Morning Papers - continued ...

Journalism at Risk


Rights group says Uganda intimidating reporters
15.03.06 1.20pm
KAMPALA - Uganda has launched a crackdown on independent media and the denial of a visa to a Canadian journalist is the latest example, a human rights body said today.
The statement came as Uganda's Broadcasting Council ordered a local radio station off the air in Gulu in the north of the country, saying it had violated standards and was operating without a license.
Blake Lambert, 34, who had lived in the east African country for three years and wrote for the Economist, was denied an entry visa on Thursday when he tried to return.
He was given no explanation but Uganda's government later called him a threat to national security, without elaborating.
"The government waited until the elections were over and most of the foreign press and observers had gone to kick out one of the few resident foreign journalists," said Jemera Rone, East Africa coordinator for Human Rights Watch (HRW).
"But government attempts to intimidate the media began before the elections," she added in a statement.
The authorities accused Lambert of "misrepresenting" Ugandan events and government sources said his critical style upset senior officials already unhappy with international coverage of the state's prosecution of opposition leader Kizza Besigye.
Lambert also wrote for newspapers including the Christian Science Monitor and Washington Times and was a radio correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
Besigye lost polls on February 23 that extended President Yoweri Museveni's two-decade rule.
RADIO OFF AIR
The Broadcasting Council ordered Choice FM off the air two weeks after police searched its premises after it hosted opposition politicians who accused the army of abusing northerners sheltering in camps from two-decades of civil war.
HRW said several other local journalists were also facing serious criminal charges on account of their work.
On February 1, troops arrested four staff at Unity FM, another northern radio station, after it said the government was bringing people by bus to boost crowds at Museveni's rallies.
On election day, a police chief ordered another station in the north, Radio Veritas, to stop broadcasting for "violating the law", without giving any details, US-based HRW said.
An editor and reporter at the independent weekly Observer newspaper have been charged with promoting sectarianism for quoting opposition claims a clique of generals from the president's home area were orchestrating Besigye's persecution.
And Andrew Mwenda, a talk show host and political editor of the independent Daily Monitor newspaper is charged with sedition for allegedly "bringing into hatred or contempt or exciting dissatisfaction against the person of the president".
"Uganda has a vibrant and courageous media and the government must not try to limit its work though political prosecutions," Rone said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372785



Saddam outburst prompts media ban
16.03.06 8.10am
By Ibon Villelabeitia and Michael Georgy
BAGHDAD - A combative Saddam Hussein formally took the stand at his trial on Wednesday and urged Iraqis to fight "invaders", prompting the judge to bar reporters from the court the former president denounced as a "comedy".
"I call on the people to start resisting the invaders instead of killing each other," Saddam told the chamber in Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.
The toppled leader warned Iraqis to avoid civil war in a country he ruled with an iron fist for three decades, otherwise "you will live in darkness and rivers of blood."
Apparently fearful that Saddam's rhetoric could incite bloodshed, court officials have reserved the right to censor sessions, which are broadcast across the world, despite describing the trial as transparent.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372901



Britain outlines new future for the BBC
15.03.06 4.20pm
LONDON - The BBC was assured of 10 more years of licence fee funding today as the government published its report on the public broadcaster's charter, but it may have to share the proceeds with smaller rival Channel 4.
Sticking closely to a draft first published a year ago, Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said the BBC's 77-year-old system of governance would be revamped in the wake of criticism of its journalism in the run-up to the Iraq war.
The BBC board of governors, charged with the dual job of managing the broadcaster and also overseeing it, will be replaced by an executive board and an external BBC Trust.
The structural changes "will ensure the continuing independence of the BBC," said BBC Chairman Michael Grade.
The world's best-known public broadcaster has proposed that the licence fee paid by all television households - worth more than 3 billion pounds this year - should increase by 2.3 per cent above the rate of inflation for the next 10 years to pay for the country's switchover to digital television and increased programme quality.
A government decision on the licence fee is not expected until the summer but the Financial Times reported on Tuesday that ministers have told the BBC that its funding requests are "unrealistic".
"The real issue now is not governance but funding," said Charles Allen, chief executive of top commercial broadcaster ITV.
"Their bid for an extra 6 billion pounds poses a serious threat to the ability of commercial players to invest in high quality, popular content and develop new digital services for viewers."
The BBC, home to shows like "The Office" and "EastEnders," may also have to share licence fee proceeds with publicly-owned rival and "Big Brother" broadcaster Channel 4, which has warned of a looming financial shortfall.
"The Government will consider forms of assistance for Channel 4, such as asking the BBC to provide Channel 4 with financial help towards meeting its capital switchover costs, and Channel 4's desire to secure a limited amount of additional digital terrestrial capacity from the BBC," the report stated.
A review of the BBC's funding will take place midway through the 10-year governing charter period, after the country has completed the digital switchover. The current charter expires at the end of 2006.
The government also urged the BBC to put entertainment at the centre of its mission.
"We do not subscribe to the idea that public service broadcasting should be confined to the 'worthy,'" the report stated. "On the other hand ... the BBC should not chase ratings through derivative or copy-cat programming."
The BBC has a dominant market share in Britain's radio and television, and many of its private-sector rivals lobbied for the broadcaster to be overseen by media regulator Ofcom.
In a concession to those critics, the government said that Ofcom would provide a "market impact assessment" when the BBC Trust is considering whether to approve a new BBC service.
The government white paper met criticism from Conservative shadow culture minister Hugo Swire.
"To many this white paper is such a disappointment. It singularly fails to rise to the challenge the BBC now faces," he said in the House of Commons. "It was supposed to provide us with a springboard to the new digital age. But it is not so much a launching pad as a holding pen."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372735



Danish prosecutor rejects newspaper cartoon suit
16.03.06 1.00pm
COPENHAGEN - Denmark's public prosecutor has decided not to press charges against a newspaper for violating Danish blasphemy law by printing 12 drawings of the Prophet Mohammad which triggered widespread Muslim anger.
"I have today decided not to institute criminal proceedings in the case of Jyllands-Posten's article 'The Face of Mohammad', published on September 30," prosecutor Henning Fode said in a statement.
Although the cartoons, one of them portraying the Prophet with a turban shaped as a bomb, did not violate Danish law, Fode said there was "no free and unrestricted right to express opinions about religious subjects."
The caricatures, later reprinted elsewhere, provoked a storm of protests among Muslims, who believe it is blasphemous to depict the Prophet Mohammad. At least 50 people were killed in protests in the Middle East and Asia, three Danish embassies were attacked and many Muslims boycotted Danish goods.
When printing the drawings, Jyllands-Posten - the first newspaper to publish them - said people had to be ready to put up with "scorn, mockery and ridicule" as part of free speech.
But Fode said it was not a correct description of existing law when Jyllands-Posten claimed it was incompatible with freedom of expression to demand special consideration for religious feelings.
The ruling confirmed an earlier decision by a regional Danish prosecutor and the decision cannot be appealed.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372946



Limit on data Google has to surrender
15.03.06 1.00pm
A US federal judge said today he intends to give the government some of what it wants after it scaled back the number of Google customers it wants information about, in a case seen as a major test of internet privacy.
Shares of Google rose more than US$12 ($18.99), or 3.6 per cent, to go above US$349 as a door appeared to open for a compromise between the Web search company and the Justice Department.
In a surprise, the government today reduced the number of Google searches it wanted data on to just 50,000 Web addresses and roughly 5,000 search terms from the millions or potentially billions of addresses it had initially sought.
The government wants the data in connection with a separate case involving a statistical study of the extent to which online pornography is a threat to children.
"It is my intent to grant some relief to the government," said Judge James Ware of the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10372746



FCC: CBS Facing $3.6M Fine for Indecency
A government crackdown on indecent programming resulted in a proposed fine of $3.6 million against dozens of CBS stations and affiliates on Wednesday — a record penalty from the Federal Communications Commission.
The FCC said an episode of the CBS crime drama "Without a Trace" that aired in December 2004 was indecent. It cited the graphic depiction of "teenage boys and girls participating in a sexual orgy."
CBS said it strongly disagrees with the FCC's finding.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/03/15/entertainment/e142345S29.DTL



Bloggers Try To Reach Journalist's Captors In Iraq
The Internet is adding new momentum to the campaign urging Iraqi captors to release freelance reporter Jill Carroll. U.S. bloggers are linking to public service announcements airing on Iraqi television.
By K.C. Jones
Mar 13, 2006 06:24 PM
The Internet is adding new momentum to the campaign urging Iraqi captors to release freelance reporter Jill Carroll.
U.S. bloggers are linking to public service announcements airing on Iraqi television. They feature an appeal from Carroll's mother and one from the politician she was trying to meet before kidnappers ambushed her. They also include references to her love for Iraq and show interviews with Iraqis who say they have come to regard Carroll as one of their own daughters.
Carroll traveled alone to work for a variety of media outlets. She has been widely credited for trying to relay the Iraqi experience to readers beyond the war-torn country's borders. She was reporting on a story for The Christian Science Monitor Jan. 7, when she was captured and her Iraqi translator was killed.
The Monitor is supporting the television announcements and backs the bloggers' efforts. Reporters Without Borders Washington representative Lucie Morillon said it is important to have as many media mobilized as possible to win Carroll's release. She also said the bloggers' movement is demonstrating the power of the Internet.
"It's an interesting initiative," Morillon said during an interview Monday. "Bloggers are not only going to defend bloggers but everyone who is trying to inform. It will probably be interesting for the Internet as a tool for freedom and more openness. Bloggers are a huge community. If you begin with a few here in the U.S. and they link to Arab blogs, it's definitely an interesting way to renew this mobilization and push international opinion."
Abductors have voiced their demands and aired footage of captives over the Internet, but the people holding Carroll have turned exclusively to television with their demands for the release of imprisoned Iraqi women. Morillon said she is not sure whether bloggers have created Internet campaigns for other journalists captured in Iraq, though they have joined and spearheaded efforts to free cyber dissidents jailed in other countries.
The Olivebranch Network credits Baghdad-based blogs for getting the ball rolling for Carroll's release. BoingBoing appears to be leading the U.S. effort. The postings circulating here state that Carroll has the independent "spirit of a blogger."
The Monitor's Ellen Tuttle said the paper posted information about the blogging campaign and welcomes the widespread support in winning Carroll's release.
"It's impossible to know if it's reaching her kidnappers or not, but we're looking at all avenues," she said during an interview Monday. "I think every bit of support helps."
Insurgents have captured 38 reporters in Iraq since March 2003, and they released all but five, Morillon said. Reporters Without Borders is working on the release of two other journalists in Iraq.
"We also need western media to ask for their release, to show the problem from an international point of view," Morillon said. "It's not Iraqis who were abducted, not Americans, but neutral journalists eager to tell the truth."

http://www.informationweek.com/internet/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=181503696



China wants media to exercise ‘self-discipline’
BEIJING: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Tuesday cautioned operators of the Internet and other media to exercise restraint, saying the national interest comes before freedom of speech.
“Every citizen has the freedom of speech and publishing, (but) every citizen needs to abide by law, safeguard national interest and society’s interest,” he told reporters at the end of parliament’s annual session. Wen said Internet companies and website operators in particular should adopt a “code of conduct”.
“We maintain that the (Internet) industry should exercise self-discipline and self-management,” he said. “Websites should convey right messages and information and should refrain from misleading the general public or exerting an adverse impact on social and public order.”

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C03%5C15%5Cstory_15-3-2006_pg4_10



Israel seizes jailed Palestinian militants
SARAH EL DEEB
Associated Press
JERICHO, West Bank - Israeli troops using tanks, helicopters and bulldozers pounded a Palestinian-run prison in the West Bank on Tuesday to seize a Palestinian militant leader and his accomplices in the assassination of an Israeli Cabinet minister.
The dramatic 10-hour standoff ignited an unprecedented spasm of violence against foreigners across the Palestinian areas. Aid workers, teachers and journalists took refuge at Palestinian security headquarters in Gaza as militants attacked offices linked to the U.S. and Europe, burning cars and torching the British Council building in Gaza City.
Gunmen kidnapped at least 10 foreigners, including an American professor who was held at an abandoned cemetery; after nightfall, three were still in captivity - two French citizens and a South Korean journalist.
It was the most widespread violence since Hamas militants swept Palestinian parliamentary elections Jan. 25 - and could foreshadow broader confrontations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Angry Palestinians blamed the British and Americans for the raid, because British monitors left the jail 20 minutes before the Israelis arrived Tuesday morning. Three Palestinians were killed in the assault.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/14095455.htm



Talk-Show King Is Yanked From Chinese Airwaves
The Taiwan-born TV commentator railed against corporate corruption and other problems he saw in market reforms.
By Don Lee, Times Staff Writer
March 15, 2006
SHANGHAI — For two years, Larry Lang relished his role as China's business talk-show king.
On Friday night television, the Taiwan-born host of "Larry Lang Live" railed against corporate corruption and other ills of China's market reforms. The clean-cut, telegenic finance professor boiled economics down to ordinary chatter and he struck a nerve with folks disenchanted with the sagging stock market and widening income disparity.
But this month, Chinese officials pulled the plug on his program — the latest move by Beijing to censor influential critics of its policies and to control information disseminated to the public. In the last year, the government has jailed journalists, banned dozens of newspapers and restricted searches on the Internet.
Online, many Chinese quickly voiced support for Lang, whose writings and opinions are widely available on the Web.
China Business Network, the Shanghai-based producer of the show, said the 49-year-old Lang was taken off the air because he didn't qualify for a government certificate for TV and radio hosts. CBN refused to elaborate, and Lang declined to comment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-chinatalk15mar15,1,2128517.story?coll=la-headlines-world



15-03-2006
New Winds from the Left or Hot Air from a New Right
Introduction
Several years ago I asked an editor of a leading US business journal (Forbes) about a Mexican President (Echevarria) who was speaking at a Leftist conference commemorating Chilean President Allende.
He answered, “He talks to the Left and works for the Right”.
A factual review of the performance of the recent “Center Left” Presidents in Latin America fits very well with the comment of that Forbes editor, and goes contrary to much of the opinion of the European and US Left.
What is “Left”: Method
Prior to any discussion of the “Center-Left” regimes in Latin America today, it is important to review exactly what it means to be left – from a historical, theoretical and practical perspective. The method for determining “What is left” is based on analyzing the substance and not the symbols or rhetoric of a regime or politician. The practical measures include budgets, property, income, employment, labor legislation, priorities in expenditures and revenues. The key is to focus on the present social referents, social configurations of power and alliances – not the past – given the changing dynamics of power and class politics. The third methodological issue is to differentiate between a political campaign and the policies of a political party in power, as there is a well-known enormous discrepancy between them.
What is Left: Criteria
Historically and empirically there is a consensus among academics and activists as to what constitutes criteria and indicators for defining Left politics. These include: 1. Decreasing social inequalities, 2. Increasing living standards, 3. Greater public and national ownership over private and foreign ownership, 4. Progressive taxes (income/corporate) over regressive (VAT, consumption), 5. Budget priorities favoring greater social expenditures and public investments in jobs rather than subsidies to exploiters and foreign debt payments, 6. Promoting and protecting national ownership of raw materials over foreign exploitation, 7. Diversification of production to value added products as opposed to selling unprocessed raw materials, 8. Subordinating export production to the development of the domestic market, 9. Popular participation and power in decision-making as opposed to elite decision making by businesses, international bankers (IMF) and political elites, 10. Consultation with mass movements in selection of key cabinet ministers instead of local and foreign business elites, 11. Adoption of anti-imperialist foreign policy against support of free-markets, military bases and imperial wars and occupation, 12. Reversing prejudicial privatizations against extending and consolidating privatizations, 13. Increasing the minimum wage against excess foreign debt payments and 14. Promoting labor legislation facilitating trade union organization, a universal free public education and health services.
With these criteria in mind we can proceed to analyze and evaluate the contemporary “Center Left” regimes to determine whether “New Winds from the Left” are sweeping Latin America.

http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=28333



Uganda [column]: Museveni, Meles: So Alike, Yet So Different
March 15, 2006
Posted to the web March 15, 2006
Charles Onyango-Obbo
Addis Ababa
By becoming Africa's leading jailer of journalists Ethiopia seems to be returning to the bad old days (see related article), and proof again of African leaders' penchant for snatching disaster from the jaws of great opportunity.
On the third day after our arrival in the country, the Committee to Protect Journalists delegation got information that in addition to meeting Justice minister Assefa Kessito and his minister of State, the sharp-suited and cerebral Dr Hashim Tewfik, and the State Prosecutor the next day, we had also been granted access to Kaliti prison to talk to the jailed journalists.
And the big one: Prime Minister Meles would meet us later in the evening of the same day. It was only the third visit by foreigners that the Ethiopian government had allowed to the prison to meet the November prisoners, and the only one whose member was permitted to inspect the living conditions of the female prison.
A protocol officer was on time with a car to drive us to Kaliti. In a striking similarity with Rwanda, everything went with clockwork efficiency.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200603150198.html



CAMBODIA: CPJ condemns campaign to silence dissent
January 13, 2006
His Excellency Hun Sen
Prime Minister
Office of the Prime Minister
Royal Government of Cambodia
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Via facsimile: 855-12-813-781
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the arrests and detentions of Cambodian journalists Mam Sonando, Hang Sakhorn, and Pa Guon Tieng. These detentions come as Cambodia wages an alarming campaign to stifle the voices of numerous government critics and human rights activists. In the cases of the three journalists, your government resorted to charges of criminal defamation to justify imprisonment.
Mam Sonando, a prominent radio journalist and founder of Sambok Khmum Radio FM 105, was jailed on October 11, 2005, in retaliation for his reporting on territorial concessions your government was planning to make to Vietnam as part of a bilateral border demarcation treaty. He continues to be held without bail.
Hang Sakhorn, editor of the occasional newspaper Ponleu Samaki, was arrested on December 2, 2005, over an article published in September that accused state prosecutor Ven Yoeun of accepting bribes in connection with a land dispute case. Yoeun denied the accusation and filed a criminal defamation suit in September.
Pa Guon Tieng was arrested by border police on January 4, 2006, while reporting in northeastern Stung Treng province. On January 5, Pa was formally charged as an accomplice to criminal defamation because of his participation in a December 31 demonstration in Phnom Penh that criticized the government for the border agreement. Pa produces a popular call-in radio program for the Cambodia Center for Human Rights called "Voice of Democracy."
The use of criminal defamation charges to punish journalists reporting critically about the government runs counter to Cambodian law and weakens Cambodia's standing around the world. Article 41 of Cambodia's 1993 Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. The constitution's incorporation of international human rights agreements in Article 31 further ensures those rights. And the 1994 Press Law specifically bans the jailing of journalists for their work.
International legal experts have reached consensus that criminal defamation laws are inconsistent with freedom of expression and contrary to a functioning democratic society.
We urge you to ensure that all charges be dropped against these three journalists and that they be immediately released from prison. We also call on you to halt the ongoing efforts to silence dissent and to reverse a course that undermines the principles of free expression and press freedom enshrined in Cambodia's constitution.
Thank you for your attention to this important matter. We look forward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Ann Cooper
Executive Director

http://www.cpj.org/protests/06ltrs/asia/cambodia13jan06pl.html


Meet Omoyele Sowore, the activist–journalist whose interview with Gbenga Obasanjo is rocking the country
By Beifoh Osewele
Friday, January 13, 2006
Mr. Omoyele Sowore, US-based Nigerian internet journalist and one of the brains behind the famous Elendureport has tasked Nigerian journalists to rise up and use the enormous power at their disposal. He says rather than wait for the freedom of information bill to be delivered to them on a platter, they should actually go out and wrest it.
"You know journalists are supposed to be the most powerful group, apart from the executive, legislature and judiciary. They cannot actually wield that power because they have refused to take the necessary steps because they think that information would be given to them on a platter of gold. It is not going to happen", Sowore said in an interview with Daily Sun during his recent visit to Nigeria.
According to the former University of Lagos students’ union president whose interview with Dr. Gbenga Obasanjo published in the current edition of The News is causing hoopla: "The Freedom of Information Bill is not going to be passed by lobbying. There has to be much pressure. Even if it means that all journalists in this country would go on strike, stop covering the National Assembly, until they pass the law, we should do it.

http://www.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/news/national/2006/jan/13/national%20-13-1-2006-005.htm



Tell us about China's Press freedoms, Your Excellency
By Roy Greenslade (Filed: 03/01/2006)
In two weeks' time His Excellency the Ambassador of the People's Republic of China to the United Kingdom, Zha Peixin, will be talking to a group of journalists, including me, at a Reuters reception.
He is due to outline his views on China's economic development and has also graciously agreed to answer questions on "the environment, the European Union and China's diplomacy in an unstable world".
I would rather he addressed a matter altogether more pressing and worrying for journalists: China's continuing lack of press freedom. In case he has not yet seen cuttings from last week's British national newspapers, may I draw his attention to an article that appeared in The Daily Telegraph three days ago under the headline, "Beijing journalists protest at sackings".
This story revealed that 100 editorial staff at the Beijing News, a daily tabloid, walked out because their respected editor-in-chief, Yang Bin, had been fired, along with two of his deputies.
The editors had evidently upset the Communist Party that oversees the content of the country's newspapers, all of which are state-owned.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2006/01/03/ccroy03.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2006/01/03/ixcoms.html



The Nigerian Media and democracy

By Steve Omolale
For the purpose of clarity, I would like to limit myself to our recent past and our present, which are both near tragic and interesting, and the roles the media played and are still playing in our experiment in democratic governance.
It is, however, pertinent here to say that we do not have a democracy yet in the real sense of it because democracy, which is self-governance, is founded on a set of basic principles, which are glaringly absent in our polity. Rather, what we have is civil rule and an experiment in democratic governance. But, we must start from somewhere, for it took the United States (US) more than 229 years since the declaration of independence on July 4, 1776, to get to where they are today.
Of the 45 years of our independence, the military and their civilian cohorts ruled us for about 30 years, leaving us with little or no room to exercise our rights, suffocating our being as a nation, killing our pride, demeaning our ego and above all, institutionalising corruption.
In all of these, the media and the civil society organisations suffered most. There was unprecedented vibrancy and growth of the Nigerian media between 1984 and now, which also led to unimaginable repressions from the military between 1984 and 1999.
Your Excellencies, distinguished ladies and gentlemen, you would recall that the transition programme, midwifed by the Olusegun Obasanjo military administration led to the emergency of the Shehu Shagari administration in 1979. There is no doubting the fact that the media and journalists had their own bitter taste of repression under that administration in their attempts sustain the then democratic experiment.
But the military junta, led by Mohammadu Buhari ushered Nigerians into Abacha that the “inept regime” of Shehu Shagari had been overthrown.
However, despite the high level of corruption in that civilian administration, many Nigerians and the media believed it should be sustained, believing that with time, politicians would learn their lessons.
The Buhari administration, however, did not hide its disdain for the media and Buhari himself said this point-blank in an interview he granted the late Dele Giwa, then Editor of Sunday Concord, that he would tamper with press freedom, which he, true to his words, did.

http://www.independentng.com/editorial/edjan030603.htm



AG to study proposals on drink-driving law
By Ayub Savula
Attorney-General Amos Wako on Monday said he would study draft amendments to the Traffic Act targeting drink driving.
The Commissioner of Police, Maj Gen Hussein Ali, said at the weekend that he had forwarded the amendments to Wako.
Ali wants offenders jailed for not less than one-and-a-half years if convicted for a second time for drink driving without the option of a fine.
Wako said he would look at the proposals when he returns to his office later this week. He agreed with the police chief that drink-driving should be stopped because it contributed to road accidents.
Ali, who announced the proposed measures during a meeting with journalists in Nairobi, said the move had been necessitated by the desire to deal with drunken drivers and curb road accidents.
Ali said first offenders should pay Sh100,000 fine and repeat offenders be jailed for 18 months without the option of a fine.
Currently, motorists found behind the wheel while under the influence are fined Sh10,000. Police have for the last three months been using breathalysers to crack down on the drunken drivers.
A motorist last week went to court to challenge the legality of his arrest and the use of the gadget.
"I will publish the miscellaneous amendments after looking at the proposal from the police commissioner," said Wako yesterday.
He agreed with the police that accidents had drastically reduced during the Christmas and New Year holiday.

http://www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=34470



The Aceh ache
GUNVANTHI BALARAM
A taut and moving documentary brings to life Aceh's struggle to free itself from Indonesian dominance.
Fight for independence: Nessen films English and Nasir of GAM. This picture taken by another guerrilla, Panji, who later died with Nasir.
HISTORY tells us that independence struggles are often painful and scarring. The story of Aceh, the westernmost province of Indonesia, which has striven in vain for decades to free itself from the clutches of an endemically corrupt republic, must figure among the more gut wrenching ones in this part of the world.
Aceh's saga has been brought alive in a taut and profoundly moving documentary, "The Black Road: On the Frontline of Aceh's War", by U.S. journalist and photographer William ("Billy") Nessen, who has reported on South-east Asia and South Pacific since 1998 for various American, British and Australian newspapers and international news agencies. The film won the top prize, Golden Conch, at the recent Mumbai International Film Festival for documentary, short and animation films (MIFF) 2006.
An eventful time
Billy's 52-minute documentary, his first, was filmed over the last four years — an eventful time during which he lived with Acehnese guerrillas for months on the frontline, was twice deported and once jailed for 39 days by the Indonesian military, and met and married an Acehnese girl working as an interpreter/fixer trusted by the army but secretly working for the independence movement.

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/02/26/stories/2006022600080500.htm



Jailed women on frontline of Iraq struggle
By Associated Press
Jan 22, 2006 - 12:05:25 am PST
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- In a conservative Islamic tribal society where women are closely guarded, nine female prisoners are being used as -- bargaining chips in the hostage drama of American journalist Jill Carroll.
Kidnappers had threatened to kill the 28-year-old freelance reporter for the Christian Science Monitor unless all female inmates in Iraq were released by Friday night. The deadline passed without word of Carroll's fate or the prisoners' release.
The U.S. military confirmed this week that it was holding eight women. However, Deputy Justice Minister Busho Ibrahim Ali said a ninth woman was arrested Jan. 6 -- one day before Carroll was abducted.
Little is known about these women, except that they are between 20 and 30 years old and face terrorism-related charges. Human rights activists believe many are detained to pressure wanted male relatives to turn themselves in.

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2006/01/22/nation_world/news02.txt



Not as bad as Nixon, but bad enough
By Aryeh Neier
Commentary by
Monday, January 23, 2006
How will President George W. Bush's administration be remembered historically? After five years in office, and with another three years to go, some answers are already apparent. Others are emerging gradually. The latter category includes an increasing assault on civil liberties within the United States that now compares to that of Richard Nixon's administration more than 30 years ago.
Of course, civil liberties were bound to suffer in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Throughout American history, threats to national security, whether real or imagined, have led to clampdowns on the rights of citizens and, to a far greater extent, on the rights of immigrants and others suspected of acting in the interests of alien forces.
In the 20th century, abuses of civil liberties were particularly severe during four periods. In the years 1917 to 1919, U.S. participation in World War I and anarchist bombings after the war led to almost 2,000 federal prosecutions, mass roundups of aliens, and summary deportations. During World War II, Japan's attack on the U.S. was followed by the internment of more than 120,000 Japanese-Americans because of their race, including many who were born in the U.S.
In the late 1940s and the 1950s, the Cold War and fears that the "Red menace" would sap American resolve from within led to myriad anti-subversive programs, with tens of thousands of Americans losing their livelihoods as a result. Finally, during the Nixon years, the president's paranoia about opposition to the Vietnam War and to his policies fuelled a pattern of abuses that eventually brought about his resignation in disgrace.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=21627



Up close and personal
by Massoud Derhally
Arabian Business: How would you characterise the state of Arab media at the moment? Do you still feel it’s in its early stages of development or is it close to achieving the standards that you believe it should have?
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed: If we talk about standards, or even business development, I think we are in the early stages. I’m not completely ignoring the past 25 years, or even 40 years of television in the Middle East. But the fact is that all the 40 years look alike. Not much development took place before satellites were launched for television services. From the 1990s until today, we started to see real development in the Middle East. Now, we obviously see television is based on trial and error but it’s doing the job according to what we call professional standards. When you see the specialised stations you see nowadays, a lot of it is trying to develop the industry. It’s amazing how things are going in terms of the changing market.Big stations are investing in news. I compare it to the early stages of a station like CNN.
AB: Why are the likes of Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera able to explore subjects that are taboo from a cultural standpoint and approach red lines with respect to certain Arab governments? What differentiates you from the print media?
AA: Time. Time is an important factor because we’re live. As long as it’s live no one has the right to tell me why I did [this]. I cannot necessarily predict what’s going to be said on television. Being instant, I think, is the key to it. It’s out of control — out of everyone’s control, out of my control. Time is a major factor in the game of what goes on air and what is published in a newspaper or magazine. In a newspaper you have time to evaluate the news and you have to be professionally accurate about it, and legally correct. But when you go on television live you’re probably going to violate some laws. It’s a risk we take, as everyone does who goes live.

http://www.itp.net/business/features/details.php?id=3691&category=



Barghouti: Fatah, Hamas to join forces

In last-ditch effort to curb Hamas, Fatah presents interviews with jailed Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti on Arab networks; in interview, Barghouti declares Fatah's goal is to set up coalition with all factions
Ali Waked
In a last-ditch effort to counter Hamas ahead of the upcoming Palestinian elections, Fatah's leading candidate, Marwan Barghouti, submitted to two interviews with Arab television networks and said his movement and Hamas will be joining forces.
In the two interviews, with al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya, Barghouti said the objective behind the elections was to "establish a national reform government where everyone participates."
Whatever happens Wednesday, Hamas is big winner in PA elections, Roni Shaked writes
The Tanzim leader is serving life sentences in Hadarim prison in central Israel, but officials decided to allow the unusual move and permitted media teams to enter the prison for the interview. Palestinian sources said the interviews were arranged through American intervention. During a meeting between Assistant Secretary of State David Welch and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, the two agreed to focus on Barghouti as a leader not tainted by corruption, in the framework of the contest against Hamas.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3204645,00.html



UK Envoy on U.S. in Iraq: "No Leadership, No Strategy, No Coordination"
A new book by New York Times reporter Michael Gordan has revealed that Britain's top envoy in Iraq expressed major concerns about how the U.S. was handling the occupation of Iraq as early as May 2003. Four days after arriving in Iraq, the envoy John Sawers wrote that the U.S. occupation forces had "No leadership, no strategy, no coordination, no structure and [were] inaccessible to ordinary Iraqis." In a series of memos, Sawers identified multiple U.S. mistakes including: a lack of interest by US commander, General Tommy Franks, in the post-invasion phase; the private contractor Bechtel's failure to quickly reconnect basic services, such as electricity and water; and the decision to sack junior level members of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath party.
Bush Vows to Turn Over Most of Iraq to Iraqi Troops By Year's End
On Monday, President Bush vowed for the first time to turn over most of Iraq to newly trained Iraqi troops by the end of this year. It is unclear how this will happen. Just last month the Pentagon admitted there are no longer any Iraqi battalions capable of fighting without U.S. support.
New Poll: 36% Approve Bush; 60% Say War is Going Badly
Bush made the announcement during a speech that launched a new public relations campaign to win greater support for the war in Iraq and his presidency. The latest USA Today/CNN poll shows the president's approval rating is at just 36 percent. And 60 percent of the country says the war in Iraq is going badly.
Bush Links Iran to War in Iraq
During his same speech, Bush attempted to tie Iran to the war in Iraq by accusing Tehran of helping Shiite fighters build improvised devices that have been used against U.S.-led forces and civilians.
Iranian Human Activists Say Bush Is Endangering Their Lives
In other news on Iran, the Washington Post is reporting prominent Iranian activists say President Bush's plan to spend tens of millions of dollars to promote democracy inside Iran is endangering the lives of human rights advocates by tainting them as American agents. Last month the government in Tehran jailed two Iranians who traveled outside the country to attend what was billed as a series of workshops on human rights. Two others who attended were interrogated for three days.
At Least 72 More Bodies Found in Iraq
Meanwhile back in Iraq, the bodies of 15 men have been found in an abandoned vehicle in a Sunni area west of Baghdad. This brings the total number of corpses found around the capital over the past day to at least 72.
Iraqi Journalists Seek Extra Security Measures by Gov't
And the country's leading journalist union is asking the government to provide Iraqi journalists with extra security measures. Two Iraqi journalists have been killed over the past week.
U.S. Arrests Vietnam War Resister
Here in this country a former Vietnam war resister who has been living in Canada since 1968 has been arrested and jailed on desertion charges. The 56-year-old Allen Abney has lived in Canada since he quit the Marines to protest the Vietnam War. He was arrested on Thursday at the Canadian-Idaho border. Last week USA Today reported the U.S. military has been intensifying its hunt for Vietnam-era war resisters. The paper also reported 8,000 U.S. soldiers have deserted the military since the war in Iraq began.
Sandra Day O'Connor Warns About U.S. Edging Towards 'Dictatorship'
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor warned last week that the United States is in danger of edging towards a dictatorship if right-wingers continued to attack the judiciary. In one of her first public speeches since leaving the bench, O'Connor - who was nominated by Ronald Reagan -- sharply criticized Republicans for strong-arming the judiciary. According to a report on NPR, O'Connor said "It takes a lot of degeneration before a country falls into dictatorship, but we should avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/03/14/1456223



The San Francisco Chronicle

Crews Hunt for Bodies in Hawaii Dam Break
Searchers with dogs looked for bodies in the mud and debris Wednesday after a break in a century-old earthen dam released a roaring, tree-snapping torrent of water and raised fears about the safety of dozens of similar dams across Hawaii.
Search crews found one body and looked for as many as six other missing people who had been staying in the same house on the island of Kauai, including a couple who were to be married Saturday.
The dam collapsed before dawn Tuesday after days of heavy rain swelled the Kaloko Reservoir behind it. The water swept away houses on two multimillion-dollar properties in the island's rugged hills, cutting a three-mile path of destruction to the sea.
"From the air, the ground and even the photographs, the devastation is drastic," Gov. Linda Lingle said during a helicopter tour.
The Coast Guard search for victims extended eight miles out to sea. Searchers found a man's body in debris a half mile offshore.
Officials feared another dam downstream might also fail, and crews worked to pump water out of its reservoir. Structural experts arrived to inspect the reservoir, as heavy rains continued across the island. The showers were expected to persist through Friday.
"Everybody's on edge," resident Victoria Stamper said.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/03/15/national/a145447S75.DTL



Justice Ginsburg Reveals Details of Threat
Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she and former Justice Sandra Day O'Connor have been the targets of death threats from the "irrational fringe" of society, people apparently spurred by Republican criticism of the high court.
Ginsburg revealed in a speech in South Africa last month that she and O'Connor were threatened a year ago by someone who called on the Internet for the immediate "patriotic" killing of the justices.
Security concerns among judges have been growing.
Conservative commentator Ann Coulter joked earlier this year that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned. Over the past few months O'Connor has complained that criticism, mainly by Republicans, has threatened judicial independence to deal with difficult issues like gay marriage.
Worry is not limited to the Supreme Court. Three quarters of the nation's 2,200 federal judges have asked for government-paid home security systems, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said this week.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/03/15/national/w133829S29.DTL



Stop foolin' around with your brackets, the Fool picks the first two rounds
I am not a -- gag me -- "bracketologist" nor will I punch my ticket for anything other than a BART ride to oblivion. But I have a special feeling this year, one that will result in a perfect first round. Yes, I am going 32-0.
Wait, I nailed Monmouth yesterday so make it 33-0! Then I'll sweep the second round.
If you believe that, I have some flaxseed oil that will allow you to hit a baseball 500 feet. So what if it makes the plates of your skull stick out like some freakazoid dinosaur. And is that a mountain range on your back or are you just glad to see Greg Anderson?
I digress, as usual.
Quick question: Who usually wins your office pool? That's right, mousy Brenda from accounting who thinks Belmont is in the Big Ten and once asked if Ben Braun is the guy from the "Brawny" paper towel commercials. She does look good in that one red skirt, though.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/03/15/fool420.DTL



Not to be a drag, but here's another uproarious British comedy that may be a tough sell for us Yanks
There is a moment in the British sketch series "Little Britain" where a man dressed as an elderly woman begins urinating like a rushing river all over the floor of a post office while holding a polite conversation with an appalled friend from the nearby village. It is grossly, ridiculously lowbrow but also -- pardon the expression -- pants-wettingly funny. And in that moment -- when you're convulsing over a cheap sight gag that revolves around pee -- you might get the impression that two countries can laugh as one.
But you'd be wrong, mostly.
When it comes to our cousins the British, we Americans always have had some difficulty with the humor thing. Their approach to hilarity is generally sillier or darker or drier or more subtle. They've never really gone in for that fat husband/hot wife thing that seems to drive the middle of this country into fits of hilarity.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/15/DDGRMHNIK81.DTL



Bond measure fails to make the ballot
Assembly approves package, but Senate doesn't take vote
Sacramento -- Voters will not consider any part of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's landmark public works spending program on the June ballot after legislators failed Wednesday to agree on the size and shape of the proposal.
"While we are disappointed we did not make the June ballot, everyone knew it would be very difficult," said Schwarzenegger spokeswoman Margita Thompson. "The governor has always said that what is important is not June or November but that he and the Legislature work to rebuild California."
With the backing of the governor, members of the Assembly passed a nearly $24 billion bond measure that would have provided money for new classrooms and for fixing the state's aging flood control system.
But the proposal had no support in the state Senate and was never taken up during the late-night session.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/16/CALBONDS.TMP



New crisis hits hurricane victim
New Orleans family devastated by Katrina is robbed at gunpoint of $18,000 FEMA check at temporary Hayward home
Trina Gary thought she'd lived through the worst disaster possible when Hurricane Katrina swept her and her five children out of New Orleans last year. But the past three weeks have made her think again.
The 42-year-old single mother, who landed in the East Bay after the storm flooded her home, received a large payment last month from the federal disaster agency to compensate her for all the family's losses -- and she planned to use some of the money to return to Louisiana.
With the check in hand and her future seeming bright, Gary walked into a check-cashing outlet near her temporary home in Hayward. After employees there made sure it was a real check and she was the correct recipient, Gary received the payment in cash -- $17,975.
She went home and hid the money for safekeeping, then drove to buy groceries. When she returned, three masked gunmen who police say apparently had followed her from the check-cashing outlet grabbed her and forced their way into the residence.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/16/KATRINA.TMP



Stanford chases economic diversity
Lower income to get tuition breaks
Families with modest incomes no longer will be required to help pay the tuition of their children attending Stanford University in an attempt to encourage more economically disadvantaged students to apply.
The change was announced Wednesday and is part of a growing trend among the nation's most elite and endowment-rich schools, such as Harvard and Princeton universities and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
This year, Stanford parents who made less than $45,000 a year contributed an average of $2,650 toward the cost of their child's education at Stanford. Parents no longer will have to pay that money. In addition, families with incomes between $45,000 and $60,000 will see their annual contribution halved to an average of $3,800.
The families of roughly 1,100 Stanford students will be affected. The change, which will cost the university an estimated $3 million in the first year, will go into effect in September for all current students as well as the incoming class of 2006.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/16/STANFORD.TMP



City getting ready for the big day -- April 18
Fire Department organizing many events
The anniversary of this cosmopolitan city's most significant historical event has always had the feel of a small-town affair.
When the crowd gathers before dawn next month to mark the April 18 centennial of San Francisco's 1906 earthquake and fire, the history buffs, handful of survivors and revelers dressed in turn-of-the-century costumes will -- just as they have done every year for decades -- belt out a campy rendition of the song "San Francisco."
"San Francisco, open your golden gate," they'll sing, stumbling through the lyrics from the 1936 movie of the same name. "You let no stranger wait outside your door."
But this year, small-town campy is being transformed into an artfully choreographed production, and the hyped-up plans being promoted by a new generation of earthquake enthusiasts have some questioning whether the celebratory mood is appropriate for an earthquake anniversary.
Instead of the 1,000 or so diehards who usually meet downtown at Lotta's Fountain to watch the clock strike 5:13 a.m. -- the exact moment the earth rumbled on that fateful day -- the police expect 25,000 to 50,000 people to show up. Television network news stations are planning live broadcasts from the site. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been invited to take the stage. Tony Bennett might show up to sing "I left my heart in San Francisco." And Val Diamond, star of Beach Blanket Babylon, may appear in her trademark 200-pound hat topped with a miniature city skyline.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/03/16/PREPARATIONS.TMP


New Zealand Herald


Canada allows killing of 325,000 young seals
16.03.06 9.20am
OTTAWA - Canada has announced it will allow 325,000 young seals to be killed this year and accused activists of misleading the public in suggesting that white-coat baby animals were still being slaughtered.
Images of the dewy-eyed white-coats dominate the websites of environmental groups opposed to the annual Canadian hunt, and two weeks ago former Beatle Paul McCartney got front-page photo coverage when he lay down next to white-coated seals.
Since 1987 the killing of those seals has been banned, said Fisheries Minister Loyola Hearn, who suggested the real motive of many groups was not to protect the herd but to raise funds.
"We have people who are - whether it be innocently, which I doubt, or deliberately - passing messages which are saying this hunt is continuing as it did 20 years ago. That is completely and utterly false," he said on a conference call.
"However, it's a great way to attract attention, sympathy and, most of all, money."
This year's allowable seal catch, expected to start in the next two to three weeks, is up slightly from last year's 320,000 limit.
Harp seals can be legally hunted once they shed their white coats at about two weeks, though they are not usually hunted until at least a week later. A spokesman for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans said that at that age they are already weaned from their mothers and qualify as juveniles.
One prominent group that campaigns against the seal hunt, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, has pictures of white-coats above headlines about how to stop the seal hunt.
Spokeswoman Sheryl Fine rejected the idea that the group was being misleading and said the real issue was that young seals were being killed -- even if they were not white-coats.
"Ninety-eight per cent of the seals that are killed are between three weeks and three months of age," she said.
Hearn also dismissed the assertion made on Wednesday by the Humane Society of the United States that the kill levels posed "a threat to the very survival of the harp seal population."
The minister said harp seals now number almost six million, nearly triple the level of the 1970s.
"Canada's harp seal herd is a conservation success story. The herd is healthy and thriving," he said.
However, the US Humane Society challenged the numbers.
"The DFO has a long and documented track record of overestimating marine populations and allowing species to be fished to commercial extinction," Rebecca Aldworth said for the group.
In fact, one reason that the Canadian government has cited in the past for controlling the seal population was to try to allow a recovery in the once-plentiful northern cod.
Hearn said the ballooning of the seal herd coincided with and was a factor in the collapse of the cod fishery, but he said the main reason was simply overfishing of cod.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372911



US Peace Corps suspends activities in Bangladesh
16.03.06 7.20am
DHAKA - The American Peace Corps has suspended its operations in Bangladesh for fear of terror attacks, the US embassy said yesterday.
The announcement came a day after US Charge-d'Affaires Judith Chammas commended Bangladesh for its recent capture of top Islamist militants, who headed two outlawed groups fighting for the introduction of sharia law in Bangladesh, a Muslim-majority democracy.
"The peace corps in Washington, DC has decided to suspend indefinitely its programme in Bangladesh due to the possibility that terrorist elements might attempt to attack peace corps volunteers in Bangladesh, perhaps in relation for the recent captures," the embassy said in a statement.
"The peace corps made this decision following a careful assessment of Bangladesh's prevailing security environment, and did not base its conclusions on any single threat or incident," the statement added.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372885



WTC tower future uncertain after talks fall apart
16.03.06 3.20pm
NEW YORK - The future of rebuilding the New York site destroyed by the September 11 attacks was thrown into disarray on Wednesday when talks on who should build what broke down amid recriminations.
With construction of the emblematic Freedom Tower due to start in a month, the site's landlord, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, ended talks with developer Larry Silverstein on how to carry out the US$7.3 billion ($11.45 billion) master plan.
The Port Authority accused Silverstein of being greedy and acting in bad faith, saying the two sides were nearly US$1 billion apart when talks fell apart around a midnight deadline on Tuesday night.
Silverstein said he was shocked and disappointed, telling a news conference, "We felt we were making progress. A basic framework of a deal was as at hand."
New York Governor George Pataki set a March 14 deadline for the two parties to settle who would be responsible for which parts of the plan, saying a deal was needed for the state to release US$1.7 billion in tax-exempt Liberty Bonds to Silverstein.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372950



Bar owner fined for allowing smoking
16.03.06 4.00pm
A bar owner was today fined after admitting four charges of allowing people to smoke on his premises.
Crown prosecutor Katrina Barber said it was the second such case to go before the courts since smoke-free legislation covering bars came into effect in December 2004.
People were seen to be smoking at O'Malley's Bar in Levin on four occasions in May and June 2005, she said.
Defendant Martin O'Malley, 43, had failed to take all reasonably practicable steps by not providing ashtrays, not putting up signs and failing to discourage patrons from smoking in an internal area.
Defence counsel Ken Bailey said O'Malley, who had been the licensee of the bar for 15 years, was not a cigarette smoker and did not want people to smoke.
O'Malley was fined $800 and ordered to pay costs totalling $920 .

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10372957



Delay leaves baby severely disabled
16.03.06 12.00pm
A delay in proper medical care left a four-week-old baby with quadriplegic cerebral palsy and needing 24-hour care for the rest of her life, the Health and Disability Commissioner said today.
Commissioner Ron Paterson's report on the care of "Baby A", released today, criticised the doctor and midwife who were in charge of her care when she became ill in January 2004.
The report found that the baby suffered severe brain damage after a delay in diagnosing group B strep meningococcal disease.
The junior doctor, who works for a private company contracted to Gisborne Hospital's Emergency Department (ED), and the private midwife were ordered to apologise to the little girl's family.
The incident happened on January 4, 2004, when Baby A -- who had not been feeding properly -- was taken to Gisborne Hospital suffering from a high temperature.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10372936



Parents win fight to keep baby alive
16.03.06 2.20pm
LONDON - The parents of an 18-month-old boy with a terminal muscle-wasting disease won a legal battle on Wednesday to stop doctors turning off the ventilator keeping him alive.
Doctors had argued that the boy, who suffers from severe spinal muscular atrophy, had an "intolerable" life. He cannot breathe for himself, has to be fed through a tube, and can only move his eyebrows, feet, and fingers very slightly.
But his parents said the boy, from the north of England, who can be identified only as MB for legal reasons, could still enjoy the company of his family and was not mentally impaired.
At the High Court, Justice James Holman described the life of the boy - who is expected to die within a year - as "helpless and sad" but he rejected the doctors' request to turn off the ventilator.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372944



International child porn ring transmitted acts live on web
16.03.06 1.00pm
CHICAGO - US and Canadian authorities said today they had cracked an international child pornography network that in some cases transmitted molestations live over the internet.
"These are the worst imaginable forms of child pornography," said US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, adding that one case involved the abuse of a toddler less than 18 month old.
Twenty-seven people from nine US states and Canada, Australia and Britain, are charged with possession, receipt, distribution and manufacture of child pornography in connection with the case, authorities said.
Twenty-six of the suspects have been arrested and one is still at large.
"This international undercover investigation revealed an insidious network that engaged in worldwide trafficking in child pornography, including live molestations of children transmitted over the internet," Gonzales said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372948



Rape accuser's brother struggles with 20-year-old events
16.03.06 1.00pm
The older brother of alleged Rotorua rape victim Louise Nicholas has told a court it is hard to accurately recall events which happened 20 years ago.
Peter Crawford was giving evidence in the trial in the High Court at Auckland today of three men Ms Nicholas says raped and sexually abused her when they were serving policemen in Rotorua in 1985 and 1986.
On trial are assistant police commissioner Clint Rickards, who is suspended on full pay, and former policemen Bradley Keith Shipton and Robert Schollum. They have denied a total of 20 charges of rape and sexual abuse.
Mr Crawford described his family's close association with police when they lived in Murupara in the mid 1980s. He said he became good friends with several police officers, including the accused Schollum.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10372942



NZ blocking international GE agreement, Greens say
16.03.06 1.00pm
The Greens are calling for New Zealand to stop being the only country preventing an international agreement on genetically engineered organisms.
Green Party MP Nandor Tanczos said it was shameful New Zealand had not signed the Cartagena Protocol, which came into force in 2003.
The protocol required exporters to provide more information about GE products like maize and soybeans to recipient countries to help them decide whether to accept them.
Under its provisions, a nation may reject GE crops or seed -- even without scientific proof -- if it fears they pose a danger to traditional crops, undermine local cultures or cut the value of biodiversity to indigenous communities.
Talks are underway this week in Curitiba, Brazil.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10372928



Airman who refused to go to Iraq appears in court
16.03.06 1.00pm
By Peter Graff
ALDERSHOT, UK - A Royal Air Force doctor who refused to go to Iraq because he believed the war to be illegal pleaded his case before a military court overnight.
Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a 37-year-old New Zealander, had earlier already served in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he faces five counts of disobeying lawful orders for refusing to go on training assignments and deploy back to Basra last year.
Government lawyers told a preliminary hearing in Aldershot, England, that nothing Kendall-Smith was asked to do could have amounted to a crime, and he therefore had no right to disobey.
The case has received considerable publicity as the first case of its kind since the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10372917



NZ artists' works expected to bring up to $150,000
16.03.06 12.00pm
A painting by renowned New Zealand Artist Charles Frederick Goldie will go under the hammer next week after being in private hands for 55 years.
Portrait of a Burgomaster was expected to bring between $100,000 and $150,000 at the auction at the International Art Centre in Auckland next week.
Goldie earned his reputation for his many Maori portraits but his 1895 oil on canvas was a "spectacular painting," said centre director Richard Thomson.
Goldie painted the Burgomaster oil in Europe and travelled again to Europe about the turn of the century.
The Burgomaster paining had been in a private collection since 1950.
Another oil by Don Binney was also expected to bring up to $150,000.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10372920



UN votes for re-minted human rights body
16.03.06 1.00pm
By David Usborne
NEW YORK - The United Nations will soon have a re-minted human rights body to monitor abuses world-wide after the full membership yesterday voted in favour of its creation, ignoring the United States which, once more putting itself out on a limb, voted against it.
In an atmosphere of high tension at the UN headquarters, the 191 members of the General Assembly approved the establishment of the new Human Rights Council.
The vote, greeted by a burst of applause, was 170 in favour, with four against, including the United States, and three abstentions.
It will be convened for the first time on 16 June.
The notion of a reformed new Council was proposed by Kofi Annan, the Secretary General, last year and endorsed by the UN's 60th Anniversary Summit in September.
It will replace the existing Human Rights Commission which had been discredited, partly because its membership sometimes included countries with the world's worst human rights records.
Washington had signalled its dissatisfaction with the proposal for the new body, negotiated over several months, on the grounds that it still would not sufficiently protect against rogue states gaining seats on it.
The US wanted members selected by a two thirds majority in the General Assembly.
Under the blueprint agreed yesterday, members will be chosen by a simple majority of countries voting.
However many allies of the US, including the European Union, had urged the US over recent days to drop its objections.
Human Rights groups also argued that, by demanding a reopening of negotiations, the US was creating the possibility that the entire effort to reform the body would collapse.
Other no-votes were cast by Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau.
The three nations that abstained were Venezuela, Iran and Belarus.
In spite of seeing its position overridden, the US said it will give financial support to the new body and seek membership.
It will have 47 members, as opposed to the 53 members on the existing Commission, and convene three times a year instead of just once a year.
Mr Annan, visiting South Africa, said he was confident the US would co-operate fully with the Council.
"Even if the US is not able to vote for the council, it will be able to work with the council," he said, shortly before the vote was taken.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372914



West Bank prison raid brightens Olmert's political star
16.03.06 1.00pm
JERUSALEM - Ehud Olmert fought the battle of Jericho and the praise came in a cascade of headlines in Israel on Wednesday hailing his dramatic move ahead of a national election less than two weeks away.
The operation at a prison in the West Bank city to seize a Palestinian militant leader accused by Israel of killing one of its cabinet ministers in 2001 may not have been popular overseas, but it won applause inside the Jewish state.
"We got them," Israel's mass circulation Maariv daily trumpeted in a red banner headline, referring to Ahmed Saadat and other incarcerated members of his Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).
"The account is settled," said a front-page headline in the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper above a photograph of a blindfolded Saadat being led away by Israeli soldiers.
Olmert, interim prime minister and head of the centrist Kadima party, even drew accolades for the raid from his main challengers in the March 28 poll, Benjamin Netanyahu of the right-wing Likud party and Amir Peretz of center-left Labour.
Voters surveyed before the day-long operation in an opinion poll released after the assault ended gave Kadima 42 seats in the 120-member parliament, boosting its strong lead over Labour and Likud. Post-raid polls are expected on Friday.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372947




Thai PM hints he might step aside 'temporarily'
16.03.06 1.00pm
By Jan McGirk
Thailand's embattled Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, hinted yesterday that he might give in to growing demands for his immediate resignation by stepping aside 'temporarily' to concentrate on his campaign for next month's snap elections.
The billionaire ex-telecom tycoon is anxious to ease tensions in Bangkok, where tens of thousands of protestors have massed, week after week, to denounce his alleged corruption and abuses of power.
The political future of Mr Thaksin's 'Thais Love Thais' party is in jeopardy after he alienated the urban middle class in January by allowing a billion pound tax-free windfall for his family.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372918



Airman who refused to go to Iraq appears in court
16.03.06 1.00pm
By Peter Graff
ALDERSHOT, UK - A Royal Air Force doctor who refused to go to Iraq because he believed the war to be illegal pleaded his case before a military court overnight.
Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, a 37-year-old New Zealander, had earlier already served in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he faces five counts of disobeying lawful orders for refusing to go on training assignments and deploy back to Basra last year.
Government lawyers told a preliminary hearing in Aldershot, England, that nothing Kendall-Smith was asked to do could have amounted to a crime, and he therefore had no right to disobey.
The case has received considerable publicity as the first case of its kind since the 2003 invasion that toppled Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
Kendall-Smith was born in Australia, raised in New Zealand and holds dual British-New Zealand citizenship.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372917



Spain acts on migrant crisis as 24 die at sea
16.03.06 4.20pm
MADRID - A Spanish ship recovered the bodies of 24 migrants from the sea off Mauritania on Wednesday, while Spain stepped up efforts to stop people from the West African country reaching the Canary Islands.
"The search has been suspended," a spokesman for the Spanish government in the Atlantic islands said after announcing the number of bodies found.
Mauritania has become the latest staging post for migrants fleeing poverty in Africa, partly because of a crackdown on traditional illegal immigration routes from Morocco, say Spanish government sources.
Scores of mostly young men set out in fishing boats every night hoping to reach Spain's Canary Islands and a way into prosperous Europe. Many die in the attempt.
The Spanish hospital ship Esperanza del Mar (Hope of the Sea) went to recover the bodies after the crew of a fishing boat spotted them.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372935



Gotti 'sought help from Aryan Brotherhood gang'
16.03.06 1.20pm
LOS ANGELES - Alongside allegations such as secret messages written in urine, the opening of the Aryan Brotherhood trial includes a charge that late Mafia boss John Gotti asked the prison gang to carry out a hit.
Assistant US Attorney Michael Emmick told jurors in one of the largest death penalty cases in the United States that Gotti sought out the Aryan Brotherhood, also known as the Brand, in July 1996 after he was beaten by a black inmate, Walter Johnson, at the US penitentiary in Marion, Illinois,
"Fighting an organized crime figure may not be such a good idea," Emmick added during his opening remarks on Tuesday.
Aryan Brotherhood chief Barry "The Baron" Mills, his top lieutenant, Tyler "The Hulk" Bingham, Christopher Gibson and Edgar "Snail" Hevle are charged with ruling US prisons through murder, assault and intimidation - using secret messages to order the execution of any inmate who crossed them.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372949



Australia may relax drugs policy on army recruits
15.03.06 2.35pm
CANBERRA - Australia's military is considering scrapping its tough anti-drugs policy in order to attract more recruits to the armed forces.
Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said he was considering scrapping the rule, saying a person's character and ability should be the main tests for new defence recruits.
Under current rules, a person is automatically rejected as a recruit if they admit to having taken illegal drugs. Nelson said that meant someone who lied about drug use could be accepted, while an honest person would be rejected.
"I can say no to that (question) myself, but the reality is about 40-45 per cent of the adult population have (tried drugs)," Nelson told a defence conference on Tuesday.
In his first major speech since he became defence minister in January, Nelson said he had taken responsibility for recruitment as Australia's defence forces struggle to meet recruiting targets in Australia's tight labor market.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372788



Denmark finds first case of bird flu
16.03.06 10.20am
COPENHAGEN - Denmark has found its first case of the highly pathogenic H5 bird flu virus in a wild fowl, officials said today.
It was still unclear if the case was the deadly H5N1 strain. So far H5N1 has never been found in Denmark.
Denmark, a major poultry producer with an output worth 3 billion crowns ($483.5 million) a year, has been on guard against bird flu since disease was found on the German Baltic island of Ruegen, near Denmark's southern coast in mid-February.
Denmark has since examined more than 100 dead wild birds for avian flu. Neighboring Sweden reported its first bird flu case on February 28.
"We have been expecting this and are prepared," Jan Pedersen, General Manger of the Danish Poultrymeat Association, told Reuters. "We have further tightened our rules to make sure that the virus is kept out of our poultry sheds."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372925



Three dead in California Denny's shooting
16.03.06 1.20pm - UPDATE
LOS ANGELES - A man opened fire with a pair of handguns at a central California Denny's restaurant today, killing two people and wounding two others before apparently taking his own life, police said.
Police responding to the restaurant in the beach community of Pismo Beach found three people, including the gunman, dead and two other customers suffering from gunshot wounds.
"He came in with two guns, shooting away," Pismo Beach Cmdr. Jeff Norton said. "We don't know if he targeted anyone specifically."
Norton said the shooter's fatal wound appeared to be self-inflicted.
Both of the wounded victims were taken to local hospitals near Pismo Beach, about 240km north of Los Angeles. There was no immediate word on their condition but Norton said that at least one was able to give a statement to police.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10372931



Kiwi seriously ill after UK drug test goes wrong
16.03.06 8.15am UPDATE
By Derek Cheng and NZPA
A New Zealand man seriously ill in Britain after taking part in a clinical drug trial is in a stable condition in hospital and is able to talk, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Mfat) said today.
Of the six men, aged 18 to 30, who took part in the trial, two are in a critical condition, and the others - including the New Zealander - are in a serious but stable condition.
All of the men fell ill after trialling a drug known as TGN 1412 that was developed for a German company to treat chronic inflammatory conditions and leukaemia.
Mfat spokeswoman Helen Tunnah said today the man had not asked for anyone in New Zealand to be contacted on his behalf. "But we are making contact with the person who is with him."
She said a relative of the man was with him at the hospital and his family had been notified.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372890



Crowds once royal and loyal but cheers now jeers
16.03.06
By Greg Ansley
This is not a good time to be Queen of Australia.
Even before last night's Commonwealth Games opening ceremony, when Deltra Goodrem's anthem upstaged God Save the Queen, the monarch felt the lash of the times.
Yet another recent poll confirmed that most Australians want a republic and their own president.
And only a relative handful took the time to welcome the Queen and Prince Philip when they arrived for a state luncheon at Melbourne's grand Royal Exhibition Building yesterday.
Half were Aboriginal protesters, who burned a Union Jack as they chanted for a treaty and the return of lands lost with British colonialism.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10372846



Swimming: Burmester wins first NZ gold at Games
17.03.06 10.25pm
MELBOURNE - Swimmer Moss Burmester won New Zealand's first gold medal of the 2006 Commonwealth Games with a crushing victory in the men's 200m butterfly tonight.
Burmester dominated from start to finish to beat fastest qualifier Travis Nederpelt of Australia in a time of one minute 56.64 seconds, breaking the Games record by 0.31sec.
Nederpelt never threatened, recording 1min 57.26sec.
Burmester took a quick glance at the scoreboard after touching the wall and pumped his left fist in celebration towards the New Zealand contingent.
Burmester emulated the feat of New Zealand's Anthony Mosse who won back to back 200m butterfly golds in Edinburgh in 1986 and Auckland in 1990.
"I'm absolutely over the moon, I'm stoked," Burmester told TVNZ. "I've definitely been aiming for the gold."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=508&objectid=10373018



Older embryos better for IVF, says study
16.03.06 2.00pm
What a difference two days makes, at least for test-tube babies.
Once a fertilised egg is implanted in the womb, the chance of delivering a child is about 48 per cent higher if that egg is five days old instead of three, doctors in Brussels have discovered.
The research published in this week's New England Journal of Medicine found that 32 per cent of the 175 women who received the more mature eggs ultimately delivered a baby, compared with 22 per cent for the 176 who received the younger eggs.
In a journal editorial, Laura Schieve called the results "encouraging" but said the fact that the study was done in women under age 36 means the findings apply to less than half the US women receiving fertility treatments.
The new results come as fertility doctors are trying to improve the success rate for creating test-tube babies without implanting more than one embryo.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10372956



Girth beats weight as guide to heart disease risk
16.03.06 8.00am
By Jeremy Laurance
A tape measure is more important in combating heart disease than a set of bathroom scales.
The first large-scale international study of abdominal obesity - excess fat around the middle - has found it is a better guide to the risk of heart disease than body mass index (BMI), the composite measure of weight and height.
Doctors have long known that the more weight a person gains the higher their risk of a heart attack.
But the new study shows waist circumference matters more than weight.
The study, conducted in 63 countries, found that in men the risk of heart disease increased by between 21 and 40 per cent for every 14 cm (5.5 ins) increase in waist size.
In women, the same increase in heart disease risk occurred for every 14.9 cm (5.8 ins) growth in waist size.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10372904



'Singing frog' communicates via squeaks
16.03.06 7.00am
By Steve Connor
A frog that sings like a bird has been found to possess another unusual trait - it can communicate in high-pitch squeaks that are inaudible to the human ear.
The frog lives in the fast-moving streams and waterfalls of east-central China and uses ultrasonic calls to make itself heard above the loud background noise of running water.
It is the first time that an animal other than bats, marine mammals and some rodents has been found to be capable of producing and hearing high-frequency ultrasound.
Scientists discovered some years ago that the concave-eared torrent frog emits ultrasounds but the latest study published in the journal Nature shows that the sounds are used as calls rather than being simply a by-product of other vocalisations.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10372903



One in 10 UK cancer cases could be prevented by vaccine
13.03.06 1.00pm
By Jeremy Laurance
One in ten cases of cancer in Britain, and almost one in four around the world, could be prevented by vaccination, scientists say.
Viruses are known to play a role in the cause of cancers of the cervix, liver, nasal passages, certain types of lymphoma and rare forms of leukaemia.
Stomach cancer is also linked to a bacterial infection.
A report by the Cancer Research Campaign, published today, says it is not possible to catch cancer like a cold, but viruses can trigger the disease in combination with genetic and environmental effects.
In the case of cervical cancer, 99 per cent of sufferers have been infected by the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), a known trigger for the disease.
But around half the female population are carriers of the virus, which is sexually transmitted, and only 3,000 develop cervical cancer in the UK each year.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10372425



The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:

Scott Base

Some cloud

-19.0°

Updated Thursday 16 Mar 9:59PM

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