January 23, 2006.
The melt in Auburn, Massachusetts.
Thursday, January 26, 2006
Morning Papers - continued
The Times Picayune
White House against Baker bailout bill
Bush point man says block grants enough
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- In a severe blow to state and local plans for rebuilding hurricane-devastated areas, the Bush administration Tuesday came out against a homeowner bailout proposal that many Louisianians say is the key to economic recovery and the rebirth of a redesigned New Orleans.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1138202723122050.xml
Baker bill snub may not kill buy-out plan
By Frank Donze
Gordon Russell
and Laura Magg
Staff writers
The White House’s public opposition this week to legislation that would have offered quick buyouts to owners of heavily damaged properties in Louisiana throws a wrench into the plans of local communities, in particular New Orleans, that were counting on the buyout program to serve as a mechanism for quick redevelopment in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But while most state and local leaders saw the Bush administration’s decision as a serious setback, they didn’t view it as fatal. In the short term, they acknowledged, the absence of the “Baker bill” legislation will make it difficult for homeowners already stuck in limbo for the past five months to make informed decisions in the near future about whether to rebuild or sell their flooded properties.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_01_25.html
Louisiana to get maximum $6.2 billion in federal grant money
1/25/2006, 5:29 p.m. CT
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana will receive $6.2 billion in federal hurricane recovery block grant money — the maximum for which the state was eligible, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1138232378149010.xml&storylist=louisiana
AP Interview: Blanco says FEMA maps holding up housing repairs
1/24/2006, 11:56 p.m. CT
By MELINDA DESLATTE
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Homeowners struggling to recover from the hurricanes are hampered by waits for new federal elevation standards, and a proposal to assist them through federal home buyouts won't have the critical backing of the White House, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1138153462311290.xml&storylist=louisiana
AP Interview: Blanco outlines levee consolidation plans
1/25/2006, 4:42 p.m. CT
By MELINDA DESLATTE
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Kathleen Blanco's push for consolidating Louisiana levee districts envisions the state taking over the districts' investment properties — like the airport and marinas operated by the New Orleans levee board.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-22/113822935563930.xml&storylist=louisiana
White House accused of gag order
Katrina questions hit brick wall, officials say
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- The White House is hindering the Senate's investigation into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina by prohibiting federal officials from talking about their hurricane-related communications with the administration, the two senators leading the probe said Tuesday.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1138202769122050.xml
Where is Executive Privilege now?
Cheney, Rumsfeld could testify in EU probe
1/26/2006, 3:51 a.m. CT
The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — An EU committee investigating alleged CIA secret prisons could call Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to testify, a senior member of the panel said.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/international-16/11382695426370.xml&storylist=topstories
Sydney Morning Herald
Thrilling new look for guess who?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/thrilling-new-look-for-guess-who/2006/01/26/1138066897789.html
Award winner to lobby PM
January 26, 2006 - 9:22AM
Australian of the Year Ian Frazer will use his new status to lobby government to spend more money on medical research.
Mr Frazer has spent the last 20 years working on a vaccine to combat the sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes all cervical cancer cases.
There are half a million new diagnoses of the cancer recorded each year, including around 800 in Australia.
"I see two important things coming out of this," he said.
"One is obviously the chance to talk with the community and with politicians about the need for funding for more medical research. The benefits of medical research are made obvious by the sort of work we have been doing on the vaccine.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/award-winner-to-lobby-pm/2006/01/26/1138066889983.html
Raging bushfires threaten more towns
Eleven communities in Victoria's south west, directly in the path of the massive Grampians bushfire, have now been put on high alert.
The blaze that has so far blacked-out 120,000 hectares of bush and farmland and razed 24 homes, is expected to intensify later today as searing temperatures combine with high winds.
The number of towns and communities under threat almost doubled in the space of a few hours this morning.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/raging-bushfires-threaten-more-towns/2006/01/26/1138066894729.html
Earth-like planet found
January 26, 2006 - 7:06AM
An international team of researchers that includes Australian astronomers has discovered a new "Earth-like" planet that may help answer the question of whether we are alone in the galaxy.
Researchers used a relatively new planet-hunting technique, called gravitational microlensing, to locate OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb more than 20,000 light years away from Earth.
The find has excited researchers because they believe the planet, lying close to the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, may have some attributes believed necessary to support life.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/earthlike-planet-found/2006/01/26/1138066885482.html
Pinochet's daughter seeking asylum in US
The eldest daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has asked the United States to grant her political asylum after she fled tax charges in Chile.
Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, 60, is in custody at Dulles International Airport near Washington pending a decision in the case and after being questioned since early in the day, a US official said.
"The Chilean government has been officially informed by the North American ambassador in Santiago that Mrs Lucia Pinochet Hiriart has asked for asylum in the United States," Chile's Interior Minister Francisco Vidal said on national radio in Chile.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/pinochets-daughter-seeking-asylum-in-us/2006/01/26/1138066903441.html
Death toll rises as Europe shivers in big freeze
January 26, 2006
Train tracks cracked in Vienna, German authorities shut a canal to ships after it iced up, and a zoo moved its penguins indoors as a deadly deep freeze tightened its Arctic grip on much of Europe.
The cold wave, which has been blamed for more than 50 deaths in Russia, claimed at least 13 lives over the past five days in Moldova, where authorities said another 30 people, many homeless, were in hospital with hypothermia.
In Ukraine, the Health Ministry said yesterday that 53 people had died during the past 24 hours due to the cold, bringing to at least 130 the number of deaths since temperatures plunged last week.
Poland reported 11 deaths, raising the number of fatalities from the cold to 38 since Friday. Police were patrolling streets to round up the homeless or inebriated and bring them indoors, as temperatures plunged to minus 25 degrees in Warsaw and minus 35 elsewhere.
Romanian authorities reported 15 deaths in the past few days, five of them homeless people, after temperatures dropped as low as minus 30 in parts of the country. In Austria, the mercury reached an all-time low of minus 31 degrees in the town of Gross.
Vienna's subway operator said the morning rush-hour service had been interrupted in some areas because the severe cold, which reached minus 18 degrees, caused small tears in welds on the track.
In southern Germany, officials closed the Rhine-Main-Danube canal to shipping for the first time in five years. Thick sheets of ice stretching about 80 kilometres posed a danger to ships' propellers and the canal's lock systems.
An icebreaker had to help six ships in the canal, which links waterway systems between the North Sea and the Black Sea, reach their destinations.
At Dresden Zoo, 21 Humboldt penguins were moved from their minus 21 degree outdoor environment and into a building where the temperature was a more comfortable zero to ensure their feet did not freeze. In Moscow, which has been held in an icy grip for the past 10 days, trolley buses and trams returned to full operation but record electricity consumption continued to strain the system. The city's death toll is at least 28.
■ Last year was the warmest in a century, nosing out 1998, a US federal analysis says. Researchers calculated that 2005 produced the highest annual average surface temperature worldwide since instrument recordings began in the late 1800s.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/death-toll-rises-as-europe-shivers-in-big-freeze/2006/01/25/1138066865646.html
Appointee linked to Iraq kickbacks
A BUSINESSMAN appointed by the Howard Government to the US-led occupation government in Iraq personally sanctioned kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime, according to evidence uncovered by the inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal.
Trevor Flugge, the former chairman of the wheat exporter, AWB, was named in an internal AWB email dated September 2002 which describes a scheme to evade UN sanctions on Iraq by funnelling money to Saddam's regime through a London company called Ronly Holdings.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/appointee-linked-to-iraq-kickbacks/2006/01/26/1138066867484.html
Stop children like Annie dying from drinking dirty water
http://www.worldvision.com.au/waterhealthlife/
Trump sues for $6b
Who wants to be a millionaire? Not Donald Trump.
The real estate mogul and TV star is suing an author who wrote that Trump was not a billionaire and pegged his net worth no more than $332 million.
The larger-than-life entrepreneur known to millions from his reality show The Apprentice sued The New York Times reporter who wrote TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald and its publisher, Warner Books, for defamatory statements.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/trump-sues-for-6b/2006/01/25/1138066829351.html
The New York Times
United States Ranks 28th on Environment, a New Study Says
By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: January 23, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - A pilot nation-by-nation study of environmental performance shows that just six nations - led by New Zealand, followed by five from Northern Europe - have achieved 85 percent or better success in meeting a set of critical environmental goals ranging from clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable fisheries and low greenhouse gas emissions.
The study, jointly produced by Yale and Columbia Universities, ranked the United States 28th over all, behind most of Western Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Chile, but ahead of Russia and South Korea.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/politics/23environment.html
KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND 5.23 12:15AM
Heading for Home
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND, May 22 -- Most places have rhythms of sorts.
Thank God it's Friday is an American one, the siesta is a Latin American one. Here the rhythm is the "flight period," the week-long stretches in which the New York Air National Guard's capacious, sturdy LC-130's arrive, fly to and from the high ice of the interior, then return to upstate New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/sciencereport/index.html
The Big Melt
Andrew C. Revkin and Simon Romero look at how the changing climate is affecting people and industry in the Arctic.
The Series:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/earth/index.html
E.P.A. Seeks to Phase Out a Toxic Chemical
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: January 26, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 — The Environmental Protection Agency has asked DuPont and seven other chemical companies to stop using a toxic substance in the making of everyday products, including Teflon-coated pans, that has been linked in some studies to cancer, strokes and other health problems.
Announcing the voluntary program, officials of the agency said Wednesday that full compliance by the companies and their overseas affiliates would lead to a 95 percent reduction by 2010 in use of the substance, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and to their total elimination by 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/national/26enviro.html
It's Getting Crowded on the Environmental Bandwagon
"... The energy challenge is a critical societal issue, and we feel that it's our responsibility as the industry leader to communicate about it," said Russ Roberts, an Exxon Mobil spokesman.
Companies have reached that decision for various reasons: Oil companies, under attack for reaping windfall profits from soaring fuel prices, are trying to position themselves as part of the solution to energy problems rather than the cause. Manufacturers of fuel-efficient automobiles, jet engines or other green products are recognizing that they can burnish their image even as they promote their products. And companies in all industries are trying to make socially conscious investors and customers comfortable about buying their products and shares.
"Investors choose whose stock to buy; consumers choose whose gas they buy; and governments choose who gets their contracts," said Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP, which alternates "Beyond Petroleum" and "It's a Start" as its tag lines. "We're going to invest $8 billion in alternative energy in the next 10 years, so, of course, we're advertising that...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/business/22adco.html?ex=1138424400&en=c3c8b2f61c45ba69&ei=5070
A Wide-Eyed Astronaut Becomes a NASA Critic
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: January 24, 2006
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It may be a little early, at 9 a.m., to hear a motivational speaker. Any motivational speaker. A certain bleariness sits over this crowd of about 50 financial and insurance conference planners.
Despite the "little voice in the back of my brain" that told him to say something, Colonel Mullane tells the audience, he was reluctant to second-guess the pilot, who had thousands of hours of experience in the jet, and passively accepted the pilot's decision.
"Basically at that critical moment of the flight, I ceased to be a team member and became a passenger," he says.
They ended up running out of fuel and ejected just short of the landing strip. The F-111 became a $20 million pile of rubble.
At NASA, too, Colonel Mullane tells audiences, little voices went unheard; danger signals were missed and warnings ignored on the way to tragedies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/science/space/24prof.html
Ivory Bill Report Is Called 'Faith-Based Ornithology'
By JAMES GORMAN
Published: January 24, 2006
In the strongest published criticism yet of claims for the sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas in 2004, an ornithologist who was not involved in the search has called claims for proof of the bird's existence "faith-based ornithology."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/science/24ivor.html
The New Zealand Herald
ConocoPhillips profit soars on higher prices
26.01.06 4.00pm
By Deepa Babington
No. 3 US oil company ConocoPhillips on Wednesday reported a 50 per cent jump in quarterly profit to sail past Wall Street forecasts, propelled by soaring oil and gas prices.
The results capped the most profitable year in the company's history and extended its streak of beating analysts' estimates to a 12th straight quarter.
ConocoPhillips has record energy prices over the past few years to thank for much of its success. Crude oil prices rose about 40 per cent last year because of hurricanes, lack of spare production capacity, and tensions in oil-producing countries like Iran and Venezuela.
ConocoPhillips, which last month agreed to buy natural gas producer Burlington Resources Inc for US$35 billion ($51.73 billion), reported fourth-quarter profit of US$3.68 billion, or US$2.61 a share, compared with US$2.43 billion, or US$1.72 a share, a year earlier.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10365474
Iran defiant as world weighs action in atomic row
26.01.06 4.00pm
TEHRAN - Iran again threatened today to start full-scale uranium enrichment if reported to the UN Security Council, while signalling interest in a Russian proposal aimed at calming its nuclear row with the West.
The council's five veto-wielding permanent members plus Germany plan to meet in London next week to try to resolve differences over whether to send Iran to the council at a crisis meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog on February 2, diplomats said.
They said foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany would seek a consensus before the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gathers in Vienna to weigh what to do about Iran.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365453
US pressures Abbas to exclude Hamas from Cabinet
26.01.06 1.00pm
By Saul Hudson
WASHINGTON - The United States pressured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to exclude Hamas from his Cabinet despite signs the militant group made a strong showing in a parliamentary election today.
The United States, which encouraged Palestinians to hold the election and pressed Israel to allow the vote as part of its drive to promote democracy in the Middle East, said it will accept the results as a reflection of the will of the people.
But it also made clear Abbas should keep Hamas in opposition. The group is sworn to Israel's destruction and is considered a terrorist organisation by Washington.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365470
Iran accuses UK of co-operating with bombers
26.01.06 1.00pm
TEHRAN - Iran has accused the British military of co-operating with bombers who killed eight people in southwest Iran, a claim Britain described as "ludicrous".
A little-known group campaigning for independence for Iran's Arab minority claimed responsibility in a Web statement for yesterday's attacks on a bank and government building in the oil city of Ahvaz.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said London's involvement was clear and that Tehran would make strong protests to Britain.
"Yesterday's murders in Ahvaz were committed by those who proudly have their photographs taken with British officials. They enjoy the cooperation of British army commanders and use their facilities in Basra," he told a news conference.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365466
Putin undecided on expelling alleged UK spies
26.01.06 1.00pm
ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin said today alleged spying by British diplomats in Moscow was regrettable but he had not decided whether to expel them from the country.
His comments were the highest-profile reaction yet to the diplomatic row, which broke out on Monday with the screening of a television programme alleging that the men had used a fake rock to communicate with agents.
Their main crime, according to Russian officials, was to finance Russian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), although they have not explained why this was illegal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365456
Google submits to Beijing's control
26.01.06 1.00pm
By Clifford Coonan
Top internet company Google has become the latest technology company to founder against the Great Firewall of China, with the news it will censor its search engine to give it greater access to China's fast-growing market.
Human rights groups say the move by Google is the latest example of a big corporation kow-towing to the Chinese government's stringent demands on internet content.
They say Google has sold out on its corporate mantra: "Don't be evil".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365426
Britain to send up to 4,000 troops to Afghanistan
26.01.06 11.20am
By Kim Sengupta
Britain will be sending up to 4,000 troops to Afghanistan in a move which will effectively mean fighting wars on two fronts, with forces still deployed in Iraq.
The government had planned for sizeable withdrawals from Iraq by the time the Afghan force is sent in April and May.
But with no sign of peace breaking out in Iraq, military commanders have now ruled out that possibility.
The size of the force for Afghanistan, just a thousand fewer than at the height of the war five years ago, also shows just how much the security situation there has unravelled while the US and Britain invaded Iraq before Afghanistan has been stablised.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365459
Sick seaman airlifted from Antarctica
26.01.06 2.10pm
A man is recovering in hospital following a rescue mission involving five countries in Antarctica.
The Uruguayan crewman on foreign-registered ship the Paloma V suffered convulsions following a possible head injury late last week.
The Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Wellington arranged for the Marina Svetaeva, a Polish ship, chartered by Australians to meet the Paloma off the coast of Cape Hallet.
A doctor on board decided the crewman required further medical attention and he was flown by helicopter to an Antarctica New Zealand group camped at Cape Hallet.
A plane from the Italian base at Terra Nova Bay collected the man and flew him to the United States Antarctic Programme base at McMurdo Station, where he was examined again.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365476
continued ...
White House against Baker bailout bill
Bush point man says block grants enough
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
By Bill Walsh
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- In a severe blow to state and local plans for rebuilding hurricane-devastated areas, the Bush administration Tuesday came out against a homeowner bailout proposal that many Louisianians say is the key to economic recovery and the rebirth of a redesigned New Orleans.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1138202723122050.xml
Baker bill snub may not kill buy-out plan
By Frank Donze
Gordon Russell
and Laura Magg
Staff writers
The White House’s public opposition this week to legislation that would have offered quick buyouts to owners of heavily damaged properties in Louisiana throws a wrench into the plans of local communities, in particular New Orleans, that were counting on the buyout program to serve as a mechanism for quick redevelopment in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But while most state and local leaders saw the Bush administration’s decision as a serious setback, they didn’t view it as fatal. In the short term, they acknowledged, the absence of the “Baker bill” legislation will make it difficult for homeowners already stuck in limbo for the past five months to make informed decisions in the near future about whether to rebuild or sell their flooded properties.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_01_25.html
Louisiana to get maximum $6.2 billion in federal grant money
1/25/2006, 5:29 p.m. CT
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana will receive $6.2 billion in federal hurricane recovery block grant money — the maximum for which the state was eligible, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced Wednesday.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1138232378149010.xml&storylist=louisiana
AP Interview: Blanco says FEMA maps holding up housing repairs
1/24/2006, 11:56 p.m. CT
By MELINDA DESLATTE
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Homeowners struggling to recover from the hurricanes are hampered by waits for new federal elevation standards, and a proposal to assist them through federal home buyouts won't have the critical backing of the White House, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-22/1138153462311290.xml&storylist=louisiana
AP Interview: Blanco outlines levee consolidation plans
1/25/2006, 4:42 p.m. CT
By MELINDA DESLATTE
The Associated Press
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. Kathleen Blanco's push for consolidating Louisiana levee districts envisions the state taking over the districts' investment properties — like the airport and marinas operated by the New Orleans levee board.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-22/113822935563930.xml&storylist=louisiana
White House accused of gag order
Katrina questions hit brick wall, officials say
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
By Bruce Alpert
Washington bureau
WASHINGTON -- The White House is hindering the Senate's investigation into the government's response to Hurricane Katrina by prohibiting federal officials from talking about their hurricane-related communications with the administration, the two senators leading the probe said Tuesday.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1138202769122050.xml
Where is Executive Privilege now?
Cheney, Rumsfeld could testify in EU probe
1/26/2006, 3:51 a.m. CT
The Associated Press
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) — An EU committee investigating alleged CIA secret prisons could call Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to testify, a senior member of the panel said.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/topstories/index.ssf?/base/international-16/11382695426370.xml&storylist=topstories
Sydney Morning Herald
Thrilling new look for guess who?
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/thrilling-new-look-for-guess-who/2006/01/26/1138066897789.html
Award winner to lobby PM
January 26, 2006 - 9:22AM
Australian of the Year Ian Frazer will use his new status to lobby government to spend more money on medical research.
Mr Frazer has spent the last 20 years working on a vaccine to combat the sexually-transmitted human papilloma virus (HPV), which causes all cervical cancer cases.
There are half a million new diagnoses of the cancer recorded each year, including around 800 in Australia.
"I see two important things coming out of this," he said.
"One is obviously the chance to talk with the community and with politicians about the need for funding for more medical research. The benefits of medical research are made obvious by the sort of work we have been doing on the vaccine.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/award-winner-to-lobby-pm/2006/01/26/1138066889983.html
Raging bushfires threaten more towns
Eleven communities in Victoria's south west, directly in the path of the massive Grampians bushfire, have now been put on high alert.
The blaze that has so far blacked-out 120,000 hectares of bush and farmland and razed 24 homes, is expected to intensify later today as searing temperatures combine with high winds.
The number of towns and communities under threat almost doubled in the space of a few hours this morning.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/raging-bushfires-threaten-more-towns/2006/01/26/1138066894729.html
Earth-like planet found
January 26, 2006 - 7:06AM
An international team of researchers that includes Australian astronomers has discovered a new "Earth-like" planet that may help answer the question of whether we are alone in the galaxy.
Researchers used a relatively new planet-hunting technique, called gravitational microlensing, to locate OGLE-2005-BLG-390Lb more than 20,000 light years away from Earth.
The find has excited researchers because they believe the planet, lying close to the centre of our Milky Way galaxy, may have some attributes believed necessary to support life.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/earthlike-planet-found/2006/01/26/1138066885482.html
Pinochet's daughter seeking asylum in US
The eldest daughter of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet has asked the United States to grant her political asylum after she fled tax charges in Chile.
Lucia Pinochet Hiriart, 60, is in custody at Dulles International Airport near Washington pending a decision in the case and after being questioned since early in the day, a US official said.
"The Chilean government has been officially informed by the North American ambassador in Santiago that Mrs Lucia Pinochet Hiriart has asked for asylum in the United States," Chile's Interior Minister Francisco Vidal said on national radio in Chile.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/pinochets-daughter-seeking-asylum-in-us/2006/01/26/1138066903441.html
Death toll rises as Europe shivers in big freeze
January 26, 2006
Train tracks cracked in Vienna, German authorities shut a canal to ships after it iced up, and a zoo moved its penguins indoors as a deadly deep freeze tightened its Arctic grip on much of Europe.
The cold wave, which has been blamed for more than 50 deaths in Russia, claimed at least 13 lives over the past five days in Moldova, where authorities said another 30 people, many homeless, were in hospital with hypothermia.
In Ukraine, the Health Ministry said yesterday that 53 people had died during the past 24 hours due to the cold, bringing to at least 130 the number of deaths since temperatures plunged last week.
Poland reported 11 deaths, raising the number of fatalities from the cold to 38 since Friday. Police were patrolling streets to round up the homeless or inebriated and bring them indoors, as temperatures plunged to minus 25 degrees in Warsaw and minus 35 elsewhere.
Romanian authorities reported 15 deaths in the past few days, five of them homeless people, after temperatures dropped as low as minus 30 in parts of the country. In Austria, the mercury reached an all-time low of minus 31 degrees in the town of Gross.
Vienna's subway operator said the morning rush-hour service had been interrupted in some areas because the severe cold, which reached minus 18 degrees, caused small tears in welds on the track.
In southern Germany, officials closed the Rhine-Main-Danube canal to shipping for the first time in five years. Thick sheets of ice stretching about 80 kilometres posed a danger to ships' propellers and the canal's lock systems.
An icebreaker had to help six ships in the canal, which links waterway systems between the North Sea and the Black Sea, reach their destinations.
At Dresden Zoo, 21 Humboldt penguins were moved from their minus 21 degree outdoor environment and into a building where the temperature was a more comfortable zero to ensure their feet did not freeze. In Moscow, which has been held in an icy grip for the past 10 days, trolley buses and trams returned to full operation but record electricity consumption continued to strain the system. The city's death toll is at least 28.
■ Last year was the warmest in a century, nosing out 1998, a US federal analysis says. Researchers calculated that 2005 produced the highest annual average surface temperature worldwide since instrument recordings began in the late 1800s.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/death-toll-rises-as-europe-shivers-in-big-freeze/2006/01/25/1138066865646.html
Appointee linked to Iraq kickbacks
A BUSINESSMAN appointed by the Howard Government to the US-led occupation government in Iraq personally sanctioned kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's regime, according to evidence uncovered by the inquiry into the oil-for-food scandal.
Trevor Flugge, the former chairman of the wheat exporter, AWB, was named in an internal AWB email dated September 2002 which describes a scheme to evade UN sanctions on Iraq by funnelling money to Saddam's regime through a London company called Ronly Holdings.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/appointee-linked-to-iraq-kickbacks/2006/01/26/1138066867484.html
Stop children like Annie dying from drinking dirty water
http://www.worldvision.com.au/waterhealthlife/
Trump sues for $6b
Who wants to be a millionaire? Not Donald Trump.
The real estate mogul and TV star is suing an author who wrote that Trump was not a billionaire and pegged his net worth no more than $332 million.
The larger-than-life entrepreneur known to millions from his reality show The Apprentice sued The New York Times reporter who wrote TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald and its publisher, Warner Books, for defamatory statements.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/trump-sues-for-6b/2006/01/25/1138066829351.html
The New York Times
United States Ranks 28th on Environment, a New Study Says
By FELICITY BARRINGER
Published: January 23, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 22 - A pilot nation-by-nation study of environmental performance shows that just six nations - led by New Zealand, followed by five from Northern Europe - have achieved 85 percent or better success in meeting a set of critical environmental goals ranging from clean drinking water and low ozone levels to sustainable fisheries and low greenhouse gas emissions.
The study, jointly produced by Yale and Columbia Universities, ranked the United States 28th over all, behind most of Western Europe, Japan, Taiwan, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Chile, but ahead of Russia and South Korea.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/23/politics/23environment.html
KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND 5.23 12:15AM
Heading for Home
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
KANGERLUSSUAQ, GREENLAND, May 22 -- Most places have rhythms of sorts.
Thank God it's Friday is an American one, the siesta is a Latin American one. Here the rhythm is the "flight period," the week-long stretches in which the New York Air National Guard's capacious, sturdy LC-130's arrive, fly to and from the high ice of the interior, then return to upstate New York.
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/sciencereport/index.html
The Big Melt
Andrew C. Revkin and Simon Romero look at how the changing climate is affecting people and industry in the Arctic.
The Series:
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/science/earth/index.html
E.P.A. Seeks to Phase Out a Toxic Chemical
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: January 26, 2006
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 — The Environmental Protection Agency has asked DuPont and seven other chemical companies to stop using a toxic substance in the making of everyday products, including Teflon-coated pans, that has been linked in some studies to cancer, strokes and other health problems.
Announcing the voluntary program, officials of the agency said Wednesday that full compliance by the companies and their overseas affiliates would lead to a 95 percent reduction by 2010 in use of the substance, perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, and to their total elimination by 2015.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/26/national/26enviro.html
It's Getting Crowded on the Environmental Bandwagon
"... The energy challenge is a critical societal issue, and we feel that it's our responsibility as the industry leader to communicate about it," said Russ Roberts, an Exxon Mobil spokesman.
Companies have reached that decision for various reasons: Oil companies, under attack for reaping windfall profits from soaring fuel prices, are trying to position themselves as part of the solution to energy problems rather than the cause. Manufacturers of fuel-efficient automobiles, jet engines or other green products are recognizing that they can burnish their image even as they promote their products. And companies in all industries are trying to make socially conscious investors and customers comfortable about buying their products and shares.
"Investors choose whose stock to buy; consumers choose whose gas they buy; and governments choose who gets their contracts," said Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP, which alternates "Beyond Petroleum" and "It's a Start" as its tag lines. "We're going to invest $8 billion in alternative energy in the next 10 years, so, of course, we're advertising that...."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/22/business/22adco.html?ex=1138424400&en=c3c8b2f61c45ba69&ei=5070
A Wide-Eyed Astronaut Becomes a NASA Critic
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
Published: January 24, 2006
PROVIDENCE, R.I. - It may be a little early, at 9 a.m., to hear a motivational speaker. Any motivational speaker. A certain bleariness sits over this crowd of about 50 financial and insurance conference planners.
Despite the "little voice in the back of my brain" that told him to say something, Colonel Mullane tells the audience, he was reluctant to second-guess the pilot, who had thousands of hours of experience in the jet, and passively accepted the pilot's decision.
"Basically at that critical moment of the flight, I ceased to be a team member and became a passenger," he says.
They ended up running out of fuel and ejected just short of the landing strip. The F-111 became a $20 million pile of rubble.
At NASA, too, Colonel Mullane tells audiences, little voices went unheard; danger signals were missed and warnings ignored on the way to tragedies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/science/space/24prof.html
Ivory Bill Report Is Called 'Faith-Based Ornithology'
By JAMES GORMAN
Published: January 24, 2006
In the strongest published criticism yet of claims for the sighting of the ivory-billed woodpecker in Arkansas in 2004, an ornithologist who was not involved in the search has called claims for proof of the bird's existence "faith-based ornithology."
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/24/science/24ivor.html
The New Zealand Herald
ConocoPhillips profit soars on higher prices
26.01.06 4.00pm
By Deepa Babington
No. 3 US oil company ConocoPhillips on Wednesday reported a 50 per cent jump in quarterly profit to sail past Wall Street forecasts, propelled by soaring oil and gas prices.
The results capped the most profitable year in the company's history and extended its streak of beating analysts' estimates to a 12th straight quarter.
ConocoPhillips has record energy prices over the past few years to thank for much of its success. Crude oil prices rose about 40 per cent last year because of hurricanes, lack of spare production capacity, and tensions in oil-producing countries like Iran and Venezuela.
ConocoPhillips, which last month agreed to buy natural gas producer Burlington Resources Inc for US$35 billion ($51.73 billion), reported fourth-quarter profit of US$3.68 billion, or US$2.61 a share, compared with US$2.43 billion, or US$1.72 a share, a year earlier.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10365474
Iran defiant as world weighs action in atomic row
26.01.06 4.00pm
TEHRAN - Iran again threatened today to start full-scale uranium enrichment if reported to the UN Security Council, while signalling interest in a Russian proposal aimed at calming its nuclear row with the West.
The council's five veto-wielding permanent members plus Germany plan to meet in London next week to try to resolve differences over whether to send Iran to the council at a crisis meeting of the UN nuclear watchdog on February 2, diplomats said.
They said foreign ministers of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany would seek a consensus before the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) gathers in Vienna to weigh what to do about Iran.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365453
US pressures Abbas to exclude Hamas from Cabinet
26.01.06 1.00pm
By Saul Hudson
WASHINGTON - The United States pressured Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to exclude Hamas from his Cabinet despite signs the militant group made a strong showing in a parliamentary election today.
The United States, which encouraged Palestinians to hold the election and pressed Israel to allow the vote as part of its drive to promote democracy in the Middle East, said it will accept the results as a reflection of the will of the people.
But it also made clear Abbas should keep Hamas in opposition. The group is sworn to Israel's destruction and is considered a terrorist organisation by Washington.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365470
Iran accuses UK of co-operating with bombers
26.01.06 1.00pm
TEHRAN - Iran has accused the British military of co-operating with bombers who killed eight people in southwest Iran, a claim Britain described as "ludicrous".
A little-known group campaigning for independence for Iran's Arab minority claimed responsibility in a Web statement for yesterday's attacks on a bank and government building in the oil city of Ahvaz.
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said London's involvement was clear and that Tehran would make strong protests to Britain.
"Yesterday's murders in Ahvaz were committed by those who proudly have their photographs taken with British officials. They enjoy the cooperation of British army commanders and use their facilities in Basra," he told a news conference.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365466
Putin undecided on expelling alleged UK spies
26.01.06 1.00pm
ST PETERSBURG, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin said today alleged spying by British diplomats in Moscow was regrettable but he had not decided whether to expel them from the country.
His comments were the highest-profile reaction yet to the diplomatic row, which broke out on Monday with the screening of a television programme alleging that the men had used a fake rock to communicate with agents.
Their main crime, according to Russian officials, was to finance Russian non-governmental organisations (NGOs), although they have not explained why this was illegal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365456
Google submits to Beijing's control
26.01.06 1.00pm
By Clifford Coonan
Top internet company Google has become the latest technology company to founder against the Great Firewall of China, with the news it will censor its search engine to give it greater access to China's fast-growing market.
Human rights groups say the move by Google is the latest example of a big corporation kow-towing to the Chinese government's stringent demands on internet content.
They say Google has sold out on its corporate mantra: "Don't be evil".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365426
Britain to send up to 4,000 troops to Afghanistan
26.01.06 11.20am
By Kim Sengupta
Britain will be sending up to 4,000 troops to Afghanistan in a move which will effectively mean fighting wars on two fronts, with forces still deployed in Iraq.
The government had planned for sizeable withdrawals from Iraq by the time the Afghan force is sent in April and May.
But with no sign of peace breaking out in Iraq, military commanders have now ruled out that possibility.
The size of the force for Afghanistan, just a thousand fewer than at the height of the war five years ago, also shows just how much the security situation there has unravelled while the US and Britain invaded Iraq before Afghanistan has been stablised.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365459
Sick seaman airlifted from Antarctica
26.01.06 2.10pm
A man is recovering in hospital following a rescue mission involving five countries in Antarctica.
The Uruguayan crewman on foreign-registered ship the Paloma V suffered convulsions following a possible head injury late last week.
The Rescue Co-ordination Centre in Wellington arranged for the Marina Svetaeva, a Polish ship, chartered by Australians to meet the Paloma off the coast of Cape Hallet.
A doctor on board decided the crewman required further medical attention and he was flown by helicopter to an Antarctica New Zealand group camped at Cape Hallet.
A plane from the Italian base at Terra Nova Bay collected the man and flew him to the United States Antarctic Programme base at McMurdo Station, where he was examined again.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10365476
continued ...
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