October 3, 2005. The Cathedral of Santiago, Spain.
The students of UCLA made pilgramage on the roads between the cathedrals in Spain and France.
Thursday, October 06, 2005
The Shrine of St. James in Santiago de Compostela in Spain
October 3, 2005. The Cathedral of Santiago, Spain.
The students of UCLA made pilgramage on the roads between the cathedrals in Spain and France.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Rooster "Crowing"
"Okeydoke"
History
1871, Fisk Jubilee Singers begin first concert tour. Eight former slaves, singing spirituals learned in slavery, begin touring the U.S and Europe to raise money for the Fisk School.
1889, the Moulin Rouge in Paris first opened its doors to the public.
1917, Political activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who worked with SNCC to secure voting rights for Black people, is born in Montgomery County Mississippi.
1924, Joseph E. Lowery, who will serve as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is born in Huntsville , AL
1927, the era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of "The Jazz Singer," a movie starring Al Jolson that featured both silent and sound-synchronized scenes.
1949, President Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, totaling $1.3 billion in military aid to NATO countries.
1973, war erupted in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria attacked Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday.
1976, in his second debate with Jimmy Carter, President Ford asserted there was "no Soviet domination of eastern Europe." (Ford later conceded he'd misspoken.)
1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was shot to death by extremists while reviewing a military parade.
"Okeydoke"
History
1871, Fisk Jubilee Singers begin first concert tour. Eight former slaves, singing spirituals learned in slavery, begin touring the U.S and Europe to raise money for the Fisk School.
1889, the Moulin Rouge in Paris first opened its doors to the public.
1917, Political activist Fannie Lou Hamer, who worked with SNCC to secure voting rights for Black people, is born in Montgomery County Mississippi.
1924, Joseph E. Lowery, who will serve as President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, is born in Huntsville , AL
1927, the era of talking pictures arrived with the opening of "The Jazz Singer," a movie starring Al Jolson that featured both silent and sound-synchronized scenes.
1949, President Truman signed the Mutual Defense Assistance Act, totaling $1.3 billion in military aid to NATO countries.
1973, war erupted in the Middle East as Egypt and Syria attacked Israel during the Yom Kippur holiday.
1976, in his second debate with Jimmy Carter, President Ford asserted there was "no Soviet domination of eastern Europe." (Ford later conceded he'd misspoken.)
1981, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat was shot to death by extremists while reviewing a military parade.
Missing in Action
1962 ANDERSON THOMAS EDWARD SPENARD AK
1966 JOHNSON WILLIAM EDWARD TALLAHASSEE FL 01/14/69 REMAINS RECOVERED
1966 MAKOWSKI LOUIS FRANK WAUCHULA FL 03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1966 MOSER DAVID LLOYD GEORG MCKEESPORT PA 01/69 REMAINS RECOVERED
1966 PFEIFER RONALD EDWIN BELLEROSE NY 01/69 REMAINS RECOVERED REFNO 2004 1 OF 26
1967 ARMSTRONG FRANK A. III SHREVEPORT LA
1969 BOWER IRVIN LESTER JR. LINGLESTOWN PA
1972 ANDERSON ROBERT D. BATTLE CREEK MI REMAINS IDENTIFIED 10/30/98 NAME WITHHELD
1972 BAKER VETO H. "11/75 AWOL, RELEASED BY SVN" DECEASED
1972 BOLTZE BRUCE E. FLINT MI
1972 LATELLA GEORGE F. NEW YORK NY 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 MC CORMICK CARL O. PEORIA IL
1973 ELM HOMER L. 12/11/73 RELEASED
Los Angeles Times
Agency Seeks to Lift Otter Ban
Federal biologists call for ending efforts to keep them out of Southland waters. They compete with lobster and urchin fishermen.
By Sara Lin, Times Staff Writer
After 18 years of failed attempts to keep sea otters out of most Southern California waters at the behest of fishermen, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Wednesday recommended abandoning the effort, saying the move would benefit the threatened species.
The agency also called for ending a program to relocate sea otters from Monterey Bay to San Nicolas Island, 60 miles off the Southern California coast. The program was meant to foster a new population of southern sea otters, but most of the relocated otters left the island, many taking up residence nearer the coast.
"The underlying message is, otters don't stay where we put them," said Greg Sanders, southern sea otter recovery coordinator for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
"From all we can tell, they all swam away," Sanders said.
Some swam more than 200 miles through shark-infested waters back to Monterey Bay. Others headed toward forbidden waters off the nearby Southern California coast.
Historically, California sea otters could be found as far south as Baja California. They numbered about 16,000 in the 1800s. The otters were nearly wiped out by 19th century fur traders, but about 50 survived in a remote cove off Big Sur. In 1977, they were declared a federally protected species. Today, there are about 2,700 California otters. The population has held steady in recent years.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-otter6oct06,0,2688143.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Fundraising Phenom -- Red Cross -- Is Under Fire
By Josh Getlin, Nicole Gaouette and Jenny Jarvie, Times Staff Writers
BELLE CHASSE, La. -- Amid the destruction and dislocation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the American Red Cross has undertaken a relief effort unlike any in its history. So far, the charity has spent $811 million on emergency cash aid and $110 million on food and shelter.
The results have been mixed.
Despite the ambition of the charity's efforts and the money spent, evacuees complain that Red Cross aid has been slow and unreliable. Other charity groups and relief workers contend that the agency is in over its head.
Guy Richardson, a New Orleans waiter who made it to Atlanta with his family, said he encountered chaos in trying to get cash assistance from the Red Cross. He waited in line for eight hours at a center, without success; the charity later pulled out of the center.
Others, like Liz Tadlock, have grumbled about their inability to get through on an 800 phone line set up to help evacuees register for emergency cash assistance. The Belle Chasse teacher said she spent two days at a center dialing the Red Cross number.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-100605redcross_lat,0,6934504.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Rove to Give Additional Testimony in CIA Leak Case
Federal prosecutors warn they cannot guarantee the presidential adviser won't be indicted.
From Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Federal prosecutors have accepted an offer from presidential adviser Karl Rove to give 11th hour testimony in the case of a CIA officer's leaked identity and have warned they cannot guarantee he won't be indicted, according to people directly familiar with the investigation.
The people, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because of grand jury secrecy, said Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has not made any decision yet on whether to file criminal charges against the longtime confidant of President Bush or anyone else.
The U.S. attorney's manual requires that prosecutors not bring witnesses before a grand jury if there is a possibility of future criminal charges unless the witnesses are notified in advance that their testimony can be used against them in a later indictment.
Rove has already made at least three grand jury appearances and his return at this late stage in the investigation is unusual.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-100605rove_wr,0,5814600.story?coll=la-home-headlines
2 Strategies on Policing Homeless
LAPD chief touts arrests for crimes downtown. Sheriff says sweeps won't solve the big problem.
By Cara Mia DiMassa and Stuart Pfeifer, Times Staff Writers
The debate over what to do about the homeless problem in downtown Los Angeles is informed — and complicated — by the decidedly divergent views on the issue voiced by Los Angeles' two top law enforcement officials.
When Sheriff Lee Baca talks about his goal of ending homelessness in Los Angeles County, he sounds more like an idealistic social worker than the head of the largest sheriff's department in the country.
He has set up summits to strategize on how to better serve the homeless and mentally ill and has tried for years to establish a tent city near County Jail for homeless people who have been released. He has said he doesn't believe that arresting the homeless for minor violations is the best way to solve the problem.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dumping6oct06,0,4040252.story?coll=la-home-local
War of attrition
THE WORSENING MILITARY SITUATION in Iraq now threatens to be matched by declining political conditions there. In the last week, more than 140 Iraqis have been killed in a series of bombings, and U.S. Army officials downgraded from three to one the number of Iraqi battalions capable of acting on their own. Meanwhile, Shiites and Kurds attempted to rig the Oct. 15 referendum on the new constitution in an effort to further marginalize the Sunnis, backing down only under strong U.S. and United Nations pressure.
It's difficult if not impossible to reconcile President Bush's upbeat reports of progress, such as the one he delivered Wednesday in the Rose Garden, with reality. We hope for a more clear-eyed assessment in his planned speech today.
The consequences abroad
Success in Iraq is crucial not just for Bush, obviously, but across the Middle East, where the escalating violence is causing alarm. Two weeks ago, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al Faisal, said Iraq was hurtling toward disintegration and could draw other countries in the region into a civil war. While the Bush administration promotes a vision of a democratic Iraq as a beacon for the Middle East, Iraq's neighbors worry about a different beacon: a fractured state that's a magnet for insurgents who train and gain combat experience in Iraq and return home to wreak havoc.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-iraq06oct06,0,3310107.story?coll=la-home-oped
Jerry Juhl, 67; His Scriptwriting Breathed Life Into the Muppets
By Dennis McLellan, Times Staff Writer
Jerry Juhl, the Emmy Award-winning former head writer for the Muppets who provided much of the heart and soul to Jim Henson's iconic troupe of fleece and foam puppets, has died. He was 67.
Juhl, who also co-wrote most of the Muppet feature films and wrote for "Sesame Street" during its early years, died of cancer Sept. 27 in a hospital in San Francisco, said Arthur Novell, executive director of the Jim Henson Legacy. Juhl, who was semiretired, lived in the Northern California town of Caspar.
Juhl co-wrote "The Muppet Movie," which marked the Muppets' move to the big screen in 1979. He later wrote the screenplay for "The Muppet Christmas Carol" and co-wrote "The Great Muppet Caper," "Muppet Treasure Island" and "Muppets From Space."
He also served as head writer and creative producer on the award-winning "Fraggle Rock," Henson's 1983-87 TV series about a race of small creatures that live underground.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-juhl6oct06,0,1874207.story?coll=la-home-obituaries
P C World
Windows XP SP3 Preview Surfaces Online
"Unofficial" preview pack includes log-on improvements and network fixes for Windows XP PCs.
Elizabeth Montalbano, IDG News Service
Wednesday, October 05, 2005
Though Microsoft still won't confirm that it will release a third service pack for its Windows XP operating system, a preview version of the software update has been made available on the Web.
An "unofficial" preview pack of Windows XP Service Pack 3 is available at The Hotfix, a software download site and discussion forum that focuses on patches and software updates.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122871,00.asp
Trojan Horse Sneaks Through MS Office Hole
Malicious code can arrive via e-mail as an attached Access file.
Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service
Monday, October 03, 2005
Microsoft says it is investigating a recently released Trojan horse that targets a hole--first identified in April--in its Microsoft Office software suite.
Symantec has issued an advisory that the Trojan horse, named Backdoor.Hesive, can arrive as a Microsoft Access file, exploiting a Microsoft Jet Database Engine buffer overflow. The code can give an unauthorized user access, Symantec says, allowing an intruder to upload files, modify Registry values, and get system and network information.
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,122811,00.asp
Smart, Free Fixes for Your USB Hassles
Make that kudzu-like array of USB devices and ports work--once and for all.
Steve Bass
From the November 2005 issue of PC World magazine
Posted Monday, September 26, 2005
When USB works, it's great. But half the time, it's as flaky as Boston Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez. Sit tight. I've discovered what could be the sources of your USB problems, and--miracle of miracles--how you can fix them.
The Hassle: Some days, my computer does not see my USB scanner, while on other days it does; the same thing happens with my external hard drive.
The Fix: The culprit here may be overcurrent, either on the PC's USB ports or on a powered USB hub. Overcurrent occurs when too many power-draining USB peripherals are turned on at once, causing some devices not to be seen by the PC. This glitch usually arises with devices that need power from the USB port, such as unpowered hubs, memory card readers, and flash drives.
http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,122476,00.asp
The Daily Star (Beirut, Lebanon)
Bush, Blair tighten screws on Syria and Iran for alleged terror support
U.S. President defends iraq war as defense against Islamic empire
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, October 07, 2005
President George W. Bush implicitly accused Syria and Iran of supporting "terrorist" groups and defended the Iraq war as necessary to prevent Islamic militants from gaining a foothold for a sweeping empire. Further stepping up international pressure on Iran, British Prime Minster Tony Blair said London suspected explosives used to kill British troops in Iraq may have come from the Islamic Republic or its Lebanese Hizbullah allies. Both Iran and Hizbullah denied the accusations as "lies."
Trying to reverse a slide in public support for the war in Iraq, Bush said in a major speech on his global anti-terror campaign that Islamic militants have made Iraq their main front in a war against civilized society.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=19122
Remarks on the road to a just Lebanon
Human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh discusses matters of amnesty and justice
By Jim Quilty
Daily Star staff
Friday, October 07, 2005
INTERVIEW
BEIRUT: "The files on Dinnieh and the Majdel Anjar group are now closed, as are those on Danny Chamoun and Rashid Karami," says Nizar Saghieh. "It is atrocious that these cases are linked. Worse, journalists [generally] didn't question the legal precedent for linking completely unrelated crimes."
"There is no legal precedent for this. The only thing it can be compared to is a prisoner exchange."
Saghieh is addressing an audience at the Masrah Al-Madina, part of a recent round-table discussion called "Amnesty versus justice and where memory dwells." It was staged during "Civil Violence and War Memories," a symposium organized by UMAM Documentation and Research.
"Lebanon's amnesty law was a political document," he continues, "not a legal one."
The amnesty law in question freed Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea after 11 years detention. Rolled into the package were several Sunni detainees, some accused of involvement in the Dinnieh episode of December 1999 to January 2000, others of plotting terror acts against Western targets in Lebanon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=19109
Annan mulls request to extend probe into Hariri killing
Lebanese Prime Minister called the secretary general for a mandate extension for Mehlis' team
By Mayssam Zaaroura and Nada Bakri
Daily Star staff
Friday, October 07, 2005
NEW YORK/BEIRUT: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan is studying the possibility of extending the mandate of the head of the UN probe team into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri, Detlev Mehlis, to the end of this year, according to top level UN sources. The UN secretary general's spokesman Stephane Dujarric told The Daily Star yesterday "Annan met with Mehlis yesterday in Geneva to be directly briefed by Mehlis on the latest results of his investigations."
Mehlis' report is due to be presented on October 21, three days before his commission's mandate expires.
Lebanese press reports quoted Prime Minister Fouad Siniora Monday as saying that Mehlis was seeking to extend the mission until December 15.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=19121
Lebanon faces illegal cable-TV challenge
Officials must crack down on unlicensed operators to improve wto prospects
By Bechir Saade
Daily Star staff
Friday, October 07, 2005
BEIRUT: The government's chances of joining the World Trade Organization (WTO) are remote if it does not take serious measures to crack down on intellectual property (IP) rights violation, according to a legal expert. The thorniest issue may well be cable-TV piracy due to the considerable size of its market. Today, only two cable-TV operators are legally licensed: Cable Vision and Econet.
For the rest, a recent study found that 600 to 800 unauthorized cable operators are feeding as many as 800,000 households at $10 per month, bringing the total of illegal activity to $8 million, according to attorney and legal specialist in IP issues Walid Nasser.
At a time when the U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon Jeffrey Feltman has shown discontent with the overall status of Lebanese IP rights, Nasser stressed that Lebanon was on America's "301 lists" of countries which potentially violate trade rules of conduct in terms IP rights.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=19108
Israeli firepower and fences won't stop Palestinian sewage
By Ze'ev Schiff
Commentary by
Friday, October 07, 2005
At the end of last month, Israel dedicated its largest desalination plant on the Mediterranean Sea. The facility is located in Ashkelon, not far from the northern border of the Gaza Strip. In the first phase of operation, it is meant to supply 100 million cubic meters of water a year.
But now, as the government is gearing up for a party, a classified report has landed on its desk that was commissioned from the Israel Water Commission prior to Israel's decision to leave the Gaza Strip and portions of northern Samaria. The section relevant to the desalination plant in Ashkelon states that if the Palestinians go ahead with their plans to lay a sewage pipe that drains into the sea in the northern Gaza Strip, it will "paralyze the largest desalination plant in Ashkelon and pollute the nearby beaches."
The wording used by the Israel Water Commission in this report is uncharacteristically harsh: "Crippling the work of the desalination plant by piping sewage into the sea from northern Gaza is intolerable for the water economy. Any attempt to lay a pipe that drains sewage into the sea and pollutes our coastline must be physically stopped." This kind of stern language was not even employed when Syria and the Arab countries tried to divert the headwaters of the Jordan years ago, which eventually led to the outbreak of the 1967 war.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=19095
Terrorism in pursuit of Western values
By Mustafa Malik
Commentary by
Friday, October 07, 2005
Human rights groups around the world are concerned that the UN resolution calling on governments to punish "incitement to terrorist acts" will further stifle the voices of the oppressed, especially because the world body has failed to define what terrorism is.
This resolution has, says Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth, "made it easy for abusive governments to invoke the resolution to target peaceful political opponents, impose censorship and close mosques, churches and schools."
The draft resolution that sought to define terrorism fell through in the UN General Assembly mainly because the United States and Britain opposed clauses that would permit "resistance against occupation" and call for the examination of the "root causes" of terrorism. America and Britain, representing the European Union, apparently were saying that if you have the guns you can not only invade and occupy countries, but should be able to rewrite political science, too.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=19093
FCLD, PA prisoner affairs minister meet with UN officials
By John Thorne
Special to The Daily Star
Friday, October 07, 2005
The Follow-Up Committee for the Support of Lebanese Detainees in Israeli Prisons (FCLD) met UN officials at UN House in Beirut. Also present was Palestinian Authority Minister of Prisoner Affairs Ziad Abu Ein. FCLD chief Mohammad Safa declared the meeting a success, saying the UN representatives had expressed their full support for the Palestinian detainees. They agreed with the FCLD to step up the Red Cross' activity in Israeli prisons and prepare a special, first-of-its-kind report to the UN on the detainees.
Israel holds some 8,600 Palestinian and Arab detainees, two of whom are Lebanese, says Safa, whose committee lobbies Israel on behalf of Arab prisoners in general. Some have been held for over 20 years, including Lebanon's Samir Qantar, imprisoned since 1978.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=19120
The Jordan Times
Queen Rania Distinguished Teacher Award launched
By Mohammad Ghazal
Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania with teachers who participated in a workshop on Wednesday to discuss the characteristics required to excel in the profession (Photo by Yousef Allan)
AMMAN — Marking Teachers' Day, His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday launched the Queen Rania Distinguished Teacher Award, seeking to spread the spirit of competitiveness among the Kingdom's educators.
Joining a workshop of 25 teachers yesterday to discuss the characteristics necessary to excel in the profession and to set a strategy for success in the field, Their Majesties King Abdullah and Queen Rania voiced their support for teachers in the Kingdom.
“I am aware of your circumstances and I support you and I constantly follow up with the Ministry of Education on how to overcome the challenges and obstacles you face,” King Abdullah told participants at the workshop.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/homenews/homenews1.htm
Help them think
Teachers' Day yesterday represented an occasion for all of us to show appreciation for the work of our 70,000 teachers who, everyday, face the colossal task of facilitating and assisting the intellectual, emotional and physical growth of our children.
In a country where more than one-third of the population is attending elementary or secondary schools, teachers' contribution to the making of Jordan's future cannot be overstated.
This year, the introduction of new curricula, textbooks and assessment criteria and methods for four graders made the work of many educators more challenging, but at the same time more rewarding.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion1.htm
Conflicting interests in Iraq
Michael Jansen
The three-pronged US military offensive in Iraq's restive western Anbar province and the Shiite-dominated Iraqi parliament's decision to change the law governing the Oct. 15th referendum on the constitution in order to prevent its defeat are the iron girders which broke the Sunni camel's back.
On the one hand, the US military, backed up by some Iraqi troops, is attacking three main Sunni enclaves, the first around Qaim on the border with Syria, the second in the Haditha area and the third in Ramadi, on the western approaches to Baghdad. Sunnis claim that these assaults are timed to make it impossible for them to vote in the referendum, denying them the right to cast their ballots against the controversial constitution.
On the other hand, the assembly redefined the three-province veto on the constitution by ruling that it could be rejected only if two-thirds of registered rather than actual voters cast negative ballots. Since only 57 per cent of registered voters took part in last January's parliamentary poll, this means that it is impossible for the Sunnis to defeat a constitution which they consider to be a recipe for the break-up of Iraq.
Under strong UN and US pressure, the Iraqi assembly yesterday abrogated this restrictive measure, but the flip-flop is not likely to convince Sunnis that the referendum will be conducted honestly and transparently.
Instead of coaxing and cultivating Iraq's Sunnis and secularists in order to bring them into the political process, the Bush administration and the Shiite-led Iraqi government are doing their best to drive the Sunnis from the political scene and, perhaps, even from the country.
Having seized power through January's parliamentary election, Washington's Shiite allies are determined to hang on to it even though this means they must contend with both an escalating insurgency and the civil war which killed more than 700 Iraqis last month.
The most amazing aspect of this drive for absolute power is that the US-fostered Shiite United Iraqi Alliance is a coalition of largely Shiite religious factions dominated by Islamic Dawa and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Both enjoy close relations with the Iranian government and other power centres in Tehran. It is ironic that Interior Minister Bayan Jabor should criticise the Saudis and others who have warned of this connection to a Shiite clerical regime which seeks to export its Islamic revolutionary ideology to other countries in the Middle East.
So far, Iraq is the only state where the seeds sown by Tehran over the past 25 years seem to be sprouting. Tehran expects Dawa and SCIRI to be victorious in the constitutional referendum and win at least a plurality of seats in a full-term parliament in the December poll. Dawa, a Shiite religious party founded in 1957, is somewhat more independent than SCIRI, a breakaway faction set up in Tehran in 1982. SCIRI's militia, the Badr Corps, was set up under the guidance of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and funded and armed by Iran. The Badr Corps fought on Iran's side during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war, and remains in close contact with the Revolutionary Guards.
Senior Dawa and SCIRI officials have top jobs in the central government. Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari is the spokesman of Dawa and Jabor, a Shiite Turkoman, is a former commander of the Badr Corps. SCIRI members serve as governors of Baghdad, Najaf and Karbala and have taken up senior posts in the southern provinces. SCIRI militiamen have been inducted into the armed forces and police. SCIRI-affiliated soldiers and police have been accused of murdering political rivals and former Baathists. SCIRI clerics and enforcers impose Iran-style conservative dress and social codes on Basra and southern cities.
SCIRI and the Kurds inserted a provision in the draft constitution permitting two or more provinces to form regions and allowing them control of local resources, including oil. SCIRI seeks to create a region of nine Shiite-majority provinces where 70 per cent of Iraq's developed and proven oil reserves are located. In addition to oil, this region contains a disproportionate number of power plants, its only maritime outlets, Basra and Umm Qasr, lucrative pilgrimage and tourism sites, and rich agricultural land and water resources.
Iran has cultivated connections with religious figures and tribal factions. Tehran funds mosque maintenance and construction, builds religious schools, clinics, and social and sports clubs. Tehran donates mountains of books, particularly on theology, and posters bearing the images of revered Shiite theologians, including Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic. Iran's wealthy charitable foundations, which engage in the export of Iran's Islamic revolutionary ideology, are involved in welfare projects in Iraq.
Sunnis and Kurds accuse Tehran of disguising intelligence agents as Shiite pilgrims and of brainwashing Iraqi Shiites who visit Iranian holy sites. Constant cross-border contact is creating a common sense of identity between Iranian and Iraqi Shiites. This relationship could even become as close as that between the Afghan Taleban and Pakistan.
Nevertheless, the US is committed to its alliance with Dawa and SCIRI. In the short term, Iranian and US interests converge. Both want the Sunni resistance to be crushed, Iraq to attain a modicum of stability, and reconstruction to begin in earnest. But in the medium to long term, the interests of Washington and Tehran diverge. Washington claims it wants Iraq to become a pluralistic democracy and a light onto the nations of the region. Tehran seeks to install a Shiite Islamic regime in the southern Shiite superstate and to exert influence in Iraq's central government through its Shiite political allies. The clerics also want Iraq to be a light unto the peoples of the region, a light guiding them to Islamic statehood.
Thursday, October 6, 2005
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion2.htm
Abbas, Sharon to meet Tuesday — King
JT with agency dispatches
PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon are expected to meet on Tuesday after mediation efforts by His Majesty King Abdullah, a senior Royal Court official said.
The official told The Jordan Times that King Abdullah separately telephoned Abbas and Sharon, urging them to meet and resume peace negotiations.
"Following the King's efforts to help revive the peace process, the Palestinian president and the Israeli prime minister agreed to meet on October 11 and try to find a solution to pending issues," the official said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news1.htm
MPs make U-turn on charter vote rules
A partially destroyed car is taken away Wednesday from the site where a car bomb exploded in central Baghdad (AFP photo by Ahmad Rubaye)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Iraq's parliament reversed on Wednesday a ruling that would have helped a new constitution win approval in a referendum, appeasing minority Sunnis after the United Nations hinted it might refuse to endorse the vote.
Sunni politicians, many of whom say the charter favours Shiites and Kurds, and the White House welcomed parliament's move, which changed a decision on Sunday easing conditions for the October 15 referendum to secure a "yes" vote.
The national assembly's Shiite majority insisted it acted by itself and not under pressure of the UN's veiled warnings.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news2.htm
Bomber wrecks Shiite mosque, kills 25
HILLAH (AP) — A bomb exploded at the entrance of a Shiite Muslim mosque south of Baghdad as hundreds of worshippers gathered for prayers and for the funeral of a man killed in an earlier bombing. At least 25 people were killed and 87 wounded.
The explosion hit the Husseiniyat Ibn Nama Mosque, ripping through strings of lightbulbs and green and red flags hung around the entrance to celebrate the start of the holy month. The mosque's facade was ravaged, shops nearby were destroyed and several cars were damaged.
Hundreds of men had gathered at the mosque, located in the centre of Hillah, for prayers before returning home to eat the meal that ends the day's sunrise to sunset fast, when the blast went off at 6:00pm.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news3.htm
Iranian foreign minister puts off Saudi visit amid row
RIYADH (AFP) — Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki put off a planned visit to Saudi Arabia Wednesday after the two countries publicly rowed over the situation in Iraq.
Saudi Arabia has accused Shiite Iran of meddling in the affairs of the violence-ravaged country, but Tehran has denied the charge, which also drew a scathing attack on Riyadh from an Iraqi Shiite minister.
The surprise postponement of Mottaki's visit was reported by Saudi foreign ministry sources and later confirmed by an Iranian foreign ministry source.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news4.htm
Iran's tough nuclear stance causes domestic jitters
TEHRAN (AFP) — The uncompromising stance of Iran's new hardline authorities in a standoff over Islamic republic's nuclear programme is worrying some Iranian officials and leading to overt criticism.
The issue is not whether or not the country should hang on to its nuclear programme, but more on how the regime should go about it.
Since the presidential election victory of hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June and the appointment of ultra-conservative Ali Larijani as top negotiator, the crisis has taken a turn for the worse.
Iran has slammed the door on proposals from Britain, France and Germany that it abandon fuel cycle technology in return for incentives, and decided to resume uranium conversion work in defiance of a suspension agreement with the EU-3.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news7.htm
Turkey, Europe and the clash of civilisations
Gwynne Dyer
“What do you gain by adding 99 per cent Muslim Turkey to the European Union?” asked Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan last month. And then he answered his own question: “You gain a bridge between the EU and the 1.5 billion-strong Islamic world. An alliance of civilisations will start.”
You don't have to go very far in Turkey to find people who reject Erdogan's vision: the militant nationalist right, the radical left, religious fanatics and people who just worry that joining the EU will slow down the country's rapid economic growth. And you don't have to go far in the EU to find people who are equally opposed to Turkey's membership. But the official negotiations on Turkey's membership opened nevertheless in Luxembourg on the evening of Oct. 3.
It should have been the morning of Oct. 3, but the bitter argument within the EU went on right down to the wire and beyond, with the Austrian government demanding that Turkey be offered not full membership but only a “privileged partnership”. Since any one of the EU's 25 member countries can block a proposal to admit a new member, it took two days of arm-twisting and bribery to get the Austrians to drop their objections, and by the end the Turks were on the brink of walking away themselves.
This “alliance of civilisations” stuff is not easy to do.
It was hardly surprising that it was Austria that was digging its heels in, for Austria was for several centuries the frontier between Christian Europe and the Turkish-ruled Balkans. It was at the second siege of Vienna, in 1683, that the relentless advance of the Turks into Europe was finally stopped, and for Austrians that crisis of more than 300 years ago remains the event that defines their national identity.
Behind the Austrians' arguments that Turkey is too populous and too poor to fit into the European Union (73 million people and only a third of the EU's average per capita GDP), their basic objection was that Christianity and Islam do not mix. Admitting Turkey would turn the EU into a 20 per cent Muslim entity, which is just a recipe for trouble. And that view was shared by a significant minority of Christian conservatives and other sceptics elsewhere, especially in France and Germany.
Pro-Turkish governments in the EU were just as prone to define the argument in “civilisational” and sometimes apocalyptic terms. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the BBC on Oct. 2 that “we're concerned about a so-called clash of civilisations. We're concerned about this theological-political divide, which could open up even further the boundary between so-called Christian-heritage states and those of Islamic heritage”.
And you just want to tell them all to take their medication and calm down.
There is an attractive symbolism in the idea that Turkish membership in the EU would finally begin to repair the split that tore the old classical Mediterranean civilisation in two with the rise of Islam fourteen centuries ago, but it is not really about an “alliance” between Christianity and Islam. On the contrary, it has become possible only because both Western Europeans and Turks have ceased to define themselves solely or even mainly in religious terms. Many people in Western Europe and most people in Turkey are still believers, but it doesn't swallow up their whole identity.
Rejecting Turkey merely on the grounds that it is Muslim would condemn the EU to being just “a Christian club”, in Erdogan's cutting phrase, but it would not trigger some vast confrontation between the West and the Muslim world. The Turks would be severely miffed, but most people in other Muslim countries already think of Europe as a Christian club, having no idea of how small a role religion plays in the public life of most EU countries. Small disaster, not many hurt.
The real reasons for the EU to want Turkey in are much more specific. The EU will have need of Turkey's relatively young and growing population as its own population ages, and Turkey's high economic growth rate (eight or nine per cent this year) would help bring up the rather modest EU average. A surprising number of Europeans also care about healing the old rift that tore Europe itself apart — for Turkey, although Muslim, was a European great power for five centuries, and was firmly established in the Balkans long before it conquered most of the Arab world.
For Turks, whose free-trade relationship with the EU already gives them most of the economic benefits of membership, the advantages lie mainly in anchoring the country in a web of supranational institutions and laws that guarantee the country's democratic and secular character. Erdogan has already used the requirements of EU membership as a lever with which to force democratic and human rights reforms on a reluctant army and bureaucracy, and membership negotiation will enable him to go further in the same direction.
When will Turkey actually join? Certainly not before 2015, by which time the economic gap between Turkey and the richer EU countries may have narrowed considerably — and maybe never, for the entry negotiations are not guaranteed to succeed. But the fact that negotiations have finally started sends all the right signals, and the talks themselves are a useful tool for Turkish reformers. That's enough for the moment.
The writer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion5.htm
Jerusalem Post
Aksa Martyrs Brigades plan to run in next elections
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Although it has been added to the US State Department's official list of foreign terrorist groups, the armed wing of the ruling Fatah party, Aksa Martyrs Brigades, is planning to run in the next elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.
The group's decision is likely to embarrass Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, who is already under heavy pressure from Israel to prevent Hamas from participating in the vote. Moreover, it is understood that the US and the European Union are opposed to the participation of Hamas and other terrorist groups in the elections.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565310321
Sharon wants NRP, not Lapid
By GIL HOFFMAN
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would like to see the National Religious Party and not Shinui join the coalition, sources close to Sharon said on Thursday.
Following Sharon's meeting with Shinui head Yosef Lapid on Thursday, Lapid told reporters that Sharon invited him to join the coalition. Lapid said he replied that Shinui would consider it if the government enacted civil marriage and forced haredim to serve in the army.
Sharon's office later denied that such an offer was made to Shinui. Sharon's associates said that Sharon merely offered Shinui "cooperation" and that if any party joins the coalition, it would be the National Religious Party.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565310749
High Court bans use of 'human shields'
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
In a landmark ruling, Israel's High Court of Justice on Thursday banned the military's use of Palestinian civilians as 'human shields' in arrest operations against suspected Palestinian terrorists, calling the practice a violation of international law.
The unequivocal ruling by the nation's highest court, which was harshly lambasted by right-wing parliamentarians and warmly welcomed by the left, comes three years after it issued a temporary
injunction against the practice following a petition by Israeli human rights groups -- Human Rights Watch, and B'Tselem.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565305933
Norwegian claims she infiltrated Mossad
By ARIEH O'SULLIVAN AND AP
A Norwegian woman with close ties to the Palestinian community succeeded in infiltrating the Mossad in the 1980s, reports from Oslo claimed Thursday.
The woman, identified by The Associated Press as Karin Linstad, said she decided to expose herself because she was being identified in a book being published next month.
"I can't go into detail about the people and the organizations," the alleged double agent told the AP.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565309627
Israel: Franklin's trial won't affect us
By NATHAN GUTTMAN
WASHINGTON
Israel alleged that it would not be affected by Lawrence Franklin's plea bargain or by the fact that the names of Israeli diplomats were mentioned in court. Israeli diplomatic sources said Thursday that Naor Gilon, the former political officer at the Israeli embassy in Washington, who was in contact with convicted Pentagon analyst Franklin, had no idea that the information he got from Franklin was classified.
"We are not responsible for what is said to us by American officials", said the diplomatic source, "even if an American official did something he was not authorized to do, we had no way of knowing that."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128565310259
Gulf Coast Jews struggle to celebrate High Holy Days
By RACHEL ZOLL
Bad luck keeps following Stephen Richer. Last year at the start of Rosh Hashana, a hurricane evacuation sent him and a cantor at his tiny Biloxi, Mississippi, synagogue on an odyssey across the state to find a congregation where they could mark the Jewish New Year.
This year, as the High Holy Days began Monday night, Richer once again searched for a spiritual home. His Conservative synagogue, Congregation Beth Israel, is one of many across the Gulf Coast that have been shuttered by extensive damage from Hurricane Katrina
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128478900293
El Al buys Boeing again: Two B777-200 ERs for $246m.
By AVI KRAWITZ
El Al has once again decided to maintain an all-Boeing fleet after it agreed to buy two Boeing 777-200 ER airplanes from the Seattle-based aircraft manufacturer for $246 million.
The company announced the deal on Sunday for the two aircraft, which will each cost $117m. to $123m. depending on the specifications required by the company. They are scheduled to be delivered in 2007.
El Al said that it had the resources to finance 15 percent of the purchase price, while the remainder would be covered through loans, for which it expects to secure commitments by December.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1128219510325
continued …
Morning Papers - continued
What goes around comes around. Mike knows all to well. It takes time but the weak finally fall. We aren’t required in this life to know every motive or understanding of underhanded people. It’s impossible to conceive of that level of criminal intent to a society and the international community for the sake of natural resources. We’ve done good. We’ve done more than good. We’ve done great.
We don’t belong in Iraq.
We never did.
Bring the troops home.
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Senate Defies Bush
Votes 90-9 to restore integrity
Senate Supports Interrogation Limits
90-9 Vote on the Treatment of Detainees Is a Bipartisan Rebuff of the White House
By Charles Babington and Shailagh Murray / Washington Post
The Senate defied the White House yesterday and voted to set new limits on interrogating detainees in Iraq and elsewhere, underscoring Congress's growing concerns about reports of abuse of suspected terrorists and others in military custody.
Forty-six Republicans joined 43 Democrats and one independent in voting to define and limit interrogation techniques that U.S. troops may use against terrorism suspects, the latest sign that alarm over treatment of prisoners in the Middle East and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is widespread in both parties. The White House had fought to prevent the restrictions, with Vice President Cheney visiting key Republicans in July and a spokesman yesterday repeating President Bush's threat to veto the larger bill that the language is now attached to -- a $440 billion military spending measure.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4424
Air Force Sued Over Religious Intolerance
By Tim Korte / Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A New Mexico man sued the Air Force on Thursday, claiming Air Force Academy senior officers and cadets illegally imposed Christianity on others at the school.
The suit was filed in federal court by Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate and outspoken critic of the school's handling of religion.
Over the past decade or more, the suit claims, academy leaders have fostered an environment of religious intolerance at the Colorado school, in violation of the First Amendment.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4428
Conservatives Confront Bush Aides
Anger Over Nomination of Miers Boils Over During Private Meetings
By Peter Baker and Dan Balz / Washington Post
The conservative uprising against President Bush escalated yesterday as Republican activists angry over his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court confronted the president's envoys during a pair of tense closed-door meetings.
A day after Bush publicly beseeched skeptical supporters to trust his judgment on Miers, a succession of prominent conservative leaders told his representatives that they did not. Over the course of several hours of sometimes testy exchanges, the dissenters complained that Miers was an unknown quantity with a thin résumé and that her selection -- Bush called her "the best person I could find" -- was a betrayal of years of struggle to move the court to the right.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4426
Indictments in Plame Case Could Come Any Time
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK -- Is it the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? Whatever way you look at it, it seems clear to many in Washington right now that indictments in the Valerie Plame affair will likely be announced soon, possibly on Thursday.
Note to editors and reporters: As the aspens turn, don't stray too far from your desks, cells or Blackberries.
Rumors surged all day Wednesday, though reports of 22 indictments did seem a bit farfetched. But late Wednesday, Reuters suggested that indeed the end--or beginning--was near, "within days," and added one major clue: Karl Rove's lawyer, who has always stated that his client was not a target in the probe, now refused to comment on that one way or the other.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4425
Dems Fight Efforts to Cut Food Stamps
By Libby Quaid / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Democrats are fighting attempts to make cuts in food stamps and conservation programs at a time when people are coping with hurricanes and drought.
"Right now the difference between life and death for many Americans is the food stamp program," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. "We should not, we cannot, cut the very nutritional programs that are literally saving lives."
A Republican plan to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion had been scheduled for a vote Thursday in the Senate Agriculture Committee, but the panel's chairman, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., put off the vote indefinitely late Wednesday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4427
Photo Tour of the Gulf Coast
From Jason
I have been touring the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the past few days and I simply cannot believe what I have seen.
The entire coast of Mississippi is flattened. I know that everyone has heard this on the news but until you see it for yourself it doesn't really make sense. Hopefully the pictures I took will give you some idea but let me tell you the no picture does this justice.
It looks like the apocalypse. It looks like a bomb went off and it covered 200 miles of land. It looks like this is a region that will be affected by this disaster not just for a year or two or three but possibly forever. One thing that it doesn't look like is America.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=45
War-Hawk Republicans and Anti-War Democrats: What's the Difference?
A message from Cindy Sheehan
The past week in DC found me in many offices of our elected officials: Senators, Congresspersons, pro-war, "anti-war," Democrat, Republican. With a few notable exceptions, all our employees toed party lines.
Thanks to those who met with me, because, except for Sen. Barbara Boxer, (D-Ca), I was not their constituent. And I believe the Republicans who met with me, whether they knew it or not, were breaking with their leader on this, since he was too cowardly to meet with me.
The War Hawks I met with made my skin crawl. They so obviously are supporting a war that is not in our nation's best interest, nor is it making us more secure. I heard from Sens. Dole (R-NC) and McCain (R-AZ), and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) about 9/11 and "fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them over there." That made me sick. George Bush and his lying band of imperialist greed mongers exploited 9/11 and our national terror of other terrorist attacks to invade a country that had nothing to do with the attacks on our country. Now, in the aftermath of those lies, tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians are dead and almost 2000 of our brave young men and women. What makes the Iraqi babies and families less precious than ours? The crime that these people committed was being born at the wrong place at the wrong time. George took his war OF terror to their doorsteps. I even asked Sen. Dole when she thought the occupation would be able to end and she was incredulous that I would even think of Iraq as an occupation, she sees it as a liberation. I really wanted to know how many of them do we have to kill before she considered that they were liberated.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=512
I Always Loved Horses as a Kid
P-FORTY-SEVEN NAMED HORSE OF THE MONTH
Posted by Harnesslink Admin 09:01 AM 04-Oct-2005 NZST
Mark Maynard, Kelly O’Donnell and Ed Mullinax’s P-Forty-Seven, whose tremendous performance in the $569,032 Little Brown Jug will be long remembered, has been named September’s Horse of the Month by the United States Trotting Association.
The three-year-old pacing colt by The Panderosa, out of the Artsplace mare Cohiba Mary, won all four of his starts during the month of September.
For the season, P-Forty-Seven has eight wins in 16 trips to the post, with earnings of $547,330. Trained by co-owner Kelly O’Donnell, he was driven in each of his September triumphs by Dave Palone.
P-Forty-Seven opened up his month on September 3 in the $100,000 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes Final at Pocono Downs.
http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=29843
Millstone officials plan for better horse trail network
Public hearing on proposed ordinance scheduled for Oct. 19
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer
Millstone
MILLSTONE — Those with plans to subdivide property in town may soon have to dedicate some of that land to horse rider use.
The Township Committee voted unanimously during its Sept. 21 meeting to introduce an ordinance that promotes further development of the bridle/horse trail network that runs throughout Millstone.
“The proposed ordinance provides for trails that exist to be preserved when development comes in, and for trails that have gaps to be completed if development occurs,” Mayor Elias Abilheira said.
http://examiner.gmnews.com/news/2005/1006/Front_Page/009.html
HORSE STABBED IN SICK ATTACK
Published in News & Star on Thursday, October 6th 2005
A racehorse has been stabbed in a sickening attack at a stable just outside Carlisle.
Three-year-old Declan was found in agony by owner Ian McMath at his premises at Thornedge, Cumwhinton late this morning.
The horse, which is worth around £10,000, had been stabbed in the shoulder with either a screwdriver, a knife or a pair of scissors.
The wound was so deep that the vet called to the scene was able to push his little finger right into the gash.
If the stab wound has damaged muscles or tendons, Declan’s career could hang in the balance.
http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk/viewarticle.asp?id=288901
Horses In Training Sale concludes
6 Oct 2005
Magic Millions
A number of new records were established during Wednesday's second and final session of the Magic Millions Horses in Training Sale on the Gold Coast.
A record sale aggregate and equal record all time price were both achieved as the second session wound up late Wednesday.
All up some 220 horses were sold at the auction at the improving clearance rate of over 67 per cent and average price of over $30,000. All up over $6.6 million was traded on the horses - most of which were untried two-year-olds. Last year the sale grossed just over $4.7 million.
http://www.thoroughbrednews.co.nz/australia/Default.asp?id=20384&page_no=0&trainer_id=0&stud_id=0
Pair of horses shot in southern Oregon, owners blame hunters
WINSTON, Ore. - Douglas County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the weekend shooting of a pair of horses in Winston.
The owners of the animals are blaming hunters.
The sheriff's office says a painted pony was shot twice in the side and has died. The second horse, a painted mare named Laddie, was shot one time in its rear flank.
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=80167
Stable Fire Kills Dozens Of Horses
ATF Investigating Cause Of Fire
POSTED: 10:35 am CDT October 5, 2005
UPDATED: 6:11 am CDT October 6, 2005
KANE COUNTY, Ill. -- More than 30 horses were killed in a stable fire in an unincorporated area of Kane County near Elburn Tuesday night.
The fire stated at about 5:30 p.m. at a stable at 1 N. Francis Rd., according to Thomas Ahern, special agent of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the ruins were still smoldering Wednesday morning.
According to preliminary reports, 32 recreational horses were killed in the fire.
Fire investigators for the ATF were on the scene about an hour after the fire started and additional ATF resources were to be allocated Wednesday in order to help local investigators determine what caused the fire, Ahern said.
http://www.nbc5.com/news/5060303/detail.html?z=dp&dpswid=2265994&dppid=65192
Horses get some brain-power
05/10/2005 21:35 - (SA)
Sydney - An Australian state government on Wednesday said it would investigate allegations that a forensic laboratory worker stole parts from human brains so they could be injected into racehorses to make them run faster.
The worker at a pathology lab in the northern city of Brisbane reportedly stole pituitary glands, found at the base of the brain, because the hormones they contain govern growth stimulation and could stimulate horses.
The claims, made by the worker's colleagues, appeared in a report in the Courier-Mail daily newspaper.
But Queensland state health minister Stephen Robertson said health department officials were "totally unaware of the allegations".
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1811595,00.html
Debate grows on horse-meat trade
BY MARY JACOBY
The Wall Street Journal
TOURCOING, France - Christian Dhalluin, a butcher in this rural French hamlet near the Belgian border, dropped some ground meat into a bowl and mixed it with a spicy mayonnaise sauce to make his specialty: American horse meat tartare.
''I love America,'' said Dhalluin. ``The horse meat from the U.S. is the best in the world.''
Some Americans would be distressed to hear that. A vocal anti-slaughter movement argues that horses have a special place in American culture and history and should not be killed for food. Activists have spurred an energetic but uphill effort in Congress to shut down the last three horse slaughterhouses in the United States. All are Belgian-owned and supply butchers around the world.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12788200.htm
Horse racing: Lost in the Fog isn't, wins 10th race in row
By Debbie Arrington -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, October 2, 2005
Story appeared in Sports section, Page C7
SAN MATEO - Rolling off the Bay, Lost in the Fog made it 10 wins in a row as the unbeaten sprinter validated his ticket to the Breeders' Cup with an impressive 7 3/4-length victory in Saturday's $100,000 Bay Meadows Speed Handicap.
Next stop: New York's Belmont Park and the World Thoroughbred Championships on Oct. 29.
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As expected, Lost in the Fog with Russell Baze aboard broke on top and led every step of the six-furlong stakes, coasting home in 1:08.05. Halo Cat finished second with Jeffries Bay third.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13657351p-14500151c.html
Horse racing on table
By KIM SKORNOGOSKI
Tribune Staff Writer
TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO BY MONICA FOUTS
County commissioners are expected to decide next week whether to continue offering horse racing at the ExpoPark facility in Great Falls for the 2006 season.
Related news from the Web
Cascade County commissioners are expected to decide next week to support one more season of horse racing at the fairgrounds.
But horse-racing supporters say 2006 may be the last year for the sport in Montana if the state Board of Horse Racing decides to end the five annual regional meets, and establish a 30-day "super meet" in 2007, presumably in Billings.
"Thirty days isn't the answer," said Ray "Topper" Tracy, editor of The Racing Journal based in Stevensville. "You're going to kill off racing. You need a circuit. You need places like county fairs that draws people there to see racing. If you don't have a circuit it's going to die."
Horse racing lost $69,000 during its 10-day run this year in Great Falls, according to figures released last week by Bill Ogg, Montana ExpoPark manager.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051004/NEWS01/510040301/1002
New York tourist arrested for punching police horses
Tampa, Florida – Thanks to a new Florida law that took effect this weekend, a New York tourist is facing jail time after he reportedly punched two horses from Tampa Police's mounted patrol.
Officials say Sean Curlin smacked the animals on their hind quarters early Sunday morning in Ybor City.
Under the new law, Curlin is more likely to pay a stiffer fine and serve jail time if he's convicted of harming a police animal.
From the Tampa Police Arrest report:
On the listed date and time, I was riding my police horse Mr. Bill westbound in the 1600 block of 7th ave.
We were following Mounted Officer Kochom on police horse Red.
We were responding to back up foot officers involved in a fight.
As Red rode past the defendant he reached out and smacked Red on the left hindquarters causing Red to flinch.
As I passed the defendant, he reached out and smacked Mr. Bill on the left hindquarters.
I turned Mr. Bill around and took the defendant into custody.
He was handcuffed by Officer Sigler.
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=19559
'Madonna uses horses as fashion accessories'
Sunday September 4 2005 13:46 IST
ANI
LONDON: Social critic and author Camille Paglia has said that Madonna got injured while riding a horse last month because she uses horses as fashion accessories.
Paglia said that she had predicted the accident after seeing the pop singer's Vogue magazine covershoot, in which she was posing on a horse holding its reins awkwardly and incorrectly.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE420050904032435&Page=4&Title=Features+-+People+%26+Lifestyle&Topic=0
Man pleads guilty to abusing horses
By Corey G. Johnson The Daily Reflector
Saturday, September 03, 2005
A Tarboro man pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty in connection with the May seizure of five Clydesdale horses he owned and boarded in Pitt County.
As part of his agreement, Thomas Leonard Zelaney, 56, of 1100 Albemarle Ave. agreed to surrender the horses to the U.S. Equine Rescue League and to undergo horse care classes.
He was also was told not to own any horses for a period of five years.
http://www.reflector.com/local/content/news/stories/2005/09/03/20050903GDRhorses.html
Record catalogue for Gold Coast Horses In Training Sale
5 Sep 2005
Magic Millions
Magic Millions has announced that they have been forced to expand the October Gold Coast Horses in Training Sale to three days such was the demand by vendors.
A record 417 horses - the majority two-year-olds - make up the catalogue.
Inspections will kick off for the sale on October 2 prior to the first session of breeze ups on the following day from 1pm.
The second session of breeze ups will be staged from 11am on the Gold Coast Racecourse prior to the first offerings of the sale at the Magic Millions Sales Complex at 5pm that day (Tuesday, October 4).
http://www.thoroughbrednews.co.nz/australia/Default.asp?id=19823&page_no=0&trainer_id=0&stud_id=0
Birdsville races drawing stronger field, mayor says
The mayor of Birdsville in Queensland's south-west says the town's annual races are getting stronger every year.
Organisers say about 4,500 people braved a weekend dust storm to attend the Birdsville Races.
The Jeff Dixon-trained racehorse Monee Lane finished ahead of the field to win the Birdsville Cup and $25,000 prize money.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1452998.htm
Butterfield: Horses
(United States- West Palm Beach) Deborah Butterfield: Horses, features twelve evocative sculptures of horses in bronze, steel, and mixed media by the internationally acclaimed Montana sculptor. On view at the Norton Museum of Art from September 17 through December 11, 2005, most of the pieces are from Deborah Butterfield’s personal collection and have rarely been seen by the public.
An enormously popular and significant American sculptor, Deborah Butterfield first gained wide notice at the 1979 Whitney Biennial. Horses have been the single, sustained focus of Butterfield’s work for over 30 years. Her early work, fragile creations of mud, sticks, straw, and found metal, evoke horses either standing or resting on the ground. Since the mid-1980s she has been creating medium and full-size horses from driftwood branches, casting the finished sculpture in bronze. The intricate casting process involving twenty people takes two to three months for a large horse. A true lover of horses, Butterfield is an accomplished dressage rider. She owns twelve horses and rides daily when at home in Montana.
http://www.nonstarvingartists.com/News/ImagedNewsItem.2005-09-04.0118.html
More to horses than racing
BY KAREN CHAPMAN
IF YOU'VE always loved horses and wanted to work with them but have no idea how to go about it then the National Horse Show could be the place for you.
As Selangor Turf Club general manager Kaka Singh Dhaliwal says, people tend to associate horses with racing only.
Participants in the combined driving competition.
“We want people to know that when we talk about horses, it isn’t just about racing as the equine industry provides many jobs such as farriers, jockeys, coaches, trainers, equine dentists and veterinarians (see centrespread).
“These professionals will be there at the horse show and anyone interested in venturing into these fields will be able to approach and speak to them,” he says.
http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2005/9/4/education/11928096
Animal groups trying to halt roundup of horses on forest land
Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 3, 2005 12:00 AM
A trio of animal-conservation groups is trying to stop the roundup of several hundred horses in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, claiming forest officials risk sending wild horses to slaughter.
The groups on Friday asked Forest Supervisor Elaine Zieroth to consider capturing only branded horses and letting the unbranded horses continue to run in the eastern Arizona forests.
At issue is how many of the horses are wild, which would entitle them to protection under federal law.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0903horses03.html
Once Home To Horses
A West Hartford Family's Summer Paradise In The Green Mountain State
September 2, 2005
Story By ANNE FARROW, Photos By TOM BROWN The Hartford Courant
Dried mud is coming loose from 9-year-old Rose's water shoes in large clumps, but Maura Walsh-O'Brien doesn't seem to notice her daughter's tracks, or if she does notice, she doesn't mind.
The boot tray in the front hall of her family's summer home in Weston, Vt., is filled with sandals and footgear all bearing evidence of days of hiking, inner tubing in the West River and playing outdoors.
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Besides, the O'Briens' saltbox is a former horse barn perhaps a century old, and its connection to rural outdoor life is long. There is no way you'd know that this house in Vermont's Green Mountains was once home to horses, so thorough has its transformation been to a cozy, four-bedroom, year-round dwelling. Maura and her husband, A.J., Rose and 12-year-old Andrew live in West Hartford for most of the year, but since buying this house last December, they've made the 2¼-hour trip north as often as they can.
http://www.courant.com/features/home/hc-homevacvt0902.artsep02,0,1989345.story?track=mostemailedlink
The City of New Orleans
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=1
The New York Times
Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon
By JODI WILGOREN
Published: October 6, 2005
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - Tom Vail, who has been leading rafting trips down the Colorado River here for 23 years, corralled his charges under a rocky outcrop at Carbon Creek and pointed out the remarkable 90-degree folds in the cliff overhead.
Tom Vail, the Canyon Ministries group leader, pointed to a layer of rock during a tour in the Grand Canyon.
Geologists date this sandstone to 550 million years ago and explain the folding as a result of pressure from shifting faults underneath. But to Mr. Vail, the folds suggest the Grand Canyon was carved 4,500 years ago by the great global flood described in Genesis as God's punishment for humanity's sin.
"You see any cracks in that?" he asked. "Instead of bending like that, it should have cracked." The material "had to be soft" to bend, Mr. Vail said, imagining its formation in the flood. When somebody suggested that pressure over time could create plasticity in the rocks, Mr. Vail said, "That's just a theory."
"It's all theory, right?" asked Jack Aiken, 63, an Assemblies of God minister in Alaska who has a master's degree in geology. "Except what's in the Good Book."
For Mr. Vail and 29 guests on his Canyon Ministries trip, this was vacation as religious pilgrimage, an expedition in search of evidence that God created the earth in six days 6,000 years ago, just as Scripture says.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/science/sciencespecial2/06canyon.html?hp
Go, Mayor Nagin. This is the chance New Orleans needs to have their local contractors take over refurbishment of the city they are most familiar with. I encourage the City of New Orleans to assist any of their business firms in completing a successful bid process to secure the contracts that will benefit the city's treasury and work force first.
Storm Contracts to Be Rebid, FEMA Chief Says
By DAVID STOUT
Published: October 6, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 - The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said today that millions of dollars worth of federal hurricane-relief contracts that were awarded with little or no competition will be rebid to minimize waste and abuse.
Acting FEMA director R. David Paulison testified at a hearing today on Capitol Hill.
"I've never been a fan of no-bid contracts," R. David Paulison, FEMA's acting director, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, one of a half-dozen Senate and House panels holding hearings today on hurricane-recovery issues.
An underlying theme that emerged from the sessions was a sense of alarm over the overall cost of the recovery, acknowledged to be in the many billions of dollars, and how much of that the federal government must pay.
"We can't dilly-dally on Capitol Hill as people in the region face real-world decisions on whether to relocate or not," Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said at another session, that of the Senate Finance Committee, which he heads. "American taxpayers are compassionate, but rightly expect their hard-earned tax dollars to be spent wisely."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/politics/06cnd-costs.html?hp
Sure they can no longer co-mingle funds designated for the families memorial. I bet they are upset. Too bad.
Lower Manhattan Board Members Rebuke Pataki
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: October 6, 2005
In an extraordinary rebuke to Gov. George E. Pataki, members of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Board took turns today deploring the governor's unilateral decision last week to evict the International Freedom Center from the memorial area of ground zero while the matter was still pending before the board.
Led by the chairman, John C. Whitehead, board members also said the sudden truncation of a long planning process could jeopardize their future effectiveness in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center.
"In all candor," Mr. Whitehead said as he opened the monthly meeting, "I must report that most of our board, including its chairman, were quite distressed that a process which we had established two years ago with full public approval was not allowed to work its way through to conclusion."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/nyregion/06cnd-rebuild.html?hp&ex=1128657600&en=cafa8301c8e6c4a4&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Eminent Domain Revisited: A Minnesota Case
Bordner Aerials
Richfield, Minn., in 2003 after the $160 million Best Buy headquarters was completed.
By TERRY PRISTIN
Published: October 5, 2005
RICHFIELD, Minn. - Few recent Supreme Court opinions have aroused as much public outrage as Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., the June ruling that reaffirmed the use of eminent domain to promote economic developments
The same area in 1999, before the construction of the Best Buy headquarters.
Critics on both the left and the right politically have said that the Kelo decision potentially endangers every home and business. Bills to limit condemnation powers have been introduced in 31 states, according to the Institute for Justice, a property rights group.
Had such a statute been in place in 2000 in Minnesota, however, a single auto dealer might have been able to block Best Buy, the fast-growing national electronics retailer, from building a $160 million corporate headquarters in Richfield, a suburb of 34,000 people that borders Minneapolis. The 1.6-million-square-foot campus, made up of four buildings shaped like ships, was completed in 2003 and currently houses 4,500 employees. City officials say it has given a big boost to an aging community that had been steadily losing population since the 1970's.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/realestate/05domain.html
Attacks Kill at Least 15 in Iraq as Violent Surge Continues
By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: October 6, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 6 - A man wearing an explosive belt got onto a bus near Iraq's police academy in Baghdad today and blew himself up, killing 10 passengers and wounding 11, witnesses and Iraqi officials said.
The blast shattered the red minibus, killing almost everyone on board and sending huge plumes of black smoke into the sky near the academy building and the national Oil Ministry. The victims included police recruits, but also a woman and some children, said Capt. Muhammad Ali, a police officer who arrived at the scene shortly afterward.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/international/middleeast/06cnd_Iraq.html
As Illegal Workers Hit Suburbs, Politicians Scramble to Respond
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: October 6, 2005
Suburban politicians once had to master a small but demanding catalog of local issues. Taxes, garbage, crime and schools were always the big ones. But recently a volatile new issue has been showing up on the local meet-the-candidate circuit, and it is pretty much the opposite of the familiar and the local. It is illegal immigration.
Though municipal officials have no statutory control over immigration, a rising population of illegal immigrants in suburban communities - from Farmingville, N.Y., to Danbury, Conn.; Herndon, Va., to suburban South Salt Lake City, Utah - has prompted some of those officials to attack the problem with the limited means at their disposal. In the process, they have won and lost political support; grappled with issues beyond their usual bailiwicks; and, whether intentionally or not, begun incorporating immigration into the calculus of local politics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/nyregion/06immigrate.html
Boat That Sank May Have Been Overloaded, Test Suggests
By AL BAKER and SEWELL CHAN
Published: October 6, 2005
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y., Oct. 5 - A test conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday suggested that the Ethan Allen, the tour boat that fatally capsized on Sunday, could not safely carry anywhere near the 48 passengers for which it had been certified by New York State.
The results of the test, which were conducted on a nearly identical companion vessel, were the strongest evidence so far that the 38-foot Ethan Allen may have been overloaded when it overturned, plunging 47 elderly passengers into Lake George. Twenty of those passengers, tourists from Michigan and Ohio ranging in age from 68 to 89, drowned in one of the worst boating accidents in the state's recent history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/nyregion/06devels.html
Pall of Racism Remains Over Neighborhood Repaired After Arson
By GARY GATELY
Published: October 6, 2005
INDIAN HEAD, Md. - Even now, more than nine months later, 3-year-old Autumn Potts will not sleep in her bedroom. She is afraid somebody will come during the night and burn down her house.
Autumn Potts, 3, with her mother, Terri Rookard, and her brother, Antoine Rookard, 15, in their home in the Hunters Brooke subdivision.
On Dec. 6, flames lighted up the night sky, and smoldering chunks of wood flew through the air as Autumn and her family sped in cars up Cabinwood Court in Hunters Brooke, an expensive new subdivision 25 miles south of Washington in Charles County, Md. That night, 10 houses were destroyed and 16 others were heavily damaged at a cost of $10 million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/national/06arson.html
Justices Explore U.S. Authority Over States on Assisted Suicide
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: October 6, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - The question of assisted suicide reached the Supreme Court for the second time in eight years on Wednesday, although the profound issues of professional ethics and personal autonomy that have animated the national debate largely remained outside the courtroom.
Instead, lawyers for the federal government and for Oregon, the only state to have authorized physician-assisted suicide, argued over a single question: whether John Ashcroft acted within his authority as attorney general when he decided in 2001 that doctors would lose their federal prescription privileges if they followed the Oregon law's procedures and prescribed lethal doses of lawful medications for terminally ill patients who wanted to end their own lives.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/politics/politicsspecial1/06scotus.html
The New Zealand Herald
Speedway back after noise deal reached
06.10.05 6.30pm
Speedway racing will be back at Auckland's Western Springs this summer after the promoter and residents reached agreement over noise limits.
The season had been in danger of being axed after a residents' group won an Environment Court order for Spring Promotions Ltd to comply with a maximum noise level of 85 decibels.
Spring Promotions appealed to the High Court, arguing that speedway, which dates back 75 years at the venue, had never been able to race at below that limit.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10348976
Even a box beats sharing bed with baby
07.10.05
By Martin Johnston
Parents should put babies to sleep in a supermarket banana box rather than risk smothering them by taking them into their bed, says Auckland coroner Murray Jamieson.
He spoke out yesterday against the practice of sharing beds with a baby, saying it is linked to a high number of deaths.
Dr Jamieson said that of the 29 Auckland infant deaths reported to the coroner this year, eight - more than a quarter - had been in "co-sleeping circumstances. I argue that some could be prevented by baby sleeping in their own bed".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349074
Country dentists rare as hen's teeth
07.10.05
By Rebecca Walsh
Another New Zealand town is about to lose its regular dentist as the shortage in rural areas gets worse.
Taumarunui will soon have only one part-time dentist and residents will have to travel for up to an hour for urgent treatment.
The New Zealand Dental Association says expensive student fees and the large number of non-New Zealand born students enrolled in the dentistry programme are to blame for what has become a growing trend.
Taumarunui dentist Barry Thomson, who has practised in the area since 1974, is due to retire officially today and has been unable to sell his practice. That leaves Garry Van Den Borst, who works every second week in Wellington, to serve a population of about 12,000 people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349065
Murder of outspoken MP sends shock waves round Samoa
07.10.05
By Angela Gregory and Cherelle Jackson
An outspoken member of the main Samoan opposition party has been murdered in Auckland.
Su'a Atonio, 54, an MP from Aleipata village in Upolu, was stabbed in the chest late on Wednesday night at a Manurewa house.
A 47-year-old Pakuranga man accused of his murder appeared in the Manukau District Court yesterday and has been remanded in custody to reappear next week. He has interim name suppression.
Police have said the victim and the alleged killer knew each other and have described the murder as domestic-related.
Su'a was on a private visit to New Zealand.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349064
Pesticide threatens beef sales
07.10.05
By Liam Dann
A Northland farmer who treated his cattle with a crop pesticide has put New Zealand's $400 million beef trade with Taiwan and South Korea at risk.
Details of New Zealand beef contaminated with the pesticide endosulfan made the television news headlines in Taiwan on Wednesday, generating the worst kind of publicity for exporters to the food safety sensitive market.
Endosulfan is a chlorine-based pesticide that can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and convulsions if consumed in high volumes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349060
Warnings step up for Bali
07.10.05
The Government has again stepped up its travel warning for Bali, telling tourists more bombings cannot be ruled out.
The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry's official advisory updated this week includes a fresh section on Bali.
"If your presence in Bali is essential extreme caution should be exercised," the warning says.
A triple bombing at the Indonesia resort island killed 22 people and injured more than 100 at the weekend, almost three years since terrorists bombed Kuta beach and killed 202 people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349059
HIV case sparks moral debate
07.10.05
By Helen Tunnah
A landmark court case that found a man who used a condom did not have to tell a sexual partner he was HIV positive has raised questions about moral obligations.
Legal and public health commentators said yesterday that Lower Hutt man Justin Dalley probably should have told a woman he met over the internet that he was HIV-positive before they had sex.
But they agreed with Judge Susan Thomas' decision that he was not legally obliged to.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349037
Hunting lobby wants moose protected
07.10.05
Hunting lobbyists say DNA confirmation of the existence in Fiordland National Park of hairs from a moose means the species should be given special protection.
This is despite there having been no confirmed sighting of one in New Zealand since 1952.
The New Zealand Conservation Authority and the Government would be petitioned to make moose exempt from extermination provisions in the National Parks Act, said Game and Forest Foundation executive director Garry Ottmann.
The act requires that all introduced species shall be exterminated, but the foundation is pinning its hopes on the Conservation Authority, which has the power to make exemptions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349036
Invader threat to oyster farms
07.10.05
New Zealand's mussel and oyster industry is being threatened by the arrival of a Korean pest known as the sea squirt.
The clubbed tunicate styela clava was discovered in Lyttelton harbour by Biosecurity New Zealand.
It was also found recently in Auckland's Viaduct Harbour by a British marine scientist.
The sea squirt can grow up to 16cm long. It is a prolific breeder, spawning every 24 hours.
While Korea is its homeland, it is spread throughout the world, including parts of Australia, Biosecurity NZ said yesterday.
It was most likely to have arrived in New Zealand on the hull of a boat.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349031
Coconut oil revs diesel engines
07.10.05
By Angela Gregory
Two Auckland University engineering students are hoping research showing the effectiveness of running diesel motors on coconut oil can be put to use in their home countries of Samoa and Fiji.
Dominic Schwalger and Penaia Rogoimuri, who are both in the final year of a Bachelor of Engineering in mechanics, have shown that coconut oil can run an engine as efficiently as diesel if properly tuned for the fuel.
The pair, both on scholarships from their home Governments, are also confident that coconut oil is a more environmentally friendly fuel after they analysed performance and exhaust emissions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349029
NZ women to join breast cancer drug experiment
07.10.05
Five New Zealand women with recurring breast cancer are to be injected with an experimental drug, then have breast tissue removed so the effects of the drug on their tumours can be assessed.
Provectus Pharmaceuticals announced yesterday in Knoxville, Tennessee, that it would begin recruiting patients as experimental subjects.
It had obtained clearance for the phase 1 clinical trial of PV-10 - which it plans to market as Provecta - to evaluate the drug's safety and efficacy.
"PV-10 will be injected into one or more tumours in each subject, and the local response to this single injection observed for a period of one to three weeks," it said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349028
NZ women to join breast cancer drug experiment
07.10.05
Five New Zealand women with recurring breast cancer are to be injected with an experimental drug, then have breast tissue removed so the effects of the drug on their tumours can be assessed.
Provectus Pharmaceuticals announced yesterday in Knoxville, Tennessee, that it would begin recruiting patients as experimental subjects.
It had obtained clearance for the phase 1 clinical trial of PV-10 - which it plans to market as Provecta - to evaluate the drug's safety and efficacy.
"PV-10 will be injected into one or more tumours in each subject, and the local response to this single injection observed for a period of one to three weeks," it said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349028
Car-theft website a hit in Auckland, not elsewhere
07.10.05
An internet website aimed at rewarding members of the public who report car thefts has been successful in Auckland but struggles in the rest of the country.
Spotter.co.nz director Frank de Jong said yesterday he was pleased with the number of stolen cars recovered since the website was launched in May this year.
"We have recovered over 70 vehicles, and the value of those cars in total is approximately $550,000."
Three-quarters of the recovered vehicles were from the Auckland area.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10348991
Indonesian army to join hunt for Bali bombers
07.10.05
By Tomi Soetjipto
KUTA BEACH, Indonesia - Indonesia's military will join a nationwide hunt for those behind the suicide bombings in Bali, a senior officer said, as police confirmed three more Australians were among the dead.
Hundreds of thousands of police have already been mobilised to track down the masterminds of the attacks on three packed restaurants on the resort island. The three young bombers killed themselves and 19 others, and 146 were wounded.
The prime targets in the manhunt are Malaysian Islamic militants, Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349010
Jakarta confirms two suspected bird flu cases
07.10.05
JAKARTA - Indonesian health officials said yesterday that two young men, including one who died a week ago, had proved positive for the bird flu virus in local tests.
I Nyoman Kandun, head of disease control at the health ministry, said specimens had been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory recognised by the World Health Organisation for further testing. Results should be available in the next few days.
Indonesian health officials suspect bird flu in six deaths since July in the world's fourth-most-populous nation, while the Hong Kong laboratory has confirmed four.
"The PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) showed positive for both (men)," said Kandun.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349006
Thai hotels fear room shortage for tsunami memorials
07.10.05
BANGKOK - The Thai government has invited 13,000 people, including Australians, to an all expenses-paid tsunami commemoration, but the country's hoteliers aren't sure they'll have enough rooms available.
A set of memorial services are to be held in tsunami-hit areas, including the resort island of Phuket, on December 26 -- the first anniversary of the disaster.
Those invited from many countries include injured survivors as well as relatives of the dead.
The timing coincides with the peak season for Thai tourism, which has tried hard to rebuild and bounce back since the tsunami.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349012
'Doris Day' boss dies in loyalist feud
06.10.05
By David McKittrick
BELFAST - One of Belfast's most senior and most flamboyant loyalist paramilitary figures has been shot dead as part of an apparent internal feud.
Jim Gray, until recently the east Belfast brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association, the largest loyalist group in Northern Ireland, was shot twice in the chest by men who burst into his mother's home.
He had answered a knock at the door of the house in Clarawood estate, a loyalist area.
Gray, 47, had been released on bail on September 15 after spending months in prison on charges of money-laundering and possession of the proceeds of crime.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10348864
WHO sees 'global epidemic' of chronic disease
06.10.05
GENEVA - Developing countries can tackle a "global epidemic" of chronic disease by adopting cheap measures that have helped cut heart disease deaths in some rich nations by up to 70 percent, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
In a report published yesterday, the WHO said nearly half of all deaths from heart disease, cancer, respiratory infections, strokes and diabetes -- to which about 35 million people will succumb this year -- were preventable.
The report, "Preventing Chronic Diseases -- a Vital Investment", said developing countries, where most such deaths occur, must copy Western nations by discouraging tobacco use and curbing salt, sugar and saturated fats in food.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10348858
Beware of people in Florida, say anti-gun campaigners
06.10.05
NEW YORK - A prominent anti-gun group in the United States is telling tourists on their way to Florida that they face an increased risk of being shot and killed there if they dare argue with the locals, thoroughly alarming some visitors and infuriating state officials, including Governor Jeb Bush.
The group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, has been placing advertisements in newspapers around the United States and distributing leaflets at Miami Airport that carry the headline: "An Important Notice to Florida Visitors". It includes a picture of Florida drawn like a handgun and offers advice on how to stay safe. "Do not argue unnecessarily with local people. If someone appears to be angry with you, maintain to the best of your ability a positive attitude, and do not shout or make threatening gestures."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10348848
Dengue fever spike in Malaysia
06.10.05 5.20am
More than 1000 possible cases of dengue fever were reported last week, the Malaysian Health Ministry said, as it recorded a spike this year in the number of people seeking tests for the disease.
Since the beginning of the year, 74 Malaysians have died from dengue, a mosquito-borne disease.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10348871
continued ...
We don’t belong in Iraq.
We never did.
Bring the troops home.
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Senate Defies Bush
Votes 90-9 to restore integrity
Senate Supports Interrogation Limits
90-9 Vote on the Treatment of Detainees Is a Bipartisan Rebuff of the White House
By Charles Babington and Shailagh Murray / Washington Post
The Senate defied the White House yesterday and voted to set new limits on interrogating detainees in Iraq and elsewhere, underscoring Congress's growing concerns about reports of abuse of suspected terrorists and others in military custody.
Forty-six Republicans joined 43 Democrats and one independent in voting to define and limit interrogation techniques that U.S. troops may use against terrorism suspects, the latest sign that alarm over treatment of prisoners in the Middle East and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is widespread in both parties. The White House had fought to prevent the restrictions, with Vice President Cheney visiting key Republicans in July and a spokesman yesterday repeating President Bush's threat to veto the larger bill that the language is now attached to -- a $440 billion military spending measure.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4424
Air Force Sued Over Religious Intolerance
By Tim Korte / Associated Press
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. - A New Mexico man sued the Air Force on Thursday, claiming Air Force Academy senior officers and cadets illegally imposed Christianity on others at the school.
The suit was filed in federal court by Mikey Weinstein, an academy graduate and outspoken critic of the school's handling of religion.
Over the past decade or more, the suit claims, academy leaders have fostered an environment of religious intolerance at the Colorado school, in violation of the First Amendment.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4428
Conservatives Confront Bush Aides
Anger Over Nomination of Miers Boils Over During Private Meetings
By Peter Baker and Dan Balz / Washington Post
The conservative uprising against President Bush escalated yesterday as Republican activists angry over his nomination of White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court confronted the president's envoys during a pair of tense closed-door meetings.
A day after Bush publicly beseeched skeptical supporters to trust his judgment on Miers, a succession of prominent conservative leaders told his representatives that they did not. Over the course of several hours of sometimes testy exchanges, the dissenters complained that Miers was an unknown quantity with a thin résumé and that her selection -- Bush called her "the best person I could find" -- was a betrayal of years of struggle to move the court to the right.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4426
Indictments in Plame Case Could Come Any Time
By E&P Staff / Editor & Publisher
NEW YORK -- Is it the beginning of the end or the end of the beginning? Whatever way you look at it, it seems clear to many in Washington right now that indictments in the Valerie Plame affair will likely be announced soon, possibly on Thursday.
Note to editors and reporters: As the aspens turn, don't stray too far from your desks, cells or Blackberries.
Rumors surged all day Wednesday, though reports of 22 indictments did seem a bit farfetched. But late Wednesday, Reuters suggested that indeed the end--or beginning--was near, "within days," and added one major clue: Karl Rove's lawyer, who has always stated that his client was not a target in the probe, now refused to comment on that one way or the other.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4425
Dems Fight Efforts to Cut Food Stamps
By Libby Quaid / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Democrats are fighting attempts to make cuts in food stamps and conservation programs at a time when people are coping with hurricanes and drought.
"Right now the difference between life and death for many Americans is the food stamp program," said Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont. "We should not, we cannot, cut the very nutritional programs that are literally saving lives."
A Republican plan to cut agriculture spending by $3 billion had been scheduled for a vote Thursday in the Senate Agriculture Committee, but the panel's chairman, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., put off the vote indefinitely late Wednesday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4427
Photo Tour of the Gulf Coast
From Jason
I have been touring the Mississippi Gulf Coast for the past few days and I simply cannot believe what I have seen.
The entire coast of Mississippi is flattened. I know that everyone has heard this on the news but until you see it for yourself it doesn't really make sense. Hopefully the pictures I took will give you some idea but let me tell you the no picture does this justice.
It looks like the apocalypse. It looks like a bomb went off and it covered 200 miles of land. It looks like this is a region that will be affected by this disaster not just for a year or two or three but possibly forever. One thing that it doesn't look like is America.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=45
War-Hawk Republicans and Anti-War Democrats: What's the Difference?
A message from Cindy Sheehan
The past week in DC found me in many offices of our elected officials: Senators, Congresspersons, pro-war, "anti-war," Democrat, Republican. With a few notable exceptions, all our employees toed party lines.
Thanks to those who met with me, because, except for Sen. Barbara Boxer, (D-Ca), I was not their constituent. And I believe the Republicans who met with me, whether they knew it or not, were breaking with their leader on this, since he was too cowardly to meet with me.
The War Hawks I met with made my skin crawl. They so obviously are supporting a war that is not in our nation's best interest, nor is it making us more secure. I heard from Sens. Dole (R-NC) and McCain (R-AZ), and Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) about 9/11 and "fighting them over there, so we don't have to fight them over there." That made me sick. George Bush and his lying band of imperialist greed mongers exploited 9/11 and our national terror of other terrorist attacks to invade a country that had nothing to do with the attacks on our country. Now, in the aftermath of those lies, tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians are dead and almost 2000 of our brave young men and women. What makes the Iraqi babies and families less precious than ours? The crime that these people committed was being born at the wrong place at the wrong time. George took his war OF terror to their doorsteps. I even asked Sen. Dole when she thought the occupation would be able to end and she was incredulous that I would even think of Iraq as an occupation, she sees it as a liberation. I really wanted to know how many of them do we have to kill before she considered that they were liberated.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=512
I Always Loved Horses as a Kid
P-FORTY-SEVEN NAMED HORSE OF THE MONTH
Posted by Harnesslink Admin 09:01 AM 04-Oct-2005 NZST
Mark Maynard, Kelly O’Donnell and Ed Mullinax’s P-Forty-Seven, whose tremendous performance in the $569,032 Little Brown Jug will be long remembered, has been named September’s Horse of the Month by the United States Trotting Association.
The three-year-old pacing colt by The Panderosa, out of the Artsplace mare Cohiba Mary, won all four of his starts during the month of September.
For the season, P-Forty-Seven has eight wins in 16 trips to the post, with earnings of $547,330. Trained by co-owner Kelly O’Donnell, he was driven in each of his September triumphs by Dave Palone.
P-Forty-Seven opened up his month on September 3 in the $100,000 Pennsylvania Sires Stakes Final at Pocono Downs.
http://www.harnesslink.com/www/Article.cgi?ID=29843
Millstone officials plan for better horse trail network
Public hearing on proposed ordinance scheduled for Oct. 19
BY JENNIFER KOHLHEPP
Staff Writer
Millstone
MILLSTONE — Those with plans to subdivide property in town may soon have to dedicate some of that land to horse rider use.
The Township Committee voted unanimously during its Sept. 21 meeting to introduce an ordinance that promotes further development of the bridle/horse trail network that runs throughout Millstone.
“The proposed ordinance provides for trails that exist to be preserved when development comes in, and for trails that have gaps to be completed if development occurs,” Mayor Elias Abilheira said.
http://examiner.gmnews.com/news/2005/1006/Front_Page/009.html
HORSE STABBED IN SICK ATTACK
Published in News & Star on Thursday, October 6th 2005
A racehorse has been stabbed in a sickening attack at a stable just outside Carlisle.
Three-year-old Declan was found in agony by owner Ian McMath at his premises at Thornedge, Cumwhinton late this morning.
The horse, which is worth around £10,000, had been stabbed in the shoulder with either a screwdriver, a knife or a pair of scissors.
The wound was so deep that the vet called to the scene was able to push his little finger right into the gash.
If the stab wound has damaged muscles or tendons, Declan’s career could hang in the balance.
http://www.cumbria-online.co.uk/viewarticle.asp?id=288901
Horses In Training Sale concludes
6 Oct 2005
Magic Millions
A number of new records were established during Wednesday's second and final session of the Magic Millions Horses in Training Sale on the Gold Coast.
A record sale aggregate and equal record all time price were both achieved as the second session wound up late Wednesday.
All up some 220 horses were sold at the auction at the improving clearance rate of over 67 per cent and average price of over $30,000. All up over $6.6 million was traded on the horses - most of which were untried two-year-olds. Last year the sale grossed just over $4.7 million.
http://www.thoroughbrednews.co.nz/australia/Default.asp?id=20384&page_no=0&trainer_id=0&stud_id=0
Pair of horses shot in southern Oregon, owners blame hunters
WINSTON, Ore. - Douglas County Sheriff's deputies are investigating the weekend shooting of a pair of horses in Winston.
The owners of the animals are blaming hunters.
The sheriff's office says a painted pony was shot twice in the side and has died. The second horse, a painted mare named Laddie, was shot one time in its rear flank.
http://www.katu.com/news/story.asp?ID=80167
Stable Fire Kills Dozens Of Horses
ATF Investigating Cause Of Fire
POSTED: 10:35 am CDT October 5, 2005
UPDATED: 6:11 am CDT October 6, 2005
KANE COUNTY, Ill. -- More than 30 horses were killed in a stable fire in an unincorporated area of Kane County near Elburn Tuesday night.
The fire stated at about 5:30 p.m. at a stable at 1 N. Francis Rd., according to Thomas Ahern, special agent of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the ruins were still smoldering Wednesday morning.
According to preliminary reports, 32 recreational horses were killed in the fire.
Fire investigators for the ATF were on the scene about an hour after the fire started and additional ATF resources were to be allocated Wednesday in order to help local investigators determine what caused the fire, Ahern said.
http://www.nbc5.com/news/5060303/detail.html?z=dp&dpswid=2265994&dppid=65192
Horses get some brain-power
05/10/2005 21:35 - (SA)
Sydney - An Australian state government on Wednesday said it would investigate allegations that a forensic laboratory worker stole parts from human brains so they could be injected into racehorses to make them run faster.
The worker at a pathology lab in the northern city of Brisbane reportedly stole pituitary glands, found at the base of the brain, because the hormones they contain govern growth stimulation and could stimulate horses.
The claims, made by the worker's colleagues, appeared in a report in the Courier-Mail daily newspaper.
But Queensland state health minister Stephen Robertson said health department officials were "totally unaware of the allegations".
http://www.news24.com/News24/World/News/0,,2-10-1462_1811595,00.html
Debate grows on horse-meat trade
BY MARY JACOBY
The Wall Street Journal
TOURCOING, France - Christian Dhalluin, a butcher in this rural French hamlet near the Belgian border, dropped some ground meat into a bowl and mixed it with a spicy mayonnaise sauce to make his specialty: American horse meat tartare.
''I love America,'' said Dhalluin. ``The horse meat from the U.S. is the best in the world.''
Some Americans would be distressed to hear that. A vocal anti-slaughter movement argues that horses have a special place in American culture and history and should not be killed for food. Activists have spurred an energetic but uphill effort in Congress to shut down the last three horse slaughterhouses in the United States. All are Belgian-owned and supply butchers around the world.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12788200.htm
Horse racing: Lost in the Fog isn't, wins 10th race in row
By Debbie Arrington -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Sunday, October 2, 2005
Story appeared in Sports section, Page C7
SAN MATEO - Rolling off the Bay, Lost in the Fog made it 10 wins in a row as the unbeaten sprinter validated his ticket to the Breeders' Cup with an impressive 7 3/4-length victory in Saturday's $100,000 Bay Meadows Speed Handicap.
Next stop: New York's Belmont Park and the World Thoroughbred Championships on Oct. 29.
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As expected, Lost in the Fog with Russell Baze aboard broke on top and led every step of the six-furlong stakes, coasting home in 1:08.05. Halo Cat finished second with Jeffries Bay third.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/13657351p-14500151c.html
Horse racing on table
By KIM SKORNOGOSKI
Tribune Staff Writer
TRIBUNE FILE PHOTO BY MONICA FOUTS
County commissioners are expected to decide next week whether to continue offering horse racing at the ExpoPark facility in Great Falls for the 2006 season.
Related news from the Web
Cascade County commissioners are expected to decide next week to support one more season of horse racing at the fairgrounds.
But horse-racing supporters say 2006 may be the last year for the sport in Montana if the state Board of Horse Racing decides to end the five annual regional meets, and establish a 30-day "super meet" in 2007, presumably in Billings.
"Thirty days isn't the answer," said Ray "Topper" Tracy, editor of The Racing Journal based in Stevensville. "You're going to kill off racing. You need a circuit. You need places like county fairs that draws people there to see racing. If you don't have a circuit it's going to die."
Horse racing lost $69,000 during its 10-day run this year in Great Falls, according to figures released last week by Bill Ogg, Montana ExpoPark manager.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051004/NEWS01/510040301/1002
New York tourist arrested for punching police horses
Tampa, Florida – Thanks to a new Florida law that took effect this weekend, a New York tourist is facing jail time after he reportedly punched two horses from Tampa Police's mounted patrol.
Officials say Sean Curlin smacked the animals on their hind quarters early Sunday morning in Ybor City.
Under the new law, Curlin is more likely to pay a stiffer fine and serve jail time if he's convicted of harming a police animal.
From the Tampa Police Arrest report:
On the listed date and time, I was riding my police horse Mr. Bill westbound in the 1600 block of 7th ave.
We were following Mounted Officer Kochom on police horse Red.
We were responding to back up foot officers involved in a fight.
As Red rode past the defendant he reached out and smacked Red on the left hindquarters causing Red to flinch.
As I passed the defendant, he reached out and smacked Mr. Bill on the left hindquarters.
I turned Mr. Bill around and took the defendant into custody.
He was handcuffed by Officer Sigler.
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=19559
'Madonna uses horses as fashion accessories'
Sunday September 4 2005 13:46 IST
ANI
LONDON: Social critic and author Camille Paglia has said that Madonna got injured while riding a horse last month because she uses horses as fashion accessories.
Paglia said that she had predicted the accident after seeing the pop singer's Vogue magazine covershoot, in which she was posing on a horse holding its reins awkwardly and incorrectly.
http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IE420050904032435&Page=4&Title=Features+-+People+%26+Lifestyle&Topic=0
Man pleads guilty to abusing horses
By Corey G. Johnson The Daily Reflector
Saturday, September 03, 2005
A Tarboro man pleaded guilty Monday to misdemeanor charges of animal cruelty in connection with the May seizure of five Clydesdale horses he owned and boarded in Pitt County.
As part of his agreement, Thomas Leonard Zelaney, 56, of 1100 Albemarle Ave. agreed to surrender the horses to the U.S. Equine Rescue League and to undergo horse care classes.
He was also was told not to own any horses for a period of five years.
http://www.reflector.com/local/content/news/stories/2005/09/03/20050903GDRhorses.html
Record catalogue for Gold Coast Horses In Training Sale
5 Sep 2005
Magic Millions
Magic Millions has announced that they have been forced to expand the October Gold Coast Horses in Training Sale to three days such was the demand by vendors.
A record 417 horses - the majority two-year-olds - make up the catalogue.
Inspections will kick off for the sale on October 2 prior to the first session of breeze ups on the following day from 1pm.
The second session of breeze ups will be staged from 11am on the Gold Coast Racecourse prior to the first offerings of the sale at the Magic Millions Sales Complex at 5pm that day (Tuesday, October 4).
http://www.thoroughbrednews.co.nz/australia/Default.asp?id=19823&page_no=0&trainer_id=0&stud_id=0
Birdsville races drawing stronger field, mayor says
The mayor of Birdsville in Queensland's south-west says the town's annual races are getting stronger every year.
Organisers say about 4,500 people braved a weekend dust storm to attend the Birdsville Races.
The Jeff Dixon-trained racehorse Monee Lane finished ahead of the field to win the Birdsville Cup and $25,000 prize money.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200509/s1452998.htm
Butterfield: Horses
(United States- West Palm Beach) Deborah Butterfield: Horses, features twelve evocative sculptures of horses in bronze, steel, and mixed media by the internationally acclaimed Montana sculptor. On view at the Norton Museum of Art from September 17 through December 11, 2005, most of the pieces are from Deborah Butterfield’s personal collection and have rarely been seen by the public.
An enormously popular and significant American sculptor, Deborah Butterfield first gained wide notice at the 1979 Whitney Biennial. Horses have been the single, sustained focus of Butterfield’s work for over 30 years. Her early work, fragile creations of mud, sticks, straw, and found metal, evoke horses either standing or resting on the ground. Since the mid-1980s she has been creating medium and full-size horses from driftwood branches, casting the finished sculpture in bronze. The intricate casting process involving twenty people takes two to three months for a large horse. A true lover of horses, Butterfield is an accomplished dressage rider. She owns twelve horses and rides daily when at home in Montana.
http://www.nonstarvingartists.com/News/ImagedNewsItem.2005-09-04.0118.html
More to horses than racing
BY KAREN CHAPMAN
IF YOU'VE always loved horses and wanted to work with them but have no idea how to go about it then the National Horse Show could be the place for you.
As Selangor Turf Club general manager Kaka Singh Dhaliwal says, people tend to associate horses with racing only.
Participants in the combined driving competition.
“We want people to know that when we talk about horses, it isn’t just about racing as the equine industry provides many jobs such as farriers, jockeys, coaches, trainers, equine dentists and veterinarians (see centrespread).
“These professionals will be there at the horse show and anyone interested in venturing into these fields will be able to approach and speak to them,” he says.
http://thestar.com.my/education/story.asp?file=/2005/9/4/education/11928096
Animal groups trying to halt roundup of horses on forest land
Mary Jo Pitzl
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 3, 2005 12:00 AM
A trio of animal-conservation groups is trying to stop the roundup of several hundred horses in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forests, claiming forest officials risk sending wild horses to slaughter.
The groups on Friday asked Forest Supervisor Elaine Zieroth to consider capturing only branded horses and letting the unbranded horses continue to run in the eastern Arizona forests.
At issue is how many of the horses are wild, which would entitle them to protection under federal law.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0903horses03.html
Once Home To Horses
A West Hartford Family's Summer Paradise In The Green Mountain State
September 2, 2005
Story By ANNE FARROW, Photos By TOM BROWN The Hartford Courant
Dried mud is coming loose from 9-year-old Rose's water shoes in large clumps, but Maura Walsh-O'Brien doesn't seem to notice her daughter's tracks, or if she does notice, she doesn't mind.
The boot tray in the front hall of her family's summer home in Weston, Vt., is filled with sandals and footgear all bearing evidence of days of hiking, inner tubing in the West River and playing outdoors.
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Besides, the O'Briens' saltbox is a former horse barn perhaps a century old, and its connection to rural outdoor life is long. There is no way you'd know that this house in Vermont's Green Mountains was once home to horses, so thorough has its transformation been to a cozy, four-bedroom, year-round dwelling. Maura and her husband, A.J., Rose and 12-year-old Andrew live in West Hartford for most of the year, but since buying this house last December, they've made the 2¼-hour trip north as often as they can.
http://www.courant.com/features/home/hc-homevacvt0902.artsep02,0,1989345.story?track=mostemailedlink
The City of New Orleans
http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=1
The New York Times
The current state of rock of Earth only indicates the state of disruptions over millions of years. There are places in this country where rock of known origin far away shows up. It is because the origin rock 'oozed' for long distances while it was still molten. We think of rock as solid. It was not always so. Where rock 'should be cracked' for the stress it was under causing folding. That would not be so if they were hot enough to mold rather than fold. This is a sad attempt to find meaning outside that of sound science but all kinds of cults are allowed to exist in the USA. The belief of science as it exists today does not preclude anyone from a belief in God either. That is if we are to discover our world with clear and open minds and not closed to accepted scientific methods and theory that have proved themselves the truth for centuries. The Greeks, Romans and Egyptians were among the earnest of scientists. They never gave up their gods either.
Seeing Creation and Evolution in Grand Canyon
By JODI WILGOREN
Published: October 6, 2005
GRAND CANYON NATIONAL PARK, Ariz. - Tom Vail, who has been leading rafting trips down the Colorado River here for 23 years, corralled his charges under a rocky outcrop at Carbon Creek and pointed out the remarkable 90-degree folds in the cliff overhead.
Tom Vail, the Canyon Ministries group leader, pointed to a layer of rock during a tour in the Grand Canyon.
Geologists date this sandstone to 550 million years ago and explain the folding as a result of pressure from shifting faults underneath. But to Mr. Vail, the folds suggest the Grand Canyon was carved 4,500 years ago by the great global flood described in Genesis as God's punishment for humanity's sin.
"You see any cracks in that?" he asked. "Instead of bending like that, it should have cracked." The material "had to be soft" to bend, Mr. Vail said, imagining its formation in the flood. When somebody suggested that pressure over time could create plasticity in the rocks, Mr. Vail said, "That's just a theory."
"It's all theory, right?" asked Jack Aiken, 63, an Assemblies of God minister in Alaska who has a master's degree in geology. "Except what's in the Good Book."
For Mr. Vail and 29 guests on his Canyon Ministries trip, this was vacation as religious pilgrimage, an expedition in search of evidence that God created the earth in six days 6,000 years ago, just as Scripture says.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/science/sciencespecial2/06canyon.html?hp
Go, Mayor Nagin. This is the chance New Orleans needs to have their local contractors take over refurbishment of the city they are most familiar with. I encourage the City of New Orleans to assist any of their business firms in completing a successful bid process to secure the contracts that will benefit the city's treasury and work force first.
Storm Contracts to Be Rebid, FEMA Chief Says
By DAVID STOUT
Published: October 6, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 - The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said today that millions of dollars worth of federal hurricane-relief contracts that were awarded with little or no competition will be rebid to minimize waste and abuse.
Acting FEMA director R. David Paulison testified at a hearing today on Capitol Hill.
"I've never been a fan of no-bid contracts," R. David Paulison, FEMA's acting director, told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, one of a half-dozen Senate and House panels holding hearings today on hurricane-recovery issues.
An underlying theme that emerged from the sessions was a sense of alarm over the overall cost of the recovery, acknowledged to be in the many billions of dollars, and how much of that the federal government must pay.
"We can't dilly-dally on Capitol Hill as people in the region face real-world decisions on whether to relocate or not," Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, said at another session, that of the Senate Finance Committee, which he heads. "American taxpayers are compassionate, but rightly expect their hard-earned tax dollars to be spent wisely."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/politics/06cnd-costs.html?hp
Sure they can no longer co-mingle funds designated for the families memorial. I bet they are upset. Too bad.
Lower Manhattan Board Members Rebuke Pataki
By DAVID W. DUNLAP
Published: October 6, 2005
In an extraordinary rebuke to Gov. George E. Pataki, members of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation Board took turns today deploring the governor's unilateral decision last week to evict the International Freedom Center from the memorial area of ground zero while the matter was still pending before the board.
Led by the chairman, John C. Whitehead, board members also said the sudden truncation of a long planning process could jeopardize their future effectiveness in the redevelopment of the World Trade Center.
"In all candor," Mr. Whitehead said as he opened the monthly meeting, "I must report that most of our board, including its chairman, were quite distressed that a process which we had established two years ago with full public approval was not allowed to work its way through to conclusion."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/nyregion/06cnd-rebuild.html?hp&ex=1128657600&en=cafa8301c8e6c4a4&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Eminent Domain Revisited: A Minnesota Case
Bordner Aerials
Richfield, Minn., in 2003 after the $160 million Best Buy headquarters was completed.
By TERRY PRISTIN
Published: October 5, 2005
RICHFIELD, Minn. - Few recent Supreme Court opinions have aroused as much public outrage as Kelo v. City of New London, Conn., the June ruling that reaffirmed the use of eminent domain to promote economic developments
The same area in 1999, before the construction of the Best Buy headquarters.
Critics on both the left and the right politically have said that the Kelo decision potentially endangers every home and business. Bills to limit condemnation powers have been introduced in 31 states, according to the Institute for Justice, a property rights group.
Had such a statute been in place in 2000 in Minnesota, however, a single auto dealer might have been able to block Best Buy, the fast-growing national electronics retailer, from building a $160 million corporate headquarters in Richfield, a suburb of 34,000 people that borders Minneapolis. The 1.6-million-square-foot campus, made up of four buildings shaped like ships, was completed in 2003 and currently houses 4,500 employees. City officials say it has given a big boost to an aging community that had been steadily losing population since the 1970's.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/05/realestate/05domain.html
Attacks Kill at Least 15 in Iraq as Violent Surge Continues
By ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: October 6, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 6 - A man wearing an explosive belt got onto a bus near Iraq's police academy in Baghdad today and blew himself up, killing 10 passengers and wounding 11, witnesses and Iraqi officials said.
The blast shattered the red minibus, killing almost everyone on board and sending huge plumes of black smoke into the sky near the academy building and the national Oil Ministry. The victims included police recruits, but also a woman and some children, said Capt. Muhammad Ali, a police officer who arrived at the scene shortly afterward.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/international/middleeast/06cnd_Iraq.html
As Illegal Workers Hit Suburbs, Politicians Scramble to Respond
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: October 6, 2005
Suburban politicians once had to master a small but demanding catalog of local issues. Taxes, garbage, crime and schools were always the big ones. But recently a volatile new issue has been showing up on the local meet-the-candidate circuit, and it is pretty much the opposite of the familiar and the local. It is illegal immigration.
Though municipal officials have no statutory control over immigration, a rising population of illegal immigrants in suburban communities - from Farmingville, N.Y., to Danbury, Conn.; Herndon, Va., to suburban South Salt Lake City, Utah - has prompted some of those officials to attack the problem with the limited means at their disposal. In the process, they have won and lost political support; grappled with issues beyond their usual bailiwicks; and, whether intentionally or not, begun incorporating immigration into the calculus of local politics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/nyregion/06immigrate.html
Boat That Sank May Have Been Overloaded, Test Suggests
By AL BAKER and SEWELL CHAN
Published: October 6, 2005
LAKE GEORGE, N.Y., Oct. 5 - A test conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board on Wednesday suggested that the Ethan Allen, the tour boat that fatally capsized on Sunday, could not safely carry anywhere near the 48 passengers for which it had been certified by New York State.
The results of the test, which were conducted on a nearly identical companion vessel, were the strongest evidence so far that the 38-foot Ethan Allen may have been overloaded when it overturned, plunging 47 elderly passengers into Lake George. Twenty of those passengers, tourists from Michigan and Ohio ranging in age from 68 to 89, drowned in one of the worst boating accidents in the state's recent history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/nyregion/06devels.html
Pall of Racism Remains Over Neighborhood Repaired After Arson
By GARY GATELY
Published: October 6, 2005
INDIAN HEAD, Md. - Even now, more than nine months later, 3-year-old Autumn Potts will not sleep in her bedroom. She is afraid somebody will come during the night and burn down her house.
Autumn Potts, 3, with her mother, Terri Rookard, and her brother, Antoine Rookard, 15, in their home in the Hunters Brooke subdivision.
On Dec. 6, flames lighted up the night sky, and smoldering chunks of wood flew through the air as Autumn and her family sped in cars up Cabinwood Court in Hunters Brooke, an expensive new subdivision 25 miles south of Washington in Charles County, Md. That night, 10 houses were destroyed and 16 others were heavily damaged at a cost of $10 million.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/national/06arson.html
Justices Explore U.S. Authority Over States on Assisted Suicide
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: October 6, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 5 - The question of assisted suicide reached the Supreme Court for the second time in eight years on Wednesday, although the profound issues of professional ethics and personal autonomy that have animated the national debate largely remained outside the courtroom.
Instead, lawyers for the federal government and for Oregon, the only state to have authorized physician-assisted suicide, argued over a single question: whether John Ashcroft acted within his authority as attorney general when he decided in 2001 that doctors would lose their federal prescription privileges if they followed the Oregon law's procedures and prescribed lethal doses of lawful medications for terminally ill patients who wanted to end their own lives.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/06/politics/politicsspecial1/06scotus.html
The New Zealand Herald
Speedway back after noise deal reached
06.10.05 6.30pm
Speedway racing will be back at Auckland's Western Springs this summer after the promoter and residents reached agreement over noise limits.
The season had been in danger of being axed after a residents' group won an Environment Court order for Spring Promotions Ltd to comply with a maximum noise level of 85 decibels.
Spring Promotions appealed to the High Court, arguing that speedway, which dates back 75 years at the venue, had never been able to race at below that limit.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10348976
Even a box beats sharing bed with baby
07.10.05
By Martin Johnston
Parents should put babies to sleep in a supermarket banana box rather than risk smothering them by taking them into their bed, says Auckland coroner Murray Jamieson.
He spoke out yesterday against the practice of sharing beds with a baby, saying it is linked to a high number of deaths.
Dr Jamieson said that of the 29 Auckland infant deaths reported to the coroner this year, eight - more than a quarter - had been in "co-sleeping circumstances. I argue that some could be prevented by baby sleeping in their own bed".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349074
Country dentists rare as hen's teeth
07.10.05
By Rebecca Walsh
Another New Zealand town is about to lose its regular dentist as the shortage in rural areas gets worse.
Taumarunui will soon have only one part-time dentist and residents will have to travel for up to an hour for urgent treatment.
The New Zealand Dental Association says expensive student fees and the large number of non-New Zealand born students enrolled in the dentistry programme are to blame for what has become a growing trend.
Taumarunui dentist Barry Thomson, who has practised in the area since 1974, is due to retire officially today and has been unable to sell his practice. That leaves Garry Van Den Borst, who works every second week in Wellington, to serve a population of about 12,000 people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349065
Murder of outspoken MP sends shock waves round Samoa
07.10.05
By Angela Gregory and Cherelle Jackson
An outspoken member of the main Samoan opposition party has been murdered in Auckland.
Su'a Atonio, 54, an MP from Aleipata village in Upolu, was stabbed in the chest late on Wednesday night at a Manurewa house.
A 47-year-old Pakuranga man accused of his murder appeared in the Manukau District Court yesterday and has been remanded in custody to reappear next week. He has interim name suppression.
Police have said the victim and the alleged killer knew each other and have described the murder as domestic-related.
Su'a was on a private visit to New Zealand.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349064
Pesticide threatens beef sales
07.10.05
By Liam Dann
A Northland farmer who treated his cattle with a crop pesticide has put New Zealand's $400 million beef trade with Taiwan and South Korea at risk.
Details of New Zealand beef contaminated with the pesticide endosulfan made the television news headlines in Taiwan on Wednesday, generating the worst kind of publicity for exporters to the food safety sensitive market.
Endosulfan is a chlorine-based pesticide that can cause vomiting, diarrhoea and convulsions if consumed in high volumes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349060
Warnings step up for Bali
07.10.05
The Government has again stepped up its travel warning for Bali, telling tourists more bombings cannot be ruled out.
The Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry's official advisory updated this week includes a fresh section on Bali.
"If your presence in Bali is essential extreme caution should be exercised," the warning says.
A triple bombing at the Indonesia resort island killed 22 people and injured more than 100 at the weekend, almost three years since terrorists bombed Kuta beach and killed 202 people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349059
HIV case sparks moral debate
07.10.05
By Helen Tunnah
A landmark court case that found a man who used a condom did not have to tell a sexual partner he was HIV positive has raised questions about moral obligations.
Legal and public health commentators said yesterday that Lower Hutt man Justin Dalley probably should have told a woman he met over the internet that he was HIV-positive before they had sex.
But they agreed with Judge Susan Thomas' decision that he was not legally obliged to.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349037
Hunting lobby wants moose protected
07.10.05
Hunting lobbyists say DNA confirmation of the existence in Fiordland National Park of hairs from a moose means the species should be given special protection.
This is despite there having been no confirmed sighting of one in New Zealand since 1952.
The New Zealand Conservation Authority and the Government would be petitioned to make moose exempt from extermination provisions in the National Parks Act, said Game and Forest Foundation executive director Garry Ottmann.
The act requires that all introduced species shall be exterminated, but the foundation is pinning its hopes on the Conservation Authority, which has the power to make exemptions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349036
Invader threat to oyster farms
07.10.05
New Zealand's mussel and oyster industry is being threatened by the arrival of a Korean pest known as the sea squirt.
The clubbed tunicate styela clava was discovered in Lyttelton harbour by Biosecurity New Zealand.
It was also found recently in Auckland's Viaduct Harbour by a British marine scientist.
The sea squirt can grow up to 16cm long. It is a prolific breeder, spawning every 24 hours.
While Korea is its homeland, it is spread throughout the world, including parts of Australia, Biosecurity NZ said yesterday.
It was most likely to have arrived in New Zealand on the hull of a boat.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349031
Coconut oil revs diesel engines
07.10.05
By Angela Gregory
Two Auckland University engineering students are hoping research showing the effectiveness of running diesel motors on coconut oil can be put to use in their home countries of Samoa and Fiji.
Dominic Schwalger and Penaia Rogoimuri, who are both in the final year of a Bachelor of Engineering in mechanics, have shown that coconut oil can run an engine as efficiently as diesel if properly tuned for the fuel.
The pair, both on scholarships from their home Governments, are also confident that coconut oil is a more environmentally friendly fuel after they analysed performance and exhaust emissions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349029
NZ women to join breast cancer drug experiment
07.10.05
Five New Zealand women with recurring breast cancer are to be injected with an experimental drug, then have breast tissue removed so the effects of the drug on their tumours can be assessed.
Provectus Pharmaceuticals announced yesterday in Knoxville, Tennessee, that it would begin recruiting patients as experimental subjects.
It had obtained clearance for the phase 1 clinical trial of PV-10 - which it plans to market as Provecta - to evaluate the drug's safety and efficacy.
"PV-10 will be injected into one or more tumours in each subject, and the local response to this single injection observed for a period of one to three weeks," it said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349028
NZ women to join breast cancer drug experiment
07.10.05
Five New Zealand women with recurring breast cancer are to be injected with an experimental drug, then have breast tissue removed so the effects of the drug on their tumours can be assessed.
Provectus Pharmaceuticals announced yesterday in Knoxville, Tennessee, that it would begin recruiting patients as experimental subjects.
It had obtained clearance for the phase 1 clinical trial of PV-10 - which it plans to market as Provecta - to evaluate the drug's safety and efficacy.
"PV-10 will be injected into one or more tumours in each subject, and the local response to this single injection observed for a period of one to three weeks," it said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10349028
Car-theft website a hit in Auckland, not elsewhere
07.10.05
An internet website aimed at rewarding members of the public who report car thefts has been successful in Auckland but struggles in the rest of the country.
Spotter.co.nz director Frank de Jong said yesterday he was pleased with the number of stolen cars recovered since the website was launched in May this year.
"We have recovered over 70 vehicles, and the value of those cars in total is approximately $550,000."
Three-quarters of the recovered vehicles were from the Auckland area.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10348991
Indonesian army to join hunt for Bali bombers
07.10.05
By Tomi Soetjipto
KUTA BEACH, Indonesia - Indonesia's military will join a nationwide hunt for those behind the suicide bombings in Bali, a senior officer said, as police confirmed three more Australians were among the dead.
Hundreds of thousands of police have already been mobilised to track down the masterminds of the attacks on three packed restaurants on the resort island. The three young bombers killed themselves and 19 others, and 146 were wounded.
The prime targets in the manhunt are Malaysian Islamic militants, Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10349010
Jakarta confirms two suspected bird flu cases
07.10.05
JAKARTA - Indonesian health officials said yesterday that two young men, including one who died a week ago, had proved positive for the bird flu virus in local tests.
I Nyoman Kandun, head of disease control at the health ministry, said specimens had been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory recognised by the World Health Organisation for further testing. Results should be available in the next few days.
Indonesian health officials suspect bird flu in six deaths since July in the world's fourth-most-populous nation, while the Hong Kong laboratory has confirmed four.
"The PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) showed positive for both (men)," said Kandun.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349006
Thai hotels fear room shortage for tsunami memorials
07.10.05
BANGKOK - The Thai government has invited 13,000 people, including Australians, to an all expenses-paid tsunami commemoration, but the country's hoteliers aren't sure they'll have enough rooms available.
A set of memorial services are to be held in tsunami-hit areas, including the resort island of Phuket, on December 26 -- the first anniversary of the disaster.
Those invited from many countries include injured survivors as well as relatives of the dead.
The timing coincides with the peak season for Thai tourism, which has tried hard to rebuild and bounce back since the tsunami.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10349012
'Doris Day' boss dies in loyalist feud
06.10.05
By David McKittrick
BELFAST - One of Belfast's most senior and most flamboyant loyalist paramilitary figures has been shot dead as part of an apparent internal feud.
Jim Gray, until recently the east Belfast brigadier of the Ulster Defence Association, the largest loyalist group in Northern Ireland, was shot twice in the chest by men who burst into his mother's home.
He had answered a knock at the door of the house in Clarawood estate, a loyalist area.
Gray, 47, had been released on bail on September 15 after spending months in prison on charges of money-laundering and possession of the proceeds of crime.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10348864
WHO sees 'global epidemic' of chronic disease
06.10.05
GENEVA - Developing countries can tackle a "global epidemic" of chronic disease by adopting cheap measures that have helped cut heart disease deaths in some rich nations by up to 70 percent, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.
In a report published yesterday, the WHO said nearly half of all deaths from heart disease, cancer, respiratory infections, strokes and diabetes -- to which about 35 million people will succumb this year -- were preventable.
The report, "Preventing Chronic Diseases -- a Vital Investment", said developing countries, where most such deaths occur, must copy Western nations by discouraging tobacco use and curbing salt, sugar and saturated fats in food.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10348858
Beware of people in Florida, say anti-gun campaigners
06.10.05
NEW YORK - A prominent anti-gun group in the United States is telling tourists on their way to Florida that they face an increased risk of being shot and killed there if they dare argue with the locals, thoroughly alarming some visitors and infuriating state officials, including Governor Jeb Bush.
The group, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, has been placing advertisements in newspapers around the United States and distributing leaflets at Miami Airport that carry the headline: "An Important Notice to Florida Visitors". It includes a picture of Florida drawn like a handgun and offers advice on how to stay safe. "Do not argue unnecessarily with local people. If someone appears to be angry with you, maintain to the best of your ability a positive attitude, and do not shout or make threatening gestures."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10348848
Dengue fever spike in Malaysia
06.10.05 5.20am
More than 1000 possible cases of dengue fever were reported last week, the Malaysian Health Ministry said, as it recorded a spike this year in the number of people seeking tests for the disease.
Since the beginning of the year, 74 Malaysians have died from dengue, a mosquito-borne disease.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10348871
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