Morning Papers - It's Origins

The Rooster

Rain that never reaches the ground - evaporates - The ground is too hot and hence drought

October 5, 2006.
Reno Nevada

Photographer states :: Clouds finally flowed over the Sierra-Nevada mountains to drop some rain on south Reno.

The entire issue of this journal is interesting. And. It's all on line. How about that? (click on)

Human Induced Global Warming - Melting Ice fields and Ice oceans and 'record setting' and unrelenting drought !

The Arab News

Rockets Found Near Musharraf’s House
Azhar Masood, Arab News
ISLAMABAD, 6 October 2006 — A mobile phone connected by wires to two rockets was discovered yesterday near the residence of Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and other federal buildings, prompting a security lock-down at the site where the weapons were discovered.
The discovery of the rockets came less than 12 hours after a blast near Musharraf’s residence in Rawalpindi, near the capital. Authorities said they do not believe that the two incidents are linked.
After a bomb squad disarmed the rockets, the Interior Ministry informed the public that the weapon, set up to be discharged by a phone call, was not aimed at any specific target. Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao told the media that the rockets appear to have been set up “to create public chaos and confusion in the capital and harass the public.”
But one security official, who did not want to be identified, said the rockets appeared to have a target. “They were apparently pointing toward the presidency,” said the official. “Luckily some laborers working at a nearby construction site saw the rockets and reported them to police.”
The 107mm rockets, affixed to launchers and hidden in some bushes, were located less than a kilometer from the Pakistani Parliament building and other key central government buildings.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87730&d=6&m=10&y=2006



Rice Pressures Israel Into Opening Rafah
Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News
GAZA CITY, 6 October 2006 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressured Israel yesterday into loosening restrictions at Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt. But the Jewish state did not make any long-term commitment to keep the frontier open.
In a statement after Rice left Jerusalem to continue a regional tour, the State Department said Israel agreed to open the Rafah crossing at “regular intervals” during Ramadan. The statement did not specify what those intervals would be or how long they would last.
“We are encouraged by this decision, the first step toward restoration of normal operations at the crossing,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
Rafah has been closed for much of this year, and has been open for only 12 days since an Israeli soldier was captured by Palestinians in a cross-border raid on June 25.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87729&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



US Military Redefining Strategies After Iraq Debacle
Barbara Ferguson, Arab News
WASHINGTON, 6 October 2006 — Oops! After five years in Afghanistan, and almost four in Iraq, the US military is admitting to — what some observers see — as failed policy in the region. According to a new counterinsurgency doctrine scheduled for release in November, the US Army and Marines recognize, from hard lessons learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, that their strategy of force is not winning any wars. Instead, the manual underscores the protection of civilians as the bedrock element of new-think military strategy.
“The more force used, the less effective it is,” the draft manual says. An advance copy of the new doctrine was obtained and reported in yesterday’s New York Times. “Tactical success guarantees nothing,” notes the report, which warns against putting too much weight on strict military solutions.
The manual also cautions troops against retreating to their bases, which results in little interaction with civilians, and leads to failure to obtain intelligence: “The more you protect your force, the less secure you are.” A retired Marine infantry officer, Frank Hoffman, who currently works as a research fellow for the Marines, told the NYT that in 2005, the Marines often lacked sufficient forces to safeguard civilians.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87776&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Muslims, CAIR React to Jihadist Adverts
Sameen Tahir-Khan, Arab News
COLUMBUS, Ohio, 6 October 2006 — Strong reactions from members of the public, radio stations and the Columbus chapter of CAIR (Council of American-Islamic Relations) has led car dealers Dennis Mitsubishi to apologize and cancel an advertisement and sales campaign titled “Launching a Jihad on the Automotive Market.”
The dealership had earlier announced an aggressive “tongue-in-cheek” campaign to boost its sales. Among some of the gimmicks planned was a proposal to have salesmen wearing burqas, Friday would be called “Fatwa Friday” and kids would receive free rubber swords. Radio commercials would blare, “One of the vehicles on sale can comfortably seat up to 12 jihadists in the back,” and, “Our prices are lower than the evildoers everyday. Just ask the pope.”
The majority of radio stations in Columbus refused to air the advertisement considering it to be insensitive. Asma Mobinuddin, the president of the Columbus chapter of CAIR said she was concerned the tone of the advert was “mocking and disrespectful to many different areas. One is Islamic faith and Islamic culture.” She also said that advertisements like that did nothing but promote discord in a very difficult time.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87778&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Arrogant US Officials Made Mistakes in Iraq, Envoy Says
Agence France Presse
BAQUBA, Iraq, 6 October 2007 — The US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said yesterday that US officials had been arrogant and made many mistakes during efforts to rebuild Iraq after the 2003 invasion. “It’s important to recognize that mistakes have been made over the last few years. There have been times when US officials have behaved arrogantly and were not receptive to advice from local leaders,” he told Iraqi officials. “We have made mistakes in the process of rebuilding Iraq,” he said.
“The path for success is clear. We are committed to helping Iraq stand on its own two feet,” he added, speaking three-and-a-half years after US-led forces toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein. Khalilzad was speaking in Baquba, the capital of Diyala province, at the inauguration of a provincial reconstruction team, a joint military and civilian project to oversee rebuilding work. Diyala is a war-torn region north of Baghdad in the grip of a vicious campaign of sectarian cleansing by rival Sunni and Shiite militant groups.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87745&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Gulf Filipinos Lose Out in Postal Ballot
Julie Javellana-Santos, Arab News
MANILA, 6 October 2006 — Concern over the use of post office boxes instead of physical addresses in the Gulf prompted Philippine lawmakers to reject a proposal to allow absentee voting for Filipinos in the region.
“This is an old issue, but obviously the Comelec (Commission on Election) and Congress are not convinced that the postal systems there are just as efficient and secure as those in other countries,” Ellene Sana, executive director of the Center for Migrant Advocacy, told Arab News.
That means Filipinos in the Gulf who are qualified to vote in the next Philippine national elections in May 2007 would have to appear personally in authorized voting centers.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87723&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Wife of Bali Bombing Suspect Nabbed in S. Philippines
Al Jacinto, Arab News
ZAMBOANGA CITY, 6 October 2006 — Filipino troops have captured the Indonesian wife and two children of one of Asia’s most wanted Jemaah Islamiyah leader, Dulmatin, blamed for the deadly 2002 Bali and Jakarta bombings.
Istiada Bt. H. Oemar Sovie, alias Amenah Toha, and two of Dulmatin’s children were arrested in Patikul town, Jolo Island, where troops backed by US military intelligence are still pursuing Dulmatin and his alleged bombing partner Umar Patek, said one senior security official, who asked not to be named. “Dulmatin’s wife was seized in a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday. The raid also led the arrest of Abu Sayyaf militant Nadzmir Abduraji Amad in the neighboring town of Talipao,” said the official.
During interrogation at the military headquarters in Zamboanga City, the woman admitted that she is the wife of the 37-year old Dulmatin, also known as Amar Bin Usman, Arab News learned. Dulmatin’s wife reportedly said that she sneaked by boat into the southern Philippine island of Tawi-Tawi from Malaysia in August 2003. She was fetched by Azhar, a Jemaah militant, and brought to Jolo to join her husband.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87724&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Two Convicted in Bombay Serial Bombings
Shahid Raza Burney, Arab News
BOMBAY, 6 October 2006 — The Special Terrorist and Disruptive Activities Act (TADA) court yesterday convicted two persons and acquitted the other in the 1993 serial bombings in Bombay as the prosecution failed to prove charges against him.
Designated Judge P.D. Kode of the TADA court presiding in the 1993 Bombay bomb blasts, in which 123 accused are involved, accepted the confessions of the convicted Nasir Abdul Kadar, alias Nasir Dhakla, and Mohammed Rafiq Usman Shaikh on the charges of undergoing arms training in Pakistan and attending conspiracy meetings.
Kode also held Nasir guilty of participating in the landing and transportation of arms and explosives in Raigad district prior to the blasts, but was acquitted of the charges of loading arms and explosives in vehicles and planting them at various places in Bombay.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87738&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Jordanian Envoy Withdraws From UN Leader Race
Reuters
UNITED NATIONS, 6 October 2007 — Jordan’s UN Ambassador Prince Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein withdrew from the race for UN secretary-general after Security Council members made clear South Korea’s foreign minister would get the job. Zeid, a widely respected diplomat, whose candidacy touched off a dispute between Jordan and Qatar, wrote a letter to the Security Council, circulated on Wednesday, saying that his government was withdrawing his nomination.
Also yesterday, Latvian President Vaira Vike-Freiberga, the only woman and non-Asian candidate, and former Afghan Finance Minister Ashraf Ghani, both formally dropped out of the race in letters to the Security Council. Thai Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont told reporters in Bangkok that Surakiart Sathirathai also had decided to pull out. Sathirathai had been deputy prime minister in the government of Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a Sept. 19 military coup.
The 15 council members in an informal ballot on Monday gave South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon 14 favorable votes and one abstention in the competition to succeed Secretary-General Kofi Annan, whose term expires on Dec. 31.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87746&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Sudanese Leader Welcomes UN Support for AU Force
Reuters
KHARTOUM, 6 October 2007 — Sudanese President Omar Hassan Bashir welcomes UN support for an African Union force monitoring a widely ignored truce in Sudan’s violent Darfur region, state media reported yesterday. Foreign Minister Lam Akol said such help would include financial, logistical and technical support.
“This could involve technical personnel, 10 to 20, who can assist the African Union ... under AU command,” he told Reuters. “The issue is to strengthen the capacity of the AU to carry out the task of implementing the ... peace deal,” he added, referring to a peace agreement between the government and one rebel faction.
Sudan had set itself on a path of confrontation with the international community rejecting a UN Security Council resolution to deploy more than 20,000 UN troops to Darfur to replace 7,000 AU forces. But Bashir told the state-owned news agency he would accept UN support for the AU mission, which has struggled to find cash, equipment and experience to stem the violence that has forced 2.5 million people from their homes.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87748&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Where Are They Now?
Tariq A. Al-Maeena, close_encounters@gawab.com
By failing to provide adequate supplies to the residents of Jeddah, the water authorities have now joined a steadily growing list of heads of our civil sectors whose performance leaves much to be desired.
In the aftermath of the frustration and indignation over the whole process of getting water to their homes, the public has come to learn of many bureaucratic snafus that led the situation to the current crisis. Some of the massive turbines at the desalination plant have been unserviceable for quite some time. Others lack proper maintenance that such machinery requires.
The pipes carrying water out from the plant have not been replaced for the past twenty years or so and are reportedly delivering only a quarter of water processed, the rest seeping into the ground as a result of leaky and corroded pipes.
At the water depot itself, the massive rush and confusion to secure oneself a water tanker is a result of the absence of a process or organization to streamline the procedure, and shady deals were evidently in swing.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=87790&d=7&m=10&y=2006



Air Raids, Bombs Despite Lanka Peace Talk Vows
Reuters
COLOMBO, 6 October 2006 — Sri Lanka’s Air Force bombed Tamil Tiger bases for a third day yesterday, and suspected rebels clashed with government soldiers, after the foes agreed to crunch talks aimed at halting renewed civil war.
Residents in the far northern army-held Jaffna peninsula heard volleys of artillery shells before dawn, but said the intensity was far lower than in recent weeks — the worst fighting since a 2002 cease-fire that now lies in tatters.
The military said the Air Force pounded suspected bases of the rebels’ naval Sea Tiger wing in the eastern district of Batticaloa, and also raided rebel targets in the north.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government have agreed to meet for talks on Oct. 28-30 after a six-month impasse. The government committed to the talks on Wednesday night, and says they will take place in Geneva.
The Tigers wanted to go Oslo and have not yet said whether they agree to go to Geneva. The rebels have threatened to withdraw from the truce completely if attacks by the military continue, while the government says it reserves the right to retaliate if the Tigers attack security forces.
“Opportunities don’t come often. Both sides will have to understand that,” said defense spokesman and Cabinet minister Keheliya Rambukwella. “Anything that threatens national security will be responded to.” Some analysts believe the time is not right for talks given the intensity of fighting, and fears the war could escalate.
Each side accuses the other of trying to rekindle a two-decade conflict that has killed more than 65,000 people since 1983, and Nordic truce monitors see little will from either side to halt the violence.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87750&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Air Raids, Bombs Despite Lanka Peace Talk Vows
Reuters
COLOMBO, 6 October 2006 — Sri Lanka’s Air Force bombed Tamil Tiger bases for a third day yesterday, and suspected rebels clashed with government soldiers, after the foes agreed to crunch talks aimed at halting renewed civil war.
Residents in the far northern army-held Jaffna peninsula heard volleys of artillery shells before dawn, but said the intensity was far lower than in recent weeks — the worst fighting since a 2002 cease-fire that now lies in tatters.
The military said the Air Force pounded suspected bases of the rebels’ naval Sea Tiger wing in the eastern district of Batticaloa, and also raided rebel targets in the north.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the government have agreed to meet for talks on Oct. 28-30 after a six-month impasse. The government committed to the talks on Wednesday night, and says they will take place in Geneva.
The Tigers wanted to go Oslo and have not yet said whether they agree to go to Geneva. The rebels have threatened to withdraw from the truce completely if attacks by the military continue, while the government says it reserves the right to retaliate if the Tigers attack security forces.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87750&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Erdogan Offers Olive Branch in Islamist Row
Agencies
ANKARA, 6 October 2007 — Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has offered his secularist critics, including top army generals, wide-ranging talks over their fears of an alleged “Islamist threat” to Turkish democracy, newspapers said yesterday. The new head of Turkey’s staunchly secularist General Staff, Yasar Buyukanit, and other generals have in recent days warned of growing Islamism and accused Erdogan’s ruling AKP of undermining the division between state and religion.
Their comments appear partly designed to discourage Erdogan, who himself has Islamist roots, from contesting the presidency in an election due next May. They fear Erdogan as president might try to dismantle strict curbs on religious expression. “We must sort all this out by discussing it among ourselves, not before the public,” the Hurriyet daily quoted the premier as telling journalists on Wednesday on a flight back to Turkey from London under the headline “Erdogan’s olive branch plan.”

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87747&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Dubai School to Take Part in World Robotics Olympiad
Arab News
DUBAI, 6 October 2006 — Our Own High School-Al Warqa was adjudicated winners of the UAE National Robotics Olympiad 2006, the first-ever robotics competition for schools in the UAE, held on Wednesday at the Dubai Men’s College auditorium. The Olympiad, held under the aegis of the UAE Ministry of Education, was organized by Edutech Middle East, a leading provider of technology-enabled learning solutions.
Team members from Our Own High School will now head to China on an all-expenses-paid trip to participate in the third World Robotics Olympiad (WRO) that will be held from Nov. 17-18. Towheed Iranian School, Dubai, was declared runners-up in the competition. Chief guest Dr. Bill Vega, director of Dubai Men’s College, presented trophies to the winning teams, while the runners-up were awarded a LEGO kit.
The UAE National Robotics Olympiad 2006 saw a total of 10 teams from schools across the country demonstrating the capabilities of their robots to a panel of judges. The teams were judged on design, functional description, software logic, teamwork, presentation skills and the ability of the robot to complete the track.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87770&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Qur’an Contest Draws Participants From Across the Globe
Shadiah Abdullah, Arab News
DUBAI, 6 October 2006 — It is the universal pull of the Holy Qur’an that brings them to Dubai from across the globe. Each night 81 contestants, who are participating in the Dubai International Holy Qur’an Award and from nations as far apart as Mali, Myanmar and Finland, try to prove to a panel of judges their competence in reading the Qur’an in the most perfect way.
All of the contestants, who are less than 21 years of age, have memorized the entire Qur’an by heart.
An amount of 250,000 dirhams in prize money is available to the winner of the competition, 150,000 dirhams for the person who comes second and 100,000 dirhams for the one who stands third. The prize money reduces gradually as the order of merit travels down the list. Even the contestant who gains the least amount of points will be awarded 20,000 dirhams for participating.
The competition, which is offering in total 8 million dirhams in prize money, is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87740&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



US House Speaker Apologizes for Foley Scandal Handling
Agencies
WASHINGTON, 6 October 2006 — The top Republican in the House of Representatives yesterday expressed regret for Congress’ handling of an explosive sex scandal, but again rejected calls for his resignation. House Speaker Dennis Hastert promised a thorough investigation into sexual overtures by a former Republican lawmaker Mark Foley to teenage boys.
But he said he only learned about salacious details of computer messages between Foley and young congressional pages last Friday. Calls have been made for Hastert’s resignation amid questions about when the Republican leadership learned about Foley’s messages and why action was not taken earlier.
In the meantime, a senior Capitol Hill aide resigned his post Wednesday as a widening sex scandal pummeled President George W. Bush’s Republican Party one month before national congressional elections. Charges continued to fly over how long Republican leaders in the House of Representatives knew about the inappropriate behavior of Foley, who quit his House seat over revelations that he had a history of making sexual overtures to underage male congressional aides.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87777&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Joys and Frustrations of a Fasting Journalist
Miral Fahmy, Reuters
DUBAI, 6 October 2006 — It’s supposed to be a time of peace and piety, but it’s really hard to stay spiritual while trying to get work done during Ramadan.
For one month of the lunar calendar, Muslims abstain from food, drink, sex, cigarettes and profanities from sunrise to sunset with the aim of purifying the body and soul.
But for many people such as journalists who have to work through the feast, fasting often breeds frustration. The first thing that hits you is the caffeine withdrawal. Rumbling stomachs and parched throats also make focusing on work difficult.
Even if you do summon the energy to work, getting interviews or information can be exhausting.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=87771&d=6&m=10&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World



Journalism at Risk

Case of jailed reporter balanced ethics, timeliness
By Timothy J. McNulty
the Tribune's public editor
Published September 25, 2006
Holding back information is a difficult decision for any journalist.
There are times, however, when making that decision is critically important. On matters of national security, journalists more often than not refrain from publishing or broadcasting. When it comes to risking someone's life or freedom, journalists willingly hold back until either the danger has passed or the issue becomes public in some other way.
In Iraq, for instance, there have been cases where journalists delayed reporting kidnappings of military personnel and civilians, including other journalists, on the hope that silence and quiet diplomacy could help free the kidnapped.
The editors of this newspaper faced such a decision a month ago when they learned that Paul Salopek, a Tribune correspondent on a leave of absence, had been captured in Sudan while on assignment for National Geographic magazine.
Salopek's editors at National Geographic had not heard from him for nearly two weeks until he was able to make a call to his wife. He had been held by Sudanese military intelligence, which interrogated him for 10 days before turning him over to civilian authorities. Only then did we at the Tribune learn of his detention.
Salopek had violated the country's immigration law by entering the country without a visa. Authorities considered charging him with espionage and two other criminal offenses. The likely penalty was a prison term of 2 to 5 years.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0609250181sep25,1,5044948.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed



Full access for Games journalists
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-28 07:17
Overseas media will be able to freely travel around China and enjoy uncensored access to the Internet during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, organizers promised on Wednesday, September 27.
"We have no restrictions on travel for foreign journalists in China," Sun Weijia, head of media operations for the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCOG), told the Olympic World Press Briefing. "They can travel anywhere in China."
Liu Qi, president of BOCOG, said detailed new regulations on the operation of foreign media would be in place early next year.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/2008/2006-09/28/content_698451.htm



R.W. Apple, a Times Journalist in Full, Dies at 71
By TODD S. PURDUM
Published: October 4, 2006
R. W. Apple Jr., who in more than 40 years as a correspondent and editor at The New York Times wrote about war and revolution, politics and government, food and drink, and the revenge of living well from more than 100 countries, died early this morning in Washington. He was 71.
The cause was complications of thoracic cancer.
With his Dickensian byline, Churchillian brio and Falstaffian appetites, Mr. Apple, who was known as Johnny, was a singular presence at The Times almost from the moment he joined the metropolitan staff in 1963. He remained a colorful figure as new generations of journalists around him grew more pallid, and his encyclopedic knowledge, grace of expression — and above all his expense account — were the envy of his competitors, imitators and peers.
Mr. Apple enjoyed a career like no other in the modern era of The Times. He was the paper’s bureau chief in Albany, Lagos, Nairobi, Saigon, Moscow, London and Washington. He covered 10 presidential elections and more than 20 national nominating conventions. He led The Times’s coverage of the Vietnam war for two and a half years in the 1960’s and of the Persian Gulf war a generation later and he chronicled the Iranian revolution in between.
As a political correspondent, Mr. Apple, beginning in 1972, paid attention to the Iowa precinct caucuses when they were still largely ignored by the national press. Four years later, he helped turn the caucuses into an important test of a candidate’s strength by being one of the first reporters to spot the potential appeal of a little-known former governor of Georgia named Jimmy Carter. In later years, he turned the same searching, child-like curiosity to writing about food, architecture and travel from around the nation and the globe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/04/nyregion/05applecnd.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



CPJ releases report on journalist held at Guantanamo for five years without charge
(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is CPJ press release:
Journalist held at Guantanamo for five years without charge
Fits pattern of U.S. military's treatment of journalists, CPJ finds
New York, October 3, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on the U.S. military to provide a fair and open legal process for an Al-Jazeera cameraman who has been imprisoned for five years without charge or trial on the basis of secret evidence. CPJ outlines the case against Sami al-Haj, the only confirmed journalist held at the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, in a new report called "The Enemy?"
The report, written by Middle East Program Coordinator Joel Campagna, traces al-Haj's journey from assignment on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in late 2001 to detention in an 8-by-7-foot cell today. Championed as a prisoner of conscience in the Arab world but virtually unknown in U.S. media circles, al-Haj is accused of working as a financial courier for armed groups and assisting al-Qaeda and extremist figures. His lawyer calls the charges baseless and notes that no supporting evidence has been put forward.

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/77737/



Australia and China move towards free trade agreement
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PM - Tuesday, 3 October , 2006 18:42:00
Reporter: Stephen Long
MARK COLVIN: Australia and China made small steps towards a free trade agreement today.
Australia's new Trade Minister, Warren Truss, met a Chinese delegation in Sydney, and announced that negotiations would begin in December on a key stumbling block - freeing up market access for goods and services.
China affirmed its commitment to complete negotiations within two years, but there were few signs that it was prepared to give much ground.
Our Economics Correspondent Stephen Long was among a small group of journalists invited to a briefing on the talks with Mr Truss and China's commerce minister.
He filed this report.
STEPHEN LONG: Warren Truss is the new man in the trade portfolio. Today was just his third day in the job.
But after meeting a trade delegation in Sydney, he signalled he has some busy times ahead.
WARREN TRUSS: We've agreed that we should launch in December market access negotiations for goods and services.
Both sides will exchange detailed information on tariff proposals and will exchange lists of barriers that we wish the other side to address.
STEPHEN LONG: And it won't be an easy negotiation.
The man heading the free trade talks for China is the commerce minister, Bo Xilai.
Mr Bo is from a famous political family.
His father was a founder of Chairman Mao's Red Army, and was jailed during the Cultural Revolution.
Chinese journalists say Bo Xilai has something approaching pop star status at home, and he oozes charm.
But at a briefing with a small group of economics and trade journalists today, he gave every indication he would be a tough negotiator.
He said a free trade agreement made sense because the Australian and Chinese economies were so complimentary. Then came the but.

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2006/s1754886.htm



The Enemy? Al-Jazeera's Sami al-Haj has been jailed for five years without charge or trial. At the U.S. base in Guantanamo, he's called an enemy combatant. Will he get to defend himself?

By Joel Campagna

Posted October 3, 2006
December 15, 2001, dawned overcast at Pakistan’s Chaman crossing point into Afghanistan, and Al-Jazeera reporter Abdelhaq Sadah and cameraman Sami Muhyideen al-Haj were anxious to get moving. Just across the border, the Taliban had fled Kandahar, their rule effectively ended by a fierce U.S. air and Afghan ground assault. The pair’s assignment was to cover the aftermath.
They wouldn’t get far, as Sadah recalls today. When they presented their passports, a Pakistani border guard grew angry. Sadah could go through, the officer barked, but there was a problem with al-Haj’s passport. The officer produced an English-language notice from Pakistani intelligence instructing border guards to apprehend al-Haj for suspected links to al-Qaeda, Sadah recalled.
Both journalists were puzzled. Several times over two months, al-Haj had crossed Chaman with another Al-Jazeera crew without incident. Just a few days earlier, Sadah and al-Haj had traveled across the border to Spinboldak, where they reported on damage to the main Afghan road from Chaman to Kandahar.
Al-Haj thought there was a misunderstanding. The written order that the border guard produced listed the number of his old Sudanese passport, which he had lost two years earlier. A Pakistani intelligence official identifying himself as Major Nadeem arrived at the border later that day and told the two journalists not to worry. The next morning, Sadah said, the major drove off with al-Haj.

http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2006/DA_fall_06/prisoner/prisoner.html



Burundi: Authorities Question 3 Journalists in Continuing Campaign of Intimidation
International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto)
PRESS RELEASE
October 3, 2006
Posted to the web October 3, 2006
New York
The Committee to Protect Journalists is alarmed by the ongoing campaign of intimidation by the authorities in Burundi against radio stations that have cast doubt on a government claim to have uncovered a coup plot.
The State Prosecutor today questioned three journalists from three independent stations about their sources for a story broadcast at the end of August, according to local journalists. Their editors have been summoned to appear on Wednesday in connection with a police complaint about the same reports. The stations are Radio Publique Africaine (RPA), Radio Isanganiro and Radio Bonesha.
The story, carried by all three broadcasters, said that elements within the police were preparing a fake attack on the presidential palace and on the residence of the ruling party head, to bolster the government's claims that it foiled a coup plot. This information was attributed to police sources, according to the BBC's monitoring service.
Since August, the government has jailed several leading opposition figures in connection with the alleged coup plot in March.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200610030897.html


Personable Newspaper Executive Ultimately a 'Business Guy'
David Hiller is known for his way with people. But observers expect him to make the bottom line his priority as publisher of The Times.
By Michael A. Hiltzik, Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2006
The occasion was the annual advertising department awards ceremony at the Chicago Tribune, and the star performer was the publisher, David Hiller — decked out in a black wig and matching garb, belting out a parody entitled "I Walk the (Top) Line" in a hilariously dead-on imitation of Johnny Cash.
Hiller, 53, is described by friends and former colleagues as a personable, funny and intellectually engaged executive who understands journalistic traditions. But he is not shy about stating that the challenge for newspapers is to do "the absolute best job you can for readers and online customers and still be a strong business."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-hiller6oct06,0,682951.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Times Publisher Johnson Forced Out
By James Rainey, Times Staff Writer
11:52 AM PDT, October 5, 2006
The Tribune Co. forced out Los Angeles Times Publisher Jeffrey M. Johnson this morning, a little more than a month after he defied the media conglomerate's demands for staff cuts that he suggested could damage the newspaper.
Tribune Publishing President Scott C. Smith huddled with top managers at the newspaper this morning and announced that David Hiller, publisher of the Chicago Tribune, would immediately replace Johnson as chief executive at the 125-year-old newspaper. Hiller is the 12th publisher of The Times.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-100506johnson,0,3972238.story?track=mostviewed-homepage



On MSNBC, Fund falsely claimed "Bush's ratings are up"
Summary: John Fund disputed the assertion of a correlation between "the approval ratings of [President] Bush [and] the ratings of Fox News" by baselessly claiming that "Bush's ratings are up, and Fox [News]'s ratings are down." In fact, while Fox News ratings are indeed down, so are President Bush's.
On the October 3 edition of MSNBC's Scarborough Country, Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund disputed producer/director Robert Greenwald's assertion of a correlation between "the approval ratings of [President] Bush [and] the ratings of Fox News" by baselessly claiming that "Bush's ratings are up, and Fox [News]'s ratings are down." In fact, while Fox News' ratings are indeed down, the two most recent polls, an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll conducted September 30-October 2, and a CNN poll conducted September 29-October 2, both showed President Bush's approval rating declining from 42 percent to 39 percent. Moreover, Bush's approval rating in those polls is no better than a year ago.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200610050017



POLITICS-IRAN:
Hardliners Try to Steer Crucial Polls
Analysis by Omid Memarian*
BERKELEY, California, Oct 5 (IPS) - Iran's government is attempting to suppress its critics and consolidate its power before two key elections on Dec. 15 -- for the Tehran city council and the national Assembly of Experts.
Both of these political bodies are currently dominated by religious hardliners. And both votes will play a significant role in determining Iran's political future.
The 86-member Assembly of Experts is charged with electing and monitoring the Supreme Leader, who, according to Iran's charter, has ultimate power over all other institutions and individuals, including the authority to interpret the constitution.
The current membership of the Assembly of Experts protects Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from criticism -- hence the name "Supreme Leader". If more moderate members are elected to the Assembly, Khamenei's preeminence could be jeopardised.
"The upcoming elections can have a very significant impact in defining Iran's political landscape," Hadi Ghaemi, an Iran researcher at Human Rights Watch, told IPS.
"On the one hand, the conservatives want to capitalise on their electoral wins in the 2004 parliamentary elections and the 2005 presidential election to consolidate their hold on power. On the other hand, persecution and prosecution of activists and civil society actors under the [Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad government could very well cause a significant drop in the number of voters," he said.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=35007


Success of Games hinges on an unfettered internet
Failure to allow up to 22,000 accredited media representatives freedom of movement and uncensored web access at the 2008 Beijing Olympics will be catastrophic for China. Louise Evans reports
October 05, 2006
"HELLO, my name is Weiwei, but some of you may have trouble pronouncing that so you can call me Wendy." So began the first world press briefing for the 2008 Beijing Olympics with the Chinese treating dumb foreigners like dumb foreigners.
The big news from the briefing, which was attended by more than 300 foreign journalists who would normally not be allowed into China, let alone feted, was that during the Games access to the internet would be uncensored.
The declaration was made by Li Jingbo, the media services chief of the Beijing Organising Committee for the Games, and it was splashed across the front page of the official English-language newspaper China Daily. "Overseas media will be able to freely travel around China and enjoy uncensored access to the internet during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, organisers promised yesterday," the paper touted.
Visiting delegates were impressed. The International Olympic Committee's press commission chairman Kevan Gosper was heartened. "My experience in working with them for five years is that when they say they will do something they will do it," he said. "We got a straight assurance there would be no restraint on the internet at the time of the Games and I believe that will be the case."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,20525713-2722,00.html



PHILIPPINES: Authorities arrest, detain journalists on libel charges
New York, October 4, 2006-The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns this week's arrest of Rudy Apolo, a columnist and publisher of the Asian Star Journal and Asia Star Balita, and three members of his editorial staff on a criminal defamation charges related to reports on alleged government corruption.
The four were arrested Monday morning in the city of Barangay Santa Fe, Cavite province, on a complaint filed by the provincial governor, Erineo Maliksi, according to two Philippines-based press freedom advocacy groups. The complaint stems from a series of unbylined reports detailing corruption allegations surrounding a local government rice purchase, the groups reported.
The editorial staffers arrested along with Apolo included two of his children, Reynaldo Apolo and Michelle Apolo, and Editor Ed Lara Cuvinar.
They did not immediately post bond of 10,000 pesos (about US $200) each. Regional Judge Norberto Quisumbing Jr., who issued arrest warrants for the four, did not set a date for pretrial hearings, according to the National Union of the Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP).

http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/asia/phil04oct06na.html



Senegal: CPJ keeps spotlight on jailed journalists in Eritrea
Dakar, 10/04 - At least 13 journalists are behind bars in Eritrea, most of them held for at least five years in secret jails without due process, the New York-based Centre for the Protection of Journalists reported Tuesday.
It said two more are enduring prolonged military service following imprisonment.
"These grim statistics have made Eritrea one of the world`s five biggest jailers of journalists for five consecutive years," according to CPJ research.
The irony of Eritrea`s bleak situation is that international coverage has decreased as the political and humanitarian situation has worsened, CPJ lamented in the report.
"With the entire domestic private press shut down and sources subject to pressure, getting any information about the imprisoned journalists and keeping them in the news is an uphill struggle," it explained.
But a group of exiled colleagues recently launched a new initiative to bring attention to their plight. In "Slipping from Sight," a report released Tuesday, CPJ looks at this initiative and why it is necessary.

http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=477455



Risky times for hard news and views
By Clarence Page
November 30, 2005
NEW YORK CITY. -- After this year's International Press Freedom Awards dinner, a former reporter remarked to me the honorees' inspiring stories made her "think about getting back into real journalism again," with her accent on "real."
"Me, too," I responded spontaneously, feeling unusually humbled by the realities of many of our overseas colleagues. It's been a rough year for American journalists. But things could be worse; we could be trying to work in China, Zimbabwe, Uzbekistan or rural Brazil.
In those countries, death, jail, beatings, exile or intimidation color daily working conditions of this year's recipients of the Press Freedom Awards, given by the Committee to Protect Journalists, of which I am a board member.
This year, the tributes seemed to have a new edge. Journalists' hardship and sacrifices in less-free societies remind us not only how much we take for granted in the United States but also how often our own press freedoms seem under siege.
We've seen one American reporter, Judith Miller, jailed this year while working for the New York Times, and Rhode Island TV reporter Jim Taricani put under house arrest with an ankle bracelet in 2004. Dozens of others have been similarly threatened with subpoenas and jail while Congress drags its heels on a federal shield law.
As our own government fights for increasing secrecy in the name of the war on terrorism, more tyrannical regimes increasingly borrow such homeland-security rhetoric to cover up their own abuses. And as our international trade grows, American companies increasingly ignore human-rights abuses to win favors from tyrannical regimes.
One of this year's CPJ honorees, for example, was jailed in China, a perennial international leader for jailing journalists. Shi Tao, 37, a Chinese journalist, is serving a 10-year sentence for "leaking state secrets abroad."
Translation: He posted on the Internet a Propaganda Department memo that instructed Chinese journalists in the government-approved way to cover the 15th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre. If you follow the news, you also may know his arrest resulted from a troubling cooperation between China's repressive police and the American company Yahoo, which has refused to discuss the affair, except for brief press statements about cooperating with host countries' laws.

http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20051129-090655-2317r.htm



Jailed Cuban journalist released on medical parole
CPJ calls for release of 24 others still unjustly imprisoned
New York, December 1, 2005—Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández, an imprisoned Cuban journalist who wounded himself and waged repeated hunger strikes to call attention to his plight, was released on medical parole today, more than two and half years after he was jailed in the government's massive March 2003 crackdown on the independent press.
The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on the Cuban government, the world's second-leading jailer of journalists, to release the two dozen other writers and editors held unjustly in prisons throughout the island.
"It's abominable that our colleague Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández was forced to resort to these extreme measures to gain the attention of authorities," CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper said. "His situation highlights the abysmal conditions for the other 24 jailed Cuban journalists, all of whom should be released immediately and unconditionally."

http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Cuba01dec05na.html



IFEX MEMBERS DEMAND FREEDOM FOR JAILED JOURNALISTS
Two years after the Cuban government launched a crackdown on freedom of expression by arresting dozens of dissidents and journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), Human Rights Watch and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) are focusing attention on the plight of more than 20 journalists who remain behind bars.
The IFEX members are calling for the immediate and unconditional release of all imprisoned journalists in Cuba. CPJ has sent a letter to President Fidel Castro - endorsed by more than 100 Latin American journalists and writers, including Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes - that says the imprisonment of the journalists violates international law, including Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Although the Cuban government has labeled the journalists "mercenaries," an analysis of trial documents shows that the journalists' work was within the parameters of the legitimate exercise of free expression established under international human rights standards, says CPJ.
In April 2003, the journalists were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 14 to 27 years after being arrested as part of a sweeping crackdown on Cuban dissidents.

http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/65535/



ETHIOPIA:
Jailed journalist sentenced to eight months in prison
New York, December 7, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the eight-month jail sentence for criminal libel handed down by the Federal High Court to a journalist already in prison as part of Ethiopia's ongoing crackdown on the independent media.
On Tuesday, the court convicted Wosonseged Gebrekidan, former editor of the Amharic-language weekly Ethiop, of defaming former diplomat Habtemariam Seyoum in a 2002 opinion piece. A CPJ source said that Gebrekidan's lawyer was not told of the hearing and was not in court for the sentencing.
Gebrekidan, who has since become editor of the Amharic-language weekly Addis Zena, did not write the opinion piece, CPJ sources said. He was sentenced under Ethiopia's 1992 Press Proclamation, which holds editors responsible for the content of their newspapers. Like many Ethiopian editors, Gebrekidan has several criminal charges relating to his work pending against him; CPJ research indicates that such charges generally take years to come to court.

http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Ethiopia07dec05na.html



ETHIOPIA: A ‘freed' journalist is sent back to jail
New York, December 5, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists is outraged by news that Eritrean journalist Dawit Isaac was returned to jail just two days after being released in mid-November. Isaac is one of 15 Eritrean journalists who have been jailed incommunicado and without charge or forced into extended military service following a September 2001 clampdown that shut down the country's private press.
CPJ sources confirmed that Isaac, who has dual Swedish and Eritrean nationality, has been returned to jail. During his brief release, he was able to phone his wife in Sweden as well as Leif Öbrink, a close friend who heads a campaign in Sweden for his release.
Isaac was freed on November 19, and the release was originally believed to have been permanent. The release was attributed to Swedish diplomatic efforts and was confirmed by Bengt Sparre, Sweden's envoy to Eritrea. But conflicting reports soon emerged. Eritrean Information Minister Ali Abdu told Agence France-Presse that Isaac had been freed temporarily merely to receive a medical check-up. It is not clear whether Isaac, in fact, received the examination.

http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Ethiopia05dec05na.html



NIGERIA: CPJ calls on Obasanjo to free jailed journalist
December 7, 2005
TO: President Olusegun Obasanjo
c/o Embassy of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
3519 International Court, NW
Washington DC, 20008
Via facsimile: (202) 362-6552
Your Excellency:
The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply troubled by the continued imprisonment of Owei Kobina Sikpi, publisher of the small, privately owned Weekly Star. He was arrested by agents of the State Security Service (SSS) in the southern city of Port Harcourt on October 11. He was later transferred to the central prison in Port Harcourt, where he remains. Sikpi has been imprisoned for his work longer than any other journalist since Your Excellency was first elected in 1999, according to CPJ records.
Weekly Star editor Obinna Ahiaidu said Sikpi was arrested after he published an article that accused the Rivers State governor, Peter Odili, of involvement in money laundering. The SSS agents who arrested him also impounded the newspaper's 4,000-copy print run, Ahiaidu said.

http://www.cpj.org/protests/05ltrs/Nigeria07dec05pl.html



Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Anti-War Group says "World Can't Wait"
KALAMAZOO (NEWS 3) - A group vocal about its opposition to the Bush administration brought its message to the campus of W.M.U. Wednesday.
The anti-war group "World Can't Wait" says as the fighting in Iraq continues, they are gaining momentum.
"The war is not getting any better, it is getting worse," said Kathy Murphy, who headed to Dalton Hall today to hear a guest speaker.
That speaker was Scott Ritter, a former Chief Weapons Inspector in Iraq, and vocal critic of the war in Iraq.
"War is about death and destruction, humans killing humans, the worst of humankind," says Ritter. "Nothing good comes from war."

http://www.wwmt.com/engine.pl?station=wwmt&id=30867&template=breakout_local.html


Bush 41 Warns of 'Ghastly' Future Under 'Wild Democrats'
October 05, 2006 5:22 PM
ABC contributor Michelle Dubert reports: While campaigning for Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) in the Philadelphia suburbs today, former President George H.W. Bush warned of a "ghastly" future for his son and other Americans if "wild Democrats" take over Congress.
"I would hate to think what Arlen's life would be like, what Rick's life would be like, and what my son's life would be like if we lose control of the Congress," said former President George Bush in a reference to Pennsylvania's two Republican Senators. "If we have some of these wild Democrats in charge of these committees, it will be a ghastly thing for our country."
"They'd be pushing through all kinds of crazy legislation," he added, "And they would be issuing the subpoenas, dragging people in just to be getting headlines."
The former President made his remarks at a Santorum fundraiser at a private residence in Gladwyne, PA that was also attended by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA).

Pasted from <http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2006/10/bush_41_warns_o.html>


New Hampshire Republicans abandon ship

In NH, stern words for Hastert
Union Leader
New Hampshire's two Republican congressmen had strong words for House Speaker Dennis Hastert and when he knew about former Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexual messages to congressional pages.
"If the Speaker or his staff had information that any House page was at risk and failed to take appropriate steps, the Speaker should resign," Rep. Charles Bass said.
Rep. Jeb Bradley went even further.
"I'm very concerned with the news reports from last night that indicate leadership in the House of Representatives, including Speaker Hastert, may have had advance knowledge of this wrongdoing. If these allegations prove true, Speaker Hastert should resign," he said in a written statement.
Hastert said he is sorry about the page sex scandal and takes responsibility for it, but he did not intend to step down as leader of the House.
Bass called for a thorough investigation into what Hastert or others knew about Foley's come-ons to the teenage pages.
"For the good of the House of Representatives and our nation, the questions about who had what knowledge about Mark Foley's behavior must be resolved quickly and thoroughly," he said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=252


Thank you for visiting A Soldier's Peace.
My name is Marshall Thompson and I recently returned to Utah after serving one year in Iraq. While it still seems like a wonderful dream to be home, I can't rest knowing of all the brave men and women sacrificing in Iraq. There is not enough being done to bring them home.
I feel that any appeals made to politicians will always be fruitless while both parties are distracted in name calling and bitter partisanship. Instead I want to make an appeal directly to the ones who call the shots in this country, the People.

http://www.soldierspeace.com/


Demonstration held a week after protesters clashed with police
By MARCIE YOUNG / Charlotte Observer
An afternoon rally held one week after police clashed with anti-war protesters uptown remained peaceful Saturday at Charlotte's Freedom Park.
Event organizers, including members of the Green Party and the Action Center for Justice, feared a repeat of last week's Human Rights Fest, where Charlotte-Mecklenburg police arrested six protesters at Trade and Tryon streets.
Police said last week's rally got out of control when protesters refused to follow orders, swore at officers and placed a burning newspaper near an officer's feet. Protesters said officers violated their First Amendment rights. At least one man was shocked with a Taser, and another protester, David Crane, said he suffered a broken rib and a punctured lung.
Organizers said Saturday's rally, which called for the impeachment of President Bush, attracted at least 50 more participants than last week's event, including some of those arrested.
Crane said he "wouldn't have missed this for the world."
Visible police presence was minimal Saturday, but C.W. McIver from the Mecklenburg County Park and Recreation Department said plainclothes officers attended the event. He said the number of officers was higher than usual for such gatherings.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7996



GOP Candidate Calls for Hastert to Resign
October 06, 2006 2:54 PM
ABC's David Chalian reports: Tom Kean, Jr., locked in a tight fight against Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ) in the Senate race in New Jersey, became the first Republican candidate for federal office to ask for Hastert's resignation.
"Hastert should resign as speaker. He is the head of the institution and this happened on his watch. I urge House leaders to go further by appointing an outside panel to review the matter immediately," said Kean, Jr. in a written statement today.
Calling for Hastert's head is a no-brainer for Kean, Jr. It's not an easy year to be a Republican running in a Blue State like New Jersey, but Kean, Jr. has been running a campaign focused on bashing Washington and hanging ethics questions around Menendez's neck. The Foley storyline plays right into Kean, Jr.'s strategy and serves his purposes well to appeal to independent minded New Jerseyans that he can separate himself from his party when the need arises.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2006/10/gop_candidate_c.html



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Cops Brutally Attack Human Rights Fest in Uptown Charlotte
Victim Suffers Broken Ribs & Punctured Lung From Beating
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Iraqi doctor moves South Carolina audience
By David Dixon
Rock Hill, S.C.
Published Apr 2, 2006 5:54 PM
An Iraqi doctor, Rashad Zidan, gave a powerful and thought-provoking presentation on the war in her country to a meeting of the American Association of University Women in this small college town on March 23.
Rashad, a pharmacist, works in Baghdad and Falluja with the Women and Knowledge Society to aid victims of war, especially orphans. She told how the Iraqi people have nothing against the people of the U.S.; their problem is with the U.S. government and its troops in their country.
The people of Iraq do not want a civil war, she said. Most people in Iraq are Muslims; Sunni and Shia people often intermarry. They do not hate or want to fight each other. The top religious leaders in Iraq have called for no civil war. But hostilities are being generated by the occupation forces.

http://www.workers.org/2006/world/iraqi-doc-0406/


Rove aide resigns in fallout over Abramoff report
By Steve Holland / Reuters
WASHINGTON - An aide to top White House political adviser Karl Rove resigned in the fallout over a congressional report showing many White House contacts with ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
Last week's report by the U.S. House of Representatives Government Reform Committee said Rove aide Susan Ralston had passed inside White House information to Abramoff while she was also accepting his tickets to as many as nine sports and entertainment events.
Abramoff and several associates have pleaded guilty to conspiracy and fraud in an influence-peddling scandal and are cooperating with a federal corruption probe that has reached into the U.S. Congress.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Ralston submitted her resignation after recognizing that "a protracted discussion of these matters would be a distraction to the White House."
Ralston chose to step down and "we support her decision and consider the matter closed," Perino said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8049


Navy corpsman to testify against Marines
By Greg Risling / Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - During two tours of duty in Iraq, Navy corpsman Melson J. Bacos experienced fire fights with insurgents, soldiers dying in his arms, thoughts of whether he'd live another day, he said.
Now he has another unnerving assignment. On Friday, the 21-year-old is scheduled to give testimony that military prosecutors hope will help them convict seven Marines accused of kidnapping and murdering an Iraqi man in the town of Hamdania.
Bacos, a medic who patrolled with the Marines, will have similar charges dropped in exchange for testimony during his court-martial, his attorney, Jeremiah Sullivan III, told The Associated Press.
The military has said Bacos was with the Marines in April when 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad was kidnapped and murdered. Some of the troops are accused of stealing an AK-47 assault rifle and a shovel and placing them in a hole with Awad's body, apparently to make it appear he was an insurgent planting a bomb.
Bacos was accused of firing the AK-47 in the air to expend some shell casings as part of the cover-up. He was charged with murder and kidnapping under a legal principle that anyone who didn't try to stop the crime is as culpable as the triggerman.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8046


Powers opens up
Hering desperate to avoid return
By Christine Reid / Daily Camera
Boulder Marine Lance Hering went missing because he feared for his life — not at the hands of the enemy in Iraq but from men in his own unit who committed an unspeakable atrocity there, says the friend who helped him disappear.
Steve Powers, who helped Hering stage a climbing accident Aug. 29 that sparked a massive five-day manhunt, spoke publicly about the hoax Wednesday for the first time, telling the Daily Camera why his best friend thought it was his only way out.
"He thought if he would have gone back to Camp Pendleton they would have killed him," said Powers, 20. "He was terrified."
Hering, 21, is a lance corporal in the Kilo Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment based in California — the same unit that currently has eight soldiers charged with conspiracy, kidnapping and murder of an Iraqi civilian April 26 in Hamdania, Iraq.

Pasted from <http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8038>



Anti-U.S. Attack Videos Spread on the Internet
By Edward Wyatt / New York Times
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 5 — Videos showing insurgent attacks against American troops in Iraq, long available in Baghdad shops and on Jihadist Web sites, have steadily migrated in recent months to popular Internet video-sharing sites, including YouTube and Google Video.
Many of the videos, showing sniper attacks against Americans and roadside bombs exploding under American military vehicles, have been posted not by insurgents or their official supporters but apparently by Internet users in the United States and other countries, who have passed along videos found elsewhere.
Among the scenes being viewed daily by thousands of users of the sites are sniper attacks in which Americans are felled by snipers as a camera records the action and of armored Humvees or other military vehicles being hit by roadside bombs.
In some videos, the troops do not appear to have been seriously injured; in one, titled “Sniper Hit” and posted on YouTube by a user named 69souljah, a serviceman is knocked down by a shot but then gets up to seek cover. Other videos, however, show soldiers bleeding on the ground, vehicles exploding and troops being loaded onto medical evacuation helicopters.

Pasted from <http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8044>



Soldier's death in Iraq devastates his Hollywood family
By Brian Haas / South Florida Sun-Sentinel
HOLLYWOOD, FL -- In two months, he would have been safe.
Army Spc. Timothy Burke, 24, was scheduled to leave Iraq in December. On Wednesday, his mother, Sharon Paulette, knew from the knock on her door he didn't make it.
"I can't describe it," Paulette said. "I knew that moment it was them. I started screaming."
Paulette said the military officials who knocked told her Burke was killed in an attack Wednesday in Taji, Iraq, during the sweep of a building suspected of containing a cache of weapons. The Department of Defense had not officially confirmed his death as of Thursday.
The Hollywood man is at least the fourth South Floridian to be killed in combat in Iraq in the last three weeks. As of Thursday, 2,729 American service members had been killed in Iraq, 336 in Afghanistan, according to the military.
Gone are Burke's dreams of becoming a firefighter and paramedic, a path that led him to the Army to further his education. Gone are the fishing trips with friends and relatives. And gone is the quiet, 6-foot-1 soldier who openly worried in April that he would never see his family again.
Burke, a 2001 graduate of South Broward High School, was mourned by school staff and students along with his relatives Thursday. His brother Matt and his cousin Brad Fatout both teach at the school.
"It hit the school hard," Fatout said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8045


Tony Snow’s Spinning Response About The “Comma”

Today Helen Thomas asked Tony Snow about Bush dismissing the bloodshed in Iraq as just a "comma". His song and dance around the question is really telling and yet very typical.
Video - WMV Video - QT
(Transcript below the fold)
Q What did our envoy mean when he said that a nuclear-armed North Korea is unacceptable, and what did the President mean the Iraqi war is only a comma?
MR. SNOW: Okay. Thank you for both of those. First, the position has always been that you can't have a nuclear Korean Peninsula. That has been the reason for the six-party talks.

As for the comma. This has been brewed around; Peter had a word or two to say about it today. The comma refers to the period of time between last year's election and today. We're talking about — well, the President is making the point is, when you look at a history book, a 10-month period is a comma. Now, some people have tried to say, how dare the President refer to this as a comma; he's being glib about the deaths of Americans. That's outrageous, and the people who say that know it. What they're trying to is, willingly or not, wrench a statement out of context and try to use that as an opportunity to accuse a President who is deeply aware of the human cost of war of being calloused about those costs. It's just not true.
And I've talked to him about this a number of times. It was simply — what he means is that in the grand sweep of history, 10 months is not an epic. Now, there is — if there is a chasm in here it has to do with what the President said and the way it's been twisted by people who know what the context was.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/10/05/tony-snows-spinning-response-about-the-comma/


Three More Former Pages Accuse Foley of Online Sexual Approaches
Brian Ross, Rhonda Schwartz & Maddy Sauer Report:

Three more former congressional pages have come forward to reveal what they call "sexual approaches" over the Internet from former Congressman Mark Foley.
The pages served in the classes of 1998, 2000 and 2002. They independently approached ABC News after the Foley resignation through the Brian Ross & the Investigative Team's tip line on ABCNews.com. None wanted their names used because of the sensitive nature of the communications.
"I was seventeen years old and just returned to [my home state] when Foley began to e-mail me, asking if I had ever seen my page roommates naked and how big their penises were," said the page in the 2002 class.
The former page also said Foley told him that if he happened to be in Washington, D.C., he could stay at Foley's home if he "would engage in oral sex" with Foley.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/10/three_more_form.html


Thousands nationwide protest Bush
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of people called the Bush administration's policies a crime and held up yellow police tape along a three-block stretch in front of the White House on Thursday as part of a nationwide day of protest against the president.
The 500 demonstrators were among many who gathered for similar events in more than 200 cities to protest Bush on issues ranging from global warming to the war in Iraq.
"We are turning the corner in bringing forward a mass movement of resistance to drive out the Bush regime," said organizer Travis Morales with the activist group World Can't Wait.
Some dressed in costume, including a hooded prisoner in an orange jumpsuit, a devilish rendition of President Bush and two grim reapers. One man wore a red cheerleader outfit with "Radical" emblazoned on the jersey.
Thousands of protesters clogged New York City's streets as they marched from the United Nations headquarters. Some people lay down in the middle of the street, while others carried signs saying "Expose 9/11" and "This war should be over." They also handed out fliers reading, "Drive out the Bush regime."
Lydia Sugarman, 82, of Manhattan, said she believed in the power of demonstrating.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8042



Los Angeles Times

Western Warming Warning
Climate change will worsen droughts, wildfires and die-offs in the region, a report says.
By Robert Lee Hotz, Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2006
Rising temperatures in the 11 Western states due to global warming will cause more prolonged droughts, more widespread wildfires, and extensive die-offs in regional plant, fish and game habitats, according to a report Thursday from the National Wildlife Federation.
"The American West is truly on the front line," said Patty Glick, the federation's global warming specialist. "The latest science is painting a bleak picture."
To address climate change, the organization urged national limits on the greenhouse gases responsible for rising temperatures, such as carbon dioxide and methane. California recently adopted such limits.
The national appetite for energy, fed by carbon-rich coal, oil and natural gas, imposes a double penalty on the ecological well-being of the West, said the group, which has 1 million members. The search for more fossil fuels — drilling permits on public lands have tripled in six years — disrupts fragile habitats even as increasing carbon dioxide alters the regional climate in ways that will make it impossible for many species to survive.
The federation report, called "Fueling the Fire," brings a regional focus to climate research findings from federal agencies, academia and science journals.
The researchers cited growing evidence that rising regional temperatures had already caused warmer winters, earlier springs and less snow — increasing the likelihood of winter flooding and of diminished summer water supplies.
All told, the winter snowpack, which is the source of 75% of the West's water, has declined by up to a third in the northern Rocky Mountain region and more than 50% in parts of the Cascades since 1950, the federation reported.
Indeed, the West is in the middle of a prolonged drought that may be the worst since record-keeping began more than a century ago — the direct consequence of altered weather patterns caused by warmer temperatures in the Pacific and Indian oceans, other research groups have reported.
As the Western landscape becomes more desiccated, wildfires become more common, more widespread and harder to control, experts said.
This past wildfire season was the most severe on record, said ecologist Steven W. Running at the University of Montana College of Forestry and Conservation.
More than 9.6 million acres burned over the summer — twice the seasonal average — and at $1.5 billion, the expense to fight them was the greatest ever.
"The warming trend we are under is clearly accelerating and expanding the wildfire activity," Running said.
"There is no reason we can see that it will reverse anytime soon."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-warming6oct06,0,5538740.story?coll=la-headlines-nation



Lucas Seeks to Produce Respect for Filmmaking
'Star Wars' creator speaks at a ceremony at USC honoring the $175 million he has pledged to its film school.
By Stuart Silverstein, Times Staff Writer
October 5, 2006
When "Star Wars" creator George Lucas talks about the way academia regards his craft, he sounds more like the late comedian Rodney Dangerfield than a bold Jedi knight. The filmmaker is convinced that colleges and universities don't give the world of cinema serious respect, despite the spread of programs, departments and schools focused on the field.
In the academic hierarchy, the study of film and other "moving images" media "does not rate at the same level as the law school, or the medical school or the school of journalism or the school of architecture. It just isn't thought of in the same breath, which is for me a sacrilege," Lucas said, laughing at the force of his own words.
So now Lucas is striking back.
He spoke at USC on Wednesday, where a groundbreaking ceremony was held to highlight his recent pledge of $175 million to the university, the largest donation in USC's history. One of the main changes the gift will bring will be a new, 137,000-square-foot, two-building complex to house the film school.
The ceremony brought together USC officials, faculty, students and Hollywood luminaries such as Steven Spielberg. It also put a spotlight on the renaming of the film school from the School of Cinema-Television to the School of Cinematic Arts, a change dictated by Lucas to signal the role that moving images — in films, TV, interactive media or elsewhere — play in modern life.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lucas5oct05,0,5056617.story?coll=la-home-local



Drug Companies' Consulting Fees at Issue
By David Willman, Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2006
WASHINGTON — Last month, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee called the National Institutes of Health an "ethical Potemkin village," where a facade of tough-sounding rules had shrouded permissive dealings with drug companies.
NIH ethics rules, tightened last year, prohibit employees from accepting any form of pharmaceutical company stock and most types of drug industry fees. But the agency's director, Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, recently said that NIH was assessing whether the stricter rules had driven away talented scientists. The assessment may determine whether rules are changed.
The payments from the drug companies to the federal scientists have raised questions about decisions surrounding which products make it into NIH clinical trials, as well as the scientists' safety decisions and interpretation of results.
Question: How many government scientists at the NIH have taken consulting fees or stock awards or options from drug companies?
Answer: After six congressional hearings spanning more than two years, we still don't know because not all of the financial arrangements have been revealed. When the Energy and Commerce Committee asked 21 drug companies for information about recent relationships with NIH scientists, scores of previously undisclosed arrangements were identified. And many drug companies were not contacted, so there may be additional undisclosed payments.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-nihqampa6oct06,0,173968.story?coll=la-headlines-nation



Study Says Lab Meltdown Caused Cancer
Scientists say details about the 1959 accident near Simi Valley continue to be withheld. Other contamination at the site is much clearer.
By Amanda Covarrubias, Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2006
Radioactive emissions from a 1959 nuclear accident at a research lab near Simi Valley appear to have been much greater than previously suspected and could have resulted in hundreds of cancers in surrounding communities, according to a study released Thursday.
Chemical contamination from rocket engine testing at the site continues to threaten soil and groundwater in the area around Rocketdyne's Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the study also found.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rocketdyne6oct06,0,125472.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Rockets Aimed at Parliament Defused
From Times Wire Reports
October 6, 2006
Two rockets rigged with cellphones and primed to fire toward Pakistan's parliament were discovered by a construction worker and defused by experts, a security official said.
The security scare in Islamabad, the capital, came hours after a homemade bomb exploded in a park in the neighboring city of Rawalpindi, not far from a residence of President Pervez Musharraf.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-fg-briefs6.6oct06,1,7814032.story?coll=la-news-a_section



If Kim Jong Il Gets Nukes
How the world would change for the worse if the hermit kingdom explodes a bomb.
By Aaron L. Friedberg, AARON L. FRIEDBERG is a professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney.
October 6, 2006
AFTER FOUR YEARS of bluster and buildup, North Korea has finally reached the nuclear finish line. On Tuesday, it announced its intention to step across. At every point along the way, Pyongyang has telegraphed its intentions, first announcing that it would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and reprocess plutonium, then declaring that it already possessed a "deterrent force" and now, for the first time, proclaiming that it will conduct a weapons test. In this way, Pyongyang has probed the resolve of those seeking to stop it, extorting economic rewards for simply showing up at the negotiating table while at the same time forcing the world to adjust to the idea that it either already is, or soon will be, a member of the nuclear club.
In keeping with past practice, the North will probably not test right away, preferring instead to see what new concessions it can extract. Unless it encounters a tougher and more unified response than it has to date, however, Pyongyang will probably follow through eventually on its latest threat. On the nuclear issue, at least, Kim Jong Il has proved to be a man of his word.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-friedberg6oct06,0,2834319.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail



Path Is Risky for Gay GOP Politicians
By Maura Reynolds and Jenny Jarvie, Times Staff Writers
October 6, 2006
WASHINGTON — At the Republican National Convention in 2000, Rep. Mark Foley hosted a late-night bash at a Philadelphia gay bar, where an acquaintance snapped a photo of an attractive young intern sitting on the Florida congressman's lap.
Months later, according to the acquaintance, when she offered to send him the photo, Foley looked anxious.
The intern, "male or female?" he inquired.
"Female" was the reply.
"Oh, thank God," Foley responded. "Send me that photo, I might need it someday."
For most Republicans, being photographed in a compromising position with a young woman could be scandalous. But in the sometimes strained world of gay Republicans, it was an asset.
Foley resigned a week ago over revelations that he had engaged in sexually explicit online banter with male teenagers. And though it was the age of those House pages that forced his downfall and a criminal investigation, Foley's sexual orientation had been a huge political liability for him for years.
Gays hold many prominent positions in government and business in Washington. But in the GOP ranks, homosexuality is still politically risky. In fact, with the exception of the military, perhaps no institution in America has as strong a "don't ask, don't tell" approach as the Republican Party.
"Obviously, the far right has kind of got a stranglehold on the Republican Party," said Minnesota state Rep. Paul Koering, a Republican who came out publicly last year. "The very first time I ran, I literally almost made myself sick worrying about somebody finding out I was gay."

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-gaygop6oct06,0,5618962.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Crash Narrowly Averted at LAX
A jet nearing takeoff at 115 mph hits the brakes and stops less than 100 feet from a stray aircraft.
By Jennifer Oldham, Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2006
In yet another dramatic incident at Los Angeles International Airport, two aircraft came so close to colliding on a runway Saturday that one pilot can be heard hyperventilating on air traffic control tapes.
A SkyWest regional jet taking off for San Antonio had accelerated to 115 mph when a Gulfstream business jet strayed in front, forcing the pilot to slam on his brakes. The SkyWest jet, with about 39 people on board, shuddered to a stop less than 100 feet from the Gulfstream.
After the incident, a shaken tower controller can be heard on the radio apologizing to the SkyWest pilot and asking him to immediately leave the runway to make room for a landing aircraft.
"SkyWest 6430, I apologize. We never talked to the Gulfstream. He crossed without a clearance," says the controller, who was so traumatized by the near-collision that she left her post seconds later. "I apologize. If you could make a right turn, please, and exit the runway."
The SkyWest pilot comes onto the frequency next.
"Exiting right," he says, exhaling heavily.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lax6oct06,0,1573911.story?coll=la-home-headlines



HazMat Fire Forces 1,000s From Homes
From Associated Press
8:34 AM PDT, October 6, 2006
APEX, N.C. -- As many as 17,000 people were urged to flee homes on the outskirts of Raleigh early today as flames shot from a burning hazardous waste plant and a chlorine cloud rose high over the area.
No employees were believed to have been inside the EQ Industrial Services plant when the fire started late Thursday and a series of explosions began rocking the property.
Eighteen people, many of them law enforcement officers, were taken to emergency rooms with respiratory problems, hospital officials said.
EQ Industrial Services handles a wide array of industrial waste, from paints to solvents, and houses chemicals such as chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, sulfur and fertilizer.
Because of the potential dangers in that mix, firefighters waited for daybreak to determine how to attack the blaze, officials said. Friday morning, area schools and downtown Apex were closed, and police blocked off streets into the area as the plant continued to burn.
"You can't put foam or water on it," Mayor Keith Weatherly said. "That just exacerbates it."
It wasn't immediately clear what had started the fire. The flames appeared to have jumped overnight to four petroleum tanks belonging to another company, which may have accounted for some of the explosions, Weatherly said.
EQ spokesman Robert Doyle said the Wayne, Mich.-based company was mobilizing its emergency response team to help with the clean up. About 25 employees work at the Apex plant, but all had left the building by 7 p.m. Thursday, he said.
"Because of the many different types of waste that we bring in, it's very difficult to determine the cause of the fire," he said.
In March, the state Department of Natural Resources had fined EQ $32,000 for six violations at the plant, including failing to "maintain and operate the facility to minimize the possibility of a sudden or non-sudden release of hazardous waste ... which could threaten human health or the environment." But Doyle cautioned that the violations might not have had anything to do with the fire.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-100606fire,0,3750654.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Kerkorian Loses Appetite for GM Shares
By Jesus Sanchez, Times Staff Writer
11:33 AM PDT, October 6, 2006
Shares of General Motors tumbled today after the automaker's single largest stockholder, Beverly Hills billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, indicated that he would not be buying any more GM shares and that his representative on the company board had resigned.
The announcement, revealed in a government securities filing, comes shortly after GM decided to end discussions to join French automaker Renault and Nissan of Japan in a global alliance. Kerkorian proposed the idea in July and had pushed GM management to discuss the possible combination with the company's foreign rivals.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-100606gm,0,1664347.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Corpsman Admits to Conspiracy in Iraqi's Death
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer
10:17 AM PDT, October 6, 2006
CAMP PENDLETON -- A Navy corpsman pleaded guilty today to conspiracy and kidnapping in connection with the April death of an Iraqi man in which seven Marines are charged with murder.
In a barely audible voice, Petty Officer 3rd Class Melson Bacos admitted he conspired to take 52-year-old Hashim Ibrahim Awad from his home in Hamandiya, west of Baghdad, plant evidence near his body and lie to his superiors about the shooting incident.
Col. Steve Folsom, the military judge, told Bacos the charges could lead to a penalty of life imprisonment. Published reports suggest that Bacos will receive only a year in the brig.
In exchange for his guilty pleas, a murder charge was dismissed that could have brought the death penalty. Bacos' detailed admissions will be used to prosecute the other Marines involved, officials said.
Bacos testified that several Marines had hoped to capture and kill a "high value" Iraqi long suspected of planting bombs.
Bacos said that the conspiracy was led by the fire-team leader, Sgt. Lawrence G. Hutchins III. "He was mad we kept letting him (the Iraqi) go when he was a known terrorist," Bacos said.
When the original target could not be located, Hutchins decided to take and kill Awad, a suspected insurgent who lived nearby, Bacos said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-100606marine,0,4343580.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Little Church vs. Crazy Horse Too
The Little Church of Las Vegas had its first service last night. According to the Review-Journal, a mostly Spanish speaking congregation was bused in from a faraway community center to this new church located within 1,500 feet of Crazy Horse Too, "lured by the promise of Bible study and refreshments."
Either coincidentally or not, depending who you speak to, today is the day that Crazy Horse Too goes before the City Council in hopes of getting a liquor license approved under the name of the owner of the nearby Golden Steer Steakhouse who claims he is trying to reopen Crazy Horse Too and ultimately purchase it from Rick Rizzolo.
On yesterday's Buffet, prominent local attorney and Palomino Club landlord Dominic Gentile predicted that this new church would not prevent the city from approving the new license for Crazy Horse Too. And, according to the Review-Journal, City Attorney Brad Jerbic also thinks the Little Church of Las Vegas will have no impact on today's hearing. Jerbic believes that there is a six-month grace period for someone to acquire the Crazy Horse Too license. However, the deacon of the new church thinks otherwise, citing city code forbidding an establishment with a liquor license to be within 1,500 feet of a church.

http://vegasblog.latimes.com/vegas/2006/10/little_church_v.html



Rosa Brooks: Grand Old Party of Child Endangerment
Think Foley is bad? Republican policies have harmed millions of American kids.
October 6, 2006
THE FAMOUSLY effective GOP messaging machine has broken down.
On Wednesday, just as President Bush was insisting that Americans must "vote Republican for the safety of the United States," Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois was telling CNN that Congress can't even ensure the safety of the young pages under its care. "Let's suspend [the page program], send the pages home," LaHood told CNN's Miles O'Brien. "To send 15- and 16-year-old boys and girls to Washington, D.C. … we should not subject [them] to this kind of activity and this kind of vulnerability." In response, O'Brien commented: "Well, that's kind of a sorry state of affairs. In essence, what you're saying is that members of Congress can't be trusted to be around young people."
LaHood's answer was blunt: "Well, that's pretty obvious."
Yup, that's where we're at, my fellow citizens. It's a little hard to trust the Republican-led Congress to keep the whole United States safe when you can't even trust them not to molest your children.
The Foley scandal makes for salacious reading, and it's always satisfying to see hypocrisy exposed for what it is. But neither the Foley page scandal nor the Republican leadership's energetic efforts to shove it under the carpet should come as a surprise. Though only the Foley scandal has generated substantial media coverage, the Republican-led Congress has a long record of child endangerment.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks6oct06,0,7662387.column?coll=la-home-commentary



Marine: Gitmo Guards Bragged of Beatings
By THOMAS WATKINS, Associated Press Writer
1:02 PM PDT, October 6, 2006
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. -- Guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as common practice, a Marine sergeant said in a sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press.
The two-page statement was sent Wednesday to the Inspector General at the Department of Defense by a high-ranking Marine Corps defense lawyer.
The lawyer sent the statement on behalf of a paralegal who said men she met on Sept. 23 at a bar on the base identified themselves to her as guards. The woman, whose name was blacked out, said she spent about an hour talking with them. No one was in uniform, she said.
A 19-year-old sailor referred to only as Bo "told the other guards and me about him beating different detainees being held in the prison," the statement said.
"One such story Bo told involved him taking a detainee by the head and hitting the detainee's head into the cell door. Bo said that his actions were known by others," but that he was never punished, the statement said. The paralegal was identified in the affidavit as a sergeant working on an unidentified Guantanamo-related case.
The statement was provided to the AP on Thursday night by Lt. Col. Colby Vokey. He is the Marine Corps' defense coordinator for the western United States and based at Camp Pendleton.
A Guantanamo Bay spokesman said the base would cooperate with any Pentagon investigation. A Pentagon spokesman declined immediate comment. A call to the inspector general's office was not immediately returned.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top10oct06,0,6478049.story



Rice Makes Surprise Visit to Baghdad
The secretary of State says she hopes to help speed Iraqi officials' efforts to craft accords that could damp the raging sectarian strife.
By Paul Richter and Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writers
October 6, 2006
BAGHDAD — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived here Thursday on an unannounced visit to urge on Iraq's skittish government as it seeks to restore security and shape a new national order.
Rice, on a weeklong visit to the Mideast and Europe, said she hoped to accelerate Iraqi officials' efforts to craft agreements on key national issues, which she said could not be put off any longer amid raging sectarian fighting.
She told reporters on her plane en route to Iraq that U.S. officials intended to "support all the parties and, indeed, to press [them] to work toward a resolution quickly…. The security situation is not one that can be tolerated…. It is not helped by political inaction. That's a message that Prime Minister [Nouri] al Maliki is trying to send."
U.S. officials have been impatient for Maliki to begin making the tough decisions confronting the government. Since he was chosen during the spring to head the first permanent Iraqi government, Maliki has faced resistance from feuding factions.
This week, the government moved to suppress sectarian violence by suspending a police brigade of as many as 1,200 men suspected of complicity in recent violence against Sunni Arabs.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-rice6oct06,0,7545002.story?coll=la-home-world



If Kim Jong Il Gets Nukes
How the world would change for the worse if the hermit kingdom explodes a bomb.
By Aaron L. Friedberg, AARON L. FRIEDBERG is a professor at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs and a former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney.
October 6, 2006
AFTER FOUR YEARS of bluster and buildup, North Korea has finally reached the nuclear finish line. On Tuesday, it announced its intention to step across. At every point along the way, Pyongyang has telegraphed its intentions, first announcing that it would withdraw from the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty and reprocess plutonium, then declaring that it already possessed a "deterrent force" and now, for the first time, proclaiming that it will conduct a weapons test. In this way, Pyongyang has probed the resolve of those seeking to stop it, extorting economic rewards for simply showing up at the negotiating table while at the same time forcing the world to adjust to the idea that it either already is, or soon will be, a member of the nuclear club.
In keeping with past practice, the North will probably not test right away, preferring instead to see what new concessions it can extract. Unless it encounters a tougher and more unified response than it has to date, however, Pyongyang will probably follow through eventually on its latest threat. On the nuclear issue, at least, Kim Jong Il has proved to be a man of his word.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-friedberg6oct06,0,2834319.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail



Delay Disrupts Meeting to Discuss Iran
By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer
11:28 AM PDT, October 6, 2006
LONDON -- A meeting of world powers Friday on whether to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear program was disrupted when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's flight was delayed, giving leaders little time to reach a consensus.
The United States has led calls for sanctions against Iran if it refuses to halt its uranium enrichment activities.
Since diplomatic efforts have failed so far to prompt Tehran to comply with international demands, Rice told reporters while en route to London that it is "getting pretty close to that time," that other paths should be taken.
"There is an issue of the credibility of the Security Council and the international system, and you simply can't just keep talking with no outcome," she said.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said as talks began Friday that she did not expect any major policy decisions to be reached.
"We do not rule out additional measures" to persuade Iran to respond to international concerns about its nuclear program, the Interfax news agency quoted Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying, indicating Moscow could agree to sanctions at some point. However, ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying there is still room for diplomacy.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana told security experts in Paris that "the door to negotiations is and will be always open."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top12oct06,0,7264483.story



Narrowing the field
Elite athletes now dominate many high school teams. As other sports opportunities shrink, average kids lose out.
By Shari Roan, Times Staff Writer
October 2, 2006
THE long, sweaty summer practices are over. The pep rallies have begun. Fall sports are underway around the nation.
Cory Harkey, 16, is part of the action. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound junior at Chino Hills High School is symbolic of the elite athlete who has come to dominate interscholastic high school sports. He practices to the point of exhaustion almost daily and plays on private club teams to maintain his star status in several sports. He dreams of a college scholarship in basketball or football, and college scouts undoubtedly will scrutinize his potential during the coming year.

http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-sports2oct02,0,2174372.story?coll=la-home-health


What is going on in South Dakota?

Rumsfeld: Venezuela Build-Up Is Concern
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
Associated Press Writer
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld passed on an offer of Venezuelan tobacco, but tried to smoke out the government of President Hugo Chavez on the country's recent military buildup.
"I don't know of anyone threatening Venezuela, anyone in this hemisphere," said Rumsfeld, who is attending a meeting here of Western hemisphere military leaders - many of them concerned about the weapons, jets and helicopters Chavez is buying.
Other countries in the region are worried that the weapons could end up in the hands of terrorists, Rumsfeld told reporters Monday, adding, "I can understand neighbors being concerned."
While he raised questions about the buildup, he also exchanged greetings with Venezuelan defense minister Gen. Raul Isaias Baduel, who also is attending the meeting.
"I have spoken to Mr. Rumsfeld to convince him that he should try smoking Venezuela's good tobacco," Baduel told the Associated Press. "He said he doesn't smoke, that his wife wouldn't let him."
Baduel, who did not meet one-on-one with Rumsfeld, also said his country's recent military spending spree wasn't "an arms race," despite Washington's protests.
Rumsfeld also did not meet with Chavez, who has repeatedly charged that United States is planning to invade his country, a claim American officials dismiss as preposterous. And he said Sunday that he's heard the Bush administration is plotting to assassinate him or topple his regime.
U.S. Army Gen. Bantz J. Craddock, chief of U.S. Southern Command, called the accusation "mindless" and "way over the top." But he also agreed that Venezuela's recent deal to buy roughly $3 billion worth of arms from Russia - including rifles, jet fighters and helicopters - is triggering "more concern from more countries."
Meanwhile, Craddock and other officials said Monday that they don't see a credible threat in Venezuela's call for the creation of an anti-U.S. military coalition with other leftist countries in the region. Craddock said Brazil's defense minister told the gathering he doesn't see a need for a regional military organization.
Gen. Moises Omar Hallesleven, the commander of the Nicaraguan military, told U.S. reporters he is not concerned about the Chavez effort.
Venezuela, he said through an interpreter, has very weak influence in the region. Hallesleven also vowed that as long as he is its leader, the Nicaraguan military will remain apolitical and professional - even if Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega wins the upcoming presidential election.
Chavez grabbed headlines recently when he called Bush "the devil" and slammed U.S. leaders for trying to block his country from taking a seat on the U.N. Security Council.
U.S. officials have long considered Chavez a destabilizing force. And they have suggested that Venezuela would make the Security Council unworkable if the nation were to win its bid against U.S.-backed Guatemala for a rotating council seat.
Rumsfeld, in his formal remarks to the gathering, also made a reference to the other main U.S. antagonist in the region: Cuba.
He said he hoped that one day soon "the final holdout in our hemisphere against the democratic sweep of history will give its citizens the right to choose their own destiny and will participate in our conference."
Rumsfeld also called for more regional cooperation in the fight against terrorism.
"These new challenges can be solved only if we work together to protect our free democratic institutions and to provide economic opportunities for our people," Rumsfeld said.
The military conference, along with a NATO defense ministers meeting and other military visits in the Balkans last week, have largely kept Rumsfeld out of Washington for the past week, where there is renewed debate on his stewardship of the Iraq war.
He said he will not resign, and told reporters he has not read, and likely won't read, the new book, "State of Denial" by Washington Post assistant managing editor Bob Woodward, that is critical of his stewardship of the war.

http://topnews.ap.org/dynamic/stories/R/RUMSFELD_CHAVEZ?SITE=KELOTV&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT



Bandido President Sentenced In Seattle
The national president of the Bandidos motorcycle gang, George Wegers, has been sentenced in Seattle to 20 months in prison.
He pleaded guilty to racketeering conspiracy, for his role in tampering with witnesses and trafficking stolen motorcycles and stolen vehicles.
With credit for time served, Wegers could be out in a month. He was also fined $10,000.
Wegers and four other members of the Bandidos club reached plea agreements in May on racketeering and kidnapping charges.
Wegers was one of 32 people in Washington, Montana and South Dakota who were indicted last year in federal court in Seattle.
Members were accused of conspiracy to commit murder, witness tampering, violent crime in aid of racketeering, and drug and weapons offenses. Most of the charges were settled through plea negotiations.

http://www.keloland.com/news/NewsDetail6371.cfm?Id=0,51551



Amendment D Debate
In just over a month South Dakota voters will decide whether to make a change in the state constitution that could affect property taxes.
Amendment D would roll back property assessments to 2003 levels. It would also cap future assessments at three-percent a year. If a property is sold, the purchase price becomes its new assessment.
Opponents say Amendment D would handcuff the legislature from making improvements in the property tax system.
Supporters say the amendment would prevent assessments from spiraling out of control.
Bill Napoli supports the amendment, “We're controlling taxes, we're controlling spending at the state level, but we are not controlling assessments. That's our whole problem.”
Joel Dykstra opposes the amendment, “The reality is the system we have is constantly being tweaked and improved, and we're watching for inequities in the system and those things can be repaired. We're not going to do that by way of a constitutional amendment.”
Coming up tonight on KELOLAND.com and KELOLAND News, we'll see how Amendment D could affect families looking at buying a home.
You can also hear more about the debate over Amendment D on this Sunday's Inside KELOLAND at 10:30 AM and 10:30 PM on KELOLAND TV.

http://www.keloland.com/news/NewsDetail6375.cfm?Id=0,51545



Cell Company Pledges To Cut Tax Surcharge
Verizon Wireless says it will immediately eliminate a surcharge on its cell-phone customers if South Dakota voters dump the current four percent state tax on the service.
The tax will be decided November seventh at the polls.
Verizon pressed to get the issue put on the ballot. The firm wants to get rid of the tax because consumers already pay other taxes, fees and surcharges on wireless phone services.
Verizon says those charges add nearly 15 percent to cell-phone bills in South Dakota, ranking the state as the eleventh highest in the nation for miscellaneous wireless expenses.
Those who favor the four percent state tax say it levels taxes between cellular and regular phone companies.
They also worry about the annual loss of four million dollars in revenues for counties and six million for the state.

http://www.keloland.com/news/NewsDetail6375.cfm?Id=0,51540



Pine Ridge Election Too Close To Call
Cecelia Fire Thunder may have come up three votes short in her quest to become the next Oglala Sioux Tribe president.
Unofficial results show President Alex White Plume and former President John Yellow Bird Steel as the top two vote-getters in the tribe's primary election on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Fire Thunder appears to have finished third.
Pine Ridge officials say the results are too close to call, and they've called in the US Census Bureau to look over some 300 contested votes.
Election officials expect official results to be available Friday.
White Plume succeeded Fire Thunder, who was ousted from the tribal presidency after she proposed establishment of an abortion clinic on the reservation.

http://www.keloland.com/news/NewsDetail6375.cfm?Id=0,51522

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