003, e-mail by Cooper obtained by Newsweek magazine.
The e-mail is now in the hands of federal prosecutors who are hunting down the leakers inside the Bush administration who revealed the name of Valerie Plame to the news media.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12109044.htm
Space rescue plan ready -- if needed
No one wants it, but high adventure could result if a mishap strands shuttle astronauts in space.
BY MARTIN MERZER AND PHIL LONG
mmerzer@herald.com
CAPE CANAVERAL - They call the project ''Safe Haven'' and it seems like something out of a science fiction blockbuster.
If this week's blastoff of shuttle Discovery encounters a major malfunction, NASA could activate a desperate, two-stage, never-before-attempted operation to rescue astronauts marooned in space:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12109178.htm
Straight to the point
• TOO ROSY A VIEW
Where in the world does U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld get his information about the Caribbean and Latin America? This is what he wrote in an opinion column last week: As the United States continues to fight violent extremism elsewhere, ``we have been able to do so confident that our own hemisphere is a zone of peace and freedom.''
Peace and freedom? Is he unaware of Fidel Castro's totalitarian Cuba or its wannabe authoritarian neighbor, Venezuela under Hugo Chávez? Surely Mr. Rumsfeld knows about violence-wracked Haiti and Bolivia? Does he deliberately ignore the politics of democratic destruction in Nicaragua and Ecuador? Unfortunately, Mr. Rumsfeld serves an administration that has paid little attention to Latin America and the Caribbean even as anti-U.S. populism threatens peace and freedom.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12111526.htm
The Gulf News
Foreign forces can start handover in Iraq
Agencies
Baghdad:
The Iraqi Prime Minister has said that coalition forces could begin handing over security to the Iraqis in some parts of the country.
However he said he did not think there should be a set timetable for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he opposed such a timetable "when we are not ready" to assume responsibility for defending the country against the insurgents.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/NationNF.asp?ArticleID=172761
Seven Egyptians held in anti-terror raid
AP
Baghdad: Iraqi security forces have detained seven Egyptians as part of a counterinsurgency operation in the Baghdad area, the government said yesterday.
They also captured members of a terrorist cell linked to Jordanian militant Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, according to a statement from Iraq's council of ministers.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=172655
American filmmaker arrested in Iraq released
Agencies
Baghdad: An American filmmaker who was arrested by the US military and held in Iraq for two months without being charged has been released.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=172587
Thaw in frosty Syria-Palestine ties
By Sami Moubayed, Special to Gulf News
Palestine President Mahmud Abbas's visit to Damascus on July 6-8 carried messages of goodwill towards Syria. Its main objective, however, was to appease the Palestinian resistance based in Damascus.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=172601
Britain handles crisis with dignity
Shows high level of political maturity by not linking blasts to Muslims and Islam
The way the British political and security forces have dealt with the bomb blasts that tore through three underground trains and a bus in London on Thursday is admirable.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=172604
Bill can undermine Pakistan's image
The enactment of Hisba Bill in NWFP could run counter to the country’s constitution
Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province plans to introduce a bill to set up a moral police force with powers that rival the existing police and judiciary.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=172606
Non-oil trade jumps 41%
Staff Report
Dubai: Dubai's non-oil trade jumped by 41 per cent last year, reaching Dh215.72 billion compared to the previous year's Dh153.06 billion, according to Dubai Customs.
This is about 220 per cent more than the emirate's GDP which last year reached Dh97.98 billion.
In 2004, Dubai recorded trade with 210 countries almost all independent countries on earth.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/BusinessNF.asp?ArticleID=172684
continued . . .
Rooster "Cock - A - Doodle - When - Do"
"Oak - He - Doe - $he"
History …
July 12 …
100 B.C., Roman dictator Julius Caesar was born.
1817, Henry David Thoreau, writer and naturalist
1854, George Eastman (1854-1932), who developed film processing techniques and started the Eastman Kodak Company.
1864, George Washington Carver, scientist and educator
1895, Buckminster Fuller, engineer and inventor
1904, Pablo Neruda, pseudonym of Neftali Ricardo Reyes y Basoalto, Chilean poet, whose verse helped shape 20th-century Latin American literary and political consciousness. He won the 1971 Nobel Prize for literature.
1937, Bill Cosby, comedian and actor
1908, Milton Berle, comedian
1971, Kristi Yamaguchi, figure skater
1543, England's King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr.
1690, Protestant forces led by William of Orange defeated the Roman Catholic army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland.
1817, naturalist-author Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Mass.
1862, Congress authorized the Medal of Honor.
1906, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus, found guilty of treason in a case that divided French society at the turn of the century, is cleared of the charges. Soon after, he is awarded the Legion of Honor.
1972, George McGovern won the Democratic presidential nomination at the party's convention in Miami Beach, Fla.
1974, Former Nixon White House adviser John D. Ehrlichman is convicted of a charge connected with his supervision of the "plumbers," a covert group aimed at stopping press leaks.
1984, Geraldine Ferraro becomes the first woman on a major-party presidential ticket in the U.S. when Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale chooses the New York congresswoman to be his running mate.
1985, doctors discovered what turned out to be a cancerous growth in President Reagan's large intestine, prompting surgery the following day.
1990, Boris Yeltsin, chairman of the Russian congress of deputies, announces to a meeting of the Soviet Communist Party that he is resigning from the party.
1993, 196 people were killed when an earthquake measuring a magnitude of 7.8 struck northern Japan.
1998, Led by two goals by midfielder Zinedine Zidane, host country France wins the soccer World Cup 3-0 over Brazil, the defending champion.
Missing in Action
1967 ALMENDARIZ SAMUEL MC ALLEN TX
1967 DOVE JACK PARIS SR. BLUEFIELD VA REMAINS RETURNED/IDENTIFIED 07/25/95
1967 FRANK MARTIN S. 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1967 HENRY NATHAN B. FRANKLIN NC 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG INJURED ALIVE IN 98
1967 MC MURRAY CORDINE DETROIT MI 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 00
1967 NEWELL STANLEY A. PEKIN IL 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE & WELL 12/95-98
1967 PERRICONE RICHARD R. UNIONDALE NY 03/05/73 RELEASED BY PRG ALIVE IN 98
1967 SCHIELE JAMES F. GRANGER UT
1967 SQUIRE BOYD EDWIN SACRAMENTO CA REMAINS RETURNED/IDENTIFIED 07/25/95
1967 SULLIVAN ROBERT J. EAST ALSTEAD NH
1967 VAN BENDEGOM JAMES L. KENOSHA WI WOUNDED DIED SEVERAL DAYS AFTER CAPTURE
1969 BANNON PAUL W. HUEYTOWN AL
1969 PIKE PETER X. NEW YORK NY
1972 SHIMKIN ALEX
1972 HUARD JAMES L. DEARBORN MI REMAINS IDENTIFIED THROUGH DNA 01/27/97
1972 O'DONNELL SAMUEL JR. DEARBORN MI
July 11 …
1979, Skylab tumbles back to Earth
The US space laboratory, Skylab I, plunged to Earth this evening scattering debris across the southern Indian Ocean and sparsely populated Western Australia.
All week there has been mounting speculation over where the spacecraft would come down. It has been in orbit six years - for the past five of those it has been unoccupied.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_3867000/3867739.stm
1995, Serbs overrun UN 'safe haven'
The Bosnian Serb army has seized control of the United Nations "safe area" of Srebrenica after Dutch peacekeepers were forced to withdraw.
Some 1,500 Serb troops overran the lightly-armed Dutch troops, despite two Nato air strikes on Serbian tanks inside the enclave.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_4080000/4080690.stm
2000, Britain pioneers HIV vaccine
The World Aids Conference in South Africa has announced trials for a new HIV vaccine will begin in Britain.
Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris will be one of 18 healthy volunteers who will take part in the first toxicity tests.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/11/newsid_2499000/2499925.stm
Missing in Action
1966 SHATTUCK LEWIS W. VAN COUVER WA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1966 WILKINS GEORGE H. GOLDSBORO NC REMAINS RETURNED 10/30/96
1972 CRODY KENNETH L. GRIFFITH IN
1972 HENDRIX JERRY W. WICHITA KS
1972 LESESNE HENRY D. FLORENCE SC 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 MASTERSON FREDERICK J. OAKLAND CA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 RANDALL ROBERT I. NEPTUNE NJ 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
Michael Moore Today
Play the news conference and film loop to understand the content alone but it gets real interesting when you play both the McClellan news conference at the same time as the film loop.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/scotty_rove_71105.mov
http://www.ericblumrich.com/right.html
"...if anyone in this administration was responsible for the leaking of classified information, they would no longer work in this administration." (VIDEO)
--Scott McClellan, October 6, 2003
Q Is there any plans for the administration to follow up and talk to Syrian officials or even the leadership about what has occurred?
MR. McCLELLAN: Again, we continue to make our views known. And they know that we take these issues very seriously, and they know what they need to do.
Q Scott, the President just expressed his desire to get to the bottom of this CIA leak issue. And he said he wanted to hold accountable whoever was responsible --
MR. McCLELLAN: Absolutely.
Q -- responsible for this. But can you confirm that the President would fire anyone on his staff found to have leaked classified information?
MR. McCLELLAN: I think I made that very clear last week. The topic came up, and I said that if anyone in this administration was responsible for the leaking of classified information, they would no longer work in this administration. This is a very serious matter. The President made it very clear just a short time ago in the East Room, and he has always said that leaking of classified information is a serious matter. And that's why he wants to get to the bottom of this. And the sooner we get to the bottom of it, the better.
Q Scott, can I ask you a separate question?
MR. McCLELLAN: You may ask me a separate question.
Q On Kibaki. Did he specifically ask the President for help in resuming IMF loans, and what was the President's response?
Loose Lips
Matt Cooper's Source
What Karl Rove told Time magazine's reporter
By Michael Isikoff / Newsweek
July 18 issue - It was 11:07 on a Friday morning, July 11, 2003, and Time magazine correspondent Matt Cooper was tapping out an e-mail to his bureau chief, Michael Duffy. "Subject: Rove/P&C," (for personal and confidential), Cooper began. "Spoke to Rove on double super secret background for about two mins before he went on vacation..." Cooper proceeded to spell out some guidance on a story that was beginning to roil Washington. He finished, "please don't source this to rove or even WH [White House]" and suggested another reporter check with the CIA.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3275
Sink Ships
Democrats urge Bush to fire Rove in leak scandal
By Adam Entous / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The White House faced mounting Democratic calls for President Bush to sideline or fire his top political aide Karl Rove on Monday over his involvement in a CIA leak scandal.
After publicly defending Rove two years ago, the White House responded to the barrage by saying it would not comment at the request of the prosecutors investigating who leaked the identify of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3290
Press Corps Finally Grills Scott McClellan on Rove
Press Batters McClellan on Rove/Plame Link
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK - At numerous press briefings last week, not a single reporter asked White House Press Secretary about emerging allegations that top presidential aide Karl Rove was a source, or the source, for Time magazine's Matthew Cooper in the Valerie Plame case. Then on Sunday, Newsweek revealed a Cooper e-mail from July 2003 that showed that Rove indeed had talked to him about Plame and her CIA employment, although he apparently did not mention that she worked under cover.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3285
(VIDEO!:
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/scotty_rove_71105.mov
Box Score)
Scott McClellan Needs A Thesaurus
Finally! The White House press corps at long last woke up today and started asking questions about Karl Rove. They wanted to know if White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan stood by his previous statement that anyone involved in leaking undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity to the media should be fired. But when the going tough, McClellan fell back on his handy list of Phrases To Use To Dodge Questions. Here’s Scott McClellan, by the numbers:
23: Number of times McClellan could’t answer a question because the Rove investigation is “ongoing.”
10: Number of times McClellan couldn’t answer a question because it was “related” to the investigation or in the “context” of the investigation.
16: Number of times McClellan said he just wouldn’t “comment” on a question.
5: Number of times McClellan assured reporters he “appreciates the questions” about Rove’s involvement in the Plame case.
8: Number of times McClellan told reporters he and the president were “helping” the investigation with their silence.
8: Number of times McClellan said he and President Bush want to “get to the bottom of this.”
3: Number of times McClellan said he and the president planned to “cooperate fully” with the investigation by not answering questions.
10: Number of times McClellan claimed he’d already “responded” to a reporter’s question.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/11/scott-mcclellan-needs-a-thesaurus/
Scotty Says So Much by Saying Nothing At All
White House Won't Comment on Rove, Leak
By Pete Yost / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - For the better part of two years, the word coming out of the Bush White House was that presidential adviser Karl Rove had nothing to do with the leak of a female CIA officer's identity and that whoever did would be fired.
But Bush spokesman Scott McClellan wouldn't repeat those claims Monday in the face of Rove's own lawyer, Robert Luskin, acknowledging the political operative spoke to Matthew Cooper of Time magazine, one of the reporters who disclosed Valerie Plame's name.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3288
Prisoners escape US Afghan base
BBC
Four "dangerous enemy combatants" have escaped from the main US base in Afghanistan, the US military has said. A huge manhunt was launched around the Bagram air base north of the capital Kabul, after the men, said to be Arabs, escaped at about 0500 (0030 GMT).
The US says it is the first time any prisoner has escaped from Bagram.
Hundreds of detainees, most of them Afghan nationals but a number of senior foreign al-Qaeda suspects, are held at the detention centre.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3279
Iraq Shiites in campaign for foreign troop pullout
BAGHDAD (AFP) - Radicals within Iraq's Shiite majority community launched a petition for the withdrawal of US-led troops, which they said was drawing support from across the sectarian divide.
Supporters of firebrand cleric Moqtada Sadr, who led a bloody six-month uprising against the coalition last year, said they were aiming to secure one million signatures inside four days.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3287
Nat'l Guard Misses Recruiting Goal Again
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Army National Guard, a cornerstone of the U.S. force in Iraq, missed its recruiting goal for at least the ninth straight month in June and is nearly 19,000 soldiers below its authorized strength, military officials said Monday.
The Army Guard was seeking 5,032 new soldiers in June but signed up only 4,337, a 14 percent shortfall, according to statistics released Monday by the Pentagon. It is more than 10,000 soldiers behind its year-to-date goal of almost 45,000 recruits, and has missed its recruiting target during at least 17 of the last 18 months.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3289
President Discusses War on Terror at FBI Academy
WhiteHouse.gov
FBI Academy
Quantico, Virginia
10:37 A.M. EDT
THE PRESIDENT: Thanks for the warm welcome. It's my pleasure to be back here at Quantico, at the FBI Academy. I'm honored to be with so many courageous men and women who have stepped forward to protect our nation.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3284
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Pennsylvania ruling favors Santorum
By Carrie Budoff
Inquirer Staff Writer
A Pittsburgh-area school district lost its bid yesterday to recover tuition it paid to a Pennsylvania cyber school to educate U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum's children, who live primarily in Virginia.
In a case that evolved into a political controversy for the two-term senator, a state hearing officer recommended that the state education secretary dismiss the Penn Hills School District's request for a refund - estimated to be from $34,000 to $67,000 - because it took too long to raise its objections.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109774.htm
Major-league mud
A Delran man digs up the muck to be rubbed onto new baseballs.
By Joel Bewley
Inquirer Staff Writer
Jim Bintliff has pretended to be a scientist, a college professor and a government geologist - all for the sake of baseball.
"I don't like to lie to people," the Delran, Burlington County, resident said recently as he shoveled runny, brown muck from a creek into five-gallon buckets. "But if they see me out here, I have to make up something. I can't have people knowing this is where I get the mud."
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/12109777.htm
Risky paths for getting out of Iraq
Whether quick, timed, or with extra might, leaving, analysts say, will be hard.
By Ron Hutcheson
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - In the swirling debate over Iraq, all sides agree on one thing: There is no easy way out.
Every approach to ending U.S. involvement carries the risk that President Bush's ambitious effort to transplant democracy will end in chaos and create an oil-rich haven for extremists.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109773.htm
State sues Pentagon to save Willow Grove
By Marc Schogol
Inquirer Staff Writer
In a novel attempt to keep Willow Grove air base open, Pennsylvania sued the Pentagon yesterday to prevent it from deactivating an Air National Guard unit at the base, claiming it's illegal without state consent.
The Pentagon in May recommended closing Willow Grove Naval Air Station and Joint Reserve Base and reassigning nine of the 15 planes attached to the 111th Fighter Wing of the Pennsylvania Air National Guard to Maryland, Idaho and Michigan. The remaining six would be taken out of service.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109776.htm
Editorial G-8 now must act
The two main agenda items at the Group of Eight industrialized nations' summit were obscured by terrorists who aimed their bombs at London commuters. Decent citizens of the world - and that's the majority - still shed tears for the hundreds of injured, for the families of the dead, and for the missing.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush and other G-8 leaders showed strong leadership by carrying on with their important discussions on helping Africa out of poverty and combatting global climate change.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109805.htm
All eyes on Rove in leak probe
He says he never said the CIA officer's name. Some say fire him. The White House has gone quiet.
By Steven Thomma
Inquirer Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - The White House refused yesterday to repeat earlier assertions that any administration official who leaked classified information would be fired, days after Karl Rove, one of President Bush's top aides, was identified as the source of a news leak that exposed a CIA undercover officer in 2003.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12109775.htm
Haaretz
At least two killed in suicide bombing in Netanya
By Roni Singer, Haartetz Correspondent, Haaretz Service, and Agencies
At least two women were killed and 24 others were wounded Tuesday evening when a suicide bomber blew himself up at the Hasharon mall at the entrance to the coastal town of Netanya.
Six people were seriously wounded in the attack, and 18 others sustained light injuries. The wounded were taken to Laniado Hospital in Netanya, Meir Hospital in Kfar Sava and Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera.
Miriam Feinberg, the mayor of Netanya, where much of the Maccabiah Games is taking place, told Israel Radio that she witnessed the attack. Click here to request or provide information on family and friends in Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599195.html
Police, Gaza settlers clash over arrest of far-rightist
By Nir Hasson and Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondents
Settlers and police clashed in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, following the arrest of a Jewish extremist at the settlement of Shirat Hayam in the Gush Katif bloc.
Noam Livnat, the brother of Education Minister Limor Livnat, has been staying at the settlement in recent weeks. He was detained for violating a restraining order keeping him away from Gaza.
Ahead of the arrest, police closed off the road leading to the settlement, in order to prevent right-wing activists hindering Livnat?s arrest. Settlers who were at the scene crowded around the vehicle in which Livnat was sitting, in a bid to prevent his arrest.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599174.html
PM: No opposition to MK approval for Egypt's Gaza deployment
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday that he has no opposition to seeking Knesset approval for the deployment of Egyptian troops along the Philadelphi Route, which runs the length of the Gaza Strip border, once Israel has withdrawn from Gaza this summer.
In the wake of a High Court of Justice petition demanding a Knesset debate on the issue, Sharon said Knesset agreement on the matter is important to him.
Nevertheless, Sharon did not specifically say he would bring the matter before the Knesset plenum for a vote.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599171.html
ADL Survey: Americans stand firm behind Israel
By Haaretz Service
Americans continue to stand solidly behind Israel in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and overwhelmingly support Israel's disengagement from Gaza as "a bold step for peace," according to an Anti-Defamation League survey of American attitudes toward Israel and the Middle East released Tuesday.
According to the survey, 71 percent of those polled expressed support for the disengagement plan; 52 percent believe Israel is working harder towards peace than the Palestinians and 43 percent said they sympathize with Israel.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/599204.html
The Miami Herald
Dennis not as dangerous as past Panhandle storms
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD, PHIL LONG AND MARTIN MERZER
mmerzer@herald.com
PENSACOLA - Shingles flew through the air. Sea invaded land. Power lines didn't stand a chance. It seemed so familiar, except for this: Hurricane Dennis may not have been costly in lives and damage, at least by Florida's recent standards.
''We need to say a little prayer tonight,'' said Escambia County Sheriff Ron McNesby, ``because the good Lord took care of us.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12102938.htm
2 deaths apparently storm-related
Two mysterious deaths in Broward County appeared to be related to Hurricane Dennis.
By ROBERT L. STEINBACK AND KEVIN DEUTSCH
rsteinback@herald.com
Hurricane Dennis appears to have caused at least two deaths in South Florida -- a drowned swimmer and a man electrocuted by a downed streetlight line -- though the eye of the powerful storm missed a direct hit on Miami-Dade, Broward and Monroe counties.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12102969.htm
DNA can't tie Lionel Tate to robbery
By WANDA J. DEMARZO
mailto:wdemarzo@herald.comcom
Tests on DNA samples from the armed robbery of a pizza delivery man outside a Pembroke Park apartment complex do not positively identify Lionel Tate as the masked man.
In fact, the tests results say the DNA found on a mask used by the bandit in the May 23 robbery could belong to five other men.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12106623.htm
Body of U.S. commando found in Afghanistan
DANIEL COONEY
Associated Press
KABUL, Afghanistan - The body of a missing U.S. commando has been located in eastern Afghanistan, the military said Monday, bringing an end to the desperate search for the last member of an ill-fated, four-man special forces unit that disappeared last month.
One of the four men was rescued July 3; the other two were found dead the next day.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12103828.htm
Cycling continues to be unmonitored
OUR OPINION: UCI SHOULD AGGRESSIVELY TEST TO CURB DOPING
Since January 2003, the cycling world has lost nine competitors, all under the age of 35, to unexplained heart failures. What should have been treated as nothing short of an epidemic was instead cautiously swept out of the spotlight by the International Cycling Union. The secrecy surrounding these cases has highlighted suspicions about the use of performance-enhancing drugs in cycling. With attention now focused on the Tour de France, it's time for the UCI to get serious about curbing this harmful practice.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12105194.htm
For storm weary, another big test
Residents of the Panhandle are thankful Hurricane Dennis wasn't so bad - but wonder how much more they can take
BY MARC CAPUTO, PHIL LONG AND ERIKA BOLSTAD
mcaputo@herald.com
BAGDAD - Robert Daw navigated his electric wheelchair through the fallen oak tree branches and roof debris outside his beat-up house and stopped at the corner when the man in the car hit the brakes to offer bags of ice.
''Taco Bell ice, free. God bless,'' said neighbor Thomas Fisbeck, a cleaning captain at the chain restaurant on U.S. Highway 90. ``We gotta look out for each other, because not a lot of people from the outside do.''
The little acts of generosity -- the bags of ice, a loaned chain saw or electrical cord from a generator -- are a necessity in the storm-wracked and little-known Panhandle towns such as this one, where many like Daw and his family found it tough to make ends meet long before cleaning up the mess Monday from Hurricane Dennis. It was the second blow in a crippling one-two punch after Hurricane Ivan struck 10 months ago.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12110116.htm
White House won't comment on Rove leak
PETE YOST
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The White House is suddenly facing damaging evidence that it misled the public by insisting for two years that presidential adviser Karl Rove wasn't involved in leaking the identity of a female CIA officer.
Rove told Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper that the woman "apparently works" for the CIA and that she had authorized her husband's trip to Africa to assess allegations that Iraq was trying to obtain yellowcake uranium for nuclear weapons, according to a July 11, 2003, e-mail by Cooper obtained by Newsweek magazine.
The e-mail is now in the hands of federal prosecutors who are hunting down the leakers inside the Bush administration who revealed the name of Valerie Plame to the news media.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12109044.htm
Space rescue plan ready -- if needed
No one wants it, but high adventure could result if a mishap strands shuttle astronauts in space.
BY MARTIN MERZER AND PHIL LONG
mmerzer@herald.com
CAPE CANAVERAL - They call the project ''Safe Haven'' and it seems like something out of a science fiction blockbuster.
If this week's blastoff of shuttle Discovery encounters a major malfunction, NASA could activate a desperate, two-stage, never-before-attempted operation to rescue astronauts marooned in space:
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12109178.htm
Straight to the point
• TOO ROSY A VIEW
Where in the world does U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld get his information about the Caribbean and Latin America? This is what he wrote in an opinion column last week: As the United States continues to fight violent extremism elsewhere, ``we have been able to do so confident that our own hemisphere is a zone of peace and freedom.''
Peace and freedom? Is he unaware of Fidel Castro's totalitarian Cuba or its wannabe authoritarian neighbor, Venezuela under Hugo Chávez? Surely Mr. Rumsfeld knows about violence-wracked Haiti and Bolivia? Does he deliberately ignore the politics of democratic destruction in Nicaragua and Ecuador? Unfortunately, Mr. Rumsfeld serves an administration that has paid little attention to Latin America and the Caribbean even as anti-U.S. populism threatens peace and freedom.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12111526.htm
The Gulf News
Foreign forces can start handover in Iraq
Agencies
Baghdad:
The Iraqi Prime Minister has said that coalition forces could begin handing over security to the Iraqis in some parts of the country.
However he said he did not think there should be a set timetable for the complete withdrawal of foreign troops from the country.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari said he opposed such a timetable "when we are not ready" to assume responsibility for defending the country against the insurgents.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/NationNF.asp?ArticleID=172761
Seven Egyptians held in anti-terror raid
AP
Baghdad: Iraqi security forces have detained seven Egyptians as part of a counterinsurgency operation in the Baghdad area, the government said yesterday.
They also captured members of a terrorist cell linked to Jordanian militant Abu Musab Al Zarqawi, according to a statement from Iraq's council of ministers.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=172655
American filmmaker arrested in Iraq released
Agencies
Baghdad: An American filmmaker who was arrested by the US military and held in Iraq for two months without being charged has been released.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=172587
Thaw in frosty Syria-Palestine ties
By Sami Moubayed, Special to Gulf News
Palestine President Mahmud Abbas's visit to Damascus on July 6-8 carried messages of goodwill towards Syria. Its main objective, however, was to appease the Palestinian resistance based in Damascus.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=172601
Britain handles crisis with dignity
Shows high level of political maturity by not linking blasts to Muslims and Islam
The way the British political and security forces have dealt with the bomb blasts that tore through three underground trains and a bus in London on Thursday is admirable.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=172604
Bill can undermine Pakistan's image
The enactment of Hisba Bill in NWFP could run counter to the country’s constitution
Pakistan's North-West Frontier Province plans to introduce a bill to set up a moral police force with powers that rival the existing police and judiciary.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/OpinionNF.asp?ArticleID=172606
Non-oil trade jumps 41%
Staff Report
Dubai: Dubai's non-oil trade jumped by 41 per cent last year, reaching Dh215.72 billion compared to the previous year's Dh153.06 billion, according to Dubai Customs.
This is about 220 per cent more than the emirate's GDP which last year reached Dh97.98 billion.
In 2004, Dubai recorded trade with 210 countries almost all independent countries on earth.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/BusinessNF.asp?ArticleID=172684
continued . . .
The Queen Is Back. Now How About Her Kingdom?
By THOMAS J. LUECK
It may have been the swimsuit competition, in which she performed a catchy little dance for the judges. It may have been her response during the on-stage interview - intended to reflect poise - in which she was asked, "Will it be difficult to face your family and friends if you lose?"
"You are never a loser," responded Jessica Morales, 19, of the Bronx, who was ultimately crowned yesterday as the first "Queen of Coney Island" in 50 years. "There is always time," she added with wide grin. "There is always a way to win."
So it was that attitude, as much as beauty, that carried the day in a modest little pageant just down Stillwell Avenue from the Nathan's Famous restaurant, beneath the long shadow of the abandoned - but freshly painted - Parachute Jump, and at the heart of the Coney Island amusement park.
"This is quintessentially New York," said Frank R. Seddio, a state assemblyman from Canarsie, one of the pageant's seven judges. The event was organized by the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce to resurrect a tradition of beauty contests that were once frequent attractions at the amusement park and along the Coney Island Boardwalk, but that faded into history in the 1950's.
"Atlantic City has the Miss America pageant, so why can't we have a little one here?" Mr. Seddio said.
Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president and another of the judges, said the pageant was one of several events, including a plan to illuminate the Parachute Jump, intended to lend momentum to a resurgence of Coney Island as an attraction for people from throughout the city and the rest of the world.
"We are going to keep the funkiness of Coney Island that we all love, but bring it into the 21st century," he said. To succeed, Mr. Markowitz said, a beauty pageant should reflect a certain Brooklyn panache.
"Nowhere in America has more character or characters," he said.
Still, by any measure it was a modest beginning. Pageant organizers had announced that 20 young women, ages 18 to 24, would compete for $4,000 in prize money, with the winner receiving $2,500.
Of the eight who showed up, only seven brought the required wardrobe, including a summer evening gown and bathing suit. (The eighth had to be turned back because she brought only a bikini.)
And there were delays, as a restive audience of fewer than 100 people - some of them seeming eager to get to the beach - waited for Mr. Markowitz to arrive, and then as the contestants themselves slowed the pace with lengthy interludes while they changed in a tent next to the stage.
To keep the pace moving, a band called the Screaming Orphans, which had been hired to perform before the contest began, returned to the stage repeatedly.
Miss Morales, who donned a full-length gown of yellow satin for the evening wear competition, curtsied when her name was called out as the winner. The new Queen of Coney Island, a 2004 graduate of the Computer Career Center in Brooklyn, said that she planned to use her prize money to pay off student loans.
"I am ecstatic," she said. "I've never won anything before."
It may have been the swimsuit competition, in which she performed a catchy little dance for the judges. It may have been her response during the on-stage interview - intended to reflect poise - in which she was asked, "Will it be difficult to face your family and friends if you lose?"
"You are never a loser," responded Jessica Morales, 19, of the Bronx, who was ultimately crowned yesterday as the first "Queen of Coney Island" in 50 years. "There is always time," she added with wide grin. "There is always a way to win."
So it was that attitude, as much as beauty, that carried the day in a modest little pageant just down Stillwell Avenue from the Nathan's Famous restaurant, beneath the long shadow of the abandoned - but freshly painted - Parachute Jump, and at the heart of the Coney Island amusement park.
"This is quintessentially New York," said Frank R. Seddio, a state assemblyman from Canarsie, one of the pageant's seven judges. The event was organized by the Coney Island Chamber of Commerce to resurrect a tradition of beauty contests that were once frequent attractions at the amusement park and along the Coney Island Boardwalk, but that faded into history in the 1950's.
"Atlantic City has the Miss America pageant, so why can't we have a little one here?" Mr. Seddio said.
Marty Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president and another of the judges, said the pageant was one of several events, including a plan to illuminate the Parachute Jump, intended to lend momentum to a resurgence of Coney Island as an attraction for people from throughout the city and the rest of the world.
"We are going to keep the funkiness of Coney Island that we all love, but bring it into the 21st century," he said. To succeed, Mr. Markowitz said, a beauty pageant should reflect a certain Brooklyn panache.
"Nowhere in America has more character or characters," he said.
Still, by any measure it was a modest beginning. Pageant organizers had announced that 20 young women, ages 18 to 24, would compete for $4,000 in prize money, with the winner receiving $2,500.
Of the eight who showed up, only seven brought the required wardrobe, including a summer evening gown and bathing suit. (The eighth had to be turned back because she brought only a bikini.)
And there were delays, as a restive audience of fewer than 100 people - some of them seeming eager to get to the beach - waited for Mr. Markowitz to arrive, and then as the contestants themselves slowed the pace with lengthy interludes while they changed in a tent next to the stage.
To keep the pace moving, a band called the Screaming Orphans, which had been hired to perform before the contest began, returned to the stage repeatedly.
Miss Morales, who donned a full-length gown of yellow satin for the evening wear competition, curtsied when her name was called out as the winner. The new Queen of Coney Island, a 2004 graduate of the Computer Career Center in Brooklyn, said that she planned to use her prize money to pay off student loans.
"I am ecstatic," she said. "I've never won anything before."
There are some very bad boys escaping from Bagram Air Base. What's going on in Afghanistan/? Caption :: ESCAPEES: A photograph of a leaflet shows four Al Qaeda militants who escaped from a detention center at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, on July 11. Afghan officials identified the men as Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, Kuwaiti Mahmoud Ahmed Mohammad, Saudi Mahmoud Al Fathani and Libyan Mohammed Hassan, but did not say who was whom.
Morning Papers - continued . . .
The New York Times
Military-Quality Explosives Suspected in London Blasts
By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and ELAINE SCIOLINO
LONDON, July 11 - British investigators believe that the 10-pound bombs used in the coordinated terrorist attacks here contained "military quality" high-grade explosives, British and European counterterrorism officials said Monday.
Investigators said they still did not know whether the explosives contained plastic materials, or were made some other way. But they said the material used in the bombs was similar to the kind manufactured for military use or made for highly technical commercial purposes, such as dynamite used for precision explosions to demolish buildings or in mining.
Because of the small size of the bombs, some investigators initially said last week that they were relatively crude.
On Monday, a senior European-based counterterrorism official with access to intelligence reports said the new information on the material indicated that the bombs were "technically advanced." The official added: "There seems to be a mastery of the method of doing explosions.
This was not rudimentary. It required great organization and was well put together."
Counterterrorism and law enforcement officials interviewed for this article said they would only speak on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the investigation. They said it was still unclear whether the attacks were carried out by local terrorists, a group from outside Britain or a combination of the two.
The quality of the explosives has led many investigators to theorize that the bombs were assembled by at least one technically savvy bomb maker, who might have come to Britain to build the devices for use by a local "sleeper cell," officials said.
"People assume you can look up a bomb-making design on the Internet and put one together without any training," said one senior counter terrorism official based in Europe. "But it's not that simple or easy."
Investigators say determining the physical origin of the explosives is crucial to helping them determine the origin of the bombs that tore apart three trains in the London Underground and the No. 30 bus in central London during the morning rush hour last Thursday. It was the worst terrorist attack in Britain since World War II.
British intelligence officials have asked their counterparts elsewhere in Europe to scour military stockpiles and commercial sites for missing explosives, three senior European-based intelligence officials said.
Senior counterterrorism officials are concerned that the cell that exploded the bombs might have a stockpile of more explosive material and could strike again, in Britain or in another European country.
"I really pity my British colleagues," a senior European intelligence official said. "It's a very difficult situation. Every hour that passes diminishes the probability to catch those people and increases the chances that this cell might try to strike again."
Britain's terrorism alert was raised immediately after the attacks to "severe specific," the second-highest level overall, and the highest that it has been since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. It has remained at that level since then, reflecting the continuing anxiety of the police and intelligence officials here that another attack may occur in London.
In the attack on commuter trains in Madrid in March 2004, the industrial dynamite used for the bombs had been stolen from a quarry in northern Spain.
A month after the attack, investigators found the terrorist cell that was responsible. But the men blew themselves up in an apartment before the police moved in. Spanish officials said the members of the cell had obtained 230 kilograms (506 pounds) of Goma 2 Eco dynamite, and had intended to build more bombs for additional attacks.
A senior Spanish official said Monday that roughly 130 kilograms (286 pounds) were used in the Madrid attacks, with about 30 in unexploded bombs. The remainder is believed to have exploded when the terrorists blew themselves up. The terrorists had obtained the dynamite from a man named José Emilio Suárez Trashorras, who was arrested shortly after the bombings.
A follow-up investigation last year determined that the police in Spain were informed in early 2003 that someone in northern Spain had been trying to sell a large quantity of explosives, but that the police had not done anything with the tip.
On Saturday, Andy Hayman, who is in charge of Scotland Yard's antiterrorism unit, announced that the four bombs set off in London each contained less than 10 pounds, or 4.5 kilograms, of explosive material. Mr. Hayman said that investigators had determined by the shape of the twisted metal that the bombs had most likely been placed on the floor of the trains, near doorways. He said it was unclear whether the bomb on the bus was on the floor or on a seat.
British investigators believe the London bombs were equipped with timers, but they have not determined if the bombs were set off by synchronized alarms on cellphones or some other timing device, officials said.
Initially, investigators contended that the bombs, outfitted with timers, had gone off at different times; they thought 26 minutes separated the first bomb to explode in the Underground from the third bomb. On Friday, some investigators said that they believed the bombs were crude devices, possibly even homemade.
But on Saturday, Scotland Yard said that a reassessment showed that the three bombs in the Underground blew up within 50 seconds, about 8:50 a.m. The synchronized explosions suggested that the plan might have been more sophisticated than investigators initially believed. Police officials also announced Saturday that the bombs were "high explosives," but they declined to elaborate.
Now, senior British and other European investigators say they are convinced that the cell responsible for the bombings had executed a well-thought-out plan. One official said the cell's attack plan was "highly sophisticated" and "meticulously planned."
Investigators said they had reached their conclusion in part because the devices were powerful enough to blow apart several coaches of the trains and rip the roof off a red double-decker bus in central London.
"The only concrete evidence is that these are not homemade," a European-based senior official said. "We don't know if they are civil industrial or military industrial explosives." Britain has one of Europe's best security systems for warehouses containing explosive materials, specialists say.
British investigators are being helped with the slow forensics work by a teams from the United States, Spain and France. But Britain has a lot of experience doing such work.
In the 1990's, the Irish Republican Army used Semtex B, a Czech-made substance that is often nearly impossible to detect. British antiterrorist police discovered that the bombing of London's Canary Wharf district used Semtex B, and it was enough for then to conclude the I.R.A. was behind the bombing.
A Spanish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied a Spanish press report that suggested that 80 pounds of bomb material was still missing from the dynamite used in the Madrid train bombings.
Don Van Natta Jr. reported from London for this article, and Elaine Sciolino from Paris. Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from London.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/international/europe/12intel.html?hp&ex=1121227200&en=5d548921fb158f53&ei=5094&partner=homepage
The Old Shuttle, New Again
By WARREN E. LEARY
Published: July 12, 2005
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 11 - Once again, the future of the space shuttle program will be carried on the wings of the Discovery.
The shuttle sits on a launching pad at the Kennedy Space Center here, redesigned and re-evaluated from the top of its giant orange fuel tank to the bottom of its engine nozzles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/science/space/12shut.html
Cancer Drugs Offer Hope, but Expense Worries Doctors and Patients
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: July 12, 2005
Ten thousand dollars once seemed a lot to pay for a few months' supply of a drug.
No more. Avastin. Erbitux. Gleevec. Herceptin. Rituxan. Tarceva. These are among the first in a wave of new drugs giving hope to millions of cancer patients by treating the disease in new ways, like blocking the blood vessels that feed tumors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/business/12cancer.html?hp&ex=1121227200&en=7c40d71f337a6617&ei=5094&partner=homepage
IT'S the only place that will have them. Send them to Iraq to reform Iraqis it should be interesting.
Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 12, 2005
COLORADO SPRINGS - There were personal testimonies about Jesus from the stage, a comedian quoting Scripture and a five-piece band performing contemporary Christian praise songs. Then hundreds of Air Force chaplains stood and sang, many with palms upturned, in a service with a distinctively evangelical tone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12chaplains.html?hp&ex=1121227200&en=1350949db6da5e01&ei=5094&partner=homepage
NRA has developed The New Cop on the Beat, when confronted with anyone of resistance shoot a barage of bullets and ask questions later. Saves society a trial and what is one or two people taken down wrongly?
Man and Young Daughter Die in Shootout With Police
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: July 12, 2005
LOS ANGELES, July 11 -An armed man and his 17-month-old daughter, whom he had been using as a shield, died on Sunday evening in a shootout with the police here.
The police on Monday defended their actions, saying the man, Jose R. Pena, left them no choice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12shooting.html
After 3 Months on the Shelf, Acelas Begin a Return to Service
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: July 12, 2005
WASHINGTON, July 11 - Amtrak put two of its Acela Express trains back in service on Monday, nearly three months after all 20 were sidelined because of cracked brakes.
Travelers with tickets for the 7 a.m. Metroliners northbound from Washington and southbound from New York were surprised to end up riding the Acelas instead. For now, the high-speed trains are running on the Metroliner schedules - about 10 minutes longer, for a trip of about three hours.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12amtrak.html
Chief Justice Stays Execution for Death Row Inmate in Virginia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 12, 2005
RICHMOND, Va., July 11 (AP) - The Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution on Monday for a man convicted of fatally stabbing the manager of a pool hall with a pair of scissors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12virginia.html
The Middle East Times
Taliban rebels offer to hide Afghan prison escapees
Waheedullah Massoud
AFP
July 12, 2005
ESCAPEES: A photograph of a leaflet shows four Al Qaeda militants who escaped from a detention center at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, on July 11. Afghan officials identified the men as Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, Kuwaiti Mahmoud Ahmed Mohammad, Saudi Mahmoud Al Fathani and Libyan Mohammed Hassan, but did not say who was whom.
(REUTERS)
KABUL -- Taliban rebels offered shelter on July 12 to four Arab militants who are being hunted by US and Afghan forces after they escaped from a high-security prison at the main American base in the war-torn country.
Ground troops and helicopters scoured the area around Bagram Air Base, north of the capital Kabul, for a second day as the US military investigated the circumstances of Monday's jailbreak.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-092312-3233r
Good gas is Gaza's new treasure
Yasser Baraka
Middle East Times
July 11, 2005
GAZA CITY, GAZA -- Palestinians have generally considered that talk of natural gas or similar minerals being found under the Gaza Strip was only for dreamers. However, a recent discovery of a large field of natural gas has gripped the imaginations of many Gazans.
Among them is Moeen Al Banna who holds a Masters degree in gas and oil engineering. Since graduating in 1992 in Ukraine he worked for five years in the Gulf before returning home to the Gaza Strip.
Banna, who is a clerk in an office in Gaza City doing tasks completely unrelated to his field of study, was jubilant at the chance of doing work that he was qualified to do.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050711-063834-1366r
British police launch raids linked to bombs probe, warn of more attacks
Robert MacPherson and Chris Wright
AFP
July 12, 2005
SEARCH: Police officers attend the scene in Leeds in northern England after raids in connection with the London bombings, on July 12. British police searched five homes in Leeds in the hunt for suspected Al Qaeda bombers who killed at least 52 people in London train and bus attacks on July 7.
(REUTERS)
LONDON -- Police searched five locations in northern England on Tuesday in the first known raids in Britain connected to last week's bombings in London that claimed more than 50 lives, as London's police chief warned that more attacks were likely.
Armed with warrants issued under the Terrorism Act 2000, officers from London's Metropolitan Police moved in on residential premises at four locations in West Yorkshire, northeast England, then proceeded to a fifth address.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-085631-8807r
Lebanon's pro-Syrian defense minister wounded in deadly blast
Henri Mamarbachi
AFP
July 12, 2005
ATTACK: Smoke rises from the scene of an explosion that targeted the motorcade of caretaker Lebanese defense minister Elias Murr in Beirut on July 12. A powerful car bomb blast wounded Murr and killed one person north of Beirut on Tuesday, security officials said.
(REUTERS)
BEIRUT -- Lebanon's outgoing pro-Syrian defense minister Elias Murr was wounded on Tuesday in a car bomb explosion in a Christian suburb north of Beirut that also killed at least one and wounded six others, police said.
The explosion was caused by a car parked on the road taken by the minister who was driving from his home as part of a convoy in the Christian suburbs around 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Beirut, police said.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-064641-2150r
Daughter, colleagues of Egyptian envoy to Iraq condemn his killing
Ola Ahmed
Middle East Times
July 8, 2005
CAIRO -- A videotape attributed to Al Qaeda leader and the most-wanted man in Iraq, Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, claimed this week that his group had killed the Egyptian ambassador designate to Iraq, Ihab Al Sherif.
The video said that Sherif, 51, had been guilty of being unfaithful to Islam. The message said that the group's religious court "has decided to hand over the infidel ambassador of Egypt, the ally of the Jews and Christians, to the mujahideen to face his punishment".
News of the kidnapping and execution was a great shock for his family. Sherif's daughter, Ingy, told the Middle East Times that the family still held out hope that her father might be alive.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050708-054918-4550r
Jordanian father bludgeons virgin daughter to death over 'honor'
July 12, 2005
AMMAN -- A Jordanian man has turned himself in to police saying that he bludgeoned to death his 16-year-old daughter with a crowbar for reasons of "family honor", the Jordan Times reported on Tuesday.
The killing came even after a police medical report showed that the teenager, who had run away from home, was still a virgin and had had no sexual activities, the newspaper said quoting official sources.
The girl and a mute sister ran away from home earlier this month. The victim was found by police in a park in Zarqa, north of Amman, and placed under administrative detention "for fear her family might kill her", one source said.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-083131-2120r
Father kills daughter, son-in-law in Pakistan for secret marriage
July 11, 2005
Multan, PAKISTAN -- A Pakistani farmer has killed his pregnant daughter and son-in-law for marrying against his will, police said on Sunday.
Iqbal Bibi, 19, and her husband, Hazoor Bakhsh Ghazlani, 25, returned to her father's home on Saturday, six months after their secret marriage in the rural town of Muzaffargarh in central Punjab province.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050711-044956-4956r
Saudi woman saves husband by getting behind wheel
July 12, 2005
RIYADH -- A woman in Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from driving, saved her husband by grabbing the wheel of the car that he was driving after he lost consciousness, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Saudi couple was heading to the capital, Riyadh, from the eastern city of Dammam on Sunday night, with the man driving, when he suffered breathing difficulties and passed out, Al Watan said.
His wife got behind the wheel and drove around 15 kilometers (nine miles) to the nearest gas station, where she called for help.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-082654-3706r
Pakistani husband commits suicide after wife gang raped
AFP
July 8, 2005
Multan, PAKISTAN -- A Pakistani man committed suicide on Thursday to protest against the non-registration by police of a complaint over the gang rape of his wife, officials said.
Bashir Ahmed poured petrol over himself then set himself on fire outside the office of a senior police officer in Bahwalpur, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Multan, a police official said requesting anonymity.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050708-025804-9183r
Pakistan police arrest seven men over alleged revenge gang rape
AFP
July 6, 2005
Multan, PAKISTAN -- Pakistani police have arrested seven men who allegedly gang raped a married woman to avenge her relative's suspected role in the abduction of a girl, police said on Wednesday.
The attack appears similar to one involving another woman, Mukhtaran Mai, who was raped on the orders of a tribal jury in 2002 and whose treatment by Pakistan authorities has caused international outrage.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050706-081242-3742r
Female rights activist, daughter shot dead in Pakistan
AFP
July 5, 2005
Peshawar, PAKISTAN -- Unidentified gunmen shot dead a women's rights activist and her daughter in deeply conservative northwestern Pakistan, police said on Tuesday.
Zubeda Begum, 40, was killed on the spot late on July 1 while her 17-year-old daughter Shumyla died in hospital on Monday following the attack in the town of Dir, 250 kilometers (156 miles) northeast of Peshawar.
Begum was working for private women's rights group the Aurat Foundation. Aurat means woman in Urdu, Pakistan's official language.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050705-074040-1543r
Salman Rushdie calls for end to 'culture' of rape in India, Pakistan
July 11, 2005
WASHINGTON -- British novelist Salman Rushdie, in an opinion column published on Sunday in The New York Times, said that both India and Pakistan need to overcome a "culture" of rape that oppresses women.
"The 'culture' of rape that exists in India and Pakistan arises from profound social anomalies, its origins lying in the unchanging harshness of a moral code based on the concepts of honor and shame," Rushdie wrote.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050711-045229-5515r
Women becoming new face of Aids in Asia
Hiroshi Hiyama
AFP
July 5, 2005
Kobe, JAPAN -- Even after contracting HIV through no fault of her own and enduring discrimination, Periasamy Kousalya manages to stay cheerful as she relates the plight of Indian women like her.
"My husband was infected. Through him I got the virus," the petite 32-year-old said with a wide smile that disguises her plight as a housewife-turned-HIV activist
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050705-062419-6353r
US first lady starts African tour in South African shantytown
AFP
July 12, 2005
TOURING: US First Lady Laura Bush waves to well wishers on arrival in Cape Town, on July 11. Bush is on an official visit to Africa after the meeting of G8 leaders in Gleneagles, Scotland, and will visit South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda.
(REUTERS)
CAPE TOWN -- US First Lady Laura Bush started off a three-nation African tour with a visit on Tuesday to a squalid Cape Town township, where she was to hear young HIV-positive mothers talk about their experiences.
Bush, accompanied by her twin daughters Barbara and Jenna, arrived in the Atlantic seaboard on Monday afternoon after spending private time in Botswana.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-081918-4250r
Opinion: Fighting the Iraq war at home
James Zogby
July 6, 2005
US President George W. Bush has a problem. This war was supposed to have gone so differently. By now it is clear that the infantile fantasy of its architects ("shock and awe", "a cake walk", "flowers at our feet", "six months and out", and "the spreading of democracy throughout the Middle East") did not pan out. Instead, US troops have been transformed into an occupation army fighting an enemy about whom we know too little, with stories and pictures of hideous terrorist attacks and growing tallies of war dead filling the daily press.
As a result, strains are beginning to show. US public support for the war is waning, with Bush's job performance in the war effort now down to 40 percent and a strong majority of 60 percent now saying that the war in Iraq wasn't worth fighting in the first place.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050706-034350-6698r
Opinion: Securing Gaza after pullout
Arthur Hughes
July 12, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC -- Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza in August amid the resurgence of violence by Palestinian radicals will likely sharpen the debate on security arrangements.
Israelis fear that the Gaza strip under Palestinian control will serve as a base of operation for terrorism against Israeli civilians. Palestinians fear that Gaza will become a prison, cut off from the West Bank and the needed Israeli market and jobs. They also worry about revenge attacks by Jewish settlers forced to evacuate the area.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-075142-9264r
The Latest Disconnect from CNN
Go Figure.
On the internet site CNN reports two separate air show disasters, but, their television broadcasts reports ONLY Canada's. I guess it's bad PR for the USA with a Shuttle launch planned.
Sensationalism and Propaganda Censorship.
Tragedy strikes two air shows
Collisions in Saskatchewan, Delaware kill at least 3 pilots
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/07/10/ [...]
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Two small planes collide above water near Cape Henlopen
RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press
LEWES, Del. - One pilot was killed and another missing and presumed dead after two small planes practicing aerobatic stunts collided Sunday above Delaware Bay, state police said.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/12102276.htm
.........................
Investigators search for cause of plane crash
canada.com
July 7, 2005
ANDREW, Alberta -- The Transportation Safety Board says the weather will be one factor it will look at as officials investigate a fatal plane crash northeast of Edmonton.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=187987df-6348-4ce5-b189-caaac69cc288
....................
What's with that? After providing incredible coverage of "Dennis" yesterday putting journalist life and limb at risk; CNN turns around and does something as stupid as this? I think they need a new weekday news crew. They are FIRST political pundits and SECOND a news agency.
That's a darn shame.
The Washington Post
7 Federal Prisons to Get Lethal Electrified Fences
Associated Press
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A19
Seven high-security federal prisons will be getting lethal electrified fences in a $10 million project intended to reduce the number of perimeter guards needed.
The 12-foot-high "stun-lethal" fences, similar to ones used at some state prisons, can be set to deliver a shock if touched once, and a fatal jolt if touched a second time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101282.html
Ford Rushes New Hybrid SUV
Vehicle Comes A Year Early as Demand Rises
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page D02
Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, began taking orders yesterday for a hybrid version of its Mercury Mariner sport-utility vehicle a year earlier than planned in response to increased interest.
The vehicle follows the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, which was introduced last fall. Production of the Mariner will begin in October, with 2,000 vehicles available in the first model year. The company expects to double production the following year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101461.html
Senate Rethinks Proposed Cuts In Mass-Transit Security Funds
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A03
The Senate is having second thoughts about cutting mass-transit security funding after last week's London bombings.
As lawmakers began debate yesterday on $31 billion in 2006 funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the terrorist attacks Thursday on three crowded subway trains and a double-decker bus provided a stark backdrop to complaints from urban lawmakers that mass transit gets short shrift in funding compared with air travel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101364.html
Toddler Is Killed in Shootout
Associated Press
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A02
LOS ANGELES, July 11 -- A 19-month-old girl was fatally shot when her intoxicated father used her as a shield during a fiery gun battle with police after a standoff that lasted three hours, authorities said.
Police Chief William Bratton said Monday that his officers were well within department policy when they shot car wash owner Jose Raul Peña on Sunday. Peña, 34, also was killed; an officer was shot in the shoulder but was expected to recover.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101406.html?nav=hcmodule
Srebrenica Recalled With Grief and Shame
World Let Bosnians Down, Leaders Say at Anniversary of Massacre
By Daria Sito-Sucic and Maja Zuvela
Reuters
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A14
SREBRENICA, Bosnia, July 11 -- With shovels and bare hands, Bosnian Muslim families buried the skeletal remains of 610 victims Monday as thousands of citizens and political leaders gathered at ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the massacre that took place around this mountain town.
Thousands of men in long rows passed flag-draped coffins above their heads toward freshly dug graves, where women in white head scarves, weeping and silently praying, waited by wooden markers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101439.html
Ford Rushes New Hybrid SUV
Vehicle Comes A Year Early as Demand Rises
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page D02
Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, began taking orders yesterday for a hybrid version of its Mercury Mariner sport-utility vehicle a year earlier than planned in response to increased interest.
The vehicle follows the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, which was introduced last fall. Production of the Mariner will begin in October, with 2,000 vehicles available in the first model year. The company expects to double production the following year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101461.html
The National Zoo
July 2005 Update: The Giant Panda House will be closed through at least September as new mother Mei Xiang bonds with her cub, born July 9. The outdoor yard will remain open to the public, and male panda Tian Tian can be seen there. The litter of five cheetah cubs, born in April, are outside every day from around 8 a.m. to around 1 p.m.
Every day of the year you can walk the grounds of the National Zoological Park.
And every day that you do, chances are you'll notice something new about the place and the creatures inhabiting it: such as the funny way the orangutans hesitate before climbing out on the Orangutan Transport System (the overhead cables they travel from the Great Ape House to the Think Tank, where they show off their communication skills). You'll notice the regal indifference of African cheetahs as they sashay from one side of their "simulated savanna" to the other, and you'll spot the nests of 400 black-crowned night herons that decided (coincidentally?) that the zoo would be a fine place to call it a night after a full day of fishing on the Potomac River.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=entertainment/profile&id=792112
The Japan Times
U.N. calls for antidiscrimination law
Investigator says Japan must acknowledge its racism
By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer
The government urgently needs to acknowledge that deep discrimination against minorities, Korean and Chinese residents and other foreigners exists in Japan, an independent investigator said Monday.
Doudou Diene, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 2002 as special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, was in Japan for more than a week on a fact-finding mission.
As a way to prevent further racial discrimination, a national law must be enacted, Diene, from Senegal, told a news conference at the United Nations University in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050712a1.htm
BODY FOUND IN OITA MUDSLIDE
Death toll from downpours hits four
OITA (Kyodo) A body was found Monday morning at the site of a mudslide in Oita Prefecture, brining the death toll from last weekend's torrential rains to four, police said.
Rescuers search the debris Monday left by a mudslide in Hita, Oita Prefecture, that was triggered by torrential rains the previous day.
The body was apparently that of a 57-year-old man who was reported missing Sunday.
Police and the Self-Defense Forces mobilized 230 rescuers Monday to look for Migaku Takano, 57, who disappeared in the mudslide triggered by the downpours that hit Kumamoto, Nagasaki and Oita prefectures.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050712a6.htm
Airlines grapple to root out human error
Recurring cycle of mishaps points to deeper flaws, safety critics say
By MIYA TANAKA
The airline industry and the transport ministry are trying to overhaul safety standards following a series of blunders involving commercial aircraft, but finding a quick solution will not be easy.
Employees of Japan Airlines Corp. inspect a plane at Tokyo's Haneda airport that lost its two nose gear wheels during landing on June 15.
At least 13 of about 20 major problems revealed this year resulted from human error on the part of pilots, cabin attendants and mechanics, raising fears of a major crash, like that of the Japan Airlines jumbo jet in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture in 1985 that killed 520 people -- the worst single-aircraft disaster in history. The crash was blamed on faulty repair work after the jet's tail scraped a runway on an earlier flight.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050709f2.htm
Some hope from the G-8
It is easy to be cynical about G-8 summits. The annual meetings of the heads of state of the leading industrialized nations are equal parts political theater, photo opportunity and security nightmare. Each summit produces a lofty statement that echoes its predecessors, is invariably bland despite (or perhaps because of) having been worked out in agonizing detail in advance, and contains exhortations rather than commitments. Their consistency suggests that the leaders of the most powerful nations on the planet have not acted to confront the problems they identify each year as serious. Observers complain of a "compliance deficit."
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?ed20050712a1.htm
Beijing aims to politically isolate Koizumi
By ERIC TEO CHU CHEOW
Special to The Japan Times
SINGAPORE -- The feud between China and Japan over the contents of Japanese history textbooks, sovereignty of the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's periodic visits to Yasukuni Shrine came to a head in April when anti-Japanese riots broke out in some Chinese cities.
Since then, delegations from both sides have met in Beijing, Kyoto and Tokyo, but they have made little progress on resolving the contentious issues between the two countries.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20050709a1.htm
OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
WOODLAND JOYS AND WOES
Battling for nature in the face of greed and neglect
By C.W. NICOL
I started to buy neglected woodland on a mountainside near where I live in Nagano Prefecture more than 20 years ago. Together with a local forester (and now long-time friend), Nobuyoshi Matsuki, we began tending the woods. One of the delightful results was the blooming of hundreds of wild Calanthe discolor orchids , which are known as ebine in Japanese.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fe20050707cw.htm
NATURAL SELECTIONS
WHOSE RIGHT TO KNOW?
Changing values pose problems for terminal care in Japan
By ROWAN HOOPER
Several years ago, I read cancer surgeon Fumio Yamazaki's unforgettable book titled "Dying in a Japanese Hospital." Through case studies of his patients, he describes the final moments in the lives of terminal cancer sufferers. Invariably, just as a patient is slipping away, doctors battle to resuscitate him or her, shooing family members away while they perform various aggressive procedures, only for the patient to die soon after, away from loved ones, without dignity.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fe20050630rh.htm
A fight to the death
One of Japan's longest-running legal feuds reignites amid worsening ties with Korea
By DAVID McNEILL and ANDREAS HIPPIN
Her bony, 80-year-old body floating around inside a nylon shirt and cigarette permanently clamped between what appear to be her two remaining front teeth, Kan Kyon Nam is an unlikely illegal squatter.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20050712zg.htm
Koizumi expects N. Korea back in six-way talks
EDINBURGH, Scotland (Kyodo) Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday it looks as if North Korea will soon return to the six-way nuclear talks.
"I had an impression from comments of fellow leaders in the (Group of Eight) meeting that North Korea will return to the six-party talks in the near future," Koizumi said during a news conference in Edinburgh after the three-day summit at the Scottish resort of Gleneagles.
But Koizumi declined to elaborate on what exactly convinced him of the optimistic prospects. More than a year has passed since the talks were last held.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050710b2.htm
The Boston Globe
Police search homes in N.England after UK bombs
A police forensics officer leaves a house in Leeds in northern England after raids in connection with the London bombings, July 12, 2005. British police searched five homes in Leeds on Tuesday in the hunt for suspected al Qaeda bombers who killed at least 52 people in London train and bus attacks on July 7.
By Ian Hodgson July 12, 2005
LEEDS, England (Reuters) - Police said they searched five homes in northern England on Tuesday as a "significant" part of the investigation into last week's London bombings, blamed on al Qaeda, which killed at least 52 people.
Detectives from London, together with local officers from West Yorkshire, searched four properties around the city of Leeds and were examining a fifth.
The searches were part of a pre-planned intelligence-led operation, a spokeswoman said. No arrests had been made so far.
"The searches are in connection with the terrorist attacks in London on July 7," she added.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/07/12/uk_bomb_police_search_houses_in_n_england/
Bosnian Muslims bury victims of 1995 Srebrenica massacre
By Associated Press July 12, 2005
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Women wept as they finally buried husbands and sons yesterday, 10 years after Europe's worst massacre since World War II -- funerals made possible by the excavation of mass graves of victims killed by Bosnian Serb forces.
An extraordinary gathering of 30,000 people -- including the Serb president -- came to Srebrenica to mark the anniversary and honor the dead.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/07/12/bosnian_muslims_bury_victims_of_1995_srebrenica_massacre/
Shuttle risk level acceptable, NASA says
Cites steps taken to improve safety
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff July 12, 2005
Two and a half years after the Columbia space shuttle disaster grounded the US manned space program, NASA plans to launch seven astronauts into orbit tomorrow in a more than $1 billion effort to restore the nation's faith in space travel and solidify the program's international reputation.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/07/12/shuttle_risk_level_acceptable_nasa_says/
State strives to reduce water, energy consumption at flagship university
July 12, 2005
AMHERST, Mass. --The state is endeavoring to save millions of dollars annually through conservation, and some of the most ambitious efforts are at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Thousands of toilets and faucets have already been replaced to reduce water consumption at the state's flagship university, and dozens of hybrid vehicles are being purchased with the goal of cutting energy costs by about $6 million per year, or 25 percent of the campus utility bill.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/07/12/state_strives_to_reduce_water_energy_consumption_at_flagship_university/
NAACP releases business diversity report
NAACP Interim President and CEO Dennis Hayes speaks at the Economic Reciprocity Report Card press conference at the NAACP 96th annual convention at the Midwest Airlines Center, Milwaukee, Wisc., Monday, July 11, 2005. (AP Photo/Darren Hauck)
By Erin Texeira, AP National Writer July 12, 2005
MILWAUKEE --When NAACP officials began grading corporations operating in the U.S. on racial diversity nine years ago, they had hoped companies would show steady gains each year.
But the latest report released Monday indicates many of the 55 companies analyzed seem to be stagnating, with most earning virtually the same grades as last year -- an indication some businesses are not making much effort to improve, said Dennis C. Hayes, interim president of the civil rights group.
The report is "a measuring tool upon which consumers can rely to make informed choices about where to spend their dollars," Hayes said. "It is meant to serve as a catalyst for positive change."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/07/12/naacp_releases_business_diversity_report/
continued . . .
Military-Quality Explosives Suspected in London Blasts
By DON VAN NATTA Jr. and ELAINE SCIOLINO
LONDON, July 11 - British investigators believe that the 10-pound bombs used in the coordinated terrorist attacks here contained "military quality" high-grade explosives, British and European counterterrorism officials said Monday.
Investigators said they still did not know whether the explosives contained plastic materials, or were made some other way. But they said the material used in the bombs was similar to the kind manufactured for military use or made for highly technical commercial purposes, such as dynamite used for precision explosions to demolish buildings or in mining.
Because of the small size of the bombs, some investigators initially said last week that they were relatively crude.
On Monday, a senior European-based counterterrorism official with access to intelligence reports said the new information on the material indicated that the bombs were "technically advanced." The official added: "There seems to be a mastery of the method of doing explosions.
This was not rudimentary. It required great organization and was well put together."
Counterterrorism and law enforcement officials interviewed for this article said they would only speak on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the investigation. They said it was still unclear whether the attacks were carried out by local terrorists, a group from outside Britain or a combination of the two.
The quality of the explosives has led many investigators to theorize that the bombs were assembled by at least one technically savvy bomb maker, who might have come to Britain to build the devices for use by a local "sleeper cell," officials said.
"People assume you can look up a bomb-making design on the Internet and put one together without any training," said one senior counter terrorism official based in Europe. "But it's not that simple or easy."
Investigators say determining the physical origin of the explosives is crucial to helping them determine the origin of the bombs that tore apart three trains in the London Underground and the No. 30 bus in central London during the morning rush hour last Thursday. It was the worst terrorist attack in Britain since World War II.
British intelligence officials have asked their counterparts elsewhere in Europe to scour military stockpiles and commercial sites for missing explosives, three senior European-based intelligence officials said.
Senior counterterrorism officials are concerned that the cell that exploded the bombs might have a stockpile of more explosive material and could strike again, in Britain or in another European country.
"I really pity my British colleagues," a senior European intelligence official said. "It's a very difficult situation. Every hour that passes diminishes the probability to catch those people and increases the chances that this cell might try to strike again."
Britain's terrorism alert was raised immediately after the attacks to "severe specific," the second-highest level overall, and the highest that it has been since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. It has remained at that level since then, reflecting the continuing anxiety of the police and intelligence officials here that another attack may occur in London.
In the attack on commuter trains in Madrid in March 2004, the industrial dynamite used for the bombs had been stolen from a quarry in northern Spain.
A month after the attack, investigators found the terrorist cell that was responsible. But the men blew themselves up in an apartment before the police moved in. Spanish officials said the members of the cell had obtained 230 kilograms (506 pounds) of Goma 2 Eco dynamite, and had intended to build more bombs for additional attacks.
A senior Spanish official said Monday that roughly 130 kilograms (286 pounds) were used in the Madrid attacks, with about 30 in unexploded bombs. The remainder is believed to have exploded when the terrorists blew themselves up. The terrorists had obtained the dynamite from a man named José Emilio Suárez Trashorras, who was arrested shortly after the bombings.
A follow-up investigation last year determined that the police in Spain were informed in early 2003 that someone in northern Spain had been trying to sell a large quantity of explosives, but that the police had not done anything with the tip.
On Saturday, Andy Hayman, who is in charge of Scotland Yard's antiterrorism unit, announced that the four bombs set off in London each contained less than 10 pounds, or 4.5 kilograms, of explosive material. Mr. Hayman said that investigators had determined by the shape of the twisted metal that the bombs had most likely been placed on the floor of the trains, near doorways. He said it was unclear whether the bomb on the bus was on the floor or on a seat.
British investigators believe the London bombs were equipped with timers, but they have not determined if the bombs were set off by synchronized alarms on cellphones or some other timing device, officials said.
Initially, investigators contended that the bombs, outfitted with timers, had gone off at different times; they thought 26 minutes separated the first bomb to explode in the Underground from the third bomb. On Friday, some investigators said that they believed the bombs were crude devices, possibly even homemade.
But on Saturday, Scotland Yard said that a reassessment showed that the three bombs in the Underground blew up within 50 seconds, about 8:50 a.m. The synchronized explosions suggested that the plan might have been more sophisticated than investigators initially believed. Police officials also announced Saturday that the bombs were "high explosives," but they declined to elaborate.
Now, senior British and other European investigators say they are convinced that the cell responsible for the bombings had executed a well-thought-out plan. One official said the cell's attack plan was "highly sophisticated" and "meticulously planned."
Investigators said they had reached their conclusion in part because the devices were powerful enough to blow apart several coaches of the trains and rip the roof off a red double-decker bus in central London.
"The only concrete evidence is that these are not homemade," a European-based senior official said. "We don't know if they are civil industrial or military industrial explosives." Britain has one of Europe's best security systems for warehouses containing explosive materials, specialists say.
British investigators are being helped with the slow forensics work by a teams from the United States, Spain and France. But Britain has a lot of experience doing such work.
In the 1990's, the Irish Republican Army used Semtex B, a Czech-made substance that is often nearly impossible to detect. British antiterrorist police discovered that the bombing of London's Canary Wharf district used Semtex B, and it was enough for then to conclude the I.R.A. was behind the bombing.
A Spanish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, denied a Spanish press report that suggested that 80 pounds of bomb material was still missing from the dynamite used in the Madrid train bombings.
Don Van Natta Jr. reported from London for this article, and Elaine Sciolino from Paris. Souad Mekhennet contributed reporting from London.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/international/europe/12intel.html?hp&ex=1121227200&en=5d548921fb158f53&ei=5094&partner=homepage
The Old Shuttle, New Again
By WARREN E. LEARY
Published: July 12, 2005
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 11 - Once again, the future of the space shuttle program will be carried on the wings of the Discovery.
The shuttle sits on a launching pad at the Kennedy Space Center here, redesigned and re-evaluated from the top of its giant orange fuel tank to the bottom of its engine nozzles.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/science/space/12shut.html
Cancer Drugs Offer Hope, but Expense Worries Doctors and Patients
By ALEX BERENSON
Published: July 12, 2005
Ten thousand dollars once seemed a lot to pay for a few months' supply of a drug.
No more. Avastin. Erbitux. Gleevec. Herceptin. Rituxan. Tarceva. These are among the first in a wave of new drugs giving hope to millions of cancer patients by treating the disease in new ways, like blocking the blood vessels that feed tumors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/business/12cancer.html?hp&ex=1121227200&en=7c40d71f337a6617&ei=5094&partner=homepage
IT'S the only place that will have them. Send them to Iraq to reform Iraqis it should be interesting.
Evangelicals Are a Growing Force in the Military Chaplain Corps
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: July 12, 2005
COLORADO SPRINGS - There were personal testimonies about Jesus from the stage, a comedian quoting Scripture and a five-piece band performing contemporary Christian praise songs. Then hundreds of Air Force chaplains stood and sang, many with palms upturned, in a service with a distinctively evangelical tone.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12chaplains.html?hp&ex=1121227200&en=1350949db6da5e01&ei=5094&partner=homepage
NRA has developed The New Cop on the Beat, when confronted with anyone of resistance shoot a barage of bullets and ask questions later. Saves society a trial and what is one or two people taken down wrongly?
Man and Young Daughter Die in Shootout With Police
By JOHN M. BRODER
Published: July 12, 2005
LOS ANGELES, July 11 -An armed man and his 17-month-old daughter, whom he had been using as a shield, died on Sunday evening in a shootout with the police here.
The police on Monday defended their actions, saying the man, Jose R. Pena, left them no choice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12shooting.html
After 3 Months on the Shelf, Acelas Begin a Return to Service
By MATTHEW L. WALD
Published: July 12, 2005
WASHINGTON, July 11 - Amtrak put two of its Acela Express trains back in service on Monday, nearly three months after all 20 were sidelined because of cracked brakes.
Travelers with tickets for the 7 a.m. Metroliners northbound from Washington and southbound from New York were surprised to end up riding the Acelas instead. For now, the high-speed trains are running on the Metroliner schedules - about 10 minutes longer, for a trip of about three hours.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12amtrak.html
Chief Justice Stays Execution for Death Row Inmate in Virginia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 12, 2005
RICHMOND, Va., July 11 (AP) - The Supreme Court granted a last-minute stay of execution on Monday for a man convicted of fatally stabbing the manager of a pool hall with a pair of scissors.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/12/national/12virginia.html
The Middle East Times
Taliban rebels offer to hide Afghan prison escapees
Waheedullah Massoud
AFP
July 12, 2005
ESCAPEES: A photograph of a leaflet shows four Al Qaeda militants who escaped from a detention center at Bagram Air Base, north of Kabul, on July 11. Afghan officials identified the men as Syrian Abdullah Hashimi, Kuwaiti Mahmoud Ahmed Mohammad, Saudi Mahmoud Al Fathani and Libyan Mohammed Hassan, but did not say who was whom.
(REUTERS)
KABUL -- Taliban rebels offered shelter on July 12 to four Arab militants who are being hunted by US and Afghan forces after they escaped from a high-security prison at the main American base in the war-torn country.
Ground troops and helicopters scoured the area around Bagram Air Base, north of the capital Kabul, for a second day as the US military investigated the circumstances of Monday's jailbreak.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-092312-3233r
Good gas is Gaza's new treasure
Yasser Baraka
Middle East Times
July 11, 2005
GAZA CITY, GAZA -- Palestinians have generally considered that talk of natural gas or similar minerals being found under the Gaza Strip was only for dreamers. However, a recent discovery of a large field of natural gas has gripped the imaginations of many Gazans.
Among them is Moeen Al Banna who holds a Masters degree in gas and oil engineering. Since graduating in 1992 in Ukraine he worked for five years in the Gulf before returning home to the Gaza Strip.
Banna, who is a clerk in an office in Gaza City doing tasks completely unrelated to his field of study, was jubilant at the chance of doing work that he was qualified to do.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050711-063834-1366r
British police launch raids linked to bombs probe, warn of more attacks
Robert MacPherson and Chris Wright
AFP
July 12, 2005
SEARCH: Police officers attend the scene in Leeds in northern England after raids in connection with the London bombings, on July 12. British police searched five homes in Leeds in the hunt for suspected Al Qaeda bombers who killed at least 52 people in London train and bus attacks on July 7.
(REUTERS)
LONDON -- Police searched five locations in northern England on Tuesday in the first known raids in Britain connected to last week's bombings in London that claimed more than 50 lives, as London's police chief warned that more attacks were likely.
Armed with warrants issued under the Terrorism Act 2000, officers from London's Metropolitan Police moved in on residential premises at four locations in West Yorkshire, northeast England, then proceeded to a fifth address.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-085631-8807r
Lebanon's pro-Syrian defense minister wounded in deadly blast
Henri Mamarbachi
AFP
July 12, 2005
ATTACK: Smoke rises from the scene of an explosion that targeted the motorcade of caretaker Lebanese defense minister Elias Murr in Beirut on July 12. A powerful car bomb blast wounded Murr and killed one person north of Beirut on Tuesday, security officials said.
(REUTERS)
BEIRUT -- Lebanon's outgoing pro-Syrian defense minister Elias Murr was wounded on Tuesday in a car bomb explosion in a Christian suburb north of Beirut that also killed at least one and wounded six others, police said.
The explosion was caused by a car parked on the road taken by the minister who was driving from his home as part of a convoy in the Christian suburbs around 10 kilometers (six miles) north of Beirut, police said.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-064641-2150r
Daughter, colleagues of Egyptian envoy to Iraq condemn his killing
Ola Ahmed
Middle East Times
July 8, 2005
CAIRO -- A videotape attributed to Al Qaeda leader and the most-wanted man in Iraq, Abu Mussab Al Zarqawi, claimed this week that his group had killed the Egyptian ambassador designate to Iraq, Ihab Al Sherif.
The video said that Sherif, 51, had been guilty of being unfaithful to Islam. The message said that the group's religious court "has decided to hand over the infidel ambassador of Egypt, the ally of the Jews and Christians, to the mujahideen to face his punishment".
News of the kidnapping and execution was a great shock for his family. Sherif's daughter, Ingy, told the Middle East Times that the family still held out hope that her father might be alive.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050708-054918-4550r
Jordanian father bludgeons virgin daughter to death over 'honor'
July 12, 2005
AMMAN -- A Jordanian man has turned himself in to police saying that he bludgeoned to death his 16-year-old daughter with a crowbar for reasons of "family honor", the Jordan Times reported on Tuesday.
The killing came even after a police medical report showed that the teenager, who had run away from home, was still a virgin and had had no sexual activities, the newspaper said quoting official sources.
The girl and a mute sister ran away from home earlier this month. The victim was found by police in a park in Zarqa, north of Amman, and placed under administrative detention "for fear her family might kill her", one source said.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-083131-2120r
Father kills daughter, son-in-law in Pakistan for secret marriage
July 11, 2005
Multan, PAKISTAN -- A Pakistani farmer has killed his pregnant daughter and son-in-law for marrying against his will, police said on Sunday.
Iqbal Bibi, 19, and her husband, Hazoor Bakhsh Ghazlani, 25, returned to her father's home on Saturday, six months after their secret marriage in the rural town of Muzaffargarh in central Punjab province.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050711-044956-4956r
Saudi woman saves husband by getting behind wheel
July 12, 2005
RIYADH -- A woman in Saudi Arabia, where women are banned from driving, saved her husband by grabbing the wheel of the car that he was driving after he lost consciousness, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Saudi couple was heading to the capital, Riyadh, from the eastern city of Dammam on Sunday night, with the man driving, when he suffered breathing difficulties and passed out, Al Watan said.
His wife got behind the wheel and drove around 15 kilometers (nine miles) to the nearest gas station, where she called for help.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-082654-3706r
Pakistani husband commits suicide after wife gang raped
AFP
July 8, 2005
Multan, PAKISTAN -- A Pakistani man committed suicide on Thursday to protest against the non-registration by police of a complaint over the gang rape of his wife, officials said.
Bashir Ahmed poured petrol over himself then set himself on fire outside the office of a senior police officer in Bahwalpur, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) south of Multan, a police official said requesting anonymity.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050708-025804-9183r
Pakistan police arrest seven men over alleged revenge gang rape
AFP
July 6, 2005
Multan, PAKISTAN -- Pakistani police have arrested seven men who allegedly gang raped a married woman to avenge her relative's suspected role in the abduction of a girl, police said on Wednesday.
The attack appears similar to one involving another woman, Mukhtaran Mai, who was raped on the orders of a tribal jury in 2002 and whose treatment by Pakistan authorities has caused international outrage.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050706-081242-3742r
Female rights activist, daughter shot dead in Pakistan
AFP
July 5, 2005
Peshawar, PAKISTAN -- Unidentified gunmen shot dead a women's rights activist and her daughter in deeply conservative northwestern Pakistan, police said on Tuesday.
Zubeda Begum, 40, was killed on the spot late on July 1 while her 17-year-old daughter Shumyla died in hospital on Monday following the attack in the town of Dir, 250 kilometers (156 miles) northeast of Peshawar.
Begum was working for private women's rights group the Aurat Foundation. Aurat means woman in Urdu, Pakistan's official language.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050705-074040-1543r
Salman Rushdie calls for end to 'culture' of rape in India, Pakistan
July 11, 2005
WASHINGTON -- British novelist Salman Rushdie, in an opinion column published on Sunday in The New York Times, said that both India and Pakistan need to overcome a "culture" of rape that oppresses women.
"The 'culture' of rape that exists in India and Pakistan arises from profound social anomalies, its origins lying in the unchanging harshness of a moral code based on the concepts of honor and shame," Rushdie wrote.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050711-045229-5515r
Women becoming new face of Aids in Asia
Hiroshi Hiyama
AFP
July 5, 2005
Kobe, JAPAN -- Even after contracting HIV through no fault of her own and enduring discrimination, Periasamy Kousalya manages to stay cheerful as she relates the plight of Indian women like her.
"My husband was infected. Through him I got the virus," the petite 32-year-old said with a wide smile that disguises her plight as a housewife-turned-HIV activist
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050705-062419-6353r
US first lady starts African tour in South African shantytown
AFP
July 12, 2005
TOURING: US First Lady Laura Bush waves to well wishers on arrival in Cape Town, on July 11. Bush is on an official visit to Africa after the meeting of G8 leaders in Gleneagles, Scotland, and will visit South Africa, Tanzania and Rwanda.
(REUTERS)
CAPE TOWN -- US First Lady Laura Bush started off a three-nation African tour with a visit on Tuesday to a squalid Cape Town township, where she was to hear young HIV-positive mothers talk about their experiences.
Bush, accompanied by her twin daughters Barbara and Jenna, arrived in the Atlantic seaboard on Monday afternoon after spending private time in Botswana.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-081918-4250r
Opinion: Fighting the Iraq war at home
James Zogby
July 6, 2005
US President George W. Bush has a problem. This war was supposed to have gone so differently. By now it is clear that the infantile fantasy of its architects ("shock and awe", "a cake walk", "flowers at our feet", "six months and out", and "the spreading of democracy throughout the Middle East") did not pan out. Instead, US troops have been transformed into an occupation army fighting an enemy about whom we know too little, with stories and pictures of hideous terrorist attacks and growing tallies of war dead filling the daily press.
As a result, strains are beginning to show. US public support for the war is waning, with Bush's job performance in the war effort now down to 40 percent and a strong majority of 60 percent now saying that the war in Iraq wasn't worth fighting in the first place.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050706-034350-6698r
Opinion: Securing Gaza after pullout
Arthur Hughes
July 12, 2005
WASHINGTON, DC -- Israel's planned withdrawal from Gaza in August amid the resurgence of violence by Palestinian radicals will likely sharpen the debate on security arrangements.
Israelis fear that the Gaza strip under Palestinian control will serve as a base of operation for terrorism against Israeli civilians. Palestinians fear that Gaza will become a prison, cut off from the West Bank and the needed Israeli market and jobs. They also worry about revenge attacks by Jewish settlers forced to evacuate the area.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050712-075142-9264r
The Latest Disconnect from CNN
Go Figure.
On the internet site CNN reports two separate air show disasters, but, their television broadcasts reports ONLY Canada's. I guess it's bad PR for the USA with a Shuttle launch planned.
Sensationalism and Propaganda Censorship.
Tragedy strikes two air shows
Collisions in Saskatchewan, Delaware kill at least 3 pilots
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/07/10/ [...]
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Two small planes collide above water near Cape Henlopen
RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press
LEWES, Del. - One pilot was killed and another missing and presumed dead after two small planes practicing aerobatic stunts collided Sunday above Delaware Bay, state police said.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/news/12102276.htm
.........................
Investigators search for cause of plane crash
canada.com
July 7, 2005
ANDREW, Alberta -- The Transportation Safety Board says the weather will be one factor it will look at as officials investigate a fatal plane crash northeast of Edmonton.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=187987df-6348-4ce5-b189-caaac69cc288
....................
What's with that? After providing incredible coverage of "Dennis" yesterday putting journalist life and limb at risk; CNN turns around and does something as stupid as this? I think they need a new weekday news crew. They are FIRST political pundits and SECOND a news agency.
That's a darn shame.
The Washington Post
7 Federal Prisons to Get Lethal Electrified Fences
Associated Press
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A19
Seven high-security federal prisons will be getting lethal electrified fences in a $10 million project intended to reduce the number of perimeter guards needed.
The 12-foot-high "stun-lethal" fences, similar to ones used at some state prisons, can be set to deliver a shock if touched once, and a fatal jolt if touched a second time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101282.html
Ford Rushes New Hybrid SUV
Vehicle Comes A Year Early as Demand Rises
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page D02
Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, began taking orders yesterday for a hybrid version of its Mercury Mariner sport-utility vehicle a year earlier than planned in response to increased interest.
The vehicle follows the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, which was introduced last fall. Production of the Mariner will begin in October, with 2,000 vehicles available in the first model year. The company expects to double production the following year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101461.html
Senate Rethinks Proposed Cuts In Mass-Transit Security Funds
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A03
The Senate is having second thoughts about cutting mass-transit security funding after last week's London bombings.
As lawmakers began debate yesterday on $31 billion in 2006 funding for the Department of Homeland Security, the terrorist attacks Thursday on three crowded subway trains and a double-decker bus provided a stark backdrop to complaints from urban lawmakers that mass transit gets short shrift in funding compared with air travel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101364.html
Toddler Is Killed in Shootout
Associated Press
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A02
LOS ANGELES, July 11 -- A 19-month-old girl was fatally shot when her intoxicated father used her as a shield during a fiery gun battle with police after a standoff that lasted three hours, authorities said.
Police Chief William Bratton said Monday that his officers were well within department policy when they shot car wash owner Jose Raul Peña on Sunday. Peña, 34, also was killed; an officer was shot in the shoulder but was expected to recover.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101406.html?nav=hcmodule
Srebrenica Recalled With Grief and Shame
World Let Bosnians Down, Leaders Say at Anniversary of Massacre
By Daria Sito-Sucic and Maja Zuvela
Reuters
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page A14
SREBRENICA, Bosnia, July 11 -- With shovels and bare hands, Bosnian Muslim families buried the skeletal remains of 610 victims Monday as thousands of citizens and political leaders gathered at ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the massacre that took place around this mountain town.
Thousands of men in long rows passed flag-draped coffins above their heads toward freshly dug graves, where women in white head scarves, weeping and silently praying, waited by wooden markers.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101439.html
Ford Rushes New Hybrid SUV
Vehicle Comes A Year Early as Demand Rises
By Amy Joyce
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 12, 2005; Page D02
Ford Motor Co., the second-largest U.S. automaker, began taking orders yesterday for a hybrid version of its Mercury Mariner sport-utility vehicle a year earlier than planned in response to increased interest.
The vehicle follows the Ford Escape Hybrid SUV, which was introduced last fall. Production of the Mariner will begin in October, with 2,000 vehicles available in the first model year. The company expects to double production the following year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101461.html
The National Zoo
July 2005 Update: The Giant Panda House will be closed through at least September as new mother Mei Xiang bonds with her cub, born July 9. The outdoor yard will remain open to the public, and male panda Tian Tian can be seen there. The litter of five cheetah cubs, born in April, are outside every day from around 8 a.m. to around 1 p.m.
Every day of the year you can walk the grounds of the National Zoological Park.
And every day that you do, chances are you'll notice something new about the place and the creatures inhabiting it: such as the funny way the orangutans hesitate before climbing out on the Orangutan Transport System (the overhead cables they travel from the Great Ape House to the Think Tank, where they show off their communication skills). You'll notice the regal indifference of African cheetahs as they sashay from one side of their "simulated savanna" to the other, and you'll spot the nests of 400 black-crowned night herons that decided (coincidentally?) that the zoo would be a fine place to call it a night after a full day of fishing on the Potomac River.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?node=entertainment/profile&id=792112
The Japan Times
U.N. calls for antidiscrimination law
Investigator says Japan must acknowledge its racism
By MASAMI ITO
Staff writer
The government urgently needs to acknowledge that deep discrimination against minorities, Korean and Chinese residents and other foreigners exists in Japan, an independent investigator said Monday.
Doudou Diene, appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 2002 as special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, was in Japan for more than a week on a fact-finding mission.
As a way to prevent further racial discrimination, a national law must be enacted, Diene, from Senegal, told a news conference at the United Nations University in Shibuya Ward, Tokyo.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050712a1.htm
BODY FOUND IN OITA MUDSLIDE
Death toll from downpours hits four
OITA (Kyodo) A body was found Monday morning at the site of a mudslide in Oita Prefecture, brining the death toll from last weekend's torrential rains to four, police said.
Rescuers search the debris Monday left by a mudslide in Hita, Oita Prefecture, that was triggered by torrential rains the previous day.
The body was apparently that of a 57-year-old man who was reported missing Sunday.
Police and the Self-Defense Forces mobilized 230 rescuers Monday to look for Migaku Takano, 57, who disappeared in the mudslide triggered by the downpours that hit Kumamoto, Nagasaki and Oita prefectures.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050712a6.htm
Airlines grapple to root out human error
Recurring cycle of mishaps points to deeper flaws, safety critics say
By MIYA TANAKA
The airline industry and the transport ministry are trying to overhaul safety standards following a series of blunders involving commercial aircraft, but finding a quick solution will not be easy.
Employees of Japan Airlines Corp. inspect a plane at Tokyo's Haneda airport that lost its two nose gear wheels during landing on June 15.
At least 13 of about 20 major problems revealed this year resulted from human error on the part of pilots, cabin attendants and mechanics, raising fears of a major crash, like that of the Japan Airlines jumbo jet in the mountains of Gunma Prefecture in 1985 that killed 520 people -- the worst single-aircraft disaster in history. The crash was blamed on faulty repair work after the jet's tail scraped a runway on an earlier flight.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050709f2.htm
Some hope from the G-8
It is easy to be cynical about G-8 summits. The annual meetings of the heads of state of the leading industrialized nations are equal parts political theater, photo opportunity and security nightmare. Each summit produces a lofty statement that echoes its predecessors, is invariably bland despite (or perhaps because of) having been worked out in agonizing detail in advance, and contains exhortations rather than commitments. Their consistency suggests that the leaders of the most powerful nations on the planet have not acted to confront the problems they identify each year as serious. Observers complain of a "compliance deficit."
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?ed20050712a1.htm
Beijing aims to politically isolate Koizumi
By ERIC TEO CHU CHEOW
Special to The Japan Times
SINGAPORE -- The feud between China and Japan over the contents of Japanese history textbooks, sovereignty of the Senkaku (Diaoyu) Islands and Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi's periodic visits to Yasukuni Shrine came to a head in April when anti-Japanese riots broke out in some Chinese cities.
Since then, delegations from both sides have met in Beijing, Kyoto and Tokyo, but they have made little progress on resolving the contentious issues between the two countries.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/geted.pl5?eo20050709a1.htm
OLD NIC'S NOTEBOOK
WOODLAND JOYS AND WOES
Battling for nature in the face of greed and neglect
By C.W. NICOL
I started to buy neglected woodland on a mountainside near where I live in Nagano Prefecture more than 20 years ago. Together with a local forester (and now long-time friend), Nobuyoshi Matsuki, we began tending the woods. One of the delightful results was the blooming of hundreds of wild Calanthe discolor orchids , which are known as ebine in Japanese.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fe20050707cw.htm
NATURAL SELECTIONS
WHOSE RIGHT TO KNOW?
Changing values pose problems for terminal care in Japan
By ROWAN HOOPER
Several years ago, I read cancer surgeon Fumio Yamazaki's unforgettable book titled "Dying in a Japanese Hospital." Through case studies of his patients, he describes the final moments in the lives of terminal cancer sufferers. Invariably, just as a patient is slipping away, doctors battle to resuscitate him or her, shooing family members away while they perform various aggressive procedures, only for the patient to die soon after, away from loved ones, without dignity.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fe20050630rh.htm
A fight to the death
One of Japan's longest-running legal feuds reignites amid worsening ties with Korea
By DAVID McNEILL and ANDREAS HIPPIN
Her bony, 80-year-old body floating around inside a nylon shirt and cigarette permanently clamped between what appear to be her two remaining front teeth, Kan Kyon Nam is an unlikely illegal squatter.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20050712zg.htm
Koizumi expects N. Korea back in six-way talks
EDINBURGH, Scotland (Kyodo) Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Friday it looks as if North Korea will soon return to the six-way nuclear talks.
"I had an impression from comments of fellow leaders in the (Group of Eight) meeting that North Korea will return to the six-party talks in the near future," Koizumi said during a news conference in Edinburgh after the three-day summit at the Scottish resort of Gleneagles.
But Koizumi declined to elaborate on what exactly convinced him of the optimistic prospects. More than a year has passed since the talks were last held.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050710b2.htm
The Boston Globe
Police search homes in N.England after UK bombs
A police forensics officer leaves a house in Leeds in northern England after raids in connection with the London bombings, July 12, 2005. British police searched five homes in Leeds on Tuesday in the hunt for suspected al Qaeda bombers who killed at least 52 people in London train and bus attacks on July 7.
By Ian Hodgson July 12, 2005
LEEDS, England (Reuters) - Police said they searched five homes in northern England on Tuesday as a "significant" part of the investigation into last week's London bombings, blamed on al Qaeda, which killed at least 52 people.
Detectives from London, together with local officers from West Yorkshire, searched four properties around the city of Leeds and were examining a fifth.
The searches were part of a pre-planned intelligence-led operation, a spokeswoman said. No arrests had been made so far.
"The searches are in connection with the terrorist attacks in London on July 7," she added.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/07/12/uk_bomb_police_search_houses_in_n_england/
Bosnian Muslims bury victims of 1995 Srebrenica massacre
By Associated Press July 12, 2005
SREBRENICA, Bosnia-Herzegovina -- Women wept as they finally buried husbands and sons yesterday, 10 years after Europe's worst massacre since World War II -- funerals made possible by the excavation of mass graves of victims killed by Bosnian Serb forces.
An extraordinary gathering of 30,000 people -- including the Serb president -- came to Srebrenica to mark the anniversary and honor the dead.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/07/12/bosnian_muslims_bury_victims_of_1995_srebrenica_massacre/
Shuttle risk level acceptable, NASA says
Cites steps taken to improve safety
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff July 12, 2005
Two and a half years after the Columbia space shuttle disaster grounded the US manned space program, NASA plans to launch seven astronauts into orbit tomorrow in a more than $1 billion effort to restore the nation's faith in space travel and solidify the program's international reputation.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/07/12/shuttle_risk_level_acceptable_nasa_says/
State strives to reduce water, energy consumption at flagship university
July 12, 2005
AMHERST, Mass. --The state is endeavoring to save millions of dollars annually through conservation, and some of the most ambitious efforts are at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Thousands of toilets and faucets have already been replaced to reduce water consumption at the state's flagship university, and dozens of hybrid vehicles are being purchased with the goal of cutting energy costs by about $6 million per year, or 25 percent of the campus utility bill.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/07/12/state_strives_to_reduce_water_energy_consumption_at_flagship_university/
NAACP releases business diversity report
NAACP Interim President and CEO Dennis Hayes speaks at the Economic Reciprocity Report Card press conference at the NAACP 96th annual convention at the Midwest Airlines Center, Milwaukee, Wisc., Monday, July 11, 2005. (AP Photo/Darren Hauck)
By Erin Texeira, AP National Writer July 12, 2005
MILWAUKEE --When NAACP officials began grading corporations operating in the U.S. on racial diversity nine years ago, they had hoped companies would show steady gains each year.
But the latest report released Monday indicates many of the 55 companies analyzed seem to be stagnating, with most earning virtually the same grades as last year -- an indication some businesses are not making much effort to improve, said Dennis C. Hayes, interim president of the civil rights group.
The report is "a measuring tool upon which consumers can rely to make informed choices about where to spend their dollars," Hayes said. "It is meant to serve as a catalyst for positive change."
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/07/12/naacp_releases_business_diversity_report/
continued . . .
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