This is what happens to the caribou as soon as there are access roads by oil companies. Quite a trophy, huh?
Thursday, August 17, 2006
The wetlands of the Gufl Coast weren't enough to be destroyed, now the federal government wants to destoy the wetlands of Alaska, too.
This is Lake Teshepuk, Alaska. The 'dots' in the picture are caribou.
Image it with oil spills and oil derricks rather than wildlife and wilderness. Imagine roads to everywhere and pipelines to boot. This is insane already. There isn't that much oil there. This gets more stupid by the day.
The Seattle Post Intelligencer
Testing of migratory fowl is under way
Birds in Alaskan and Pacific flyways could be exposed to pathogen Avian flu program takes off in Skagit County
By TOM PAULSON
P-I REPORTER
CONWAY -- The young male mallard, cradled in the lap of state wildlife biologist Mike Davison, looked relaxed as it waited for its health examination on the Fir Island game refuge in the Skagit Valley.
"In this situation, both ends of the bird are the business ends," Davison said. While protecting the duck, he explained that he also has to take care not to get bitten or make himself the target of any sudden evacuation of fowl foul -- stress-induced duck poop.
With that, Davison flipped the duck over and with his colleagues began an upside-down invasion of its private parts. They were, in fact, after a small sample of the duck's fecal material. This was just one of what will be many thousands of such indelicate procedures.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/281589_birdflu17.html
Bomb scare spurs port security push
Busy Seattle terminal closed for hours
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY AND JOHN IWASAKI
P-I REPORTERS
There were plenty of anxious moments on Seattle's waterfront when a bomb-sniffing dog suddenly "alerted" on a pair of cargo containers shipped from Pakistan, prompting a rare cargo terminal shutdown.
No explosives or radioactive materials were found when the Port of Seattle bomb squad searched the containers. One was loaded with new textiles, such as shirts and pants. The other was filled with old textiles that would likely be made into rags.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/281572_container17.html
Happy landing for former Syrian pilot
By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
P-I COLUMNIST
Let it be known that good news occurred in a government building south of downtown Seattle early Tuesday.
Safouh Hamoui learned that America would allow him to stay. He received his lawful permanent residency status, or "green card."
"A historic day," Hamoui told his lawyer, Bernice Funk, who was standing by his side. "A true victory for the community."
It's a victory that occurred because hundreds of people across the Pacific Northwest rallied to support the Hamoui family's cause.
It's a victory for Muslim and Arab Americans at a time when terrorism fears have put them under crushing public scrutiny.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/281548_robert17.html
Drug-resistant staph superbug is spreading
P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
A once-rare drug-resistant germ now appears to cause more than half of all skin infections treated in U.S. emergency rooms, say researchers who documented the superbug's startling spread in the general population.
Only a decade ago, these germs were hardly ever seen outside of hospitals and nursing homes.
Many victims mistakenly thought they just had spider bites that wouldn't heal, not drug-resistant staph bacteria.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/281553_staph17.html
Hearings to open on 'no Iraq' officer
Fort Lewis panel to decide if Watada faces court-martial
By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER
FORT LEWIS -- A two-day military court hearing begins today to determine whether 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, a Stryker Brigade artillery officer who refused to go to Iraq in June, should face a court-martial.
The Article 32 hearing is similar to a civilian preliminary hearing or grand jury.
Nearly 200 of Watada's supporters, including his father, rallied Wednesday evening outside Fort Lewis' gate at Exit 119 off Interstate 5.
"I get a sense that the winds have changed," Bob Watada said. "I think these people are waking up to the fact that the war in Iraq is an invented war."
Among those supporting Watada was James Yee, a former Army captain and Muslim chaplain at Fort Lewis. He worked at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but was arrested and accused of spying. All the charges against him were ultimately dropped.
"Ehren is an Asian American like myself, and he's dealing with the Fort Lewis chain of command," Yee said.
He added that he was drawn to Watada's case because of the free speech issues. Watada has spoken out against the war in Iraq.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/281518_watada17.html
A race to find 'qualified' teachers
States face loss of federal money if they fall short
By BEN FELLER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Having missed one deadline already, states still face an enormous challenge in putting qualified teachers in all major classes, a federal review says.
Some states are in much better shape than others, the Education Department said Wednesday. Most meet only some criteria in required new plans. Four fail altogether.
The department can withhold money from states that fall short on teacher quality.
Based on a separate review earlier this year, seven states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico face the loss of federal aid if they don't improve their compliance.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/281516_teachers17.html
New Alaska oil leases being offered
Sale's opponents point to corroding pipelines to the east at Prudhoe Bay
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department is set to open a vast area of environmentally sensitive wetlands in Alaska to new oil drilling, even as opponents point to corroding pipelines to the east at Prudhoe Bay as a reason to keep the area off-limits.
The tens of thousands of acres in and around Lake Teshekpuk on Alaska's North Slope are part of the oil-rich Barrow Arch, which also includes the Prudhoe Bay fields that have kept oil flowing for decades.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/281519_oilfield17.html
Oil greases wheels of the good life in Valdez -- for those in its circle
MARY PEMBERTON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VALDEZ, Alaska -- Valdez is a company town where people living off big oil have lovely cedar-sided homes with lush lawns and new four-wheelers parked in driveways next to RVs the size of city buses.
A boat motors out of the harbor in Valdez, Alaska, past docks with commercial fishing boats mixed in with personal boats.
Across the street or next door are residents not employed in the oil industry who sometimes have to work two and three jobs to live in dilapidated mobile homes set up on weed-filled gravel lots.
Valdez is a city of the haves and the have-nots.
It also is the end point for the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline from the North Slope, but the crisis of reduced production this month has little, if any, immediate impact on the town. However, City Manager John Hozey says that it does send the city a message.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/281520_valdez17.html
Mt. Whitney: Not a technical climb, but it's every bit an endurance test
By NEIL MODIE
P-I REPORTER
Nineteenth-century naturalist John Muir christened California's Sierra Nevada the "Range of Light," and indeed it was, even at 3:30 in the morning.
As we started up the trail by headlamp, the illumination of only a quarter-moon turned the pinnacle-spiked eastern wall of the Sierras into a radiant, golden rampart.
Mount Whitney, the high point on that vast wall, seemed aglow. Later, as the sun struck it, the mountain's black-speckled, pink and white granite and translucent quartz sent reflected light ricocheting off it as if from a trillion tiny mirrors.
It was a world apart from the often brooding, ice-mantled
summits of the Cascades, that chain of stand-alone Northwest volcanoes that contemporary mountaineer/author Fred Beckey called the "Range of Glaciers."
Anyone climbing the highest peaks in each of the three West Coast states will find another, bigger difference: unlike Washington and Oregon's highest, California's has no glaciers or crevasses, normally requires no mountaineering skills to get to the top and, in fact, has a trail all the way up.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/281311_climb17.html
Hike Of The Week: You'll pay for the views
By KAREN SYKES
SPECIAL TO THE P-I
You'd better be jolly if you take this hike on a hot day, especially with time constraints. You may find yourself grumbling well before you get to the summit because the trail is anything but good-natured.
Want solitude? If so, this trail is ideal since few hikers tackle it in summer because you have to gain a lot of elevation for views that are more easily gotten from other trails. True, you may run into an occasional horseback rider or motorbike, but I had this multiple-use trail all to myself on a recent day.
The Cayuse Campground, where Jolly Mountain Trail (No. 1307) begins, is closed for reconstruction. For now the trail is accessed from a temporary trailhead off Forest Service Road No. 4315 (Little Salmon la Sac Road), shortly before the Cayuse Campground. Hikers familiar with the region sometimes drive farther up that road for a shorter approach to Jolly Mountain, but the road may be gated.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/280992_hike17.html
Blame processed foods for obesity, researcher says
Sugars make people eat more, move less
By ERIN ALLDAY
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Feeling fat? It may not be your fault.
The obesity epidemic is caused by a "poisoned" food supply that is altering people's biochemistry and driving them to eat more and move less, according to a hypothesis proposed by a doctor who culled results from thousands of studies on obesity.
It is unfair and unhelpful to blame personal behaviors, especially a lack of self-control, for the country's rising obesity rates, says Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatrician and nationally renowned obesity expert at the University of California, San Francisco.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/281452_poison17.html
HIV/AIDS Conference: A turning point?
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Science, social science and politics combined to produce hope at the Toronto AIDS conference. Every element of the promising formula has to be strengthened.
Progress on microbicidal gels or creams to block sexual transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus provoked excitement at the International AIDS Conference. Bill Gates said research could produce "a turning point in the epidemic." There was also talk about diaphragms, circumcision and an eventual vaccine.
Gates also praised U.S. efforts to expand treatment in poor countries. President Bush has promised $15 billion in aid for prevention and treatment over five years.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/281468_hived.asp
The Daily Star
Cabinet approves troop deployment in South today
BEIRUT: Lebanon's Premier Fouad Siniora vowed Wednesday that the army deployment in the South would end a "mentality of statelets" and make state forces the only armed presence in Lebanon, helping protect the country from regional conflicts. In a televised speech, Siniora addressed the Lebanese, calling on them to rally behind the government and the army as the sole forces in Lebanon.
"In the face of the attacks, you were and still are standing tall. Your resistance is an example for heroes. Your endurance a model for courage.
"You stood together in the face of Israel's murder, so now is not the time to divide. It is the time to rise to the challenges ahead and to big decisions, together," he said.
"There will be a single state ... with the sole decision-making power, there will be no dual authority," he said.
Siniora said: "There will be no more mentality of statelets, factional programs."
In a reference to Hizbullah, he stressed: "No one inside this country or out has the right to take the people and the nation to wherever he chooses."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74797
Maronite Bishops call for single national leadership
BEIRUT: Criticizing what it called a divided national decision-making process, the Council of Maronite Bishops said Wednesday that "it is impossible to continue like this." "Decisions have to be taken by one leader, one leader represented by the government who has won the confidence of Parliament and is elected by the people, otherwise the country is doomed to suffer catastrophes," said Monsignor Youssef Tawq, spokesman for Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir.
In a statement released following an extraordinary meeting chaired by Sfeir in Bkirki, the council said the cease-fire in the Israeli-Lebanese conflict - which has destroyed much of Lebanon's infrastructure as well as devastated thousands of homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of citizens - has been welcomed by the Lebanese.
But, the council added, "this does not dispel the people's fear of Security Council Resolution 1701's content, which is open to various interpretations."
A papal delegate, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, took part in the meeting before his departure to the Vatican carrying along a message of gratitude from Sfeir to Pope Benedict XVI.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74794
A war with neither victor nor vanquished?
No sooner had the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1701 than Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, declared a "strategic and historic victory" in the resistance's month-long fight with Israel, saying it was due to Hizbullah's achievements, the people's steadfastness and the government's unified stand.
Nasrallah said he hoped the Security Council had adopted the seven-point proposal of Premier Fouad Siniora as a solution to the crisis, praising the council's "courageous step" to put the Shebaa Farms under international tutelage before returning it to Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Resolution 1701 was a diplomatic victory for Israel, while Vice-Premier Shimon Peres said Israel had achieved the goals for which it had launched the war. However, the UN resolution is no longer a victory for anyone since the outcome of the war reflected a semi-victory and semi-defeat for both sides.
In fact, Israel failed to occupy the area south of the Litani River or to prevent the resistance from launching rockets from the area. At the same time, Hizbullah failed to prevent Israel from destroying Lebanese infrastructure, industry and residential areas.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74785
EU countries lead way as composition of expanded UNIFIL starts to take shape
Turkey, Italy and Germany were engaged in talks with regional leaders on the make-up of a UN peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon on Tuesday, while Iran sent its foreign minister to Arab countries to discuss the crisis. A day after Hizbullah declared "victory" in its monthlong fight with Israel, the EU said the group must "choose between being a responsible force in Lebanese politics or a beachhead for Iran."
During a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Italy may dispatch "up to one brigade, or almost 3,000 men."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74775
Cabinet members spar over proposed weapons compromise
BEIRUT: A compromise agreement currently being hammered out between Hizbullah and the Lebanese government is expected to allow the party to keep hidden weapons in South Lebanon, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported Tuesday.
While Hizbullah would need to keep the weapons it possesses south of the Litani River hidden, an agreement for areas north of the river would be "left to a long-term solution," the paper said.
If the proposed compromise is accepted by Premier Fouad Siniora's Cabinet, it would violate the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. And it is also a violation of the "one weapon" principle of Siniora's seven-point plan.
Resolution 1701 calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a solution based on previous UN resolutions requiring "the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon" apart from state security forces.
While the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) within the new resolution does not require foreign troops to disarm Hizbullah themselves, the force is authorized "to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind" and to support the Lebanese Army in asserting control over all of Lebanon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74774
Love it or hate it, Hizbullah has lessons for all Arabs
In the past month, and for some time before that, we have heard just about every possible suggestion about how to deal with Hizbullah: Attack it, degrade it, disarm it, wean it away from its friends in Syria and Iran, engage it politically, bring it into the Lebanese government in a bigger way, pressure it to show its real aims, drive it away from the border, or incorporate its military wing into the Lebanese national armed forces. One piece of advice that has not been heard sufficiently, and that strikes us as eminently sensible and relevant, is to learn from Hizbullah's history and to emulate those aspects of its ways that could help the people of this region live more productive, peaceful lives.
Hizbullah did not suddenly materialize magically on a Persian carpet or a divine edict. The organization methodically built itself up and sharpened its capabilities in all fields over a period of years. The core of its success is its capacity to identify the real needs of its constituents, meet those needs systematically through an efficient network of staff and managers, and not to waste time bragging about the fact in public.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=74792
CDR: Rebuilding infrastructure will take at least a year, cost $3.5 billion
BEIRUT: Lebanon suffered at least $3.5 billion in direct material losses from Israel's month-long bombardment, the head of the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) said Wednesday. Fadl Shalak said that as long as there is political consensus, repairing the $1.5 billion of damaged infrastructure could take as little as a year to 18 months, but rebuilding the $2 billion of destroyed buildings will take a minimum of three to four years.
"This is a huge loss for a small country like Lebanon and does not include indirect economic losses. What happened is catastrophic. I have seen all the wars in Lebanon and have never seen anything like this," he said, adding that the latest estimates are not final and do not include indirect economic losses.
With the cease-fire in its third day, key players across all sectors of the economy convened meetings to assess the damages and draft recovery strategies.
Waji al-Bisri, acting head of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists (ALI), estimated that $200 million in direct damage was inflicted on the entire industrial sector, although dairy, cement, glass and prefab housing factories were hit hardest.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=74784
Lebanon faces huge obstacles to recovery and reconstruction
BEIRUT: Lebanon has a dauntingly steep path to climb toward reconstruction and a chance, though no guarantee, of recovering from the economic devastation caused by Israel's offensive, economists said Tuesday. Traditional oil-rich allies in the Gulf have raised hopes by pledging $800 million to rebuild infrastructure, but problems such as high unemployment and a shattered private sector could mar any recovery.
"I think that it all depends on how the conflict will end. I don't believe that it has ended. If we can come out with the start of a real process it will only be a blip," said Khaled Zaidan, head of securities at BankMed. "But it would be very difficult to retain financial and human capital as well as attract necessary additional human capital if there is no clear signal or enough confidence that this war will not be replicated."
The economic destruction wrought by the Israeli offensive is indisputable. Almost a million people were displaced, industry came to a grinding halt and the nascent tourist industry, which had been heading for a boom year, was left in tatters.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=74767
The New York Times
Suspect Says Ramsey Death 'An Accident'
By RAYMOND BONNER
JAKARTA, Aug. 17 — The investigation into the killing of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, which stymied police for nearly a decade and which had been marked by suspicions that her parents may have been involved, took a sharp new turn today when an American schoolteacher confessed to the crime, less than 24 hours after being arrested at his apartment in Bangkok, according to Thai and American authorities.
The teacher — John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old father of three — told Thai police that he had not meant to kill the girl and that his intention was to kidnap her and demand a ransom of $118,000, according to Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, the head of the Thai immigration police. General Suwat spoke at a news conference in Bangkok this afternoon.
“He said he was in love with the child,” General Suwat said.
Mr. Karr, wearing a light blue golf shirt buttoned to the neck and pleated khaki trousers, appeared briefly at the news conference, but he did not speak. Afterwards, he told a crowd of reporters, “I was with JonBenet when she died,” and added that her death was “an accident.”
Ann Hurst, an official with the United States Department of Homeland Security who spoke at the Bangkok press conference, said Mr. Karr has been “very cooperative” with the authorities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/18ramsey.ready.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=f7518a0c2e074e85&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bombs Aimed at G.I.’s in Iraq Are Increasing
By MICHAEL R. GORDON, MARK MAZZETTI and THOM SHANKER
This article is by Michael R. Gordon, Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 — The number of roadside bombs planted in Iraq rose in July to the highest monthly total of the war, offering more evidence that the anti-American insurgency has continued to strengthen despite the killing of the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Along with a sharp increase in sectarian attacks, the number of daily strikes against American and Iraqi security forces has doubled since January. The deadliest means of attack, roadside bombs, made up much of that increase. In July, of 2,625 explosive devices, 1,666 exploded and 959 were discovered before they went off. In January, 1,454 bombs exploded or were found.
The bomb statistics — compiled by American military authorities in Baghdad and made available at the request of The New York Times — are part of a growing body of data and intelligence analysis about the violence in Iraq that has produced somber public assessments from military commanders, administration officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17military.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=4d76e5064c0f3ee8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Gunmen Abduct at Least 15 in Afghanistan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:26 a.m. ET
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Gunmen abducted at least 15 people, including a doctor and nurses, as they traveled to a refugee camp in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said.
Aga Jan Nazari, provincial director of the refugee department, said 15 people were kidnapped in Kandahar province.
Dr. Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, put the number at 20 and said they included a doctor and five nurses who were on their way to the Zadi refugee camp in the province's Zhela district.
It was not clear what caused the discrepancy in numbers, nor whether there were any non-Afghans among those kidnapped.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, denied the kidnapping but confirmed its militants did commandeer the minivan used by the missing people. He said the people had fled to nearby villages and were not being held by the Taliban.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Kidnapping.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=e5b68865922e91c5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Lebanon Sends National Army to Patrol South
By JOHN KIFNER and ROBERT F. WORTH
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 17 — The Lebanese Army moved into the country’s south at dawn on Thursday, a day after the cabinet approved the deployment under a United Nations-mandated cease-fire, but finessed the delicate issue of disarming Hezbollah.
At several points, soldiers crossed the Litani River, about 15 miles north of the Israeli border, into the long-held separate realm of Hezbollah.
A column of more than 100 trucks, troop carriers and jeeps, flying red-and-white Lebanese flags, streamed through a makeshift bridge on the Litani to the town of Merj ’Uyun, Reuters reported. Some vehicles towed artillery pieces, others carried troops and equipment.
Hezbollah fighters were not expected to resist the soldiers, nor to hand over their weapons. Instead, they probably would simply put their weapons into hiding and melt away into the civilian population.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17mideast.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=70c3aa1f88d75fe5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Hezbollah's Other War
By MICHAEL YOUNG
One evening earlier this summer, Lebanon’s most popular satire show, ‘‘Bas Mat Watan,’’ broadcast a sketch showing an ‘‘interview’’ with Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader and secretary general. ‘‘Nasrallah’’ was asked whether his party would surrender its weapons. He answered that it would, but first several conditions had to be met: there was that woman in Australia, whose land was being encroached upon by Jewish neighbors; then there was the baker in the United States, whose bakery the Jews wanted to take over. The joke was obvious: there were an infinite number of reasons why Hezbollah would never agree to lay down its weapons and become one political party among others.
But it was the rapid reaction to the satiric sketch that sent the more disquieting message. That very night, angry supporters of Hezbollah closed the airport road with burning tires — a warning that they could block at will the main access point in and out of the country — and marched on mainly Sunni, Druse and Christian quarters in Beirut. In a Christian neighborhood, they clashed with the son of a former president and his comrades, and several youths were taken to hospital.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/magazine/04lebanon.html?ex=1155960000&en=354bf1f771a606ba&ei=5070
Is Hamas Ready to Deal?
By SCOTT ATRAN
Paris
WHATEVER the endgame between Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas, one thing is certain: Israel’s hopes of ensuring its security by walling itself off from resentful neighbors are dead. One lesson from Israel’s assault on Lebanon and its military operation in Gaza is that the missiles blow back.
We can hope that multinational cooperation will help to secure Israel’s border with Lebanon. But what about the Palestinian issue, which has been seemingly pushed to the back burner by the war in Lebanon?
A bold gesture now by Israel would surprise its adversaries, convey strength, and even catch domestic political opposition off guard. And as strange as it may seem, were the United States able to help Israel help Hamas, it might turn the rising tide of global Muslim resentment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/opinion/17atran.html
More Tapes From9/11: ‘They Have Exits in There?’
By JIM DWYER
In what might be the final major disclosure of records from New York’s worst calamity, the city yesterday released recordings of 1,600 emergency calls made on Sept. 11, 2001. With the voices of callers removed for privacy considerations, only the 911 operators can be heard on most of the calls.
Even so, the day resonates in short bursts of words on the recordings, providing glimpses of struggle, loss and valor.
Many people inside the World Trade Center’s twin towers were told to stay put, because the 911 operators did not know that a full evacuation had been ordered. They also did not realize that one stairway remained passable in the south tower, providing an escape route that took 18 people above the fire to safety while hundreds of others waited for help. And some operators who did tell callers to leave were surprised to learn that emergency exits in the towers were hard to reach.
Fire commanders used telephones because they had trouble with their radios, a problem that would have devastating consequences. And firefighters were ready to go up in police helicopters to battle the fires or at least get a better look at them, but the two departments never connected that morning.
Then there are the stories of people fighting to live, some of them half-told in these tapes, others excruciatingly detailed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/nyregion/17tapes.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=d3ba36ed429816eb&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Israel Cedes Control in Some Areas of Lebanon
By JOHN KIFNER and ROBERT F. WORTH
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 17 — The Israeli army ceded control in some areas of southern Lebanon to a United Nations force today as the Lebanese Army moved into the region at dawn, a day after the cabinet approved the deployment under a U.N.-mandated cease-fire but finessed the delicate issue of disarming Hezbollah.
The Israeli army said it was ceding areas in southern Lebanon to Unifil, a United Nations force that is currently in Lebanon, which will then hand them over to the Lebanese army. But Israeli officials made clear in a statement that the transfer was conditional on the reinforcement of Unifil and on the Lebanese army’s ability to assert control and prevent Hezbollah guerrillas from operating there in the south.
At several points, Lebanese soldiers crossed the Litani River, about 15 miles north of the Israeli border, into the long-held separate realm of Hezbollah.
A column of more than 100 trucks, troop carriers and jeeps, flying red-and-white Lebanese flags, streamed through a makeshift bridge on the Litani to the town of Merj ’Uyun, Reuters reported. Some vehicles towed artillery pieces, others carried troops and equipment.
Unifil, the United Nations force of about 2,000 that had already been operating in Lebanon before the cease-fire, is expected to be expanded into a larger peacekeeping force of 15,000 troops.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=3d98660b15e38ef7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Threat Alert Level Lowered for U.S. and British Airports
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON, Aug. 14 — With air travelers facing a fifth day of delays, cancellations and restrictions on carryon baggage, Britain and the United States lowered threat assessment levels on Monday as the British police continued to hunt for clues in the reported plot to blow up American airliners.
In Britain, the government sought to mold a political response to a nightmare vision evoked by officials of shadowy Islamic terrorists hatching dozens more conspiracies in mosques, bookstores and other meeting places.
Officials met with Islamic representatives to work out a strategy for what Ruth Kelly, the government’s community secretary, called “a battle of hearts and minds to be won within the Muslim community to take on the terrorist and extremist elements that are sometimes found within it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/world/europe/15plot.html
Faces, Too, Are Searched at U.S. Airports
By ERIC LIPTON
DULLES, Va., Aug. 16 — As the man approached the airport security checkpoint here on Wednesday, he kept picking up and putting down his backpack, touching his fingers to his chin, rubbing some object in his hands and finally reaching for his pack of cigarettes, even though smoking was not allowed.
Two Transportation Security Administration officers stood nearby, nearly motionless and silent, gazing straight at him. Then, with a nod, they moved in, chatting briefly with the man, and then swiftly pulled him aside for an intense search.
Another airline passenger had just made the acquaintance of the transportation agency’s “behavior detection officers.”
Taking a page from Israeli airport security, the transportation agency has been experimenting with this new squad, whose members do not look for bombs, guns or knives. Instead, the assignment is to find anyone with evil intent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/washington/17screeners.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=0d7d13a17ac78eb2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Breaking Through Adoption’s Racial Barriers
By LYNETTE CLEMETSON and RON NIXON
When Martina Brockway and Mike Timble, a white couple in Chicago, decided to adopt a child, Ms. Brockway went to an adoption agency presentation at a black church to make it clear they wanted an African-American baby.
Their biological daughter, Rumeur, 3, is accumulating black dolls in preparation for her new brother or sister. Black-themed children’s books like “Please, Baby, Please” by the filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, share shelf space with Elmo and Dr. Seuss.
But the couple’s decision provoked some uneasy responses. One of Mr. Timble’s white friends asked, “Aren’t there any white kids available?”
Ms. Brockway’s black friends were supportive. “But,” she said, “I also sensed that there was maybe something they weren’t saying.”
Mr. Timble cut in. “Like maybe they were thinking, ‘What do these people think they are doing?’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17adopt.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=537c1c29876db648&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Florida Names 4 KKK Men in 1951 Killings
Filed at 9:31 a.m. ET
MIMS, Fla. (AP) -- Fifty-five years after a Christmas Day explosion killed two civil rights activists, their daughter finally heard prosecutors accuse four Ku Klux Klan members of the crime.
The four are long dead, but Evangeline Moore said the news still came as a relief.
''God's taken care of them, has dealt with them very, very badly, and they will continue to be prosecuted his way,'' Moore said.
Harry T. and Harriette Moore died after the explosion under their bed on Dec. 25, 1951, which was also their 25th wedding anniversary.
The couple was black; the accused men were white.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Civil-Rights-Bombings.html
U.S. Officials Arrest Suspect in Top Mexican Drug Gang
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 16 — Federal drug enforcement agents, aided by the United States Coast Guard, arrested a man they said was a top figure in one of Mexico’s most notorious drug gangs on a fishing boat off Baja California on Wednesday.
Federal officials said the man, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, 37, was one of the last remaining ring leaders of the Arellano Félix gang. The group, based in Tijuana, is charged in several killings, including that of a Roman Catholic cardinal.
In a federal indictment unsealed in 2003, Mr. Arellano Félix was charged with importing and distributing drugs in the United States. The arrest on Wednesday riveted Mexico, a nation long weary of intransigent drug violence. It was expected to deal a blow to the gang, though the authorities acknowledged that associates were probably waiting to take Mr. Arellano Félix’s place.
Michael Braun, an assistant administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said at a news conference in Washington that Mr. Arellano Félix was “one of the 45 most notorious, most wanted drug traffickers in the world.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17drug.html?pagewanted=print
Fat Factors
In the 30-plus years that Richard Atkinson has been studying obesity, he has always maintained that overeating doesn’t really explain it all. His epiphany came early in his career, when he was a medical fellow at U.C.L.A. engaged in a study of people who weighed more than 300 pounds and had come in for obesity surgery. “The general thought at the time was that fat people ate too much,” Atkinson, now at Virginia Commonwealth University, told me recently. “And we documented that fat people do eat too much — our subjects ate an average of 6,700 calories a day. But what was so impressive to me was the fact that not all fat people eat too much.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/magazine/13obesity.html?ex=1156132800&en=29e673d808dd0143&ei=5070&emc=eta1
How to Make Sure Children Are Scientifically Illiterate
By LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS
Voters in Kansas ensured this month that noncreationist moderates will once again have a majority (6 to 4) on the state school board, keeping new standards inspired by intelligent design from taking effect.
This is a victory for public education and sends a message nationwide about the public’s ability to see through efforts by groups like the Discovery Institute to misrepresent science in the schools. But for those of us who are interested in improving science education, any celebration should be muted.
This is not the first turnaround in recent Kansas history. In 2000, after a creationist board had removed evolution from the state science curriculum, a public outcry led to wholesale removal of creationist board members up for re-election and a reinstatement of evolution in the curriculum.
In a later election, creationists once again won enough seats to get a 6-to-4 majority. With their changing political tactics, creationists are an excellent example of evolution at work. Creation science evolved into intelligent design, which morphed into “teaching the controversy,” and after its recent court loss in Dover, Pa., and political defeats in Ohio and Kansas, it will no doubt change again. The most recent campaign slogan I have heard is “creative evolution.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/science/sciencespecial2/15essa.html
Husband Takes Schiavo Fight Back to Politicians
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The curtains are still drawn tight at Michael Schiavo’s home on a quiet cul-de-sac here, and in some ways he remains as private and unknowable as when his wife Terri was the focus of a fervent national debate last year about life and death.
Yet Mr. Schiavo, who won a scorching legal battle to remove his brain-damaged wife’s feeding tube, also remains furious at lawmakers in Tallahassee and Washington who intervened in the case. Hence the creation last winter of TerriPAC, a federal political action committee aimed against politicians who tried to stop Ms. Schiavo’s death, and the debut of Mr. Schiavo, a newly remarried, self-described normal guy, as a political weapon in this year’s midterm elections.
He is an unpolished speaker, sometimes abandoning sentences midstream or grasping for the right words. He did not vote or follow the news until recently, he says, and had never heard of a PAC until strangers suggested he start one late last year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/washington/16schiavo.html?ex=1156392000&en=7195d0235f4a0981&ei=5070&emc=eta1
continued …
Testing of migratory fowl is under way
Birds in Alaskan and Pacific flyways could be exposed to pathogen Avian flu program takes off in Skagit County
By TOM PAULSON
P-I REPORTER
CONWAY -- The young male mallard, cradled in the lap of state wildlife biologist Mike Davison, looked relaxed as it waited for its health examination on the Fir Island game refuge in the Skagit Valley.
"In this situation, both ends of the bird are the business ends," Davison said. While protecting the duck, he explained that he also has to take care not to get bitten or make himself the target of any sudden evacuation of fowl foul -- stress-induced duck poop.
With that, Davison flipped the duck over and with his colleagues began an upside-down invasion of its private parts. They were, in fact, after a small sample of the duck's fecal material. This was just one of what will be many thousands of such indelicate procedures.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/281589_birdflu17.html
Bomb scare spurs port security push
Busy Seattle terminal closed for hours
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY AND JOHN IWASAKI
P-I REPORTERS
There were plenty of anxious moments on Seattle's waterfront when a bomb-sniffing dog suddenly "alerted" on a pair of cargo containers shipped from Pakistan, prompting a rare cargo terminal shutdown.
No explosives or radioactive materials were found when the Port of Seattle bomb squad searched the containers. One was loaded with new textiles, such as shirts and pants. The other was filled with old textiles that would likely be made into rags.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/281572_container17.html
Happy landing for former Syrian pilot
By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
P-I COLUMNIST
Let it be known that good news occurred in a government building south of downtown Seattle early Tuesday.
Safouh Hamoui learned that America would allow him to stay. He received his lawful permanent residency status, or "green card."
"A historic day," Hamoui told his lawyer, Bernice Funk, who was standing by his side. "A true victory for the community."
It's a victory that occurred because hundreds of people across the Pacific Northwest rallied to support the Hamoui family's cause.
It's a victory for Muslim and Arab Americans at a time when terrorism fears have put them under crushing public scrutiny.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/281548_robert17.html
Drug-resistant staph superbug is spreading
P-I STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES
A once-rare drug-resistant germ now appears to cause more than half of all skin infections treated in U.S. emergency rooms, say researchers who documented the superbug's startling spread in the general population.
Only a decade ago, these germs were hardly ever seen outside of hospitals and nursing homes.
Many victims mistakenly thought they just had spider bites that wouldn't heal, not drug-resistant staph bacteria.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/281553_staph17.html
Hearings to open on 'no Iraq' officer
Fort Lewis panel to decide if Watada faces court-martial
By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER
FORT LEWIS -- A two-day military court hearing begins today to determine whether 1st Lt. Ehren Watada, a Stryker Brigade artillery officer who refused to go to Iraq in June, should face a court-martial.
The Article 32 hearing is similar to a civilian preliminary hearing or grand jury.
Nearly 200 of Watada's supporters, including his father, rallied Wednesday evening outside Fort Lewis' gate at Exit 119 off Interstate 5.
"I get a sense that the winds have changed," Bob Watada said. "I think these people are waking up to the fact that the war in Iraq is an invented war."
Among those supporting Watada was James Yee, a former Army captain and Muslim chaplain at Fort Lewis. He worked at the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but was arrested and accused of spying. All the charges against him were ultimately dropped.
"Ehren is an Asian American like myself, and he's dealing with the Fort Lewis chain of command," Yee said.
He added that he was drawn to Watada's case because of the free speech issues. Watada has spoken out against the war in Iraq.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/281518_watada17.html
A race to find 'qualified' teachers
States face loss of federal money if they fall short
By BEN FELLER
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Having missed one deadline already, states still face an enormous challenge in putting qualified teachers in all major classes, a federal review says.
Some states are in much better shape than others, the Education Department said Wednesday. Most meet only some criteria in required new plans. Four fail altogether.
The department can withhold money from states that fall short on teacher quality.
Based on a separate review earlier this year, seven states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico face the loss of federal aid if they don't improve their compliance.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/281516_teachers17.html
New Alaska oil leases being offered
Sale's opponents point to corroding pipelines to the east at Prudhoe Bay
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- The Interior Department is set to open a vast area of environmentally sensitive wetlands in Alaska to new oil drilling, even as opponents point to corroding pipelines to the east at Prudhoe Bay as a reason to keep the area off-limits.
The tens of thousands of acres in and around Lake Teshekpuk on Alaska's North Slope are part of the oil-rich Barrow Arch, which also includes the Prudhoe Bay fields that have kept oil flowing for decades.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/281519_oilfield17.html
Oil greases wheels of the good life in Valdez -- for those in its circle
MARY PEMBERTON
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
VALDEZ, Alaska -- Valdez is a company town where people living off big oil have lovely cedar-sided homes with lush lawns and new four-wheelers parked in driveways next to RVs the size of city buses.
A boat motors out of the harbor in Valdez, Alaska, past docks with commercial fishing boats mixed in with personal boats.
Across the street or next door are residents not employed in the oil industry who sometimes have to work two and three jobs to live in dilapidated mobile homes set up on weed-filled gravel lots.
Valdez is a city of the haves and the have-nots.
It also is the end point for the 800-mile trans-Alaska pipeline from the North Slope, but the crisis of reduced production this month has little, if any, immediate impact on the town. However, City Manager John Hozey says that it does send the city a message.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/281520_valdez17.html
Mt. Whitney: Not a technical climb, but it's every bit an endurance test
By NEIL MODIE
P-I REPORTER
Nineteenth-century naturalist John Muir christened California's Sierra Nevada the "Range of Light," and indeed it was, even at 3:30 in the morning.
As we started up the trail by headlamp, the illumination of only a quarter-moon turned the pinnacle-spiked eastern wall of the Sierras into a radiant, golden rampart.
Mount Whitney, the high point on that vast wall, seemed aglow. Later, as the sun struck it, the mountain's black-speckled, pink and white granite and translucent quartz sent reflected light ricocheting off it as if from a trillion tiny mirrors.
It was a world apart from the often brooding, ice-mantled
summits of the Cascades, that chain of stand-alone Northwest volcanoes that contemporary mountaineer/author Fred Beckey called the "Range of Glaciers."
Anyone climbing the highest peaks in each of the three West Coast states will find another, bigger difference: unlike Washington and Oregon's highest, California's has no glaciers or crevasses, normally requires no mountaineering skills to get to the top and, in fact, has a trail all the way up.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/281311_climb17.html
Hike Of The Week: You'll pay for the views
By KAREN SYKES
SPECIAL TO THE P-I
You'd better be jolly if you take this hike on a hot day, especially with time constraints. You may find yourself grumbling well before you get to the summit because the trail is anything but good-natured.
Want solitude? If so, this trail is ideal since few hikers tackle it in summer because you have to gain a lot of elevation for views that are more easily gotten from other trails. True, you may run into an occasional horseback rider or motorbike, but I had this multiple-use trail all to myself on a recent day.
The Cayuse Campground, where Jolly Mountain Trail (No. 1307) begins, is closed for reconstruction. For now the trail is accessed from a temporary trailhead off Forest Service Road No. 4315 (Little Salmon la Sac Road), shortly before the Cayuse Campground. Hikers familiar with the region sometimes drive farther up that road for a shorter approach to Jolly Mountain, but the road may be gated.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/getaways/280992_hike17.html
Blame processed foods for obesity, researcher says
Sugars make people eat more, move less
By ERIN ALLDAY
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
Feeling fat? It may not be your fault.
The obesity epidemic is caused by a "poisoned" food supply that is altering people's biochemistry and driving them to eat more and move less, according to a hypothesis proposed by a doctor who culled results from thousands of studies on obesity.
It is unfair and unhelpful to blame personal behaviors, especially a lack of self-control, for the country's rising obesity rates, says Dr. Robert Lustig, a pediatrician and nationally renowned obesity expert at the University of California, San Francisco.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/lifestyle/281452_poison17.html
HIV/AIDS Conference: A turning point?
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD
Science, social science and politics combined to produce hope at the Toronto AIDS conference. Every element of the promising formula has to be strengthened.
Progress on microbicidal gels or creams to block sexual transmission of the human immunodeficiency virus provoked excitement at the International AIDS Conference. Bill Gates said research could produce "a turning point in the epidemic." There was also talk about diaphragms, circumcision and an eventual vaccine.
Gates also praised U.S. efforts to expand treatment in poor countries. President Bush has promised $15 billion in aid for prevention and treatment over five years.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/281468_hived.asp
The Daily Star
Cabinet approves troop deployment in South today
BEIRUT: Lebanon's Premier Fouad Siniora vowed Wednesday that the army deployment in the South would end a "mentality of statelets" and make state forces the only armed presence in Lebanon, helping protect the country from regional conflicts. In a televised speech, Siniora addressed the Lebanese, calling on them to rally behind the government and the army as the sole forces in Lebanon.
"In the face of the attacks, you were and still are standing tall. Your resistance is an example for heroes. Your endurance a model for courage.
"You stood together in the face of Israel's murder, so now is not the time to divide. It is the time to rise to the challenges ahead and to big decisions, together," he said.
"There will be a single state ... with the sole decision-making power, there will be no dual authority," he said.
Siniora said: "There will be no more mentality of statelets, factional programs."
In a reference to Hizbullah, he stressed: "No one inside this country or out has the right to take the people and the nation to wherever he chooses."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74797
Maronite Bishops call for single national leadership
BEIRUT: Criticizing what it called a divided national decision-making process, the Council of Maronite Bishops said Wednesday that "it is impossible to continue like this." "Decisions have to be taken by one leader, one leader represented by the government who has won the confidence of Parliament and is elected by the people, otherwise the country is doomed to suffer catastrophes," said Monsignor Youssef Tawq, spokesman for Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Butros Sfeir.
In a statement released following an extraordinary meeting chaired by Sfeir in Bkirki, the council said the cease-fire in the Israeli-Lebanese conflict - which has destroyed much of Lebanon's infrastructure as well as devastated thousands of homes and displaced hundreds of thousands of citizens - has been welcomed by the Lebanese.
But, the council added, "this does not dispel the people's fear of Security Council Resolution 1701's content, which is open to various interpretations."
A papal delegate, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, took part in the meeting before his departure to the Vatican carrying along a message of gratitude from Sfeir to Pope Benedict XVI.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74794
A war with neither victor nor vanquished?
No sooner had the United Nations Security Council issued Resolution 1701 than Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, declared a "strategic and historic victory" in the resistance's month-long fight with Israel, saying it was due to Hizbullah's achievements, the people's steadfastness and the government's unified stand.
Nasrallah said he hoped the Security Council had adopted the seven-point proposal of Premier Fouad Siniora as a solution to the crisis, praising the council's "courageous step" to put the Shebaa Farms under international tutelage before returning it to Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Resolution 1701 was a diplomatic victory for Israel, while Vice-Premier Shimon Peres said Israel had achieved the goals for which it had launched the war. However, the UN resolution is no longer a victory for anyone since the outcome of the war reflected a semi-victory and semi-defeat for both sides.
In fact, Israel failed to occupy the area south of the Litani River or to prevent the resistance from launching rockets from the area. At the same time, Hizbullah failed to prevent Israel from destroying Lebanese infrastructure, industry and residential areas.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74785
EU countries lead way as composition of expanded UNIFIL starts to take shape
Turkey, Italy and Germany were engaged in talks with regional leaders on the make-up of a UN peacekeeping force in Southern Lebanon on Tuesday, while Iran sent its foreign minister to Arab countries to discuss the crisis. A day after Hizbullah declared "victory" in its monthlong fight with Israel, the EU said the group must "choose between being a responsible force in Lebanese politics or a beachhead for Iran."
During a joint news conference with his Egyptian counterpart, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Italy may dispatch "up to one brigade, or almost 3,000 men."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74775
Cabinet members spar over proposed weapons compromise
BEIRUT: A compromise agreement currently being hammered out between Hizbullah and the Lebanese government is expected to allow the party to keep hidden weapons in South Lebanon, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported Tuesday.
While Hizbullah would need to keep the weapons it possesses south of the Litani River hidden, an agreement for areas north of the river would be "left to a long-term solution," the paper said.
If the proposed compromise is accepted by Premier Fouad Siniora's Cabinet, it would violate the terms of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. And it is also a violation of the "one weapon" principle of Siniora's seven-point plan.
Resolution 1701 calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a solution based on previous UN resolutions requiring "the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon" apart from state security forces.
While the mandate of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) within the new resolution does not require foreign troops to disarm Hizbullah themselves, the force is authorized "to ensure that its area of operations is not utilized for hostile activities of any kind" and to support the Lebanese Army in asserting control over all of Lebanon.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74774
Love it or hate it, Hizbullah has lessons for all Arabs
In the past month, and for some time before that, we have heard just about every possible suggestion about how to deal with Hizbullah: Attack it, degrade it, disarm it, wean it away from its friends in Syria and Iran, engage it politically, bring it into the Lebanese government in a bigger way, pressure it to show its real aims, drive it away from the border, or incorporate its military wing into the Lebanese national armed forces. One piece of advice that has not been heard sufficiently, and that strikes us as eminently sensible and relevant, is to learn from Hizbullah's history and to emulate those aspects of its ways that could help the people of this region live more productive, peaceful lives.
Hizbullah did not suddenly materialize magically on a Persian carpet or a divine edict. The organization methodically built itself up and sharpened its capabilities in all fields over a period of years. The core of its success is its capacity to identify the real needs of its constituents, meet those needs systematically through an efficient network of staff and managers, and not to waste time bragging about the fact in public.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=17&article_id=74792
CDR: Rebuilding infrastructure will take at least a year, cost $3.5 billion
BEIRUT: Lebanon suffered at least $3.5 billion in direct material losses from Israel's month-long bombardment, the head of the Council for Development and Reconstruction (CDR) said Wednesday. Fadl Shalak said that as long as there is political consensus, repairing the $1.5 billion of damaged infrastructure could take as little as a year to 18 months, but rebuilding the $2 billion of destroyed buildings will take a minimum of three to four years.
"This is a huge loss for a small country like Lebanon and does not include indirect economic losses. What happened is catastrophic. I have seen all the wars in Lebanon and have never seen anything like this," he said, adding that the latest estimates are not final and do not include indirect economic losses.
With the cease-fire in its third day, key players across all sectors of the economy convened meetings to assess the damages and draft recovery strategies.
Waji al-Bisri, acting head of the Association of Lebanese Industrialists (ALI), estimated that $200 million in direct damage was inflicted on the entire industrial sector, although dairy, cement, glass and prefab housing factories were hit hardest.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=74784
Lebanon faces huge obstacles to recovery and reconstruction
BEIRUT: Lebanon has a dauntingly steep path to climb toward reconstruction and a chance, though no guarantee, of recovering from the economic devastation caused by Israel's offensive, economists said Tuesday. Traditional oil-rich allies in the Gulf have raised hopes by pledging $800 million to rebuild infrastructure, but problems such as high unemployment and a shattered private sector could mar any recovery.
"I think that it all depends on how the conflict will end. I don't believe that it has ended. If we can come out with the start of a real process it will only be a blip," said Khaled Zaidan, head of securities at BankMed. "But it would be very difficult to retain financial and human capital as well as attract necessary additional human capital if there is no clear signal or enough confidence that this war will not be replicated."
The economic destruction wrought by the Israeli offensive is indisputable. Almost a million people were displaced, industry came to a grinding halt and the nascent tourist industry, which had been heading for a boom year, was left in tatters.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=74767
The New York Times
Suspect Says Ramsey Death 'An Accident'
By RAYMOND BONNER
JAKARTA, Aug. 17 — The investigation into the killing of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, which stymied police for nearly a decade and which had been marked by suspicions that her parents may have been involved, took a sharp new turn today when an American schoolteacher confessed to the crime, less than 24 hours after being arrested at his apartment in Bangkok, according to Thai and American authorities.
The teacher — John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old father of three — told Thai police that he had not meant to kill the girl and that his intention was to kidnap her and demand a ransom of $118,000, according to Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul, the head of the Thai immigration police. General Suwat spoke at a news conference in Bangkok this afternoon.
“He said he was in love with the child,” General Suwat said.
Mr. Karr, wearing a light blue golf shirt buttoned to the neck and pleated khaki trousers, appeared briefly at the news conference, but he did not speak. Afterwards, he told a crowd of reporters, “I was with JonBenet when she died,” and added that her death was “an accident.”
Ann Hurst, an official with the United States Department of Homeland Security who spoke at the Bangkok press conference, said Mr. Karr has been “very cooperative” with the authorities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/18ramsey.ready.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=f7518a0c2e074e85&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Bombs Aimed at G.I.’s in Iraq Are Increasing
By MICHAEL R. GORDON, MARK MAZZETTI and THOM SHANKER
This article is by Michael R. Gordon, Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 — The number of roadside bombs planted in Iraq rose in July to the highest monthly total of the war, offering more evidence that the anti-American insurgency has continued to strengthen despite the killing of the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
Along with a sharp increase in sectarian attacks, the number of daily strikes against American and Iraqi security forces has doubled since January. The deadliest means of attack, roadside bombs, made up much of that increase. In July, of 2,625 explosive devices, 1,666 exploded and 959 were discovered before they went off. In January, 1,454 bombs exploded or were found.
The bomb statistics — compiled by American military authorities in Baghdad and made available at the request of The New York Times — are part of a growing body of data and intelligence analysis about the violence in Iraq that has produced somber public assessments from military commanders, administration officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17military.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=4d76e5064c0f3ee8&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Gunmen Abduct at Least 15 in Afghanistan
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 6:26 a.m. ET
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Gunmen abducted at least 15 people, including a doctor and nurses, as they traveled to a refugee camp in southern Afghanistan on Thursday, officials said.
Aga Jan Nazari, provincial director of the refugee department, said 15 people were kidnapped in Kandahar province.
Dr. Abdullah Fahim, spokesman for the Public Health Ministry, put the number at 20 and said they included a doctor and five nurses who were on their way to the Zadi refugee camp in the province's Zhela district.
It was not clear what caused the discrepancy in numbers, nor whether there were any non-Afghans among those kidnapped.
A purported Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousaf Ahmadi, denied the kidnapping but confirmed its militants did commandeer the minivan used by the missing people. He said the people had fled to nearby villages and were not being held by the Taliban.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Kidnapping.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=e5b68865922e91c5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Lebanon Sends National Army to Patrol South
By JOHN KIFNER and ROBERT F. WORTH
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Thursday, Aug. 17 — The Lebanese Army moved into the country’s south at dawn on Thursday, a day after the cabinet approved the deployment under a United Nations-mandated cease-fire, but finessed the delicate issue of disarming Hezbollah.
At several points, soldiers crossed the Litani River, about 15 miles north of the Israeli border, into the long-held separate realm of Hezbollah.
A column of more than 100 trucks, troop carriers and jeeps, flying red-and-white Lebanese flags, streamed through a makeshift bridge on the Litani to the town of Merj ’Uyun, Reuters reported. Some vehicles towed artillery pieces, others carried troops and equipment.
Hezbollah fighters were not expected to resist the soldiers, nor to hand over their weapons. Instead, they probably would simply put their weapons into hiding and melt away into the civilian population.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17mideast.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=70c3aa1f88d75fe5&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Hezbollah's Other War
By MICHAEL YOUNG
One evening earlier this summer, Lebanon’s most popular satire show, ‘‘Bas Mat Watan,’’ broadcast a sketch showing an ‘‘interview’’ with Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s leader and secretary general. ‘‘Nasrallah’’ was asked whether his party would surrender its weapons. He answered that it would, but first several conditions had to be met: there was that woman in Australia, whose land was being encroached upon by Jewish neighbors; then there was the baker in the United States, whose bakery the Jews wanted to take over. The joke was obvious: there were an infinite number of reasons why Hezbollah would never agree to lay down its weapons and become one political party among others.
But it was the rapid reaction to the satiric sketch that sent the more disquieting message. That very night, angry supporters of Hezbollah closed the airport road with burning tires — a warning that they could block at will the main access point in and out of the country — and marched on mainly Sunni, Druse and Christian quarters in Beirut. In a Christian neighborhood, they clashed with the son of a former president and his comrades, and several youths were taken to hospital.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/magazine/04lebanon.html?ex=1155960000&en=354bf1f771a606ba&ei=5070
Is Hamas Ready to Deal?
By SCOTT ATRAN
Paris
WHATEVER the endgame between Israel, Hezbollah and Hamas, one thing is certain: Israel’s hopes of ensuring its security by walling itself off from resentful neighbors are dead. One lesson from Israel’s assault on Lebanon and its military operation in Gaza is that the missiles blow back.
We can hope that multinational cooperation will help to secure Israel’s border with Lebanon. But what about the Palestinian issue, which has been seemingly pushed to the back burner by the war in Lebanon?
A bold gesture now by Israel would surprise its adversaries, convey strength, and even catch domestic political opposition off guard. And as strange as it may seem, were the United States able to help Israel help Hamas, it might turn the rising tide of global Muslim resentment.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/opinion/17atran.html
More Tapes From9/11: ‘They Have Exits in There?’
By JIM DWYER
In what might be the final major disclosure of records from New York’s worst calamity, the city yesterday released recordings of 1,600 emergency calls made on Sept. 11, 2001. With the voices of callers removed for privacy considerations, only the 911 operators can be heard on most of the calls.
Even so, the day resonates in short bursts of words on the recordings, providing glimpses of struggle, loss and valor.
Many people inside the World Trade Center’s twin towers were told to stay put, because the 911 operators did not know that a full evacuation had been ordered. They also did not realize that one stairway remained passable in the south tower, providing an escape route that took 18 people above the fire to safety while hundreds of others waited for help. And some operators who did tell callers to leave were surprised to learn that emergency exits in the towers were hard to reach.
Fire commanders used telephones because they had trouble with their radios, a problem that would have devastating consequences. And firefighters were ready to go up in police helicopters to battle the fires or at least get a better look at them, but the two departments never connected that morning.
Then there are the stories of people fighting to live, some of them half-told in these tapes, others excruciatingly detailed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/nyregion/17tapes.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=d3ba36ed429816eb&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Israel Cedes Control in Some Areas of Lebanon
By JOHN KIFNER and ROBERT F. WORTH
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Aug. 17 — The Israeli army ceded control in some areas of southern Lebanon to a United Nations force today as the Lebanese Army moved into the region at dawn, a day after the cabinet approved the deployment under a U.N.-mandated cease-fire but finessed the delicate issue of disarming Hezbollah.
The Israeli army said it was ceding areas in southern Lebanon to Unifil, a United Nations force that is currently in Lebanon, which will then hand them over to the Lebanese army. But Israeli officials made clear in a statement that the transfer was conditional on the reinforcement of Unifil and on the Lebanese army’s ability to assert control and prevent Hezbollah guerrillas from operating there in the south.
At several points, Lebanese soldiers crossed the Litani River, about 15 miles north of the Israeli border, into the long-held separate realm of Hezbollah.
A column of more than 100 trucks, troop carriers and jeeps, flying red-and-white Lebanese flags, streamed through a makeshift bridge on the Litani to the town of Merj ’Uyun, Reuters reported. Some vehicles towed artillery pieces, others carried troops and equipment.
Unifil, the United Nations force of about 2,000 that had already been operating in Lebanon before the cease-fire, is expected to be expanded into a larger peacekeeping force of 15,000 troops.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/world/middleeast/17cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=3d98660b15e38ef7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Threat Alert Level Lowered for U.S. and British Airports
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON, Aug. 14 — With air travelers facing a fifth day of delays, cancellations and restrictions on carryon baggage, Britain and the United States lowered threat assessment levels on Monday as the British police continued to hunt for clues in the reported plot to blow up American airliners.
In Britain, the government sought to mold a political response to a nightmare vision evoked by officials of shadowy Islamic terrorists hatching dozens more conspiracies in mosques, bookstores and other meeting places.
Officials met with Islamic representatives to work out a strategy for what Ruth Kelly, the government’s community secretary, called “a battle of hearts and minds to be won within the Muslim community to take on the terrorist and extremist elements that are sometimes found within it.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/world/europe/15plot.html
Faces, Too, Are Searched at U.S. Airports
By ERIC LIPTON
DULLES, Va., Aug. 16 — As the man approached the airport security checkpoint here on Wednesday, he kept picking up and putting down his backpack, touching his fingers to his chin, rubbing some object in his hands and finally reaching for his pack of cigarettes, even though smoking was not allowed.
Two Transportation Security Administration officers stood nearby, nearly motionless and silent, gazing straight at him. Then, with a nod, they moved in, chatting briefly with the man, and then swiftly pulled him aside for an intense search.
Another airline passenger had just made the acquaintance of the transportation agency’s “behavior detection officers.”
Taking a page from Israeli airport security, the transportation agency has been experimenting with this new squad, whose members do not look for bombs, guns or knives. Instead, the assignment is to find anyone with evil intent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/washington/17screeners.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=0d7d13a17ac78eb2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Breaking Through Adoption’s Racial Barriers
By LYNETTE CLEMETSON and RON NIXON
When Martina Brockway and Mike Timble, a white couple in Chicago, decided to adopt a child, Ms. Brockway went to an adoption agency presentation at a black church to make it clear they wanted an African-American baby.
Their biological daughter, Rumeur, 3, is accumulating black dolls in preparation for her new brother or sister. Black-themed children’s books like “Please, Baby, Please” by the filmmaker Spike Lee and his wife, Tonya Lewis Lee, share shelf space with Elmo and Dr. Seuss.
But the couple’s decision provoked some uneasy responses. One of Mr. Timble’s white friends asked, “Aren’t there any white kids available?”
Ms. Brockway’s black friends were supportive. “But,” she said, “I also sensed that there was maybe something they weren’t saying.”
Mr. Timble cut in. “Like maybe they were thinking, ‘What do these people think they are doing?’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17adopt.html?hp&ex=1155873600&en=537c1c29876db648&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Florida Names 4 KKK Men in 1951 Killings
Filed at 9:31 a.m. ET
MIMS, Fla. (AP) -- Fifty-five years after a Christmas Day explosion killed two civil rights activists, their daughter finally heard prosecutors accuse four Ku Klux Klan members of the crime.
The four are long dead, but Evangeline Moore said the news still came as a relief.
''God's taken care of them, has dealt with them very, very badly, and they will continue to be prosecuted his way,'' Moore said.
Harry T. and Harriette Moore died after the explosion under their bed on Dec. 25, 1951, which was also their 25th wedding anniversary.
The couple was black; the accused men were white.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Civil-Rights-Bombings.html
U.S. Officials Arrest Suspect in Top Mexican Drug Gang
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.
LOS ANGELES, Aug. 16 — Federal drug enforcement agents, aided by the United States Coast Guard, arrested a man they said was a top figure in one of Mexico’s most notorious drug gangs on a fishing boat off Baja California on Wednesday.
Federal officials said the man, Francisco Javier Arellano Félix, 37, was one of the last remaining ring leaders of the Arellano Félix gang. The group, based in Tijuana, is charged in several killings, including that of a Roman Catholic cardinal.
In a federal indictment unsealed in 2003, Mr. Arellano Félix was charged with importing and distributing drugs in the United States. The arrest on Wednesday riveted Mexico, a nation long weary of intransigent drug violence. It was expected to deal a blow to the gang, though the authorities acknowledged that associates were probably waiting to take Mr. Arellano Félix’s place.
Michael Braun, an assistant administrator for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said at a news conference in Washington that Mr. Arellano Félix was “one of the 45 most notorious, most wanted drug traffickers in the world.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/17/us/17drug.html?pagewanted=print
Fat Factors
In the 30-plus years that Richard Atkinson has been studying obesity, he has always maintained that overeating doesn’t really explain it all. His epiphany came early in his career, when he was a medical fellow at U.C.L.A. engaged in a study of people who weighed more than 300 pounds and had come in for obesity surgery. “The general thought at the time was that fat people ate too much,” Atkinson, now at Virginia Commonwealth University, told me recently. “And we documented that fat people do eat too much — our subjects ate an average of 6,700 calories a day. But what was so impressive to me was the fact that not all fat people eat too much.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/13/magazine/13obesity.html?ex=1156132800&en=29e673d808dd0143&ei=5070&emc=eta1
How to Make Sure Children Are Scientifically Illiterate
By LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS
Voters in Kansas ensured this month that noncreationist moderates will once again have a majority (6 to 4) on the state school board, keeping new standards inspired by intelligent design from taking effect.
This is a victory for public education and sends a message nationwide about the public’s ability to see through efforts by groups like the Discovery Institute to misrepresent science in the schools. But for those of us who are interested in improving science education, any celebration should be muted.
This is not the first turnaround in recent Kansas history. In 2000, after a creationist board had removed evolution from the state science curriculum, a public outcry led to wholesale removal of creationist board members up for re-election and a reinstatement of evolution in the curriculum.
In a later election, creationists once again won enough seats to get a 6-to-4 majority. With their changing political tactics, creationists are an excellent example of evolution at work. Creation science evolved into intelligent design, which morphed into “teaching the controversy,” and after its recent court loss in Dover, Pa., and political defeats in Ohio and Kansas, it will no doubt change again. The most recent campaign slogan I have heard is “creative evolution.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/15/science/sciencespecial2/15essa.html
Husband Takes Schiavo Fight Back to Politicians
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
CLEARWATER, Fla. — The curtains are still drawn tight at Michael Schiavo’s home on a quiet cul-de-sac here, and in some ways he remains as private and unknowable as when his wife Terri was the focus of a fervent national debate last year about life and death.
Yet Mr. Schiavo, who won a scorching legal battle to remove his brain-damaged wife’s feeding tube, also remains furious at lawmakers in Tallahassee and Washington who intervened in the case. Hence the creation last winter of TerriPAC, a federal political action committee aimed against politicians who tried to stop Ms. Schiavo’s death, and the debut of Mr. Schiavo, a newly remarried, self-described normal guy, as a political weapon in this year’s midterm elections.
He is an unpolished speaker, sometimes abandoning sentences midstream or grasping for the right words. He did not vote or follow the news until recently, he says, and had never heard of a PAC until strangers suggested he start one late last year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/16/washington/16schiavo.html?ex=1156392000&en=7195d0235f4a0981&ei=5070&emc=eta1
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