Jackson gags Rowe
October 31, 2005 - 10:48AM
Flashback ... Jackson and his second wife Debbie Rowe.
AdvertisementAdvertisementMichael Jackson's former wife, Debbie Rowe, went to bat for the pop star at his child molestation trial, but he reportedly played hardball with her in their recent child visitation deal.
The top-secret agreement allows Rowe, whose testimony last April helped save Jackson, only sporadic visits with Prince Michael I, 8, and Paris, 7, and she's not allowed to tell the children she's their mother, sources told the New York Daily News.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/jackson-gags-rowe/2005/10/31/1130607182264.html
PM's 'legendary persistence could stop hanging'
October 31, 2005 - 11:32AM
Page ToolsEmail to a friend Printer format RelatedWhere do you stand? Should PM appeal to Singapore for clemency? The lawyer for the 25-year-old Australian on death row in Singapore wants Prime Minister John Howard to use his "legendary" persistence to help save the convicted drug smuggler's life.
Lex Lasry, QC, who will meet Singapore High Commissioner Joseph Koh and Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer in Canberra today, also hopes to have an unscheduled meeting with Mr Howard.
Mr Lasry wants the politicians to pressure the Singaporean government into reconsidering the death sentence passed on Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, who was convicted of heroin smuggling.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/female-mps-campaign-to-stop-execution/2005/10/31/1130607179654.html
Palestinian groups agree to stop attacks on Israel
October 31, 2005 - 1:35AM
Page ToolsEmail to a friend Printer format Palestinian factions have agreed to halt rocket and other attacks against Israel, sources close to an umbrella committee of the militant groups said on Sunday.
So far only the Islamic Jihad has issued an announcement to this effect. The other factions are expected to follow suit after the Follow-Up Committee, comprising representatives of 13 factions, meets on Sunday night.
Well-informed Palestinian security sources said the Palestinian Authority had reached a deal with the Jihad on halting the launching of homemade rockets at southern Israel.
The sources said the authority had contacted Quartet Committee, comprising the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, and asked it to mediate an end to the Israeli air and ground offensive against the militant groups.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/palestinian-groups-agree-to-stop-attacks-on-israel/2005/10/31/1130607160548.html
Libby charges may push Bush into shake-up
By Michael Gawenda in Washington
October 31, 2005
Page ToolsEmail to a friend Printer format Lewis "Scooter" Libby.Photo: AP
RelatedAnalysis: Hard to believe that Cheney did not know No longer the figure behind the world's second-most powerful man Ethical deficit Michael Gawenda: The journalist who became the news Joseph Wilson: Attempt to silence is the ultimate crime Pressure is growing on President George Bush to shake up his administration to avoid the looming threat of a disabled presidency.
Lewis Libby, chief of staff to the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, and one of Mr Bush's key security advisers, has been indicted on five charges of obstructing justice, perjury and making false statements, and the President is being urged to use the situation to "turn over" key staff.
Some Washington talk even suggests Mr Bush should replace the Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, whom many conservatives hold responsible for serious mistakes in Iraq after the invasion.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/libby-charges-may-push-bush-into-shakeup/2005/10/30/1130607150325.html
Ethical deficit
October 31, 2005
Washington: Most Americans say Lewis Libby's indictment signals broader ethical problems in the Bush Administration, and nearly half say the level of honesty and ethics in the Federal Government has fallen since George Bush took office, a Washington Post-ABC News survey says.
The poll found 55 per cent of Americans believe the Libby case indicates wider problems "with ethical wrongdoing" in the White House, while 41 per cent believe it was an "isolated incident". By a 3-1 ratio, Americans say honesty and ethics in government have declined under Mr Bush. After the latest crisis for the White House, Mr Bush's approval rating has fallen to 39 per cent, his lowest yet in Post-ABC polls.
Hard to believe that Cheney did not knowBy Michael GawendaOctober 31, 2005
Page ToolsEmail to a friend Printer format Some White House officials may believe they dodged a bullet when the special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald announced after a two-year investigation that only Lewis "Scooter" Libby faced criminal charges in the CIA leak affair.
After all, Karl Rove, though still under investigation, seems likely to escape indictment and Fitzgerald did not find that any Administration official had broken the law by leaking the identity of a CIA agent to journalists - the trigger for his two-year investigation.
While the charges against Libby are serious, they "only" involve allegations that he lied to FBI investigators and to the grand jury about how he learned the identity of Valerie Plame, wife of the former ambassador Joe Wilson, who was a trenchant critic of the Administration's decision to go to war in Iraq.
But if these White House officials believe the CIA leak fallout will be restricted to the destruction of the career of a key aide of the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, and a close adviser to President George Bush in the lead-up to the war in Iraq, they are kidding themselves.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hard-to-believe-that-cheney-did-not-know/2005/10/30/1130607150328.html
Bird flu pandemic would 'wipe out' international travel
By Jewel Topsfield
October 31, 2005 - 12:48AM
Disaster experts from the Asia-Pacific region will meet in Brisbane today to discuss how to cope with a global outbreak of deadly bird flu, amid warnings that international travel would be virtually wiped out in a pandemic.
Health Minister Tony Abbott yesterday said overseas travel would almost cease for a "significant period" if avian flu broke out in the region.
"Regardless of what border controls countries might put on, there will be very few people who will be wanting to travel," Mr Abbott told Channel Ten.
He said Australia would do all it could to bring home Australians abroad during a pandemic. He would not be drawn on whether Australia would accept so-called flu refugees — a new class of migrant escaping a flu pandemic in their own countries.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/bird-flu-pandemic-would-wipe-out-international-travel/2005/10/31/1130607160904.html
Net child porn ring member jailedMagdeburg, Germany
October 28, 2005 - 10:43AM
A leading member of a giant global internet child pornography ring has been sentenced in Germany to 3½ years in prison and told to undergo psychiatric therapy.
The unnamed 29-year-old belonged to a network that swapped thousands of images of children being sexually abused.
It was smashed in an international police operation codenamed Marcy in September 2003.
The discovery of such photographs and films on computers at the defendant's home in an initial search in early 2002 helped lead police to 26,500 suspects in 166 countries in an unprecedented swoop against child pornography online.
Charles takes crusade for Islam to Washington
October 31, 2005
London: Prince Charles will try to persuade President George Bush of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the US has been intolerant of the religion since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Prince, who leaves tomorrow for an eight-day tour of the US, has said privately that he is concerned about the US's "confrontational" approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam's strengths.
Charles raised his concerns when he met senior Muslims in London in November 2001, two months after the attacks.
"I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational," a leader at the meeting quoted him as saying.
Guards killed in US raids, says Syria
By Harry De Quetteville in BaghouzOctober 31, 2005
Page ToolsEmail to a friend Printer format RelatedArmy admits keeping eye on rising Iraqi toll Syria has accused the United States of launching lethal military raids into Syrian territory from across the Iraqi border, escalating the diplomatic crisis between the two countries as the Bush Administration seeks to step up pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
A Syrian officer, Major-General Amid Suleiman, said US cross-border attacks into Syria had killed at least two border guards, wounded several more and prompted an official complaint to the US embassy in Damascus.
He made the allegations during an official media tour of Syrian security forces on the Iraqi border, which Washington says is a barely guarded passage into Iraq for hard-core foreign jihadists.
While showing off what he said were beefed-up Syrian border measures designed to blunt those criticisms, including new police stations and checkpoints, General Suleiman alleged his own border forces had come under repeated US attack.
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
It Was Payback -- Cheap Political Payback
Wilson on the indictment, the threats, more...
Our 27 months of hell
By Joseph C. Wilson IV / Los Angeles Times
JOSEPH C. WILSON IV was acting ambassador in Baghdad when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990. He is the author of "The Politics of Truth" (Carroll & Graff, 2004). He was a diplomat for 23 years.
AFTER THE two-year smear campaign orchestrated by senior officials in the Bush White House against my wife and me, it is tempting to feel vindicated by Friday's indictment of the vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
Between us, Valerie and I have served the United States for nearly 43 years. I was President George H.W. Bush's acting ambassador to Iraq in the run-up to the Persian Gulf War, and I served as ambassador to two African nations for him and President Clinton. Valerie worked undercover for the CIA in several overseas assignments and in areas related to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4701
At The Heart of It All
"The indictment provides a rare glimpse inside a vice presidential operation that, under Mr. Cheney, has been extraordinary both for its power and its secrecy
Indictment Gives Glimpse Into a Secretive Operation
By Douglas Jehl / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 29 - Over a seven-week period in the spring of 2003, Vice President Dick Cheney's suite in the Old Executive Office Building appears to have served as the nerve center of an effort to gather and spread word about Joseph C. Wilson IV and his wife, a C.I.A. operative.
I. Lewis Libby Jr., the vice president's chief of staff, is the only aide to Mr. Cheney who has been charged with a crime. But the indictment alleges that Mr. Cheney himself and others in the office took part in discussions about the origins of a trip by Mr. Wilson to Niger in 2002; about the identity of his wife, Valerie Wilson; and whether the information could be shared with reporters, in the period before it was made public in a July 14, 2003, column by Robert D. Novak.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4707
Cheney's office at center of CIA leak indictment
By James Vicini and Adam Entous / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The indictment of former top White House aide Lewis Libby in the CIA leak investigation will put Vice President Dick Cheney's office at the center of court proceedings, with the potential of a politically damaging trial for the beleaguered Bush administration.
Libby, who resigned on Friday as Cheney's chief of staff after being indicted for obstructing justice, perjury and lying, is expected to make his first court appearance in the next week or so for an arraignment.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4708
Dick's Chance to Shine
More headaches for an administration defending an increasingly unpopular war.
Despite urging calm for Libby, Cheney may face firestorm, too
By Susan Milligan / Boston Globe Staff
WASHINGTON -- Vice President Dick Cheney urged people yesterday to give his chief of staff the benefit of the doubt in facing perjury and obstruction of justice charges, but he might also have been referring to himself.
Though not indicted yesterday, Cheney is linked to the case as I. Lewis ''Scooter" Libby's source of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson's identity. If the case goes to trial, Cheney may have to testify, analysts said -- a situation that could give Democrats ammunition to further portray the episode as an abuse of power by the White House.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4710
Libby Said to Concoct Story in Leak Case
By Larry Margasak and Pete Yost / Associated Press
The prosecution's conclusion: Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff zealously pursued information about a critic who said the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to make the case for war.
The view of the president and vice president: I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is a dedicated public servant who has worked tirelessly on behalf of his country.
Is Libby an influential White House adviser who lied? Or is he a man with a hectic schedule who happens to remember events differently from the reporters and administration figures who will eventually be called to testify against him?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4709
The TRUTH is greater than Lewis Libby.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/rovejobsecurity.mov
OUT OF MANY, ONE
"If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration."
--Scott McClellan, September 29, 2003 (VIDEO)
Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's left arm, has been indicted on five counts and has resigned. If you believe Dick Cheney (and why wouldn't you?), Scooter is a patriot who has served America "with great distinction."
Patrick Fitzgerald, the special counsel investigating the CIA leak, says Libby lied repeatedly. The GOP, the White House and your Conservative Brother-in-law will all tell you that Libby's indictments are mere technicalities -- this excuse has no wings.
The President's apologists will also claim that even if the White House provided Valerie Plame's name to reporters, they may have done so without knowing her covert status. This talking point is almost believable because it presupposes a shocking level of incompetence in the White House. They would have had to discuss a CIA officer's identity with reporters without first checking the covert status of that officer.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=531
Calls for White House shakeup focus on Karl Rove
By Randall Mikkelsen / Reuters
U.S. President George W. Bush, whose top adviser Karl Rove remains in jeopardy in a CIA-leak probe, needs to shake up his White House staff if he hopes to revive a presidency reeling from multiple setbacks, Republican and Democratic lawmakers said on Sunday.
The lawmakers also urged Bush to investigate the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, whose chief of staff, Lewis Libby, resigned on Friday and was indicted on perjury and other charges in connection with the probe.
Bush should take Cheney "to the woodshed" if necessary, a Democratic lawmaker said, and the Senate's top Democrat said Rove should be fired or quit.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4712
By a 3 to 1 ratio Americans say the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined rather than risen under Bush.
White House Ethics, Honesty Questioned
55% in Survey Say Libby Case Signals Broader Problems
By Richard Morin and Claudia Deane / Washington Post
A majority of Americans say the indictment of senior White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby signals broader ethical problems in the Bush administration, and nearly half say the overall level of honesty and ethics in the federal government has fallen since President Bush took office, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News survey.
The poll, conducted Friday night and yesterday, found that 55 percent of the public believes the Libby case indicates wider problems "with ethical wrongdoing" in the White House, while 41 percent believes it was an "isolated incident." And by a 3 to 1 ratio, 46 percent to 15 percent, Americans say the level of honesty and ethics in the government has declined rather than risen under Bush.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4714
Intrigue Has Familiar Ring for Libby and Associates
David E. Sanger / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 30 - The intrigue in I. Lewis Libby's novel, "The Apprentice," centers on a group of travelers seeking shelter from a blizzard in a Japanese inn. With a distant war as the backdrop to their conversations, the guests are unfailingly polite, but they are also deeply suspicious of one another's motives.
Two days after the indictment of Mr. Libby, the White House shares more than a few similarities with his fictional ryokan, the traditional Japanese inn where ritual can mask reality.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4722
Next Nominee May Well Spark a Climactic Battle
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK and ELISABETH BUMILLER / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 - When Harriet E. Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court, she may have taken with it the last chance to avoid a climactic confrontation over who will succeed Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who is retiring.
As he picks another nominee - Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. of the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit emerged as a leading candidate on Friday - President Bush faces redoubled pressures from both the left and the right. His conservative supporters are more determined than ever to demand someone with a clear conservative record on abortion rights and other social issues; Senate Democrats are emboldened by the unraveling of the Miers nomination, the downturn in the president's popularity and the indictment Friday of I. Lewis Libby Jr., a top White House official.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4700
Marines ‘borrow’ Haditha homes
By Antonio Castaneda / Associated Press
HADITHA, Iraq — The Marines call it a necessary evil — taking over houses and buildings for military use. For the Iraqis who become unwilling hosts, it can be anything from a mild inconvenience to a disruption that tears apart lives.
In a recent offensive in Haditha, the headmaster of one school where Marines were based pressed them for a departure date so he could resume classes. At another school, Marines fortified the building with blast walls and sandbags for long-term use.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4704
Lack of Armor Proves Deadly for Iraqi Army
By Michael Moss / The New York Times
After a string of deadly attacks against Iraqi forces in the spring, American soldiers in the Diyala Province northeast of Baghdad established an operation at their Army base to add armor to the unprotected open-bed trucks used by the Iraqis. But it is a meager enterprise: four Iraqi ironworkers armed with two welding torches and thin sheets of metal.
Even as American forces are relying more on Iraqis to fight the insurgency, the Iraqi Army is facing some of the same procurement problems that American troops have experienced in getting adequate armor and other equipment, according to interviews in Iraq with American and Iraqi military officials. But if the Americans have faced an uphill battle in getting vital gear - their shortfalls continue to this day - then their Iraqi counterparts are confronting a herculean task.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4702
Military shares public's declining support for Bush, war
Associated Press
More than half the North Carolina military members surveyed in the latest Elon University poll don't like the way President Bush is handling his job and the war in Iraq.
The survey results were released today.
Of the 539 adults surveyed, nearly 53 percent of military members said they strongly disapproved or disapproved of Bush's handling of his job. And 56 percent of that same group said they strongly disapproved or disapproved of his handling of the Iraq war.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4706
2016 today? Another death occurred between the reporting on the 29th and the reporting today. We are on our way to 2100. Should be there in no time. The amount dying is easily reaching that of Vietnam now.
A Look at U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq
By The Associated Press Sat Oct 29, 6:47 PM ET
As of Saturday, Oct. 29, 2005, at least 2,015 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the
Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,567 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The figures include five military civilians.
The AP count is eleven higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated at 10 a.m. EDT Friday.
The British military has reported 97 deaths; Italy, 27; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Slovakia, three; Denmark,
El Salvador, Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia one death each.
Since May 1, 2003, when
President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,876 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count. That includes at least 1,458 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/iraq_us_deaths
Berlusconi Sought to Dissuade Bush on Iraq
By Nicole Winfield / Associated Press
Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, one of President Bush's strongest supporters over Iraq, says he tried repeatedly to dissuade the American leader from going to war and was never convinced military force was the best way to bring democracy.
Berlusconi is facing a tough re-election battle next year, and his popularity has fallen in part because of Italians' continued opposition to the war. Sluggish economic growth also has hurt him.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4705
Chain of Command
CINDY SHEEHAN: Lewis 'Scooter' Libby's indictment and resignation is a welcome development but, the responsibility for lying to the American people and targeting critics needs to go all the way up the chain of command.
WASHINGTON, DC--Cindy Sheehan is holding a week-long vigil which ends today in Lafayette Park to be a daily, visual reminder to those who live and work in the White House of the strong opposition to the Iraq war and the anger of the nation at the more than 2,000 US lives that have been lost in Iraq. Her protest was among more than 1,000 protests throughout the country that were held this week to honor the US soldiers whose lives were lost in Iraq and call for the troops to be brought home now.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=530
Your signature can end the war in Iraq
Get Involved
HomeFromIraqNow.org is a national campaign to end the war in Iraq by using binding statewide ballot initiatives around the country to pressure the administration to bring our troops home now.
We are currently placing an initiative on the November 2006 ballot in Massachusetts to prevent the Governor from sending any more National Guard troops to Iraq, and we are actively exploring similar initiatives in other states.
A yes vote on this initiative will not only prevent more National Guard troops from being deployed to Iraq, but will also send a very strong message to our elected leaders that we want them to end the war and bring all of our troops home immediately.
To get this initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts for November 2006, we need your help to collect 100,000 signatures of Massachusetts voters by November 15, 2005.
http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/
The Australian
Ivory Coast leader vows early pollFrom correspondents in Abidjan
October 31, 2005
IVORY Coast President Laurent Gbagbo has pledged to do everything he could to organise a vote before a one-year deadline set by the United Nations.
His mandate was due to go into extra time after the west African state's failure to hold elections.
Meanwhile the New Forces rebels, who hold most of the north of the country, reaffirmed their call for Mr Gbagbo to leave and said their leader, Guillaume Soro, should be the prime minister of a government of national reconciliation, due to be set up today.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17089574^1702,00.html
There's trouble on the border
Tensions on the frontier around the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi are running high, writes Jakarta correspondent Sian Powell in Tubu, West Timor
October 31, 2005
YOSEP Palbeno gestures furiously as he tells the story of how he was threatened by five armed East Timorese police officers. Barefoot and grizzled, the market farmer has a garden high in the remote hills of West Timor, on the edge of the international border between Indonesia and the East Timorese enclave of Oecussi.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17084561^601,00.html
Desalination trial ahead of plant
October 31, 2005THE New South Wales Government will begin a desalination trial before the construction of a full-scale desalination plant in Sydney.
The two trial plants will not direct potable water into the mains supply but are to prove the desalination is effective in an engineering sense.
The Government plans to build a $2-billion plant at Kurnell, in Sydney's south, capable of converting up to 500 megalitres of salt water into drinking water a day.
A megalitre is equal to about one Olympic-size swimming pool.
Utilities Minister Carl Scully said the final two consortia short-listed to build the full-scale plant would soon begin operating smaller, pilot plants.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17089568^1702,00.html
Hail foreign invaders
The addition of overseas horses transformed the Melbourne Cup and helped make it an international race. But it takes more than good breeding and money to win, writes Brendan Cormick
October 31, 2005DERMOT Weld is the international face of the Melbourne Cup. In a shrinking world interconnected by air travel, Weld led the initial northern hemisphere assault that has grown in size and quality over the past 12 years.
Back on track: Vinnie Roe arrives in Melbourne to contest the cup for his third and final time before going to stud. He came second in the race last year. Picture: Kelly Barnes
Weld had Australian trainers running scared in 1993 when Vintage Crop led the first successful foreign incursion on the nation's most famous horse race. Because of that victory, Vintage Crop achieved hero status in Ireland. Though not a breeding proposition, the gelding lives at the National Stud where he enjoys rock star status. A statue has also been erected in his honour at The Curragh, the headquarters of horse racing in Ireland.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17084989^28737,00.html
Vatican ready to dump TaiwanRichard Owen, Rome
October 31, 2005THE Vatican is preparing to break its ties with Taiwan and establish diplomatic relations with mainland China, ending more than 50 years of mutual hostility with Beijing.
A Vatican official said a leading spokesman, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, was sending a deliberate signal when he said the Vatican was ready to move its nuncio (ambassador) from Taiwan to Beijing immediately.
And Taiwanese officials said they expect the Vatican to establish relations with Beijing within 18 months.
The shift follows signs that Beijing is tacitly accepting the Pope's right to approve, if not appoint, bishops in China.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17085291^2703,00.html
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Of love and violence
Over seven days in shelters, courts and police units, Inquirer reporters chronicle the toll of domestic abuse across the region.
By Stacey Burling
Inquirer Staff Writer
Crying softly, the tall, slender woman slumps on a bench outside the police department's Domestic Abuse Response Team office in North Philadelphia.
She delicately probes the ballooning lump on her left cheek with long fingers. The punch came out of nowhere, delivered by her ex-boyfriend three hours before when she refused to sleep with him.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/13030646.htm
SEPTA unions begin strike
By Larry King
Inquirer Staff Writer
Most of SEPTA's unionized work force went on strike this morning, shutting down much of the region's mass transit system after failing to forge agreements with management over health-care benefits.
The walkout leaves 400,000 subway, bus and trolley riders in limbo - inconvenienced if they have other means of getting around, stranded if they don't.
The presidents of Transport Workers Union Local 234 and United Transportation Union Local 1594 walked out of talks minutes before the midnight strike deadline, saying no further talks with SEPTA were scheduled.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13039684.htm
Editorial Pa. Vehicle Pollution Standards Speeding down the wrong road
Cars and trucks sold in Pennsylvania were on track to become cleaner and more fuel efficient in coming years until they got sideswiped last week by business-as-usual in Harrisburg.
With just hours' notice and no public input, the House Transportation Committee voted Tuesday to overturn an unanimous decision by the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB) to require strict vehicle pollution standards to protect public health and economic growth.
The full House is scheduled to vote on the ill-considered decision tomorrow. Members should reject it.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13039706.htm
HIV home test to be debated
By Linda Loyd
Inquirer Staff Writer
Pharmacy shelves are stocked with do-it-yourself home tests for blood glucose, cholesterol and pregnancy - but none for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
That might change.
A small Bethlehem company, OraSure Technologies Inc., wants to sell the first 20-minute, at-home test that screens for two HIV strains using a swab device that tests saliva.
Some AIDS groups have concerns about home testing, and an FDA advisory committee is set to discuss the idea this week.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13039665.htm
Why do you think the Eagles Terrell Owens is selling his Moorestown home?
He wants to get one with a lawn service. 48 votes (7%)
He got tired of neighbor Donovan McNabb stealing his morning paper. 137 votes (21%)
He needs to save bridge tolls so he can take care of his family. 475 votes (72%)
660 people have voted so far
http://forums.philly.com/n/mb/message.asp?webtag=kr-inq_polls&tid=253&vote=3&submit=Vote
Derided in U.S., flat tax a winner in E. Europe
The economies of several former communist states are booming and the approach to taxation gets a lot of the credit.
By Ken Dilanian
Inquirer Staff Writer
TALLINN, Estonia - Eleven years ago, when this tiny former Soviet outpost was looking to smooth its plunge into the rough seas of the free market, Estonia's upstart leader decided to try something radical: A flat tax on personal income.
Then-Prime Minister Mart Laar, who was 32 at the time, says he really didn't appreciate the extent to which the flat tax - one rate for everyone, with few deductions or exemptions - was lampooned in the West as a right-wing fantasy, a boon for the rich at the expense of the middle class, a throwback to the days before the affluent were expected to pay a higher tax rate on the upper levels of their earnings.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13039690.htm
Jersey Devil: Masterpiece of Franklin's ghostwriting?
By Frank Kummer
Inquirer Staff Writer
Ben Franklin charted the Gulf Stream, invented bifocals, and crafted an iron stove that bears his name.
Is it a surprise he may have spawned the Jersey Devil?
Two hundred and seventy-five years ago, Franklin likely wrote the fictitious story of a Burlington County witch trial conducted after neighbors saw sheep dance and sing.
Soon after, colonists concocted a story of a witch who gave birth to a devil child. In some versions the witch is from Burlington County.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13039722.htm
Some ask: Where did Jesus get his DNA?
By Faye Flam
Darwin's theory of evolution still stands out as the thorniest point of contention between science and religion, but other more recent scientific advances also raise new questions for believers.
How, for example, does the 20th century's biological revolution influence the Christian concept of virgin birth? Where did Jesus get his DNA? His Y chromosome?
A number of scientifically minded Christians have come forward during the Dover trial to say they accept that ordinary humans arose through purely natural processes, no intelligent design needed. But it's another thing to accept that the Lord and Savior was conceived through an act of sex.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13039683.htm
Editorial Gun Trafficking Needed: Steadier aim
The young, armed killers settling scores every day on the streets of Philadelphia and Camden might be hurling only sticks and stones at each other, but for the region's thriving trade in illegal handguns.
So how can guns be kept out of their hands? In their "Blueprint for a Safer Philadelphia," local elected, civic and law enforcement leaders call for a full-court press. They plan to target counseling to youths, and services to city neighborhoods most often caught up in shootings, as well as to stem drug trafficking that drives much of the violence.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/13039707.htm
New Zealand Herald
Money from US$100m lotto scam ‘hidden in NZ 31.10.05 12.00pmBy Kent Atkinson
US authorities want to seize more than $18 million from a New Zealand bank, after a Vanuatu conman was convicted in Memphis, Tennessee, last week for his part in a US$100 million ($142 million) international lottery scam.
US District Judge Bernice Donald found Robert Murray Bohn, of Vanuatu, guilty last Wednesday of racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering and mail fraud, which she said was committed in the course of laundering money from the lottery fraud.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10352838
Sharks may mistake swimmers for NZ fur seals
31.10.05 1.00pm
Increased numbers of shark attacks on humans in Australia may be partly due to the spread there of New Zealand fur seals, says a marine biologist.
A significant increase in New Zealand fur seals in Australian waters over the past two decades has provided a good source of food for sharks, Scoresby Shepherd, a marine biologist at a South Australian research institute told The Australian newspaper.
Dr Shepherd said the higher number of seals could have contributed to the increased numbers of attacks on swimmers and surfers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10352842
Suicide bomb and shootings raise Iraqi death toll
31.10.05 1.00pmBy Claudia Parsons
BAGHDAD - Two Iraqi government officials were shot in Baghdad on yesterday, one day after a suicide bombing killed 30 people after luring them to a truck bomb disguised as date vendor’s van.
In the latest of almost daily shootings in Baghdad, many of them targeting government officials, a cabinet adviser was killed when his car was attacked by gunmen and a deputy trade minister was wounded in a separate attack.
The Pentagon estimates that 26,000 Iraqis have been killed or wounded in attacks by insurgents since January 2004, with the daily number increasing fairly steadily.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352834
Plamegate scandal could put Watergate in the shade
31.10.05
WASHINGTON - Presidential second terms are prone to scandals. But the troubles now circling George Bush's White House could be even worse than Watergate.
It might not appear that way at first. Bush is unlikely to have to join Richard Nixon, the only President in United States history forced to resign from office.
But the issues raised by Plamegate are far more significant than those involved in the "second-rate burglary" of the Democratic National Committee's offices in Washington's Watergate complex in the 1970s.
They go to the heart of why America, and its faithful ally, Britain, went to war in Iraq.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352768
Cheney's office at centre of CIA leak indictment
31.10.05By James Vicini and Adam Entous
WASHINGTON - The indictment of former top White House aide Lewis Libby in the CIA leak investigation will put Vice President Dick Cheney's office at the centre of court proceedings, raising the specter of a politically damaging trial for the beleaguered Bush administration.
Libby, who resigned on Friday as Cheney's chief of staff after being indicted for obstructing justice, perjury and lying, is expected to make his first court appearance in the next week or so for an arraignment.
The indictment means the next stage of the case will play out in open court, in contrast to the secret two-year grand jury investigation directed by special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald into the leak of a covert CIA operative's identity.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352771
High levels of radioactive contamination in French Polynesia
29.10.05 1.00pm
Unexpectedly high levels of radioactive contamination are being discovered in French Polynesia nearly a decade after nuclear testing ended on Mururoa Atoll.
Up to five people a day are being sent to private hospitals in Auckland for diagnosis and treatment for what may be radiation-related illnesses, officials say.
The territory's president Oscar Temaru has accused the French Government of a continuing, high-level cover-up over the health and environmental consequences of the testing.
"We have a lot of health problems," he said.
Kashmir militants claim Delhi blasts
31.10.05 8.10amBy Shailendra Bhatnagar and Palash Kumar
NEW DELHI - An obscure Kashmiri militant group claimed responsibility on Sunday for bomb blasts in India's capital which killed at least 59 people, but analysts said it was probably a front for a larger Pakistan-based group.
New Delhi has so far refused to speculate on who was behind Saturday's triple blasts, but security experts see the hand of Lashkar-e-Taiba (Force of the Pure) behind the attacks, in an attempt to derail the peace process between India and Pakistan.
The explosions took place within half an hour in markets packed with shoppers just days before major Hindu and Muslim festivals. Many of the victims were women and children.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352814
N Ireland Protestant paramilitaries end feud
31.10.05 10.35am
BELFAST- A murderous feud between rival Protestant paramilitary groups in Northern Ireland which claimed four lives during the past four months has ended, a statement from negotiators said on Sunday.
The feud was called off after a weeks of talks between the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the rival Loyalist Volunteer Force (LVF) brokered by a group of community and church activists in Belfast.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352612
"Those initiating the process had the encouragement of many within political and community life and the prayer support of individuals and churches," the Reverend Mervyn Gibson, a spokesman for the negotiators, said in a statement.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352821
US and Japan adopt defence pact
31.10.05 6.20am
The United States and Japan have adopted plans to sharply cut US forces in Okinawa, deploy a powerful missile defence radar in Japan and bind their militaries more closely together.
The US would move 7000 Marines from Okinawa to Guam, reducing the size of its force in Okinawa to 11,000, Japanese defence chief Yoshinori Ohno said. US officials said they hoped to accomplish the move within six years.
Japan committed to an expansion in the roles and missions of its defence forces, which will train, exercise, plan and operate alongside US forces on shared bases, officials said.
Second wave of deaths when cold weather hits quake-hit Pakistan
29.10.05 1.00pmBy Stephanie Nebehay
GENEVA - UN weather experts said unusually low temperatures and heavy snowfall would soon hit areas of Pakistani Kashmir, jeopardising efforts to feed and shelter survivors of the South Asian earthquake.
Aid agencies renewed appeals for funds to keep open a lifeline to the millions left homeless in remote parts of the Himalayas by the October 8 quake, many of them injured.
"The situation is getting more and more desperate," said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said that winter was only three weeks away and initial reports suggested the weather would be unusually cold in the stricken mountain areas.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352620
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