The Race Against Hillary Clinton. Will there be a Democratic Party left after the Primaries?

The odd 'thing' about the New York Times e-page about Hillary is the lack of recognition she gets as First Lady in her Bibliography. Being First Lady is no slouchy job. She wasn't exactly a wall flower as First Lady of Arkansas either. I sincerely believe there is some sexism involved when no one gives her all the credit she deserves for years of service to the people of Arkansas and the USA as their First Lady. She isn't JUST Bill Clinton's spouse, she is however, Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Morning Papers - continued...

The Boston Globe

Hurricane Noel may pass close to Cape Cod
(National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
Hurricane Noel is churning up the East Coast today and is expected to pummel Cape Cod and the islands Saturday with hurricane-force wind gusts, up to 3 inches of rain, and 30-foot seas.
Forecasters expect the storm, which is currently 425 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., to pass 150 miles east of the Cape sometime in the late morning or early afternoon Saturday. Mariners are bracing for high seas and are scrambling to secure boats.
The fast-moving storm is expected to weaken as it moves over colder water, but will be re-energized as it collides with the jet stream near New England.
"It will be almost like a very large winter storm, like a nor'easter," said Bill Simpson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Taunton. "It is then going to continue to intensify and grow as it moves north."

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/11/hurricane_noel.html


Metal object found in trick-or-treater's candy in Leicester
(Leicester Police photo)
The candy bar and the metal piece found in it. Chief Jim Hurley said the metal piece was akin to a small piece of a paper clip or a necklace clasp.
By Globe Staff
Police in the central Massachusetts town of Leicester are investigating after a piece of metal was found in a candy bar collected by a fourth-grade girl during trick-or-treating.
The small piece of metal was found inside a 100 Grand bar received by a student at the town's Memorial School, said Police Chief Jim Hurley.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/11/metal_object_fo.html


Thursday, November 1, 2007
'Worthless' stock gift turns into $13.9M for Pittsfield Boys and Girls Club
By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff
Officials at the Boys and Girls Club of Pittsfield say that when they received a gift of worthless stock a couple of years ago they briefly considered refusing it.
It's a good thing they didn't: The stock's value skyrocketed, eventually yielding the club nearly $14 million.
The club received the stock from a donor about two years ago, said club president John Donna. He said the club planned to make itself "bigger and better" with the money.
"We're all happy. This is a problem in a sense, but it's a nice problem to have," he said.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/11/worthless_stock.html


Salem police: stabbings and shooting unrelated to Halloween festivities
By Globe Staff
Salem police say Halloween night in their community was marred by two stabbings and a shooting. But they say the incidents weren't connected to the spooky celebration the town hosts in its downtown area.
"It wasn't related at all to the Halloween festivities. ... It's just unfortunate that we have these incidents happening on the outskirts that kind of put a black eye on the event," said Lieutenant Conrad Prosniewski, Salem police spokesman.
Prosniewski said two people were stabbed after an altercation broke out over a loud party at a house about a half-mile from the downtown area. In a second incident, a teen-ager was shot in the stomach about a mile from the downtown area. Police are probing whether the shooting was gang-related.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/11/salem_police_st.html



Wednesday, October 31, 2007
A bewitching night in Salem
(John Tlumacki/Globe Staff)
Salvatore Callender walked with his wife, Esmay, down Derby Street in Salem today. He is in the Army and stationed in Hawaii.
By Erin Ailworth, Globe Staff
Gypsies, monsters, pirates, princesses and, of course, witches streamed through Salem's streets tonight as more than 75,000 people visited the Halloween capital of the state, looking for spooky chills and thrills.
Trick-or-treating kids mixed with adult revelers and street corner evangelists preaching against wickedness.
Salem police, monitoring the situation on foot, bike, and horseback, expected the crowd to get a little rowdier later in the night when families go home.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/10/a_bewitching_ni.html


Auto insurers readying their deals
As competition nears, benefits take shape
By Bruce Mohl, Globe Staff November 2, 2007
Some Massachusetts automobile insurers are starting to gear up for competition, offering new policy benefits at no extra cost, adopting more recognizable names, and promising their agents competitive pricing.
Liberty Mutual Group of Boston and MetLife Auto and Home of Warwick, R.I., have both won approval from the Division of Insurance for enhancements to their existing policy benefits, which they plan to add at no extra cost to the customer. Both companies said the state's decision to move to auto insurance competition next year precipitated their filings.
The moves show that insurers are starting to distinguish themselves from rivals as Massachusetts prepares to introduce auto insurance competition for the first time in 30 years. To be sure, the full impact of competition won't be known until Nov. 19, when insurers are scheduled to file their rate plans for next year for customers who start renewing their policies after April 1. Customers may see even more insurers jumping into the fray, slashing rates and offering beefed-up policies.

http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/11/02/auto_insurers_readying_their_deals/


Addicts to receive overdose antidote
Kit and training for heroin users
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff November 2, 2007
State health authorities will start supplying addicts next month with a kit containing two doses of a medication that can reverse a potentially lethal overdose within minutes, hoping to reverse a tide of heroin deaths sweeping Massachusetts.
The initiative by the Department of Public Health mirrors a similar project in Boston, where at least 66 overdoses have been reversed since the program began a year ago.
State Public Health Commissioner John Auerbach, who introduced the Narcan program while leading Boston's health agency, said the results are so impressive that he wants to expand it to four areas of the state grappling with heroin epidemics. That drug and other opiates killed 544 people in Massachusetts in 2005, more than double the number felled by firearms.
"We are aware sadly that despite our efforts, there are people who will not be ready for treatment, and we want to prevent them from dying from a fatal overdose before we have an opportunity to convince them to get into treatment," said Auerbach, stressing that treatment remains the state's priority.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/11/02/addicts_to_receive_overdose_antidote/


Drug companies ordered to pay $13.6 million in Mass. pricing suit
November 2, 2007
BOSTON --A federal judge has ordered drug companies AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squib to pay a combined $13.6 million in a Massachusetts case that alleged they inflating the so-called "average wholesale price" of expensive, and sometimes life-saving, drugs.
U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris found that the companies "unfairly and deceptively caused to be published false" average wholesale prices of drugs.
As a result, Saris wrote in a judgment dated Thursday, the companies caused "real injuries to the insurers and the patients who were paying grossly inflated prices for critically important, often life-sustaining drugs."
Saris ordered AstraZeneca to pay $12.9 million and Bristol-Myers Squib to pay $695,594 in damages. Those affected by the ruling include insurers who reimbursed Medicare beneficiaries for their co-insurance, and insurers and consumers who made co-insurance payments based on the average wholesale price.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/02/drugs_companies_ordered_to_pay_136_million_for_inflating_prices/


Patrick administration revamps state's affordable housing law
November 2, 2007
BOSTON --The Patrick Administration is unveiling proposed changes to the state's anti-snob zoning law.
State undersecretary of housing Tina Brooks says the new regulations are designed to encourage the building of more affordable housing while easing some of the friction between communities and developers.
One change would help communities draft plans to more gradually increase the amount of affordable housing until they reach the state-mandated goal of 10 percent.
That could help cities and towns avoid battles with developers who can use the law to avoid local zoning codes if they promise to include a certain percentage of affordable housing in their developments.
"Ideally we would like to see every community have their own (affordable housing) plans," Brooks said. "The best solution for everyone is that municipalities get ahead of the curve."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/11/02/patrick_administration_revamps_states_affordable_housing_law/


Bush attorney general nominee gets boost
By The Associated Press November 2, 2007
INCREASING APPROVAL: Michael Mukasey drew closer to becoming attorney general Friday after two key Senate Democrats said they would vote for him despite his refusal to say whether waterboarding is torture.
DESPITE SEN. LEAHY: The decision by Sens. Charles Schumer and Dianne Feinstein to back President Bush's nominee came shortly after the chairman of the committee, Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., announced he would vote against Mukasey.
ALMOST THERE: Schumer and Feinstein's support for Mukasey virtually guarantees that a majority of the committee will recommend his confirmation when it votes on it next Tuesday.
© Copyright 2007 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/11/02/bush_attorney_general_nominee_gets_boost_1194044043/


Unknown spray sickens Calif. students
November 2, 2007
LODI, Calif. --Two students sprayed a noxious gas in the main hallway of a high school, sickening 43 students and sending six to the hospital, police said.
Police arrested the two students, ages 16 and 17, who told authorities they found the unmarked aerosol can while trick-or-treating on Halloween. Investigators aren't sure what was in it.
Dozens of Lodi High School students complained of tightness in their chests and difficulty breathing after the can was sprayed in the hallway on Thursday. Six were sent briefly to the hospital.
Officials were also investigating a report that one student was sprayed while walking to school. He also complained of chest pains and labored breathing.
The incident forced the cancellation of a groundbreaking ceremony planned for a new gymnasium in the school about 35 miles south of Sacramento.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/unknown_spray_sickens_calif_students/


Man falsely links son-in-law to al-Qaida
November 2, 2007
STOCKHOLM, Sweden --A Swedish man accused of falsely telling U.S. authorities that his son-in-law had links to al-Qaida has been charged with defamation, a newspaper reported Friday.
The false warning spoiled a business trip to the U.S. for the man's son-in-law, who was stopped at a Florida airport and questioned for 11 hours before being sent back on a plane to Sweden, the Sydsvenska Dagbladet daily reported.
U.S. authorities apparently reacted to an e-mail sent to the FBI saying the man "likely has links to the Muslim terror organization al-Qaida's network in Sweden," the newspaper reported.
The 52-year-old father-in-law admitted to having sent the e-mail after it was traced to his home computer, the paper said. He reportedly told police he sent the e-mail in anger after a dispute with his son-in-law, who was divorcing his daughter.
The man said he did not expect such a "paranoid reaction" from U.S. authorities, Sydsvenska Dagbladet reported.
According to court documents, he was charged Thursday with grave defamation in the district court in Lund, southern Sweden, and could face up to two years in prison if convicted.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/man_falsely_links_son_in_law_to_al_qaida/


Report ties meat, body fat to cancer
By Emily Brown, Bloomberg News November 1, 2007
WASHINGTON - Excess body fat and red meat are linked to an increased risk of common cancers and should be avoided, the World Cancer Research Fund and the American Institute for Cancer Research said.
About 40 percent of all cancers are linked to food, lack of exercise, and body weight, the organizations said in a 571-page report released yesterday. A panel of 21 researchers who compiled the report said it was the most comprehensive evaluation ever of evidence linking personal habits to cancer risk.
The findings are meant to guide future scientific research, cancer prevention education programs, and health policy around the world, panelists said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2007/11/01/report_ties_meat_body_fat_to_cancer/


Groundbreaking on ThyssenKrupp mill
By Garry Mitchell, Associated Press Writer November 2, 2007
CALVERT, Ala. --Bulldozers are clearing a 3,500-acre forest beside the Tombigbee River in southwest Alabama. It won't be a vast empty lot for long as construction begins next year on the $3.7 billion ThyssenKrupp steel mill.
Top executives from the Germany-based firm, Alabama Gov. Bob Riley and more than 700 state and local officials attended Friday's groundbreaking for the massive project.
"We will be in Alabama for decades to come, providing good jobs for many generations," ThyssenKrupp AG Chairman Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz said before a high school band struck up "Sweet Home Alabama."
The company's new plant in Brazil, set to start production in 2009, will ship its steel slabs to the Alabama plant, which will produce 5.1 million metric tons of steel products.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/11/02/groundbreaking_on_thyssenkrupp_mill/


Venezuela Congress OKs ending Chavez term limits
November 2, 2007
CARACAS (Reuters) - Congress passed President Hugo Chavez's proposal to scrap presidential term limits on Friday in a package of constitutional changes that Venezuelans are likely to approve in a December referendum.
Polls show many Venezuelans reject the moves to centralize presidential power, but welcome sweeteners the socialist leader has included, such as reducing the work day to six hours and giving social security to unregistered taxi drivers.
The opposition, the Roman Catholic Church, university students and rights groups have denounced the scores of changes to the constitution as an authoritarian power grab and protests against the proposal have turned violent.
Wall St. worries the reforms will further chill investment, especially after Chavez decreed a raft of nationalizations earlier this year with the vow of making the major oil exporter a socialist state.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2007/11/02/venezuela_congress_oks_ending_chavez_term_limits/


Military reports 387 Afghan-area deaths
By The Associated Press November 2, 2007
As of Friday, Nov. 2, 2007, at least 387 members of the U.S. military had died in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Uzbekistan as a result of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in late 2001, according to the Defense Department. The department last updated its figures Tuesday at 10 a.m. EDT.
Of those, the military reports 259 were killed by hostile action.
Outside the Afghan region, the Defense Department reports 62 more members of the U.S. military died in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. Of those, two were the result of hostile action. The military lists these other locations as Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba; Djibouti; Eritrea; Jordan; Kenya; Kyrgyzstan; Philippines; Seychelles; Sudan; Tajikistan; Turkey; and Yemen.
There were also four CIA officer deaths and one military civilian death.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/11/02/military_reports_387_afghan_area_deaths/


Clinton, Dodd sign letter warning Bush on Iran
November 2, 2007
WASHINGTON - Hillary Clinton and 29 other senators wrote to President Bush yesterday to tell him he has no congressional authority for war with Iran, sparking debate among the Democratic presidential candidates.
The four Democratic senators running for the White House split over whether to sign the letter. Chris Dodd of Connecticut added his support, while Barack Obama of Illinois and Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware declined.
Clinton's campaign accused Obama of playing politics by refusing to support the letter, which was circulated by Senator Jim Webb of Virginia. Instead, Obama introduced a measure yesterday to make the case in law, spokesman Bill Burton said.
"It will take more than a letter to prevent this administration from using the language contained within the Kyl-Lieberman resolution to justify military action in Iran," Burton said, referring to a nonbinding resolution that designates Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization.
The letter Clinton and Dodd signed accuses Bush of "provocative statements and actions stemming from your administration with respect to possible US military action in Iran."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/clinton_dodd_sign_letter_warning_bush_on_iran/


Obama says US must try talking to Iran
November 2, 2007
WASHINGTON --Sen. Barack Obama said Friday that as president he would personally negotiate with Iran, offering economic incentives and a chance for peaceful relations if Iranian leaders would forgo pursuit of nuclear weapons and support of terrorists.
Citing a long history of progress through diplomatic gestures toward China and the former Soviet Union, Obama laid out in stronger terms his call for diplomacy with Iran -- a policy with greater emphasis on negotiation than the Bush administration policy and a stance that has been ridiculed by his fellow Democratic presidential candidates.
"There is the potential at least for us finding ways of peacefully resolving some of our conflicts, and that effort has not been attempted," Obama said. "And if we don't make that attempt, then we're going to find ourselves continuing on the path that Bush and Cheney have set, and we're seeing the rhetoric rise every day."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/obama_says_us_must_try_talking_to_iran/


Fact check: Giuliani's cancer stats
THE FACT CHECK:
The American Cancer Society says that survival rates are actually higher and that it's misleading to compare the two countries.
The group cautions that screening for prostate cancer is much more widespread in this country -- meaning that in the U.S., higher survival rates include many whose lives probably weren't in danger and whose cancers might have gone unnoticed in the U.K.
Five-year survival rates were 95 percent in the U.S. and 60 percent in the United Kingdom, which includes Britain, in 1993-1995, the most recent time period with data to compare, the group said.
Today, rates are higher -- 99 percent in the U.S. and an estimated 74 percent in the U.K.
Doctors in the two countries have different approaches. That's because while aggressive prostate cancer can kill, it often grows so slowly, and is found when it's so small, that men die of something else before it ever threatens their lives or even causes symptoms.
So there is disagreement -- and studies conflict -- over whether the chances of survival for men with low-risk tumors really improve with aggressive treatment, or if they can be closely monitored and treated only if their tumors grow, thereby avoiding side effects such as impotence and incontinence.
The former New York mayor got his numbers from an article in the City Journal, a quarterly magazine published by the conservative Manhattan Institute think tank.
The article was written by David Gratzer, a Manhattan Institute fellow and adviser to Giuliani's campaign.
Mortality rates in the two countries are closer -- 15 of every 100,000 people die of prostate cancer in the U.K., compared with 12 of 100,000 in the U.S., the American Cancer Society said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/fact_check_giulianis_cancer_stats/


Bill Clinton says speed papers release
By Jessica Mintz, Associated Press Writer November 2, 2007
REDMOND, Wash. --Former President Clinton said Friday that a letter he wrote to the National Archives was to expedite release of his papers, not slow the process or hide anything as rivals are suggesting in criticism of his wife.
Hillary Rodham Clinton was quizzed during this week's Democratic presidential debate as to why correspondence between her and her husband from their White House years remained bottled up at the National Archives. Barack Obama said that was a problem for her as a candidate after "we have just gone through one of the most secretive administrations in our history."
One issue is whether Bill Clinton had sent a letter to the Archives asking that the communications not be released until 2012, and whether Hillary Clinton would lift any ban, a question raised by debate moderator Tim Russert.
"She was incidental to the letter, it was done five years ago, it was a letter to speed up presidential releases, not to slow them down," the former president told reporters Friday. "And she didn't even, didn't know what he was talking about. And now that I've described to you what the letter said, you can readily understand why she didn't know what he was talking about."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/bill_clinton_says_speed_papers_release/


Romney returns to experience, Clinton-bashing in latest ad
By Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer
November 2, 2007
CONCORD, N.H. --Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Friday added to Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's rough week, airing a television ad that says she lacks sufficient experience to run the country.
Romney, a former venture capitalist and Republican Massachusetts governor, tells voters in the 30-second ad running in New Hampshire that Clinton, at best, has been an intern in the White House.
"Hillary Clinton wants to run the largest enterprise in the world. She hasn't run a corner store. She hasn't run a state. She hasn't run a city," Romney says in the ad. "She has never run anything. And the idea that she could learn to be president as an internship just doesn't make any sense."
Clinton, the former first lady who was elected a U.S. senator in 2000, spent the 1990s as a key player in her husband's administration. But by Romney calling the time an "internship," he invokes the scandals of Bill Clinton's relationship with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/11/02/romney_returns_to_experience_clinton_bashing_in_latest_ad/


Not an answer on immigration
November 2, 2007
TUESDAY'S DEBATE among the Democratic candidates for president thrust a touchy issue into the national debate: Should illegal immigrants be issued driver's licenses?
New York Governor Eliot Spitzer seemed to be taking a bold stand when he said his state would give licenses to undocumented immigrants. But then Spitzer talked with Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. And now it looks as if New York will settle for an unwieldy system of tiered licenses.
Undocumented immigrants should be licensed, so that authorities know who they are and that they can drive safely. But New York's proposal is unlikely to provide that security. Faced with federal inaction on immigration reform and federal pressure from Chertoff, New York has Scotch-taped together a plan to issue three kinds of licenses.
One license, open to US citizens and permanent residents, would qualify drivers and serve as federally approved identification that could be used to board airplanes. It's meant to comply with the national REAL ID law, which requires states to develop highly secure IDs. But REAL ID is a troubled law that could cost billions to implement and doesn't adequately address privacy concerns. New York should have waited before complying, given bills in Congress to modify the REAL ID law.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2007/11/02/not_an_answer_on_immigration/


Clearing the air on Cape Wind
November 2, 2007
RE "THE 'not in my backyard' debate, front and center" (Letters, Oct. 20): Carl Johnson wrote that Cape Wind would save a "pittance" of greenhouse gas emissions, and Tom Kenny wrote that Cape Wind's electricity would not be used exclusively on Cape Cod.
In terms of emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, Ian Bowles, state secretary of environment and energy, concluded that Cape Wind's impact would be equivalent to removing 175,000 cars from the roads each year.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has stated that Cape Wind is the "largest single source of supply-side reductions in CO2 currently proposed in the United States."
On the question of where Cape Wind's electricity would go, the Massachusetts Technology Collaborative convened fact-finding sessions on Cape Cod three years ago, and based on presentations by the electric grid manager and by NStar, the MTC report concluded, "The energy produced from the proposed wind farm would flow to and be consumed on Cape Cod." This finding was based on testimony that electricity "follows the path of least resistance" and is generally consumed closer to its source.
MARK RODGERS
Communications director
Cape Wind
North Falmouth

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/letters/articles/2007/11/02/clearing_the_air_on_cape_wind/


The Clinton gospel
By Scot Lehigh
November 2, 2007
THOU SHALT not criticize Hillary Clinton.
That may as well be the mantra of the Clinton camp.
Why, the way Clinton's campaign acts, you could be forgiven for thinking she was an absolute monarch, and not merely the Democratic front-runner.
Consider: Senator Barack Obama of Illinois, currently Clinton's chief rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, began his campaign on lofty themes of change and hope. But his effort has plateaued, and so Obama recently told The New York Times that he intends to confront Clinton more directly and draw more pointed distinctions.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/02/the_clinton_gospel/


Edward L. Glaeser
Violence, learning, and the gender divide
By Edward L. Glaeser November 2, 2007
RECENT STORIES about whether men and women think and learn differently because their brains are different have argued that any cognitive differences that may exist are small and that classrooms should not be divided by gender.
I agree with the view that teaching math in different ways to girls and boys is pernicious and silly. But schooling is about teaching socially productive citizenship as well as geometry, and the difference in male and female propensities toward self-destructive violence is no myth.
Men are more than eight times as likely as women to commit murder and more than 50 times as likely to engage in a gang-related killing. My gender commits 84 percent of all violent crimes. Young men are four times more likely than women to carry a gun and five times more likely to commit suicide.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/11/02/violence_learning_and_the_gender_divide/

continued...

Genocide has many faces, including removing people from their homelands well intentioned or not.

In this previously un transmitted photo, refugee women are seen in the Otash refugee camp on the outskirts of Nyala, South Darfur, Sudan on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007. The U.N. warned this week that Sudan's government is increasing the pressure on Darfur civilians to leave many refugee camps where they had fled to avoid violence, and that it had evidence that government forces were chasing the refugees out of at least one camp, Otash, home to 60,000 people on the outskirts of south Darfur's capital, Nyala. (AP Photo/Alfred de Montesquiou) (Alfred De Montesquiou - AP)

UN disputes charity's Darfur orphans claim (click here)
5:00AM Saturday November 03, 2007
Chadian President Idriss Deby. Photo / Reuters
As Chad's President yesterday said he hoped some French and Spanish nationals detained for trying to fly African children to Europe could be freed soon, United Nations workers said most of the children were not Darfur orphans as claimed, but had been living with their families in eastern Chad.
Chad is holding nine French nationals and seven Spanish air crew after blocking an attempt by French charity Zoe's Ark to fly out 103 children for foster care by French and Belgian "host" families.
They were arrested in the town of Abeche last week and charged with abduction and fraud and face possible forced labour terms of up to 20 years if convicted.
UN officials said information from Red Cross interviews with the children contradicted statements by Zoe's Ark, which said they were sick and destitute orphans from Sudan's war-torn Darfur region....

At least the parents are being heard. It could be much worse and the separation of family could be lost to chaos and families would be broken up forever. That is not happening here and everyone advocating for families to remain together need to be congratulated. The children need to be returned to their parents and Darfur made secure for all people. It is too easy to rescues people, but, to protect them within their homes and native lands if a far nobler cause.

Charity's 'Darfur Orphans' Have Parents (click here)
By TOM MALITI – 1 day ago
N'DJAMENA, Chad (AP) — Most of the 103 African children described as orphans from Sudan's Darfur region by a French charity that tried to fly them to Europe appear to have at least one living parent, U.N. agencies said Thursday.
The case prompted another African country, the Republic of Congo, to suspend all international adoptions, a decision one agency warned could have harmful repercussions for families seeking legitimate adoptions.
The French charity, calling itself Zoe's Ark, was stopped last week from flying the children from Chad to Europe, where the group said it intended to place them with host families.
Seventeen Europeans have been detained by Chadian authorities, including six French citizens who were charged with kidnapping. The group says its intentions were purely humanitarian.
Aid workers who interviewed the children at an orphanage in eastern Chad said most of them come from villages on the Chadian-Sudanese border region.
"Ninety-one of the children referred to a family environment made up of at least one adult person whom they consider as a parent," the U.N.'s Children Fund, the U.N. refugee agency and the Red Cross said in a joint statement....

Will the West convince Darfur rebels to negotiate? (click here)
Commentary by Chaalan Charif*
02-11-2007
The diplomatic to-ing and fro-ing continues in the Libyan city of Sirte after an inconclusive end to the peace talks on Darfur. There is still much be done before negotiations between the Sudanese government and the rebels from the western provinces can begin.
Representatives of all the delegations have stayed behind in Sirte, while their leaders have flown off in all directions. Everyone is working hard to make it possible for the talks to resume at the beginning of December.
The international mediators are still hoping to get all the parties in the Darfur conflict around the table. As the Sirte peace conference has produced no concrete results, they are trying to continue the process through intensive contacts with the rebel leaders who boycotted the talks, and also with European and African governments and the US....

Morning Papers - continued...

Northern Territory News

Taliban overrun another Afghan district
3 November 2007
TALIBAN fighters have overrun a second district in western Afghanistan, a district governor said today, warning the rebels could be planning to sweep into his area.
The police and administration heads of the strategic Bakwa district in Farah province had fled after days of attacks by scores of rebels, the official said, after the militants took the adjacent Gulistan district late on Monday.
Taliban insurgents have previously overrun several districts in remote parts of Afghanistan, including Bakwa, but have been easily ejected by the international militaries here to aid the country's weak security forces.
They have, however, held the district of Musa Qala, close to Gulistan, since February and the area is considered a Taliban base.
Bakwa police had made a “tactical withdrawal” to Delaram district after a new Taliban attack late yesterday, said Delaram governor Yahya Riadth.
“Taliban have control over Bakwa district now and the police and district governor have retreated to our district,” he said.
Mr Riadth warned his district, bordered by both Bakwa and Gulistan, could also be attacked.
“The Government needs to reinforce our district urgently; otherwise we have intelligence reports that the Taliban will attack us from both districts they have captured,” he said.

http://tools.ntnews.com.au/rss_article.php?news_id=474441


Tight budgets, tough on unions, says Swan
3 November 2007
ASPIRING treasurer Wayne Swan has outlined a tough and conservative plan to run tight budgets, keep cutting tariffs and also stamp out "thuggish union behaviour ... if and when it happens".
In a broad-ranging interview published in The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper today, Mr Swan pledges to keep the economy on track while delivering on Labor's election commitments.
Mr Swan said a Rudd Labor government would also not be tempted to freeze tariffs to protect industries suffering from the runaway Australian dollar.
“We're not going back, we're going forward,” he said.
“We won't be going back to a tariff wall.”
Mr Swan said he was prepared to turn down requests for big spending initiatives by his his cabinet colleagues.
“I'm absolutely prepared for it. I make no apologies for the fact that I will be tough.
"Keeping spending under control is critical.”
He said Labor would be prepared to deliver its inaugural budget in May, if elected on November 24.
Mr Swan also spoke of the importance of the independence of the Reserve Bank while also saying Treasury officials would be re-engaged as a vital source of advice on “a new wave of micro-economic reform”.
“This conjunction of an economy operating at the limits of its capacity and a new government with new priorities has several implications for the role of Treasury within government,” Mr Swan said.

http://tools.ntnews.com.au/rss_article.php?news_id=474431


Ambush claims 18 Indian policemen
3 November 2007
AT least 18 policemen were feared killed in an Maoist rebel ambush today in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh, officials said.
The attack took place in the state's rebel-infested Bijapur district, a senior police officer said in the state capital, Raipur.
“Until we retrieve all the bodies, we cannot say for sure they are all dead,” he said, preferring not to be named.
The victims were deployed in a 23-man anti-Maoist patrol in the forests of Bijapur, where an unspecified number of guerrillas attacked them with firearms, he said.
“Five of the men have returned after the ambush,” he said.
Reinforcements were being rushed to the scene of the ambush.
The attack follows two separate gunbattles in which five policemen and four Maoist rebels were killed in Chhattisgarh and in nearby revolt-hit Jharkhand state.
In an attack on Monday, left-wing guerrillas fired

http://tools.ntnews.com.au/rss_article.php?news_id=474435



Cape Town airport closed after runway crash
3 November 2007
CAPE Town International Airport has halted flights indefinitely after an aircraft veered off the main runway after landing, a South African airport official said.
No injuries were reported.
Bongani Maseko, director of airport operations at the Airports Company South Africa (ACSA), told SABC radio that officials were talking to South African Airways (SAA.UL) to establish what had happened.
“An SAA Airbus, landing from Johannesburg, landed safely on the runway and attempted a manoeuvre.

http://tools.ntnews.com.au/rss_article.php?news_id=474445



Arrest in Oprah Winfrey school abuse case
3 November 2007
SOUTH African police said they had arrested a former dormitory employee at Oprah Winfrey's leadership academy for girls on charges of abuse, including indecent acts.
At least seven alleged victims have submitted statements about the woman, police said.
“A former dormitory employee (27) has been arrested yesterday by the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit on several charges of abuse,” police spokesman Superintendent Lungelo Dlamini said.
“Several charges including alleged assault, indecent assault, crimen injuria and soliciting girls under age to perform indecent acts are being investigated against her.
"At least seven victims have already submitted statements.”
The suspect is being held by police and is expected to appear before a magistrate on Monday.
The $40 million academy has been dogged by controversy since it opened in January with a launch attended by singers Mariah Carey and Tina Turner, actor Sydney Poitier and filmmaker Spike Lee.
In March, some parents complained the school was too strict and its restrictions on visits, phone calls and email contact were comparable to rules in prisons.
In May, some parents complained their children were not allowed junk food and when they visited the school they had to go through a security gate.
Crimen injuria refers to the crime of injuring another person's dignity.
This can cover racial abuse and sexual offences against children.

http://tools.ntnews.com.au/rss_article.php?news_id=474281



Last open garden as season changes
12Oct07
GARDEN lovers shouldn't miss this weekend's open garden, the last of the season.
Belle's Backyard in Malak, Darwin, is a cool and shaded place, made up of sheltering trees, winding, pathways and a lush understorey.
The tropical paradise, named after the family dog, includes begonias, ferns, heliconias, bromeliads, caladiums, crotons, hibiscus and native trees.
Owners Mary Noble and Robert Harris have an eye for potential recycling opportunities.
The "Ozziebo' -- an iron, timber gazebo -- is a garden highlight.
Ms Noble hopes visitors will be delighted by the forms and colours her garden has to offer.
"They'll enjoy the garden because there are so many aspects to it,'' she said.
Belle's Backyard, at 36 Todd Crescent, Malak will be open from 10am to 4.30pm Saturday and Sunday.
Entry is $5 for adults. Children free. Money raised goes to Medecins sans Frontieres.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2007/10/12/2322_ntnews.html



Grief, shock over newsreader's death
AAP
2 November 2007
THE sudden death of Network Ten journalist and news anchor Charmaine Dragun has sparked an outpouring of grief.
The television network where the 29-year-old had worked for eight years is tonight in a state of shock, as TV viewers turned to internet blogs to air their sorrow.
Ms Dragun's body was found at The Gap, in Sydney's east, shortly before 4pm this afternoon and police have described her death as non-suspicious.
“Colleagues and friends of Charmaine Dragun, co-presenter of TEN's Perth News at Five, mourn her tragic passing this afternoon,” TEN's chief executive officer Grant Blackley said.
“We are all in a state of shock and sadness at this terrible news.”
Mr Blackley said Ms Dragun was a highly intelligent, vibrant and caring person, universally liked and admired by her colleagues.
“Our deepest sympathies go to her partner, Simon, and her family.
“We are doing what we can to support them and urge everyone to respect their privacy at this time.”

http://tools.ntnews.com.au/rss_article.php?news_id=474095



Sydney Morning Herald

Missile strike kills at five in Pakistan
November 2, 2007 - 11:24PM
A missile attack launched by a drone aircraft killed at least five people and wounded several more near a madrasa run by pro-al-Qaeda mujahideen in Pakistan's volatile Waziristan region, witnesses said.
"A drone was flying very low and fired the missile. It destroyed three houses," a resident of Dandi Darpakheil village told Reuters, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information, as drone attacks are typically launched by US forces across the border in Afghanistan.
The missile hit dwellings close to a sprawling religious school or madrasa founded by a veteran mujahideen commander, Jalaluddin Haqqani.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Missile-strike-kills-at-five-in-Pakistan/2007/11/02/1193619152869.html


The roses were dying: widow's lament for husband
November 3, 2007
THE widow of a grandfather who died on his front lawn in a fight over water restrictions says she regrets sending him out to water the roses in the afternoon.
Ken Proctor suffered a massive heart attack on Wednesday after he was allegedly punched in the head by a stranger, who then kicked him as he lay on the ground. He died a short time later in hospital.
Police will allege the attack occurred as the 66-year-old watered the garden of his Sylvania home and began as an argument about water use.
Mr Proctor had been complying with Sydney's water restrictions at the time of the attack.
Todd Munter, 36, also of Sylvania, has been charged with murder and is in custody following a court appearance yesterday.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/widows-lament-for-husband/2007/11/03/1193619156731.html



Evidence ruled out of case
Tom Allard National Security Editor
November 3, 2007
MISCONDUCT by ASIO and federal police officers has resulted in the Supreme Court ruling inadmissable all interview records with Izhar ul-Haque, a Sydney medical student charged in 2004 with training with a terrorist organisation.
The ruling yesterday by Justice Michael Adams represents the latest in a series of high-profile blunders by members of the national security establishment in unrelated investigations.
"I have decided that the records of interview are inadmissable because of the conduct of the ASIO and AFP officers," the judge said.
Two incidents underpinned the ruling. The first involved an interview with ul-Haque immediately after he was confronted by ASIO officers at Blacktown railway station as he returned home from the University of NSW.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/evidence-out-in-sydney-terror-case/2007/11/02/1193619145295.html



Ferry plan won't float: union
THE State Government's push to privatise Sydney Ferries and install a private operator for the city's future metro rail system is shifting blame for poor services, the head of Unions NSW has claimed.
John Robertson yesterday echoed a chorus of union frustration at the recommendation by Bret Walker, SC, after his seven-month investigation, to move the operation of a new fleet of ferries into private hands.
The Special Commission of Inquiry into Sydney Ferries Report, released yesterday, paints a new future for the troubled harbour service, but Mr Robertson said it reflected an agenda led by the Treasurer, Michael Costa, to outsource public services.
"The Government is trying to shift responsibility on a whole range of levels," he said.
"Outsourcing responsibility is a great idea if you don't want to be held accountable."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/ferry-plan-wont-float-union/2007/11/02/1193619145298.html



Possum goes on the rampage in NSW museum
November 2, 2007 - 12:50PM
Advertisement
At first, mindless vandals were suspected after valuable historical artefacts were destroyed in a rampage through a NSW museum.
Today the culprit was behind bars.
It was a possum.
Members of the Moruya and District Historical Society, at Moruya on the NSW south coast, had initially blamed a "human hand" for the late night rampage, which caused thousands of dollars in damage.
The 280-member society established the museum more than 30 years ago, acquiring artefacts dating back to the 1830s to record the history of the area, and housing them in a building that itself is well over 100 years old.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/02/1193619113891.html



Young runaway made into sex slave
Geesche Jacobsen
November 3, 2007
A TEENAGE girl who ran away from home after a fight with her mother became "a sort of sexual slave" when a man persuaded her to prostitute herself at Kings Cross so he could buy food.
She had first encountered Antonio Salvatore, who she knew only as Brendon, when he had sent her an unsolicited text message, and, after she responded, he started to call her.
One day in April 2002, a month before she was due to turn 16, she left her western Sydney home after a fight with her mother, and met Salvatore.
On the second day she had sex with Salvatore, then aged nearly 24, who had told her "I am your boyfriend now". That same day he suggested she work for him as a prostitute. She refused.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/11/02/1193619145394.html



Children of doping athletes deformed
Jacquelin Magnay
November 1, 2007
THEY are the 69 children of a small part of the drugged generation of sporting stars. But instead of inheriting their parent's athletic ability, the children have been shown to have serious medical issues at rates much higher than that of the general population. Seven have physical deformities and four are mentally handicapped.
Frightening damage from East Germany's systematic doping of two decades of elite and promising sports stars in the 1970s and '80s has emerged in the next generation, according to the German researcher Giselher Spitzer.
A recently published two-year study of 52 Olympic and elite-level former East German athletes, now aged between 40 and 60, conducted by the Germany University, Humboldt, has revealed shocking medical consequences of the forced consumption of anabolic steroids.
Dr Spitzer said in addition to the high rate of physical and mental handicaps in the offspring of the 52 athletes, more than a quarter of the children have allergies and 23 per cent have asthma.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/31/1193618974100.html



Watershed in Malaysia over courts' autonomy
Hamish McDonald
November 3, 2007
MALAYSIA rarely makes our news these days, a sign the country is generally stable and prosperous and, at least since the retirement of the former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad four years ago, relatively free of abuses of authority.
But this week a battle has come to a head in Kuala Lumpur that will be crucial to whether Malaysia rolls back one of Mahathir's worst assaults on good governance and constitutional safeguards during his 22 years as leader.
It will either set the country's judiciary back towards the widely respected independence that Mahathir subverted, or confirm it as a pliable extension of the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), the party that has led government since the Malaysian federation was formed in 1963.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/watershed-in-malaysia-over-courts-autonomy/2007/11/02/1193619145418.html



Bush pick for top lawman in doubt
Anne Davies in Washington
November 3, 2007
Advertisement
US PRESIDENT George Bush's choice of attorney-general is in serious doubt after Democrats in Congress indicated they may refuse to confirm retired judge Michael Mukasey.
They say his refusal to condemn the practice of "waterboarding" as torture in congressional testimony was inadequate.
Waterboarding is an interrogation technique that induces the sensation of drowning when water is poured on a shackled detainee whose face is covered. Reports have linked CIA interrogations of al-Qaeda suspects to the technique.
Mr Mukasey's nomination, initially popular and uncontroversial, has now become a new battleground between the President and Democrats, prompting Mr Bush to make a highly emotional public plea for his man. He summoned journalists to the Oval Office to put his arguments in favour of Mr Mukasey, a move considered highly unusual.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bush-pick-for-top-lawman-in-doubt/2007/11/02/1193619141700.html



Boxing clever: Jordan's women fight hard to keep their place in ring
Ed O'Loughlin Herald Correspondent in Amman
November 3, 2007
Page 1 of 2 Single page
AYMAN AWAT has turned up early for practice at Jordan's national boxing arena, and as he puts his gloves on, the previous trainees are still sparring in the ring.
The two fighters are hopelessly mismatched in both height and weight. The little one has to fight a desperate rearguard action, backing away from trouble behind a screen of frantic jabs.
"Easy, easy," the little one appeals, and the coach in the ring intervenes angrily. "What's all this 'easy?'," he demands. "You're supposed to be fighters!"
Awat, who boxes for the Jordanian national team, frowns at the pair sparring in the ring. "I don't agree with this at all," he says darkly. "Women aren't able to fight. It's a physical thing. They shouldn't fight, they should stay at home. A woman should be a lady, not a fighter."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/boxing-clever-jordans-women-fight-hard-to-keep-their-place-inring/2007/11/02/1193619145421.html



Giving it up; living it up
Ian Munro and Philippa Bourke November 3, 2007
Spiritual healing is a centuries-old tradition around Malibu and through the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The sweeping cliff-top views of cobalt skies and the Pacific Ocean were once the province of Chumash Indians who believed sickness came from an ailing spirit.
Their medicine relied on herbs, massage, and heat therapy in domed, clay sweat lodges. They believed heat would purify the spirit.
In recent times, a similar philosophy has overtaken the region, with Malibu now a celebrity sick bay, accommodating a growth industry of residential clinics treating spirits beset by alcohol and drug addiction, depression and behavioural disorders.
What the Chumash might fail to understand today are the gated driveways and private hilltops that prevent just anyone from entering these havens.

http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/resortstyle-rehab-centres-may-not-help/2007/11/02/1193619150075.html



World's best bottoms
2007-11-02 15:20:25
Two winners have been awarded the hotly-contested title of the "world's most beautiful bottom".(01:25)

http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Breaking%20News&rid=32957

continued...

Tens of Thousands Trapped in Mexico Floods

A family walks in a flooded street of Villahermosa, state of Tabasco after the overflowing of the Carrizales river. (Gilberto Villasana/AFP/Getty Images)

VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico—Tens of thousands of Mexicans were trapped on rooftops and others clung to lampposts on Thursday after heavy rains flooded nearly the entire southern state of Tabasco.
At least 500,000 people were made homeless and one person was killed in the worst flooding the swampy state has seen in more than 50 years.
President Felipe Calderon said it was one of the worst natural disasters in Mexico's history.
Television images showed rescue workers hauling people out turbulent, brown waters that rose as high as the roofs of houses. Children floated down a street in a plastic tub.
"It is getting very serious," Calderon said in a televised address.
Tabasco Gov. Andres Granier said more than 1 million people—about half of the state's population—were "in the water," and scores of people called local radio programs pleading to be rescued.
Floodwaters turned many towns and swaths of the state capital, Villahermosa, into murky lakes....

Morning Papers - continued...

The New Zealand Herald

Derelict building's demise visible over much of city
5:00AM Saturday November 03, 2007
The building in Tennyson St, Mt Eden collapsed as the fire destroyed it. Photo / Chris Hoffmann
A derelict two-storey Auckland building was destroyed by fire last night on Tennyson St in Mt Eden.
A Northern Fire Communications spokesman said the blaze, which could be seen from much of central Auckland, started about 10.30pm. The cause was unknown.
Nine fire engines and about 30 firefighters fought the inferno. The spokesman said there didn't appear to be anybody inside the building, which collapsed.
Freelance photographer Chris Hoffmann said: "The flames were five or six storeys high and about 100 people were standing around watching. It was so hot that when the rain was coming down it was evaporating before touching the ground."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10473831



No wheat, just worry, from dust bowl
5:00AM Monday October 29, 2007
WEST WYALONG - Farmer John Ridley will not be harvesting so much as a bag of wheat this season from fields that stretch to the horizon as Australia's drought takes its toll on the country's grain belt.
Beneath a cloudless sky, 60-year-old Ridley, a descendant of one of Australia's pioneering farming families, pulls a clump of brittle stubble from the dusty earth.
"It should be this high, waving green in the breeze. Farmers are in a stunned state at the moment. In a state of disbelief, shock, helplessness."
Ridley's farm is in the epicentre of devastation from the drought, about 500km west of Sydney. Prime wheat growing territory, the district normally grows much of the wheat that makes Australia the world's second-biggest exporter.
Yet this year the district will produce almost nothing.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10472662


Alerts raised on active volcanoes
5:00AM Monday October 29, 2007
JAKARTA - Three volcanos in Indonesia are under close watch following heightened activity.
Indonesia's Centre for Volcanology and Geological Hazard Mitigation raised the alert on Mt Anak Krakatau to the second-highest level on Saturday after showers of ash.
The volcano is about 130km west of Jakarta. It formed gradually after Krakatau erupted in 1883. Officials are also monitoring Mt Kelud in East Java and Mt Soputan in North Sulawesi.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10472622



Nature has spoken and needs to be heard
5:00AM Monday October 29, 2007
By Peter Huck
Beth Connor stands in the remains of her home. Photo / Reuters
Standing on a hillside in Ojai, north of Los Angeles, last week, as smoke from the Magic, Ranch and Buckweed wildfires turned the setting sun blood red, it was easy to succumb to the apocalyptic tones favoured by local media.
At that time - Friday - 13 blazes, including the huge Witch fire, which had blackened a large part of San Diego County, were still burning between Santa Barbara and the Mexican border.
Half-a-million people had been ordered from their homes, the largest US evacuation since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005.
More than 180,000ha had been burned, and more than 1600 homes - although both totals may rise - and around 12 people had been killed.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10472570


California calls new fire alert as winds forecast
2:54PM Thursday November 01, 2007
By Jill Serjeant
California's weary firefighters were placed on a new fire alert on Wednesday after weather forecasters warned of hot dry winds this weekend similar to those that sparked 22 deadly blazes last week.
With 3000 people still out of their homes as firefighters struggled to contain the last four stubborn fires in southern California, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered personnel and aircraft to deploy to areas facing high fire risk from the forecast Santa Ana winds.
"We're not out of the danger zone yet," Schwarzenegger told reporters on Wednesday. "We still have four fires.. and we're watching the weather very closely.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10473471


Mini-tornado havoc
5:15AM Wednesday October 31, 2007
Residents hid under their utes and sheds were demolished as a "mini-tornado" tore through central Queensland during another night of wild storms.
The Queensland Government activated State Disaster Relief Assistance.
The storms came a day after similar weather caused property damage and blackouts in the south-east.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10473100



Storms lash south-east Queensland
11:36AM Monday October 29, 2007
Brisbane - A house was struck by lightning and more than 1700 homes are without power after a night of severe storms in south-east Queensland.
The region was hit by storms from about 11pm NZT yesterday, which continued into the night and resumed this morning.
The State Emergency Service (SES) received 82 calls throughout the night, with the majority of those calls coming from the Gold Coast region, an SES spokeswoman said.
There were also a number of calls from Ipswich, west of Brisbane, and the Beaudesert and Logan areas south of Brisbane.
"Those calls have been mainly to do with fallen trees and roof damage," the spokeswoman said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10472723



Disaster zone declared in NSW
6:15AM Monday October 29, 2007
An area of the New South Wales north coast damaged by storms has been declared a natural disaster zone.
Large hailstones and destructive winds battered the towns of Dunoon, Lismore, Grafton, Byron Bay and Mullumbimby.
The NSW government has estimated that the storms caused about A$1 million ($1.2 million) of damage.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10472633



Earthquake rocks western Indonesia
12:47PM Wednesday October 24, 2007
A strong earthquake struck western Indonesia in the Mentawi islands off Sumatra on Wednesday, but there were no reports of casualties or damage, a meteorology official said.
The magnitude 6.0 quake struck just before 9am (NZT) at a depth of 35km, with its epicentre 125km southwest of the town of Padang, according to a bulletin on the website of the US Geological Survey.
An official at the Indonesian meteorological and geophysics centre said by telephone that the latest quake could be felt strongly in the area, but there had been no reports of damage or casualties. There was no tsunami warning issued.
The local agency put the quake at 6.1 on the Richter scale and at a shallower depth of 20km.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10471805


Sumatra tsunami warning lifted
11:47AM Thursday October 25, 2007
A tsunami warning for the Indonesian island of Sumatra has been lifted, after it was struck by a 7.1 mgnitude quake this morning.
The country's meteorological agency said that the quake struck overnight 166km southwest of the Lais Bengkulu area and was at a relatively shallow depth of 10km.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10472010


San Diego fire evacuees set to return home
1:15PM Thursday October 25, 2007
California firefighters are making headway reining in 18 wildfires as hot winds abated and San Diego said it hoped to let some of the 700,000 evacuees to start returning home.
But despite the progress, nearly 9,000 firefighters were still waging a pitched battle on hillsides and in canyons while the skies over much of the region were choked with thick, acrid smoke, forcing residents to stay indoors or wear masks.
"We should have almost all of our people back in their homes by this evening," San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said, referring to evacuees within city limits.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10471956



Bad luck comes in threes for Invercargill couple
10:00AM Thursday October 25, 2007
Bad luck really does come in threes for an Invercargill couple who have cracks in their house, a flattened garage and a damaged car.
The earthquake centred off Milford last week cracked the house and the gales got the garage.
Brian and Pauline Reece were returning from seeing the council about the garage when they found the H from and H&J Smith sign on a nearby building had fallen and smashed the rear window of their car, the Southland Times reported.
"You've just got to laugh really," Mrs Reece said. "That's all you can do," Mr Reece said.
H&J Smith chief executive officer John Green said the sign made of tin and steel had probably fallen as a result of recent bad weather and could have been affected by last week's earthquake.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10471997


Kaeo residents back multi-million dollar flood plan
2:19PM Thursday October 25, 2007
By Peter de Graaf
Flood-weary Kaeo residents are backing a multi-million dollar plan to cut the risk of their town disappearing under water again but they worry they'll be asked to foot much of the bill.
The town was hit by major floods in February and July, wrecking homes and inundating businesses. Some residents have yet to finish repairing their homes; some shops never reopened after the July 10 storm.
The Northland Regional Council has come up with a plan which includes raising stopbanks and carving a river overflow channel near the college and primary school, both of which were hard hit. It also wants to lift some buildings and dredge the river. The catch is coming up with the cash.
Even the council doesn't know where it will find the $1.8 million needed, and expects locals will have to spend a similar amount.
But with a population of just under 500, many on low incomes, the town will struggle to pay.
Whangaroa College principal Nicolette Pako is pleased by the promises of action but questions why it took "a major disaster" before Kaeo's flooding woes were taken seriously.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10471992



$2m project to help make flood-prone town safer
5:00AM Wednesday October 24, 2007
By Tony Gee
The Northland Regional Council is proposing works costing nearly $2 million to try to reduce risks to the flood-prone Far North township of Kaeo and its properties.
A programme of staged, ratepayer and Government-funded projects worth about $1.8 million is proposed over the next 12 months, but the council acknowledges progress on all work depends on funding.
Council land operations manager Bob Cathcart estimates at least that much money again will also need to be spent by the community itself to repair houses, driveways, and public and private infrastructure damaged in two major floods this year.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10471656



Hilary competes in political 'all-boys club'
New 6:15AM Saturday November 03, 2007
Democrat Hilary Clinton yesterday urged women voters to rally behind her campaign against "the boys' club of presidential politics" two days after male rivals attacked her repeatedly at a debate.
The front-runner among Democrats seeking the presidential nomination in the November 2008 elections - and the only woman seeking the job - rallied enthusiastic students at her alma mater Wellesley College, a leading liberal arts school outside Boston.
"In so many ways, this all-women's college prepared me to compete in the all-boys club of presidential politics," the former First Lady told hundreds of students.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473794


Russia-China toughen stance over Iran 'nuclear bomb'
9:48AM Friday November 02, 2007
By Mark Heinrich
Vladimir Putin. Photo / Reuters
VIENNA - Russia and China have been blocking tough UN sanctions against Iran for months, the United States said overnight, but major powers will seek to impose them if Iran does not halt nuclear work within two weeks.
Iran's president said he was "not worried at all" about broader economic sanctions it faces over its continued defiance of UN Security Council demands to stop enriching uranium.
The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany will meet in London on Friday to weigh a third round of sanctions.
In Vienna for consultations with the UN nuclear watchdog director, US undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns said Iran was given a two-month grace period after the last UN resolution on March 24 to allow for further talks. But it pressed ahead with enrichment anyway.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473648


Next two articles from RIA Novosti

Russia questions plan for nuclear fuel center in Arab country
02/ 11/ 2007
MOSCOW, November 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Nuclear Power Agency is against the idea of setting up an international uranium enrichment center in one of the Arab states, the head of Rosatom said on Friday.
"We believe there should be a number of such centers, but clearly the centers should be located in countries in full possession of [uranium] enrichment technology, so that the technology does not proliferate around the world," Sergei Kiriyenko said, commenting on recent initiatives of some Arab nations.
He said he had no formal information about the initiatives, adding that one such center was being set up in Russia, in east Siberia, and that countries developing nuclear energy programs could have access to its services.
He also said Russia's nuclear sector has orders worth 1.3 trillion rubles ($53 billion) up to 2020.
"We have calculated that orders up to 2020 total 1.3 trillion rubles. This is a huge sum, but the requirements are tough," Kiriyenko told journalists.
Russia said previously it would grant any country in the world the use of an international uranium enrichment center currently being constructed in east Siberia.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20071102/86458074.html



Why did Lavrov visit Ahmadinejad?
31/ 10/ 2007
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov) - Obviously, Moscow is trying to persuade Iran to adjust its nuclear policy in line with the demands of Iran's two main opponents, the U.S. and the EU: renounce uranium enrichment or face sanctions.
Russia opposes unilateral sanctions against Teheran and is still advocating a collective solution to the problem, said the Russian Foreign Minister after meeting the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The otherwise standard sentence has one important detail. Moscow, unlike Teheran, does not deny the existence of the Iranian nuclear problem and urges the need to solve it. True, it makes no difference whatsoever to the collectively developed scenario. The scenario, to which Russia has signed on, would toughen UN Security Council's sanctions against Iran if it refuses to stop uranium enrichment.
The most likely aim of Sergei Lavrov's flying visit to Teheran was to bring home to Ahmadinejad the simple truth that if Iran fails to comply with the Security Council demand to stop uranium enrichment by the end of November, Moscow will have no grounds for protecting it. That sanctions (in the event of non-compliance with the UN demand) would become inevitable was recently stressed by the European Union's Foreign Policy and Security Chief Xavier Solana. Solana, along with IAEA head Muhammed el-Baradei, are to prepare a report on the Iranian nuclear program by November 15. Judging from his remarks, Solana is in a very resolute mood.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20071031/86125441.html


Tibetan nomad found guilty
5:15AM Saturday November 03, 2007
A Tibetan nomad held for three months for shouting "long live the Dalai Lama" has been convicted on charges of trying to split China, according to Radio Free Asia.
A court in southwest Sichuan province convicted Runggye Adak of "subversion" when he called for the return of the Dalai Lama, the exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, at a local horse racing festival in August.
His sentence will be announced in the next week, Radio Free Asia said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473793


YOU MEAN TO TELL ME, the Bush Executive Branch couldn't see an incentive to LYING without 'evidence' otherwise? Give me a break, Cheney saw 'a reason' to believe lies to promote his own lies on top of them. This is old news.


Iraqi defector 'made up' weapons claim
New 8:15AM Saturday November 03, 2007
An Iraqi defector made up his claim that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons, a threat cited by the Bush Administration as a key reason for the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the American news programme 60 Minutes said yesterday.
Rafid Ahmed Alwan, codenamed "Curve Ball" in intelligence circles, claimed to be a chemical engineering expert but was actually an alleged thief, the programme said.
He arrived at a German refugee centre in 1999.
"To bolster his asylum case and increase his importance, he told officials he was a star chemical engineer who had been in charge of a facility at Djerf al Nadaf that was making mobile biological weapons."
The report, a culmination of a two-year investigation by journalist Bob Simon, is due to be broadcast on the CBS network on Monday.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473796



McCanns attack Madeline spoof
5:00AM Saturday November 03, 2007
The mock advertisement. Photo / Reuters
The parents of missing British toddler Madeline McCann have criticised a satirical magazine joke about the child, branding it sick.
German magazine Titanic published a mock supermarket advertisement in which the 4-year-old's picture is shown on a kitchen cleaning product, saying it "removes all traces at home and against which DNA tests have no chance".
McCann family spokesman Clarence Mitchell said Madeline's parents, Kate and Gerry, were hurt and distressed.
"The use of Madeline's image in this way is extremely distressing for Kate and Gerry," Mitchell said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473798


Madeleine McCann's father returns to work
10:16AM Friday November 02, 2007
Gerry McCann. Photo / Reuters
London - Madeleine McCann's father Gerry has returned to his job as a consultant cardiologist saying he and his wife Kate had done everything they could in the search for their missing daughter.
Madeleine disappeared six months ago, shortly before her fourth birthday, during a family holiday in Praia da Luz, Portugal.
Neither Gerry, 39, nor Kate, a GP, have since worked.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473658



Samoa's 'Baby Miracle' needs help to live
5:00AM Friday November 02, 2007
By Xavier La Canna
She was not expected to survive for more than a few hours. Doctors had even decided she should not be fed.
But two months later, after her family refused to let her slip away, Samoa's "Baby Miracle" is clinging to life, despite terrible facial deformities.
Supporters have now launched a campaign to raise money to get tiny Miracle Tina Julie Nanai to New Zealand for a full medical assessment.
Miracle's birth two months ago in a village on the main Samoan island of Upolu was not what her parents had expected.
When doctors handed over their baby, they saw her tiny face was not as it should have been.
Her misshapen eyes were pushed to the side of her face, and her nose and mouth were malformed, preventing her from suckling.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473718


At home in the hotspots
5:00AM Saturday November 03, 2007
By Geoff Cummings
Former "street kid" Judy Moore has managed to survive the high burnout factor of aid work. Photo / Kenny Rodger
The diminutive woman sipping a latte in the sun looks relaxed and carefree, her face younger than her 59 years. In conversation she is animated and quick to laugh. She talks of family - her immediate priorities include visiting her sons in Melbourne and shopping for her grandchildren. But with one cellphone call she could be whisked to the world's troublespots: a natural or man-made disaster in Africa, Asia or the Middle-East.
When carnage erupts in the world's flashpoints, Judy Moore, ex-street kid from Christchurch, is among the first to go in. After the Pakistan earthquake, after the tsunami, in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and a dozen other hotspots, Moore, a grandmother of three, was calling the shots for World Vision.
She forms the advance guard which sets up a base camp, liaises with local and UN officials, and reports back to the aid agency on what's needed and where. Among indescribable chaos and constant danger, her job is to make sense of the situation as head of a small rapid response team of specialists.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473711



London police guilty of shooting Brazilian
7:24AM Friday November 02, 2007
Ian Blair, Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police. Photo / Reuters
London - London's police force has been found guilty of putting the public at risk over the killing of an innocent Brazilian police mistook for a suicide bomber in 2005.
Police shot electrician Jean Charles de Menezes, 27, seven times in the head after he boarded an underground train in south London on July 22, 2005.
They had wrongly identified him as one of four men who had tried to attack the city's transport system a day earlier.
The capital's Metropolitan Police were fined $477,565 and ordered to pay legal costs of $1m after being convicted of the single charge of breaching health and safety rules which require it to protect the public.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473636


Celebrity real estate agent beaten to death
11:35AM Friday November 02, 2007
Linda Stein, former manager of US punk band the Ramones and realtor to New York's A-list celebrities, has been found beaten to death in her Fifth Avenue apartment.
Stein, whose clientele included Madonna, Sting, Steven Speilberg and Angelina Jolie, died from "blunt impact injuries of the head and neck" according to the New York medical examiner's office.
The 62-year-old's death is being treated as a homicide, reports CNN, but the New York Police Department have refused to comment on possible suspects.
There were no signs of forced entry to Stein's luxury apartment on exclusive Fifth Avenue when police responded to a 911 call on Tuesday night local time.
The New York Times reports that the leading real estate agent was found face down in a pool of blood by her daughter Mandy and a friend.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473669


School builds foundations of peace
5:00AM Saturday November 03, 2007
By Donald Macintyre
At first glance the class of excited 9-year-olds looks like any other when the principal drops in for a visit.
Teacher Yaffa Tala writes each item on the blackboard as her pupils shoot their hands up to specify what they hope will be in the new school building they will be moving into this month and will visit for the first time on a trip which Tala explains will start at 8am today: a cafeteria (no); computers (yes); a proper playground (yes); drinks machines (for water, yes, for Coca Cola, no); a library (yes); a gym (yes); individual lockers (yes).
There's a murmur of approval when principal Ala Khatib announces that there will be two lavatories for every class instead of the six the whole school has shared in the "temporary" building it has occupied for the past decade. There is a gasp of excitement when Moid Hussein in the back row asks him if there will be an elevator and the head says yes - changing swiftly to disappointment when he explains it will be not for Moid and his classmates but for the disabled, and for elderly visitors to the school.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10473728


Israel shells Gaza police, 4 dead
9:14AM Wednesday October 31, 2007
GAZA - Israeli forces killed four Hamas policeman in an attack on their compound in the southern Gaza Strip, the Islamist faction and Palestinian hospital officials said.
The Israeli military confirmed its forces carried out the shelling in Abasan village, east of Khan Younis, but had no further details. Earlier, an Israeli missile struck Gaza City's Jabalya refugee camp, wounding six Palestinian civilians, hospital officials said.
A military spokeswoman said Israeli troops operating in the area fired at a Palestinian rocket crew but the missile flew off-target due to a "technical error".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=601&objectid=10473156


Comparing Apples to Oranges. If Turkey were to enter Northern Iraq it would never leave for the same reason the USA is bogged down in Iraq now. There would be young Arab men coming from all over to fight Turkey no different than what is occurring now in Iraq. Besides Turkey already has troops in Iraq and should be seeing an effort by the Coalition to remove PKK from northern Iraq while Turkey protects it's border. If that is not occurring then what makes Turkey believe anymore of their troops are going to matter? No. Turkey needs to stay within it's own borders while diplomacy between Kurds and Turks find solutions for the region and not just Northern Iraq.

Gwynne Dyer: Good for the goose, but not for Turkey?
5:00AM Thursday November 01, 2007
By Gwynne Dyer
Fifteen months ago, the armed wing of Lebanon's Hezbollah party, listed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and most other Western countries, attacked Israel's northern border, capturing two Israeli soldiers and killing eight more.
Israel replied with a month of massive air attacks across Lebanon that destroyed much of the country's infrastructure, levelled a good deal of south Beirut, and killed about 1000 Lebanese civilians.
Washington, London, Ottawa and some other Western capitals insisted that this was a reasonable and proportionate response, and shielded Israel from intense diplomatic pressure to stop the attacks even when Israel began a land invasion of southern Lebanon in early August, 2006. The operation only ended when Israeli casualties on the ground mounted rapidly and the Israeli Government pulled its troops back.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/feature/story.cfm?c_id=601&objectid=10473264

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