Florida Today
Cities take the lead on climate change
By KARL RITTER
Associated Press Writer
VAXJO, Sweden (AP) -- When this quiet city in southern Sweden decided in 1996 to wean itself off fossil fuels, most people doubted the ambitious goal would have any impact beyond the town limits.
A few melting glaciers later, Vaxjo is attracting a green pilgrimage of politicians, scientists and business leaders from as far afield as the U.S. and North Korea seeking inspiration from a city program that has allowed it to cut CO2 emissions 30 percent since 1993.
Vaxjo is a pioneer in a growing movement in dozens of European cities, large and small, that aren't waiting for national or international measures to curb global warming.
From London's congestion charge to Paris' city bike program and Barcelona's solar power campaign, initiatives taken at the local level are being introduced across the continent - often influencing national policies instead of the other way around.
"People used to ask: Isn't it better to do this at a national or international level?" said Henrik Johansson, environmental controller in Vaxjo, a city of 78,000 on the shores of Lake Helga, surrounded by thick pine forest in the heart of Smaland province. "We want to show everyone else that you can accomplish a lot at the local level."
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EUROPE_CLEAN_CITIES?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-16-48-46
Fiery Calif. pileup kills at least 2
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ
Associated Press Writer
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. (AP) -- A crash in a Southern California freeway tunnel quickly turned into a fiery, chain-reaction pileup that mangled several trucks, killed at least two people and shut down the key north-south route as the wreckage burned for hours.
Firefighters began hauling the mangled, blackened debris of more than a dozen big-rig trucks out of the tunnel Saturday afternoon. The crash late Friday involved at least 15 trucks and possibly one or more passenger cars, and sent people fleeing for their lives. At least 10 people were injured.
"It looked like a bomb went off," said Los Angeles County firefighter Scott Clark, one of about 300 firefighters who battled the blaze throughout the night.
California Highway Patrol Officer David Porter confirmed Saturday that the bodies of two crash victims had been found in the tunnel. He couldn't immediately say whether one was a trucker who had been listed as unaccounted for.
Firefighters were just starting to enter the tunnel Saturday afternoon and might find more bodies, said Ron Haralson, Los Angeles County Fire Department inspector.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TRUCK_PILEUP?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-18-10-36
Myanmar arrests 4 prominent activists
YANGON, Myanmar (AP) -- Myanmar's junta arrested four prominent political activists Saturday, Amnesty International said, including one who went into hiding after leading some of the first major marches against the government several weeks ago.
The United Nations has called on the military government to halt its crackdown on the protesters, and a U.N. special envoy was expected in the region on Sunday to help coordinate a response among key Asian governments.
Among those detained Saturday was Htay Kywe, who led some of the first marches several weeks ago before going into hiding to escape a government manhunt, Amnesty said. Others arrested were Aung Htoo and Thin Thin Aye, also known as Mie Mie.
The three were believed to be the last remaining activists at large from the 88 Generation Students' Group - the country's boldest dissident group - which was at the forefront of a 1988 democracy uprising and one of the main forces behind the protests that started in August.
A fourth activist, Ko Ko, was also arrested, the London-based rights group said. All four were believed to have been rounded up in Yangon, the country's main city.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MYANMAR?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-17-53-46
Shiite leader backs Iraqi regional plan
By HAMZA HENDAWI
Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD (AP) -- The son and heir apparent of Iraq's top Shiite politician came out strongly Saturday in favor of autonomy for Iraq's religiously and ethnically divided regions, a potentially explosive issue on Iraq's already highly polarized political landscape.
Ammar al-Hakim, who is being groomed to take over the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, the country's largest Shiite party, has been a firm supporter of federalism from the outset. But his unusually strident language appeared to signal growing impatience with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's inaction on key issues and his failure to bring fractured groups together.
Addressing hundreds of supporters at the party's Baghdad headquarters, al-Hakim called on Iraqis to press ahead with the creation of self-rule regions, but cautioned that the country's unity must be safeguarded.
"Federalism is one way to accomplish this goal," he said.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-18-03-38
Federal review looms in boot camp death
By MELISSA NELSON
Associated Press Writer
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- Seven former juvenile boot camp guards and a nurse had barely processed an all-white jury's decision to acquit them in a black teenager's death before federal authorities announced they would review the case.
Since jurors on Friday acquitted them of manslaughter charges, federal prosecutors likely would have to try another tactic, such as seeking an indictment alleging obstruction of justice, legal experts said.
"It's too early to say that the final chapter has been written with respect to the criminal justice system in this case," said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Miami.
Florida civil rights leaders called for federal charges hours after a jury took 90 minutes to exonerate the eight in state court in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, 14.
By Friday evening, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee announced they were reviewing the state's prosecution.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BOOT_CAMP_DEATH?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-17-25-57
Report ranks jobs by rates of depression
By KEVIN FREKING
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- People who tend to the elderly, change diapers and serve up food and drinks have the highest rates of depression among U.S. workers.
Overall, 7 percent of full-time workers battled depression in the past year, according to a government report available Saturday.
Women were more likely than men to have had a major bout of depression, and younger workers had higher rates of depression than their older colleagues.
Almost 11 percent of personal care workers - which includes child care and helping the elderly and severely disabled with their daily needs - reported depression lasting two weeks or longer.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/D/DEPRESSING_JOBS?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-17-19-14
Maria von Trapp's stepson dead at 91
By WILSON RING
Associated Press Writer
MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) -- Werner von Trapp, a member of the musical family made famous by the 1965 movie "The Sound of Music," has died, his family said. He was 91.
Von Trapp died Thursday at his home in Waitsfield. The cause of death was not announced. The family confirmed his death, but declined to comment further.
"The Sound of Music" was based loosely on a 1949 book by his stepmother, Maria von Trapp, who died in 1987. It tells the story of an Austrian woman who married a widower with seven children and teaches them music.
Born in 1915 in Zell am See, Austria, von Trapp was the fourth child and second son of Captain Georg von Trapp and his first wife, Agathe Whitehead. In the movie "The Sound of Music," Werner von Trapp was depicted by the character named Kurt.
During the 1930s, von Trapp studied cello and became proficient on several other instruments. He sang tenor with his family's choir, The Trapp Family Singers, who won great acclaim throughout Europe after their debut in 1935.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBIT_VON_TRAPP?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-17-22-03
Federal review looms in boot camp death
By MELISSA NELSON
Associated Press Writer
PANAMA CITY, Fla. (AP) -- Seven former juvenile boot camp guards and a nurse had barely processed an all-white jury's decision to acquit them in a black teenager's death before federal authorities announced they would review the case.
Since jurors on Friday acquitted them of manslaughter charges, federal prosecutors likely would have to try another tactic, such as seeking an indictment alleging obstruction of justice, legal experts said.
"It's too early to say that the final chapter has been written with respect to the criminal justice system in this case," said Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. attorney in Miami.
Florida civil rights leaders called for federal charges hours after a jury took 90 minutes to exonerate the eight in state court in the death of Martin Lee Anderson, 14.
By Friday evening, officials from the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee announced they were reviewing the state's prosecution.
Anderson died Jan. 6, 2006, a day after being hit and kicked by the guards as the nurse watched after he collapsed while running laps. The 30-minute confrontation was videotaped.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BOOT_CAMP_DEATH?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-17-25-57
Simpson case co-defendant to enter plea
By KEN RITTER
Associated Press Writer
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Accused of being one of five men who joined O.J. Simpson in a hotel-room confrontation with two sports memorabilia dealers, Charles Cashmore will plead guilty to a reduced charge and testify that guns were involved in the theft of sports collectibles.
Cashmore will testify that two of the other men who entered the room with the former football star were armed, his lawyer, Edward Miley, said Friday. Miley said Cashmore will plead guilty to being an accessory to robbery, a felony that could get him up to five years in prison.
A court hearing is set for Monday, a court clerk confirmed.
"He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Miley said of Cashmore, a 40-year-old laborer, bartender and disc jockey who lives in Las Vegas.
Clark County District Attorney David Roger declined to comment.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OJ_SIMPSON?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-11-49-13
Bridge collapse survivors seek more help
By JOSHUA FREED
Associated Press Writer
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- As the estimated cost of recovering from an interstate bridge collapse surges past $400 million, survivors of the deadly disaster just wish they could get a few thousand dollars here and there to make ends meet.
About 30 of the more than 100 people injured in the Aug. 1 collapse, which killed 13 people, meet weekly to talk about the troubles it's caused them. This past week, one man spoke of his struggles with a $41,000 medical bill. Others mentioned missed paychecks.
That they've all had such problems getting aid irritated fellow survivor Kimberly J. Brown enough that she fired off an e-mail to Minnesota's state and U.S. senators.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/B/BRIDGE_COLLAPSE_SURVIVORS?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-13-07-14
Gay groups reach out to straight allies
By LISA LEFF
Associated Press Writer
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) -- The setting was intimate, the hors d'oeuvres simple and the hostess barefoot, but the house party Gabby Seagrave and LaDonna Silva held for a dozen friends and co-workers was hardly a spontaneous affair.
Over wine and cheese last week, guests signed a form signaling their support for same-sex marriage.
In the couple's family room, they took a quiz on marriage laws and watched a television commercial that could have been for diamond rings, but asked, "What if you couldn't marry the person you loved?"
Such house parties and ad campaigns are just two ways in which gay rights activists are courting sympathetic heterosexuals. They hope these "straight allies" can help persuade a majority of Americans to back their causes.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/STRAIGHT_SYMPATHY?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-13-22-14
Lawsuits possible from Va. Tech shooting
By SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writer
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) -- As the sixth-month anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre approaches, a lawyer representing 20 people killed or injured in the April shootings has began notifying the town and the state about possible lawsuits.
Blacksburg Town Attorney Larry Spencer said he received notices Friday from Peter Grenier, a personal injury lawyer in Washington, D.C., of possible lawsuits claiming negligence by the town and its employees.
A spokesman for the state attorney general's office said it received notice Friday from Grenier's law firm of a possible lawsuit on behalf of injured student Kevin Sterne. Tucker Martin said he could not say whether it was a possible lawsuit against Virginia Tech or the state itself.
No lawsuits have yet been filed stemming from the shootings on the university's Blacksburg campus, where mentally disturbed student Seung-Hui Cho killed two people in a dormitory and 30 in a classroom building before taking his own life.
The notice does not necessarily mean lawsuits will be filed, but such notification is needed by Tuesday, six months after the shootings, if lawsuits against a locality are to be filed in state court. A notice of a claim against Virginia Tech or the state must be filed within a year.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VIRGINIA_TECH_LAWSUITS?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=US&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-10-53-57
U.S. asks Turkey for restraint on Iraq
By C. ONUR ANT
Associated Press Writer
ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- Two senior U.S. officials promised Saturday that they would convey to Iraq Turkey's unease over Kurdish rebels in the north but they also expressed concern over the possibility of a Turkish military offensive in the region.
In Moscow, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged "a difficult time" in relations with Turkey. She appealed for restraint against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq and in Turkey's angry response to a genocide resolution in Congress.
Dan Fried, assistant secretary of state for European affairs, and Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, met with Turkish officials in a bid to assuage anger over the resolution, which would label the World War I-era killing of Armenians by Turks a genocide.
Turkey has recalled its ambassador to Washington for consultations after a House committee's approval of the resolution last week and warned of serious repercussions if Congress passes the resolution.
The committee's approval raised concerns that Turkey may be less restrained about defying the United States.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TURKEY?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-18-21-14
Israel talks peace, draws lines
By KARIN LAUB
Associated Press Writer
KEDAR SETTLEMENT, West Bank (AP) -- First a sprawling police headquarters went up, now bulldozers are leveling ground for a highway, and by year's end Israel will have laid claim to another strategic West Bank hill, taking one more chunk out of a future Palestine even as Israel says it wants to negotiate its borders.
Israel has been tightening its hold on parts of the West Bank for years, with mushrooming settlements and more recently, a separation barrier. The barrier would eventually slice off 8.6 percent of the territory and, according to U.N. data, incorporate 380,000 of 450,000 Israelis living on war-won land the Palestinians demand for their state-to-be.
Israel's moves raise questions about whether there will be enough left to negotiate if, as a result of a U.S.-hosted Mideast conference next month, Israelis and Palestinians finally return to the table after seven years of bloodshed and diplomatic paralysis.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MIDEAST_PEACE_AND_LAND?SITE=FLROC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2007-10-13-14-07-24
continued...
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Morning Papers - continued...
Sydney Morning Herald
Nobel peace prize goes to Gore and UN climate panel
OSLO: The former US vice president, Al Gore, and the United Nations panel on climate change have shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness of the threat of global warming.
Since leaving office in 2001, Mr Gore has lectured extensively on the threat, and starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to warn of the dangers of climate change.
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the Nobel committee said of Mr Gore in its award citation.
The prize increases pressure on him to launch a late bid for the presidency, but advisers said he is showing no signs of interest.
A long-time adviser, Carter Eskew, said: "I don't think he's going to run. He has said technically he hasn't ruled it out. But I can tell you he's making no moves and no sounds to indicate to me that he's going to run."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/nobel-peace-prize-goes-to-gore-and-un-climate-panel/2007/10/12/1191696176456.html
China forced to move 4m to safety
CHINA is planning to move another 4 million people away from the controversial Three Gorges dam reservoir to prevent an environmental disaster as the magnitude of problems with the world's biggest hydroelectric project is revealed.
The unprecedented relocation was approved last month by Beijing but made public only yesterday, as part of the planning strategy for Chongqing, one of China's biggest and fastest growing cities.
The vice-mayor of Chongqing, Yu Yuanmu, said more than 4 million people living on hillsides along the dam's 600 kilometre-long reservoir needed to be moved for the "ecological safety" of the area. At least 2 million people will be resettled to new towns on the outskirts of Chongqing, a city of 31 million about 500 kilometres west of the dam, within the next five years. But the total move could take up to 15 years to complete, Mr Yu said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/china-forced-to-move-4m-to-safety/2007/10/12/1191696173922.html
Mother accused of framing daughter for murder of husbands
IF WHAT is said of her is true, Stacey Castor committed the perfect murder when she killed her first husband by dosing him with anti-freeze seven years ago.
Her mistake was to repeat it five years later with her second husband, passing off his death as suicide.
As callous as that may be, what has shocked this upstate New York town is what she did once she knew police suspected her: drugging her daughter to fake the young woman's suicide and have her "confess" to killing both men.
Prosecutors say Castor last month doped 20-year-old Ashley Wallace with an overdose of painkillers, and placed an unsigned suicide note beside her comatose body.
In the computer-generated note, Ms Wallace "confessed" to killing her father, Michael, in January 2000, and to killing her stepfather, David Castor, in August 2005. She was 12 at the time of her father's death.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mother-accused-of-framing-daughter/2007/10/12/1191696173925.html
Only I can pass it: PM
Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent
October 13, 2007
JOHN HOWARD has turned his newfound embrace of symbolic reconciliation with Aborigines into an election issue by claiming only his Government can draw together the opposing camps to muster a yes vote at his proposed referendum.
Although Labor has long supported constitutional recognition of indigenous people, Mr Howard said yesterday that for the referendum to succeed, voters with conservative views needed to be convinced. "I don't believe Labor could unite conservative and progressive Australia on this issue," he said.
With the election expected to be called any day, Mr Howard has promised that, if re-elected, he would usher in an era of "new reconciliation" with a referendum proposing to change the preamble of the constitution to recognise indigenous Australia's culture, heritage, and status as the nation's first inhabitants.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/federalelection2007news/only-i-can-pass-it-pm/2007/10/12/1191696173757.html
Two a day safe limit on drinks
ADULTS will be advised that more than two drinks a day is a health risk, and teenagers and pregnant women will be warned not to drink at all under sweeping changes to Australia's alcohol guidelines.
Amid estimates that 2 million Australians are risking brain damage through dangerous drinking, the new Federal Government advice will be released today. Anti-alcohol campaigners have heralded the changes as "the most stringent safe-drinking guidelines in the world".
Until now, men have been told they could have six drinks a day, and women four, without risking long-term harm.
But the National Health and Medical Research Council's revised guidelines say both men and women should limit themselves to two drinks a day.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/two-a-day-safe-limit-on-drinks/2007/10/12/1191696173751.html
Staying sober while pregnant 'is not much to ask'
ASK a woman about not drinking during pregnancy, and most say it is no problem.
Kylie McGeough, enjoying a beer with friends at Sussex Street's Shelbourne Hotel, said she thought avoiding alcohol while pregnant was "a kind of rule of thumb anyway".
Kelly Callaghan said she would not drink if pregnant.
"I don't think it's too much to ask," she said. "But I don't think it's going to kill you if you have one or two, once in a while. It's just something else for us to feel guilty about … I support it, but I don't think we should all have to be Mormons … We've got to have our poisons."
Anna Tudor, drinking wine in Sweeney's hotel said: "I might have had a few drinks when I was pregnant - it might have been four or five over the whole term … but I would listen to advice about it, definitely, if that's what the research says."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/staying-sober-while-pregnant-is-not-much-to-ask/2007/10/12/1191696173760.html
Captain at breakfast as ship sailed to doom
More than four months after the Pasha Bulker ran aground, the State Government sits on a report that reveals a trail of blunders. Robert Wainwright uncovers the details.
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THE captain of the Pasha Bulker was having breakfast below deck as his 40,000-tonne bulk carrier plunged out of control toward Nobby's Beach near Newcastle under the panicked direction of junior crew.
The Herald has been told by those close to the investigation of the stunning admission made by the captain and acknowledged by his chief engineer three days after the June 8 grounding.
But neither the Government nor the ship's owners have told the public.
The trail of mistakes and incompetence began on the evening of June 7 when warnings about an approaching storm were issued to 56 ships anchored off Newcastle. The Pasha Bulker, waiting to load 58,000 tonnes of coal, was one of 10 ships whose captains chose to stay at anchor about 200 metres off Stockton Beach to assess the situation overnight.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/captain-at-breakfast-as-ship-floundered/2007/10/12/1191696173754.html
30 years of inspiring action
Greenpeace Australia Pacific turns 30 this year. To celebrate, we are holding a free retrospective photographic exhibition on until 13 October, at Sydney´s Carriageworks arts space.
The iconic photographs span 1977 to 2007 and show our inspirational, vibrant and controversial history of environmental campaigning in the Australia Pacific region. From the first anti-whaling campaign in Albany, Western Australia, which ignited Greenpeace in Australia during 1977, to early climate change protests and anti-nuclear campaigns.
http://www.greenpeace.org.au/sites/30-years-of-inspiring-action/home.html
Haunted by the hurt, memories and loss
WITH a grey sea and sombre rain clouds as backdrop, more than 200 people gathered yesterday on a peninsula overlooking Coogee Beach to mark the fifth anniversary of the Bali bombings.
Five years after 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed when blasts ripped apart two Bali nightclubs, the focus was on healing for those still alive.
"Just thinking about their last moments and how they knew they were going to die still haunts me," said a tearful Candice Buchan, who was 15 when she lost her parents, Gerardine and Stephen. "I still remember being in the Sari nightclub that night, when the bomb went off … I sometimes still wonder why I got out."
Others also spoke of dealing with loss. "There's no closure," said the Coogee Dolphins rugby league club president, Patrick Byrne. He left the Sari Club moments before an explosion killed six of his team members. Describing the night as "hell on Earth", Mr Byrne told the crowd, mainly family and friends of victims, that it had taken him years to understand he could not allow the men who killed his friends to control his life.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/haunted-by-the-hurt-memories-and-loss/2007/10/12/1191696173904.html
Jury shown suppressed photos of dying princess
PHOTOGRAPHS of the mortally injured Princess Diana, taken by paparazzi while she was trapped in the wreckage of her Mercedes limousine in a Paris underpass, have been shown to the jury at her inquest at the High Court in London.
Although the pictures were offered for sale immediately after the crash and before the princess's death, they have never been shown in public.
Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner, ordered that they not be released for publication.
The photographs, shown on Thursday on the seventh day of hearings, were pixelated to obscure the princess's face but showed her hair and her position on the floor of the car beside the back seat.
Other images shown to the jury depicted a photographer squatting beside the open door of the car. Some indicated that pictures were taken through the windows before the doors had been opened to reach the casualties.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/jury-shown-suppressed-photos/2007/10/12/1191696173943.html
US vote puts Turkish support on the line
TURKEY has reacted angrily to a US vote condemning the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as genocide, recalling its ambassador from Washington and threatening to withdraw its support for the Iraq war.
In uncharacteristically strong language, the Turkish President, Abdullah Gul, criticised the vote, by the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee, and warned that the decision could work against the US.
"Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games," Mr Gul said.
The House vote comes at a particularly inopportune time. Washington has called on Turkey to show restraint as the Turkish military mobilises on the border with Iraq, threatening an incursion against Kurdish insurgents. On Thursday Turkish warplanes were reported to be flying close to the border, but not crossing it.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-vote-puts-turkish-support-on-the-line/2007/10/12/1191696173946.html
Symonds racially abused
THE ugly spectre of racism has returned to cricket, with sections of the Vadodara crowd subjecting Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds to monkey chants during yesterday's one-day international at the IPCL Sports Complex.
The incident occurred in the second half of the Indian innings when Symonds was fielding on the boundary. An unspecified number of spectators taunted Symonds with the monkey noises, which have been the scourge of European football for years.
In a separate crowd incident yesterday, play was halted for several minutes after a section of the crowd pelted the playing surface with bottles as Australia's batsmen, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, closed in on a nine-wicket victory. But it is the taunting of Symonds that most upset the Australians.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/11/1191696085722.html
Tasmania freezes horse movement after EI test
TASMANIAN racing authorities remain on high alert after conflicting results from a recreational horse tested for equine influenza.
The horse was suspected to be positive to the highly contagious disease on Thursday and two tests conducted at the Mt Pleasant laboratory in Tasmania produced positive results to EI. However, the Tasmanian Thoroughbred Racing Council was told yesterday that testing at Geelong in Victoria came back negative.
"The horse in question is being tested again to seek absolute confirmation," Australian Racing Board chief executive Andrew Harding said last night.
Harding said the standstill on the movement of horses within Tasmania remained in place but the TTRC was working with the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water to try to go ahead with meetings this weekend.
Meanwhile, horse movement resumed at the EI-affected Warwick Farm yesterday after the NSW DPI announced on Thursday the area had been included in the purple zone for EI purposes.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/horseracing/tasmania-freezes-horse-movement-after-ei-test/2007/10/12/1191696175127.html
Fears Japan's glamour sport is losing its appeal
ONLY 20 years ago, Japan's roaming sumo scouts could be sure of a ready supply of willing, thick-set young recruits from poorer country towns.
Posters of popular wrestlers, such as Chiyonofuji "The Wolf" Mitsugu, and brothers Takanohana Koji and Wakanohana Masaru, adorned bedroom walls. And the rustic teenage males sleeping beneath them dreamt of nothing but joining their idols at a communal sumo stable, where they could devote their working lives to a charter of austere and sometimes brutal ancient rituals.
But times have ushered in big social shifts for Japan and these days, lookouts representing the country's 53 stables are finding that work is thin on the ground.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/fears-japans-glamour-sport-is-losing-its-appeal/2007/10/12/1191696175189.html
Vatican suspends gay cleric after TV interview
The Vatican has suspended a senior cleric who confessed his homosexuality on a television program, even though his face and voice were made unrecognisable, a spokesman was quoted as saying on Saturday.
"His superiors are treating this situation with the required discretion and respect due to the person concerned, even if this person has committed errors," Federico Lombardi told the Italian news agency ANSA.
The daily La Repubblica identified the priest concerned, who was not named, as an official aged around 60 in the Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican department which manages the 400,000 Catholic priests across the world.
"The authorities are obliged to act with the necessary severity against behaviour that is incompatible with religious service and the mission of the Holy See," Lombardi said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/vatican-suspends-gay-cleric-after-tv-interview/2007/10/13/1191696244891.html
Branson bids to save UK bank on the rocks
Roland Jackson London
October 14, 2007
VIRGIN Group, controlled by British billionaire Richard Branson, has spearheaded an international consortium offering to rescue troubled bank Northern Rock and rebrand it under the Virgin name.
But the consortium, which includes US and Asian investment groups, has demanded it should not be forced to make a full takeover offer.
"A consortium led by Virgin Group has today submitted a non-binding indication of interest to the board of Northern Rock which, if consummated, will see the consortium inject substantial new equity into Northern Rock," Virgin said in an official statement on Friday.
The consortium also comprises US insurance group AIG, US investment group WL Ross and Co, Toscafund Asset Management of Britain and First Eastern Investment Group of Hong Kong.
Under the proposal, Virgin would take over the management under its Virgin Money brand, which already offers credit cards, home loans and insurance services.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/branson-bids-to-save-uk-bank-on-the-rocks/2007/10/13/1191696239563.html
Pushing back retirement heralds a new age of reason
So shoot me. Politicians and lobby groups have been fast to pooh-pooh the idea of lifting the pension age (I wonder if it has anything to do with the impending election). But that doesn't mean it's not worth a closer look.
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia stuck its neck out this week arguing that, as we're all living much longer than we were when the pension age was set a century or so back, it might be reasonable to expect us to work a bit longer. The average 65-year-old male can now expect to live to 83 and the average 65-year-old woman to 86, compared with 76 and 78 for their great-great-grandparents turning 65 in the early 1900s. That's an extra seven or eight years in "retirement" and the committee is asking them to forgo two years of age pension in return. That is, the think tank wants to push the pension age back to 67 for both men and women, but only if you were born from January 1, 1955.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/pushing-back-retirement-heralds-a-new-age-of-reason/2007/10/12/1191696177126.html
Let's not talk about sex
A new generation of dads may like to think they have a close relationship with their kids but they still find it hard to tell their sons about the facts of life.
This was not my sharpest moment as a parent. One Sunday morning, heading downstairs to the kitchen for an early coffee, I spotted a teenage girl slipping hurriedly out through the front door. As she left, she was followed by the unmistakeable tones of my son, a couple of paces behind her, hastening her on the way with a cheery: "Yeah, right, OK, see you."
For the adult witness there was no doubt what had just been observed. It was a first in our household, a coming-of-age moment for both father and son. Being a modern, up-to-speed, liberally inclined dad, however, there was no question of confrontation or moral panic or admonishment. Instead, after exchanging grunted greetings, I instructed the boy to sit down at the kitchen table while I gave him a few brief pointers on the need for care in these circumstances. He should realise, I told him, that he could ruin the poor girl's life if he didn't take precautions. He nodded, looked at the floor and vacated the room without uttering a word.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/parenting/lets-not-talk-about-sex/2007/10/03/1191091176416.html
Britney files new motion
+ Fullscreen
2007-10-12 08:22:24
Britney Spears filed an emergency court motion seeking to expand visitation rights with her children.(00:53)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Red%20Carpet&rid=32364
Killing undertaken by the state is still killing
After Bud Welch's daughter was killed in the bombing of a government building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, along with 167 others, he wanted the perpetrator "to fry".
When he saw Timothy McVeigh being led from the courthouse, he hoped someone in a high building with a rifle would "shoot him dead". It was the worst act of domestic terrorism in US history. Among the dead were 19 children who attended a day-care centre in the building, and 700 people suffered terrible injuries.
Welch, a garage owner, was moved, like so many other victims of abhorrent crimes, by an overpowering sense of rage and wish for revenge. "I'd have killed him myself if I'd had the chance," he writes.
Now in his 80s, Welch has become one of the most persuasive campaigners against the death penalty in the US, travelling with the famous abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean, whose life story is told in Dead Man Walking. His turnaround came when he understood "it was revenge and hate" that had motivated McVeigh to kill; he was obsessed with the US Government's murder of cult members at Waco, Texas, in 1993.
"I had to send my own [revenge and hate] in a different direction," he writes.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/killing-undertaken-by-the-state-is-still-killing/2007/10/12/1191696170405.html
Gore gets a cold shoulder
ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".
Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.
His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.
"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."
At his first appearance since the award was announced in Oslo, Mr Gore said: "We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/gore-gets-a-cold-shoulder/2007/10/13/1191696238792.html
Dr. Gray is a cracky old man and staunch Bush Republican that hasn't done relevant research for over a decade. He values the 'Utilitarian Model of Conseravation Biology' over any practice of excellance in the sciences. If Earth resources don't serve humans in every aspect of economy then he wants nothing to do with it. He could not care less whether the Spotted Owl had any Old Growth Forest to live in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. He is a horror.
continued...
Nobel peace prize goes to Gore and UN climate panel
OSLO: The former US vice president, Al Gore, and the United Nations panel on climate change have shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness of the threat of global warming.
Since leaving office in 2001, Mr Gore has lectured extensively on the threat, and starred in his own Oscar-winning documentary, An Inconvenient Truth, to warn of the dangers of climate change.
"He is probably the single individual who has done most to create greater worldwide understanding of the measures that need to be adopted," the Nobel committee said of Mr Gore in its award citation.
The prize increases pressure on him to launch a late bid for the presidency, but advisers said he is showing no signs of interest.
A long-time adviser, Carter Eskew, said: "I don't think he's going to run. He has said technically he hasn't ruled it out. But I can tell you he's making no moves and no sounds to indicate to me that he's going to run."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/nobel-peace-prize-goes-to-gore-and-un-climate-panel/2007/10/12/1191696176456.html
China forced to move 4m to safety
CHINA is planning to move another 4 million people away from the controversial Three Gorges dam reservoir to prevent an environmental disaster as the magnitude of problems with the world's biggest hydroelectric project is revealed.
The unprecedented relocation was approved last month by Beijing but made public only yesterday, as part of the planning strategy for Chongqing, one of China's biggest and fastest growing cities.
The vice-mayor of Chongqing, Yu Yuanmu, said more than 4 million people living on hillsides along the dam's 600 kilometre-long reservoir needed to be moved for the "ecological safety" of the area. At least 2 million people will be resettled to new towns on the outskirts of Chongqing, a city of 31 million about 500 kilometres west of the dam, within the next five years. But the total move could take up to 15 years to complete, Mr Yu said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/china-forced-to-move-4m-to-safety/2007/10/12/1191696173922.html
Mother accused of framing daughter for murder of husbands
IF WHAT is said of her is true, Stacey Castor committed the perfect murder when she killed her first husband by dosing him with anti-freeze seven years ago.
Her mistake was to repeat it five years later with her second husband, passing off his death as suicide.
As callous as that may be, what has shocked this upstate New York town is what she did once she knew police suspected her: drugging her daughter to fake the young woman's suicide and have her "confess" to killing both men.
Prosecutors say Castor last month doped 20-year-old Ashley Wallace with an overdose of painkillers, and placed an unsigned suicide note beside her comatose body.
In the computer-generated note, Ms Wallace "confessed" to killing her father, Michael, in January 2000, and to killing her stepfather, David Castor, in August 2005. She was 12 at the time of her father's death.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mother-accused-of-framing-daughter/2007/10/12/1191696173925.html
Only I can pass it: PM
Phillip Coorey Chief Political Correspondent
October 13, 2007
JOHN HOWARD has turned his newfound embrace of symbolic reconciliation with Aborigines into an election issue by claiming only his Government can draw together the opposing camps to muster a yes vote at his proposed referendum.
Although Labor has long supported constitutional recognition of indigenous people, Mr Howard said yesterday that for the referendum to succeed, voters with conservative views needed to be convinced. "I don't believe Labor could unite conservative and progressive Australia on this issue," he said.
With the election expected to be called any day, Mr Howard has promised that, if re-elected, he would usher in an era of "new reconciliation" with a referendum proposing to change the preamble of the constitution to recognise indigenous Australia's culture, heritage, and status as the nation's first inhabitants.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/federalelection2007news/only-i-can-pass-it-pm/2007/10/12/1191696173757.html
Two a day safe limit on drinks
ADULTS will be advised that more than two drinks a day is a health risk, and teenagers and pregnant women will be warned not to drink at all under sweeping changes to Australia's alcohol guidelines.
Amid estimates that 2 million Australians are risking brain damage through dangerous drinking, the new Federal Government advice will be released today. Anti-alcohol campaigners have heralded the changes as "the most stringent safe-drinking guidelines in the world".
Until now, men have been told they could have six drinks a day, and women four, without risking long-term harm.
But the National Health and Medical Research Council's revised guidelines say both men and women should limit themselves to two drinks a day.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/two-a-day-safe-limit-on-drinks/2007/10/12/1191696173751.html
Staying sober while pregnant 'is not much to ask'
ASK a woman about not drinking during pregnancy, and most say it is no problem.
Kylie McGeough, enjoying a beer with friends at Sussex Street's Shelbourne Hotel, said she thought avoiding alcohol while pregnant was "a kind of rule of thumb anyway".
Kelly Callaghan said she would not drink if pregnant.
"I don't think it's too much to ask," she said. "But I don't think it's going to kill you if you have one or two, once in a while. It's just something else for us to feel guilty about … I support it, but I don't think we should all have to be Mormons … We've got to have our poisons."
Anna Tudor, drinking wine in Sweeney's hotel said: "I might have had a few drinks when I was pregnant - it might have been four or five over the whole term … but I would listen to advice about it, definitely, if that's what the research says."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/staying-sober-while-pregnant-is-not-much-to-ask/2007/10/12/1191696173760.html
Captain at breakfast as ship sailed to doom
More than four months after the Pasha Bulker ran aground, the State Government sits on a report that reveals a trail of blunders. Robert Wainwright uncovers the details.
Advertisement
THE captain of the Pasha Bulker was having breakfast below deck as his 40,000-tonne bulk carrier plunged out of control toward Nobby's Beach near Newcastle under the panicked direction of junior crew.
The Herald has been told by those close to the investigation of the stunning admission made by the captain and acknowledged by his chief engineer three days after the June 8 grounding.
But neither the Government nor the ship's owners have told the public.
The trail of mistakes and incompetence began on the evening of June 7 when warnings about an approaching storm were issued to 56 ships anchored off Newcastle. The Pasha Bulker, waiting to load 58,000 tonnes of coal, was one of 10 ships whose captains chose to stay at anchor about 200 metres off Stockton Beach to assess the situation overnight.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/captain-at-breakfast-as-ship-floundered/2007/10/12/1191696173754.html
30 years of inspiring action
Greenpeace Australia Pacific turns 30 this year. To celebrate, we are holding a free retrospective photographic exhibition on until 13 October, at Sydney´s Carriageworks arts space.
The iconic photographs span 1977 to 2007 and show our inspirational, vibrant and controversial history of environmental campaigning in the Australia Pacific region. From the first anti-whaling campaign in Albany, Western Australia, which ignited Greenpeace in Australia during 1977, to early climate change protests and anti-nuclear campaigns.
http://www.greenpeace.org.au/sites/30-years-of-inspiring-action/home.html
Haunted by the hurt, memories and loss
WITH a grey sea and sombre rain clouds as backdrop, more than 200 people gathered yesterday on a peninsula overlooking Coogee Beach to mark the fifth anniversary of the Bali bombings.
Five years after 202 people, including 88 Australians, were killed when blasts ripped apart two Bali nightclubs, the focus was on healing for those still alive.
"Just thinking about their last moments and how they knew they were going to die still haunts me," said a tearful Candice Buchan, who was 15 when she lost her parents, Gerardine and Stephen. "I still remember being in the Sari nightclub that night, when the bomb went off … I sometimes still wonder why I got out."
Others also spoke of dealing with loss. "There's no closure," said the Coogee Dolphins rugby league club president, Patrick Byrne. He left the Sari Club moments before an explosion killed six of his team members. Describing the night as "hell on Earth", Mr Byrne told the crowd, mainly family and friends of victims, that it had taken him years to understand he could not allow the men who killed his friends to control his life.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/haunted-by-the-hurt-memories-and-loss/2007/10/12/1191696173904.html
Jury shown suppressed photos of dying princess
PHOTOGRAPHS of the mortally injured Princess Diana, taken by paparazzi while she was trapped in the wreckage of her Mercedes limousine in a Paris underpass, have been shown to the jury at her inquest at the High Court in London.
Although the pictures were offered for sale immediately after the crash and before the princess's death, they have never been shown in public.
Lord Justice Scott Baker, the coroner, ordered that they not be released for publication.
The photographs, shown on Thursday on the seventh day of hearings, were pixelated to obscure the princess's face but showed her hair and her position on the floor of the car beside the back seat.
Other images shown to the jury depicted a photographer squatting beside the open door of the car. Some indicated that pictures were taken through the windows before the doors had been opened to reach the casualties.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/jury-shown-suppressed-photos/2007/10/12/1191696173943.html
US vote puts Turkish support on the line
TURKEY has reacted angrily to a US vote condemning the mass killings of Armenians in Turkey during World War I as genocide, recalling its ambassador from Washington and threatening to withdraw its support for the Iraq war.
In uncharacteristically strong language, the Turkish President, Abdullah Gul, criticised the vote, by the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee, and warned that the decision could work against the US.
"Unfortunately, some politicians in the United States have once more dismissed calls for common sense, and made an attempt to sacrifice big issues for minor domestic political games," Mr Gul said.
The House vote comes at a particularly inopportune time. Washington has called on Turkey to show restraint as the Turkish military mobilises on the border with Iraq, threatening an incursion against Kurdish insurgents. On Thursday Turkish warplanes were reported to be flying close to the border, but not crossing it.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-vote-puts-turkish-support-on-the-line/2007/10/12/1191696173946.html
Symonds racially abused
THE ugly spectre of racism has returned to cricket, with sections of the Vadodara crowd subjecting Australian all-rounder Andrew Symonds to monkey chants during yesterday's one-day international at the IPCL Sports Complex.
The incident occurred in the second half of the Indian innings when Symonds was fielding on the boundary. An unspecified number of spectators taunted Symonds with the monkey noises, which have been the scourge of European football for years.
In a separate crowd incident yesterday, play was halted for several minutes after a section of the crowd pelted the playing surface with bottles as Australia's batsmen, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting, closed in on a nine-wicket victory. But it is the taunting of Symonds that most upset the Australians.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/10/11/1191696085722.html
Tasmania freezes horse movement after EI test
TASMANIAN racing authorities remain on high alert after conflicting results from a recreational horse tested for equine influenza.
The horse was suspected to be positive to the highly contagious disease on Thursday and two tests conducted at the Mt Pleasant laboratory in Tasmania produced positive results to EI. However, the Tasmanian Thoroughbred Racing Council was told yesterday that testing at Geelong in Victoria came back negative.
"The horse in question is being tested again to seek absolute confirmation," Australian Racing Board chief executive Andrew Harding said last night.
Harding said the standstill on the movement of horses within Tasmania remained in place but the TTRC was working with the Tasmanian Department of Primary Industries and Water to try to go ahead with meetings this weekend.
Meanwhile, horse movement resumed at the EI-affected Warwick Farm yesterday after the NSW DPI announced on Thursday the area had been included in the purple zone for EI purposes.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/horseracing/tasmania-freezes-horse-movement-after-ei-test/2007/10/12/1191696175127.html
Fears Japan's glamour sport is losing its appeal
ONLY 20 years ago, Japan's roaming sumo scouts could be sure of a ready supply of willing, thick-set young recruits from poorer country towns.
Posters of popular wrestlers, such as Chiyonofuji "The Wolf" Mitsugu, and brothers Takanohana Koji and Wakanohana Masaru, adorned bedroom walls. And the rustic teenage males sleeping beneath them dreamt of nothing but joining their idols at a communal sumo stable, where they could devote their working lives to a charter of austere and sometimes brutal ancient rituals.
But times have ushered in big social shifts for Japan and these days, lookouts representing the country's 53 stables are finding that work is thin on the ground.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/fears-japans-glamour-sport-is-losing-its-appeal/2007/10/12/1191696175189.html
Vatican suspends gay cleric after TV interview
The Vatican has suspended a senior cleric who confessed his homosexuality on a television program, even though his face and voice were made unrecognisable, a spokesman was quoted as saying on Saturday.
"His superiors are treating this situation with the required discretion and respect due to the person concerned, even if this person has committed errors," Federico Lombardi told the Italian news agency ANSA.
The daily La Repubblica identified the priest concerned, who was not named, as an official aged around 60 in the Congregation for the Clergy, the Vatican department which manages the 400,000 Catholic priests across the world.
"The authorities are obliged to act with the necessary severity against behaviour that is incompatible with religious service and the mission of the Holy See," Lombardi said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/vatican-suspends-gay-cleric-after-tv-interview/2007/10/13/1191696244891.html
Branson bids to save UK bank on the rocks
Roland Jackson London
October 14, 2007
VIRGIN Group, controlled by British billionaire Richard Branson, has spearheaded an international consortium offering to rescue troubled bank Northern Rock and rebrand it under the Virgin name.
But the consortium, which includes US and Asian investment groups, has demanded it should not be forced to make a full takeover offer.
"A consortium led by Virgin Group has today submitted a non-binding indication of interest to the board of Northern Rock which, if consummated, will see the consortium inject substantial new equity into Northern Rock," Virgin said in an official statement on Friday.
The consortium also comprises US insurance group AIG, US investment group WL Ross and Co, Toscafund Asset Management of Britain and First Eastern Investment Group of Hong Kong.
Under the proposal, Virgin would take over the management under its Virgin Money brand, which already offers credit cards, home loans and insurance services.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/branson-bids-to-save-uk-bank-on-the-rocks/2007/10/13/1191696239563.html
Pushing back retirement heralds a new age of reason
So shoot me. Politicians and lobby groups have been fast to pooh-pooh the idea of lifting the pension age (I wonder if it has anything to do with the impending election). But that doesn't mean it's not worth a closer look.
The Committee for Economic Development of Australia stuck its neck out this week arguing that, as we're all living much longer than we were when the pension age was set a century or so back, it might be reasonable to expect us to work a bit longer. The average 65-year-old male can now expect to live to 83 and the average 65-year-old woman to 86, compared with 76 and 78 for their great-great-grandparents turning 65 in the early 1900s. That's an extra seven or eight years in "retirement" and the committee is asking them to forgo two years of age pension in return. That is, the think tank wants to push the pension age back to 67 for both men and women, but only if you were born from January 1, 1955.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/pushing-back-retirement-heralds-a-new-age-of-reason/2007/10/12/1191696177126.html
Let's not talk about sex
A new generation of dads may like to think they have a close relationship with their kids but they still find it hard to tell their sons about the facts of life.
This was not my sharpest moment as a parent. One Sunday morning, heading downstairs to the kitchen for an early coffee, I spotted a teenage girl slipping hurriedly out through the front door. As she left, she was followed by the unmistakeable tones of my son, a couple of paces behind her, hastening her on the way with a cheery: "Yeah, right, OK, see you."
For the adult witness there was no doubt what had just been observed. It was a first in our household, a coming-of-age moment for both father and son. Being a modern, up-to-speed, liberally inclined dad, however, there was no question of confrontation or moral panic or admonishment. Instead, after exchanging grunted greetings, I instructed the boy to sit down at the kitchen table while I gave him a few brief pointers on the need for care in these circumstances. He should realise, I told him, that he could ruin the poor girl's life if he didn't take precautions. He nodded, looked at the floor and vacated the room without uttering a word.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/parenting/lets-not-talk-about-sex/2007/10/03/1191091176416.html
Britney files new motion
+ Fullscreen
2007-10-12 08:22:24
Britney Spears filed an emergency court motion seeking to expand visitation rights with her children.(00:53)
http://media.smh.com.au/?category=Red%20Carpet&rid=32364
Killing undertaken by the state is still killing
After Bud Welch's daughter was killed in the bombing of a government building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, along with 167 others, he wanted the perpetrator "to fry".
When he saw Timothy McVeigh being led from the courthouse, he hoped someone in a high building with a rifle would "shoot him dead". It was the worst act of domestic terrorism in US history. Among the dead were 19 children who attended a day-care centre in the building, and 700 people suffered terrible injuries.
Welch, a garage owner, was moved, like so many other victims of abhorrent crimes, by an overpowering sense of rage and wish for revenge. "I'd have killed him myself if I'd had the chance," he writes.
Now in his 80s, Welch has become one of the most persuasive campaigners against the death penalty in the US, travelling with the famous abolitionist Sister Helen Prejean, whose life story is told in Dead Man Walking. His turnaround came when he understood "it was revenge and hate" that had motivated McVeigh to kill; he was obsessed with the US Government's murder of cult members at Waco, Texas, in 1993.
"I had to send my own [revenge and hate] in a different direction," he writes.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/killing-undertaken-by-the-state-is-still-killing/2007/10/12/1191696170405.html
Gore gets a cold shoulder
ONE of the world's foremost meteorologists has called the theory that helped Al Gore share the Nobel Peace Prize "ridiculous" and the product of "people who don't understand how the atmosphere works".
Dr William Gray, a pioneer in the science of seasonal hurricane forecasts, told a packed lecture hall at the University of North Carolina that humans were not responsible for the warming of the earth.
His comments came on the same day that the Nobel committee honoured Mr Gore for his work in support of the link between humans and global warming.
"We're brainwashing our children," said Dr Gray, 78, a long-time professor at Colorado State University. "They're going to the Gore movie [An Inconvenient Truth] and being fed all this. It's ridiculous."
At his first appearance since the award was announced in Oslo, Mr Gore said: "We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/gore-gets-a-cold-shoulder/2007/10/13/1191696238792.html
Dr. Gray is a cracky old man and staunch Bush Republican that hasn't done relevant research for over a decade. He values the 'Utilitarian Model of Conseravation Biology' over any practice of excellance in the sciences. If Earth resources don't serve humans in every aspect of economy then he wants nothing to do with it. He could not care less whether the Spotted Owl had any Old Growth Forest to live in the Pacific Northwest of the USA. He is a horror.
continued...
Dr. Gray and his piers are NOT the experts on Larsen B. The 'team' at The University of Colorado extensively documented the effect of hot summers.
Larsen B Ice Shelf Collapse - March 2002
TELL DR. GRAY AND HIS PIERS THEY 'HAVE TO' ACCEPT PIER REVIEW THAT NEGATES THEIR CLAIMS. They are simply "W"rong. The Nay Sayers are an instrument of propaganda. The debate ended years ago and last year 90% of governmental climate panel members finally settled their bickering. That is why they received The Nobel Prize along with Al Gore. They came to terms with the impending and deadly effects of Climate Change due to Human Induction. They came to a 'peace' to save Earth's hydrosphere and hence save lives. They are truly deserving, while, the people like Dr. Gray are simply an outrage to the concept of biotic integrity to benefit the people on this planet. He and those like him are a blight !
Antarctic Ice Shelf Collapse Triggered
By Warmer Summers
Jan. 16, 2001
Warmer surface temperatures during summers can cause more ice on Antarctica ice shelves to melt into standing water ponds, then leak into cracks and increase the odds of collapse, according to a new study published by an American team of scientists.
Warmer surface temperatures during summers can cause more ice on Antarctica ice shelves to melt into standing water ponds, then leak into cracks and increase the odds of collapse, according to a new study published by an American team of scientists.
Led by Ted Scambos of the University of Colorado at Boulder, the team focused on the Larsen Ice Sheet on the Antarctic Peninsula.
The Larsen Ice Sheet experienced major retreats in 1995 and 1998, including more than 775 square miles that disintegrated during a January 1995 storm.
The team used satellite images of meltwater on the ice surface and a sophisticated computer simulation of the motions and forces within ice shelves. The results indicated that added pressure from surface water filling up the cracks and crevasses can completely crack ice shelves, causing portions to float away and eventually melt.
A paper on the subject by Scambos and Jennifer Bohlander of the University of Colorado-headquartered National Snow and Ice Data Center, Mark Fahnestock of the University of Maryland and Christine Hulbe of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., appeared in the January issue of the Journal of Glaciology.
"The result implies that other ice shelves are closer to the breaking point than we previously thought," said Scambos. "The shelf retreats that have occurred so far have had few consequences for sea-level rise, but breakups in some other areas like the Ross Ice Shelf could lead to increases in ice flow off the Antarctic and cause sea level to rise."
Floating ice shelves, which account for about 2 percent of Antarctic ice, typically undergo cycles of advance and retreat over many decades. While scientists have known that meltwater fills crevasses and enlarges the cracks, this is the first study to explain the physics linking ice-shelf viability and meltwater ponds.
The extra outward pressure of the water counteracts the internal pressure holding the ice together, according to the scientists' conclusions. Crevasses routinely form on the landward side of the shelf.
Satellite observations of melted water on the ice surfaces provide important clues to the water pressure theory, said Fannestock. After analyzing images of the Larsen Ice Shelf over the past two decades, he deduced the years with the longest duration of surface meltwater corresponded to the years of major shelf breakup events. The melt season during the 1995 Larsen Ice Sheet retreat was more than 80 days long - about 20 days longer than average.
NASA's Hulbe used a computer model to simulate the thermodynamics of part of the Larsen Ice sheet before and after the 1990 retreat events to assess if meltwater "wedges" could split a crevasse to the bottom of the ice sheet. She found that depending on the internal strength of the ice, water-filled crevasses as shallow as 15 feet could fracture through a 660-foot-thick ice shelf. The researchers believe the splintered remains are likely held together by bridges between crevasses until a combination of winds, tides and another season of melting lead to a breakup. "The findings provide a solid link between climate warming and the recent extensive disintegration of some Antarctic ice shelves," said Scambos. "The process can be expected to be more widespread if Antarctic summer temperatures continue to increase."
In the past, researchers thought Antarctica was very cold and stable, said Scambos. But the recent research shows the summertime temperatures on the Larsen Ice Sheet are just a few degrees below what the researchers believe is the threshold for surface "ponding" and subsequent ice-cracking events.
Warmer summer temperatures on the much larger Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica could have severe repercussions because that ice shelf is part of the "braking system" for some very large glaciers, Scambos said. "If we begin to get significant water ponding there, and the shelf is eventually destroyed, we would likely have ice pouring off the Antarctic at a much faster rate. That would increase sea level significantly."
"We need to monitor the summertime temperatures to see what the future holds for these ice sheets," said Hulbe. While some areas of the Antarctic have warmed by as much as 4.5 Fahrenheit in the past 50 years, few records have been kept of seasonal temperatures over ice shelves, she said.
The National Snow and Ice Data Center is part of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, a joint institute of CU-Boulder and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration located on the CU-Boulder campus.
CONTACT: Ted Scambos, (303) 492-1113
CONTACT: Ted Scambos, (303) 492-1113
Annette Varani, (303) 492-5952
Jim Scott, (303) 492-3114
Morning Papers - continued...
The precepts to "An Inconvenient Truth" are intact. The objections that are 'out there,' and I don't care who they are from, have been overridden for some time now. I don't care if it's Dr. Gray or some moronic judge in the UK. There is overwhelming proof that Human Induced Global Warming is real and if I have to I can prove it right here. I already have a power point presentation disputing all the facts put forth before the US Senate last year and it was received by a limited audience in acclaim for it's truth.
So all these jokers have 'the truth' to deal with rather than poorly prepared court cases and outrageous claims because they have a PhD behind their over rated and over used name. One of the most ludicrous statement I have heard by the nay sayers to Al Gore's mission, was made by Dr. Gray, a supposed expert on Climate Change. In his report to the US Senate he stated the collapse of the Larsen B Ice Sheet can be correlated to a solar flair.
Hello?
The Chicago Tribune
No peace of mind with prize
Experts welcome Nobel, press for action on climate
By Laurie Goering Tribune foreign correspondent
9:50 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
NEW DELHI — Over the last year, views on climate change seem to have transformed faster than the weather itself.
In almost impossibly rapid fashion, a once widely disputed theory has become nearly a mainstream worry. There are waiting lists to buy hybrid cars.
In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, the prize committee gave much of the credit for that shift to this year's winners: the scientists of the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who laid out the scientific basis for concern in a series of reports this year, and former Vice President Al Gore, who popularized the concerns in his award-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."
But Friday's decision by the Oslo-based Nobel committee also suggests climate change is poised to become an even more crucial issue: a matter of war and peace.
As the scientific reports released this year suggest, climate change has the potential to displace millions as major coastal cities flood, reduce food production and supplies of drinking water in some of the world's poorest nations, and lead to surges in refugees and conflicts over dwindling resources.
"Climate change has the potential to disrupt stability and peace all over the world," said Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the UN climate panel. The prize "elevates this particular problem to a level where it is telling the rest of the world we have to ensure we tackle climate change or it could disrupt peace in several parts of the globe."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-climate_bdoct14,1,1972211.story
Giuliani: 'Should have known' about chief's problems
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik greet supporters during the 2002 Saint Patrick's Day Parade. Giuliani's recommendation of Kerik for secretary of homeland security backfired. Giuliani now maintains Kerik, facing possible bribery and obstruction of justice charges, was an excellent commissioner. Newsday photo.
by Tom Brune
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Rudy Giuliani on Friday offered his strongest defense yet of Bernard Kerik, his former close associate and top New York City cop now targeted in a federal criminal probe, calling him an "excellent police commissioner" and praising him for being courageous on Sept. 11, 2001.
Kerik is facing possible bribery and obstruction of justice charges as soon as next month. Giuliani rejected the idea those charges would harm his campaign and said on balance Kerik had done a good job.
Responding to questions at a news conference, Giuliani applied the same test to Kerik -- whose problems he apologized for not catching earlier -- that he applies to his own difficult family life: Do a public official's personal troubles affect his performance on the job?
"I mean the reality is, if we just look at Bernard Kerik's service as police commissioner, he was an excellent police commissioner," Giuliani said at a campaign stop in this key early primary state.
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/giuliani_should_have_known_abo.html
Thompson: 'Was never really willing to pay price'
by Andrew Malcolm
When a candidate shows a maniacal drive to become president, spanning too many years of boring Lincoln or Jefferson Day dinners, demeaning pleas for money from rich people, darkened motels in distant cities, long nights of conspiratorial strategy meetings over stained boxes of cold pizza and lonely airplane flights across this vast land, plus compiling many millions of dollars, the American media tends to question such drive.
On the other hand, when a candidate shows a curious indifference, thinks longer than others about launching a campaign, moves and talks slowly and doesn't act like they've just finished their sixth cup of coffee in an hour, the American media tends to question such drive. Or lack of it.
The Los Angeles Times' Joe Mathews has come upon an old quote from a 2003 interview in the Nashville Bar Journal about running for the presidency. "I was never really willing to pay the price that I knew had to be paid," said the newly-retired politician. "I would really have to strain hard to come up with something I wanted to say ten times a day for the next year of my life when I knew that talking about the really important stuff would not get me anywhere. You have to have a great desire to be President, and I never had the desire to do that."
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/thompson_was_never_really_will.html
Ex-General: 'No End in Sight' in Iraq
By STEVEN KOMAROW Associated Press Writer
3:59 PM CDT, October 13, 2007
ARLINGTON, Va. - The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.
Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency -- such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.
He called current strategies -- including the deployment of 30,000 additional forces earlier this year -- a "desperate attempt" to make up for years of misguided policies in Iraq.
"There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," Sanchez told a group of journalists covering military affairs.
Sanchez avoided singling out at any specific official. But he did criticize the State Department, the National Security Council, Congress and the senior military leadership during what appeared to be a broad indictment of White House policies and a lack of leadership to oppose them.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-sanchez-iraq,0,2409144.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
5 Trucks Burn in Calif. Freeway Tunnel
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ Associated Press Writer
3:54 PM CDT, October 13, 2007
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - A 15-truck pile-up on a rain-slicked Southern California freeway left 10 people injured and at least one missing, sent flames shooting out of a tunnel and blocked a key link between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Fire Inspector Jason Hurd said the accident -- the wreckage stretching a half mile -- began when two trucks collided late Friday and started a chain reaction in Interstate 5's southbound truck-only tunnels.
At one point flames shot out of the tunnel and 100 feet into the night sky, said Los Angeles County firefighter Scott Clark, one of some 300 firefighters battling the blaze at its height.
"It looked like a bomb went off," said Clark, who battled the flames throughout the night.
The charred skeletons of at least a half-dozen big rigs peeked out of the tunnel's south end. At least one truck was carrying produce, and a smoldering load of cabbages lay scattered across the pavement.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-truck-pileup,0,4436190.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
2 killed, 9 hurt when school bus hits SUV near Lake Geneva
The Associated Press
6:19 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. - Two Chicago-area residents were killed Friday night when their sport-utility vehicle was struck by a school bus just north of this southern Wisconsin city.
The bus, carrying 26 faculty and students from Lake Geneva's Badger High School soccer team, broadsided a 2000 Chevrolet Blazer around 6:30 p.m. Friday, according to Walworth County Sheriff David Graves. Nine students suffered minor injuries in the accident.
The Blazer was heading east on Krueger Road and failed to stop at a stop sign at Wisconsin Highway 120, Graves said. The bus hit the Blazer, sending the SUV into a tree about 500 feet away.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lake_geneva_bus_crash_14oct14,0,26797.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Former Duke Lacrosse Coach Sues School
By AARON BEARD Associated Press Writer
9:48 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The former Duke University men's lacrosse coach who resigned last year amid allegations that three of his players raped a stripper has sued the university.
Mike Pressler's lawsuit apparently stems from a financial settlement the school reached earlier this year with him, although school officials did not give details Friday. The players were later cleared of the charges.
The Herald-Sun of Durham reported Friday on its Web site that his lawsuit alleges the university broke the terms of the confidential settlement when university senior vice president John Burness made disparaging comments about him.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-ap-duke-lacrosse,0,3728834.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Bodyless feet found in street
Tribune staff report
6:22 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
Two human feet severed above the ankles were found Friday night in a south suburban Matteson intersection, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The feet, found about 9:30 p.m. at Keystone Avenue and Vollmer Road, had been recently cut, and appeared to be those of a white male, according to the medical examiner's office.
A shoe was found near the feet, though no clothing was found on them.
No other body parts were found, and no further information was available about the victim.
Cook County sheriff's police are investigating.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-feet_14oct14,0,5244001.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
County eyes $4 phone tax
Consumer, business groups oppose idea
By Jon Van Tribune staff reporter
October 13, 2007
A $4 monthly tax on every telephone line in Cook County, including mobile phone lines, is one proposal under consideration as county government struggles to close its budget gap.
County commissioners are looking at a variety of proposals to balance the budget, and opposition is stirring from consumer and business interests over the idea of a telephone tax, which was quietly raised in recent weeks.
No hearings have been held on the proposed new tax. Until now it has been "flying under the radar," said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board. "We understand this proposal is on the front burner and is very serious. It gives new meaning to the term 'pay phone.'"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat_phonetaxoct13,0,6081251.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
McCain: Romney not 'the only real Republican'
by Mark Silva
Now is the time when the front-runners learn what it means to be front-runners.
With Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the pack of Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama has turned his sights on her -- challenging her for her stance on the war.
With former Mayor Rudy Giuliani leading the pack of Republican candidates in national polling, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has turned his sights on him -- challenging Giuliani for his fiscal stewardship of New York City and his commitment to conservative principles such as attainment of the line-item veto for the president.
And with Romney leading his party's polling in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is taking aim today at Romney -- challenging Romney's self-claimed credentials as the most Republican of his party's pack.
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/mccain_romney_not_the_only_rea.html
Vatican Bars Cleric Who Spoke of Gay Sex
By FRANCES D'EMILIO Associated Press Writer
2:22 PM CDT, October 13, 2007
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said Saturday it has suspended a monsignor from a senior post at the Holy See after an Italian TV program using a hidden camera recorded him making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful.
The Vatican did not identify the monsignor by name. But Monsignor Tommaso Stenico confirmed in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that he had been suspended from his post at the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, an office which aims to ensure proper conduct by priests.
"Don't condemn me," Stenico said, adding that the program "was done fraudulently" because it used a hidden camera.
In the program on private Italian network La7, a man identified as a priest is heard saying that he "didn't feel he was sinning" by having sex with gay men.
Rome daily La Repubblica reported Saturday that Vatican officials recognized the monsignor's office in the background of the program, which aired Oct. 1.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-vatican-gay-monsignor,0,7423345.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Bush pushes free trade, Democrats a veto override
by Mark Silva
Now comes the test.
Forget all the arguments about the "federalization'' of health care, or children versus the president of the United States. Can Congress override the president's veto of an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program? The veto override attempt is set for Thursday.
The Democrats have the votes in the Senate to override Bush, they believe. The House is another question -- perhaps 15 Republican votes short of an override. Those Republicans and more have been pummelled with ads and phone calls to constituents in their home districts over the past few weeks, and now the question is, will the president's veto hold?
But today, the president and Democratic leaders of Congress are talking past one another.
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/bush_pushes_free_trade_democra.html
Food inspectors overwhelmed by workload
By Stephen J. Hedges Washington Bureau
9:24 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
WASHINGTON — As alarm bells sounded for the second-largest hamburger recall in history, the nation's top food safety officials were in Miami setting the "course for the next 100 years of food safety."
The fact that so many U.S. Department of Agriculture executives were in Florida studying the future when New Jersey-based Topps Meat Co. was scrambling, very much in the present, to recall 21.7 million pounds of hamburger patties — a full year's production run—has rankled some USDA inspectors and food safety advocates, who see it as a symbol of the department's attitude toward food safety enforcement.
Several USDA inspectors said in interviews that their workloads are doubling or tripling as they take on the duties of inspectors who have left the department, not to be replaced. The force has been reduced dramatically in recent years as vacancies are left unfilled.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-meat_bdoct14,1,7931300.story?ctrack=8&cset=true
Wearing virtue on our lapels
Kathleen Parker
October 10, 2007
WASHINGTON
The much ado about Barack Obama's decision not to wear an American flag lapel pin was, well, symbolic.
To follow the debate that followed the headline that followed the non-story about a dated decision is to witness where acute partisanship has led us. From the hue and cry on the right, you'd have thought Obama had flushed a Bible down the toilet.
What Obama did might have escaped anyone's notice but for what he said when a reporter in Iowa recently asked him about the pin. In the Age of Public Virtue, it is apparently essential that citizens flaunt their patriotism; crucial if they're running for public office.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped1010parkeroct10,1,6038831.column
continued...
So all these jokers have 'the truth' to deal with rather than poorly prepared court cases and outrageous claims because they have a PhD behind their over rated and over used name. One of the most ludicrous statement I have heard by the nay sayers to Al Gore's mission, was made by Dr. Gray, a supposed expert on Climate Change. In his report to the US Senate he stated the collapse of the Larsen B Ice Sheet can be correlated to a solar flair.
Hello?
A solar flare?
Larsen B Ice Sheet didn't collapse because of a solar flare. It's the most stupid statement I ever heard in my life. While there ???? maybe ???? a 'real time' correlation, the Larsen B Ice Sheet did not succumb to a huge solar flair. If that were the case the entire planet Earth would be burned to a crisp. Larsen B is well documented in it's degradation over time and there was no surprise when the collapse happened. Gray and those like him are simply involved with money of one form or another and won't accept pier review that negates their claims. Darn shame really.
Al Gore's claims are solid. One 'truth' that has recently been recorded on this blog is the fact New Zealand is profoundly concerned regarding it's national security due to influx of Pacific Islanders facing sea level rise. We already know it is occuring and the statement in the UK court room that sea level rise would take millenium is simply stupid rhetoric while the evidence to the melting of every ice formation on Earth is occurring at an unpredicted and alarming rate !
The Chicago Tribune
No peace of mind with prize
Experts welcome Nobel, press for action on climate
By Laurie Goering Tribune foreign correspondent
9:50 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
NEW DELHI — Over the last year, views on climate change seem to have transformed faster than the weather itself.
In almost impossibly rapid fashion, a once widely disputed theory has become nearly a mainstream worry. There are waiting lists to buy hybrid cars.
In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, the prize committee gave much of the credit for that shift to this year's winners: the scientists of the UN-sponsored Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, who laid out the scientific basis for concern in a series of reports this year, and former Vice President Al Gore, who popularized the concerns in his award-winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth."
But Friday's decision by the Oslo-based Nobel committee also suggests climate change is poised to become an even more crucial issue: a matter of war and peace.
As the scientific reports released this year suggest, climate change has the potential to displace millions as major coastal cities flood, reduce food production and supplies of drinking water in some of the world's poorest nations, and lead to surges in refugees and conflicts over dwindling resources.
"Climate change has the potential to disrupt stability and peace all over the world," said Rajendra Pachauri, the chairman of the UN climate panel. The prize "elevates this particular problem to a level where it is telling the rest of the world we have to ensure we tackle climate change or it could disrupt peace in several parts of the globe."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-climate_bdoct14,1,1972211.story
Giuliani: 'Should have known' about chief's problems
Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik greet supporters during the 2002 Saint Patrick's Day Parade. Giuliani's recommendation of Kerik for secretary of homeland security backfired. Giuliani now maintains Kerik, facing possible bribery and obstruction of justice charges, was an excellent commissioner. Newsday photo.
by Tom Brune
CHARLESTON, S.C. - Rudy Giuliani on Friday offered his strongest defense yet of Bernard Kerik, his former close associate and top New York City cop now targeted in a federal criminal probe, calling him an "excellent police commissioner" and praising him for being courageous on Sept. 11, 2001.
Kerik is facing possible bribery and obstruction of justice charges as soon as next month. Giuliani rejected the idea those charges would harm his campaign and said on balance Kerik had done a good job.
Responding to questions at a news conference, Giuliani applied the same test to Kerik -- whose problems he apologized for not catching earlier -- that he applies to his own difficult family life: Do a public official's personal troubles affect his performance on the job?
"I mean the reality is, if we just look at Bernard Kerik's service as police commissioner, he was an excellent police commissioner," Giuliani said at a campaign stop in this key early primary state.
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/giuliani_should_have_known_abo.html
Thompson: 'Was never really willing to pay price'
by Andrew Malcolm
When a candidate shows a maniacal drive to become president, spanning too many years of boring Lincoln or Jefferson Day dinners, demeaning pleas for money from rich people, darkened motels in distant cities, long nights of conspiratorial strategy meetings over stained boxes of cold pizza and lonely airplane flights across this vast land, plus compiling many millions of dollars, the American media tends to question such drive.
On the other hand, when a candidate shows a curious indifference, thinks longer than others about launching a campaign, moves and talks slowly and doesn't act like they've just finished their sixth cup of coffee in an hour, the American media tends to question such drive. Or lack of it.
The Los Angeles Times' Joe Mathews has come upon an old quote from a 2003 interview in the Nashville Bar Journal about running for the presidency. "I was never really willing to pay the price that I knew had to be paid," said the newly-retired politician. "I would really have to strain hard to come up with something I wanted to say ten times a day for the next year of my life when I knew that talking about the really important stuff would not get me anywhere. You have to have a great desire to be President, and I never had the desire to do that."
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/thompson_was_never_really_will.html
Ex-General: 'No End in Sight' in Iraq
By STEVEN KOMAROW Associated Press Writer
3:59 PM CDT, October 13, 2007
ARLINGTON, Va. - The U.S. mission in Iraq is a "nightmare with no end in sight" because of political misjudgments after the fall of Saddam Hussein that continue today, a former chief of U.S.-led forces said Friday.
Retired Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, who commanded coalition troops for a year beginning June 2003, cast a wide net of blame for both political and military shortcomings in Iraq that helped open the way for the insurgency -- such as disbanding the Saddam-era military and failing to cement ties with tribal leaders and quickly establish civilian government after Saddam was toppled.
He called current strategies -- including the deployment of 30,000 additional forces earlier this year -- a "desperate attempt" to make up for years of misguided policies in Iraq.
"There is no question that America is living a nightmare with no end in sight," Sanchez told a group of journalists covering military affairs.
Sanchez avoided singling out at any specific official. But he did criticize the State Department, the National Security Council, Congress and the senior military leadership during what appeared to be a broad indictment of White House policies and a lack of leadership to oppose them.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-sanchez-iraq,0,2409144.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
5 Trucks Burn in Calif. Freeway Tunnel
By NOAKI SCHWARTZ Associated Press Writer
3:54 PM CDT, October 13, 2007
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - A 15-truck pile-up on a rain-slicked Southern California freeway left 10 people injured and at least one missing, sent flames shooting out of a tunnel and blocked a key link between Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Fire Inspector Jason Hurd said the accident -- the wreckage stretching a half mile -- began when two trucks collided late Friday and started a chain reaction in Interstate 5's southbound truck-only tunnels.
At one point flames shot out of the tunnel and 100 feet into the night sky, said Los Angeles County firefighter Scott Clark, one of some 300 firefighters battling the blaze at its height.
"It looked like a bomb went off," said Clark, who battled the flames throughout the night.
The charred skeletons of at least a half-dozen big rigs peeked out of the tunnel's south end. At least one truck was carrying produce, and a smoldering load of cabbages lay scattered across the pavement.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-truck-pileup,0,4436190.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
2 killed, 9 hurt when school bus hits SUV near Lake Geneva
The Associated Press
6:19 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
LAKE GENEVA, Wis. - Two Chicago-area residents were killed Friday night when their sport-utility vehicle was struck by a school bus just north of this southern Wisconsin city.
The bus, carrying 26 faculty and students from Lake Geneva's Badger High School soccer team, broadsided a 2000 Chevrolet Blazer around 6:30 p.m. Friday, according to Walworth County Sheriff David Graves. Nine students suffered minor injuries in the accident.
The Blazer was heading east on Krueger Road and failed to stop at a stop sign at Wisconsin Highway 120, Graves said. The bus hit the Blazer, sending the SUV into a tree about 500 feet away.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-lake_geneva_bus_crash_14oct14,0,26797.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Former Duke Lacrosse Coach Sues School
By AARON BEARD Associated Press Writer
9:48 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - The former Duke University men's lacrosse coach who resigned last year amid allegations that three of his players raped a stripper has sued the university.
Mike Pressler's lawsuit apparently stems from a financial settlement the school reached earlier this year with him, although school officials did not give details Friday. The players were later cleared of the charges.
The Herald-Sun of Durham reported Friday on its Web site that his lawsuit alleges the university broke the terms of the confidential settlement when university senior vice president John Burness made disparaging comments about him.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-ap-duke-lacrosse,0,3728834.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Bodyless feet found in street
Tribune staff report
6:22 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
Two human feet severed above the ankles were found Friday night in a south suburban Matteson intersection, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
The feet, found about 9:30 p.m. at Keystone Avenue and Vollmer Road, had been recently cut, and appeared to be those of a white male, according to the medical examiner's office.
A shoe was found near the feet, though no clothing was found on them.
No other body parts were found, and no further information was available about the victim.
Cook County sheriff's police are investigating.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-feet_14oct14,0,5244001.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
County eyes $4 phone tax
Consumer, business groups oppose idea
By Jon Van Tribune staff reporter
October 13, 2007
A $4 monthly tax on every telephone line in Cook County, including mobile phone lines, is one proposal under consideration as county government struggles to close its budget gap.
County commissioners are looking at a variety of proposals to balance the budget, and opposition is stirring from consumer and business interests over the idea of a telephone tax, which was quietly raised in recent weeks.
No hearings have been held on the proposed new tax. Until now it has been "flying under the radar," said David Kolata, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board. "We understand this proposal is on the front burner and is very serious. It gives new meaning to the term 'pay phone.'"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-sat_phonetaxoct13,0,6081251.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
McCain: Romney not 'the only real Republican'
by Mark Silva
Now is the time when the front-runners learn what it means to be front-runners.
With Sen. Hillary Clinton leading the pack of Democratic presidential candidates, Sen. Barack Obama has turned his sights on her -- challenging her for her stance on the war.
With former Mayor Rudy Giuliani leading the pack of Republican candidates in national polling, Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has turned his sights on him -- challenging Giuliani for his fiscal stewardship of New York City and his commitment to conservative principles such as attainment of the line-item veto for the president.
And with Romney leading his party's polling in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sen. John McCain of Arizona is taking aim today at Romney -- challenging Romney's self-claimed credentials as the most Republican of his party's pack.
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/mccain_romney_not_the_only_rea.html
Vatican Bars Cleric Who Spoke of Gay Sex
By FRANCES D'EMILIO Associated Press Writer
2:22 PM CDT, October 13, 2007
VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said Saturday it has suspended a monsignor from a senior post at the Holy See after an Italian TV program using a hidden camera recorded him making advances to a young man and asserting that gay sex was not sinful.
The Vatican did not identify the monsignor by name. But Monsignor Tommaso Stenico confirmed in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that he had been suspended from his post at the Vatican's Congregation for Clergy, an office which aims to ensure proper conduct by priests.
"Don't condemn me," Stenico said, adding that the program "was done fraudulently" because it used a hidden camera.
In the program on private Italian network La7, a man identified as a priest is heard saying that he "didn't feel he was sinning" by having sex with gay men.
Rome daily La Repubblica reported Saturday that Vatican officials recognized the monsignor's office in the background of the program, which aired Oct. 1.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-vatican-gay-monsignor,0,7423345.story?coll=chi_tab01_layout
Bush pushes free trade, Democrats a veto override
by Mark Silva
Now comes the test.
Forget all the arguments about the "federalization'' of health care, or children versus the president of the United States. Can Congress override the president's veto of an expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program? The veto override attempt is set for Thursday.
The Democrats have the votes in the Senate to override Bush, they believe. The House is another question -- perhaps 15 Republican votes short of an override. Those Republicans and more have been pummelled with ads and phone calls to constituents in their home districts over the past few weeks, and now the question is, will the president's veto hold?
But today, the president and Democratic leaders of Congress are talking past one another.
http://weblogs.chicagotribune.com/news/politics/blog/2007/10/bush_pushes_free_trade_democra.html
Food inspectors overwhelmed by workload
By Stephen J. Hedges Washington Bureau
9:24 AM CDT, October 13, 2007
WASHINGTON — As alarm bells sounded for the second-largest hamburger recall in history, the nation's top food safety officials were in Miami setting the "course for the next 100 years of food safety."
The fact that so many U.S. Department of Agriculture executives were in Florida studying the future when New Jersey-based Topps Meat Co. was scrambling, very much in the present, to recall 21.7 million pounds of hamburger patties — a full year's production run—has rankled some USDA inspectors and food safety advocates, who see it as a symbol of the department's attitude toward food safety enforcement.
Several USDA inspectors said in interviews that their workloads are doubling or tripling as they take on the duties of inspectors who have left the department, not to be replaced. The force has been reduced dramatically in recent years as vacancies are left unfilled.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-meat_bdoct14,1,7931300.story?ctrack=8&cset=true
Wearing virtue on our lapels
Kathleen Parker
October 10, 2007
WASHINGTON
The much ado about Barack Obama's decision not to wear an American flag lapel pin was, well, symbolic.
To follow the debate that followed the headline that followed the non-story about a dated decision is to witness where acute partisanship has led us. From the hue and cry on the right, you'd have thought Obama had flushed a Bible down the toilet.
What Obama did might have escaped anyone's notice but for what he said when a reporter in Iowa recently asked him about the pin. In the Age of Public Virtue, it is apparently essential that citizens flaunt their patriotism; crucial if they're running for public office.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-oped1010parkeroct10,1,6038831.column
continued...
Desktop naval gazers know a sub when they see one
Ship ahoy ... the two Chinese Jin Class submarines docked at the Bohai shipyard at Huludao, 400 km east of Beijing. Insets: The first Jin class sub; an Ohio-class US sub in transit and another Ohio class ballistic missile submarine in dry dock in Bangor, Washington state.Photo: Google Earth
Stephen Hutcheon
October 12, 2007 - 2:01PM
Updated satellite imagery on Google Earth has revealed new evidence of China's nuclear submarine capability.
The discovery of what appears to be a second and possibly a third Jin class nuclear-powered submarine at a naval shipyard in north-eastern China has set armchair admirals' tongues wagging.
The find - the latest in a series of submersibles to surface on Google Earth and other online mapping services - was the work of Hans Kristensen, an analyst and blogger for the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
Kristensen is the same man who discovered the first publicly available pictures of the secret Jin class Chinese submarine on Google Earth in July.
(The FAS is a non-profit organisation comprising scientists who believe they have an ethical obligation to share their knowledge with the public and influence government policy.)
"The significance of this lies in the fact that China has never before had an operational sea-based deterrent," said Sam Roggeveen, the blog editor at the Lowy Institute think tank and a former senior analyst at the Office of National Assessment.
The two submarines popped up on Google Earth after the the most recent imagery update. The photo was taken by a commercial satellite on May 3, 2007, according to Kristensen.
Before that update, images of the Bohai shipyard at Huludao - about 400km east of Beijing - showed an empty dock surrounded by ice floe.
Kristensen writes that it is unclear whether both of the subs in the updated image are new or whether one is the earlier vessel he revealed in July.
"The rapid launch of two or three Jin class [submarines] indicate that the Chinese navy feels confident it has overcome at least some of the technical problems that curtailed the Xia [an earlier model]," he writes.
According to published US intelligence reports, China is believed to be building five of these new submarines that have a capacity to launch ballistic nuclear missiles with a range of more than 8000km.
When operational, the subs would for the first time give China a seaborne nuclear deterrent and place Hawaii and Alaska in range from anything fired from within Chinese territorial waters.
Updated satellite imagery on Google Earth has revealed new evidence of China's nuclear submarine capability.
The discovery of what appears to be a second and possibly a third Jin class nuclear-powered submarine at a naval shipyard in north-eastern China has set armchair admirals' tongues wagging.
The find - the latest in a series of submersibles to surface on Google Earth and other online mapping services - was the work of Hans Kristensen, an analyst and blogger for the Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
Kristensen is the same man who discovered the first publicly available pictures of the secret Jin class Chinese submarine on Google Earth in July.
(The FAS is a non-profit organisation comprising scientists who believe they have an ethical obligation to share their knowledge with the public and influence government policy.)
"The significance of this lies in the fact that China has never before had an operational sea-based deterrent," said Sam Roggeveen, the blog editor at the Lowy Institute think tank and a former senior analyst at the Office of National Assessment.
The two submarines popped up on Google Earth after the the most recent imagery update. The photo was taken by a commercial satellite on May 3, 2007, according to Kristensen.
Before that update, images of the Bohai shipyard at Huludao - about 400km east of Beijing - showed an empty dock surrounded by ice floe.
Kristensen writes that it is unclear whether both of the subs in the updated image are new or whether one is the earlier vessel he revealed in July.
"The rapid launch of two or three Jin class [submarines] indicate that the Chinese navy feels confident it has overcome at least some of the technical problems that curtailed the Xia [an earlier model]," he writes.
According to published US intelligence reports, China is believed to be building five of these new submarines that have a capacity to launch ballistic nuclear missiles with a range of more than 8000km.
When operational, the subs would for the first time give China a seaborne nuclear deterrent and place Hawaii and Alaska in range from anything fired from within Chinese territorial waters.
"It's the standard belief that you need at least four [nuclear-armed]submarines in order to have one operational at any time - that's what the French and British do," said the Lowy Institute's Roggeveen.
The new images of the Chinese subs are the latest in a recent string of submarine sightings on free online mapping services.
Last month, Dan Twohig - who works as a deck officer on a ferry service - stumbled across an aerial image of a US nuclear-powered submarine in dry dock showing its secret seven-bladed propeller.
Twohig was looking for a new home on Microsoft's Virtual Earth mapping service - which is similar to Google Earth - when he spotted the Ohio class submarine in dry dock at the Naval Base Kitsap-Bangor in Washington state.
The latest Google Earth imagery update has also revealed another Ohio class nuclear sub - this one travelling through the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the waterway that separates the US and Canada on the west coast of the North American continent.
Morning Papers - continued...
New Zealand Herald
Wild storms hit Queensland's Gold Coast
12:30PM Saturday October 13, 2007
BRISBANE - A pergola flew through the air then landed on a neighbour's roof during wild storms on the Gold Coast overnight, authorities said.
An Emergency Management Queensland spokesman said overnight storms had knocked out a number of trees in the Hervey Bay region and also the central Queensland regions around Rockhampton and Mt Morgan.
However, the spokesman said it was the Gold Coast which was hardest hit.
"We had trees on roofs, lots of significant roof damage and water damage," the spokesman said.
"A pergola landed on a neighbour's roof at Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast. "
He said 34 houses had been affected in the Gold Coast and Hervey Bay areas, which also experienced traffic problems from fallen trees.
Winds of up to 100km/h were reported from Hervey Bay airport about 5.30pm (AEST) yesterday.
An Energex spokesman said almost 2500 homes and businesses were without power last night.
The spokesman said more than 160,000 homes and businesses in south-east Queensland had lost power at some stage for an average of two hours during six days of wild weather.
Meanwhile, the cleanup continues in Mitchell in south-west Queensland where a wild storm hit about 11pm on Thursday, ripping roofs from buildings and causing extensive damage.
Two homes and an industrial shed were unroofed and six more homes partially lost their roofs wile a a further 13 buildings were damaged.
Local State Emergency Service controller Alan Lemon said the powerful storm was like a "mini tornado" ripping through the town.
There is relief in sight, however, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting a fine weekend in Queensland.
- AAP
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469690
Debris whirls into air as mini-tornado hits
2:03PM Wednesday October 10, 2007
By Mike Barrington
A mini-tornado caught Dargaville by surprise yesterday, ripping the roof off a flat and wrecking neighbouring yards before whirling on its way as abruptly as it had arrived.
Retired farmer Ray Stallworthy said the tornado struck about 1.30pm with a thunderous noise he had thought could be train crash at the railway station across the road from his home at 1/31 Station Rd.
Sozia Haroon, who had moved into 6/31 Station Rd three weeks ago, was sitting in her lounge when there was a "huge bang" and a howling wind ripped roofing iron off her garage and a neighbour's flat.
She saw sheets of iron blown high in the air. Some of them were found about 150m away near the railway station.
"I was frightened. I couldn't close the window," she said.
The wind wrenched plywood panels off her fence, wrecked a neighbour's gates, blew off the garage doors next door and scattered pot plants and garden furniture at the block of flats and the homes around it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10469029
New warning systems for landslide-formed lake
6:40PM Monday October 08, 2007
New warning systems are in place to alert Department of Conservation workers to a breach in the new dam. Photo / DOC
Warning devices to alert authorities to any major breach in the new dam in Mount Aspiring National Park will be replaced tomorrow by better systems, officials said tonight.
One will build a 3D image of the dam and show changes.
An enormous recent landslide blocked the Young River north branch and created the dam.
Behind the dam a 2.5km-long lake formed, about 500m at its widest point and 100m deep just behind the face of the rubble dam.
Rising water flowed over the top of the dam late last week and on down the river, joining the Makarora River further down stream.
Officials said the lake and dam situation had changed little in the past 24 hours.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10468655
President misquoted over gays in Iran, says aide
8:50AM Thursday October 11, 2007
TEHRAN - Iran's president was misrepresented by Western media when he was quoted saying there were no gays in Iran, and actually meant there were not so many as in the United States, a presidential aide said on Wednesday.
Addressing New York's Columbia University last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replied to a question about gays in the Islamic Republic saying: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."
Speaking through a translator, he also said: "In Iran we don't have this phenomenon."
The remarks drew widespread criticism in the West.
Homosexuality is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic.
"What Ahmadinejad said was not a political answer. He said that, compared to American society, we don't have many homosexuals," presidential media adviser Mohammad Kalhor said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10469222
Blackwater subject of war crimes inquiry
5:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets fired by its security guards in Baghdad.
The killings last month put the spotlight on the private security firms whose employees are immune from prosecution, unlike professional soldiers who are subject to courts martial.
In the second such incident in less than a month, involving the Australian contractor Unity Resources Group this week, two Armenian Christian women were shot dead after their car approached a protected convoy. Their car was riddled with 40 bullets.
Ivana Vuco, the most senior United Nations human rights officer in Iraq, spoke yesterday about the shootings by private security guards, which have provoked outrage among Iraqis.
"For us, it's a human rights issue," she said. "We will monitor the allegations of killings by security contractors and look into whether or not crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469592
Bombs kill 14 in Iraqi town
6:50PM Tuesday October 09, 2007
BAGHDAD - Two car bombs killed 14 people and wounded 30 in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji today, police said, marking an increase in attacks as the holy Muslim month of Ramadan draws to an end.
Al Qaeda in Iraq had vowed to ramp up attacks during the fasting month, specifically to target government officials and tribal leaders who have decided to work with US forces to fight the Sunni Islamist group.
Baiji's police chief, Colonel Saad Nifous, was wounded in an attack on his home that killed four of his bodyguards and wounded another seven, police said.
The second bomb in Baiji, 180km north of the capital, targeted a mosque, killing 10 civilians and wounding 22 people. A police source in the town said a tribal leader who was working with US troops to combat al Qaeda was the target.
Car and roadside bombs on Monday killed at least 21 people across Iraq.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10468861
Pacific needs NZ voice
Page 1 of 3 View as a single page 5:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
By Audrey Young
At the exact time we discover next week whether or not New Zealand author Lloyd Jones has won the Man Booker prize for Mr Pip (8am Wednesday), the leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum, including Helen Clark, will be on the island of Vava'u in Tonga for a private retreat.
The two events are not entirely unrelated.
Jones' book is set in bleak Bougainville, where rebellion against Papua New Guinea led to 10 years of civil war.
The war ended when New Zealand brokered peace talks in 1996, an autonomous Bougainville Government and a referendum on political independence, to be held sometime between 2011 and 2016.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469607
Teen arrested in armed plot for Colombine-like attack
6:25PM Friday October 12, 2007
By Jon Hurdle
PENNSYLVANIA - A 14-year-old boy armed with a rifle, homemade grenades, dozens of pellet guns, knives and swords was arrested after confessing to plotting a "Columbine-like attack" on a high school, police said yesterday.
The unidentified boy told police he was a planning an attack on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School similar to the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in which two students killed 13 people, said Joe Lawrence, deputy chief of police in Plymouth Meeting.
Acting on a tip from neighbours, police arrested the boy at his home north of Philadelphia on Wednesday night.
They found one Hi-Tech 9mm rifle with a laser sight, about 80 pellet guns, and seven homemade hand grenades, four of which were live and three of which were still being made, Lawrence said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469578
UN tells Myanmar junta it 'deplores' recent violence
12:30PM Friday October 12, 2007
LONDON - The UN Security Council has condemned the crackdown against peaceful demonstrators in Burma, calling for a release of "all political prisoners" and a dialogue between the junta and the symbol of democracy in the country, Aung San Suu Kyi.
But the price of securing the agreement of China and Russia to take the first Security Council action regarding Burma meant that Western countries in the 15-member council agreed to water down a draft statement that had originally demanded a transition to democracy in the country.
The formal statement required a consensus among all 15 members in order to be adopted.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469474
Collapse hit New Zealand hardest
5:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
By Christine Nikiel
Craig Heatley (left), and Allan Hawkins after Rainbow Corporation lists on the Stock Exchange.
For thousands of New Zealanders, next week will mark the anniversary of their loss of faith in the sharemarket.
Twenty years ago this month world sharemarkets began plunging into what became the worst financial crisis the investing public had seen since 1929.
On October 19 Wall St markets began their dramatic plunge. The panic spread to New Zealand the following day - October 20, now dubbed Black Tuesday. Nowhere did the crash hit harder than New Zealand.
By late 1988 business commentators in Australia, the US and UK were describing the crash as a "correction" - their markets had recovered.
But in 1991 New Zealand's bourse was worth just $14 billion, down from $45.5 billion before the crash.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10469625
Kiwibank puts fixed interest rates up
5:00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
KiwiBank, which cut its three-year fixed interest rates last month, is tomorrow hiking its rates.
It is raising its three-year fixed term from 8.6 per cent to 8.7 per cent. Its four and five-year terms will rise from 8.65 per cent to 8.75 per cent.
ANZ and National Bank last week increased three-year fixed term rates from 8.75 per cent to 8.95 per cent.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469782
Kiwi women up for it in the bedroom
5:00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
By Julie Jacobson
Jo Cotton says she does not regret how many partners she has had. Photo / Janna Dixon
In a week when our manly heroes literally dropped the ball, it's been revealed that Kiwi women are world-beaters in the bedroom.
The news comes in a sex survey which has New Zealand women leading the international promiscuity stakes, with an average 20.4 sexual partners, 13.1 more than the average.
Kiwi blokes, on the other hand, were less busy bonkers, averaging 16.8, far fewer than the hot-to-trot Austrian men who boasted an impressive 29.3 sexual partners.
A word of warning, however. Youth health expert Dr Sue Bagshaw said promiscuity was a leading cause of STDs, particularly genital warts, a known precursor to cervical cancer. There were other health risks in having many partners, such as unwanted pregnancy and infertility.
The Kiwi drinking culture and New Zealand women's "we-can-do-anything-men-can-do" attitude contributed to the results, said Bagshaw.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469774
Aussie princess a 'palace prisoner'
5:00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
Frederik and Mary on a trip to Bucharest, Romania, this month. Photo / Reuters
Denmark's crown Prince Frederik should never have married Australian-born Princess Mary and instead stayed with a former flame, the author of a sensational new book on the Danish royal family says.
Veteran royal reporter turned author, Trine Villemann, says the fairytale marriage between Frederik and Mary has come under strain as both try to cope with pressures they face as royals and parents of two young children.
She believes Frederik is not confident in his role as crown prince, does not want to become king, and would have been better off had he married "the true love of his life", former model Katja Storkholm, when they got secretly engaged in 1995.
Villemann examines the royal marriage in her new book, Copenhagen 1015 K, which will be published in Denmark tomorrow.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469758
Gore says Nobel Prize affirms climate change importance
10:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
By Jim Christie
Former US Vice President Al Gore, announced today as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has stressed the urgency of his work on climate change and said he was getting straight back to work on the issue.
"We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing," Gore told reporters in Palo Alto, appearing in public nearly nine hours after the award was announced in Oslo.
Gore shared the Nobel prize with the UN climate panel for their work helping galvanise international action against global warming.
"It is the most dangerous challenge we've ever faced but it is also the greatest opportunity that we have ever had to make changes that we should be making for other reasons anyway," Gore said.
"This is a chance to elevate global consciousness about the challenges that we face now."
"I'm going back to work right now. This is just the beginning," Gore added, before leaving the room and taking no questions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469686
Angry Ankara pulls out envoy
5:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
Turkey recalled its ambassador to the US for consultations after a vote in a United States congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
The committee's decision is expected to weaken US influence over Turkey at a time when the Turkish Government is considering a military incursion into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels.
Turkey's Prime Minister will ask Parliament next week to authorise a military push although analysts say a large cross-border operation is unlikely.
Washington fears such an offensive could destabilise Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469602
Same-sex marriage pioneer gets thumbs up in Kapiti
5:00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
By Julie Jacobson
The Kapiti coast has what may be New Zealand's only lesbian mayor.
Jenny Rowan, 58, was up against strong contenders for the position left vacant by the retirement of Alan Milne, including former mayor Iride McCloy and regional councillor Chris Turver.
Openly lesbian, though determinedly not campaigning as such - "it's got nothing to do with me being mayor" - Rowan is no stranger to the cut and thrust of the political arena.
She and partner of 20 years, Jools Joslin, were poster girls for the same sex marriage movement in the mid-90s, sealing their relationship in a commitment ceremony in Wellington in 1996 after being refused a licence to marry legally.
Lately deputy chair of the Paekakariki Community Board, Rowan recently retired after 16 years as a commissioner in the Environment Court. She is a former Taranaki Regional Council member and was mayor of the Taranaki township of Inglewood between 1986 and 1989.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469778
continued...
Wild storms hit Queensland's Gold Coast
12:30PM Saturday October 13, 2007
BRISBANE - A pergola flew through the air then landed on a neighbour's roof during wild storms on the Gold Coast overnight, authorities said.
An Emergency Management Queensland spokesman said overnight storms had knocked out a number of trees in the Hervey Bay region and also the central Queensland regions around Rockhampton and Mt Morgan.
However, the spokesman said it was the Gold Coast which was hardest hit.
"We had trees on roofs, lots of significant roof damage and water damage," the spokesman said.
"A pergola landed on a neighbour's roof at Mudgeeraba on the Gold Coast. "
He said 34 houses had been affected in the Gold Coast and Hervey Bay areas, which also experienced traffic problems from fallen trees.
Winds of up to 100km/h were reported from Hervey Bay airport about 5.30pm (AEST) yesterday.
An Energex spokesman said almost 2500 homes and businesses were without power last night.
The spokesman said more than 160,000 homes and businesses in south-east Queensland had lost power at some stage for an average of two hours during six days of wild weather.
Meanwhile, the cleanup continues in Mitchell in south-west Queensland where a wild storm hit about 11pm on Thursday, ripping roofs from buildings and causing extensive damage.
Two homes and an industrial shed were unroofed and six more homes partially lost their roofs wile a a further 13 buildings were damaged.
Local State Emergency Service controller Alan Lemon said the powerful storm was like a "mini tornado" ripping through the town.
There is relief in sight, however, with the Bureau of Meteorology forecasting a fine weekend in Queensland.
- AAP
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469690
Debris whirls into air as mini-tornado hits
2:03PM Wednesday October 10, 2007
By Mike Barrington
A mini-tornado caught Dargaville by surprise yesterday, ripping the roof off a flat and wrecking neighbouring yards before whirling on its way as abruptly as it had arrived.
Retired farmer Ray Stallworthy said the tornado struck about 1.30pm with a thunderous noise he had thought could be train crash at the railway station across the road from his home at 1/31 Station Rd.
Sozia Haroon, who had moved into 6/31 Station Rd three weeks ago, was sitting in her lounge when there was a "huge bang" and a howling wind ripped roofing iron off her garage and a neighbour's flat.
She saw sheets of iron blown high in the air. Some of them were found about 150m away near the railway station.
"I was frightened. I couldn't close the window," she said.
The wind wrenched plywood panels off her fence, wrecked a neighbour's gates, blew off the garage doors next door and scattered pot plants and garden furniture at the block of flats and the homes around it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10469029
New warning systems for landslide-formed lake
6:40PM Monday October 08, 2007
New warning systems are in place to alert Department of Conservation workers to a breach in the new dam. Photo / DOC
Warning devices to alert authorities to any major breach in the new dam in Mount Aspiring National Park will be replaced tomorrow by better systems, officials said tonight.
One will build a 3D image of the dam and show changes.
An enormous recent landslide blocked the Young River north branch and created the dam.
Behind the dam a 2.5km-long lake formed, about 500m at its widest point and 100m deep just behind the face of the rubble dam.
Rising water flowed over the top of the dam late last week and on down the river, joining the Makarora River further down stream.
Officials said the lake and dam situation had changed little in the past 24 hours.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10468655
President misquoted over gays in Iran, says aide
8:50AM Thursday October 11, 2007
TEHRAN - Iran's president was misrepresented by Western media when he was quoted saying there were no gays in Iran, and actually meant there were not so many as in the United States, a presidential aide said on Wednesday.
Addressing New York's Columbia University last month, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad replied to a question about gays in the Islamic Republic saying: "In Iran we don't have homosexuals like in your country."
Speaking through a translator, he also said: "In Iran we don't have this phenomenon."
The remarks drew widespread criticism in the West.
Homosexuality is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic.
"What Ahmadinejad said was not a political answer. He said that, compared to American society, we don't have many homosexuals," presidential media adviser Mohammad Kalhor said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10469222
Blackwater subject of war crimes inquiry
5:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
The American firm Blackwater USA has been served notice that it faces investigations for war crimes after 17 unarmed Iraqi civilians were killed in a hail of bullets fired by its security guards in Baghdad.
The killings last month put the spotlight on the private security firms whose employees are immune from prosecution, unlike professional soldiers who are subject to courts martial.
In the second such incident in less than a month, involving the Australian contractor Unity Resources Group this week, two Armenian Christian women were shot dead after their car approached a protected convoy. Their car was riddled with 40 bullets.
Ivana Vuco, the most senior United Nations human rights officer in Iraq, spoke yesterday about the shootings by private security guards, which have provoked outrage among Iraqis.
"For us, it's a human rights issue," she said. "We will monitor the allegations of killings by security contractors and look into whether or not crimes against humanity and war crimes have been committed."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469592
Bombs kill 14 in Iraqi town
6:50PM Tuesday October 09, 2007
BAGHDAD - Two car bombs killed 14 people and wounded 30 in the northern Iraqi town of Baiji today, police said, marking an increase in attacks as the holy Muslim month of Ramadan draws to an end.
Al Qaeda in Iraq had vowed to ramp up attacks during the fasting month, specifically to target government officials and tribal leaders who have decided to work with US forces to fight the Sunni Islamist group.
Baiji's police chief, Colonel Saad Nifous, was wounded in an attack on his home that killed four of his bodyguards and wounded another seven, police said.
The second bomb in Baiji, 180km north of the capital, targeted a mosque, killing 10 civilians and wounding 22 people. A police source in the town said a tribal leader who was working with US troops to combat al Qaeda was the target.
Car and roadside bombs on Monday killed at least 21 people across Iraq.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10468861
Pacific needs NZ voice
Page 1 of 3 View as a single page 5:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
By Audrey Young
At the exact time we discover next week whether or not New Zealand author Lloyd Jones has won the Man Booker prize for Mr Pip (8am Wednesday), the leaders at the Pacific Islands Forum, including Helen Clark, will be on the island of Vava'u in Tonga for a private retreat.
The two events are not entirely unrelated.
Jones' book is set in bleak Bougainville, where rebellion against Papua New Guinea led to 10 years of civil war.
The war ended when New Zealand brokered peace talks in 1996, an autonomous Bougainville Government and a referendum on political independence, to be held sometime between 2011 and 2016.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469607
Teen arrested in armed plot for Colombine-like attack
6:25PM Friday October 12, 2007
By Jon Hurdle
PENNSYLVANIA - A 14-year-old boy armed with a rifle, homemade grenades, dozens of pellet guns, knives and swords was arrested after confessing to plotting a "Columbine-like attack" on a high school, police said yesterday.
The unidentified boy told police he was a planning an attack on Plymouth Whitemarsh High School similar to the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado in which two students killed 13 people, said Joe Lawrence, deputy chief of police in Plymouth Meeting.
Acting on a tip from neighbours, police arrested the boy at his home north of Philadelphia on Wednesday night.
They found one Hi-Tech 9mm rifle with a laser sight, about 80 pellet guns, and seven homemade hand grenades, four of which were live and three of which were still being made, Lawrence said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469578
UN tells Myanmar junta it 'deplores' recent violence
12:30PM Friday October 12, 2007
LONDON - The UN Security Council has condemned the crackdown against peaceful demonstrators in Burma, calling for a release of "all political prisoners" and a dialogue between the junta and the symbol of democracy in the country, Aung San Suu Kyi.
But the price of securing the agreement of China and Russia to take the first Security Council action regarding Burma meant that Western countries in the 15-member council agreed to water down a draft statement that had originally demanded a transition to democracy in the country.
The formal statement required a consensus among all 15 members in order to be adopted.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469474
Collapse hit New Zealand hardest
5:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
By Christine Nikiel
Craig Heatley (left), and Allan Hawkins after Rainbow Corporation lists on the Stock Exchange.
For thousands of New Zealanders, next week will mark the anniversary of their loss of faith in the sharemarket.
Twenty years ago this month world sharemarkets began plunging into what became the worst financial crisis the investing public had seen since 1929.
On October 19 Wall St markets began their dramatic plunge. The panic spread to New Zealand the following day - October 20, now dubbed Black Tuesday. Nowhere did the crash hit harder than New Zealand.
By late 1988 business commentators in Australia, the US and UK were describing the crash as a "correction" - their markets had recovered.
But in 1991 New Zealand's bourse was worth just $14 billion, down from $45.5 billion before the crash.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10469625
Kiwibank puts fixed interest rates up
5:00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
KiwiBank, which cut its three-year fixed interest rates last month, is tomorrow hiking its rates.
It is raising its three-year fixed term from 8.6 per cent to 8.7 per cent. Its four and five-year terms will rise from 8.65 per cent to 8.75 per cent.
ANZ and National Bank last week increased three-year fixed term rates from 8.75 per cent to 8.95 per cent.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469782
Kiwi women up for it in the bedroom
5:00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
By Julie Jacobson
Jo Cotton says she does not regret how many partners she has had. Photo / Janna Dixon
In a week when our manly heroes literally dropped the ball, it's been revealed that Kiwi women are world-beaters in the bedroom.
The news comes in a sex survey which has New Zealand women leading the international promiscuity stakes, with an average 20.4 sexual partners, 13.1 more than the average.
Kiwi blokes, on the other hand, were less busy bonkers, averaging 16.8, far fewer than the hot-to-trot Austrian men who boasted an impressive 29.3 sexual partners.
A word of warning, however. Youth health expert Dr Sue Bagshaw said promiscuity was a leading cause of STDs, particularly genital warts, a known precursor to cervical cancer. There were other health risks in having many partners, such as unwanted pregnancy and infertility.
The Kiwi drinking culture and New Zealand women's "we-can-do-anything-men-can-do" attitude contributed to the results, said Bagshaw.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469774
Aussie princess a 'palace prisoner'
5:00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
Frederik and Mary on a trip to Bucharest, Romania, this month. Photo / Reuters
Denmark's crown Prince Frederik should never have married Australian-born Princess Mary and instead stayed with a former flame, the author of a sensational new book on the Danish royal family says.
Veteran royal reporter turned author, Trine Villemann, says the fairytale marriage between Frederik and Mary has come under strain as both try to cope with pressures they face as royals and parents of two young children.
She believes Frederik is not confident in his role as crown prince, does not want to become king, and would have been better off had he married "the true love of his life", former model Katja Storkholm, when they got secretly engaged in 1995.
Villemann examines the royal marriage in her new book, Copenhagen 1015 K, which will be published in Denmark tomorrow.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469758
Gore says Nobel Prize affirms climate change importance
10:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
By Jim Christie
Former US Vice President Al Gore, announced today as winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, has stressed the urgency of his work on climate change and said he was getting straight back to work on the issue.
"We have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing," Gore told reporters in Palo Alto, appearing in public nearly nine hours after the award was announced in Oslo.
Gore shared the Nobel prize with the UN climate panel for their work helping galvanise international action against global warming.
"It is the most dangerous challenge we've ever faced but it is also the greatest opportunity that we have ever had to make changes that we should be making for other reasons anyway," Gore said.
"This is a chance to elevate global consciousness about the challenges that we face now."
"I'm going back to work right now. This is just the beginning," Gore added, before leaving the room and taking no questions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469686
Angry Ankara pulls out envoy
5:00AM Saturday October 13, 2007
Turkey recalled its ambassador to the US for consultations after a vote in a United States congressional committee branded killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks genocide.
The committee's decision is expected to weaken US influence over Turkey at a time when the Turkish Government is considering a military incursion into mainly Kurdish northern Iraq to fight Kurdish rebels.
Turkey's Prime Minister will ask Parliament next week to authorise a military push although analysts say a large cross-border operation is unlikely.
Washington fears such an offensive could destabilise Iraq's most peaceful area and potentially the wider region.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10469602
Same-sex marriage pioneer gets thumbs up in Kapiti
5:00AM Sunday October 14, 2007
By Julie Jacobson
The Kapiti coast has what may be New Zealand's only lesbian mayor.
Jenny Rowan, 58, was up against strong contenders for the position left vacant by the retirement of Alan Milne, including former mayor Iride McCloy and regional councillor Chris Turver.
Openly lesbian, though determinedly not campaigning as such - "it's got nothing to do with me being mayor" - Rowan is no stranger to the cut and thrust of the political arena.
She and partner of 20 years, Jools Joslin, were poster girls for the same sex marriage movement in the mid-90s, sealing their relationship in a commitment ceremony in Wellington in 1996 after being refused a licence to marry legally.
Lately deputy chair of the Paekakariki Community Board, Rowan recently retired after 16 years as a commissioner in the Environment Court. She is a former Taranaki Regional Council member and was mayor of the Taranaki township of Inglewood between 1986 and 1989.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469778
continued...
Fear of a dry planet
These are the storms of the year 2007. The storms were more frequent, but, the majority were weak, near shore. The two major storms only occurred when the solar radiation met with enough water vapor at the equator to support the turbulence that 'latent heat' of liquid water contains in potential.
There is 'gross' regionalization of the storms, there is 'profound lack' of highly turbulent storms in the Atlantic above 25 degrees north latitude. Twenty-five degrees north latitude is nearly at the equator and with the storms below that latitude we noted migration of water vapor from the tropics to support those storms. The hydrosphere of Earth is drying up. Quite the contrary to 'The Greenhouse Effect' predicted which would have shrouded Earth in water vapor and storms.
I know I am correct in all estimations regarding Human Induced Global Warming. This is an Earth Climate NEVER before experienced on this planet in any era of time before the past 100 years. Humans have done unique damage to Earth in a century what Earth itself couldn't do in millenium.
Currently there is "The Sixth Extinction" underway. It is the ONLY extinction on Earth caused by a living species. That species is 'the human/homo sapien.' The ONLY extinction ever caused by a living species. Does homo sapien actually believe it's going to survive extinction as all others die off? Why would anyone believe that?
These are the storms of the northern Atlantic in the year 2006. Far, far fewer, yet distributed thoughout the region. No clear boundary of water vapor abundance or drought. Yes, there can be droughts over oceans. Just because they are water doesn't mean they don't have storms. They do, ask any sailor how things are on the North Sea. Remember the movie, "The Perfect Storm?" That used to be typical of the North Sea.
These are the storms of the northern Atlantic in 2005. This was the year of Katrina, Rita and Wilma, all Cat 5 storms with lots and lots of rain.
Tornado sirens need to work. This is a night time storm. The reason these clouds are so visible is because of CONTINUOUS lightning.
October 13, 2007
Farley, Missouri
Photographer states :: Farley Lightning. What a fun night!It has been awhile since we had a light show.
Severe storms are not a surprise on a drought ridden planet. The troposphere becomes heavily ionic and when enough humidity gathers and the ions can travel between clouds and between the clouds and ground the neutral state is perferred. Therefore, continuous lightning will occur at 'the opportunity' of enough water vapor to facilitate the event.
October 13, 2007
UNYSIS Enhanced Infrared Satellite of Central Plains (click for unenhanced infrared 12 hour loop)
Kansas City is about the center of the state of Kansas. This is about the time the picture below was being taken.
October 13, 2007
Kansas City, Kansas
Photographer states :: We had some awesome storms early on saturday morning.I left at 11:00pm on friday and got back at 4:45am !! There is lightning in all directions as I'm writing this.I am waiting for my batteries to charge!
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