December 6, 2005. Petrified Forest National Park. Fascinating stuff. The Prehistoric Forest were completely monocots. They were huge and sturdy and easily flourished on an Earth that was very different than today. There is a lot about history that tells us we need to love and steward this planet we live on with gratitude for the very breath we take. The prehistoric environments that sustained this life did so with very, very different and now extinct species. 
December 5, 2005. An USA Coalition member, Mongolia, has no species protection laws or conservation laws. That is the lack of ability the Bush State Departmen has shown in securing good policy. The pelt on the left is a grey wolf and the pelt on the right a fox. People make their living by killing and skinning these animals. How are they going to make a living then these species are gone from their land? The Mongolian government needs to pass protection laws and turn the hunters into animal behaviorists and surveyors to ensure the abundant return of these magnificent species. In doing so the hunters will learn new skills, animal husbandry while studying the habits of these species in the wild and conservation management skills to ensure they and their children will always have a living in the spirit of their ancestors. There needs to be a moritorium on all hunting until the inventories are known. It will be fascinating in such a wildness in Mongolia ! Very exciting !
December 5, 2005. A beautifully healthy bear weighing 340 pounds was shot during the New Jersey hunt. The clip in the ear is reminescent of buying an evergreen tree for the holidays. Both should still be alive !
The New York Times
Using Guns and Honey, Hunters Take Aim at New Jersey's Bear Population
By VINCENT M. MALLOZZI and JOHN HOLLBYRAM TOWNSHIP, N.J., Dec. 5 - Toting a shotgun and a can of uneaten honey, Scott MacMillan walked out of Allamuchy Mountain State Park late Monday afternoon growling like a bear.
"Too many people in the damn woods today," said Mr. MacMillan, wearing an orange ski cap, army fatigues and a long frown that drooped over his red goatee.
"The bears sense that something is wrong," he said, "and they've scattered."
At 5:45 a.m., Mr. MacMillan, who lives near the woods on Fox Trail, where bears have been rummaging through his garbage in recent weeks, heated up his can of honey and left it at the base of a tree. As the sweet scent wafted through the frozen woods in Sussex County, he climbed a tree stand and waited for a bear to take the bait.
Mr. MacMillan was one of 4,434 hunters issued permits by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to participate in the state's second bear hunt in the past 35 years, six days of open season on a growing population of bears estimated at 2,000 to 3,000 animals that have been encountering humans at an increasingly alarming rate in the last several years.
Mr. MacMillan, 30, was hoping to catch and take his bear to a weigh station at Waywayanda State Park in Vernon, 40 miles northeast of Allamuchy, one of five checkpoints for the hunt in the northern part of the state. Hunters took their 200-pound-plus trophies there to be weighed, tagged and sampled by state biologists.
Environmental Protection officials said that 54 bears were killed as of 2:30 p.m. on Monday. The largest, a male black bear, weighed 606 pounds after being gutted, meaning that it probably weighed roughly 725 pounds when it was shot.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/nyregion/06bear.html?pagewanted=print
Bombers Kill at Least 36 at Baghdad Police Academy
By ROBERT F. WORTHBAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 6 - Two bombers wearing explosive belts blew themselves up in a crowded courtyard in the Baghdad police academy this morning, killing at least 36 people and wounding 72, Interior Ministry officials said.
The bombings were the worst violence for months in the capital, where police officials are a favored target of Sunni Arab insurgents. Early reports indicated the bombers may have been women, but the American military said in a statement that the bombers were male.
The first bomber detonated his payload at about 12:45 p.m. in a courtyard full of cadets in the academy, a sprawling complex in eastern Baghdad. The second exploded shortly afterward, as the area was still crowded with police and emergency workers, said an ambulance driver who had spoken to police officials at the scene. The two may have been students at the academy, which might explain why they were able to get into the compound without being searches, the driver said.
"One of the suicide bombers detonated near a group of students outside a classroom," the military said. "Thinking the explosion was an indirect-fire attack, Iraqi police and students fled to a bunker for shelter where the second bomber detonated his vest."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/international/middleeast/06cnd-iraq.html?ei=5094&en=76e24f7b59575053&hp=&ex=1133931600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
9/11 Panel Issues Poor Grades for Handling of Terror
By PHILIP SHENONWASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - The members of the Sept. 11 commission gave dismal grades to the Bush administration and Congress on Monday in measuring the government's recent efforts to prevent terrorist attacks on American soil, concluding that the government deserved many more F's and D's than A's.
The commissioners awarded the grades in a privately financed "report card" that found that four years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the nation remained alarmingly vulnerable to terrorist strikes, including attacks with chemical, biological or nuclear weapons.
"While the terrorists are learning and adopting, our government is still moving at a crawl," said Thomas H. Kean, the commission's chairman and a former Republican governor of New Jersey. "Many obvious steps that the American people assume have been completed have not been. Our leadership is distracted."
The new report by the 9/11 Public Discourse Project, a private group established by the commission's five Republicans and five Democrats when the panel formally went out of business last year, graded the government's response to the 41 recommendations made in the commission's final report 17 months ago.
There were 17 F's or D's - including an F to Congress for its failure to allocate the domestic antiterrorism budget on the basis of risk and a D for the government's effort to track down and secure nuclear material that could be used by terrorists. There was only one A - and it was an A minus - awarded for the government's efforts to stem the financing of terrorist networks.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/politics/06panel.html?pagewanted=print
On India's Roads, Cargo and a Deadly Passenger
By AMY WALDMANNELAMANGALA, India - Hot water: 10 rupees. Cold water: 8 rupees. Toilet: 5 rupees.
Sex: no price specified on the bathhouse wall, but, as the condom painted there suggests, safe.
Sangeetha Hamam, a bathhouse, sits on the national highway near this gritty truck stop about nine miles north of Bangalore. Its mistress is Ranjeetha, a 28-year-old eunuch who lives as a woman. Her lipstick and black dress provide a touch of glamour in the small dark shack.
Her clients are not only truckers, but also Bangalore college students and other city residents. They know to look for sex at highway establishments geared toward truckers. Her customers - as many as 100 on Sundays for her and five other eunuchs - come for a "massage" and the anal sex that follows, but also for the anonymity the location confers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/international/asia/06highway.html?hp=&adxnnl=0&adxnnlx=1133891710-2nTEAHfWCAHvQoli/Urjjw&pagewanted=print
Questions About Secret Prisons Follow Rice in Europe
By JOEL BRINKLEYBUCHAREST, Dec. 6 - Questions about covert prisons and a mistaken, secret arrest dogged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a visit to three European nations today, but she declined to answer most questions, even after Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany called for "a certain degree of transparency" on the matter.
A significant part of her introductory meeting with Ms. Merkel, in Berlin this morning, was taken up by discussion of the secret jails for terror suspects that the United States maintains in European and other nations. Ms. Merkel has been in office only two weeks but is already facing an angry internal debate over how much her predecessor, Gerard Schröder, knew about the secret prisons and the transport of German citizens to other countries for questioning.
For Ms. Rice, the debate comes at an awkward time, as the Bush administration is hoping for a fresh start with Germany after its poisonous relationship with Mr. Schröder's government.
Ms. Merkel said she had wrested an admission from the United States over the mistaken arrest and imprisonment on terrorism charges of a German citizen, Khalid al Masri, who was held in Afghanistan for five months last year before the United States realized it had the wrong man.
"The American government admitted its mistake," Ms. Merkel said at a news conference with Ms. Rice. Ms. Rice said she could not talk about the case specifically but then added "any policy will sometimes result in error, and when it happens we do everything we can to correct it."
Before leaving Washington on Monday morning, Ms. Rice issued a lengthy, unapologetic statement on the secret-prison issue, which is the subject of numerous investigations in Europe, while refusing to acknowledge that the prisons exist. Aides said she was no more forthcoming in her talks with Ms. Merkel.
Asked about her statement, Ms. Merkel said it was "good," but then added "as chancellor, I must adhere to German laws." She noted that the German parliament will take up the Masri case.
After the mistaken arrest was discovered, the United States asked Germany to keep it secret, and Germany complied. Asked about that, Ms. Rice said "intelligence matters need to be handled sensitively."
Even though her aides say they realized that the issue of secret prisons would dominate a good part of Ms. Rice's trip, at times she has shown exasperation over the debate.
"We have an obligation to defend our people, and we will use every lawful means to do so," she declared in Berlin, adding that the public debate over the secret prisons ought to include "a healthy respect for the challenges we face" fighting terrorism.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/international/europe/06cnd-rice.html?ei=5094&en=328feaf6af505389&hp=&ex=1133931600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
German Man Claims U.S. Tortured Him
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 12:09 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A German man filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming he was held captive and tortured by U.S. government agents after being mistakenly identified as an associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers.
Khaled El-Masri, who is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was arrested while attempting to enter Macedonia for a holiday trip and flown to Afghanistan. During five months in captivity he was subjected to ''torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,'' says a lawsuit he filed in U.S. District Court in suburban Alexandria, Va.
In Berlin, meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the U.S. has acknowledged making a mistake in the man's arrest. ''I'm happy to say we have discussed the one case, which the government of the United States has of course accepted as a mistake,'' Merkel said. She spoke after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who refused later to discuss the case with reporters.
The suit names as the main defendant former CIA Director George Tenet. In addition to torture, he claims his due process rights were violated and that he was subjected to ''prolonged, arbitrary detention.'' He is seeking damages of at least $75,000.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-CIA-Lawsuit.html?pagewanted=print
In Mongolia, an 'Extinction Crisis' Looms
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORDULAN BATOR, Mongolia - On a highway west of this capital, roadside signs advertise marmot, fox and other wildlife, and stacks of skins stand on display. In open markets, traders conduct a gritty commerce in furs and hides, much of it illegal. Similar markets flourish elsewhere in Mongolia, especially along the border with China.
If the good news in Mongolia is the gradual comeback of the Przewalski wild horses, the disturbing news is the diminishing numbers of other wildlife, under relentless siege by overhunting and excessive trade in skins and other animal products.
A new study of wildlife, one of the country's most distinctive resources, has revealed alarming declines in most species, especially in the last 15 years. By some estimates, the populations of endangered species - marmots, argali sheep, antelope, red deer, bears, Asiatic wild asses - have plummeted by 50 to 90 percent.
The only other possible exception to the woeful trend, conservation experts say, is the apparent increase in wolves. That is hardly welcomed by herders. If the animals wolves prey on become scarce, these predators can be expected to become a greater menace to livestock, and there is reported evidence that this is already happening.
"The country is facing a quite extraordinary and unnoticed extinction crisis, or at least the threat of one," said Peter Zahler, assistant director for Asia at the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/06/science/06WILD.html?pagewanted=print
Jurassic Bark
By WILLIAM L. HAMILTONIT looks like something you hope never happens to a tooth, so why is it on the cutting edge of furniture fashion?
Petrified wood, from trees that have fossilized to stone, is currently intriguing those interested in interior design who have worked their way through exotic veneers, rare planks, reclaimed timbers and halved and polished roots and stumps - some of the latest excitements in the wood furniture world.
In contrast to the freeform tabletops of George Nakashima, which now are intensely collectible, or to the massive upended split logs of John Houshmand, a contemporary designer working in the Nakashima style, or to the raw, aged or weathered furniture of importers like Tucker Robbins, petrified wood is as much mineral as matchstick.
What's the appeal?
Vicente Wolf, a New York designer who recently bought two pieces - his first - at Hudson Furniture, in the meatpacking district, said it was precisely because petrified wood has attributes of wood and stone.
"It has the warmth and grain of wood, but you see the depth and veining of the stone," he said. "It looks like one thing, but it's something else."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/garden/01wood.html?pagewanted=print
Montgomery Honors Rosa Parks
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 1, 2005
Filed at 4:43 p.m. ET
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) -- Hundreds of children marched Thursday from the site where Rosa Parks made history 50 years ago, commemorating the anniversary of the day she refused to give up her bus seat to a white man.
A black ribbon was placed on the front seat of an MBTA bus in Boston today in honor of Rosa Parks's famous refusal.
''Thank you, Rosa Parks. Thank you, Rosa Parks,'' the children chanted as they marched to the Capitol from the site about eight blocks away where Parks was arrested on Dec. 1, 1955.
Elijah Taylor, 12, said he joined the children's parade ''to give tribute to all those people in Montgomery who walked during the bus boycott'' as well as Parks.
''I did it because Rosa Parks stuck up for what was right,'' said Megan Hughes, 11.
The children, both black and white, joined arms and sang ''We Shall Overcome'' at the steps of the Capitol.
Earlier Thursday, Montgomery residents and civil rights figures held a prayer breakfast to remember Parks.
All buses in Montgomery paid tribute to Parks by leaving a seat empty with a display commemorating her act. Other bus systems around the country had similar displays. Parks died Oct. 24 at age 92 in Detroit, where she and her husband had moved in 1957.
The Montgomery Improvement Association, which hosted the prayer breakfast, was the group that organized and launched the boycott of city buses four days after Parks' arrest. The yearlong boycott, led by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., became a key moment in the civil rights movement.
In New York, empty seats were marked with posters of her reading, ''It All Started on a Bus,'' and bus drivers were keeping headlights on all day.
In Philadelphia, middle school students planned to write comments about Parks on posters on the outside of a bus that would be put into regular service.
Bus tributes were also set up in Boston; Cleveland; Newark, N.J.; and Washington, D.C.
In Detroit, a federal building on Detroit's east side was being renamed for Parks in an afternoon ceremony. The resolution renaming the building was signed into law by President Bush on Nov. 11.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Parks-Anniversary.html?hp&ex=1133499600&en=88506d910bf5e495&ei=5094&partner=homepage
For New Court, Abortion Case Takes Old Path
By LINDA GREENHOUSEWASHINGTON, Nov. 30 - Well before the argument in a New Hampshire abortion case was over, the question that had drawn the crowds to the Supreme Court on a crisp Wednesday morning had an answer. No, abortion law was not about to undergo a major change in the hands of the new Roberts court, at least not yet.
The justices appeared to be in broad agreement on two propositions: that laws regulating teenagers' access to abortion must make allowances for medical emergencies; and that the New Hampshire law, requiring notice to one parent and a 48-hour waiting period, failed to do so.
The only dispute was over how to fix the problem, and even as to that question, there was some evidence of a consensus in the making.
The hundreds of spectators in the courtroom, and the countless more who were able to listen, thanks to the court's unusually speedy release of the audiotape, were treated to an intense and lively session during which the justices appeared at times almost to be thinking out loud about how to proceed.
Justices across the ideological spectrum appeared inclined to send the case back to the federal appeals court that had declared the law unenforceable in all respects, and to instruct that court to render a narrower ruling. Such a ruling would permit the law to take effect except when a doctor had certified that an immediate abortion - without either notifying a parent or seeking approval from a judge, an option known as a judicial bypass - was necessary to preserve a girl's health.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/politics/politicsspecial1/01scotus.html?pagewanted=print
Bats May Serve as a 'Reservoir' for Ebola Virus, Scientists Report
By LAWRENCE K. ALTMANPublished: December 1, 2005
Since it was discovered in 1976, the Ebola virus has killed more than 1,200 people in scattered outbreaks in Central Africa, the World Health Organization calculates. But while health workers have managed to contain the outbreaks, scientists have been frustrated that they do not know the virus's hiding place in nature.
Now an international team of scientists has found evidence of symptomless Ebola infection in three species of fruit bats, adding to earlier suggestions that they are the likely reservoir.
Working at the International Medical Research Center in Franceville, Gabon, the scientists - from France, South Africa and Thailand - found fragments of the Ebola virus, or evidence of an immune response to it, among bats in Gabon and Congo. Fruit bats are eaten by people in central Africa, according to the report, which is to appear today in the journal Nature.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/health/01virus.html
Scientists Say Slower Atlantic Currents Could Mean a Colder Europe
By ANDREW C. REVKINPublished: December 1, 2005
Scientists say they have measured a significant slowing in the Atlantic currents that carry warm water toward Northern Europe. If the trend persists, they say, the weather there could cool considerably in coming decades.
Some climate experts have said the potential cooling of Europe was paradoxically consistent with global warming caused by the accumulation of heat-trapping "greenhouse" emissions. But several experts said it was premature to conclude that the new measurements, to be described today in the journal Nature, meant that such a change was already under way.
The currents, branching off from the Gulf Stream, are part of an oceanic system that disperses tropical heat toward the poles and makes Northern Europe far warmer than its latitude would suggest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/science/earth/01climate.html
Learning-Disabled Students Blossom in Blended Classes
By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: November 30, 2005
SARAH JACOBS' son Jed, 9, has a learning disability. He's easily distracted and, if asked to do too many things at once, panics. At his former school, a private academy that cost $20,000 a year, his mother says Jed got into trouble daily ("kicking and even some biting") and stopped learning. "He was reading 'Captain Underpants' in kindergarten and he was in third grade and still reading 'Captain Underpants,'" she says.
So in September she switched him to a nearby public school, P.S. 75 on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Jed was a new boy. His fourth grade had two full-time teachers and the class was so well-organized, Jed moved smoothly from one task to the next. When Ms. Jacobs asked how he liked it, Jed said he thought his teachers must have a disability too, because they made it so easy to understand the work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/education/30education.html
4 U.S. Troops Killed in Push Against Iraqi Rebels
By KIRK SEMPLEBAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 1 - The American military said today that four American troops died, including two marines who were killed in combat operations in the rebellious province of Anbar, where military commanders have pressed a series of intensive sweeps to disrupt insurgent networks in advance of national elections on Dec. 15.
The two marines, both with Regimental Combat Team 8, Second Marine Division, were killed Wednesday by small-arms fire in separate incidents in Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad, the American military said.
An Army soldier died from a gunshot wound on Wednesday north of Baghdad, the military said, offering no further details and not specifying whether the wound was the result of a hostile attack, friendly fire or a suicide attempt. Also on Wednesday, a Marine assigned to the Second Marine Aircraft Wing of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force died in a non-combat vehicle accident near Al Taqaddum, the military announced.
Today, about 2,000 American troops and 500 Iraqi Army soldiers continued their push to root out rebels in the rural region east of Hit, 100 miles west of Baghdad, officials said. American commanders say that area is a manufacturing center for car bombs and the kind of homemade explosives that have bedeviled troops and caused thousands of casualties since the invasion. The operation started on Wednesday.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/international/middleeast/01cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1133499600&en=51a992bcbfeb1925&ei=5094&partner=homepage
South Africa's High Court Rules in Favor of Gay Marriage
By MICHAEL WINES
JOHANNESBURG, Dec. 1 - South Africa's highest court ruled today that same-sex marriages enjoy the same legal status as those between men and women, effectively making the nation one of just five worldwide that have removed legal barriers to gay and lesbian unions.
But the Constitutional Court, as the high court is known, effectively stayed its ruling for one year to give the Parliament time to amend a 1961 marriage law to reflect its decision. Should the legislature balk, the court said, the law will be automatically changed to make its provisions gender-neutral.
Few expect the Parliament to resist, even though African nations are generally intolerant of gay relationships and many South Africans are conservative on social issues. Among political factions here, only the tiny African Christian Democratic Party, whose positions carry a strong religious undercurrent, called for a constitutional amendment to bar gay marriages.
The African National Congress, which controls the presidency and more than two-thirds of parliament's seats, was silent on the court's decision.
The Constitutional Court's ruling expanded on a 2004 decision by the national Supreme Court of Appeal that affirmed the marriage of a lesbian couple, who were nonetheless unable to register their union with the government's Home Affairs department. The government had appealed the ruling, arguing that the Supreme Court had encroached on Parliament's authority to make laws.
But the Constitutional Court said that the refusal to give legal status to gay marriages, though grounded in common law, violated the constitution's guarantee of equal rights. The justices said marriage laws must be amended to include the words "or spouse" alongside provisions that now refer to husbands and wives.
The decision was essentially unanimous, with one of the court's 12 judges arguing that the ruling should take effect immediately rather than being stayed.
The African Christian Democratic Party said through a spokesman that Parliament should amend the constitution to overturn the court's decision, arguing that "studies of previous civilizations reveal than when a society strays from the sexual ethic of marriage, it deteriorates and eventually disintegrates."
But homosexuality here is not the sort of burning social issue that it is on the American political right. South African gay men and lesbians have recently won a series of court rulings extending to them the rights and protections afforded other citizens. The government-sponsored tourism board this week announced an advertising blitz in Britain aimed at attracting gay couples to Cape Town "for the honeymoon of their dreams in 2006."
"It's not one of our political fault lines," said Steven E. Friedman, a top political analyst at Johannesburg's Center for Political Studies, a nonprofit research center. "The major issue in this society is race. That's why people join political parties. The party of social conservatism is the African Christian Democratic Party, which wins 1 percent of the vote. And that's the group of people who feel that this justifies amending the constitution."
Among some gay rights groups, there was disappointment over the one-year delay. But South Africa's oldest gay and lesbian group, the Cape Town-based Triangle Project, hailed the decision as a victory over discrimination not simply against homosexuals, but against all minorities.
"To grant equality to gay and lesbian people, I would think, is a significant step in democratic reform in this country," Dawn Betteridge, the organization's director, said in a telephone interview.
"And I would hope that all South Africans would be celebrating that." One of the winning attorneys in the lawsuit, Keketso Meama, expressed disappointment at the delay in fully legalizing same-sex unions. But she said the ruling nevertheless was a striking victory for gay men and lesbians, who had few rights throughout most of South Africa's colonial history.
"We still have to wait 12 months," Ms. Meama said in a telephone interview, "but it's fine. We've already waited 300 years."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/01/international/africa/01cnd-joburg.html?hp
An Old Cinema in Pakistan Has New Life After Quake
By SOMINI SENGUPTAISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Nov. 25 - Tucked inside a popular bazaar, there once was a place where women shimmied their hips in full Technicolor splendor. Today, it is a refuge for women who can barely lift their legs.
It is an odd transformation, wrought by the devastating earthquake on Oct. 8.
The Melody Cinema had sat fallow for two years, ever since a mob of religious radicals set it on fire and reduced it to nothing more than a charred, trash-filled shell. Today, it has been reborn as the Melody Relief and Rehabilitation Center, and the occupants of its 53 beds are women with broken backs.
The youngest patient is 13, the oldest 50. Most of the others are in their 20's and 30's, women who had been cooking and cleaning at home when the earth shook and roofs collapsed. They have all undergone surgery for spinal-cord injuries, and the Melody is a way station of sorts, a place to rest and recover before returning to their homes or whatever is left of them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/international/asia/30QUAKE.html
British Review of Energy to Include Atomic Power
By ALAN COWELLPublished: November 30, 2005
LONDON, Nov. 29 - Prime Minister Tony Blair announced Tuesday that Britain may reverse its current reluctance to build new nuclear power plants, despite opposition from environmental groups.
Mr. Blair's announcement reflected a nascent European debate that could presage a significant shift in energy policies. Finland in particular has already broken ranks with the opposition to nuclear power that has seized much of the Continent since the Chernobyl disaster in 1986. And while France derives around 80 percent of its electricity from nuclear power, countries like Germany and Britain may be poised to re-evaluate their previous pledges to phase out nuclear power by the early 2020's.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/international/europe/30britain.html
Investigation Says Russians Acted Ineptly in School Raid
By STEVEN LEE MYERSMOSCOW, Nov. 29 - The first government investigation to announce its findings on the terrorist attack on School No. 1 in the southern Russian city of Beslan in September 2004 criticized law enforcement agencies for a confused and uncoordinated rescue effort and blamed them for allowing the attack in the first place, a lawmaker who led the inquiry said Tuesday.
The investigation - carried out by a commission appointed by the regional legislature - did not corroborate the official versions of some key events during the convulsion of violence that ended the siege on Sept. 3, though it also cast doubt on alternative theories that had been fueled by rumor and outrage over the government's actions.
The commission's written report, which totals 40 pages, according to the lawmaker's spokeswoman, has not yet been made public but was summarized by its chairman, Stanislav M. Kesayev, during a legislative session in Vladikavkaz, the capital of the North Ossetia region.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/international/europe/30russia.html?pagewanted=print
Profusion of Rebel Groups Helps Them Survive in Iraq
By DEXTER FILKINSPublished: December 2, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 1 - Here is a small sampling of the insurgent groups that have claimed responsibility for attacks on Americans and Iraqis in the last few months:s
Jordanians examined the remains of a room used by wedding guests in the Radisson Hotel in Amman after a suicide bombing in November, apparently carried out by Iraqis belonging to the Ansar Brigade.
Supporters of the Sunni People. The Men's Faith Brigade. The Islamic Anger. Al Baraa bin Malik Suicide Brigade. The Tawid Lions of Abdullah ibn al Zobeir. While some of them, like the Suicide Brigade, claim an affiliation with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia and Al Qaeda claims them, others say they have acted alone or under the guidance of another group.
While on Wednesday President Bush promised nothing less than "complete victory" over the Iraqi insurgency, the apparent proliferation of militant groups offers perhaps the best explanation as to why the insurgency has been so hard to destroy.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/international/middleeast/02insurgency.html?hp&ex=1133586000&en=7ce4d7d46d02679b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Supreme Court Pick Assures Key Senator on Abortion Views
By DAVID STOUT
Published: December 2, 2005
WASHINGTON, Dec. 2 - Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. should be given a fair chance to explain his views on abortion and the law before senators vote on his nomination to the Supreme Court, Senator Arlen Specter, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said today. Mr. Specter emphasized that he himself is undecided.
Sen. Arlen Specter at a news conference today.
"My job as chairman is to keep the playing field level," Mr. Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said after meeting with Judge Alito for more than an hour this morning. The senator said Judge Alito had "raised a sharp distinction" between his onetime role as an advocate and his role as a judge. Mr. Specter said he was somewhat reassured when Judge Alito said he gave great deference to the concept of settled law, regardless of his own feelings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/politics/politicsspecial1/02cnd-confirm.html?hp&ex=1133586000&en=0e6e6ad20671022c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
3 Anti-Chávez Parties Pull Out of Election
By JUAN FOREROBOGOTÁ, Colombia, Nov. 29 - Accusing Venezuelan electoral officials of favoring that country's populist government, three opposition parties announced Tuesday that they would pull out of congressional elections scheduled for Sunday.
The withdrawal of the three parties, two of which governed Venezuela for four decades until President Hugo Chávez won office in 1998, could give the leftist governing party overwhelming control of the 167-member National Assembly. If Mr. Chávez's slim majority in the Assembly increases to a two-thirds majority, the government will be poised to obtain a range of constitutional reforms, like an extension of the president's term.
"Under these conditions, we cannot participate in the electoral process," Henry Ramos, the secretary general of Democratic Action, told reporters on Tuesday.
Democratic Action and officials of two other parties, the Social Christian Party, or Copei, and the smaller Project Venezuela, accused the electoral authorities of failing to correct errors in the voter registry and in electronic voting equipment, opening the door to fraud and discrimination against opponents of the government.
"Across this country, there is a profound lack of confidence in the electoral arbiter because it does not say the truth," said César Pérez Vivas, secretary general of Copei, which had asked that the elections be delayed.
Mr. Chávez, though, called the opposition pullout "political sabotage" and said it would not discredit his government. Other officials said the vote would take place as planned and harshly accused the opposition of withdrawing because it faced a dire outcome at the voting booth.
"Very well, let them go to hell," Vice President José Vicente Rangel, told reporters. "They know they are defeated because they see the polls, too."
Mr. Rangel and allies of the president also accused the United States of playing a role in the collective withdrawal of the parties, noting that an election-monitoring group that receives financing from Washington, Súmate, called for Venezuelans to gather in churches on Sunday and raise their voices in anti-government prayer.
The three parties that are withdrawing hold 36 seats in the Assembly. Three other important opposition parties will take part in the election, but the absence of Democratic Action and Copei is expected to be a blessing for Mr. Chávez's Fifth Republic Movement and its allies, which control nearly 90 seats.
"It's a disaster, a disaster for the opposition," Luis Vicente León, a political analysts who heads the Datanalisis polling company, said by phone from Caracas. "Only a small part of the opposition will participate, and that's a disaster."
Mr. León said the withdrawal of the parties would give Mr. Chávez and his allies more than 80 percent of the National Assembly, 10 percent more than they would have won had the opposition parties not withdrawn.
Since their resounding defeat in a recall referendum against Mr. Chávez last year, an opposition umbrella group has disappeared and many of its leaders have fallen into obscurity. Last year, the government swept regional elections, leaving the opposition in control of only two of 23 states.
Mr. Chávez, meanwhile, has until recently held a popularity rating approaching 70 percent as his government spends generously on social programs for the poor. The president is expected to be easily re-elected to another six-year term next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/international/americas/30venezuela.html?pagewanted=print
Face Transplant Doctors Defend Procedure
By CRAIG S. SMITHPublished: December 2, 2005
LYON, France, Dec. 2 - The world's first person to wear a new face awoke in the northern city of Amiens, France, on Monday - 24 hours after doctors put her to sleep - and looked in the mirror.
Jean-Michel Dubernard, right, and Bernard Devauchelle explained how they performed the first partial face transplant today in Lyon, France.
The swollen nose, lips and chin she saw there were not her own - those had been ripped from her head by her pet Labrador retriever in May - but they were a blessing for a woman whose face had become a lipless grimace. She took a pen and paper and wrote for the doctors, "Merci."
Those doctors on Friday defended their rush to give the woman a new face, despite the enormous risks of death and psychological difficulties posed by the procedure, just months after her disfigurement. They dismissed assertions that they were bent on glory at the patient's expense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/02/health/02cnd-face.html?ei=5094&en=a31b93604e0a19a7&hp=&ex=1133586000&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Greenspan Expressed Concern Over Worsening U.S. Budget Deficit
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 2, 2005
Filed at 4:27 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Outgoing Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Friday that America's exploding budget deficit and a protectionist backlash against soaring trade deficits could disrupt the global economy.
On a day when he was being honored in London for his nearly two decades in the world's highest profile economic job, Greenspan restated some familiar worries.
He said U.S. deficits are set to soar with the pending retirement of 78 million baby boomers and he suggested that Congress consider trimming Social Security and Medicare benefits because the government probably has promised more than it can afford, especially in health benefits.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Greenspan.html?pagewanted=print
For a 'Veggie Car,' Grease Is the Word
By JIM MOTAVALLI
THE fryers run all day at the Super Duper Weenie outlets in Fairfield and Monroe. The modest hot dog stands have been celebrated in magazines like Gourmet and Cigar Aficionado and on David Letterman's show, and every time there's more exposure, the lines grow.
Until recently, the restaurants had a disposal problem at the end of the week: 30 gallons of contaminated soy oil. To make it go away, the restaurants paid $40 to a Massachusetts-based rendering company.
But today, Super Duper Weenie's waste oil has become an asset, not a liability. Instead of piling up in a storage shed, it is filtered to remove potato starch and bread crumbs, then goes straight into the tank of the 1978 Mercedes 300D owned by Gary Zemola, an owner of the restaurants. The car, which bears the license plate SOYBNZ, has been converted from diesel fuel to 100 percent fryer-based biofuel.
"They laughed when I said what I was going to do," said Mr. Zemola of the Sandy Hook section of Newtown, wearing his trademark American flag head scarf and sitting on one of the Fairfield restaurant's bright red stools. "They said that dogs would chase me down the street. But now, with $2.50 a gallon gasoline, who's nuts? My veggie car is good for the environment and good for business. I'd be a fool not to do it."
The Mercedes was converted last year by Greasecar (www.greasecar.com) of Florence, Mass. The conversion includes a biofuel tank, filters, heat exchangers and plumbing to deliver the fuel to the engine. The engine can still burn diesel fuel. The conversion cost him $1,500, but the mechanically inclined can install it themselves for $795. Mr. Zemola said the car performs no differently than it did before.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/04/nyregion/nyregionspecial2/04ctdiesel.html?pagewanted=print
Global Warming/Climate Change
'Historic day' for environment deal
Last updated Nov 30 2005 07:02 PM EST
CBC NewsThere's been a major breakthrough in negotiations at the UN climate change conference in Montreal.
INDEPTH: Kyoto and Beyond: About the Montreal Climate Change Conference
http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/kyoto/index.html
Delegates have finalized and adopted the set of rules that pave the way for countries to meet their obligations under the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions.
On Wednesday, delegates adopted a complex set of measures called the Marrakesh Accord, that will make it easier — and cheaper — for countries to meet Kyoto targets for reducing carbon emissions.
The measures give carbon emissions a market value, and allow countries to get credit for investing in clean energy around the world. Natural resources like forests are also better recognized, because they absorb carbon emissions.
Delegates at Montreal Climate Change Conference 2005 agreed to all except one of the 22 sections of the rules.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew called it a historic day.
"Because with the adoption of the Marrakesh accords, we can now truly implement the protocol of Kyoto. So this is a great day for the citizens of the world," Pettigrew said Wednesday. Environment delegates welcome the progress. However, Mike Hudema, a campaigner with Global Exchange, says the are still challenges ahead.
"The U.S., I think, has tried to block a lot of this process, announcing [Tuesday] that they weren't going to make any new commitments past 2012. And what we're really trying to do is push the delegates to move forward on new commitments and a new agreement," Hudema said.
However, Canadian delegates say they don't expect to reach a second Kyoto agreement in this round of talks.
http://www.cbc.ca/montreal/story/qc-envir20051130.html
Michael Moore Today
50 Years Ago Today... From Michael Moore
Friends,
I just thought we should all pause for a moment today to remember the simple act of courage, defiance and dignity committed by Rosa Parks when she refused to move to the back of the bus because the law said she had the wrong skin color. The greatest moments in history, the ones that have truly mattered and have taken us to a better place, are made up of scores of these singular acts by ordinary, everyday people who could no longer tolerate the crap and the nonsense of those in charge.
Today, whether it is a student who holds a sit-in to get the army recruiters off his campus, or the mother of a dead soldier who refuses to leave the front gate of the president's ranch, we continue to be saved by brave people who risk ridicule and rejection but end up turning huge tides of public opinion in the direction of righteousness. We owe them enormous debts of gratitude. It is not easy to stand up for what is right, especially when everyone else is afraid to leave the comfortable path of conformity.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=189
TSA Would Allow Sharp Objects on Airliners
By Sara Kehaulani Goo / Washington PostA new plan by the Transportation Security Administration would allow airline passengers to bring scissors and other sharp objects in their carry-on bags because the items no longer pose the greatest threat to airline security, according to sources familiar with the plans.
In a series of briefings this week, TSA Director Edmund S. "Kip" Hawley told aviation industry leaders that he plans to announce changes at airport security checkpoints that would allow scissors less than four inches long and tools, such as screwdrivers, less than seven inches long, according to people familiar with the TSA's plans. These people spoke on condition of anonymity because the TSA intends to make the plans public Friday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5041
Dead soldiers' mothers feel betrayed
By Robert Fisk / Seattle Post-IntelligencerNEW YORK -- I sit in one of the dives on 44th Street, uncertain how to approach Sue Niederer and Celeste Zappala, afraid that their stories can be too easily turned into tears, their message lost after the Veterans Day march. They were put at the back of the New York parade, humiliated, with their little crowd of anti-war veterans and their memories of boys who left young wives for Iraq and came back in coffins.
Later, I sit between the two women and remember the blood splashed across the road at Khan Dari and the 82nd Airborne washing away the brains from the highway in central Fallujah and the body lying beneath a tarp in north Baghdad. I've seen the American corpses. Now here are the American mothers.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4998
U.S. Use of `pillars' Echoes Muslims
Associated PressA Bush administration policy paper outlines eight "pillars" of its strategy to win the war in Iraq - a word that echoes the five "pillars of Islam," used by Muslims to describe the bases of their faith.
President Bush has angered Muslims in the past with his choice of words, particularly when he called for a "crusade" against al-Qaida soon after the Sept. 11 terror attacks - recalling in Muslims' eyes the historical Christian Crusades against Islam in the Holy Land.
"Pillar," however, is a more neutral term.
"It doesn't cause a problem like 'crusades,'" said Fahmy Huweidi, a columnist who writes on Islam for Arab newspapers. "I don't think the use of 'pillars' will be seen negatively or positively by Muslims, either as an insult or as a way to gain their support. The word 'pillars' has many uses in the Arabic language, but 'crusades' has just one, and it's seen as negative."
---
The eight pillars of U.S. strategy in Iraq:
1. Defeat the terrorists and neutralize the insurgency.
2. Transition Iraq to security self-reliance.
3. Help Iraqis forge a national compact for democratic government.
4. Help Iraq build government capacity and provide essential services.
5. Help Iraq strengthen its economy.
6. Help Iraq strengthen the rule of law and promote civil rights.
7. Increase international support for Iraq
8. Strengthen public understanding of coalition efforts and public isolation of the insurgents.
---
The five pillars of Islam:
1. Pronouncing the "shehada," or testimony of faith: "There is no god but God and Muhammad is his prophet."
2. Prayer.
3. Fasting from sunrise to sunset in the holy month of Ramadan.
4. Performing the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca and Medina.
5. Giving alms, or "zakat."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5049
4 U.S. Troops Killed in Push Against Iraqi Rebels
By Kirk Semple / New York TimesBAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 1 - The American military said today that four American troops died, including two marines who were killed in combat operations in the rebellious province of Anbar, where military commanders have pressed a series of intensive sweeps to disrupt insurgent networks in advance of national elections on Dec. 15.
The two marines, both with Regimental Combat Team 8, Second Marine Division, were killed Wednesday by small-arms fire in separate incidents in Falluja, 30 miles west of Baghdad, the American military said.
An Army soldier died from a gunshot wound on Wednesday north of Baghdad, the military said, offering no further details and not specifying whether the wound was the result of a hostile attack, friendly fire or a suicide attempt. Also on Wednesday, a Marine assigned to the Second Marine Aircraft Wing of the Second Marine Expeditionary Force died in a non-combat vehicle accident near Al Taqaddum, the military announced.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5047
Miller 'sorry' for WMD inaccuracies
BBCJudith Miller, the US journalist at the heart of the CIA leak probe, has apologised to her readers because her stories about WMD and Iraq turned out to be wrong.
The US journalist, who spent 85 days in prison over the summer before agreeing to give evidence to a grand jury investigating the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame, made the apology during an exclusive interview for BBC Newsnight.
She said: "I am obviously deeply chagrined that I ever write anything that turns out to be incorrect. I'm deeply sorry that the stories were wrong."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5048
Insurgents Attack U.S. Bases in Iraq
By Robert H. Reid / Associated PressBAGHDAD, Iraq - Insurgents attacked several U.S. bases and government offices with mortars and rockets Thursday before dispersing in the capital of western Iraq's Anbar province, residents and police said.
Iraq's interior minister, meanwhile, fired his top official for human rights in connection with a torture investigation.
The attacks in Ramadi occurred as local tribal leaders and U.S. military officials were to hold their second meeting in a week at the governor's office in the city center. The insurgents apparently tried to shell the building, but reporters inside said there was no damage or injuries.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5045
U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press
Troops write articles presented as news reports. Some officers object to the practice.
By Mark Mazzetti and Borzou Daragahi / Los Angeles TimesWASHINGTON — As part of an information offensive in Iraq, the U.S. military is secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops in an effort to burnish the image of the U.S. mission in Iraq.
The articles, written by U.S. military "information operations" troops, are translated into Arabic and placed in Baghdad newspapers with the help of a defense contractor, according to U.S. military officials and documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5038
Rapid Response: Deconstructing the “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq”
After two-and-a-half years and 2,110 U.S. troop fatalities, the Bush administration released what it calls a “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq” (NSVI). The problem is, it’s not a new strategy for success in Iraq; it’s a public relations document. The strategy describes what has transpired in Iraq to date as a resounding success and stubbornly refuses to establish any standards for accountability. It dismisses serious problems such as the dramatic increase in bombings as “metrics that the terrorists and insurgents want the world to use.” Americans understand it’s time for a new course in Iraq. Unfortunately, this document is little more than an extended justification for a President “determined to stay his course.”
NO STANDARDS FOR ACCOUNTABILITY: Two weeks ago, the Senate overwhelmingly endorsed an amendment calling on the Bush administration to provide a “schedule” for meeting U.S. objectives in Iraq, “information regarding variables that could alter that schedule, and the reasons for any subsequent changes to that schedule.” The NSVI completely rejects this call. “We will not put a date certain on when each stage of success will be reached,” the document states in bold and italicized print, “because the timing of success depends upon meeting certain conditions, not arbitrary timetables.” The only time frames proposed for achieving U.S. objectives are virtually meaningless phrases: “short term,” “medium term,” and “longer term.” The goals for these time frames are equally ambiguous; the so-called “short term” goals, for instance, are listed as “making steady progress in fighting terrorists, meeting political milestones, building democratic institutions, and standing up security forces.”
IGNORING KEY CHALLENGES: When decorated veteran Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) presented his Iraq plan two weeks ago, he offered two primary reasons for supporting redeployment. One was the heavy burden the Iraq war has placed on the U.S. military and its recruitment and retention efforts, many of which are at historically low levels. The second was the shifting sentiments of the Iraqi population; Murtha cited a recent poll that found “over 80 percent of Iraqis are strongly opposed to the presence of coalition troops, and about 45 percent of the Iraqi population believe attacks against American troops are justified.” The NSVI ignores both of these fundamental facts. Virtually nothing is said about the well-being of our military, unquestionably a vital element in any strategy for success. Moreover, it disregards the latest Iraqi public opinion data, stating falsely that violence “has been discredited within and outside Iraq.”
DISMISSING INCREASED VIOLENCE: The NSVI emphasizes that U.S. officials “track numerous indicators to map the progress of our strategy,” and offers websites where some of these reports are publicly available. “Americans can read and assess these reports to get a better sense of what is being done in Iraq and the progress being made on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.” The problem is that these reports have on numerous occasions been found to be inaccurate, or to overstate progress using incomplete or misleading data. Additionally, the document states (in bold print) that these Pentagon statistics “have more strategic significance than the metrics that the terrorists and insurgents want the world to use as a measure of progress or failure: number of bombings.” Surely one needs a wide assortment of statistics to get the full picture from Iraq. But considering the No. 1 “Strategic Pillar” listed in the NSVI is to “Defeat the Terrorists and Neutralize the Insurgency,” it is simply not true to claim that the number of insurgent bombings (now at an all-time high) is irrelevant as a measure of progress.
REPLACING METRICS WITH EMPTY PHRASES: In late-September, Gen. George Casey Jr., who oversees U.S. forces in Iraq, revealed that “[t]he number of Iraqi army battalions that can fight insurgents without U.S. and coalition help has dropped from three to one.” That meant only 700 Iraq Security forces were rated as “Level 1″ on the four point scale created by the U.S. military. Instead of addressing the problem, they’ve abandoned the ratings system. The NSVI notes that “now more than 120 Iraqi army and police battalions are in the fight.” (The term “in the fight,” used six times in the document, is not defined.) The strategy also notes: “As of November 2005, there were more than 212,000 trained and equipped Iraqi Security Forces, compared with 96,000 in September of last year.” It fails to mention that in Feburary 2004, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed there were 210,000 members of the Iraqi Security Forces and a “thousand more that are currently in training.”
THE NATIONAL PAT ON THE BACK: The NSIV is less of a strategy and more of a pat on the back. Much of the 35 pages is devoted to describing how well things are going. Oddly, the strategy declares on Page 5 that “Our Strategy Is Working.” On the economic front we are told, “Our restore, reform, build, strategy is achieving results.” On the political front: “Our Isolate, Engage, and Build strategy is working.” On the security front: “Our clear, hold, and build strategy is working.” With everything going so well, the NSVI reminds us that “change is coming to the region…From Kuwait to Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt, there are stirrings of political pluralism, often for the first time in generations.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/11/30/deconstructing-iraq-strategy/
Bush's "National" Strategy
http://www.thewashingtonnote.com/archives/Iraq%20National%20Strategy%2011-30-05.pdf
Some audience members praise Sheehan speech
By Denise Richardson / Oneonta Daily StarONEONTA — Keshia Robinson, 18, said she has talked to recruiters and was leaning toward joining the military.
That was until she heard Cindy Sheehan speak Tuesday night at the State University College at Oneonta.
Sheehan told an audience of about 550 people in the Hunt College Union that recruiters "got hold" of her son, Casey A. Sheehan, when he was in college.
Casey told the recruiter he couldn’t kill anyone, she said, and he didn’t expect to be in a combat situation. Casey joined the military in May 2000.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5042
Pelosi backs Murtha's call for withdrawal from Iraq
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - House of Representatives Minority leader Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday backed a call by Democratic Rep. John Murtha to quickly start the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.
"I will be supporting the Murtha resolution," Pelosi said of Murtha's resolution calling for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq at the earliest practicable date.
http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyid=2005-11-30T183225Z_01_BAU066721_RTRUKOC_0_US-IRAQ-DEMOCRATS.xml&rpc=22
Pilots Complain About Cheney's Airspace
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Federal Aviation Administration has imposed flight restrictions over Dick Cheney's new Maryland home, angering private pilots who say they can't fly overhead even when the vice president isn't around.
Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association spokesman Chris Dancy said Tuesday the FAA only imposes restrictions at Cheney's Jackson Hole, Wyo., home when he's there. He questioned the need to have the restrictions in place at all times over a home in Maryland, which has much more air traffic.
Cheney's new home is on the Chesapeake Bay in St. Michaels, Md., about 30 miles east of Washington. The restricted airspace has a radius of one nautical mile and was established Nov. 22.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5040
Cheney 'may be guilty of war crime'
Vice-president accused of backing torture
Claims on BBC by former insider add to Bush's woes
By Julian Borger / GuardianVice-president Dick Cheney's burden on the Bush administration grew heavier yesterday after a former senior US state department official said he could be guilty of a war crime over the abuse of prisoners. Lawrence Wilkerson, who served as chief of staff to secretary of state Colin Powell from 2002 to 2005, singled out Mr Cheney in a wide-ranging political assault on the BBC's Today programme.
Mr Wilkerson said that in an internal administration debate over whether to abide by the Geneva conventions in the treatment of detainees, Mr Cheney led the argument "that essentially wanted to do away with all restrictions".
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5039
N. Carolina carries out 1,000th execution
By Andy Sullivan / ReutersRALEIGH, North Carolina - Double murderer Kenneth Lee Boyd became the 1,000th prisoner executed in the United States since the reinstatement of capital punishment when he was put to death by lethal injection on Friday.
"God bless everybody in here," Boyd said in his last words to witnesses separated from his death chamber by a double-paned glass partition.
Boyd, who was 57, died at 2:15 a.m. (0715 GMT) at Central Prison in North Carolina's state capital, Raleigh, spokeswoman Pamela Walker of the Department of Corrections said.
Boyd, a Vietnam war veteran with a history of alcohol abuse, was sentenced to death for the murder in 1988 of his wife and father-in-law committed in front of two of his children.
His execution drew world attention because of its symbolism since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the death penalty to be brought back in 1976 after a nine-year unofficial moratorium.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5053
More in U.S. Expressing Doubts About Death Penalty
By Peter Slevin / Washington PostAUSTIN, Dec. 1 -- Ruben Cantu is long gone, executed by Texas authorities in 1993 after he was convicted of murdering a man during a San Antonio robbery when he was 17 years old. To the end, Cantu insisted he had been framed, and now his co-defendant and the sole surviving witness both say he was telling the truth.
A state legislator called for an investigation this week as prosecutors moved to study the 20-year-old case. Opponents of the death penalty suspect that Cantu may be what they have long expected to find: an innocent person put to death. Houston law professor David Dow said the case shows that "we make mistakes in death penalty cases, too."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5051
10 Marines Killed in Bombing Near Fallujah
WASHINGTON - Ten Marines on foot patrol were killed and 11 wounded by a roadside bomb near Fallujah,
Iraq, in one of the deadliest attack on American troops in recent months, the Marine Corps announced on Friday. A brief statement said the Marines were from Regimental Combat Team 8, of the 2nd Marine Division.
They were hit Thursday by a roadside bomb, which the military calls an improvised explosive device, or IED, made from several large artillery shells, the Marines said. IEDs are the most common cause of U.S. casualties in Iraq.
The Marines were attacked outside of Fallujah, about 30 miles west of Baghdad. Of the 11 who were wounded, seven have returned to duty, the Marine Corps statement said. It added that Marines from the same unit continue to conduct counterinsurgency operations throughout Fallujah and surrounding areas.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq_marines_killed;_ylt=AqQetVyi_IX7NxHKaYE4DxCs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--
In C.I.A. Leak, More Talks With Journalists
By Richard W. Stevenson and Douglas Jehl / New York TimesWASHINGTON, Dec. 1 - A conversation between Karl Rove's lawyer and a journalist for Time magazine led Mr. Rove to change his testimony last year to the grand jury in the C.I.A. leak case, people knowledgeable about the sequence of events said Thursday.
Mr. Rove's lawyer, Robert D. Luskin, spoke in the summer or early fall of 2004 with Viveca Novak, a reporter for Time. In that conversation, Mr. Luskin heard from Ms. Novak that a colleague at the magazine, Matthew Cooper, might have interviewed Mr. Rove about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the case, the people said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5055
Some Republicans Returning Cunningham Money
By Erica Werner / Associated PressWASHINGTON - Some congressional Republicans, seeking to distance themselves from former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, are donating to charity political money that he gave them over the years.
Cunningham, who pleaded guilty Monday to taking $2.4 million in bribes in exchange for steering government work to defense contractors, had given colleagues money from his campaign account and a political action committee he created, the American Prosperity PAC.
Since the California Republican's plea, more than a dozen GOP lawmakers and candidates have donated the money to charity or disclosed plans to do so.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5056
Bush gets jury duty call, says he is busy
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush had to explain that he was a little busy running the United States when he got called for jury duty.
Bush never received the summons to appear at a court in Crawford, Texas, for jury duty on Monday and the White House learned about it through media reports, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Thursday.
"We have since called the court to inform them that the president has other commitments on Monday, and that he would like to reschedule his jury duty," McClellan said.
Last week, the man Bush beat to get re-elected last year, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, served as foreman on a jury for two days at a civil case in Boston.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5059
On Today Show, O’Reilly Compares Murtha With Hitler Sympathizers
Bill O’Reilly on the Today Show this morning:
These pin-heads running around going, “Get out of Iraq now” don’t know what they are talking about. These are the same people before Hitler invaded in WWII that were saying, “He’s not such a bad guy.” They don’t get it.
Of course, the most prominent person calling for withdrawing from Iraq now is decorated Vietnam veteran Rep. Jack Murtha.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/11/30/oreilly-murtha-hitler/
Kids Aren't Cannon Fodder
From: Mimi
To: contributions@michaelmoore.com
Sent: Thursday, December 01, 2005 6:49 AM
Hi,
On Tuesday Dec. 6th, I'll be part of a protest at our local recruitment facility in Ithaca, NY. It's called "Kids Aren't Cannon Fodder". This is the same place where the St. Patrick's Four were arrested.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/rosaparksday.php?id=22
Rumsfeld Says the Media Focus Too Much on Negatives in Iraq
By David S. Cloud / New York TimesWASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said Monday that news media organizations were focusing too much on casualties and mistakes by the military in Iraq and were failing to provide a full picture of the progress toward stabilizing the country.
"We've arrived at a strange time in this country where the worst about America and our military seems to so quickly be taken as truth by the press, and reported and spread around the world, often with little context and little scrutiny, let alone correction or accountability after the fact," he said in a speech at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
His criticism of the press, a theme to which Mr. Rumsfeld returns frequently in public and private statements, came only a few days after the Pentagon acknowledged that it had paid Iraqi newspapers to publish news articles that presented a positive view of developments in Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5088
Rumsfeld Cites Contractor in Planting of Reports in Iraqi Media
By David S. Cloud / New York TimesWASHINGTON, Dec. 5 - Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld laid blame today for the possible placement by the military of news articles in the Iraqi press on the contractor who ran the program.
In a speech at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, Mr. Rumsfeld admitted that he was still gathering facts related to the propaganda program, which involved placing articles written by American troops as paid advertisements in the Iraqi news media. The military acknowledged last week that the articles were not always identified as coming [from] the American military.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5082
There are all kinds of problems with this bill and proposed amendment. How do you define flag? How do you define degradation? Are there ever appropriate times when the flag can be used in ceremonies? If so who is to say that ceremony cannot be a protest? It's a mess BECAUSE it attempts to limit freedom of speech.
Hillary Clinton Co-Sponsors Anti-Flag Burning Bill
NY 1A Republican bill that would ban some forms of flag burning has one Democratic co-sponsor: Senator Hillary Clinton.
Clinton is the sole co-sponsor of a bill that would make it a crime to intimidate anyone by burning a flag, burn someone else's flag, or destroy a flag on federal property.
The bill does not address the issue of a Constitutional amendment banning flag burning. Congressional lawyers believe the bill will withstand judicial review.
Clinton's move to co-sponsor the bill is seen by many observers as an apparent attempt to win over conservative voters as she preps for a possible run for the White House in 2008.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5078
Kerry: Rumsfeld should be fired
By Rick Maze / Army TimesDemocrats are drawing a bead on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., becoming the latest Democrat to call for the Pentagon chief’s firing.
“The president owes it to our troops serving in Iraq to remove Secretary Rumsfeld and replace him at the Pentagon with a defense secretary who understands the situation on the ground in Iraq and who will advance, not undermine, American values around the world,” Kerry said in a statement Monday.
Kerry, the failed Democratic presidential candidate last year, said Rumsfeld is sending “dangerous mixed signals about Iraq.”
Http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5079
Kerry: Rumsfeld should be fired
By Rick Maze / Army TimesDemocrats are drawing a bead on Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., becoming the latest Democrat to call for the Pentagon chief’s firing.
“The president owes it to our troops serving in Iraq to remove Secretary Rumsfeld and replace him at the Pentagon with a defense secretary who understands the situation on the ground in Iraq and who will advance, not undermine, American values around the world,” Kerry said in a statement Monday.
Kerry, the failed Democratic presidential candidate last year, said Rumsfeld is sending “dangerous mixed signals about Iraq.”
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5079
Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake
German Citizen Released After Months in 'Rendition'
By Dana Priest / Washington PostIn May 2004, the White House dispatched the U.S. ambassador in Germany to pay an unusual visit to that country's interior minister. Ambassador Daniel R. Coats carried instructions from the State Department transmitted via the CIA's Berlin station because they were too sensitive and highly classified for regular diplomatic channels, according to several people with knowledge of the conversation.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5076
McCain Will Not Bend On Detainee Treatment
He Pushes White House to Ban Torture
By Walter Pincus / Washington PostSen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said yesterday he would not compromise with the White House on the words in his amendment that would put into law the banning of cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of detainees.
Asked on NBC's "Meet the Press," in light of his current discussions with national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley, whether he would accept any compromise, McCain, answered, "No . . . I won't. We won't." McCain was tortured while a prisoner of the North Vietnamese.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5075
Musharraf is deathly afraid of Bush attacking Pakistan. He limits the access of USA troops to the mountains of Pakistan while Osama bin Laden remains at large. Yet as soon as the people of this country begin to scream about lack of progress in conquering the terrorist networks a missile goes off in Pakistan killed two young men. The government claims to have killed an Qaeda top lieutenant. But, Sahib, no body can be located. Bush lies and Musharaff swears to it.
Pakistan deletes 'pro-Bush' poem
BBCPakistan's government is to remove a poem from a school textbook after it emerged the first letters of each line spelt out "President George W Bush".
The anonymous poem, called The Leader, appeared in a recent English-language course book for 16 year-olds.
Critics say it praises Mr Bush. Its rhyming couplets describe someone "solid as steel, strong in his faith".
Officials cannot explain how the poem entered the curriculum. Pupils are to ignore it ahead of a reprint next year.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=5077
For a Former Panther, Solidarity After the Storm
By Michelle Garcia / Washington PostNEW ORLEANS -- Malik Rahim, a granddaddy with a broad face and long gray dreadlocks, leans across his wooden kitchen table and with a low Nawlins growl lets you know what he thinks local pols did for racial harmony.
"I'm far from being a Republican, but I got to call it the way it is," he says. "They had a shoot-to-kill order on African Americans in this city with an African American mayor."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=63
What do you think? The t r u t h o u t Town Meeting is in progress. Join the debate!
How Do We Honor Our Fallen Troops in a Wrongful War?
By Paul Rockwell
t r u t h o u t Book Review
Friday 25 November 2005
A review of Cindy Sheehan's uplifting and soulful book.
The agony of war can transform any human being.
In 1914, at the outset of World War I, Rudyard Kipling, the bellicose poet of the British empire who coined the infamous phrase "white man's burden," urged his own son to join the British military. One week after his son enlisted, he was dead. Overwhelmed with grief, Kipling wrote two "Epitaphs for War." In the first, dead soldiers speak:
If any question why we died,
Tell them because our fathers lied.
In the second, "The Dead Statesman," a statesman speaks:
And now all my lies are proved untrue.
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young.
There are many kinds of betrayal in human affairs - forgery, embezzlement, adultery, murder. But in the affairs of state, there is no greater disloyalty, no greater act of betrayal, than to send young men and women to their deaths on the basis of fraud.
To lie is to murder.
That is the theme of Cindy Sheehan's defiant, witty, compassionate, and deeply patriotic first book, Not One More Mother's Son. What begins in grief over the loss of her son Casey on April 4, 2004, ends in hope at Camp Casey in Crawford, Texas, in August 2005. Action overcomes grief. Direct action empowers.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112605X.shtml
Not One More Mother's Child (Paperback)
by Cindy Sheehan
(68 customer reviews)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0977333809/002-6032287-5816839?v=glance&n=283155&n=507846&s=books&v=glance
Greenspan: U.S. Deficit May Hurt Economy
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan warned Friday that America's exploding budget deficit and a protectionist backlash against soaring trade deficits could disrupt the global economy.
On a day when he was being honored in London for his nearly two decades in the world's highest profile economic job, Greenspan restated some familiar worries.
He said U.S. deficits are set to soar with the pending retirement of 78 million baby boomers and he suggested that Congress consider trimming
Social Security and Medicare benefits because the government probably has promised more than
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/greenspan;_ylt=ArH6up807zxx2VCA2FtGBLGyBhIF;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--
The War is Killing My Friends and I'm Sick of It
From: SPC Fish
Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 12:22 AM
To: soldiers@michaelmoore.com
Subject: I can't sleep
Thank you! Thank you for caring about us, speaking for us, and telling the truth. A British coalition soldier gave me his copy of Fahrenheit 9/11 while I was serving in Afghanistan. That soldier was involved in a suicide car bomb this month and we took care of him at the hospital. I just got back yesterday and looked you up. I've always been a liberal girl, and it ticks me off to no end that Bush is going to try to take away my rights and screw America over with his Christian-influenced "leadership." And what makes me even more angry is that all my friends and my husband are serving in a bullshit war in Iraq. I served in another bullshit war as a nurse in Kandahar.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/books-films/willtheyevertrustusagain/index.php?id=36
The New Zealand Herald
Three bush fires keep crews busy
07.12.05
By Elizabeth Binning
Firefighters were kept busy with three bush fires yesterday, one which came dangerously close to engulfing a home and forestry block at South Head, north of Helensville.
The South Head blaze, which may have been caused by an unattended rubbish fire, broke out just before 11am on a property in Wilson Rd.
Firecrews arrived to find the property covered in thick smoke and called for monsoon buckets, fearing the wind-fuelled fire could destroy a home and quickly spread to forestry land 200m away.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10358788
Volcano drives islanders away
07.12.05
By Angela Gregory
Thousands of villagers living in the shadow of a volcano spewing ash and steam on the Vanuatu island of Ambae have been evacuated amid fears of a major eruption.
The volcano, on the central northern island in the Vanuatu group, has been erupting for about a fortnight but scientists who arrived from New Zealand on Sunday report the activity appears to be stabilising.
Paul Willis, the New Zealand High Commissioner to Vanuatu, said there was a low to medium risk of a major event and precautions were being taken to protect up to 5000 inhabitants who lived in the danger zone, which made up about one-third of the island.
Mr Willis said they had been evacuated to safer, flatter terrain on the east and west of the island.
He said the volcanic activity was rated at the lower end of two, on a one-to-four scale, but could get worse.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10358750
Tsunami probe begins
07.12.05
LONDON - The families of victims of the Asian tsunami have condemned the international authorities for their role in the disaster, which killed 270,000 people including 147 Britons.
During a series of emotionally-charged questions at the opening of the inquest into the deaths, the families described how their grief was compounded by a catalogue of blunders.
They said widespread confusion and lack of official information resulted in unacceptable delays in the return of their loved ones' bodies. They also asked why the international community had been unable to prevent such a heavy death toll.
Liz Jones, whose 23-year-old daughter Charlotte, a gap year student at Bristol University, was swept away in Thailand, said she would have survived if an early warning system of "five minutes" notice was in place.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10358724
Quake shakes East Africa
06.12.05
NAIROBI - A strong earthquake jolted Africa's Great Lakes region today, killing at least one person in Congo's remote east and rattling regional capitals.
The US Geological Survey reported that a 6.8 magnitude quake struck near the town of Kalemie in the Democratic Republic of Congo at 1.19am NZT, some 975km southwest of the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
Besides Kenya and Congo, tremors were felt in Burundi, Rwanda and Tanzania, impoverished countries connected by a string of lakes and mountains, many of them active volcanoes.
Residents of Kalemie, an eastern Congolese town on the shores of Lake Tanganyika with a population of 200,000 people, reported at least one death and several injuries and said mud-brick houses had collapsed in poor neighbourhoods.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10358652
Villagers flee volcano in Vanuatu
06.12.05 7.20am
Authorities in Vanuatu have begun evacuating thousands of villagers from homes near an erupting volcano on the island of Ambae amid fears of a major explosion.
Mount Manaro began spewing ash and smoke on November 27 and seismologists have reported a steady increase of volcanic activity since then, with some 2000 tonnes of ash landing on surrounding areas per day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10358603
Five Israelis die in suicide bomb attack
06.12.05 12.20pm
By Donald Macintyre
A Palestinian suicide bomber has killed at least five Israelis - including a civilian security guard who was trying to stop him - in the second attack on Netanya's main shopping mall in less than six months.
The bombing - the third suicide attack claimed by the militant faction Islamic Jihad since July - is bound to move security sharply up the political agenda in the approach to Israeli elections in March.
The five people killed - along with up to 50 injured - were outside the mall when the bomber struck.
The blast blew out second and third-floor windows, and large splashes of blood were visible as high as 12 feet above the ground on the wall of the shopping complex.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10358662
Mother's plea for hostage will be aired
07.12.05
By Angela Gregory and Derek Cheng
The Arabic television network al-Jazeera will broadcast the video of Harmeet Singh Sooden's mother pleading for her Auckland-based son to be freed.
TV3 last night passed the footage directly to al-Jazeera in a satellite feed via London after concerns that the station had failed to broadcast it.
Iraqi militants have threatened to kill Mr Sooden and three other hostages by tomorrow unless all prisoners in Iraqi and United States detention centres are freed.
On Sunday, the video was sent to the Associated Press Television News agency, to which both al-Jazeera and TV3 subscribe.
But when TV3 contacted al-Jazeera, the station could not say whether it had picked up the video feed.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10358778
Sell NZ dollars, warns US bank
07.12.05
By Liam Dann
As the dollar surged to new highs yesterday, global investment banking giant Goldman Sachs warned its clients to sell the currency because New Zealand's economy is likely to "slow very quickly" next year.
The Wall Street bank's top currency trading tip for next year is to sell the New Zealand dollar - which it says is 20 per cent overvalued - and buy the Brazilian real.
In a report to its clients - which include billion-dollar investment funds - Goldman Sachs is picking New Zealand interest rates will start falling next year.
When that happens foreign investor support for the kiwi "could rapidly disappear".
The report will be welcomed by Reserve Bank Governor Alan Bollard and Finance Minister Michael Cullen, who have tried and failed to sell the same story to investors.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10358792
'Scalped' U2 tickets could be worthless
07.12.05
By Stuart Dye
U2 fans who have spent hundreds of dollars on blackmarket concert tickets could be refused entry to the St Patrick's Day gig, promoters are warning.
Thousands of dollars have changed hands over online auction site Trade Me since tickets to the first U2 concert in New Zealand in 12 years sold out on Monday morning.
Although buying and selling tickets for profit is not illegal in New Zealand, it is a condition of sale imposed by U2 management that tickets cannot be on-sold.
"We will cancel the ticket and prevent people coming in if we identify the tickets," said tour manager Michael Coppel.
However, he admitted that was difficult. Tickets have barcodes and serial numbers, and the event has strict access controls - but learning which have been on internet auctions is a tricky process.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10358775
Top cancer drugs out of reach
07.12.05
By Martin Johnston
Pharmac warns that the Government will have to increase its drugs budget more than planned if public patients are to be given new and more effective cancer treatments.
Funding expensive drugs such as Herceptin would be "one of Pharmac's biggest challenges", the agency's medical director, Dr Peter Moodie, said yesterday.
Herceptin, hailed as a potential cure for breast cancer, costs $60,000 to $120,000 a patient a year and the brain cancer drug Temodar costs $50,000 or more.
"If we are to make these treatments available then it is essential that we budget for them, or make savings in other areas," Dr Moodie said in Pharmac's annual review.
He said later that this might mean increasing the Government's drugs budget, not funding some other drugs, or ensuring Pharmac was obtaining drugs for the lowest prices possible.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10358776
Marriage bill set for defeat
07.12.05
By Kevin Taylor
A move to amend the Marriage Act, to clarify that marriage is only for men and women, looks set for defeat today.
United Future MP Gordon Copeland said yesterday that he thought his member's bill, which gets a first reading in Parliament today, did not have the numbers.
The Marriage (Gender Clarification) Amendment Bill clarifies the Marriage Act 1955 by making it clear marriage is exclusively between one man and one woman.
Mr Copeland said United Future's three MPs and Act's two MPs were going to support it, but National, Labour and NZ First were treating it as a conscience issue.
Questioned in Parliament yesterday, Justice Minister Mark Burton said that the Court of Appeal held in a case in 1998 that the Marriage Act applied only to marriage between a man and a woman.
"To vote in favour of the bill, in my view, would constitute a poor process and a complete waste of Parliament's time."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10358770
Response to gay partnership laws mixed
07.12.05
Roger and Percy: We do
Roger Lockyer and Percy Steven have been waiting 40 years for this moment. At 8am on 21 December, the pensioners (Roger is 78, Percy 66) will become one of the first gay couples in Britain to formally register their relationship as a civil partnership.
"I felt quite certain from almost the first time I met him that this was someone I wanted to live with," said Lockyer. "That never wavered. Now we will be able to assert to the world that we are a proud, gay couple."
The Civil Partnership Act, which was passed in November last year, gives same-sex couples the same tax rights as heterosexual married couples. From yesterday, gay couples were able to tell register offices of their aim to form a civil partnership. After 15 days they will be able to do so.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10358741
Gloves off in battle over Auckland beauty spots
07.12.05
By Wayne Thompson
Farmers are ready to fight the Auckland Regional Council over its bid to classify huge rural areas as outstanding natural landscapes.
More than 125,000ha are destined for the classification in a proposed overhaul of the planning framework to protect the region's best coastal landscapes and volcanic cones from development.
City and district councils will be legally obliged to give effect to the revised Regional Policy Statement by inserting it in their District Plans and taking it into account when hearing resource consent applications.
But Auckland Federated Farmers president Keith Kelly believes the draft policy is trying to bring in something to benefit the public at the expense of private property rights.
"Farmers need to make changes to land use without the necessity of getting a resource consent," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10358723
Mass Mexican duck death not bird flu
06.12.05 4.20pm
MEXICO CITY - The sudden death of more than 1000 ducks at a lake in Mexico was not caused by bird flu, the government said today, but scientists are still trying to uncover why the birds mysteriously died.
An Agriculture Ministry spokesman said the condition of the dead birds, found by a lake in central Aguascalientes state, showed they had been dying over a period of days or weeks.
Scientists are trying to work out if the birds died of botulism, a rare but deadly illness caused by a toxic bacteria, or from pollution, the ministry said.
The ministry would not say what species of duck had been hit in the mass death, or how it had ruled out bird flu as a cause of death.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10358685
Women fall prey to sexual performance anxiety
07.12.05
By Sophie Goodchild
Sex therapists and doctors in the UK are reporting the first cases of young women seeking help for "performance anxiety" - a syndrome normally associated with men.
Clinics say that the increasing expectation that women should be as experienced as men, coupled with society's obsession with body image, are to blame for female patients reporting they are unable to make love because they feel under pressure to deliver "fantastic sex".
Record numbers of women, including those in their 20s and 30s, are seeking help for reduced sexual desire. The Sexual Dysfunction Association has received 2500 calls from women over the past year, a 25 per cent increase on 2004 and a massive rise from the handful it received five years ago.
A spokeswoman for the charity, Ann Taylor, said doctors are often dismissive of women who come to them with this problem and that more training must be given.
"Women feel they will be judged if they are not interested in sex because there is almost a competitive element among young women now," she said.
Dr John Ryan, who has a Harley Street practice, specialises in menopause treatment but says that he is now treating young women.
"If you are not having sex you are considered to be an outsider," he said.
"This has been fuelled by the whole ladette culture. There is a lot of pressure on young women as well as men."
There are new treatments being tested which include testosterone patches for women with low levels of the hormone and a nasal spray that directly targets the brain's arousal centre.
Catherine Kalamis, who has carried out research into women with low sex drives, said that drugs are not the solution.
"Women's levels of desire are far more complex than that."
(additional reporting: Sara Newman)
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10358719
UK gay couples take advantage of legal status
06.12.05 12.20pm
LONDON - A terminally ill gay man given just days to live became the first to take advantage of a new law giving same-sex couples legal status.
Couples could apply to register their partnership from yesterday, but must wait two weeks for move to take effect.
Cancer patient Matthew Roche, 46, was given special dispensation to waive the waiting period and tie the knot with his partner of seven years Christopher Cramp, 37, because he was not expected to live long enough.
"We are extremely happy and feel a great sense of achievement," Roche said after the ceremony at St Barnabas Hospice in Worthing.
Hospice spokeswoman Janet Parsons said Roche was in the advanced stages of terminal cancer and was not expected to survive much longer.
"The ceremony was both sad and happy," she said. "They have known each other for seven years and always intended to do this if it became legal."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10358667
10 die in Russian roof collapse
06.12.05 8.20am
At least 10 people were killed and several more injured when the roof of a public swimming pool collapsed in the Urals region of Russia.
Of the 10 victims, six were children between 9 and 12 years old and four women, local emergency staff said. Earlier officials said that only eight bodies were found, but then "two more bodies - those of a woman and a girl - were recovered from underneath the ruined roof that fell into the pool".
There could be more bodies under the 100sq m roof, which collapsed yesterday at the municipal pool in Chusovoi, a town near Perm in the Ural mountains. Up to 30 people could have been in the pool at the time of the accident. Prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10358604
Government drug spending 'pathetic'
06.12.05 1.00pm
The funding of drugs by the Government in the last year has been descirbed as "pathetic" by the pharmaceutical industry and is likely to draw criticism from consumer groups.
The 2005 annual report of the Government's drug-buying agency, Pharmac, shows it underspent its budget for the year by $400,000 but the agency's chief executive Wayne McNee said nearly 7000 patients now had access to subsidised drugs as a result of funding decisions made during the year.
Nine new products had been added to the pharmaceutical schedule, and access had been widened for 16 previously subsidised products.
However, the Researched Medicines Industry Association (RMI) slammed the result, saying only one in every 600 New Zealanders actually benefited from Pharmac's "limited investment decisions".
The Government spent $564.6 million on drugs, within the budgeted $565 million, which was "an outstanding result", he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10358654
Military plane ploughs into 10-storey apartment block
07.12.05
TEHRAN - An Iranian military aircraft with more than 90 people on board crashed into a densely populated district of Tehran late last night (NZT) and exploded, setting a 10-storey building ablaze.
"I can see flames licking out of the windows of the fourth floor of the building," said a Reuters journalist at the scene.
The state IRNA news agency said 10 bodies had been recovered from the crash site amid rescue efforts hampered by fire.
The BBC reported at 1.30 am today that there were no reports of any survivors from the aircraft.
"It is awful down here. I am suffocating," Red Crescent official Shahram Alamdari told Reuters by telephone from the scene, before hanging up.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10358790
Benson-Pope hung out to dry by colleagues
07.12.05
By John Armstrong
Humiliation was heaped upon David Benson-Pope in such embarrassing quantity yesterday that having a tennis ball stuffed in his mouth might have seemed preferable.
It is one thing for a Cabinet minister to be put through the parliamentary wringer by the Opposition.
It is far more galling to be hung out to dry by one's colleagues in such a public forum.
However, sympathy for Mr Benson-Pope had clearly evaporated even within his own party after Labour MPs became aware that they, too, were the victims of the highly favourable spin he put on the police report into allegations he assaulted pupils while teaching in Dunedin in the 1980s.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10358779
South African ex-vice president Zuma charged with rape
07.12.05 8.30am
JOHANNESBURG - South Africa's former deputy president, Jacob Zuma, has been charged with rape in a case that analysts say has practically dashed any hope of his becoming the country's next president.
The trial looks certain to further test South Africa's young democracy, coming on top of corruption charges against Zuma that many grassroots supporters of the popular anti-apartheid leader insist are trumped up.
The ruling African National Congress is already in turmoil over President Thabo Mbeki's decision in June to sack Zuma, who has the support of the country's most powerful trade union federation. But Zuma's supporters are treading more cautiously over the rape allegations, which he has vigorously denied.
"The national prosecuting authority has decided that Jacob Zuma be arraigned in the Johannesburg magistrate's court on a charge of rape," prosecutors said in a statement.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10358802continued ...
