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The Boston Globe

14 dead as storms sweep through Fla.

This NOAA satellite image taken Friday, Feb. 2, 2007 at 2:15 AM EST shows the active weather in the East as a mass of clouds can be seen just off the eastern seaboard is associated with a frontal system. Heavy rain and strong thunderstorms have developed in Florida and a Tornado Watch is in effect for the central portion of the state. Light snow showers are noted in the Tennessee Valley. (AP PHOTO/WEATHER UNDERGROUND)

By Jim Ellis, Associated Press Writer | February 2, 2007
LADY LAKE, Fla. --At least 14 people were killed early Friday as thunderstorms and at least one tornado struck central Florida, flattening homes and a church, causing power outages and lifting a tractor trailer into the air, officials said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/02/02/severe_thunderstorms_kill_2_in_florida/


CDC practices for the 'Big One'
By Mike Stobbe, AP Medical Writer | February 1, 2007
ATLANTA --This was the Big One, a deadly flu epidemic. But fortunately it was a fake. So when U.S. health officials made some missteps in their largest-ever drill to prepare for a national outbreak of a deadly new flu, no one died.
Some information was wrong because people misstated facts as they passed them on -- like a game of telephone gone slightly awry. Some information was classified, so some key public health experts didn't have all the facts.
And there was an ice storm -- for real -- that hit the Atlanta area and caused the U.S. Centers for Disease Control to stop the exercise early so employees wouldn't be caught in the weather.
Disaster planning has become a common concept in government, but it's relatively new at the CDC. "We haven't had a tradition in public health" of doing such drills, said Glen Nowak, a CDC spokesman.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2007/02/01/cdc_practices_for_the_big_one/



White House press center reopens after evacuation

February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The temporary White House press corps headquarters near the U.S. presidential residence reopened on Friday shortly after its evacuation because of a security alert.
Witnesses said the press briefing room had been ordered evacuated in mid-briefing. A White House spokesman said a Secret Service dog had sniffed out a possible threat in a car outside the building.


Building by White House ordered to empty
February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON --A federal building near the White House was evacuated for about a half hour Friday because of a bomb scare, interrupting the White House's morning press briefing.
The White House Conference Center on Jackson Place is serving as the temporary offices of several of President Bush's press aides as well as reporters covering the president.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto had begun his 9:30 a.m. briefing for reporters when he was interrupted by Deputy Press Secretary Scott Stanzel and a security officer. Stanzel said everyone must leave the building.
A car checked by a bomb-sniffing dog had tested positive, Stanzel said. Later, Secret Service spokeswoman Kim Bruce said nothing amiss was found in the vehicle, which was driven by a State Department contractor and had been stopped at the entrance to the White House complex.
During the investigation, nearby streets were blocked off, but the White House itself wasn't evacuated.


Turner Broadcasting accepts blame, promises restitution
E-mail says that marketer asked silence
By Michael Levenson and Raja Mishra, Globe Staff | February 2, 2007
Turner Broadcasting System yesterday accepted full responsibility for the guerrilla marketing campaign that caused a scare in Boston.

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


As suspects smirk, friends cite gentle side
By Maria Cramer and John R. Ellement, Globe Staff | February 2, 2007
The two young men charged with perpetrating a hoax that gripped the city launched into a smirking, rambling performance - art skit yesterday as reporters sought to question them about the terrorism scare. As their chagrined lawyer looked on, Sean Stevens, 28, of Charlestown and Peter Berdovsky, 27, announced they would respond only to questions about human hair.

"What I'm wondering right now is whether or not the Beatles' hair style . . . did it actually go into the '70s or was it all stuck in the '60s?" Berdovsky asked quizzically.
Stevens and Berdovsky refused to address the havoc their work created, the inconvenience to commuters, and the massive police deployment that officials say cost more than $1 million.
"I feel like my hair is pretty perfect," said Berdovsky, flipping back his dreadlocks in front of a phalanx of cameras.
But friends and family say that despite the bravado, the techno-savvy Charlestown roommates were terrified Wednesday as they watched Boston and State Police swarm the city in response to the publicity stunt.

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


Punxsutawney Phil predicts early spring
February 2, 2007
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. --A new pair of hands pulled Punxsutawney Phil from his stump this year, so it was only fitting that the groundhog offered a new prediction.
Phil did not see his shadow on Friday, which, according to German folklore, means folks can expect an early spring instead of six more weeks of winter.
Since 1886, Phil has seen his shadow 96 times, hasn't seen it 15 times and there are no records for nine years, according to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club. The last time Phil failed to see his shadow was in 1999.
More than 15,000 revelers milled about in a misty snow waiting for the prediction, as fireworks exploded overhead and the "Pennsylvania Polka" and other music blared in the background.
Sammi Gainor, 17, said she and her father first attended the ceremony about four years ago. "Since then it's really been just good memories of things I do together with my dad," she said.
"It's just kind of fun seeing people go so crazy about a groundhog," Richard Gainor said.

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



Friday, February 2, 2007
State revenues up in January
Massachusetts revenues were up in January, totaling just over $2 billion, an increase of $130 million or 6.7 percent compared with January 2006.
So far this year, the state has taken in $10.81 billion, an increase or $431 million or 4.2 percent over the same period last fiscal year. Revenues so far this year are also $95 million higher than expectations.
"January is our third or fourth largest month for tax collections because of withholding for year-end bonuses, income tax estimated payments and sales tax payments on holiday season purchases," said Revenue Commissioner Alan LeBovidge.
While withholding and estimated payments were below target, LeBovidge said, strong corporate collections, including a one-time $37 million corporate settlement, let the state meet its expected monthly revenue goal. (AP)


Raytheon gets $59.6M for Patriot anti-missile system
The U.S. Army on Thursday awarded a $59.6 million contract boost to Raytheon Co. for Patriot anti-missile anti-aircraft system.
Raytheon will provide technology upgrades on the PAC2 system.
The company will perform the work in Andover, Mass., by April 30, 2009. (AP)


84 workers at copper plant facing layoffs
February 2, 2007
ANSONIA, Conn. --Ansonia Copper and Brass Co. will be laying off about half its workers at in the next few months, the copany president announced Thursday.
Company president Ray McGee said 84 employees would be laid off effective April 2. Around 160 people work at the factory.
McGee said rising utility costs, particularly natural gas and oil, forced the company to close production in some of the higher energy using areas.
The company has a second location in Waterbury with about 50 additional employees, but McGee said that operation will not be affected.
Earlier this week, the parent company of The New Haven Copper Co. mill in Seymour said it would be shutting down the plant in March.
Olin Corp. said the shutdown will result in the loss of 41 union and 14 nonunion jobs.


Churches form compact to support traditional marriage
February 2, 2007
RAYMOND, N.H. --Fifteen pastors in central-southern New Hampshire have signed a compact to support and affirm traditional marriage.
The pastors met at the New Life Assembly of God on Thursday with state Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen to explain the "Community Marriage Policy" and seek his support.
The Rev. Ken Bosse, the church's pastor, said the group began meeting a year ago, concerned about the number of failed marriages they were seeing, and decided to draft a set of standards for couples seeking to marry in their churches.
"Marriage is not the problem," Bosse said. "It's that people don't know how to work a marriage."
The pastors want to see better preparation before marriage, including six months' notice and four months of pre-marital counseling. They also plan to train mature couples to act as mentors, help separated couples reconcile and support couples with blended families, he said.
Stephen, who attended with two staff members, said his department wants to work with the faith community.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2007/02/02/churches_form_compact_to_support_traditional_marriage/



Allen, Collins take different tacks on Iraq
February 2, 2007
PORTLAND, Maine --Democratic Rep. Tom Allen supports a House resolution to remove U.S. troops from Iraq by year's end, while support is growing in the Senate for a resolution sponsored by Republican Sen. Susan Collins that opposes a surge of troops but does not set a timetable for their withdrawal from Iraq.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2007/02/02/allen_collins_take_different_tacks_on_iraq/


Support needs could double 'surge' forces
Report pegs cost at up to $27b
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more combat troops to Iraq might require as many as 28,000 additional troops to provide critical support during the deployment, making the "surge" in US military forces far larger than previously predicted, a government assessment concluded yesterday.
The assessment from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the addition of almost 50,000 more troops could cost up to $27 billion to sustain over the next year -- depending on the size of the force and duration of the deployment. That would be more than three times the largest estimate of the troop expansion's cost provided by the Bush administration.
The report arrived as the Army general who just relinquished the top command in Iraq told a Senate panel that he had recommended that less than half of the 21,500 combat troops be added.
"I did not want to bring one more American soldier into Iraq than was necessary to accomplish the mission," said Army General George Casey , who has been nominated to serve as the Army chief of staff, explaining to the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday why he recommended that the administration send only two additional brigades rather than the five ordered by Bush.

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



Gates says U.S. not planning Iran war
By Lolita Baldor, Associated Press Writer | February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON --Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Friday that the decision to send a second U.S. carrier to the Persian Gulf region does not mean the United States is planning for a war with Iran.
Gates told Pentagon reporters the U.S. is trying to stem Iranian involvement in ongoing violence by Iraqi insurgents, and said there are continuing concerns about Iran's move toward nuclear power. But he quickly added that the movement of the carrier is to demonstrate that America is committed to the Gulf region.
He also said that he has not seen any credible proof yet that any Iranians were involved in the ambush last week in Karbala that left five soldiers dead.

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


Military says helicopter down in Iraq
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer | February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON --A U.S. military helicopter went down in Iraq Friday, the third in the past two weeks, an officer confirmed.
Maj. David Small, a spokesman at U.S. Central Command in Tampa, Fla., said he had no details on possible casualties, what mission the helicopter was supporting, nor how many were in the crew.
Two other military helicopters and one civilian helicopter have crashed in Iraq in the last two weeks. All were believed shot down, although the military says it has not confirmed that.


U.S. not planning for war with Iran, Gates says
February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is not planning for a war with Iran and instead is trying to stop them from contributing to the violence in Iraq, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Friday.
"The President has made clear, the Secretary of State has made clear, I've made clear ... we are not planning for a war with Iran," he told reporters.
The Bush administration has repeatedly warned Iran against fueling violence in Iraq, and U.S. forces there have detained a number of Iranian officials in raids since December.
"What we are trying to do is, in Iraq, counter what the Iranians are doing to our soldiers, their involvement and activities, particularly these explosively-formed projectiles that are killing our troops and we're trying to get them to stop their nuclear enrichment," Gates said.
The Pentagon has moved a second aircraft carrier into the Gulf as part of its effort to pressure Iran and show that the United States will stay active in the region.
Iran has long been at odds with the United States and Europe, pushing ahead with plans to enrich uranium as part of what Tehran says is a peaceful energy program. Washington and the others fear that Iran instead has been trying to develop nuclear weapons.


U.S. intelligence calls Iraq violence "civil war"
By David Morgan | February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. intelligence has concluded key elements of Iraq's violence could be described as a "civil war," a term Bush administration officials have been reluctant to use until now, a new report said on Friday.
The report, reflecting the consensus views of the American espionage community, also suggested President George W. Bush's new strategy for controlling Iraqi violence must show progress within 12-18 months or risk further deterioration.
"The intelligence community judges that the term 'civil war' does not adequately capture the complexity of the conflict in Iraq," according to the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report, parts of which were obtained by Reuters.
"Nonetheless, the term 'civil war' accurately describes key elements of the Iraqi conflict, including the hardening of ethno-sectarian identities, a sea change in the character of the violence and population displacements."
The NIE's declassified key judgments were due to be released by the office of U.S. intelligence chief John Negroponte later on Friday.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/02/02/us_intelligence_says_civil_war_describes_iraq/


Mankind to blame for global warming say scientists
By Gerard Wynn and Alister Doyle | February 2, 2007
PARIS (Reuters) - Mankind is to blame for global warming, the world's top climate scientists said on Friday, sending governments a "crystal clear" warning they must take urgent action to avert severe and irreversible damage.
The United Nations panel, which groups 2,500 scientists from more than 130 nations, predicted more droughts, heatwaves and a slow gain in sea levels that could last for more than 1,000 years even if greenhouse gas emissions were capped.
The panel's report predicts a "best estimate" that temperatures would rise by between 1.8 and 4.0 Celsius (3.2 and 7.8 Fahrenheit) in the 21st century.
"Faced with this emergency, now is not the time for half measures. It is the time for a revolution, in the true sense of the term," French President Jacques Chirac said. "We are in truth on the historical doorstep of the irreversible."
The scientists said it was "very likely" -- or more than 90 percent probable -- that human activities led by burning fossil fuels explained most of the warming in the past 50 years.
That is a toughening from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) last report in 2001, which judged a link as "likely," or 66 percent probable.
Possible signs include drought in Australia, record high winter temperatures in Europe and dwindling fish catches in lake Chad, which is shrinking after years of poor rainfall.
Many governments, U.N. agencies and environmental groups urged a widening of the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol, which binds 35 industrial nations to cut emissions by 2012 but excludes top emitters led by the United States, China and India.
"The signal we've received from the scientists today is crystal clear and it's important that the political response is also crystal clear," said Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Secretariat.
He wants an emergency environment summit of world leaders this year to push for wider action. Kyoto has been weakened since the United States pulled out in 2001 and emissions by many backers of Kyoto are far above target.
ARCTIC MELT
A 21-page summary of IPCC findings for policy makers outlines wrenching change such as a possible melting of Arctic sea ice in summers by 2100 and says it is "more likely than not" that greenhouse gases have made tropical cyclones more intense.
The report projects a rise in sea levels of between 18 and 59 centimeters (7 and 23 inches) in the 21st century -- and said bigger gains cannot be ruled out if ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland thaw.
Rising seas threaten low-lying islands, coasts of countries such as Bangladesh and cities from Shanghai to Buenos Aires.
Temperatures rose 0.7 degrees in the 20th century and the 10 hottest years since records began in the 1850s have been since 1994. Greenhouse gases are released mainly by burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars.
The head of the U.S. delegation defended Bush's policies that brake the rise of emissions rather than cap them. Democrats who control both houses of Congress want tougher action.
"The president has put in place a comprehensive set of policies to address what he has called the 'serious challenge' of climate change," said Sharon Hays, Associate Director of the White House Office of Science & Technology Policy.
Bush says Kyoto-style caps would harm the economy and that Kyoto should include developing nations. He focuses instead on big investments in hydrogen and biofuels.
The president of Kiribati, a group of 33 Pacific coral atolls threatened by rising seas, said time was running out.
"The question is, what can we do now? There's very little we can do about arresting the process," President Anote Tong said.
Some leading scientists had criticized a draft for cutting the range for the rise in sea levels from a 2001 forecast of between 9 and 88 cm.
Rajendra Pachauri, the head of the IPCC, said the impact of climate change was already dangerous for some.
"Small island states will say we've already gone past the state of danger. Where you have the poorest people in the world (dependent on) rain-fed agriculture, for them also it's dangerous," he told Reuters.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/02/02/un_climate_panel_says_warming_is_man_made_1170428167/


How language on climate change has evolved
By The Associated Press | February 2, 2007
A brief look at how language on climate change has evolved, gradually showing that man-made factors are to blame:
"Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations ... The observed widespread warming of the atmosphere and ocean, together with ice mass loss, support the conclusion that it is extremely unlikely that global climate change of the past fifty years can be explained without external forcing, and very likely that it is not due to known natural causes alone." -- Report of Working Group 1, IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, released Friday, Feb. 2, 2007.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/02/02/how_language_on_climate_change_has_evolved/


Bacterial disease eyed in sea lion deaths
February 1, 2007
CORVALLIS, Ore. --Scientists say a bacterial disease that can affect mammals, including humans, may be behind an increase in sea lions found dead on Oregon beaches recently.
But more volunteers are looking for marine mammals, which also could be partly behind the higher figures, said Jim Rice, an Oregon State University research assistant who coordinates the Oregon Marine Mammal Stranding Network.
"I think 90 (California sea lions) is a pretty good estimate for what we've had this past year," Rice said. He said the die-off isn't large considering the increase in the sea lion population since it became federally protected in 1972.
But he said leptospirosis and other diseases are reasons for people and dogs to avoid the dead animals on shore.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/02/01/bacterial_disease_eyed_in_sea_lion_deaths/


Climate report won't signal policy change
By Seth Borenstein, AP Science Writer | February 2, 2007
PARIS --It was a U.S. government scientist who helped push through the strong language in the upcoming international report on global warming.
But that doesn't signal a change in President Bush's policy about greenhouse gas emissions.
The climate change report coming out Friday -- an agreement by officials from 113 governments, including the United States -- is very different from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol that Bush has long opposed.
"I think it's hard to take the U.S. action on this as a signal of them changing policy," said John Reilly, associate director of research at the MIT Joint Program on the Science and Policy of Global Change.
The report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change sums up what scientists say is happening and what that means for the future. The document recommends no actions to slow global warming.
The head of the U.S. delegation welcomed the strong language.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2007/02/02/climate_report_wont_signal_policy_change/


Deutsche Bahn picks Bombardier trains
February 2, 2007
BERLIN, Germany --Canadian transport group Bombardier Inc. said Friday it has been selected by Deutsche Bahn AG to supply 321 new trains in a deal worth about 1.2 billion euros ($1.6 billion).
Bombardier Transportation participated in a pan-European tender with its new TALENT trains, the parent company said in a statement. The entire vehicle fleet will be developed and manufactured at Bombardier sites in Germany.
Contract signing is expected to take place soon. The new TALENT trains are scheduled to be deployed on regional lines throughout Germany starting in 2009.
"The new train incorporates leading-edge design concepts that offer unparalleled flexibility," said Andre Navarri, president of Bombardier Transportation.



U.N. envoy unveils Kosovo proposal
By Garentina Kraja, Associated Press Writer | February 2, 2007
PRISTINA, Serbia --A U.N. envoy on Friday unveiled a long-awaited plan for Kosovo, a proposal recommending internationally supervised statehood for the contested province where separatists fought a bloody war with Serbia in the late 1990s.
The plan was quickly rejected by Serbian President Boris Tadic, who said it "opens the possibility of independence" for the region that the Serbs claim as the heart of their ancient homeland.
The proposal does not mention the word "independence," but gives Kosovo the go-ahead to adopt its own constitution, the ability to negotiate international agreements, and a right to apply for membership in international organizations, according to an executive summary.
Parts of the plan call for a multiethnic Kosovo "governing itself democratically and with full respect for the rule of law." It also would protect Serbian Orthodox Church sites and the Serbian language in the province dominated by ethnic Albanians who are secular Muslims.
Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said the province's leaders were convinced the process soon would lead to "Kosovo becoming an independent state" and pledged that it would guarantee security and rights for its minority Serbs.

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


San Francisco mayor apologizes for affair
Confirms reports of liaison with key aide's wife
By Lee Romney, Los Angeles Times | February 2, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO -- Mayor Gavin Newsom yesterday confirmed reports that he had an affair with the wife of his reelection campaign manager and apologized.
In a packed news conference, Newsom emerged to offer a brief, somber apology, taking no questions. "I want to make it clear that everything you've heard and read is true, and I'm deeply sorry about that," Newsom said. "I've hurt someone I care deeply about -- Alex Tourk and his friends and family. And that is something I have to live with."
Saying he is recommitted to the business of governing, Newsom went on to apologize to City Hall and the citizens of San Francisco. "My personal lapse of judgment aside, I am committed to restoring their trust and confidence. . . . We will now be working aggressively to advance our agenda in the city."
Newsom did not respond to questions from reporters and left the room.
He issued his apology after Tourk, his re election campaign manager and former deputy chief of staff, abruptly submitted his resignation late Wednesday, citing personal reasons.
Tourk had been one of the mayor's closest advisers, designing one of the Newsom administration's signature accomplishments: massive bimonthly gatherings, known as Project Homeless Connect and emulated nationwide, where the homeless are directed to services.

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


Michigan court: No same-sex benefits
By David Eggert, Associated Press Writer | February 2, 2007
LANSING, Mich. --Public universities and local governments can't provide health insurance to the partners of gay employees without violating the state constitution, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled Friday.
A three-judge panel said a 2004 voter-approved ban on gay marriage also applies to same-sex domestic partner benefits.
"The marriage amendment's plain language prohibits public employers from recognizing same-sex unions for any purpose," the court wrote.
The decision reverses a 2005 ruling from a county judge who said universities and government agencies could provide the benefits.
A constitutional amendment passed by Michigan voters in November 2004 made the union between a man and a woman the only agreement recognized as a marriage "or similar union for any purpose." Those six words led to the court fight over benefits for gay couples.


Newark teachers' plea: Stop the killings
By Wayne Parry, Associated Press Writer | February 2, 2007
NEWARK, N.J. --Advertisements by teachers unions typically feature smiling instructors leaning over fresh-faced youngsters. But a half-dozen new billboards in New Jersey's largest city offer a far darker message.
"HELP WANTED," they read. "STOP THE KILLINGS IN NEWARK NOW!"
Depending on who is counting, there were either 106 or 113 people slain in Newark last year -- the highest number in more than a decade. Before officials in the troubled school system can think about tackling problems inside the classroom, they have to worry about safely getting students and teachers into those classrooms, teachers union officials say.
"Some people don't like the shock, but it's a lot less shocking than stepping over a body, or looking down the barrel of a gun," Joseph Del Grosso, president of the Newark Teachers Union, said of the billboards scattered downtown that were paid for by the group. "We tried more subtle ways of bringing attention to the problem, but they didn't work."

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/02/02/newark_teachers_plea_stop_the_killings/


Urban schools' diploma rates lag
Nearly 40% don't graduate on time
By Tracy Jan, Globe Staff | February 2, 2007
Nearly 40 percent of the state’s urban high school students do not graduate within four years, according to state data released yesterday. More than one-fifth have dropped out, but many others stayed in school in hopes of graduating in five or six years.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/02/02/urban_schools_diploma_rates_lag_1170403289/


'I don't want anyone to end up like me'
By Jackie MacMullan, Globe Staff | February 2, 2007
It has all unraveled; his career, his marriage, his health, his reputation. Former Patriots linebacker Ted Johnson was once a Super Bowl champion and a fan favorite, admired for his jarring hits and thoughtful approach to a violent game.
But now he is a struggling ex-athlete who has become unreliable and unreachable -- making promises and commitments he does not keep -- the subject of steamy tabloid gossip, shunned for an alleged domestic abuse incident involving his wife.
Johnson, 34, suffers from such severe depression that some mornings he literally cannot pull himself out of bed. When the crippling malaise overtakes him, he lies in a darkened room, unwilling to communicate with his closest family members.
The 10-year NFL veteran believes his current state is a direct result of a career in which he absorbed "countless" head injuries, including back-to-back concussions suffered within days during the 2002 season, when he says the Patriots didn't give him proper time to recover.
He has tried to make himself well. He has been in counseling, taken antidepressants (Prozac and Wellbutrin). When they made him feel sluggish, he began taking Adderall, an amphetamine. He developed an addiction to the stimulant and was admitted to McLean Hospital in the summer of 2005 to receive psychiatric care. The doctors took films of his brain, he said, but they were not conclusive.

http://www.boston.com/sports/football/patriots/articles/2007/02/02/i_dont_want_anyone_to_end_up_like_me/


Committee recommends better coordinating early education programs
By Ross Sneyd, Associated Press Writer | February 1, 2007
MONTPELIER, Vt. --Vermont's early childhood education programs need better coordination but should still be funded by tax dollars, a special committee recommended Thursday.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2007/02/01/committee_recommends_better_coordinating_early_education_programs/



Patrick considering education consolidation
By Glen Johnson, AP Political Writer | February 1, 2007
BOSTON --Gov. Deval Patrick, who is conducting a wide-ranging review of public schooling in Massachusetts, is considering consolidating the educational hierarchy under a single, Cabinet-level secretary of education, according to a top lawmaker and government aides.
Currently, education leadership in the state is split among three agencies, each with its own board of directors: the Department of Early Education and Care, which handles children prior to kindergarten; the Department of Education, which handles students through Grade 12, and; the Board of Higher Education, which oversees the 29 state campuses of higher education in Massachusetts.
Rep. Kevin Murphy, the Lowell Democrat who serves as House chairman of the Joint Committee on Higher Education, said he has been told one idea is to merge the boards under a single leader. Such a change would require legislative approval.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2007/02/01/patrick_considering_education_consolidation/


A harsh reality for dropouts
February 2, 2007
News about high school dropouts is rarely good, but new data and a devastating, highly detailed new report paint a bleak picture. Even though 80 percent of Massachusetts students graduate from high school in four years, some schools and districts are struggling. They've graduated fewer than half the freshmen who entered in 2002, creating a festering problem that policymakers must solve.
The data about the class of 2006 come from the Massachusetts Department of Education. And the worst findings are not surprising. Urban areas lag with a graduation rate of 62.3 percent. Minority students, especially boys, are less likely to graduate. The rate for black males is 57.5 percent. For Hispanic males it's 51.2 percent.
True, some students will graduate in five years instead of four. Others will get equivalency diplomas. But 11.7 percent have dropped out. They face a long list of threats, according to the report from Northeastern University's Center for Labor Market Studies.

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


Berlusconi wants Italy govt out after vote blunder
By Silvia Aloisi | February 2, 2007
ROME (Reuters) - The centre-right opposition demanded on Friday that Prime Minister Romano Prodi resign after his coalition suffered an embarrassing blow in a parliamentary vote over a U.S. airbase in Italy.
Prodi's lawmakers could not agree on Thursday on a Senate motion in support of Defense Minister Arturo Parisi's decision to allow the expansion of the base, opposed by many on the left of the nine-party coalition.
Sensing a chance to put the Prodi government, which has a one-seat majority in the Senate, in an awkward position, the center right stepped in and presented its own motion of support for Parisi. The opposition won by 152 votes to 146.
Centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi said the vote had exposed how vulnerable the government was to internal squabbles constantly dividing its Catholics-to-communists members.

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


Sex issues may signal other health risks
By Maria Cheng, AP Medical Writer | February 1, 2007
LONDON --Doctors shouldn't shy away from asking patients about their sex lives, a new research paper advises. Researchers say problems in the bedroom can translate into serious medical conditions, and ignoring sexual dysfunction may mean missing early indicators for heart failure, depression or other ailments, according to a paper published in Friday's issue of The Lancet.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/men/articles/2007/02/01/sex_issues_may_signal_other_health_risks/


The Big Dig slur
February 2, 2007
Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina said in the Senate this week that the federal contribution to the Big Dig was pork-barrel spending. DeMint's argument -- a ploy in a successful effort to attach business-friendly amendments to the minimum wage bill -- is simply not true. The Big Dig is hardly a bridge to nowhere or an out-of-the-way museum, like some of the special interest projects approved by Congress. It is an essential part of the Interstate Highway System, like the 844 miles of expressways in DeMint's state.

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


Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/


"You know, these things have to take shape..." -- Rep. Keith Ellison
February 2nd, 2007 3:36 am
Ellison says he won't pursue impeaching President Bush - for now
By Rob Hotakainen / McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - If campaign talk means anything, there'd be at least one sure vote on the House Judiciary Committee to impeach President Bush if the matter ever came up.
It would come from freshman Democratic Rep. Keith Ellison, the Minneapolis lawyer and former state legislator who got a plum assignment when he was named to the storied House panel earlier this month. It has jurisdiction over impeachment.
At a rally last October, Ellison said Bush has been "running amok" and needed to be reined in: "There is one way that you can truly hold this president accountable, and it's impeachment."
But for the time being anyway, Ellison seems in no hurry to push the matter.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9131


February 2nd, 2007 2:20 am
Iraq at Risk of Further Strife, Intelligence Report Warns
By Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus / Washington Post
A long-awaited National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq, presented to President Bush by the intelligence community yesterday, outlines an increasingly perilous situation in which the United States has little control and there is a strong possibility of further deterioration, according to sources familiar with the document.
In a discussion of whether Iraq has reached a state of civil war, the 90-page classified NIE comes to no conclusion and holds out prospects of improvement. But it couches glimmers of optimism in deep uncertainty about whether the Iraqi leaders will be able to transcend sectarian interests and fight against extremists, establish effective national institutions and end rampant corruption.
The document emphasizes that although al-Qaeda activities in Iraq remain a problem, they have been surpassed by Iraqi-on-Iraqi violence as the primary source of conflict and the most immediate threat to U.S. goals. Iran, which the administration has charged with supplying and directing Iraqi extremists, is mentioned but is not a focus.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9130


February 1st, 2007 2:02 pm
Goodbye, Molly I.
By Anthony Zurcher / Creators Syndicate
Molly Ivins is gone, and her words will never grace these pages again -- for this, we will mourn. But Molly wasn't the type of woman who would want us to grieve. More likely, she'd say something like, "Hang in there, keep fightin' for freedom, raise more hell, and don't forget to laugh, too."
If there was one thing Molly wanted us to understand, it's that the world of politics is absurd. Since we can't cry, we might as well laugh. And in case we ever forgot, Molly would remind us, several times a week, in her own unique style.
Shortly after becoming editor of Molly Ivins' syndicated column, I learned one of my most important jobs was to tell her newspaper clients that, yes, Molly meant to write it that way. We called her linguistic peculiarities "Molly-isms." Administration officials were "Bushies," government was in fact spelled "guvment," business was "bidness." And if someone was "madder than a peach orchard boar," well, he was quite mad indeed.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9125


'Stand Up Against the Surge' ...by Molly Ivins
Creators Syndicate
The purpose of this old-fashioned newspaper crusade to stop the war is not to make George W. Bush look like the dumbest president ever. People have done dumber things. What were they thinking when they bought into the Bay of Pigs fiasco? How dumb was the Egypt-Suez war? How massively stupid was the entire war in Vietnam? Even at that, the challenge with this misbegotten adventure is that WE simply cannot let it continue.
It is not a matter of whether we will lose or we are losing. We have lost. Gen. John P. Abizaid, until recently the senior commander in the Middle East, insists that the answer to our problems there is not military. "You have to internationalize the problem. You have to attack it diplomatically, geo-strategically," he said.
His assessment is supported by Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the senior American commander in Iraq, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who only recommend releasing forces with a clear definition of the goals for the additional troops.
Bush's call for a "surge" or "escalation" also goes against the Iraq Study Group. Talk is that the White House has planned to do anything but what the group suggested after months of investigation and proposals based on much broader strategic implications.
About the only politician out there besides Bush actively calling for a surge is Sen. John McCain. In a recent opinion piece, he wrote: "The presence of additional coalition forces would allow the Iraqi government to do what it cannot accomplish today on its own — impose its rule throughout the country. ... By surging troops and bringing security to Baghdad and other areas, we will give the Iraqis the best possible chance to succeed." But with all due respect to the senator from Arizona, that ship has long since sailed.
A surge is not acceptable to the people in this country — we have voted overwhelmingly against this war in polls (about 80 percent of the public is against escalation, and a recent Military Times poll shows only 38 percent of active military want more troops sent) and at the polls.
We know this is wrong. The people understand, the people have the right to make this decision, and the people have the obligation to make sure our will is implemented.
Congress must work for the people in the resolution of this fiasco. Ted Kennedy's proposal to control the money and tighten oversight is a welcome first step. And if Republicans want to continue to rubber-stamp this administration's idiotic "plans" and go against the will of the people, they should be thrown out as soon as possible, to join their recent colleagues.
Anyone who wants to talk knowledgably about our Iraq misadventure should pick up Rajiv Chandrasekaran's "Imperial Life in the Emerald City: Inside Iraq's Green Zone." It's like reading a horror novel. You just want to put your face down and moan: How could we have let this happen? How could we have been so stupid?
As The Washington Post's review notes, Chandrasekaran's book "methodically documents the baffling ineptitude that dominated U.S. attempts to influence Iraq's fiendish politics, rebuild the electrical grid, privatize the economy, run the oil industry, recruit expert staff or instill a modicum of normalcy to the lives of Iraqis."
We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!"


February 1st, 2007 2:18 pm
Who Needs Breasts, Anyway?
Sunday, February 10th, 2002
By Molly Ivins
Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that.
One of the first things you notice is that people treat you differently when they know you have it. The hushed tone in which they inquire, "How are you?" is unnerving. If I had answered honestly during 90% of the nine months I spent in treatment, I would have said, "If it weren't for being constipated, I'd be fine." In fact, even chemotherapy is not nearly as hard as it once was, although it still made all my hair fall out. My late friend Jocelyn Gray found the ultimate proof that there is no justice: "Not just my hair, but my eyebrows, my eyelashes--every hair on my body has fallen out, except for these goddam little mustaches at the corner of my mouth I have always hated."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9126


January 31st, 2007 2:03 am
Marine’s Mother Interrupts Senate Hearing
KWTX-TV
Tina Richards, the mother of a US Marine who has already done two tours in Iraq interrupted a Senate hearing Tuesday to beg Senators not to send her son for a third tour.
As Senator Orrin Hatch, a strong supporter of the Bush Administration's policy in Iraq, was telling members of the Senate Judiciary Committee that when considering a resolution opposing the President's plan to send even more soldiers to Iraq, "we must also consider the message that we are sending to our troops," a woman in a tee shirt reading "Military Families Speak Out" interrupted him.
"Stop the surge," said Richards, who identified herself as the mother of a US Marine who after returning from his second tour in Iraq was now being recalled for yet another.
"Don't send my son back please," said Richards while Judiciary Committee chairman Senator Russell Feingold, D-Wisconsin, attempted to gavel the hearing to order.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9118


January 30th, 2007 11:32 pm
Congress can halt Iraq war, experts tell lawmakers
By Susan Cornwell / Reuters
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Congress has the power to end the war in Iraq, a former Bush administration attorney and other high-powered legal experts told a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
Facing mounting opposition over his Iraq troop increase plan, President George W. Bush insisted it would be "too extreme" if lawmakers pass a resolution condemning his Iraq policy.
Four out of five experts called before the Senate Judiciary Committee said Congress could go even further and restrict or stop U.S. involvement in Iraq if it chose.
"I think the constitutional scheme does give Congress broad authority to terminate a war," said Bradford Berenson, a Washington lawyer who was a White House associate counsel under Bush from 2001 to 2003.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9113


January 31st, 2007 12:25 am
Senators Assert Right to Block Bush on Iraq
By John O’Neil / New York Times
Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee began laying the constitutional groundwork today for an effort to block President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq and place new limits on the conduct of the war there, perhaps forcing a withdrawal of American forces from Iraq.
They were joined by Senator Arlen Specter, the Pennsylvania Republican who led the panel for the last two years, in asserting that Mr. Bush cannot simply ignore Congressional opposition to his plan to send 21,500 additional troops to Iraq.
“I would respectfully suggest to the president that he is not the sole decider,” Mr. Specter said. “The decider is a joint and shared responsibility.”

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9114


"The decider is a joint and shared responsibility.” -- Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA)
U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 107th Congress - 2nd Session
as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate
Vote Summary
Question: On the Joint Resolution (H.J.Res. 114 )
Vote Number : 237
Required for Majority : ½
Measure Number : H J Res. 114 ( http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:HJ114: )
Measure Title : A joint resolution to authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against Iraq.
Vote Date : October 11, 2002, 12:50 AM
Vote Result : Joint Resolution Passed
Vote Counts : Yeas – 77 Nays – 23


Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
'IMPEACHMENT FOR THE PEOPLE' ...by Howard Zinn
Courage is in short supply in Washington, D.C. The realities of the Iraq War cry out for the overthrow of a government that is criminally responsible for death, mutilation, torture, humiliation, chaos. But all we hear in the nation’s capital, which is the source of those catastrophes, is a whimper from the Democratic Party, muttering and nattering about “unity” and “bipartisanship,” in a situation that calls for bold action to immediately reverse the present course.
These are the Democrats who were brought to power in November by an electorate fed up with the war, furious at the Bush Administration, and counting on the new majority in Congress to represent the voters. But if sanity is to be restored in our national policies, it can only come about by a great popular upheaval, pushing both Republicans and Democrats into compliance with the national will.
The Declaration of Independence, revered as a document but ignored as a guide to action, needs to be read from pulpits and podiums, on street corners and community radio stations throughout the nation. Its words, forgotten for over two centuries, need to become a call to action for the first time since it was read aloud to crowds in the early excited days of the American Revolution: “Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or abolish it and institute new government.”

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=817


Link of the Week

“Alive in Baghdad”
Each year since the war began, Ramadan has become a less and less happy time for Iraqis.
Often now when wishing an Iraqi Eid Sa’eed at the end of Ramadan, one shouldn’t be surprised to here the cynical refrain “There is no Eid in Iraq.” Or at the beginning of Ramadan, one should wish a Ramadan Ma’brok, a congratulations for the beginning of Ramadan. Although an Iraqi might thank you, they will also often mention their sadness or worries for Ramadan.
While the mainstream press is quick to mention that Ramadan is often a time of high death tolls and increased militancy among the insurgency, this is only part of the story.
Ramadan is often the happiest time for all Muslims, but for Iraqis, they just hope to get by, to make it to prayer, and to survive to see a better Ramadan, to have a happy Eid.

http://www.aliveinbaghdad.org/

Weekly Radio Testimonies

http://aliveinbaghdad.org/category/video/

Living in an war zone and spending much of your day under curfew means you’ll end up with a lot of time on your hands. Many young people in Baghdad end up doing what others their age all over the world do, and that’s play video games. Wisam explains to us the difficulties inherent in playing videogames, what his favorites are and some analysis of his current situation as well.
Although we attempted to shoot a number of other interviews, to produce a piece with a wider perspective of the role videogames have begun to play in the lives of Iraqi youth, due to the security situation we were unable to find others willing to talk on camera.

http://aliveinbaghdad.org/2006/12/18/baghdad-is-like-grand-theft-auto/


Casualties in Iraq

http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

Deaths : 3085


Since the USA Government doesn’t do body counts, “We don’t do body counts.” General Tommy Franks.:

October 11th, 2006 1:20 am
Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000
By David Brown / Washington Post
A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.
The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.
It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8080


New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/


Climate Panel Issues Urgent Warning to Curb Gases

PARIS, Feb. 2 —The world is already committed to centuries of warming, shifting weather patterns and rising seas from the atmospheric buildup of gases that trap heat, but the warming can be substantially blunted by prompt action, an international network of climate experts said today.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/science/earth/02cnd-climate.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=7f0ce59ee7d312e5&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Panel’s Report

http://www.ipcc.ch/SPM2feb07.pdf


Severe Storms Strike Central Florida

Severe thunderstorms, and possibly tornados, ripped through central Florida early today, killing at least 14 people and tearing up houses, trees and power lines and blowing tractor-trailers off Interstate 4.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/us/02cnd-storm.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=646208a71a7e5e15&ei=5094&partner=homepage


An Afghan’s Path From Ally of U.S. to Drug Suspect

By JAMES RISEN
Published: February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — In April 2005, federal law enforcement officials summoned reporters to a Manhattan news conference to announce the capture of an Afghan drug lord and Taliban ally. While boasting that he was a big catch — the Asian counterpart of the Colombian cocaine legend Pablo Escobar — the officials left out some puzzling details, including why the Afghan, Haji Bashir Noorzai, had risked arrest by coming to New York.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/asia/02afghan.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=71bb58af18892e05&ei=5094&partner=homepage



Intelligence Report Predicts Worsening Cycle of Violence

By MARK MAZZETTI
Published: February 2, 2007
WASHINGTON, Feb. 2 — A much-anticipated assessment of Iraq by America’s intelligence agencies describes a worsening cycle of chaos in the country, and forecasts that the sectarian strife will continue to fracture the country without bold actions by Iraqi politicians.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/middleeast/02cnd-intel.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=491eb97eea8c48bd&ei=5094&partner=homepage


So Far, Obama Can’t Take Black Vote for Granted

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — He is hailed by his supporters as the hope of an increasingly multicultural nation, a political phenomenon who can wow white voters while carrying the aspirations of African-Americans all the way to the White House.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/us/politics/02obama.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=258a5c83f02ad44e&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Florida to Shift Voting System With Paper Trail

DELRAY BEACH, Fla., Feb. 1 — Gov. Charlie Crist announced plans on Thursday to abandon the touch-screen voting machines that many of Florida’s counties installed after the disputed 2000 presidential election. The state will instead adopt a system of casting paper ballots counted by scanning machines in time for the 2008 presidential election.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/us/02voting.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=9f5342a78ef82375&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Late for Court: Connecticut Case Draws Scrutiny

By ALISON LEIGH COWAN
Published: February 2, 2007
NORWALK, Conn., Feb. 1 — Some call the “failure to appear” charge a prosecutor’s best friend because it is relatively easy to prove and can swiftly bring a defendant to the bargaining table. Others see the long-accepted but little-discussed practice of punishing late or absentee defendants as a crutch for overworked judges to maintain decorum and keep criminal cases from clogging their courtrooms.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/nyregion/02appear.html?hp&ex=1170478800&en=b5d1771a6f2006ab&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Clashes Between Hamas and Fatah Escalate

GAZA (Reuters) - Fighting between Palestinian factions escalated across Gaza on Friday, killing at least 14 people as Hamas overran compounds used by President Mahmoud Abbas's forces and two major universities were set ablaze.
``Gaza is being burned down,'' Arafat Abu Eyad said from his balcony overlooking the smoldering buildings.
At the urging of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, Abbas of Fatah and Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal agreed to hold talks in the holy Muslim city of Mecca, most likely on Tuesday, a senior Palestinian diplomat said.
Eight fighters loyal to Abbas, three Hamas gunmen, a woman and two children were killed on Friday in a second day of fierce clashes in the Gaza Strip that shattered a three-day-old ceasefire between Fatah and the ruling Islamist movement.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-palestinians.html?

hp&ex=1170478800&en=f6e0cdbbaf97c882&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Fewer Jobs Added; Jobless Rate Climbs

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The nation's unemployment rate climbed to a four-month high of 4.6 percent as somewhat wary employers added fewer new jobs in January. Wage gains were more modest.
The newest report on the economy, released Friday by the Labor Department, suggested that the jobs market got off to a slower start in 2007 yet still remains in decent shape. The more subdued job growth -- 111,000 positions -- is consistent with the expectation that growth in the economy as a whole will moderate this year.
The tally of new jobs added last month fell short of economists expectations for a gain of around 150,000 positions. Analysts also had said they anticipated that the overall unemployment rate would have held steady at 4.5 percent, the rate that was registered in December.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/AP-Economy.html


British to Show Al Gore Movie in Schools

LONDON (AP) -- Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore's global warming documentary will be sent to every secondary school in England as part of a campaign to tackle climate change, the government said Friday.
Environment Secretary David Miliband and Education Secretary Alan Johnson announced plans to distribute Gore's film, ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' on the day the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was published in Paris. The report by leading scientists, said global warming has started and is ''very likely'' caused by humans.
''The debate over the science of climate change is well and truly over, as demonstrated by the publication of today's report by the IPCC,'' Miliband said. ''Our energies should now be channeled into how we respond in an innovative and positive way in moving to a low-carbon future.''
In the film, Gore warns that unless action is taken to reduce carbon emissions soon, global warming will have disastrous implications for the environment.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/arts/AP-Britain-Inconvenient-Truth.html


Bolivia’s Only Ski Resort Is Facing a Snowless Future

CHACALTAYA, Bolivia, Jan. 28 — The lodge here at what bills itself as the world’s highest ski resort has fraying black-and-white photos evoking memories of the years when this country had an Olympic ski team.
Bolivia’s die-hard skiers still boast about the place, asking where else one can ski above the clouds at a dizzying 17,388 feet with a view of Lake Titicaca on the horizon.
Where else, they ask, would the après-ski tradition include coca tea and soup made from the grain of the quinoa plant?
Their pride in the ski resort here, the only one in Bolivia, soon gives way to a grim acceptance that the glacier that once surrounded the lodge with copious amounts of snow and ice is melting fast.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/americas/02bolivia.html


Exxon and Shell Report Record Profits for 2006

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
HOUSTON, Feb. 1 — Oil prices have fallen, but Exxon Mobil and Royal Dutch Shell left their smaller competitors in the dust and reported record annual profits Thursday.
By making $180 million a day between them, the two largest publicly traded oil companies displayed their ability to ramp up production worldwide over the year, even in unstable places like Chad and Nigeria. Growth may be slowing and is likely to continue to do so in the future, but these two companies showed they could navigate the year’s volatile energy prices that caused smaller companies to stumble in their fourth-quarter profits.
The expanding profits at Exxon Mobil and Shell, however, may also make them big targets for the Democratic Congress whose leaders want oil companies to pay higher taxes and work to curb global warming.
Analysts said that with oil prices rebounding again with more frigid weather, the entire industry is almost assured of seeing strong profits again this year.
Production in Mexico and Venezuela is declining because of politics, poor management, investment shortfalls and aging fields. And in Russia, production is slowing because of tensions between the government and foreign oil and gas companies over big investments. With worldwide crude inventories full, Saudi Arabia is keeping production in check to maintain its influence over pricing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/business/02oil.html


Compromise Senate Measure Rebuffing Bush’s Iraq Buildup Gathers Support

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — A revised Senate resolution criticizing President Bush’s troop buildup in Iraq drew new support Thursday as two authors of a sterner resolution of disapproval said they would accept the compromise, fashioned by Senator John W. Warner.
Senators Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, and Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska, said they would back Mr. Warner’s alternative, which declares that “the Senate disagrees with the ‘plan’ to augment our forces by 21,500,” calls on the president to consider other alternatives and urges him to limit the American role in countering sectarian violence.
“The bottom line of our resolutions is the same: Mr. President, don’t send more Americans into the middle of civil war,” said Mr. Biden, one of the authors of the initial resolution, which was approved last week by the Foreign Relations Committee, which he leads.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/washington/02cong.html


Iraq Suicide Bombers Kill 60 and Wound 150 in Market in Southern City

BAGHDAD, Feb. 1 — Twin suicide bombers struck a market jammed with people in the southern Iraqi town of Hilla on Thursday, killing at least 60, wounding 150 and spraying body parts so far that the police were still scouring rooftops for them late in the night.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/world/middleeast/02iraq.html


Missing Molly Ivins

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Molly Ivins, the Texas columnist, died of breast cancer on Wednesday. I first met her more than three years ago, when our book tours crossed. She was, as she wrote, “a card-carrying member of The Great Liberal Backlash of 2003, one of the half-dozen or so writers now schlepping around the country promoting books that do not speak kindly of Our Leader’s record.”
I can’t claim to have known her well. But I spent enough time with her, and paid enough attention to her work, to know that obituaries that mostly stressed her satirical gifts missed the main point. Yes, she liked to poke fun at the powerful, and was very good at it. But her satire was only the means to an end: holding the powerful accountable.
She explained her philosophy in a stinging 1995 article in Mother Jones magazine about Rush Limbaugh. “Satire ... has historically been the weapon of powerless people aimed at the powerful,” she wrote. “When you use satire against powerless people ... it is like kicking a cripple.”
Molly never lost sight of two eternal truths: rulers lie, and the times when people are most afraid to challenge authority are also the times when it’s most important to do just that. And the fact that she remembered these truths explains something I haven’t seen pointed out in any of the tributes: her extraordinary prescience on the central political issue of our time.
I’ve been going through Molly’s columns from 2002 and 2003, the period when most of the wise men of the press cheered as Our Leader took us to war on false pretenses, then dismissed as “Bush haters” anyone who complained about the absence of W.M.D. or warned that the victory celebrations were premature. Here are a few selections:
Nov. 19, 2002: “The greatest risk for us in invading Iraq is probably not war itself, so much as: What happens after we win? ... There is a batty degree of triumphalism loose in this country right now.”
Jan. 16, 2003: “I assume we can defeat Hussein without great cost to our side (God forgive me if that is hubris). The problem is what happens after we win. The country is 20 percent Kurd, 20 percent Sunni and 60 percent Shiite. Can you say, ‘Horrible three-way civil war?’ ”
July 14, 2003: “I opposed the war in Iraq because I thought it would lead to the peace from hell, but I’d rather not see my prediction come true and I don’t think we have much time left to avert it. That the occupation is not going well is apparent to everyone but Donald Rumsfeld. ... We don’t need people with credentials as right-wing ideologues and corporate privatizers — we need people who know how to fix water and power plants.”
Oct. 7, 2003: “Good thing we won the war, because the peace sure looks like a quagmire. ...
“I’ve got an even-money bet out that says more Americans will be killed in the peace than in the war, and more Iraqis will be killed by Americans in the peace than in the war. Not the first time I’ve had a bet out that I hoped I’d lose.”
So Molly Ivins — who didn’t mingle with the great and famous, didn’t have sources high in the administration, and never claimed special expertise on national security or the Middle East — got almost everything right. Meanwhile, how did those who did have all those credentials do?
With very few exceptions, they got everything wrong. They bought the obviously cooked case for war — or found their own reasons to endorse the invasion. They didn’t see the folly of the venture, which was almost as obvious in prospect as it is with the benefit of hindsight. And they took years to realize that everything we were being told about progress in Iraq was a lie.
Was Molly smarter than all the experts? No, she was just braver. The administration’s exploitation of 9/11 created an environment in which it took a lot of courage to see and say the obvious.
Molly had that courage; not enough others can say the same.
And it’s not over. Many of those who failed the big test in 2002 and 2003 are now making excuses for the “surge.” Meanwhile, the same techniques of allegation and innuendo that were used to promote war with Iraq are being used to ratchet up tensions with Iran.
Now, more than ever, we need people who will stand up against the follies and lies of the powerful. And Molly Ivins, who devoted her life to questioning authority, will be sorely missed.

http://select.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/opinion/02krugman.html?hp


Spitzer Signals Concern Over Sale of Housing Tract
Tenants’ groups girding for a fight over the sale of Starrett City, the sprawling low- and middle-income housing complex on the south shore of Brooklyn, have a powerful new ally: Gov. Eliot Spitzer.
State officials say that the new governor, who campaigned in part on the need to preserve and expand the city’s stock of housing for working and middle-class New Yorkers, wants Starrett City to remain pretty much what it is today, an economically and racially mixed housing complex that is successful.
Affordable housing has emerged as a thorny political issue with the recent $5.4-billion sale of two middle-class complexes, Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan, and skyrocketing rents across the city.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/nyregion/02starrett.html


In an Enclave of Serious Wine Lovers, a Mesmerizing Theft

ATHERTON, Calif. — It was perhaps the most Californian of crimes. Behind the electronic gates and freshly clipped hedges of an exclusive cul-de-sac, the thieves worked in the dead of night, ignoring watches, laptops and other ho-hum booty to cart away the ultimate prize: 450 bottles of wine, including a rare $11,000 1959 magnum from the Château Pétrus in Bordeaux, France.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/01/us/01wine.html?em&ex=1170565200&en=bad5971bd08d4be3&ei=5087%0A


Even Before Its Release, World Climate Report Is Criticized as Too Optimistic

In its 2001 assessment, its third, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change estimated that in the next hundred years sea level would rise globally by at least a few inches and perhaps as much as three feet, a catastrophe for low-lying coastal areas and island nations.
In Paris today the panel will issue its fourth assessment, and people familiar with its deliberations say it will moderate its gloom on sea level rise, lowering its worst-case estimate.
In theory that is good news, because rising seas

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/02/science/02oceans.html


RIA Novosti


U.S. sensitive to Russian concerns on missile defense - diplomat

MOSCOW, February 2 (RIA Novosti) - The United States will take into account Russia's concerns regarding its plans to deploy elements of an anti-missile defense system in Europe, a high-ranking U.S. diplomat said Friday on condition of anonymity.
The State Department diplomat, currently on a visit to Moscow, said the United States will consider the concerns of countries near Poland and the Czech Republic, where America intends to deploy its missile defense systems, including Russia's position.
Washington officially proposed January 20 placing a radar network in the Czech Republic, and two days later announced plans to begin formal talks with Poland on the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems on its territory.
The diplomat said that a final decision on the deployment of the system in Eastern Europe has not been made yet, and that the United States has only just begun talks with Poland and the Czech Republic.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070202/60117308.html


Russia will respond effectively to U.S. missile defense in EU

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will develop an effective response to United States plans to deploy missile defense systems in Poland and the Czech Republic, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday.
"We must think, and are thinking, of ways to ensure our national security," Putin said at an annual Kremlin live televised news conference with Russian and foreign journalists. "All our responses will be asymmetric but highly effective," he said.
Washington officially proposed January 20 placing a radar network in the Czech Republic, and two days later announced plans to start formal talks with Poland on the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems on its territory.
The U.S. argued that defenses in Europe could intercept possible intercontinental ballistic missiles from 'rogue' regimes, such as Iran and North Korea.
But Putin said Washington's arguments to deploy anti-missile systems closer to Russian borders were not convincing.
"Our specialists do not think that missile defense systems being deployed in East European countries are meant to prevent threats from Iran or from terrorists," Putin said. "What kind of terrorists? Do terrorists have ballistic [missile] weapons?"

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070201/60051680.html


Wrap: Putin's press marathon spotlights U.S. missile shield plans, NPT

MOSCOW, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin's annual encounter with Russian and foreign journalists in the Kremlin Thursday highlighted Moscow's security concerns, tensions with post-Soviet neighbors, and nuclear non-proliferation issues.
At the televised news conference running for three and a half hours, his sixth since coming to power in 2000, the president highlighted concerns over the United States' plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe, a part of Moscow's former backyard now within the European Union.
Washington officially proposed placing a radar network in the Czech Republic 12 days ago, and soon after that announced plans to start formal talks with Poland on the deployment of anti-ballistic missile systems on its territory, arguing the defenses could intercept possible intercontinental ballistic missiles from 'rogue' regimes, such as Iran and North Korea.
Putin called Washington's arguments unconvincing and pledged to amend the country's military strategy, in view of the new developments: "We must think - we are thinking - of ways to ensure our national security. All our responses will be asymmetric, but highly effective."

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070201/60066308.html


New weapons-buying executive body to start work in 2008

MOSCOW, January 2 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will introduce a new executive body responsible for the procurement of weaponry and other equipment for all security-related agencies in the country on January 1, 2008.
The Federal Agency for the Procurement of Weaponry, Military and Special Equipment and Materiel will be a civilian governing body, and will supervise procurement of supplies for all security-related ministries and agencies in Russia.
The president held a meeting with the government Friday, at which the Cabinet submitted a draft of a presidential decree on setting up the new agency to Vladimir Putin for approval.
According to the draft, the agency will be primarily involved in concluding state contracts with companies for defense orders, financing state contracts, and ensuring their fulfillment. The agency will also be entrusted with forming a unified pricing policy for purchasing of military equipment.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070202/60125601.html


Serbia will never recognize Kosovo's independence - president - 1

BELGRADE, February 2 (RIA Novosti) - Serbia will never recognize Kosovo's independence, President Boris Tadic told Belgrade's Fonet news agency Friday.
The president, speaking after a meeting with United Nations envoy Martti Ahtisaari, said that any decision on Kosovo's independence imposed from the outside would contradict the main principles of international law.
Plans for Serbia and its predominantly Albanian region Kosovo presented by the UN envoy have been interpreted by both sides as suggesting a division of the territories, and foreseeing eventual independence for Kosovo.
The Serbian leader said the document submitted by Ahtisaari to Serbian and Kosovar leaders, "does not unambiguously state the 'independence' of Kosovo, and does not mention the territorial integrity of Serbia. Mainly because of this, but also partly because of certain other provisions of the document, the plan opens up the possibility of Kosovo's separation from Serbia."

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070202/60125307.html


Plus diversification of the entire country

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti Department of Socio-Political Materials) - Vladimir Putin's sixth news conference has not produced any sensations, which is a good thing as it testifies to a reasonably high level of economic stability.
Some of the questions which were asked during three hours, 30 minutes, and 20 seconds were so specialized that the event reminded a televised consultation with a lawyer. Diversification was the key word. It was used in two contexts - the need to overcome Russia's economic dependence on energy sources, and a search for alternative energy transportation routes.
Putin qualified the former as the main avenue of economic development, and used the latter to bring up transit countries, which Russia has paid 4.2 billion dollars. This makes the task of diversifying routes of Russian gas supplies to major European consumers even more urgent.
Economy
The president concentrated on economic issues. Putin believes that the main problem is a huge gap in incomes, despite statistically meaningful, considerable social achievements - the growth of average wages and salaries, incomes, and pensions. High economic growth rates are a natural way of resolving this problem. This is why Putin has not given up the goal of doubling the GDP - he insists that the economy should average a seven percent annual growth.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070202/60104320.html


Gas OPEC: economic advantages and political drawbacks

MOSCOW. (Igor Tomberg for RIA Novosti) - At the meeting with Secretary of the Russian Security Council Igor Ivanov in Tehran over the past weekend, Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said: "Our countries could set up an OPEC-type organization on gas cooperation."
Judging from the initial response, the majority of analysts think that this proposal is rooted in politics rather than economics.
This is not the first time the idea has been put forward. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered to Russian President Vladimir Putin at their meeting in Shanghai in June 2006 to establish what he described as cooperation "in fixing gas prices, and major flows in the interests of global stability."
Indicatively, the same idea was discussed during the recent Algerian visit of Viktor Khristenko, Minister of Industry and Energy: Algeria and Qatar could join the two countries. The resources of this potential cartel are very impressive - they account for more than 30% of the world's gas production, and their aggregate proven reserves exceed 60% of the total, which is comparable to OPEC's respective share in the global oil reserves - about 68%. The would-be cartel could include other members as well.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070201/60049415.html


Oriental satellite killer: case No.1 (Part 3)

MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kislyakov) - Had a Bit of Fun? Time to Stop ... Is there anyone who can honestly say that he had never committed mischief as a child? I don't think such a paragon of virtue would be easy to find.
But my mind refuses to accept the verdict of Major-General Vyacheslav Fateyev, a Russian military expert, who described the recent Chinese tests of anti-satellite weapons as an "act of hooliganism."
Early hints of the upcoming tests appeared in the central Chinese press last August. Experts from the state defense university, writing in the Renmin Ribao newspaper, said that the People's Liberation Army of China should be ready not only to protect the country's territorial integrity, but also to fight any potential threat from space.
It is out of the question that the Chinese watchdog agencies suffered a lapse and allowed someone to update the national defense doctrine, which dealt only with operations inside the home territory.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070201/60060424.html


Russia to build a space observatory
MOSCOW. (Yury Zaitsev for RIA Novosti) - In 2011, Russia plans to orbit a new astrophysical observatory as part of its Federal Space Program (2006-2015). The project, called Spektr-Rentgen-Gamma (SRG), integrates a Russian X-ray observatory (ART) and two European programs.
ART is a combination of X-ray telescopes with coded aperture and a gamma burst detector. It was conceived in the late 1980s but never implemented because of lack of funding.
Of the European components the first is ROSITA (seven X-ray mirror telescopes), and the second, Lobster (a wide-field X-ray monitor). They were supposed to be delivered to the International Space Station as part of the Columbus module aboard a U.S. shuttle, but the Columbia disaster intervened.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20070202/60135448.html


Orange snow in West Siberia not toxic - emergencies ministry - 1

NOVOSIBIRSK, February 2 (RIA Novosti) - The yellow-orange snow that fell in a West Siberian region Wednesday contains no toxic substances, experts said Friday.
"Experts have established that the substances in the snow are not toxic, but the iron content in the snow samples was four times above the norm," the press service of the local emergencies situations department said.
A public warning was issued in West Siberia's Omsk Region Thursday after polluted snow, yellowed and oil-stained, fell over an area of about 1,500 square kilometers (1,000 square miles), affecting some 49 communities with a population of at least 27,000.
Local residents have been warned against melting the snow for water and stepping on it wherever possible, the Emergency Situations Ministry said.
Experts said it was too early to talk about the cause of the phenomena.
"Snow samples have been sent for further tests in labs in Moscow and Krasnoyarsk, and we have also sent an inquiry to Kazakhstan about the possibility of industrial pollution," an emergency service official said. Kazakhstan is located southwest of the Omsk Region.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070202/60091814.html


PM Yanukovych proposes merging Ukrainian, Russian energy assets

KIEV, February 1 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's prime minister proposed Thursday merging his country's energy assets with those of Russia on a parity basis, after the Russian leader said Ukraine could be granted access to Russia's oil and gas fields.
Russia has vast hydrocarbon reserves while Ukraine controls pipelines that pump them Moscow's main client, the European Union.
"I think this option is promising," Viktor Yanukovych was quoted by the government press service as saying. The premier called on the ex-Soviet neighbors to develop a new model for cooperation in energy security.
Yanukovych's statement came in response to Russian President Vladimir Putin's announcement earlier in the day that Ukraine might be granted access to Russian oil and gas fields if a joint gas transport consortium is set up.
Ukrainian Energy Minister Yuriy Boiko said Kiev and Moscow are discussing ways of integrating in the energy sector on Ukraine's initiative, a process that Putin described as "revolutionary" in his annual news conference in the Kremlin.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20070201/60068539.html


Ukraine president cautious about gas consortium with Russia

KIEV, February 2 (RIA Novosti) - Ukraine's president called Friday for a careful approach to proposals to merge Russian and Ukrainian gas assets into a consortium, and said it was premature to talk about specific figures.
President Viktor Yushchenko's statement follows proposals to consider merging energy assets of the former Soviet allies, and the Russian leader's suggestion Thursday that Ukraine could be granted access to Russian oil and gas fields if it agreed to a gas consortium.
"We must discuss principles of organizing these [new] relations and implementing these initiatives, but I would not specify any percentages or stakes today because it is all still a distant prospect," Yushchenko said.
The president's comments contrast sharply with those made Thursday by his political rival, Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who gave his broad support to the idea to merge Russia's vast hydrocarbon reserves and Ukraine's pipelines leading to Europe, Moscow's main customer.
The Western-leaning Ukrainian president said the country's gas pipeline system was its strategic asset, monopolized and run by the state under law. "Any modifications of this established model must be carefully considered," he said.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20070202/60119504.html

Climate Panel Issues Urgent Warning to Curb Gases

  

From the New York Times

Church members sort through the rubble of what was the Lady Lake Church of God in Lady Lake Florida after a sever storm devasted the area early this morning.

12 hour loop from The Globe's picture

  

I perfer the 'big picture' but the Boston Globe did a great job of reporting this event (click on for 12 hour loop)

  

14 dead as storms sweep through Fla. (click on)

By Jim Ellis, Associated Press Writer | February 2, 2007

LADY LAKE, Fla. --Storms blew through central Florida early Friday, killing at least 14 people, flattening dozens of homes and a church and lifting a tractor trailer into the air, authorities said.

At least one tornado touched down.

Lake County spokesman Christopher Patton confirmed the 14 deaths, 11 in Paisley and three in Lady Lake, both towns in Lake County about 50 miles northwest of Orlando. No further details were available.

Dozens of mobile homes near Lady Lake were destroyed by the storms that hit in the middle of the night. Chairs, beds and clothes were strewn about yards, with debris hanging from trees. Some homes were tossed from their foundations, while others had their roofs ripped off.

"The most dangerous tornado scenario is a threat for killer tornadoes at night, and that was the case," said Dave Sharp, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Melbourne.

The Lady Lake Church of God was demolished, its pews, altar and Bibles left in a jumbled mess. The 31-year-old, steel-reinforced structure was built to withstand 150-mph winds, the Rev. Larry Lynn said.

By daybreak, parishioners gathered amid the ruins, hugging each other and consoling Lynn. They planned to clear the debris and hold Sunday services on the empty lot.

"That's just the building. The people are the church. We'll be back bigger and stronger," Lynn said.

The storms moved across Sumter and Lake counties around 3:15 a.m., then moved to Volusia County, where 69 homes and a county medical clinic were damaged, authorities said.

In The Villages retirement community, Lee Shaver said he shielded his wife Irene with his body while huddling in a closet as the roof peeled off their home. Fence posts launched as projectiles were embedded into the wall of their home, Irene Shaver said.

"Every muscle and bone in my body shook," said Lee Shaver, 54. "We don't know what to do. We have no cell phones, wallets, IDs."

At least five crashes took place within a quarter mile of each other near Interstate 4's New Smyrna Beach exit, closing the highway for about three hours.

In one case, a semitrailer was lifted up and landed on another semi, pinning the driver in his cab, said Kim Miller, a spokeswoman with the Florida Highway Patrol. The driver did not suffer life-threatening injuries, she said.

About 20,000 customers were without power across a wide swath of central Florida, Progress Energy spokeswoman Cherie Jacobs said.

The state Emergency Operations Center was activated, said Mike Stone, spokesman at the state's Department of Emergency Management.

------

On the Net:

Florida Division of Emergency Management: http://www.floridadisaster.org/index.asp

Graphic example of a Human Induced Global Warming 'heat transfer system'

  


CLICK ON ABOVE TITLE FOR LINK to 12 hour loop

I am sure an explanation of the obvious will only insult people, but, for those that don't 'get it' - basically - the heat is moving from the equator over the Pacific off the west coast of North America in a climate phenomina called The Arctic Oscillation.

The warm air then displaces the cold arctic air down to lower latitudes which is currently covering all the 48 continental states of the USA to nearly the Mexican border.

As the arctic air falls to lower latitudes any warm air from the equator moving over Mexico is then displaced east to the Atlantic and the USA finds itself trapped within it's own monstrous dynamics of human induced global warming as they contribute at least 25% of all greenhouse gases to the tropospheric Earth.

Morning Papers - continued

The Jordan Times

3 dead in Eilat suicide bombing
By Omar Karmi
RAMALLAH — A suicide bomb attack in Israel’s southern resort town of Eilat yesterday morning killed three in addition to the bomber in the first such bombing since April 2006.
The blast comes four days before representatives of the Quartet of Middle East mediators, the US, the EU, Russia and the UN, were due to meet in Washington to discuss reviving Palestinian-Israeli talks.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Fateh-affiliated Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades both claimed responsibility and the bomber was identified as 21-year-old Mohammad Saqsaq from the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli army appears to believe that Saqsaq had entered Eilat from the Egyptian Sinai desert, contradicting an earlier statement by Islamic Jihad that he had set out from the West Bank and reached Eilat via Jordan after seven months of preparation. Jordan has denied that the bomber entered through its territory.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news2.htm


Monarch condemns attack, Jordan denies infiltration
By Khalid Neimat and Hana Namroqa
AMMAN — King Abdullah on Monday condemned the Eilat suicide bombing, which killed three people in the southern Israeli resort, as the government denied that the attacker infiltrated from the Kingdom.
The King told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert over the telephone that efforts to revive the peace process should not be impeded by such an attack. He said a prompt relaunch of the process was a must to prevent undermining the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli negotiations. At a meeting yesterday with EU and G-8 envoys to Jordan, the Monarch condemned “such operations that increase Palestinian suffering and undermine efforts to bridge Palestinian-Israeli gap”, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported. Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh, meanwhile, denied that the Eilat suicide bomber infiltrated the resort from Jordan, saying he never entered the Kingdom.
“Records of government agencies and border control points, showed that this individual never entered the Kingdom and never resided in Jordan," Judeh told The Jordan Times.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news3.htm


King orders allocation of JD20m to military housing fund
AMMAN (Petra) — King Abdullah on Monday ordered the allocation of JD20 million to the housing fund of the Jordan Armed Forces and security departments, in appreciation of their significant national role in safeguarding the country.
Chairing a meeting at the JAF headquarters, the King directed the government to amend relevant legislation to increase the value of loans provided by housing funds to the JAF and security personnel.
He also ordered the allocation of land plots to army and security personnel. During the meeting, the King was briefed on financial, legal and technical difficulties facing housing funds as well as proposals to tackle such problems. The King’s donation was part of his efforts to improve the living conditions of members of the army and security departments. King Abdullah, meanwhile, told EU and G-8 envoys to Jordan that the Middle East was banking on their countries’ efforts to achieve tangible results in the peace process, leading to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/homenews/homenews1.htm


Sudan loses Africa chair because of Darfur
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) — Sudan lost the leadership of the African Union (AU) for a second time after the pan-African group on Monday awarded the rotating chairmanship to Ghana because of widespread outrage over continuing bloodshed in Darfur.
Alpha Oumar Konare, the AU's top diplomat, told reporters Ghanaian President John Kufuor would become chairman. "By consensus it is President Kufuor." He said Sudan had supported the decision, which avoided a damaging dispute eclipsing issues on the summit agenda including raising peacekeeping troops for Somalia.
Before the summit some analysts had predicted the dispute over Sudan would dominate the summit and only be resolved at the last moment.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news4.htm



Cult leader, 200 others killed — Iraqi officials
NAJAF (Reuters) — The leader of a messianic Muslim cult was killed with 200 or more followers during a daylong onslaught by US and Iraqi forces on their camp near the holy city of Najaf, Iraqi officials said on Monday.
They accused him of making a claiming to be the Mahdi, a messiah-like figure in Islam, and said his uniformed "Soldiers of Heaven" had planned to massacre top Shiite clerics during a major religious holiday on Monday and had to be stopped.
No account was available from the group targeted in one of the strangest episodes in four years of conflict.
A web posting last week by a man identified by officials and styling himself the herald or messenger of the Mahdi bore out the existence of the movement and its belief in the imminent coming of the redeemer.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news1.htm


Negotiations underway to secure release of Jordanian prisoners in Guantanamo — Judeh
By Hana Namroqa
AMMAN — The government on Monday reiterated its keenness to free Jordanians held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Negotiations are being carried out between the concerned authorities in Jordan, entities responsible for Jordanian prisoners in Guantanamo and lawyers working on behalf of the inmates, Government Spokesperson Nasser Judeh told reporters during his weekly press briefing yesterday.
“The current talks are focusing on releasing two of the five Jordanian detainees in Guantanamo, however the issue is complicated and results of the negotiations can’t be determined as talks are still under way,” Judeh said.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/homenews/homenews6.htm


Hizbollah leader vows to fight back if US targets group
BEIRUT (AP) — The leader of Hizbollah vowed on Sunday to fight
back against the United States if White House-organised operations were to target the group in Lebanon.
Hassan Nasrallah said he was reacting to a recent report in the Washington Post that said US President George W. Bush’s administration has authorised widening a list of approved operations against Hizbollah in Lebanon aimed at curtailing Iran’s influence in the region.
“The Americans know that if they want to attack us, the one who will defend us is God. But also our religious duty calls on us to defend ourselves, our dignity and our blood,” Nasrallah told hundreds of Shiite supporters at a rally in Beirut’s southern suburbs Sunday night. His remarks, which appeared to be his interpretation of the newspaper report, drew repeated chants of “Death to America” from the crowd.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news9.htm


Is Israel willing to take on the challenge of peace?
By Nizar Abdel-Kader
It has been argued that wars create opportunities for security and political changes.
The Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982 proved this saying in the negative sense. In fact, Lebanon was plunged into a period of chaos and was exploited by Syria, which gained full control over the country for over two decades.
After the Syrian withdrawal in 2005, the situation in Lebanon changed dramatically, providing hope that Lebanon would be able to regain its sovereignty and deploy its armed forces along its international borders.
The July-August war of 2006 created a strong will among the population and the government to replace the paradigm of violence with one of political and security dialogue and to achieve a permanent ceasefire with Israel. Hizbollah, too, gave its consent.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/opinion/opinion5.htm


Editorial:
Admitting blame
Evidence that Iraq is about to explode mounts almost by the minute now. The news of the resignation of Arab League envoy to Baghdad Mokhtar Lamani in an eight-page letter to Arab League Secretary General Amr Musa is proof.
The resignation demonstrates the envoy’s sheer exasperation. It’s no wonder the Arab League office in Cairo is still trying to deny the resignation.
More violent proof is the killing of hundreds of men from a reportedly unknown group known as the Soldier of Heaven in a major clash with Iraqi-led forces near Iraq’s holy city of Najaf.
Ambassador Lamani is not the first to throw up his hands and call it quits because of the divisions, indecisiveness and pettiness of fellow Arab League members. Assigned to coordinate reconciliation efforts, Lamani’s hands were tied because leaders spent precious time squabbling over who would or would not attend a reconciliation conference.
Lamani was appointed to the job in March 2006, and there has been no other reconciliation conference since the one held in November 2005 in Cairo.
In the meantime, a chilling figure to remember is that 34,000 Iraqi civilians were killed in 2006 alone, according to a UN official.
Perhaps the Arab world will reflect seriously on the contents of Lamani’s letter and draw the necessary conclusions. But recent history shows us that all manner of warning, alert, alarm is falling on deaf ears.
We can blame the US all we want for making an utter mess and travesty in Iraq. We can shout out questions like “where was all that intelligence US taxpayers paid for.” We can point to all the injustices slapped on the Arab and Islamic world. But, we have to admit, we, ourselves have proven our incompetence, our impotence.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007



Lebanon on the edge
James J. Zogby
Lebanon is once again making headlines as a result of two distinct developments: in Lebanon, a Hizbollah-called general strike spilled over into violence; in Paris, Western and Arab nations met with Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fuad Siniora to pledge $7.6 billion in reconstruction assistance.
Some see the division between Lebanon’s two camps growing and being fuelled by external partners. There are fears that the government, emboldened by pledges and aid and strong words from US President George Bush, has hardened its position vis-à-vis the opposition. At the same time, the opposition, supported by Iran and Syria, has also hardened its position.
With the genie of sectarian violence now out of the bottle, the situation appears quite precarious.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/opinion/opinion2.htm


Egypt puts financial squeeze on opposition Islamists
CAIRO (AFP) — Egypt has tightened the noose on the opposition Muslim Brothers by freezing the assets of the Islamist movement's financiers it accuses of seeking to revive the group's secret apparatus.
Brotherhood leaders denied the allegations and denounced a political campaign they charged was aimed at breaking the back of their movement and risked harming the country's economy.
Egypt's public prosecutor on Sunday ordered a freeze on the assets of 29 businessmen considered close to the movement and their immediate families.
The decision marked the first time such measures — typically reserved for cases of fraud and embezzlement — were taken against the country's largest opposition bloc.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news7.htm


Warning of Somali chaos if troops delayed
ADDIS ABABA (AFP) — African Union Commission Chief Alpha Oumar Konare warned Monday that chaos would prevail in Somalia without the rapid deployment of a peacekeeping force, while the US offered to give air support.
A 7,600-strong African Union (AU) force was meant to be sent to Somalia by the end of this month but it has been held up by the reluctance of member states to commit troops to a country which has been a byword for anarchy for the last 16 years.
The AU believes that the recent ouster of an Islamist movement that ruled the capital Mogadishu for the previous six months could serve as an opportunity to open a new chapter in the war-torn country's history.
But Konare said that chance could easily be blown if the force is not in place soon.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news5.htm



The martyrdom of Hrant Dink
Gwynne Dyer
When they buried Hrant Dink in Istanbul last Tuesday (January 23), more than 100,000 Turks came to his funeral, filling the streets and chanting “We are all Armenians”.
There is a war going on for the soul of Turkey, but at least many Turks are on the right side.
Dink, who called himself “an Armenian from Turkey and a good Turkish citizen”, was murdered because he insisted on talking about the great crime that happened in the country 92 years ago: the mass murder of most of Turkey’s Armenian population in eastern Anatolia. The newspaper he founded and edited, a bilingual Turkish-Armenian weekly called Agos, had only a small circulation, but his outspoken editorials had made him one of Turkey’s most famous journalists — and a target for assassination.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/opinion/opinion3.htm


Libya has proposal to free nurses — Qadhafi son
SOFIA (AFP) — Libya has proposed a plan to release the Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in an AIDS epidemic case in exchange for compensation, the son of Libyan President Muammar Qadhafi told a Bulgarian newspaper Monday.
"We have proposed a roadmap with solutions [satisfying] all parties: The parents, the Libyan government, the Bulgarian side, the EU," Qadhafi's son Seif Al Islam told the daily 24 Hours, adding that he had also discussed the plan with the foreign ministers of Germany and France.
The plan anticipates "substantial compensation for the families of those affected”, he added.
Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death on December 19 after an appeals court upheld their conviction for having "knowingly" infected 426 children at a hospital in Benghazi with blood tainted by the HIV virus that can cause AIDS.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news6.htm


Survey shows majority of Jordanians understand benefits of democracy
By Alia Shukri Hamzeh
AMMAN –— A majority of Jordanians have a clear understanding about the benefits of a democratic system and are more than ready for it, but a set of initiatives and plans is needed to further promote democratisation rather than keep it at a standstill, pollster Mohammed Masri, reported on Monday.
Masri, coordinator of the public opinion polling unit at the University of Jordan’s Centre for Strategic Studies (CSS), told The Jordan Times that a survey released Monday revealed that citizens have an advanced and sophisticated understanding of the content of democratic rule in general and its indicators, and believe that greater democracy will also lead to better economic conditions.
“What they seem to be still waiting for are concrete plans that will lead to the aspired level of democracy,” he said.

http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/homenews/homenews8.htm


Olmert approves rerouting of barrier
Hamas says US-aid package to boost security forces loyal to Abbas incitement
By Omar Karmi
RAMALLAH — Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved a rerouting of Israel’s separation barrier to take in two more illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the Israeli media reported yesterday.
The rerouting still needs to be approved by the Israeli Cabinet, but if it is, the barrier will be moved five kilometres eastward from the 1967 border and ensnare some 20,000 Palestinians who will be able to move neither west into Israel nor east into the rest of the West Bank.
The new route will lengthen the barrier by about 12 kilometres and cost Israel around $40 million.
The Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator Saeb Erekat condemned the move saying it “undermines everything we're doing to revive the peace process”.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news1.htm


Iran 2-3 years from atom bomb — think tank
LONDON (Reuters) — Iran is at least two to three years away from being able to produce a nuclear weapon, a leading global think tank said on Wednesday.
But the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said pressure on the United States to stop the programme, including possibly through military strikes, would increase this year as Tehran mastered the process of enriching uranium.
The IISS said Iran's stockpile of 250 tonnes of uranium hexafluoride (UF6), the raw material for feeding into linked cascades of centrifuges, was enough to produce between 30 and 50 nuclear weapons when enriched.
"The main bottleneck to producing such weapons remains learning how to run UF6 through the cascades for extended periods. If Iran overcomes the technical hurdles, the possibility of military options to stop the programme will of course increase," IISS Director General John Chipman said.
The United Nations Security Council imposed sanctions on Iran on December 23 and gave it 60 days to suspend uranium enrichment. Tehran denies pursuing the bomb and says it is developing nuclear energy only to generate electricity.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news5.htm


HINTS are not what indictment is all about.

US stops F-14 parts sales, hints Iran behind Karbala attack
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States took new steps to isolate Iran by freezing the sale of all F-14 fighter parts, as officials told US news media they suspect Iranians masquerading as Americans were involved in a deadly attack on a US compound in Iraq.
Iran bought 79 US-built F-14 "Tomcat" fighters before the 1979 Islamic revolution, and US officials they could get spare parts for the planes through third parties.
The Defence Logistics Agency ordered the freeze January 26 "given the current situation in Iran", said agency spokesman Dawn Dearden on Tuesday.
The US move and the late Tuesday news report come as Washington increases pressure on Tehran to halt its alleged involvement with insurgents and sectarian fighting in Iraq — a charge Iran denies.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news2.htm


Bombs strike Shiite areas in Baghdad, Sunnis face mortar attacks, kidnappings
BAGHDAD (AP) — Car bombs struck mostly Shiite targets in Baghdad on Wednesday, and the bodies of three Sunni professors and a student were found days after they were seized while leaving their campus in a Shiite part of the city. At least 47 people were reported killed across the country, including a US soldier.
A mortar attack also struck a predominantly Sunni neighbourhood in northern Baghdad, killing six people and wounding 20, police and hospital officials said.
The violence underscored the extreme difficulties facing the capital's six million residents as they try to go about their daily business even as US and Iraqi forces gear up for a planned security sweep to clear the city of Sunni insurgents and Shiite groups who are blamed in many of the attacks. Maamoun Abdel-Hadi said he was standing with a friend near his car when a mortar shell fell nearby during the attack on the predominantly Sunni neighbourhood of Azamiyah. The area was hit by nine mortar shells that damaged houses, shops and streets, killing six people and wounding 20, police and hospital officials said.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news3.htm


Training Iraqi police essential, study group says
WASHINGTON (AP) — Training the police is as important to stabilising Iraq as building up an army there, but the United States has botched the job by assigning the wrong agencies to the task, two members of the Iraq Study Group say.
"The police training system has not gone well," former Rep. Lee Hamilton, who co-chaired the bipartisan commission, said in remarks prepared for delivery Wednesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee. He was joined in his statements by another member of the study group, Edwin Meese III, who was attorney general during the Reagan administration.
The US erred by first assigning the task of shaping the judicial system in a largely lawless country to the State Department and private contractors who "did not have the expertise or the manpower to get the job done," Hamilton and Meese said in testimony obtained by the Associated Press.
In 2004, the mission was assigned to the Defence Department, which devoted more money to the task. But department officials also were insufficiently trained for the job, Hamilton and Meese said.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news8.htm


Millions of dollars wasted in Iraq reconstruction aid — investigators
WASHINGTON (AP) — The US government wasted tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid, including scores of unaccounted-for weapons and a never-used camp for housing police trainers with an Olympic-size swimming pool, investigators say.
The quarterly audit by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, is the latest to paint a grim picture of waste, fraud and frustration in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has cost taxpayers more than $300 billion and left the region near civil war.
“The security situation in Iraq continues to deteriorate, hindering progress in all reconstruction sectors and threatening the overall reconstruction effort,” according to the 579-page report, which was being released Wednesday.
Calling Iraq’s sectarian violence the greatest challenge, Bowen said in a telephone interview that billions in US aid spent on strengthening security has had limited effect.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news10.htm



German court orders arrest of Masri kidnappers
BERLIN (Reuters) — A court in Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 people suspected of being involved in the abduction of a German national who says he was kidnapped and tortured by the CIA, state prosecutors said on Wednesday.
Prosecutors in Munich said, based on their findings, "the particulars of the suspects listed in the arrest warrants suggest these could be cover identities of CIA agents".
They said a district court in Munich had issued warrants for the arrest of the 13 on suspicion of abducting, falsely imprisoning and causing grievous bodily harm to Khaled Masri, a German of Lebanese descent.
Prosecutors did not give the nationalities of the suspects, although according to German media reports, most of them are resident in the United States.
Masri's lawyer, Manfred Gnjidic, said the issuing of the arrest warrants was the first sign that German authorities were now prepared to back his client against the CIA. "These are massive crimes that have been committed against Khaled Masri," he told Reuters. "German authorities are following up these crimes against a German subject and are looking to call those responsible to account." Masri was arrested in Macedonia at the end of 2003 and says he was handed over to the CIA, who flew him to Afghanistan and wrongly held him until his release in late May 2004.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news4.htm


Bulgaria targets Libyan police over nurses’ torture
SOFIA (AFP) — A Bulgarian prosecutor launched a judicial enquiry Wednesday against 11 Libyan police officers who allegedly tortured five Bulgarian nurses sentenced to death in Libya in a high-profile AIDS epidemic case.
"We have enough information against 11 Libyan police officers to now open a judicial enquiry into their actions between February 9, 1999 and May 1999," Sofia's chief prosecutor Nikolay Kokinov told a press conference Wednesday.
The officers "will be investigated and might eventually be brought to trial for having forced the five Bulgarian nurses to give false testimony exposing them as perpetrators of a crime: The spread of an AIDS infection to over 400 Libyan children," Kokinov added.
The five women and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death after a court in Tripoli found them guilty of deliberately infecting the children with the HIV virus in a hospital in northeastern Benghazi.
The medics were convicted on the basis of confessions by the doctor and two of the nurses, despite the fact that they recanted their confessions during the trial.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news6.htm


Ex-warlord elected speaker in Somalia
MOGADISHU (AP) — Somali officials were imposing martial law on areas the transitional government controls, moving to strengthen a tenuous grip on power and smother rising violence. An AU official said Wednesday that help was on the way in the form of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria.
Prime Minister Ali Mohammad Gedi announced on government-controlled radio that the martial law measures were beginning with a curfew in the southern town of Baidoa. Gedi said remnants of an ousted Islamist movement have returned to some areas and were planning to try to further destabilise an already lawless country.
"From now on martial law would be implemented across government-controlled areas, starting with Baidoa tonight," Gedi said late Tuesday. The measure was taken under a three-month emergency law passed by parliament on January 13.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news7.htm


ARAMEX 2006 profits climb 28% as revenues surge
AMMAN (JT) — ARAMEX, the total transportation solutions provider announced this week that 2006 net profits climbed 28 per cent to AED95.2 million, from AED74.4 million for the same period last year. Revenues climbed as well by 59 per cent to AED1.36 billion, from AED854 million the same period in 2005. In a preliminary statement of its 2006 full-year results, released to the Dubai Financial Market, the global express, freight and logistics innovator, revealed business was buoyant throughout the year but climbed significantly in the fourth quarter Fadi Ghandour, ARAMEX’s chief executive officer and president, said: “The strong financial performance we have seen in 2006 reflects the tremendous progress the company has made. The figures are very positive and the upturn in revenues confirms the success of our strategy of seeking expansion through acquisitions and organic growth.” He added: “ARAMEX has never been in better shape. The business is well positioned to capitalise on the trends that are reshaping the regional and global industry. Our strength in the regional express market, the innovations we have introduced in our service offering, the responsiveness of our people and their commitment to the ARAMEX culture of putting service first have added enormous value for our stakeholders.”

Thursday, February 1, 2007



Priority — Palestinian unity
The US needs a serious review of its policy vis-à-vis the Palestinians. Washington is prepared to spend $86 million to bolster Palestinian security forces loyal to one party, but is unwilling to spend any money to help the Palestinian Authority (PA) pay the salaries of schoolteachers and nurses because another party happens to have been elected to head that body. It’s perverse….

… Both Fateh and Hamas have publicly backed the proposal. As well they might. Palestinian security forces have for too long been the purview of Fateh and have thus, and especially in recent years, lost credibility, rightly or wrongly, along with the lost credibility of Fateh as a movement.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion1.htm



University student receives reduced sentence for his sister’s murder
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — A 19-year-old man walked free from the Criminal Court on Wednesday after receiving a three-month prison term for killing his sister in August 2006 for reasons of family honour.
The defendant, a university student, was convicted of shooting and killing his 22-year-old divorced sister at her family home on August 4.
He received a six-month prison term that was immediately reduced to half by the court because his family dropped charges against him and because "he is a student."
The court said the defendant learned that his sister had a lover 10 minutes before he shot her six times.
"The 10-minute interval between hearing of his sister's immoral actions and meeting her face to face is proof that he did not plot the murder," the court said.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/homenews/homenews4.htm



Development of agricultural sector a national priority — King
AMMAN (Petra) — His Majesty King Abdullah on Wednesday said the agricultural sector is a national priority as it is a basic pillar of the economic, social and environmental development process.
During a meeting with agricultural sector representatives yesterday, the Monarch underlined the importance of training farmers and helping them enhance the level of their production and living standards.
King Abdullah said it was also important to educate small farmers on how to boost their capabilities and ensure their participation in the development process to render it a success.
In statements to Jordan Television, Jordanian Farmers Union President Jamal Maqableh said the discussions also focused on how to help the small farmers produce agricultural products in line with the international standards.

http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/homenews/homenews1.htm

 

January 30, 2007

Kodiak, Alaska

Photographer states :: The sign for the raceway is not normally under water.

Normally the rivers would be contained within their banks because the higher altitudes would be seeing snow and glacier recharge. There is a lot of melt water because although some temperatures will support snow there are enough higher temperatures to cause significant melting to flood rivers and streams in Alaska.

That can be noted in the weekly reporting here of the temperatures at Glacier Bay National Park.

They are temperate and near zero and will vascilate between freezing and melting.

Highly unstable climate.

Evidence of Human Induced Global Warming.

That was Alaska that is having FLOODING.

Got that?

Alaska.

Flooding.

Melted water.

No recharge on the glaciers.

Copy and Paste any article address to view complete article if not accessible when title is green in color. Thank you.

Morning Papers - continued

Sydney Morning Herald

Soaring temperatures 'unstoppable'

Immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not halt the continuing damage to Australia's environment, a Federal Government researcher warns.
The CSIRO expects Sydney's maximum temperatures to rise 1.6 degrees by 2030 and 4.8 degrees by 2070.
Average rainfall will decrease by 40 per cent and water evaporation rates will jump 24 per cent by 2040 under the scorching conditions.
By 2050, annual heat-related deaths of people over 65 will increase almost eight times from 176 to 1312.
The results are part of a CSIRO report commissioned by the NSW Government and authored by CSIRO researcher Ben Preston.
Dr Preston predicts temperatures will continue to rise causing drought, flooding and heat waves.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/31/1169919346716.html?from=top5


Germans seek arrest of American spies
GERMAN police have recommended the arrest of 13 US intelligence agents over the kidnapping, beating and secret detention of a German citizen suspected of being a terrorist.
The agents were part of a CIA team that transported alleged terrorists to interrogation camps around the world. Police say the group handcuffed and blindfolded Khaled Masri, a German of Lebanese descent, and flew him from Macedonia to Afghanistan in January 2004. Mr Masri was never charged with a crime, and was released five months later.
The case has strained US-German relations, prompting a German parliamentary investigation into allegations that its own intelligence agents were involved in the abduction.
Meanwhile, an Italian court is deciding whether to try 26 Americans and nine Italians in connection with the 2003 abduction of a radical Egyptian cleric, Abu Omar. The Italian Government may demand the extradition of the accused Americans, who include the former CIA station chief in Milan, where Mr Omar was snatched from a footpath.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/germans-seek-arrest-of-american-spies/2007/01/31/1169919402479.html


Europe nervous despite US denials it plans to attack Iran

EUROPEAN diplomats are increasingly anxious that the US is planning air strikes against Iran to destroy its suspected nuclear program.
US officials are expected to unveil a secret intelligence dossier this week detailing evidence of Iran's alleged complicity in attacks on US troops in Iraq. Some believe the move parallels the British Government's release of a dossier in the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion.
"The clock is ticking," one European diplomat said. "Military action has come back on to the table more seriously than before. The language in the US has changed."
John Negroponte, who has been nominated as the US deputy secretary of state, on Tuesday defended the Bush Administration's policy with Iran in a fiery Senate confirmation hearing.
"Do you think we are drifting toward a military confrontation with Iran?" demanded the anti-war Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/europe-nervous-despite-us-denials-it-plans-to-attack-iran/2007/01/31/1169919402482.html


Legends of music spotted at Bono's window
A triumph of reconstruction has allowed some of music's most beloved names to star in U2's latest music video, writes J. Freedom du Lac.
In the breathtaking video for U2's new song, Window in the Skies, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Billie Holiday, Marvin Gaye and a shirtless Iggy Pop take turns singing the lyrics on Bono's behalf.
Instead of the Edge on guitar, you see Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Elvis Costello and a very young Keith Richards, back when he looked like a George Harrison doppelganger.
And hey, there's Vladimir Horowitz playing the piano! And that guy from Wilco on bass! And the manic Keith Moon on drums!
All thanks to the magic of editing and copyright clearances.
The Window in the Skies video is a stirring montage that features roughly 100 archival clips of various musicians performing in concert. The footage has been carefully and cleverly edited so the performances sync up with U2's lyrics and music - right down to Frank Sinatra conducting the soaring song to its conclusion.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/music/legends-at-bonos-window/2007/01/29/1169919274096.html


Cruise line fined for whale death
An international cruise line has been fined over the death of an endangered pregnant humpback whale, apparently struck by one of its ships visiting Alaska.
The Princess Cruise Lines was sentenced for failing to operate one of its ships in a slow, safe manner near Glacier Bay National Park, where the humpback whale was found dead of massive skull fractures.
The body of the 13.5-metre whale, named Snow because of her fluke markings, was found floating in Icy Strait near the mouth of Glacier Bay in Southeast Alaska in July 2001.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/cruise-ship-killed-whale/2007/01/30/1169919320169.html


Harry Potter strips

Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe has got some parents steaming over his racy new stage play role.
One of the publicity photos for the play shows a topless and buffed Radcliffe being hugged by a naked woman. Another shows him leaning against bales of hay as he stares up at the topless woman. A third has him posing in front of a white horse.
The pictures have been released ahead of the opening of Equus, a controversial Peter Shaffer play showing at London's Gielgud Theatre from next month.
Radcliffe,17, plays a troubled stablehand who one night blinds six horses with a hoofpick.
He features in numerous nude scenes with co-star Joanna Christie, the woman in the publicity shots.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/31/1169919374719.html?from=top5


Marine poisoned for implants

A woman has been convicted of murdering her US Marine husband with arsenic so she could cash in on his $US250,000 ($A324,317) life insurance policy, some of which she used to have her breasts enlarged.
Prosecutors argued that Cynthia Sommer, 33, wanted a more luxurious lifestyle than she could afford on her 23-year-old husband's $A2,205 monthly salary and saw his military life insurance policy as a way to "set herself free".
In addition to the breast enlargement surgery, Sommer's friends and co-workers testified, she threw wild parties and had casual sex with multiple partners in the weeks after her husband's death and the payment of the insurance policy.
Sgt Todd Sommer was in top condition when he collapsed and died on February 18, 2002, at the couple's home on the Marine Corps' Miramar base in San Diego.
His death was initially ruled a heart attack. Tests of his liver later found levels of arsenic 1,020 times above normal.
Cynthia Sommer, who was arrested in December 2005, swallowed and stared as the verdict was read, while her mother burst into tears.
She faces an automatic life sentence. Formal sentencing was set for March 23.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/31/1169919376209.html?from=top5


Dog walker's deadly slip on cliff top

Beachgoers watched in horror as a Sydney woman fell 40 metres to her death yesterday.
The 45-year-old woman was walking with her dog along a track at the rear of her property near the Bungan Beach headland about 5pm when the accident happened, police said.
"It appears she's slipped and fallen," Inspector Paul Devaney said.
"She fell about 40 metres. Witnesses have seen her fall and rendered assistance to her. They only saw the end of her fall.
"One of the witnesses raced back up the cliff and called triple-0."
A trauma team from the NRMA CareFlight helicopter was called in to treat the woman, who was unconscious when they arrived at 5.45pm.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/01/31/1169919377575.html?from=top5



New Zealand Herald

Climate change in Australia will worsen before it improves – scientists

SYDNEY - Immediate reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will not halt the continuing damage to Australia's environment, a federal government researcher warns.
The CSIRO expects Sydney's maximum temperatures to rise 1.6 degrees by 2030 and 4.8 degrees by 2070.
Average rainfall will decrease by 40 per cent and water evaporation rates will jump 24 per cent by 2040 under the scorching conditions.
By 2050, annual heat-related deaths of people over 65 will increase almost eight times from 176 to 1312.
The results are part of a CSIRO report commissioned by the NSW government and authored by CSIRO researcher Ben Preston.
Dr Preston predicts temperatures will continue to rise causing drought, flooding and heat waves.
"What's important for people to understand is that this is not simply a lot of hand waving, there's quite a bit of scientific research and effort both within Australia and internationally that goes into producing these estimates," Dr Preston told ABC Radio.
"And the problem there is that future climate change is already built into the system.
"So the warming we've been experiencing in recent years is really a function of greenhouse gases we emitted a few decades ago.
"Although there's a promise that large-scale reductions in future greenhouse gas emissions on the international basis will forestall ... large-scale warming by the end of the century, we've already sort of committed ourselves to additional warming and downstream climate change and consequences over the next few decades."
He said while past climate change was "natural in origin", the world's population is now living a "climate of our own making".
"We have to look at this as sort of long-term preventive care for the environment," Dr Preston said.
"Reducing emissions over the next couple of years isn't going to prevent any sort of climate catastrophe from occurring over the near term."
But all measures to combat climate change must go forward which mean burning fewer fossil fuels to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
And proposed measures to battle the long-standing drought will be crucial to weathering the shortage in more extreme climate conditions.
"Australia has demonstrated in the past that it has quite a significant capacity to cope with rainfall, water scarcity and pretty significant rainfall variability but maintaining a healthy and sustainable water supply over the future independence of climate change is obviously going to require some considerable reforms in terms of how we use water and how we price water," he said.
- AAP

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/10/story.cfm?c_id=104&objectid=10421763


Asia tops disaster deaths in 2006, Europe up – report

GENEVA - Asia was the world's most dangerous region for natural disasters in 2006, accounting for three-quarters of more than 21,000 deaths, a UN-backed report said today.
The report, compiled by the Belgian-based research centre CRED and the UN's disaster reduction agency ISDR, covered disasters such as floods, tidal waves, landslides, storms and earthquakes.
In Europe, it said, deaths caused by extreme weather rose 5 per cent to 15 per cent of the global total.
"Asia, with its millions of poor people living in vulnerable areas in flood plains and river basins, is still the continent most hit by disasters triggered by natural hazards," Debarati Guha-Sapir of the CRED told a news conference.
Last year, she said, "there was a small increase in extreme temperature events -- heatwaves and freeze-ups -- and Europe was specially badly hit". Guha-Sapir, a professor at Brussels University of Louvain, was presenting an advance version of the report to be issued later this year. The report said 21,342 people died in natural disasters in 2006.
Guha-Sapir said that Europe's fatality figures had been pushed up by last July's heatwave which resulted in 1000 deaths in the Netherlands and 940 deaths in Belgium. Cold spells had also killed 801 people in the Ukraine.
She added Europe in general was not doing enough to prepare and reduce the impact of such events.
"Countries need to have a detailed plan in place to mitigate the effects of temperature extremes," Guha-Sapir said -- although she noted France had taken measures to prevent a repetition of the widespread heatwave deaths in 2003.
Bangladesh had made huge advances, setting up early warning systems for cyclones which had saved thousands of lives in recent years by ensuring people left danger-zones quickly.
"The small rise in extreme events indicates that we might have to suffer more from the negative impact of climate change in the future," said ISDR Director Salvano Briceno.
"We need to be better prepared globally and not only in Asia and Africa," he said.
- REUTERS

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/10/story.cfm?c_id=104&objectid=10421511


Watch the weather, climbers cautioned

New Zealand's changeable weather can lull climbers into a false sense of security, warns Mountain Safety Council alpine programme manager Paul Chaplow.
He was speaking after two Japanese climbers plunged 500m to their deaths during a descent of Mt Cook on Wednesday night.
The bodies of Takao Futono, 52, and his female friend Meguru Inoue, 31, were recovered by rescuers on Thursday.
A 28-year-old Japanese survived when a falling rock cut off a strap attaching him to his companions, stopping him being pulled down with them. Despite his traumatised state, the man completed the descent of the mountain in the dark and reached Plateau Hut early on Thursday to raise the alarm.
Mr Chaplow said yesterday that climbers needed to gather as much information as possible about river levels, mountain and track conditions, and weather because New Zealand's changeable climate often caught out trampers and others.
"The Tongariro Crossing is a classic where people can head off on a beautiful day with inadequate spare clothing and then get caught up on the top with a change of weather and they have no way of getting through that," he said.
Meanwhile, a female climber broke a leg in a fall at Ball Hut on Mt Cook yesterday and was taken to Timaru Hospital.
- NZPA

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/10/story.cfm?c_id=104&objectid=10421082


US congress has power to stop Iraq war - legal experts

WASHINGTON - The US Congress has the power to end the war in Iraq, several high-powered legal experts including a former Bush administration attorney told a Senate hearing today.
With many lawmakers poised to confront President George W. Bush by voting disapproval of his war policy in the coming days, four of five experts called before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee said Congress could go further and restrict or stop US involvement if it chose.
"I think the constitutional scheme does give Congress broad authority to terminate a war," said Bradford Berenson, a Washington lawyer who was a White House associate counsel under Bush from 2001 to 2003.
"It is ultimately Congress that decides the size, scope and duration of the use of military force," said Walter Dellinger, former acting solicitor general -- the government's chief advocate before the Supreme Court -- in 1996-97, and an assistant attorney general three years before that.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421733



Sovereignty flag should fly, says Maori Party

The Maori Party say it is time New Zealand "grew up" and allowed Maori to fly sovereignty flags on Waitangi Day.
The party is unimpressed that a request by a Maori sovereignty group to fly the Maori independence flag on the Auckland Harbour Bridge on Waitangi Day was rejected by Transit.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said the flag should be allowed.
"I thought the flag story was really interesting given that Australia accepts the Aboriginal flag and the rangatiratanga flag will be flying on St Monica's beach over in America on Waitangi Day," she said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421769


Maori education resource goes online

In the week before Christmas, as shoppers were wrapping up the last of their gift buying, Mark Fell quietly watched his new online store go live.
Fell describes it as the scariest moment in a six month project to launch the Haemata web store, an online business selling Maori language educational products.
The online store is the latest extension of the Wellington-based company Fell has run with partner Hineihaea Murphy since 1999.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421699


Nats turn to YouTube to win hearts

Social networking website YouTube has launched the career of many hot, new music acts - now middle-aged politicians are joining the hip, young things in cyberspace.
Internet-savvy conservatives can watch John Key relaxing at home last weekend in shorts and t-shirt, discussing his upcoming state-of-the-nation speech over a cup of coffee.
The National Party leader joins David Cameron, leader of Britain's Conservative Party in providing video insights into their political life and musings.
A spokesperson for the National Party confirmed the videos are part of a strategy to attract younger voters and women to the party.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421766


Serial killers more likely in certain areas – study

Serial killers target victims from areas where more divorced people, single parents and unemployed live, a study shows.
A study of 151 male serial killers by academics, including Jane Prochnow from Massey University's College of Education, explored variations in rates of serial killings in states in US.
"The incidence of male serial killers varies widely among the US states. But little effort has been devote to attempting to explain the reasons for state difference," the Male Serial Homicide study said.
The study found some explanations of variations in the incidence of serial killings but said more work needed to be done to understand if the culture and social structure of an area created serial killers.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421754


Settlement, dating 2600 BC, found near Stonehenge

LONDON - Evidence of a large settlement full of houses dating back to 2,600 BC has been discovered near the ancient stone monument of Stonehenge in southwest England, scientists said today.
They suspect inhabitants of the houses, forming the largest Neolithic village ever found in Britain, built the stone circle at Stonehenge -- generally thought to have been a temple, burial ground or an astronomy site -- between 3,000 and 1,600 BC.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421743


British footprint database to help catch criminals

LONDON - Britain is launching a database of thousands of shoes and shoe types next month to help track down criminals, thought to be the first of its kind in the world.
The Footwear Intelligence Tool will be similar to the database of genetic samples that Britain created in 1995, which now has millions of DNA profiles.
"Footwear marks at the scene are the second biggest evidence type behind blood and DNA," said Dr Romelle Piercy, of the Forensic Science Service (FSS) in London.
Like fingerprints, hair, blood or fibres, footprints are left at many crime scenes -- on carpets or bodies as well as in earth or mud -- and are often highly distinctive.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421500


New high tech Hubble telescope stops working
The newest, most high-tech camera on the Hubble space telescope stopped working last weekend and two of its main capabilities - gaining ultra deep views of the universe and detailed data on individual stars - are unlikely to recover, Nasa officials said today.
The failure, described as a "great loss" by scientists, occurred when the telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, which photographs huge expanses of sky, shut down after a fuse failed as a result of a short circuit.
Two of the instrument's three channels - its wide field and high-resolution channels - were unlikely to be restored, engineers said.
The ACS has taken the clearest pictures ever seen of the cosmos, but will only be fully functioning again when Hubble receives a new camera during a planned servicing mission by space shuttle in 2008.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421706


Video: Virtual mirror allows shoppers to try on multiple outfits
Inventors in New York have developed an interactive mirror, giving shoppers the chance to quickly try on multiple outfits.
The computer controlled device also allows images to be sent to friends, providing instant feedback before a purchase is made.
Watch the Reuters video of every shopper's dream.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421535


Gene test clue to ADHD therapy

SYDNEY - A genetic test may help to stop hyperactive children being overdosed on psycho-stimulant drugs such as Ritalin, Australian research suggests.
About 50,000 Australian children are prescribed stimulants to treat Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but problems getting the dose right mean many are initially over-drugged.
Studies in adults with the condition show there is a gene which makes some more sensitive to the medication and prone to the "zombie-like" side-effects of overdose.
But overdose affects children in the same way, making them obsessive, introverted, highly focused and unable to change their attention from one thing to another.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10421585


Guilt-free coffee for expectant mothers

Drinking several cups of coffee need hold no fears for pregnant women.
Research shows caffeinated drinks pose no risk to unborn children, which should reassure expectant mothers.
Previous studies have found conflicting evidence about the risks, some suggesting a high caffeine intake can lead to lower birth weights and an increased risk of premature birth.
To settle the issue, Danish researchers monitored more than 1200 women who drank more than three cups of coffee a day - a high caffeine intake - throughout their pregnancies.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10421583


Warning signs of blindness

NEW YORK - People who experience severe, rapidly progressing loss of vision should seek immediate medical help because this may signal elevated pressure in the brain that could lead to permanent blindness.
In the journal Neurology, Dr Madhav Thambisetty of Emory University in Atlanta and colleagues report on 16 patients with this condition, fulminant idiopathic intracranial hypertension.
IIH usually worsens fairly slowly, and rapid progression is usually due to a secondary cause such as a blood clot in the brain or meningitis. But in the 16 patients described, no secondary causes were identified.
"Although fulminant IIH is rare, it affects young, otherwise healthy women, who often become legally blind over the course of a few days," Dr Thambisetty and his team write.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10421581


Lahar alert rises as Crater Lake swells

Mt Ruapehu's Crater Lake has swelled to within 1.5m of its unstable lip, boosting the emergency agencies' alert level for the lahar expected to burst down the mountain's eastern slopes any time soon.
After a visit on Saturday to the volcanic lake near the summit of the North Island's tallest mountain, scientists reiterated that the huge and long-predicted slide of mud and boulders could happen as soon as Thursday.
"It is still expected the earliest the dam might start collapsing to create a lahar down the Whangaehu River is February/March," said the Department of Conservation.
DoC scientist Dr Harry Keys said: "The lake level has increased by 0.4m since the last visit to the crater [eight days earlier] and was expected given the period of warm weather creating steady snow-melt."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421377


Car pollution serious threat to young lungs

Parents who teach their children to take care crossing the road may be neglecting a greater danger - living next to it.
Researchers have found that young people growing up in homes within 500m of a main road suffer significant damage to their lungs from exhaust fumes.
Compared with those who live at least 1.5km away the breathing of those in homes closer to the traffic is neither as deep nor as vigorous and their lungs do not develop as well.
The poorer condition of their respiration puts them at greater risk from asthma, bronchitis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as adults and weakens their sporting ability, the research suggests.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10421308


Hospitals cull waiting lists by thousands
More than 35,000 people were removed from elective surgery waiting lists in one year - far more than previously disclosed - in the Government's "clean-up" of its hospital rationing system.
In the 12 months to October 31, more than 13,000 patients were sent back to their GP, after earlier being promised treatment within six months, or put on active review, the waiting list for patients who are not quite sick or disabled enough to qualify but who might be soon.
That number of patients told to go back to their doctors is more than four times higher than four years previously. In 2002, 3129 patients were taken off waiting lists.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421381



Sharples calls for tougher line on gang problems

Pita Sharples wants communities to initiate a crackdown on gangs and is threatening to name and shame individual leaders and chapters and to investigate banning gang insignia if they don't respond.
The Maori Party co-leader also says he will identify schools that are failing to acknowledge and tackle gang-related problems.
Dr Sharples has worked with gangs for 30 years in various capacities, most recently through a community programme he initiated, designed to shed light on the impact of increased P and methamphetamine usage.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421380



Christian youth leader dies at swimming spot near festival
The man who died after jumping from a bridge into the Waikato River was today described as a committed Christian and a youth leader in his church.
The 22-year-old Aucklander was one of an estimated 28,000 attending the Parachute 07 Christian music festival at Mystery Creek in Hamilton when he went missing yesterday.
He was swimming with friends at Narrows Landing, on Airport Road, around lunchtime when he decided to jump from Narrows Bridge.
He did not resurface and a police dive squad from Wellington began a search at 5.15pm, recovering his body just before 8pm.
Police have not yet released his name.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421372



Even politicians are popular at huge Christian music fest
When politicians draw crowds to rival those of the country's top musicians you know you're not at just any music festival.
Yet that was the case at the Parachute Music Festival yesterday with politicians, including National deputy leader Bill English and the Greens' Sue Bradford, packing Hamilton's Mystery Creek main pavilion with more than 5000 listeners jammed in eager to hear their political pitch.
Then again it may have just been the chance to escape the searing midday sun, and a quiet spell in the musical line-up, that had festival-goers by the thousands warmly applauding the centre-right soothing of Mr English.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1501119/story.cfm?c_id=1501119&objectid=10421364


Wind sends Aussie race duo Bellies-up
The opening of the Offshore Powerboat racing championship ended in spectacular fashion for Australian duo Bruce Sanders and Colin Craven when their boat flipped on Lake Taupo.
The pair were competing in the Superboat Light class in their boat Red Bellies - a 28ft craft which reaches speeds of more than 160km/h.
Fortunately neither man was hurt - and even the boat came through relatively unscathed.
"There was a gust of wind as they were approaching into the corner and the boat just rolled," said course officer Paddy Lowry.
The Red Bellies team have enjoyed success in Australia, including six championships in eight years, but they came unstuck in the first of the eight round New Zealand championship - regarded as one of the toughest in the world.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421378


Plain sailing for Silver Ferns as captain takes the helm

Silver Ferns captain Adine Wilson grabbed the helm of America's Cup yacht NZL41 yesterday to treat her teammates to a trip around Waitemata Harbour.
The team were able to enjoy glorious sunshine in a bonding session as part of a four-day training camp.
It was a bit of respite from fitness testing and a match against the New Zealand netball A team, and the players were also able to take in the semifinals of the Auckland Match Racing Cup.
The harbour will come alive again today for the 167th Auckland Anniversary Regatta - one of the world's biggest one-day regattas.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421382


Weather doesn't deter Anniversary Day yachties
Heavy rain and windy squalls are not dampening the spirits of the Auckland Anniversary Day Regatta as the midday flotilla of tug boats made their parade through the Viaduct Harbour.
Action has gone without a hitch with a Parade of Sail including around 500 vessels including classic yachts and vintage tug boats starting at the Viaduct.
Organiser Eric Henry speaking from The Royal New Zealand Navy Frigate Te Kaha says the 20 knot winds have made for some great yachting and the tug boats have been a spectacular sight racing between North Head and Rangitoto.
He says the midday Tugboat parade is a highlight of the days celebrations and he believes it is a world first.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421400


Sinn Fein backs Northern Irish police
DUBLIN - Irish nationalist party Sinn Fein voted to end decades of opposition to Northern Ireland's police force on Sunday, removing a key obstacle to the restoration of a regional power-sharing government in the British province.
The party, political ally of the Irish Republican Army (IRA) which killed nearly 300 police officers during a 30-year campaign against British rule, voted overwhelmingly at a special meeting in Dublin to back the Protestant-dominated force.
The vote, a momentous step for Sinn Fein, could end political stalemate in Northern Ireland after the suspension in 2002 of a power-sharing assembly between majority pro-British Protestants and a Catholic minority who want a united Ireland.
Backing for the rule of law is required by the province's biggest pro-British Protestant grouping, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), before it will consider sharing power in a Belfast-based assembly set up under a 1998 peace deal.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421389


US, Iraqi forces kill 250 militants in Najaf
NAJAF, Iraq - US and Iraqi forces killed 250 gunmen in a fierce battle involving US tanks and helicopters on the outskirts of the Shi'ite holy city of Najaf on Sunday, a senior Iraqi police officer said.
The day-long battle was continuing after nightfall, Colonel Ali Nomas told Reuters, as tens of thousands of pilgrims converged on the nearby city of Kerbala for the climax of the Ashura commemorations.
A US helicopter was shot down in the fighting, Iraq security sources said. The US military declined comment. A Reuters reporter saw a helicopter come down trailing smoke.
Shi'ite political sources said the gunmen appeared to be both Sunni Arabs and Shi'ites loyal to a cleric called Ahmed Hassani.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421387


Clinton attacks Bush's 'irresponsibility' on Iraq
DAVENPORT, Iowa - Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Iowa today President George W. Bush should find a way out of Iraq before he leaves office and called it "the height of irresponsibility" to leave the problem to the next administration.
"The president has said this is going to be left to his successor," the New York senator said during a jammed rally in a fairground exhibit hall in Davenport as she concluded a two-day campaign swing in the state that kicks off the 2008 presidential campaign.
"I think it's the height of irresponsibility and I really resent it," she said. "This was his decision to go to war, he went with an ill-conceived plan, an incompetently executed strategy and we should expect him to extricate our country from this before he leaves office."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421398


Palestinians agree to Mecca talks
GAZA - Saudi Arabia has invited feuding Palestinian factions for urgent talks in Islam's holy city of Mecca to try to end the fiercest internal fighting since Hamas's election victory a year ago.
Both sides agreed to attend the meeting but no date was set as the death toll from three days of Gaza infighting rose to 26 with the killing of a Hamas militant in clashes in Gaza City and a civilian who died of wounds he had sustained earlier.
Spiraling violence has derailed unity talks between the ruling Islamist Hamas movement and President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction.
In the latest in a string of tit-for-tat abductions, gunmen loyal to the governing Hamas movement kidnapped and later released Brigadier General Sayyed Shabban, the head of National Security Forces in central Gaza, a security source said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421399


Could the crash happen again? Nobody's saying never
At the start of 1987 the sharemarket bears gained an unusual ally.
When former Prime Minister Sir Robert Muldoon took the podium at the Orewa Rotary Club for the 19th year in a row, the surging stock market sat squarely in his sights.
Advising investors to at least pull half of their money out of the market high-flyers, he described what he saw as a "speculative mania" in the growing divide between share prices and their fundamental value.
The investment companies that bore the brunt of the collapse were starting to "look uncomfortably like a form of pyramid selling scheme".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421329


Last man standing counts costs
The Shoe Sheriff on Newmarket's Broadway stands alone in the midst of a glitzy multimillion-dollar redevelopment of the shopping strip.
Four years ago the cobbler's shop - owned by Peter Croad - won a courtroom battle to stay on the premier retail drag opposite Westfield's 277 shopping mall, facing down a rich land owner who wanted him out.
The shop has held its ground as all the neighbouring buildings have vanished, including the Patel family's dairy, a toy store and a bookshop.
Those shops were pulled down to make way for Broadway Junction, a project on the leasehold land by award-winning developers Newcrest Group.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421330


Biofuels plan draws overseas interest
Running New Zealand's entire vehicle fleet on home-grown and manufactured biofuels is the big vision behind a research project involving two state-owned agencies and a US-listed company.
Forestry research institute Scion and AgResearch are teaming up with Diversa Corporation to look at converting New Zealand "biomass", such as pinus radiata, eucalyptus and grasses, to feedstocks for biofuels, such as ethanol.
"The key point is [that it could be] something we can do here in New Zealand that is hopefully going to enable us to balance the challenge of renewable energy sources with sustainable land use," said Scion's chief executive Tom Richardson.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421331


Goff sees fresh hope for global trade talks
DAVOS - Ministers from around the world met at the weekend in Switzerland hoping to revive struggling global trade talks, amid growing pressure from political and business leaders to break the impasse.
The so-called Doha round of talks was launched in 2001 to boost the international economy and ease poverty. The talks were suspended last July due to sharp differences over how much the United States should cut farm subsidies and how much the European Union should reduce farm import tariffs.
About 30 trade ministers gathered in a hotel ringed by riot police in the ski resort of Davos, where the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum is taking place.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421316


Ideas from edge of internet give small firms big chance
AMSTERDAM - Internet companies are becoming more important to people than those that operate in the real world, a poll has found.
The annual survey, by online branding magazine brandchannel.com, found Google kept its title as the world's most influential brand and video-sharing site and YouTube and online encyclopedia Wikipedia catapulted into the top five at the No 3 and 4 spots.
Although brandchannel's survey is not uncontroversial as it asks 3625 branding professionals and students: "Which brand had the most impact on our lives in 2006?", rather than measuring economic impact, the evidence of the result is everywhere.
Visitors of technology and telecoms tradeshows, for instance, may be forgiven for thinking that photo-sharing site Flickr, blogging software firm Vox, internet calling service Skype and YouTube are multibillion-dollar companies, because no company from the old world announces anything without them.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10421313


48 hours: Raw power no match for elegance and class
Serena Williams has taken women's tennis forward in some respects, and backwards in others.
The Australian Open in Melbourne may mark the first occasion in which it was claimed a player's supporter, the player being Williams, distracted an opponent by shining a watch in her eyes. The claim was made by a commentator, who endured the subsequent glare of publicity with no support at all from Williams' opponent.
Never mind. It is almost certainly the most memorable tournament in which a player has shone a dress in opponents' eyes.
Screaming Green screamed past the Scream Queen in the women's final, where Williams destroyed Maria Sharapova, the new World No 1, from the lofty height of a pre-tournament ranking of 81. Williams won in just an hour and three minutes.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10421362


Satellites help keep Earthlings up to date
China's new 'Star Wars' weapon recently blew up a satellite for target practice. That one was disused, but there are hundres of others we couldn't live without.
WEATHER SATELLITES
Orbit level low (around 800km above Earth)
How many are there?
About 40. The satellite recently destroyed by China was one of the thousands of disused (or "sleeping") weather satellites in low-Earth orbit.
Satellite-borne instruments have allowed researchers to track weather patterns, changes in sea levels and the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When the Orbiting Carbon Observatory lifts off in 2008, it will be the first Nasa spacecraft designed to make precise measurements of atmospheric carbon dioxide from an Earth-orbiting satellite. Ability to track retreating polar ice, shifting patterns of drought, winds and rainfall and other environmental changes is "at great risk" because of failures to replace satellite-borne sensors.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421317


Rocker hustles for human rights cause
Peter Gabriel would like you to see unpleasant things on the likes of YouTube - human rights abuses.
The veteran rock star, goateed and relaxed in casual gear, cut a different figure among the business suits at the World Economic Forum.
More than a quarter of a century after energising a generation against South Africa's apartheid system with the chill-inducing song Biko, he has been "hustling", as he calls it.
Gabriel has been trying to get the businesses gathered to come up with cash or technology for Witness, a group he founded which seeks to use video from cameras or phones to bring human rights abuse to light.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10421315

 

George Walker Bush.

The Toxic Economy President. 

Tobacco’s Stigma Aside, Wall Street Finds a Lot to Like

  

Old World Economy of Tobacco

THE E-CON-OF-ME by the Bush White House

In recent statements George Walker Bush said, he understood the importance of an economy in the USA. He believes his father was defeated in his second term by Former President Bill Clinton because of the poor performance of the American Economy. In saying that what this president has done is 'actively' pursue the private industry in this nation allowing government to befriend them even in the face of products that are proven deadly.

It's amazing to me the extent human economies are based in products grossly "W"rong for them such as tobacco, alcohol and fossil fuels. Therefore, realizing Bush is a very poor performer when it comes to 'inventiveness' and/or supporting new technologies such as Genetic Medicine it is no surprise he lends government support to expanding the products this society has fought to eliminate from it's venue of economic PURPOSE and benevolence.

Tobacco is a huge detriment to anyone's health spawning lung and heart disease of all kinds including but not exclusively cancers. Other lung disorders although not as lethal as lung cancer causes reduction in longevity and poor health within that longevity. What these products produce in 'economy' to any country is taken away by increased disease in society and medical costs but in Bush's Economy, medical 'economics' are a return on the dollar as well, so let lung cancer abound.

One of the METHODOLOGIES of the Bush White House is to bolster economic venues of constituency through directives by the FCC. In other words, this White House believes in equity for all, good or bad, but one will never hear Peace or Global Warming spill from the lips of George Walker Bush. But, regardless, if one pays attention it's easy to 'pick up' on a trend in verbiage in the media as related to news items.

There was a recent day when I was surfing through the channels on the television when I ran across an incredible 'trend' across many channels. The WORD 'cigarette' was everywhere. I first listened to Imus in the Morning on MSNBC and he played a tune sung by a female artist called 'Cigarette.' Then and in no surprise to me I flipped through station after station and there was, you guessed it, the word 'cigarette' in one form or another. On a movie channel, the picture was "My Friend Flicka." What does that have to do with 'cigarette?' Kenny's cantankerous horse that threw him from his saddle was named, you guessed it again, 'Cigarette.' The 'exposure' was happening almost simultaneously across most if not all the stations on the television.

It's called subliminal advertising and if I am not mistaken it was made illegal some years ago, but, I could be wrong about that. At any rate, when a phenomina such as this 'strikes' it is all too clear as to what 'goes on.' Is it an industry placing money in the pockets of people to bolster their business? Maybe.

But.

If that were the case then why when verbiage indicting Saudi Arabia in unfriendly gestures toward ethnic minorities such as the Shia would the game show "Jeopardy" the NEXT DAY have an entire section of their game board DEDICATED to 'Arabian Horses' and subsequent questions regarding areas involving Arabia? It doesn't matter the fact these are taped episodes. The point is there is such pervasive focus on Bush's political 'language/diretive' in the media that counteracts any opposition to them.

Hm?

Coincidence?

Nah.

Coincidence happens occassionally and between maybe two entities engaged in the same subject/activity. But, all too likely the FCC is using their Bush Clout to put out a diretive to bolster business of constituencies at any cost to the USA including their health. They must have a 'Word of the Day' thing going on in addition to some very bad ideas about maintaining an industry that provides a deadly product by ALLOWING higher levels of nicotine in their cigarettes and ALLOWING cigarettes to burn longer through chemical manipulation to increase the amount of nicotine of a smoker to INSURE the industry has longevity in their consumer base.

Who cares about the consumer that will ultimately end up with some kind of cancer or severe lung disease accompanied by heart disease? Besides the medical profession that administers 'attempts' at life saving care, the pharmaceutical companies that are doing research to 'come up' with treatments and early detection so the Tobacco Industry will not lose it's longevity customers so much as just have ill ones.

Moorcroft Racehorse Welfare Center

  

Kentucky Derby champion Barbaro suffered an injury just seconds into the Preakness Stakes, Saturday. (AP)

Racehorse Welfare and Safety Recommendations Released
Edited press release
A cross-section of prominent participants from the Thoroughbred breeding and racing industry who participated in the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit in Lexington, on Oct. 16-17, have drafted recommended action plans in six areas to potentially improve conditions in various facets of the Thoroughbred industry.
As the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit does not have any authority to implement these recommendations, the proposed strategic plan will be forwarded to potential responsible parties for their consideration. Full Text of Welfare and Safety Summit Plan (PDF)

http://news.bloodhorse.com/viewstory.asp?id=36325