December 17, 2005.
-3 degrees below Fahrenheit at this farm in Spokane, Washington.
"... not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse."
Friday, December 09, 2005
December 8, 2005.
Holt, Michigan.
It was -4 below zero Fahrenheit.
This is 'melting salt' that is supposed to provide ice freeze pavement within a reasonable period of time. The edge of the ice can be noted in the lower right corner. The only spots that melted according to the photographer was right under the salt particles.
These are dangerous conditions in everyway. Equip yourself for these types of temperatures. Blankets in cars, flashlights and batteries as well as a snack box with water or a favorite drink.
Morning Papers - continued ...
The Gazette
The weather in Montreal (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Snow
Temperature
-6°C
Wind Chill
-12°C
Wind
15 km/h E
Relative Humidity
93%
Barometric Pressure
101.3 kPa
Dewpoint
-7°C
I didn't know USA policy was so delicate! When the biggest CO2 polluter on Earth goes to a climate conference it needs to be with specific and helpful polices not delicate feelings offended by 'brush burns.' Don't tell me the USA delegates are pouting by criticism. Get over it and feel lucky that is all that was said. Where it like a badge. Entertain that thought !
Martin's comments at climate conference triggers debate
Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
MONTREAL -- With one day of talks to go at the UN climate conference, desperate efforts to draw the United States into the global effort to curb greenhouse emissions appear to have hit a brick wall, and Prime Minister Paul Martin is being blamed.
An official with close contacts in the U.S. delegation said any hopes of drawing Washington into the process were killed when Martin pointed a finger of blame at the United States in a news briefing at the conference.
"That was a big mistake," said the delegate, speaking on condition of anonymity Thursday. He said the U.S. delegation, which is directed from Washington by Vice-President Dick Cheney, was deeply angered by Martin's comments.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=6d80625b-062a-43da-b702-ba5fee9b3d4e&k=4466
Martin to head back to Montreal for Clinton meeting on climate change
Alexander Panetta, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
WINDSOR, Ont. (CP) - Paul Martin will make an impromptu trip back to Montreal on Friday to bask in the political glow of a fellow liberal - former U.S. president Bill Clinton, The Canadian Press has learned.
The prime minister has squeezed an additional campaign stop into his itinerary for a meeting with the popular two-term president, who still draws a large crowd whenever he visits Canada. For Martin - who has built part of his election campaign around his political differences with U.S. President George W. Bush - the encounter with Clinton presents a golden opportunity.
Clinton has been invited to the city by the Sierra Club to address a meeting of municipal leaders on the issue of climate change.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=d0ada315-edf5-49b0-ac2e-2acb56bd718c&k=17986
Youth stage bed-in at UN climate conference in memory of John Lennon
John Lennon arrives at The Hit Factory recording studio in New York, in this Aug. 22, 1980, file photo.
Peter Rakobowchuk, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
MONTREAL (CP) - It was reminiscent of the famous bed-in for peace that John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged in a Montreal hotel room in 1969, but this time it was for the earth's climate.
A small group of young environmentalists at the United Nations conference on climate change held a bed-in on Thursday to draw attention to their concerns. They staged event on the same day as the 25th anniversary of the shooting death of the former Beatle.
In May of 1969, Lennon and Ono recorded the song, Give Peace A Chance, in their Montreal hotel room.
Taking a line from that song, the environmentalists sang: Give The Climate A Chance.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=0c9a7b92-068b-40c7-b060-3f37103f0bf4&k=89425
Spending on health to hit all-time high in 2005, hitting 10.4 per cent of GDP
Helen Branswell, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - Health spending in Canada is expected to hit $142 billion this year, bringing expenditures in this sector to 10.4 per cent of GDP, an all time high, the Canadian Institute for Health Information reported Wednesday.
An 11-per-cent jump in spending on prescription and non-prescribed medications fuelled the rise - prompting the head of an independent health watchdog organization to predict governments will be moved to address the issue of rising drug consumption and costs.
Michael Decter, chair of the Health Council of Canada, said the significant and ongoing increase in spending on medications is outstripping the increases in costs for other parts of the health sector, including the running of hospitals and paying of physicians.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=7db13501-452c-45d5-b30a-7126a5594ee5&k=24739
Martin vows to fight gun violence; poll gives Liberals 12-point lead
NDP Leader Jack Layton smiles as supporters and NDP candidate Alexa McDonough applaud his speech. (CP PHOTO/Chuck Stoody)
Martin O?Hanlon, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) - Paul Martin, his sights set squarely on urban voters, is promising to get tough on big-city gun violence with a triple-barrelled blast that would ban handguns and crack down on criminals who use them.
After more than a week of reacting to Conservative campaign promises, the prime minister beat the Tories to the law-order punch Thursday.
He told supporters in a crime-plagued Toronto neighbourhood that a Liberal government would toughen weapons penalties, pump another $325 million into policing, and ban handguns, which are already severely restricted.
Martin is hoping to solidify support in cities where the Liberals hold a big lead over the Conservatives.
A new poll suggests the Liberals have increased that lead to 12 percentage points despite a string of big-ticket Tory pledges.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=759e995e-186f-44f1-8b8a-ff62fc44ab7f&k=52696
Striking workers demonstrate outside casino
Published: December 8, 2005
MONTREAL -- Thousands of striking public sector workers demonstrated outside the Montreal Casino on Thursday morning blocking access to building.
The demonstration was part of a series of strike days planned by public sector unions.
Union president, Monique Pauzé, said the casino was the perfect place to protest.
Pauzé wants the government to invest more in education instead of announcing investments and improvements to the casino.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=ffbd848d-dd6f-40f8-87bf-f3999adbb66d&k=2303
Martin gun proposal adds drama to election, but some question its usefulness
Jim Brown, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin's proposal to ban handgun ownership in Canada is bound to inject some drama into the federal election campaign by putting the hot-button issue of gun control front and centre.
But would it achieve its stated aim of making the streets of the country's major urban centres safer? The available data leave room for doubt - not only about the effectiveness of a ban, but also about whether the country is really facing a crisis.
It's true, as Martin observed Thursday, that the latest figures from Statistics Canada show 65 per cent of all firearms-related homicides last year were committed with handguns.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=f33d35a5-b254-4e8a-8558-8aee4bba8037&k=1864
Apparent killing of U.S. consultant anguishes family of Cdn hostage in Iraq
Colin Perkel, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - As prayers and efforts continued on behalf of four Christian aid workers kidnapped in Iraq, the apparent murder of an American security consultant Thursday provided a grim reminder of the horrific danger facing the hostages, two of them Canadian.
Word that the Islamic Army in Iraq was claiming to have killed its captive because U.S. President George W. Bush had failed to free prisoners in Iraq hit the family of one of the Canadian hostages especially hard.
"Any time anyone is killed who's being held captive in Iraq is very distressing for us," Ed Loney, the brother of hostage Jim Loney, told The Canadian Press.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=bb31ee36-dea8-40dc-b5fc-e871704b0736&k=52027
The Los Angeles Times
Gov. Quiet on Williams' Fate
Prosecutors and lawyers for the convicted killer make their arguments as his execution date nears.
By Jenifer Warren, Times Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO — The fate of Stanley Tookie Williams rested in the hands of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday after lawyers for the condemned man made a final plea for his life and prosecutors said his crimes merit society's harshest punishment.
After hearing attorneys' arguments during a private, 75-minute meeting, Schwarzenegger made no comment and aides could not say how soon he would decide whether to grant Williams clemency.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tookie9dec09,0,920988.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Dark Days in Prisons at Home and Abroad
Suspected militant from Caucasus suffered at Guantanamo and now back home, family says.
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
NALCHIK, Russia — When Fatima Tekayeva heard that her son was about to be returned to Russia from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she felt an aching fear.
Don't do it, she begged anyone who would listen. It's bad there, yes. It's worse here. Please don't send my son home.
All the same, the scenario unfolded like a scripted nightmare. Rasul Kudayev was put on a plane back to Russia. Soon he was released. He came home to the Caucasus region nothing like the broad-shouldered wrestling champion who had gone off to study Islam with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-prisoner9dec09,0,7324371.story?coll=la-home-headlines
West is best, but...
The Grammys' fondness for surprises might keep the rapper's "Late Registration" from taking home top album honors.
By Robert Hilburn, Times Staff Writer
December 9, 2005
Why don't we just flip a coin and get this whole Grammy thing over with?
Heads Kanye West wins for album of the year.
Tails he loses.
The record industry's most prestigious awards competition seems at times just as arbitrary as that, often bypassing great, cutting-edge artists, such as West, in favor of tame, mainstream bestsellers or sentimental favorites.
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/grammys/env-et-notebook9dec09,0,5953693.story?coll=env-grammys&track=main-story
Mayor Shares Vision for L.A.
Villaraigosa's ideal city would be a prosperous 'global capital' with affordable housing, good schools -- and residents riding trains.
By Richard Fausset, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave the yearly "state of the San Fernando Valley" speech Thursday, but he delivered something much broader: a discourse on the ideal Los Angeles of the future.
It was the latest version of a stock speech Villaraigosa has been giving for weeks at rubber-chicken galas and civic symposia all over town. In it, the mayor attempts to place his early moves in a strategic context, paint himself as a maverick reformer and justify some liberal policies as business-friendly.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mayor9dec09,0,7940199.story?coll=la-home-local
Immigrant Traffic Increases Along Caribbean Sea Highway
The Mona Passage, from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, has become a dangerous hot spot for those trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
By Ray Quintanilla, Chicago Tribune
OVER THE MONA PASSAGE, Puerto Rico — Strong winds and 20-foot waves tossed their rickety boat around like a toy in a bathtub, prompting passengers to scream with fear. Some vomited from motion illness.
Three gaunt women carrying rosary beads pushed their way to the middle of the jampacked vessel and began praying. An instant later, someone stood up, pointed to the heavens and shouted, "God save our souls!"
Then waves overturned the tiny boat, tossing 120 people into some of the Caribbean Sea's deepest waters.
The horrendous scene, as recounted by survivors, has become a common occurrence in the Mona Passage, the narrow channel running between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico that has become the latest hot spot for illegal immigration to the United States.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mona9dec09,0,6059531.story?coll=la-home-nation
Key Sudanese Islamist Sets His Sights on Return to Political Stage
Hassan Turabi, who has been in and out of power, and jail, for decades, is back on the scene, challenging the regime he once backed.
By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer
KHARTOUM, Sudan — A turbaned Hassan Turabi sinks back into a large, plush sitting-room sofa, his stockinged feet barely touching the floor.
It's hard to comprehend that this aging former law professor with a chipmunk grin is the same man condemned by Western leaders as a terrorism-loving extremist and jailed repeatedly by Sudanese dictators he once helped empower.
"I'm an old man," the white-bearded Turabi, fresh out of his latest stint in prison, says with unconvincing modesty.
But behind the glinting teeth and rectangular spectacles is one of Africa's most influential Islamists, a man who has arguably had more impact on Sudan than anyone else.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-turabi9dec09,0,6395299.story?coll=la-home-world
Najaf, Iraq's Shiite Capital, Seeking a Higher Office
Home to some of Islam's holiest sites, the city aspires to be the center of global Shiism. But the sect's power struggles have brought setbacks.
By Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writer
NAJAF, Iraq — A straight black ribbon cuts through barren land on the edge of town like some sort of surrealist vision: a literal highway to nowhere.
The two-mile runway, still bearing skid marks from landing jets, is the only remnant of a former Iraqi air force base. For Najaf officials, it's the key to the next stage of evolution for this long-suffering city of faith.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, pilgrims flocked to Najaf's shrines, some of the holiest in Shiite Islam, and the city's religious leadership emerged from seclusion to dominate the Iraqi political experiment. Iraq's oppressed Shiite majority had come alive, and Najaf was its heart.
Now, plans to turn the old asphalt runway into Imam Ali International Airport could cement Najaf's position as the second capital of Iraq — and the hub of an emerging Shiite super-region that could alter the dynamics of the Middle East.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-najaf9dec09,0,6522870.story?coll=la-home-world
Iraqi Sunnis Appeal for Hostages' Release
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Prominent Sunni Arab clerics and residents of a Baghdad neighborhood where four kidnapped Christian humanitarian workers had aided people appealed Friday for their release a day before a deadline set by their abductors to kill them.
Sunni Arab clerics also took the opportunity of Friday prayers to urge a big Sunni turnout in the Dec. 15 elections, saying that voting was a "religious duty" that could hasten the departure of American troops.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top11dec09,0,645323.story
ElBaradei: World Losing Patience With Iran
OSLO, Norway -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday the international community is losing patience with Iran over its nuclear program. ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he hopes the outstanding nuclear issues with Iran will be clarified next year.
"They are inching forward and I'm asking them to leap forward," said ElBaradei, who shares the award with the IAEA.
He said he hopes outstanding nuclear issues with Tehran will be clarified by the time he presents his next report on Iran in March, because "the international community is losing patience with the nature of that program."
"The ball is in Iran's court. It is up to Iran to show the kind of transparency they need to show," ElBaradei told reporters.
He encouraged European negotiators to continue talks with Iran.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top13dec09,0,1431757.story
Red Cross: U.S. Confirms Denial of Access
GENEVA -- A senior State Department official has confirmed that the United States has yet to grant the international Red Cross access to all its terror detainees, the Red Cross chief said Friday.
ICRC Jakob Kellenberger was commenting on a remark Thursday by State Department legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, who was asked during a visit to Geneva whether the ICRC has access to all other similar prisoners held by the United States elsewhere in the world. Bellinger replied, "No," and declined to say any more.
Kellenberger said that he has been urging top U.S. officials for at least two years to make sure the ICRC has access to all U.S. detainees. The agency is assigned under the Geneva Conventions on warfare to check on conditions of detainees.
"We continue to be in intense dialogue with them with the aim of getting access to all people detained in the framework of the so-called war on terror without any geographical limitation," Kellenberger said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top14dec09,0,1824974.story
New Zealand Herald
Two go on trial for murder of rainforest activist
09.12.05 1.00pm
By Andrew Buncombe
More than 10 months after she was shot dead in the Amazon, two men will go on trial today for the murder of the rainforest activist and American nun Sister Dorothy Stang.
But as lawyers in prepare to lay out the case against the two gunmen who allegedly shot her, there have been claims that the government is ignoring a wider conspiracy directly related to the destruction of the rainforest.
The two men accused of shooting the 73-year-old to death last February in a remote rainforest encampment - Raifram Sales and Clodaoaldo Batista - will go on trial in the north-eastern city of Belem.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359213
No climate for change as America snubs talks
09.12.05
By David Fogarty
MONTREAL - The EU and host Canada piled pressure on the United States to join an international pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit the predicted chaos from global warming.
Ministers from more than 90 nations sought to break a deadlock over how to launch talks that entice the US and big developing nations to join a system that limits emissions.
"We will continue to talk to our US partners and remind them of their commitments," US Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.
He said George W. Bush agreed at a summit of eight leading industrial nations in July and at a UN summit in September to advance global discussions in Montreal on long-term co-operation to curb climate change.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359105
Funds for Katrina victims
09.12.05 7.20am
Former US Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced US$90 million ($130.5 million) worth of grants from money they've raised for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Higher education institutions along the Gulf Coast will receive US$30 million. Another US$40 million will be divided among Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and US$20 million will go to faith-based organisations.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359118
Shot passenger's wife cried 'my husband, my husband'
08.12.05 4.00pm
By Jim Loney
The wife of an American Airlines passenger killed by US air marshals after he claimed to be carrying a bomb in his backpack screamed "My husband, my husband" as he was shot, a witness said.
Federal officials said the 44-year-old American made threats and indicated he had a bomb in his bag as he was boarding a flight that had arrived from the Colombian city of Medellin and was heading to Orlando, Florida.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359055
Relatives say Iran officials knew plane not safe
08.12.05 2.20pm
TEHRAN - Angry relatives of more than 100 people killed in Iran's worst air disaster for three years have complained that officials knew in advance that the crashed plane was not safe to fly.
Military officials denied knowing that the Air Force plane had problems but the judiciary said it had appointed a judge to investigate the relatives' claims.
The US-made C-130 Hercules struck a Tehran apartment block on Tuesday as it tried to make an emergency landing at the capital's main airport after reporting engine problems.
The plane was taking scores of journalists to cover military exercises in the Gulf. All 94 aboard died and several others were killed as flames engulfed the building and nearby cars.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359006
Woman mourns partner she stabbed to death
09.12.05 4.00pm
By Danya Levy
A woman who stabbed her partner to death after an argument fuelled by an evening of drinking and drug taking will mourn him for the rest of her life, her lawyer said today.
Anamari Margaret Stone, 40, was today sentenced to three years' jail after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Daniel Poata, 33.
Stone, of Upper Hutt, is the sister of Steven Williams who is serving at least 17 years' jail for the 2003 murder of his stepdaughter Coral-Ellen Burrows.
Both Williams siblings had been smoking pure methamphetamine, known as P, when the offences occurred.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359252
Put prisoners' victims first, say Nats
09.12.05 1.00pm
A Court of Appeal ruling upholding compensation for some of New Zealand's most dangerous prisoners should not deter Parliament from ensuring that the money gets to the victims of crime, National's law and order spokesman Simon Power said today.
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal upheld and increased an order to pay $130,000 to five inmates held illegally in solitary confinement.
The decision increases the chances of success of claims by the other 200 inmates held under the regime, unless the Crown wins any appeal to the Supreme Court.
The 200 have been awaiting the court's decision on a Crown appeal against the High Court's award last year of compensation to murderer Christopher Taunoa and four other inmates who were held illegally under the "behaviour management regime" for difficult prisoners at Auckland Prison, Paremoremo.
Taunoa, who killed Sanson publican Hugh Lynch in 1996, is serving a life sentence for murder.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10359201
Shops take on roadside fruit and vege traders
09.12.05 1.00pm
By John Cousins
Long-standing resentment towards roadside fruit and vegetable sellers has erupted with retailers desperately trying to get them banned from one town.
Shopkeepers took their fight to the city council in Tauranga yesterday - but failed in a determined bid to get rid of the vendors.
Grievances were mainly centred on traditional retailers complaining they were commercially disadvantaged by the extremely low-cost trading conditions enjoyed by the street traders.
The two sides fronted off, despite knowing that the council was legally prohibited from taking competitive forces into account when it made a decision.
The council's powers were confined to deciding whether the traders were causing a nuisance or endangering public health and safety. The bylaw was not intended to regulate competition.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359202
Blood clot victims' case against airlines thrown out
09.12.05 1.00pm
By Martin Hickman
Victims of deep vein thrombosis lost a four-year compensation battle against airlines yesterday in a ruling that gives the travel industry legal immunity for "economy class syndrome".
The British House of Lords ruled that lesser courts correctly threw out an application by passengers or their families seeking to sue two airlines, British Airways and China Airlines, for death and injury from deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
The action was a test case that could have thrown the air industry open to compensation claims for millions of dollars.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359216
UN attacks US torture stance
09.12.05
By Daniel Trotta
UNITED STATES - The United States-led war on terror has undermined the global ban on torture, weakening American moral authority on human rights worldwide, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
"The principle once believed to be unassailable - the inherent right to physical integrity and dignity of the person - is becoming a casualty of the so-called war on terror," Louise Arbour said ahead of Human Rights Day tomorrow.
Arbour decried two practices in particular: holding prisoners in secret detention centres, which she said was a form of torture, and rendering suspects to third countries outside normal extradition procedures, that is, without independent oversight.
"There are a lot of human rights that can be set aside in cases of emergency, lots of them, but not the right to life and not the protection against torture," she told a news conference.
The US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton rebuked Arbour, calling the criticism illegitimate second-guessing. Arbour's comments were not helpful in the fight against violent extremists, he said.
The US has denied practising torture but it has avoided denying or confirming a Washington Post report that the CIA has run secret centres in Eastern Europe to interrogate terrorism suspects. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, under pressure from European leaders during her ongoing visit to the continent, has defended the US treatment of detainees as lawful operations that prevent attacks. But Arbour said that it was difficult to accept such statements "because everything is done in total secrecy".
The US has also come under international criticism for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
Arbour is a former Canadian Supreme Court justice and a chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia. She praised past US leadership on expanding political and civil rights because it allowed Americans "to lecture others about their performances".
"To the extent that there's a perception that there is a withdrawal from the high-water mark of commitment to civil and political liberties, I think it makes it a lot more difficult for the US to exercise that kind of moral leadership on all human rights issues."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359123
Rice forced to defend prisoner renditions for the third time
09.12.05
By Rupert Cornwell
EUROPE - In a new attempt to defuse the row over United States treatment of terrorist detainees, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared yesterday that the CIA and the US military are forbidden to use torture, not only in America but around the world.
But human rights groups say any "concession" is cosmetic, and her own aides say her remarks are a clarification, and not a shift in policy.
Some Nato foreign ministers may take up the issue when they meet Rice in Brussels overnight (NZ time).
Speaking in Kiev on the penultimate stop of a European trip, Rice said obligations under the existing international torture law "extend to US personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the US or outside the US".
Her remarks were her third attempt in as many days to fend off criticism in Europe and beyond of a host of alleged practices by the US, including the "rendition" of captured suspects to countries where they were likely to face torture, and the alleged use of secret CIA prisons abroad.
Signs are growing that the House of Representatives will join the Senate in demanding a specific legal ban on "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment, as stipulated in the Convention Against Torture signed by the US. In October, the Senate passed its amendment by 90 votes to 9.
All this week, Rice has been insisting that is already the case. But Congressional action was being resisted, with Vice-President Dick Cheney arguing the ban would tie the hands of the CIA in the "war on terror".
Not only has that stance drawn bitter criticism at home - casting doubt on Bush's claim that "the US does not torture" - it has undercut every effort by Rice to convince sceptics that the US respects international norms.
The rough ride of Rice this week is the latest instalment of an issue dating back to the September 11 attacks.
Arguing the need to prevent attacks, the White House effectively jettisoned The Geneva Conventions to gain free rein in interrogations.
After a notorious January 2002 memo in which then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales described the conventions as "quaint," the Bush Administration steadily narrowed the definition of what constituted torture.
In June 2003, Bush reportedly authorised wide new CIA powers, including the right to run secret jails abroad.
Ultimately everything hinges on the precise definition of torture - whether this Administration believes that techniques used by the CIA, including simulated drowning, "cold rooms", sleep deprivation or systematic sexual humiliation, are torture.
"We need to know whether they are defining torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment in the way that most people have defined it for many, many years," said Tom Malinowski, of Human Rights Watch.
"If so, that should rule out some of the techniques that were authorised for the CIA.
"My impression is that, for them, only something that leaves physical scars counts as torture."
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359121
UK bans 'torture evidence'
09.12.05 1.00pm
LONDON - The Law Lords ruled today that information obtained using torture anywhere in the world was unacceptable as evidence in the British courts.
Human rights groups said the ruling sent a clear signal to governments around the globe, who are wrestling with accusations they have benefited from information obtained by torture.
The decision by the House of Lords comes a day after the United States explicitly banned its interrogators from treating detainees inhumanely.
The issue has plagued US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a European trip during which she has tried to convince sceptics Washington does not torture detainees despite reports of secret CIA prisons in East European countries and the covert transportation of prisoners.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10359222
September trial for London bomb suspects
09.12.05 10.20am
LONDON - Five men accused of planning to detonate bombs on London's transport system on July 21 will go on trial in September next year, a British court heard yesterday.
Four are charged with trying to detonate bombs on three underground trains and a bus, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured about 700 in identical attacks in the capital.
Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, Ramzi Mohammed, 23, Yassin Hassan Omar, 24, and Hussain Osman, 27, are all charged with attempted murder and possessing explosives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359197
US hostage said killed in Iraq, 30 dead in bombing
09.12.05 7.45am
BAGHDAD - An Islamic insurgent group said today it had killed a US hostage who, if the claim is confirmed, would be the first foreign hostage killed in Iraq for four months and the first American in more than a year.
The reported killing came after a suicide bomber killed 30 people in an attack on a crowded bus in central Baghdad, the latest chapter in Iraq's bloody insurgency just a week before Iraqis vote in parliamentary elections.
A statement posted on a website often used by insurgents said the Islamic Army in Iraq killed the security consultant, identified as Ronald Schulz, because the US government had not met its demands, which included freeing all Iraqi prisoners.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359170
Spain catches top Croat war crimes fugitive
09.12.05 8.00am
By Elizabeth Nash and Vesna Peric Zimonjic
MADRID - Spanish police have detained a top Croatian war crimes suspect, General Ante Gotovina, in the Canary Islands after more than four years on the run, in a breakthrough for the UN war crimes tribunal.
General Gotovina, who is considered responsible for the deaths of 150 Serbs and the forced removal of up to 200,000 in 1995, had been under surveillance for several days while he moved around the Canary Islands, until Interpol gave Spanish police the arrest order.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359171
HIV donor probe
09.12.05 6.20am
Russian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into how at least one patient accidentally received blood from an HIV-positive donor.
A woman in Voronezh, 475km south of Moscow, has been diagnosed HIV-positive after undergoing blood transfusion after childbirth. Voronezh chief sanitary doctor Mikhail Chubirko said that as many as 208 people could have been infected.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359116
Fatal attraction in Mexico
09.12.05 5.20am
The Mexican state of Jalisco launched a campaign to warn women about the dangers of dating drug traffickers, under the slogan "Stop! Love can cost you dearly."
The Jalisco Women's Institute and the state Public Safety Department say many women get involved in the drug trade through partners or male relatives. The number of women arrested for drug trafficking has risen by about 10 per cent in Jalisco over the past year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359113
Israel freezes talks over Gaza passage after suicide bombing
09.12.05 8.00am
By Donald Macintyre
JERUSALEM - Israel has frozen talks over plans to allow road passage between Gaza and the West Bank amid fresh strains on the de-facto ceasefire in the wake of the suicide bombing which killed five Israelis on Monday.
Two Palestinian militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in the second Israeli air strike on Gaza within 24 hours and an Israeli was stabbed to death by a Palestinian near the Qalandiya checkpoint at the southern entrance to Ramallah.
Israel said the talks on the US-brokered plan to allow "safe passage" of Palestinians initially in bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank, which is due to begin operating next week, had been suspended until the Palestinian leadership took more action against militant groups.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359174
'
'No agenda' to suburb rioting
09.12.05
PARIS - French police believe recent riots in poor suburbs of France were not organised and had no leader or agenda, according to a police report cited in Le Parisien.
The conclusions contrast with comments made by some leaders during nightly unrest which abated in mid-November after three weeks.
"What France saw was a non-organised uprising which turned into a popular revolt on housing estates without any leader," Le Parisien quoted the report.
During the unrest, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin blamed the violence indirectly on gangs, which he said sought to keep police out of their neighbourhoods.
The report also estimated the cost of the violence at more than 250 million ($413.3 million) although it did not explain what that figure included.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359102
Scientists find cancer 'nests'
09.12.05
Scientists have discovered how cancer spreads from a primary site to other places in the body in a finding that could open doors for new ways of treating and preventing advanced disease.
Instead of a cell just breaking off from a tumour and travelling through the bloodstream to another organ where it forms a secondary tumour, or metastasis, researchers in the United States have shown that the cancer sends out envoys to prepare the new site.
Intercepting those envoys or blocking their action with drugs might help in the prevention and treatment of cancer.
"We are basically looking at all the earlier steps that are involved in metastasis that we weren't previously aware of. It is complex, but we are opening the door to all these things that occur before the tumour cell implants itself," said Professor David Lyden, of Cornell University in New York.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359056
'Phishing' becoming common, study finds
09.12.05 7.40am
One in four US internet users have been targets of phishing attacks - phony emails seeking personal financial data, an internet study has found.
About 70 per cent of consumers who received such emails thought they were from legitimate companies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10359134
Shuttle services may go private
09.12.05
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL - With the space shuttles due to retire, Nasa is looking for private companies interested in taking over the potentially lucrative business of flying cargo and crew to the International Space Station.
The US space agency has sought proposals from firms interested in handling delivery services now provided by the three shuttles, which are due to stop flying by 2010.
"Certainly this is an opportunity for the new space companies," said Jim Banke, head of Florida operations for The Space Foundation industry trade association.
"They've been lobbying Nasa hard for something like this for years."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359065
Kilometre-high skyscraper planned
09.12.05
By Rob Sharp
At more than a kilometre high, it is about to become the world's tallest building.
Set at the heart of a new multi-billion pound Arabian city, the 250-storey tower would form the centrepiece of a development that the Kuwati government hopes will establish it as a serious global player.
London-based architect Eric Kuhne & Associates is in talks with Kuwaiti government officials over the project, according to a report published in the Architects' Journal.
The 1,001m tower will form the centrepiece of the Madinat al Hareer, or "City of Silk", that would house 700,000 people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10359215
U2 ticket limit dropped, Post Shop pulls out
09.12.05 12.45pm
The number of tickets available to each buyer for the second U2 concert in Auckland in March has been dropped from eight to four.
Many of those planning to queue when tickets go on sale next Monday morning will also face a change of venue. Tickets will not be available from New Zealand Post Shops.
Tickets for the first concert on March 17 sold out in 90 minutes on Monday, and sales on online auction site Trade Me quickly escalated above $1000 angering genuine fans.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359220
continued …
The weather in Montreal (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Snow
Temperature
-6°C
Wind Chill
-12°C
Wind
15 km/h E
Relative Humidity
93%
Barometric Pressure
101.3 kPa
Dewpoint
-7°C
I didn't know USA policy was so delicate! When the biggest CO2 polluter on Earth goes to a climate conference it needs to be with specific and helpful polices not delicate feelings offended by 'brush burns.' Don't tell me the USA delegates are pouting by criticism. Get over it and feel lucky that is all that was said. Where it like a badge. Entertain that thought !
Martin's comments at climate conference triggers debate
Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
MONTREAL -- With one day of talks to go at the UN climate conference, desperate efforts to draw the United States into the global effort to curb greenhouse emissions appear to have hit a brick wall, and Prime Minister Paul Martin is being blamed.
An official with close contacts in the U.S. delegation said any hopes of drawing Washington into the process were killed when Martin pointed a finger of blame at the United States in a news briefing at the conference.
"That was a big mistake," said the delegate, speaking on condition of anonymity Thursday. He said the U.S. delegation, which is directed from Washington by Vice-President Dick Cheney, was deeply angered by Martin's comments.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=6d80625b-062a-43da-b702-ba5fee9b3d4e&k=4466
Martin to head back to Montreal for Clinton meeting on climate change
Alexander Panetta, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
WINDSOR, Ont. (CP) - Paul Martin will make an impromptu trip back to Montreal on Friday to bask in the political glow of a fellow liberal - former U.S. president Bill Clinton, The Canadian Press has learned.
The prime minister has squeezed an additional campaign stop into his itinerary for a meeting with the popular two-term president, who still draws a large crowd whenever he visits Canada. For Martin - who has built part of his election campaign around his political differences with U.S. President George W. Bush - the encounter with Clinton presents a golden opportunity.
Clinton has been invited to the city by the Sierra Club to address a meeting of municipal leaders on the issue of climate change.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=d0ada315-edf5-49b0-ac2e-2acb56bd718c&k=17986
Youth stage bed-in at UN climate conference in memory of John Lennon
John Lennon arrives at The Hit Factory recording studio in New York, in this Aug. 22, 1980, file photo.
Peter Rakobowchuk, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
MONTREAL (CP) - It was reminiscent of the famous bed-in for peace that John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged in a Montreal hotel room in 1969, but this time it was for the earth's climate.
A small group of young environmentalists at the United Nations conference on climate change held a bed-in on Thursday to draw attention to their concerns. They staged event on the same day as the 25th anniversary of the shooting death of the former Beatle.
In May of 1969, Lennon and Ono recorded the song, Give Peace A Chance, in their Montreal hotel room.
Taking a line from that song, the environmentalists sang: Give The Climate A Chance.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=0c9a7b92-068b-40c7-b060-3f37103f0bf4&k=89425
Spending on health to hit all-time high in 2005, hitting 10.4 per cent of GDP
Helen Branswell, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - Health spending in Canada is expected to hit $142 billion this year, bringing expenditures in this sector to 10.4 per cent of GDP, an all time high, the Canadian Institute for Health Information reported Wednesday.
An 11-per-cent jump in spending on prescription and non-prescribed medications fuelled the rise - prompting the head of an independent health watchdog organization to predict governments will be moved to address the issue of rising drug consumption and costs.
Michael Decter, chair of the Health Council of Canada, said the significant and ongoing increase in spending on medications is outstripping the increases in costs for other parts of the health sector, including the running of hospitals and paying of physicians.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=7db13501-452c-45d5-b30a-7126a5594ee5&k=24739
Martin vows to fight gun violence; poll gives Liberals 12-point lead
NDP Leader Jack Layton smiles as supporters and NDP candidate Alexa McDonough applaud his speech. (CP PHOTO/Chuck Stoody)
Martin O?Hanlon, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) - Paul Martin, his sights set squarely on urban voters, is promising to get tough on big-city gun violence with a triple-barrelled blast that would ban handguns and crack down on criminals who use them.
After more than a week of reacting to Conservative campaign promises, the prime minister beat the Tories to the law-order punch Thursday.
He told supporters in a crime-plagued Toronto neighbourhood that a Liberal government would toughen weapons penalties, pump another $325 million into policing, and ban handguns, which are already severely restricted.
Martin is hoping to solidify support in cities where the Liberals hold a big lead over the Conservatives.
A new poll suggests the Liberals have increased that lead to 12 percentage points despite a string of big-ticket Tory pledges.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=759e995e-186f-44f1-8b8a-ff62fc44ab7f&k=52696
Striking workers demonstrate outside casino
Published: December 8, 2005
MONTREAL -- Thousands of striking public sector workers demonstrated outside the Montreal Casino on Thursday morning blocking access to building.
The demonstration was part of a series of strike days planned by public sector unions.
Union president, Monique Pauzé, said the casino was the perfect place to protest.
Pauzé wants the government to invest more in education instead of announcing investments and improvements to the casino.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=ffbd848d-dd6f-40f8-87bf-f3999adbb66d&k=2303
Martin gun proposal adds drama to election, but some question its usefulness
Jim Brown, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin's proposal to ban handgun ownership in Canada is bound to inject some drama into the federal election campaign by putting the hot-button issue of gun control front and centre.
But would it achieve its stated aim of making the streets of the country's major urban centres safer? The available data leave room for doubt - not only about the effectiveness of a ban, but also about whether the country is really facing a crisis.
It's true, as Martin observed Thursday, that the latest figures from Statistics Canada show 65 per cent of all firearms-related homicides last year were committed with handguns.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=f33d35a5-b254-4e8a-8558-8aee4bba8037&k=1864
Apparent killing of U.S. consultant anguishes family of Cdn hostage in Iraq
Colin Perkel, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - As prayers and efforts continued on behalf of four Christian aid workers kidnapped in Iraq, the apparent murder of an American security consultant Thursday provided a grim reminder of the horrific danger facing the hostages, two of them Canadian.
Word that the Islamic Army in Iraq was claiming to have killed its captive because U.S. President George W. Bush had failed to free prisoners in Iraq hit the family of one of the Canadian hostages especially hard.
"Any time anyone is killed who's being held captive in Iraq is very distressing for us," Ed Loney, the brother of hostage Jim Loney, told The Canadian Press.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=bb31ee36-dea8-40dc-b5fc-e871704b0736&k=52027
The Los Angeles Times
Gov. Quiet on Williams' Fate
Prosecutors and lawyers for the convicted killer make their arguments as his execution date nears.
By Jenifer Warren, Times Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO — The fate of Stanley Tookie Williams rested in the hands of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday after lawyers for the condemned man made a final plea for his life and prosecutors said his crimes merit society's harshest punishment.
After hearing attorneys' arguments during a private, 75-minute meeting, Schwarzenegger made no comment and aides could not say how soon he would decide whether to grant Williams clemency.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tookie9dec09,0,920988.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Dark Days in Prisons at Home and Abroad
Suspected militant from Caucasus suffered at Guantanamo and now back home, family says.
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
NALCHIK, Russia — When Fatima Tekayeva heard that her son was about to be returned to Russia from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she felt an aching fear.
Don't do it, she begged anyone who would listen. It's bad there, yes. It's worse here. Please don't send my son home.
All the same, the scenario unfolded like a scripted nightmare. Rasul Kudayev was put on a plane back to Russia. Soon he was released. He came home to the Caucasus region nothing like the broad-shouldered wrestling champion who had gone off to study Islam with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-prisoner9dec09,0,7324371.story?coll=la-home-headlines
West is best, but...
The Grammys' fondness for surprises might keep the rapper's "Late Registration" from taking home top album honors.
By Robert Hilburn, Times Staff Writer
December 9, 2005
Why don't we just flip a coin and get this whole Grammy thing over with?
Heads Kanye West wins for album of the year.
Tails he loses.
The record industry's most prestigious awards competition seems at times just as arbitrary as that, often bypassing great, cutting-edge artists, such as West, in favor of tame, mainstream bestsellers or sentimental favorites.
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/grammys/env-et-notebook9dec09,0,5953693.story?coll=env-grammys&track=main-story
Mayor Shares Vision for L.A.
Villaraigosa's ideal city would be a prosperous 'global capital' with affordable housing, good schools -- and residents riding trains.
By Richard Fausset, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave the yearly "state of the San Fernando Valley" speech Thursday, but he delivered something much broader: a discourse on the ideal Los Angeles of the future.
It was the latest version of a stock speech Villaraigosa has been giving for weeks at rubber-chicken galas and civic symposia all over town. In it, the mayor attempts to place his early moves in a strategic context, paint himself as a maverick reformer and justify some liberal policies as business-friendly.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mayor9dec09,0,7940199.story?coll=la-home-local
Immigrant Traffic Increases Along Caribbean Sea Highway
The Mona Passage, from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, has become a dangerous hot spot for those trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
By Ray Quintanilla, Chicago Tribune
OVER THE MONA PASSAGE, Puerto Rico — Strong winds and 20-foot waves tossed their rickety boat around like a toy in a bathtub, prompting passengers to scream with fear. Some vomited from motion illness.
Three gaunt women carrying rosary beads pushed their way to the middle of the jampacked vessel and began praying. An instant later, someone stood up, pointed to the heavens and shouted, "God save our souls!"
Then waves overturned the tiny boat, tossing 120 people into some of the Caribbean Sea's deepest waters.
The horrendous scene, as recounted by survivors, has become a common occurrence in the Mona Passage, the narrow channel running between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico that has become the latest hot spot for illegal immigration to the United States.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mona9dec09,0,6059531.story?coll=la-home-nation
Key Sudanese Islamist Sets His Sights on Return to Political Stage
Hassan Turabi, who has been in and out of power, and jail, for decades, is back on the scene, challenging the regime he once backed.
By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer
KHARTOUM, Sudan — A turbaned Hassan Turabi sinks back into a large, plush sitting-room sofa, his stockinged feet barely touching the floor.
It's hard to comprehend that this aging former law professor with a chipmunk grin is the same man condemned by Western leaders as a terrorism-loving extremist and jailed repeatedly by Sudanese dictators he once helped empower.
"I'm an old man," the white-bearded Turabi, fresh out of his latest stint in prison, says with unconvincing modesty.
But behind the glinting teeth and rectangular spectacles is one of Africa's most influential Islamists, a man who has arguably had more impact on Sudan than anyone else.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-turabi9dec09,0,6395299.story?coll=la-home-world
Najaf, Iraq's Shiite Capital, Seeking a Higher Office
Home to some of Islam's holiest sites, the city aspires to be the center of global Shiism. But the sect's power struggles have brought setbacks.
By Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writer
NAJAF, Iraq — A straight black ribbon cuts through barren land on the edge of town like some sort of surrealist vision: a literal highway to nowhere.
The two-mile runway, still bearing skid marks from landing jets, is the only remnant of a former Iraqi air force base. For Najaf officials, it's the key to the next stage of evolution for this long-suffering city of faith.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, pilgrims flocked to Najaf's shrines, some of the holiest in Shiite Islam, and the city's religious leadership emerged from seclusion to dominate the Iraqi political experiment. Iraq's oppressed Shiite majority had come alive, and Najaf was its heart.
Now, plans to turn the old asphalt runway into Imam Ali International Airport could cement Najaf's position as the second capital of Iraq — and the hub of an emerging Shiite super-region that could alter the dynamics of the Middle East.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-najaf9dec09,0,6522870.story?coll=la-home-world
Iraqi Sunnis Appeal for Hostages' Release
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Prominent Sunni Arab clerics and residents of a Baghdad neighborhood where four kidnapped Christian humanitarian workers had aided people appealed Friday for their release a day before a deadline set by their abductors to kill them.
Sunni Arab clerics also took the opportunity of Friday prayers to urge a big Sunni turnout in the Dec. 15 elections, saying that voting was a "religious duty" that could hasten the departure of American troops.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top11dec09,0,645323.story
ElBaradei: World Losing Patience With Iran
OSLO, Norway -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday the international community is losing patience with Iran over its nuclear program. ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he hopes the outstanding nuclear issues with Iran will be clarified next year.
"They are inching forward and I'm asking them to leap forward," said ElBaradei, who shares the award with the IAEA.
He said he hopes outstanding nuclear issues with Tehran will be clarified by the time he presents his next report on Iran in March, because "the international community is losing patience with the nature of that program."
"The ball is in Iran's court. It is up to Iran to show the kind of transparency they need to show," ElBaradei told reporters.
He encouraged European negotiators to continue talks with Iran.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top13dec09,0,1431757.story
Red Cross: U.S. Confirms Denial of Access
GENEVA -- A senior State Department official has confirmed that the United States has yet to grant the international Red Cross access to all its terror detainees, the Red Cross chief said Friday.
ICRC Jakob Kellenberger was commenting on a remark Thursday by State Department legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, who was asked during a visit to Geneva whether the ICRC has access to all other similar prisoners held by the United States elsewhere in the world. Bellinger replied, "No," and declined to say any more.
Kellenberger said that he has been urging top U.S. officials for at least two years to make sure the ICRC has access to all U.S. detainees. The agency is assigned under the Geneva Conventions on warfare to check on conditions of detainees.
"We continue to be in intense dialogue with them with the aim of getting access to all people detained in the framework of the so-called war on terror without any geographical limitation," Kellenberger said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top14dec09,0,1824974.story
New Zealand Herald
Two go on trial for murder of rainforest activist
09.12.05 1.00pm
By Andrew Buncombe
More than 10 months after she was shot dead in the Amazon, two men will go on trial today for the murder of the rainforest activist and American nun Sister Dorothy Stang.
But as lawyers in prepare to lay out the case against the two gunmen who allegedly shot her, there have been claims that the government is ignoring a wider conspiracy directly related to the destruction of the rainforest.
The two men accused of shooting the 73-year-old to death last February in a remote rainforest encampment - Raifram Sales and Clodaoaldo Batista - will go on trial in the north-eastern city of Belem.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359213
No climate for change as America snubs talks
09.12.05
By David Fogarty
MONTREAL - The EU and host Canada piled pressure on the United States to join an international pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit the predicted chaos from global warming.
Ministers from more than 90 nations sought to break a deadlock over how to launch talks that entice the US and big developing nations to join a system that limits emissions.
"We will continue to talk to our US partners and remind them of their commitments," US Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.
He said George W. Bush agreed at a summit of eight leading industrial nations in July and at a UN summit in September to advance global discussions in Montreal on long-term co-operation to curb climate change.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359105
Funds for Katrina victims
09.12.05 7.20am
Former US Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced US$90 million ($130.5 million) worth of grants from money they've raised for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Higher education institutions along the Gulf Coast will receive US$30 million. Another US$40 million will be divided among Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and US$20 million will go to faith-based organisations.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359118
Shot passenger's wife cried 'my husband, my husband'
08.12.05 4.00pm
By Jim Loney
The wife of an American Airlines passenger killed by US air marshals after he claimed to be carrying a bomb in his backpack screamed "My husband, my husband" as he was shot, a witness said.
Federal officials said the 44-year-old American made threats and indicated he had a bomb in his bag as he was boarding a flight that had arrived from the Colombian city of Medellin and was heading to Orlando, Florida.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359055
Relatives say Iran officials knew plane not safe
08.12.05 2.20pm
TEHRAN - Angry relatives of more than 100 people killed in Iran's worst air disaster for three years have complained that officials knew in advance that the crashed plane was not safe to fly.
Military officials denied knowing that the Air Force plane had problems but the judiciary said it had appointed a judge to investigate the relatives' claims.
The US-made C-130 Hercules struck a Tehran apartment block on Tuesday as it tried to make an emergency landing at the capital's main airport after reporting engine problems.
The plane was taking scores of journalists to cover military exercises in the Gulf. All 94 aboard died and several others were killed as flames engulfed the building and nearby cars.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359006
Woman mourns partner she stabbed to death
09.12.05 4.00pm
By Danya Levy
A woman who stabbed her partner to death after an argument fuelled by an evening of drinking and drug taking will mourn him for the rest of her life, her lawyer said today.
Anamari Margaret Stone, 40, was today sentenced to three years' jail after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Daniel Poata, 33.
Stone, of Upper Hutt, is the sister of Steven Williams who is serving at least 17 years' jail for the 2003 murder of his stepdaughter Coral-Ellen Burrows.
Both Williams siblings had been smoking pure methamphetamine, known as P, when the offences occurred.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359252
Put prisoners' victims first, say Nats
09.12.05 1.00pm
A Court of Appeal ruling upholding compensation for some of New Zealand's most dangerous prisoners should not deter Parliament from ensuring that the money gets to the victims of crime, National's law and order spokesman Simon Power said today.
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal upheld and increased an order to pay $130,000 to five inmates held illegally in solitary confinement.
The decision increases the chances of success of claims by the other 200 inmates held under the regime, unless the Crown wins any appeal to the Supreme Court.
The 200 have been awaiting the court's decision on a Crown appeal against the High Court's award last year of compensation to murderer Christopher Taunoa and four other inmates who were held illegally under the "behaviour management regime" for difficult prisoners at Auckland Prison, Paremoremo.
Taunoa, who killed Sanson publican Hugh Lynch in 1996, is serving a life sentence for murder.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10359201
Shops take on roadside fruit and vege traders
09.12.05 1.00pm
By John Cousins
Long-standing resentment towards roadside fruit and vegetable sellers has erupted with retailers desperately trying to get them banned from one town.
Shopkeepers took their fight to the city council in Tauranga yesterday - but failed in a determined bid to get rid of the vendors.
Grievances were mainly centred on traditional retailers complaining they were commercially disadvantaged by the extremely low-cost trading conditions enjoyed by the street traders.
The two sides fronted off, despite knowing that the council was legally prohibited from taking competitive forces into account when it made a decision.
The council's powers were confined to deciding whether the traders were causing a nuisance or endangering public health and safety. The bylaw was not intended to regulate competition.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359202
Blood clot victims' case against airlines thrown out
09.12.05 1.00pm
By Martin Hickman
Victims of deep vein thrombosis lost a four-year compensation battle against airlines yesterday in a ruling that gives the travel industry legal immunity for "economy class syndrome".
The British House of Lords ruled that lesser courts correctly threw out an application by passengers or their families seeking to sue two airlines, British Airways and China Airlines, for death and injury from deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
The action was a test case that could have thrown the air industry open to compensation claims for millions of dollars.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359216
UN attacks US torture stance
09.12.05
By Daniel Trotta
UNITED STATES - The United States-led war on terror has undermined the global ban on torture, weakening American moral authority on human rights worldwide, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
"The principle once believed to be unassailable - the inherent right to physical integrity and dignity of the person - is becoming a casualty of the so-called war on terror," Louise Arbour said ahead of Human Rights Day tomorrow.
Arbour decried two practices in particular: holding prisoners in secret detention centres, which she said was a form of torture, and rendering suspects to third countries outside normal extradition procedures, that is, without independent oversight.
"There are a lot of human rights that can be set aside in cases of emergency, lots of them, but not the right to life and not the protection against torture," she told a news conference.
The US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton rebuked Arbour, calling the criticism illegitimate second-guessing. Arbour's comments were not helpful in the fight against violent extremists, he said.
The US has denied practising torture but it has avoided denying or confirming a Washington Post report that the CIA has run secret centres in Eastern Europe to interrogate terrorism suspects. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, under pressure from European leaders during her ongoing visit to the continent, has defended the US treatment of detainees as lawful operations that prevent attacks. But Arbour said that it was difficult to accept such statements "because everything is done in total secrecy".
The US has also come under international criticism for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
Arbour is a former Canadian Supreme Court justice and a chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia. She praised past US leadership on expanding political and civil rights because it allowed Americans "to lecture others about their performances".
"To the extent that there's a perception that there is a withdrawal from the high-water mark of commitment to civil and political liberties, I think it makes it a lot more difficult for the US to exercise that kind of moral leadership on all human rights issues."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359123
Rice forced to defend prisoner renditions for the third time
09.12.05
By Rupert Cornwell
EUROPE - In a new attempt to defuse the row over United States treatment of terrorist detainees, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared yesterday that the CIA and the US military are forbidden to use torture, not only in America but around the world.
But human rights groups say any "concession" is cosmetic, and her own aides say her remarks are a clarification, and not a shift in policy.
Some Nato foreign ministers may take up the issue when they meet Rice in Brussels overnight (NZ time).
Speaking in Kiev on the penultimate stop of a European trip, Rice said obligations under the existing international torture law "extend to US personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the US or outside the US".
Her remarks were her third attempt in as many days to fend off criticism in Europe and beyond of a host of alleged practices by the US, including the "rendition" of captured suspects to countries where they were likely to face torture, and the alleged use of secret CIA prisons abroad.
Signs are growing that the House of Representatives will join the Senate in demanding a specific legal ban on "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment, as stipulated in the Convention Against Torture signed by the US. In October, the Senate passed its amendment by 90 votes to 9.
All this week, Rice has been insisting that is already the case. But Congressional action was being resisted, with Vice-President Dick Cheney arguing the ban would tie the hands of the CIA in the "war on terror".
Not only has that stance drawn bitter criticism at home - casting doubt on Bush's claim that "the US does not torture" - it has undercut every effort by Rice to convince sceptics that the US respects international norms.
The rough ride of Rice this week is the latest instalment of an issue dating back to the September 11 attacks.
Arguing the need to prevent attacks, the White House effectively jettisoned The Geneva Conventions to gain free rein in interrogations.
After a notorious January 2002 memo in which then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales described the conventions as "quaint," the Bush Administration steadily narrowed the definition of what constituted torture.
In June 2003, Bush reportedly authorised wide new CIA powers, including the right to run secret jails abroad.
Ultimately everything hinges on the precise definition of torture - whether this Administration believes that techniques used by the CIA, including simulated drowning, "cold rooms", sleep deprivation or systematic sexual humiliation, are torture.
"We need to know whether they are defining torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment in the way that most people have defined it for many, many years," said Tom Malinowski, of Human Rights Watch.
"If so, that should rule out some of the techniques that were authorised for the CIA.
"My impression is that, for them, only something that leaves physical scars counts as torture."
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359121
UK bans 'torture evidence'
09.12.05 1.00pm
LONDON - The Law Lords ruled today that information obtained using torture anywhere in the world was unacceptable as evidence in the British courts.
Human rights groups said the ruling sent a clear signal to governments around the globe, who are wrestling with accusations they have benefited from information obtained by torture.
The decision by the House of Lords comes a day after the United States explicitly banned its interrogators from treating detainees inhumanely.
The issue has plagued US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a European trip during which she has tried to convince sceptics Washington does not torture detainees despite reports of secret CIA prisons in East European countries and the covert transportation of prisoners.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10359222
September trial for London bomb suspects
09.12.05 10.20am
LONDON - Five men accused of planning to detonate bombs on London's transport system on July 21 will go on trial in September next year, a British court heard yesterday.
Four are charged with trying to detonate bombs on three underground trains and a bus, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured about 700 in identical attacks in the capital.
Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, Ramzi Mohammed, 23, Yassin Hassan Omar, 24, and Hussain Osman, 27, are all charged with attempted murder and possessing explosives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359197
US hostage said killed in Iraq, 30 dead in bombing
09.12.05 7.45am
BAGHDAD - An Islamic insurgent group said today it had killed a US hostage who, if the claim is confirmed, would be the first foreign hostage killed in Iraq for four months and the first American in more than a year.
The reported killing came after a suicide bomber killed 30 people in an attack on a crowded bus in central Baghdad, the latest chapter in Iraq's bloody insurgency just a week before Iraqis vote in parliamentary elections.
A statement posted on a website often used by insurgents said the Islamic Army in Iraq killed the security consultant, identified as Ronald Schulz, because the US government had not met its demands, which included freeing all Iraqi prisoners.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359170
Spain catches top Croat war crimes fugitive
09.12.05 8.00am
By Elizabeth Nash and Vesna Peric Zimonjic
MADRID - Spanish police have detained a top Croatian war crimes suspect, General Ante Gotovina, in the Canary Islands after more than four years on the run, in a breakthrough for the UN war crimes tribunal.
General Gotovina, who is considered responsible for the deaths of 150 Serbs and the forced removal of up to 200,000 in 1995, had been under surveillance for several days while he moved around the Canary Islands, until Interpol gave Spanish police the arrest order.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359171
HIV donor probe
09.12.05 6.20am
Russian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into how at least one patient accidentally received blood from an HIV-positive donor.
A woman in Voronezh, 475km south of Moscow, has been diagnosed HIV-positive after undergoing blood transfusion after childbirth. Voronezh chief sanitary doctor Mikhail Chubirko said that as many as 208 people could have been infected.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359116
Fatal attraction in Mexico
09.12.05 5.20am
The Mexican state of Jalisco launched a campaign to warn women about the dangers of dating drug traffickers, under the slogan "Stop! Love can cost you dearly."
The Jalisco Women's Institute and the state Public Safety Department say many women get involved in the drug trade through partners or male relatives. The number of women arrested for drug trafficking has risen by about 10 per cent in Jalisco over the past year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359113
Israel freezes talks over Gaza passage after suicide bombing
09.12.05 8.00am
By Donald Macintyre
JERUSALEM - Israel has frozen talks over plans to allow road passage between Gaza and the West Bank amid fresh strains on the de-facto ceasefire in the wake of the suicide bombing which killed five Israelis on Monday.
Two Palestinian militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in the second Israeli air strike on Gaza within 24 hours and an Israeli was stabbed to death by a Palestinian near the Qalandiya checkpoint at the southern entrance to Ramallah.
Israel said the talks on the US-brokered plan to allow "safe passage" of Palestinians initially in bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank, which is due to begin operating next week, had been suspended until the Palestinian leadership took more action against militant groups.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359174
'
'No agenda' to suburb rioting
09.12.05
PARIS - French police believe recent riots in poor suburbs of France were not organised and had no leader or agenda, according to a police report cited in Le Parisien.
The conclusions contrast with comments made by some leaders during nightly unrest which abated in mid-November after three weeks.
"What France saw was a non-organised uprising which turned into a popular revolt on housing estates without any leader," Le Parisien quoted the report.
During the unrest, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin blamed the violence indirectly on gangs, which he said sought to keep police out of their neighbourhoods.
The report also estimated the cost of the violence at more than 250 million ($413.3 million) although it did not explain what that figure included.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359102
Scientists find cancer 'nests'
09.12.05
Scientists have discovered how cancer spreads from a primary site to other places in the body in a finding that could open doors for new ways of treating and preventing advanced disease.
Instead of a cell just breaking off from a tumour and travelling through the bloodstream to another organ where it forms a secondary tumour, or metastasis, researchers in the United States have shown that the cancer sends out envoys to prepare the new site.
Intercepting those envoys or blocking their action with drugs might help in the prevention and treatment of cancer.
"We are basically looking at all the earlier steps that are involved in metastasis that we weren't previously aware of. It is complex, but we are opening the door to all these things that occur before the tumour cell implants itself," said Professor David Lyden, of Cornell University in New York.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359056
'Phishing' becoming common, study finds
09.12.05 7.40am
One in four US internet users have been targets of phishing attacks - phony emails seeking personal financial data, an internet study has found.
About 70 per cent of consumers who received such emails thought they were from legitimate companies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10359134
Shuttle services may go private
09.12.05
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL - With the space shuttles due to retire, Nasa is looking for private companies interested in taking over the potentially lucrative business of flying cargo and crew to the International Space Station.
The US space agency has sought proposals from firms interested in handling delivery services now provided by the three shuttles, which are due to stop flying by 2010.
"Certainly this is an opportunity for the new space companies," said Jim Banke, head of Florida operations for The Space Foundation industry trade association.
"They've been lobbying Nasa hard for something like this for years."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359065
Kilometre-high skyscraper planned
09.12.05
By Rob Sharp
At more than a kilometre high, it is about to become the world's tallest building.
Set at the heart of a new multi-billion pound Arabian city, the 250-storey tower would form the centrepiece of a development that the Kuwati government hopes will establish it as a serious global player.
London-based architect Eric Kuhne & Associates is in talks with Kuwaiti government officials over the project, according to a report published in the Architects' Journal.
The 1,001m tower will form the centrepiece of the Madinat al Hareer, or "City of Silk", that would house 700,000 people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10359215
U2 ticket limit dropped, Post Shop pulls out
09.12.05 12.45pm
The number of tickets available to each buyer for the second U2 concert in Auckland in March has been dropped from eight to four.
Many of those planning to queue when tickets go on sale next Monday morning will also face a change of venue. Tickets will not be available from New Zealand Post Shops.
Tickets for the first concert on March 17 sold out in 90 minutes on Monday, and sales on online auction site Trade Me quickly escalated above $1000 angering genuine fans.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359220
continued …
Tai Shan (Peaceful Mountain) and Mommy.
The National Zoo commemorates the holidays with the public introduction of Tai Shan.
I guess this happy guy didn't 'make the cut' for Santa's Team.
December 4, 2005.
New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
Species :: Dog.
No, this is not a juvenile reindeer but only a wannabe.
That's a dog? Dolphins have a very high IQ. This one might have been interested in Rudolph, Jr.
December 4, 2005.
New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
No this is not "Flipper" in a performance prompt. This is a happy, healthy Bottlenose Dolphin in the wild.
Photographer states :: This is the first time I've ever seen one in the air like this in the 16 years I've lived in FL. My niece waded out into the water where the dolphins were swimming and they came as close as five feet from her. It was awesome!
Morning Papers - concluding
Zoos
SeaWorld will send 4 whales to zoo
The young killer whales will be sent to Loro Parque, a zoo in the Canary Islands.
Jerry W. Jackson Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 9, 2005
SeaWorld Orlando and its sister park in San Antonio are making final preparations to transport four young killer whales to a zoological park in the Canary Islands.
SeaWorld Orlando recently welcomed the birth of a killer whale, bringing the total there to 10, and the three SeaWorlds nationwide are brimming with two dozen orcas. So the parks have enough that they can safely share four with the Loro Parque zoological park at Tenerife, said Fred Jacobs, spokesman for Busch Entertainment Corp., parent of the SeaWorld parks.
"We've known them for a long time, and they do an excellent job," Jacobs said of Loro Parque, a privately owned facility that features sea lions, dolphins, alligators, parrots and land animals but no killer whales.
Jacobs said Loro Parque trainers have been at SeaWorld in San Antonio for about the past year, learning to care for and train the big black-and-white sea mammals. A 7 million-gallon pool is under construction at Loro Parque to house the animals.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-seaworld0905dec09,0,516477.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-orange
Police raid estate where lions and tigers hunted
08.12.05 4.20pm
By Elizabeth Nash
MADRID - Police have raided an illegal safari park on a remote private estate in western Spain where huntsmen pursued exotic protected species including lions and tigers.
The lions and tigers had apparently been bought clandestinely from a travelling circus by owners of the estate who organised the hunt.
A lion and a tiger found alive were taken away yesterday by an animal protection society, and one tiger already dead was carried away for incineration.
Seven men were detained on charges of hunting endangered species, police said, and face three years in jail and an eight-year ban on hunting if found guilty.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359041
Zoos to answer questions on elephant facilities
Sydney's Taronga Zoo and the Melbourne Zoo will return to a tribunal today to provide additional evidence in support of a proposed elephant importation program.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has approved the importation of eight elephants from Thailand on the condition that the zoos satisfy questions raised about the conditions and facilities the elephants will be kept in.
The case will be mentioned in Sydney today, to set a time to hear the evidence next week.
The importation program was being challenged by a coalition of animal welfare groups and Nicola Beynon from the Humane Society says the tribunal has not completely dismissed their arguments.
"They've said that they do have outstanding concerns that go to the laws, that go to the animal welfare needs of the elephants and we need to see whether the zoos will be able to meet those outstanding concerns," she said.
Sydney's Taronga Zoo says it will fulfil the tribunal's demands.
Taronga Zoo director Guy Cooper says if all goes well with the tribunal, the elephants will arrive after Easter.
"They have undertaken to give us a final decision on the 16th of this month," he said.
"In the meantime ... we'll be working towards getting any questions that they want finalised and to them by that time, they have made the comment that they do believe the permits should be granted."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1526327.htm
Tribunal clears way for zoo to import elephants
Matt Cunningham
08dec05
MELBOURNE will probably be home to three Asian elephants after a tribunal decision yesterday cleared the way for their import.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled that bringing the elephants from Thailand would not breach any laws, after animal welfare groups appealed against the planned importation.
The female elephants will make their home at the Melbourne Zoo, where they will enjoy the surroundings of the zoo's Trail of the Elephants exhibit.
There are already two Asian elephants at the zoo, but none have been imported since cow Mek Kapah and bull Bong Su came to Melbourne 25 years ago.
They are now set to be joined by Num-Oi, 4, Dokkoon, 12 and Kulab, 5.
The zoo's new additions are part of a group of eight that could now call Australia home, with the other five -- four cows and one bull -- bound for Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17495965%5E2862,00.html
Zoos to answer questions on elephant facilities
Sydney's Taronga Zoo and the Melbourne Zoo will return to a tribunal today to provide additional evidence in support of a proposed elephant importation program.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has approved the importation of eight elephants from Thailand on the condition that the zoos satisfy questions raised about the conditions and facilities the elephants will be kept in.
The case will be mentioned in Sydney today, to set a time to hear the evidence next week.
The importation program was being challenged by a coalition of animal welfare groups and Nicola Beynon from the Humane Society says the tribunal has not completely dismissed their arguments.
"They've said that they do have outstanding concerns that go to the laws, that go to the animal welfare needs of the elephants and we need to see whether the zoos will be able to meet those outstanding concerns," she said.
Sydney's Taronga Zoo says it will fulfil the tribunal's demands.
Taronga Zoo director Guy Cooper says if all goes well with the tribunal, the elephants will arrive after Easter.
"They have undertaken to give us a final decision on the 16th of this month," he said.
"In the meantime ... we'll be working towards getting any questions that they want finalised and to them by that time, they have made the comment that they do believe the permits should be granted."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1526327.htm
Zoos perfect the art of panda breeding
By D'Vera Cohn
The Washington Post
JESSIE COHEN, SMITHSONIAN / THE WASHINGTON POST
National Zoo veterinarians Suzan Murray, left, Sharon Deem and Ellen Bronson anesthetize Mei Xiang for artificial insemination in March. Until her cub Tai Shan was born in July, doctors were not sure the procedure was successful.
WASHINGTON — The National Zoo's giant-panda cub, Tai Shan, didn't just happen — he was brought to you by scientists who spent years of study before they mastered a specialized bit of artificial insemination.
A recent surge in giant-panda science is helping zoos get more animals pregnant, diagnose when they are expecting and put to rest the long-held belief that pandas are poor breeders. The research is producing insights into how pandas communicate, how mothers raise their young and how the animals look for food.
The ultimate goal is to increase the giant panda's chances in the wilds of China, where only about 1,600 remain, threatened mainly by the loss of bamboo forests to logging and development. Scientists are studying the panda's basic survival needs and are trying to build up the number of captive animals so that some could be set loose in potential panda territory.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002673224_panda09.html
A Cub Born of Technology
Panda, Who Meets Public Today, Is Offspring of Years of Study
By D'Vera Cohn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 8, 2005; Page B01
The National Zoo's giant panda cub, Tai Shan, didn't just happen -- he was brought to you by scientists who spent years studying the intimate details of black-and-white bear biology before they mastered artificial insemination.
A recent surge in giant panda science is helping zoos get more animals pregnant, diagnose when they are expecting and put to rest the long-held belief that pandas are poor breeders. The research is producing insights into how pandas communicate, how mothers raise their young and how the animals look for food.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120702455.html
Cub inspires 'awws' at zoo
Cub Tai Shan is one of only 1,400 to 1,600 giant pandas in the world. He will live at the National Zoo until age 2, then be taken to China to help perpetuate the species.
The National Zoo is at 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
Hours: Open daily except Christmas Day. Hours through April 1, 2006 are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (grounds) and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (buildings)
Admission: Free
Phone: (202) 633-4800
Web site: www.nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Giantpandas/default.cfm
Note: Tickets to see Tai Shan have been distributed, but each day at 8 a.m., the National Zoo will make available approximately 60 tickets at the panda information booth. Visitors receiving these passes will not be able to specify what time they'd like to see the panda.
Friday, December 9, 2005
By CHUCK DARROW
Courier-Post Staff
It's panda-monium in the nation's capital as Tai Shan, the recently born giant panda cub, made his debut Thursday at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
How hot is the black-and-white baby who was born July 9 to Mei Xiang (pronounced May Shong)?
Absolutely smokin': All 13,000 public tickets to see 5-month-old Tai Shan (pronounced ty-SHUN) between now and Jan. 2 were snapped up in just two hours weeks before he went on public display.
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051209/NEWS01/512090380/1006
City zoo bosses go ape over plan to let MSPs ban animals
IAN SWANSON SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR
BOSSES at Edinburgh Zoo fear new legislation going through the Scottish Parliament may damage their work and put them at a disadvantage with zoos south of the Border.
The Royal Scottish Zoological Society has told MSPs it is "greatly concerned" about a proposal to give the Scottish Executive powers to ban the keeping of certain species. And it claims the move could harm the national and international work done by Scotland's only zoo on animal conservation.
http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=2365872005
Zoo Officials Ready For Pandamonium
Online Tickets Are Sold Out
POSTED: 6:59 am EST December 8, 2005
UPDATED: 6:35 pm EST December 8, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Thursday was the first time the general public got to see Tai Shan, the new baby panda cub at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.
Since his birth on July 9, Tai Shan has been viewed online more than 7 million times on a "panda cam".
Friday, the panda cub will be 5 months old. He currently weighs 22 pounds.
A few thousand special guests and members of the media have already seen the black-and-white cub up close. But, Thursday marked the first time members of the general public have been allowed to file through the exhibit area.
Zoo officials said the allotment of online tickets sold out quickly.
Officials also said 60 same-day tickets will be handed out starting at 8 a.m. each morning, and they're expected to go quickly. There will be five tickets for each 10-minute viewing slot.
http://www.nbc4.com/news/5490674/detail.html
Lion at Rome zoo is treated for arthritis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROME -- Veterinarians have treated an elderly lion in Rome's zoo for arthritis by inserting some 50 gold pellets into the animal's muscles, the zoo's chief veterinarian said Wednesday.
The Asian lion, named Bellamy, had difficulty walking until the procedure two weeks ago in which 24-karat gold pellets each measuring 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) in diameter were inserted, Klaus Gunther Friedrich said.
"We implanted gold into his spinal muscles and near the joints," he said, adding that gold helps to relieve muscle contraction around painful areas.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Italy_Arthritic_Lion.html
Investors seek zoo bid renegotiation
Attorney says group will default otherwise
By Tim Carpenter
The Capital-Journal
The high bidder for Topeka Zoo's defunct animal breeding farm intends to default on a contract to pay $600,000 for the property, lawyers said Wednesday.
Arthur Glassman, an attorney for investors associated with Innovative Consulting Inc., of Topeka, said his clients couldn't obtain bank loans to finance the deal for 148 acres southwest of Topeka adorned with ponds, storage buildings and a tall chain-link fence surrounding half the property.
"It can't be financed at the price it has been bid," Glassman said. "The buyer will be in a position of defaulting on the contract."
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/120805/loc_zoo.shtml
Pet bear headed to California zoo
By The Associated Press
GRANTS PASS — A California zoo is getting a Windfall from Oregon — a live one, at that.
“Windfall’’ is the name given to the 2-year-old bear, formerly kept illegally at a home near Coos Bay. State wildlife officials said the bear is headed to the Applegate Park and Zoo in Merced, Calif., which houses animals that cannot be released to the wild.
“We feel good taking the bear to the Applegate Park and Zoo,’’ said Ron Anglin, Wildlife Division administrator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We needed to make sure the bear had the highest quality standard of care, and with our counterparts in California recommending this facility, it’s a good decision.’’
The Oregon State Police in late October removed the bear from the home of Rocky and Jonathan Perkett of Allegany, after the father and son had brought up the bear as a cub.
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/12/09/news/oregon/friore06.txt
Phoenix Zoo works to pacify its pachyderms
Zoo teaching elephants to co-exist
Katie Ruark
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 9, 2005 12:00 AM
You wouldn't know it by looking at them, and it's certainly not something you'd see on the sign in front of their exhibit, but the Phoenix Zoo's elephants all have storied pasts.
All three of the zoo's Asian elephants are former circus animals with at least one incident of hurting someone. Reba, the zoo's most aggressive elephant, killed a Ringling Brothers trainer in 1993 when she knocked him down and stepped on him.
"Most zoos would shy away from having these elephants," said Geoffery Hall, the zoo's executive vice president of Living Collections.
advertisement
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1209phxelephants09.html
Zoo Welcomes Female Orangutan 'Violet'
POSTED: 4:25 pm HST December 8, 2005
UPDATED: 5:16 pm HST December 8, 2005
HONOLULU -- The Honolulu Zoo showed off Violet, the female orangutan brought there to be the companion of Rusti, for the first time Thursday.
Violet is little, about half the size of Rusti.
She is alone now in the zoo's new $700,000 orangutan enclosure. Violet will remain in quarantine for 30 days. Then, zookeepers will bring Rusti over to join her.
"We are hoping that it will be a very good match -- Match.com, one of those things," orangutan keeper Malia Davis said, laughing.
"Once we put them together, things can change and, of course, we are going to be monitoring that. If anything happens, we lock them up again and slowly introduce them," supervisor Maurice Bolosan said.
Violet and Rusti are in their 20s, so they will have a couple of decades of life together since orangutans can live to about age 50. They will not have offspring because both are neutered.
Violet arrived in Hawaii from the San Diego Zoo. The Honolulu Zoo Society and private donors paid for the new enclosure.
http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/5497166/detail.html
Private zoo owner says unruly tiger put to death in Foley
Associated Press
FOLEY, Ala. - A private zoo operator said a woman who wanted to give his 450-pound Bengal tiger a new home in Tennessee didn't contact him until after he had euthanized the animal.
Joe Higginbotham, owner of Kids Country Zoo in Foley, said the 2-year-old male tiger became dangerous and continually tried to break out of its cage. Higginbotham said he had searched for a suitable home for the animal, but no one wanted it.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/13362511.htm
Memorable, successful zoos are a work in progress
"We're in the job of creating memories," says the director of the Virginia Zoo.
By Marques G. Harper
Traditionally zoos have a vested interest in the preservation of animals and conservation efforts.
However, in this day of Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park and "Fear Factor"-style entertainment, an amount of marketing savvy also is necessary to attract zoo visitors.
"Zoos are just not about animals," said Lewis Greene, director of the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. "We're in the job of creating memories."
Greene said people typically experience the zoo four times: as a toddler, as a student, as a parent and as a grandparent. Therefore, any zoo should want to distinguish itself from any other destination in the area, Greene said.
The Virginia Zoo attracts 300,000 visitors a year. Greene considers that number to be acceptable, but hopes to raise it with special events, once-a-year programs and a planned expansion.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-42270
Feeding the animals coming back to zoos
Tampa, Fla. November 13, 2005 12:01:13 AM IST
Zoos across the country are warming up to the idea of letting visitors feed the animals as a marketing and educational tool.
At Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla., visitors pay $2 to feed crackers to giraffes, the Dallas Morning News reports.
That's done from platform that puts the visitors at eye level with the giraffes.
Zoo CEO Lex Salisbury said it provides a great experience that gets kids up close to the tall animal, witness the 18-inch tongue and smell its breath.
Chuck Siegel, deputy director of animal management at the Dallas Zoo, would like to make it more educational.
That zoo is contemplating a change from the past where feeding an animal was prohibited.
He wants to incorporate it with a guided tour or class.
Animal feeding was once common in zoos but ended when biologists worried about the affect on animals' health.
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=160720&cat=World
Feeding animals big lure at zoos
Some claim a close encounter is a way to outdo TV nature shows
By DAVID FLICK
Dallas Morning News
DALLAS - The newest endangered species at zoos these days might be the signs that read, "Please don't feed the animals."
An increasing number of zoos across the country are not just allowing but encouraging visitors to feed birds, fish or even such marquee attractions as giraffes and rhinos. Some are charging a fee to do so.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3455957.html
Zoos on watch for avian flu
Lincoln Park official helps organize effort
By William Mullen
Tribune staff reporter
November 13, 2005
As the nation and the city try to gird for the possible invasion of a deadly and all but invisible avian flu, zoos nationwide are volunteering for duty as sentinels.
There are others keeping watch, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which monitors farm animals for the disease, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which looks at wildlife.
But the 210 accredited zoos in the U.S. are particularly useful because at least one is near every major population center, and they house diverse animal populations that are under close daily observation by keepers alert to abrupt health changes.
If zoo animals are stricken, officials said, keepers will know almost immediately, and the information will be passed into the national monitoring system.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/chi-0511130406nov13,0,3398741.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines
Zoo Tycoon 2 ships for the Mac
By Peter Cohen
It’s time to monkey around, because MacSoft has announced that it’s shipping Zoo Tycoon 2 for the Macintosh, a strategy game that puts you in charge of a zoo. It’s available for US$39.99 and should hit store shelves this week.
The Macintosh conversion of Zoo Tycoon 2 includes a special bonus — a DVD featuring film segments and trivial from National Geographic’s “Totally Wild” series.
In Zoo Tycoon 2, you build and operate your own zoo, doing everything from setting up the exhibits (making sure the environments are right for the animals, for example), to setting up concession and souvenir stands for the patrons, to making sure the park is well run with maintenance staff and animal caretakers.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/12/08/zootycoon2/index.php
continued ...
SeaWorld will send 4 whales to zoo
The young killer whales will be sent to Loro Parque, a zoo in the Canary Islands.
Jerry W. Jackson Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted December 9, 2005
SeaWorld Orlando and its sister park in San Antonio are making final preparations to transport four young killer whales to a zoological park in the Canary Islands.
SeaWorld Orlando recently welcomed the birth of a killer whale, bringing the total there to 10, and the three SeaWorlds nationwide are brimming with two dozen orcas. So the parks have enough that they can safely share four with the Loro Parque zoological park at Tenerife, said Fred Jacobs, spokesman for Busch Entertainment Corp., parent of the SeaWorld parks.
"We've known them for a long time, and they do an excellent job," Jacobs said of Loro Parque, a privately owned facility that features sea lions, dolphins, alligators, parrots and land animals but no killer whales.
Jacobs said Loro Parque trainers have been at SeaWorld in San Antonio for about the past year, learning to care for and train the big black-and-white sea mammals. A 7 million-gallon pool is under construction at Loro Parque to house the animals.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orange/orl-seaworld0905dec09,0,516477.story?coll=orl-news-headlines-orange
Police raid estate where lions and tigers hunted
08.12.05 4.20pm
By Elizabeth Nash
MADRID - Police have raided an illegal safari park on a remote private estate in western Spain where huntsmen pursued exotic protected species including lions and tigers.
The lions and tigers had apparently been bought clandestinely from a travelling circus by owners of the estate who organised the hunt.
A lion and a tiger found alive were taken away yesterday by an animal protection society, and one tiger already dead was carried away for incineration.
Seven men were detained on charges of hunting endangered species, police said, and face three years in jail and an eight-year ban on hunting if found guilty.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359041
Zoos to answer questions on elephant facilities
Sydney's Taronga Zoo and the Melbourne Zoo will return to a tribunal today to provide additional evidence in support of a proposed elephant importation program.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has approved the importation of eight elephants from Thailand on the condition that the zoos satisfy questions raised about the conditions and facilities the elephants will be kept in.
The case will be mentioned in Sydney today, to set a time to hear the evidence next week.
The importation program was being challenged by a coalition of animal welfare groups and Nicola Beynon from the Humane Society says the tribunal has not completely dismissed their arguments.
"They've said that they do have outstanding concerns that go to the laws, that go to the animal welfare needs of the elephants and we need to see whether the zoos will be able to meet those outstanding concerns," she said.
Sydney's Taronga Zoo says it will fulfil the tribunal's demands.
Taronga Zoo director Guy Cooper says if all goes well with the tribunal, the elephants will arrive after Easter.
"They have undertaken to give us a final decision on the 16th of this month," he said.
"In the meantime ... we'll be working towards getting any questions that they want finalised and to them by that time, they have made the comment that they do believe the permits should be granted."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1526327.htm
Tribunal clears way for zoo to import elephants
Matt Cunningham
08dec05
MELBOURNE will probably be home to three Asian elephants after a tribunal decision yesterday cleared the way for their import.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal ruled that bringing the elephants from Thailand would not breach any laws, after animal welfare groups appealed against the planned importation.
The female elephants will make their home at the Melbourne Zoo, where they will enjoy the surroundings of the zoo's Trail of the Elephants exhibit.
There are already two Asian elephants at the zoo, but none have been imported since cow Mek Kapah and bull Bong Su came to Melbourne 25 years ago.
They are now set to be joined by Num-Oi, 4, Dokkoon, 12 and Kulab, 5.
The zoo's new additions are part of a group of eight that could now call Australia home, with the other five -- four cows and one bull -- bound for Sydney's Taronga Park Zoo.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,17495965%5E2862,00.html
Zoos to answer questions on elephant facilities
Sydney's Taronga Zoo and the Melbourne Zoo will return to a tribunal today to provide additional evidence in support of a proposed elephant importation program.
The Administrative Appeals Tribunal has approved the importation of eight elephants from Thailand on the condition that the zoos satisfy questions raised about the conditions and facilities the elephants will be kept in.
The case will be mentioned in Sydney today, to set a time to hear the evidence next week.
The importation program was being challenged by a coalition of animal welfare groups and Nicola Beynon from the Humane Society says the tribunal has not completely dismissed their arguments.
"They've said that they do have outstanding concerns that go to the laws, that go to the animal welfare needs of the elephants and we need to see whether the zoos will be able to meet those outstanding concerns," she said.
Sydney's Taronga Zoo says it will fulfil the tribunal's demands.
Taronga Zoo director Guy Cooper says if all goes well with the tribunal, the elephants will arrive after Easter.
"They have undertaken to give us a final decision on the 16th of this month," he said.
"In the meantime ... we'll be working towards getting any questions that they want finalised and to them by that time, they have made the comment that they do believe the permits should be granted."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200512/s1526327.htm
Zoos perfect the art of panda breeding
By D'Vera Cohn
The Washington Post
JESSIE COHEN, SMITHSONIAN / THE WASHINGTON POST
National Zoo veterinarians Suzan Murray, left, Sharon Deem and Ellen Bronson anesthetize Mei Xiang for artificial insemination in March. Until her cub Tai Shan was born in July, doctors were not sure the procedure was successful.
WASHINGTON — The National Zoo's giant-panda cub, Tai Shan, didn't just happen — he was brought to you by scientists who spent years of study before they mastered a specialized bit of artificial insemination.
A recent surge in giant-panda science is helping zoos get more animals pregnant, diagnose when they are expecting and put to rest the long-held belief that pandas are poor breeders. The research is producing insights into how pandas communicate, how mothers raise their young and how the animals look for food.
The ultimate goal is to increase the giant panda's chances in the wilds of China, where only about 1,600 remain, threatened mainly by the loss of bamboo forests to logging and development. Scientists are studying the panda's basic survival needs and are trying to build up the number of captive animals so that some could be set loose in potential panda territory.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002673224_panda09.html
A Cub Born of Technology
Panda, Who Meets Public Today, Is Offspring of Years of Study
By D'Vera Cohn
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 8, 2005; Page B01
The National Zoo's giant panda cub, Tai Shan, didn't just happen -- he was brought to you by scientists who spent years studying the intimate details of black-and-white bear biology before they mastered artificial insemination.
A recent surge in giant panda science is helping zoos get more animals pregnant, diagnose when they are expecting and put to rest the long-held belief that pandas are poor breeders. The research is producing insights into how pandas communicate, how mothers raise their young and how the animals look for food.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/07/AR2005120702455.html
Cub inspires 'awws' at zoo
Cub Tai Shan is one of only 1,400 to 1,600 giant pandas in the world. He will live at the National Zoo until age 2, then be taken to China to help perpetuate the species.
The National Zoo is at 3001 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.
Hours: Open daily except Christmas Day. Hours through April 1, 2006 are 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. (grounds) and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. (buildings)
Admission: Free
Phone: (202) 633-4800
Web site: www.nationalzoo.si.edu/Animals/Giantpandas/default.cfm
Note: Tickets to see Tai Shan have been distributed, but each day at 8 a.m., the National Zoo will make available approximately 60 tickets at the panda information booth. Visitors receiving these passes will not be able to specify what time they'd like to see the panda.
Friday, December 9, 2005
By CHUCK DARROW
Courier-Post Staff
It's panda-monium in the nation's capital as Tai Shan, the recently born giant panda cub, made his debut Thursday at the National Zoo in Washington, D.C.
How hot is the black-and-white baby who was born July 9 to Mei Xiang (pronounced May Shong)?
Absolutely smokin': All 13,000 public tickets to see 5-month-old Tai Shan (pronounced ty-SHUN) between now and Jan. 2 were snapped up in just two hours weeks before he went on public display.
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051209/NEWS01/512090380/1006
City zoo bosses go ape over plan to let MSPs ban animals
IAN SWANSON SCOTTISH POLITICAL EDITOR
BOSSES at Edinburgh Zoo fear new legislation going through the Scottish Parliament may damage their work and put them at a disadvantage with zoos south of the Border.
The Royal Scottish Zoological Society has told MSPs it is "greatly concerned" about a proposal to give the Scottish Executive powers to ban the keeping of certain species. And it claims the move could harm the national and international work done by Scotland's only zoo on animal conservation.
http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=2365872005
Zoo Officials Ready For Pandamonium
Online Tickets Are Sold Out
POSTED: 6:59 am EST December 8, 2005
UPDATED: 6:35 pm EST December 8, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Thursday was the first time the general public got to see Tai Shan, the new baby panda cub at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park.
Since his birth on July 9, Tai Shan has been viewed online more than 7 million times on a "panda cam".
Friday, the panda cub will be 5 months old. He currently weighs 22 pounds.
A few thousand special guests and members of the media have already seen the black-and-white cub up close. But, Thursday marked the first time members of the general public have been allowed to file through the exhibit area.
Zoo officials said the allotment of online tickets sold out quickly.
Officials also said 60 same-day tickets will be handed out starting at 8 a.m. each morning, and they're expected to go quickly. There will be five tickets for each 10-minute viewing slot.
http://www.nbc4.com/news/5490674/detail.html
Lion at Rome zoo is treated for arthritis
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROME -- Veterinarians have treated an elderly lion in Rome's zoo for arthritis by inserting some 50 gold pellets into the animal's muscles, the zoo's chief veterinarian said Wednesday.
The Asian lion, named Bellamy, had difficulty walking until the procedure two weeks ago in which 24-karat gold pellets each measuring 1 millimeter (0.04 inches) in diameter were inserted, Klaus Gunther Friedrich said.
"We implanted gold into his spinal muscles and near the joints," he said, adding that gold helps to relieve muscle contraction around painful areas.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1103AP_Italy_Arthritic_Lion.html
Investors seek zoo bid renegotiation
Attorney says group will default otherwise
By Tim Carpenter
The Capital-Journal
The high bidder for Topeka Zoo's defunct animal breeding farm intends to default on a contract to pay $600,000 for the property, lawyers said Wednesday.
Arthur Glassman, an attorney for investors associated with Innovative Consulting Inc., of Topeka, said his clients couldn't obtain bank loans to finance the deal for 148 acres southwest of Topeka adorned with ponds, storage buildings and a tall chain-link fence surrounding half the property.
"It can't be financed at the price it has been bid," Glassman said. "The buyer will be in a position of defaulting on the contract."
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/120805/loc_zoo.shtml
Pet bear headed to California zoo
By The Associated Press
GRANTS PASS — A California zoo is getting a Windfall from Oregon — a live one, at that.
“Windfall’’ is the name given to the 2-year-old bear, formerly kept illegally at a home near Coos Bay. State wildlife officials said the bear is headed to the Applegate Park and Zoo in Merced, Calif., which houses animals that cannot be released to the wild.
“We feel good taking the bear to the Applegate Park and Zoo,’’ said Ron Anglin, Wildlife Division administrator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. “We needed to make sure the bear had the highest quality standard of care, and with our counterparts in California recommending this facility, it’s a good decision.’’
The Oregon State Police in late October removed the bear from the home of Rocky and Jonathan Perkett of Allegany, after the father and son had brought up the bear as a cub.
http://www.gazettetimes.com/articles/2005/12/09/news/oregon/friore06.txt
Phoenix Zoo works to pacify its pachyderms
Zoo teaching elephants to co-exist
Katie Ruark
The Arizona Republic
Dec. 9, 2005 12:00 AM
You wouldn't know it by looking at them, and it's certainly not something you'd see on the sign in front of their exhibit, but the Phoenix Zoo's elephants all have storied pasts.
All three of the zoo's Asian elephants are former circus animals with at least one incident of hurting someone. Reba, the zoo's most aggressive elephant, killed a Ringling Brothers trainer in 1993 when she knocked him down and stepped on him.
"Most zoos would shy away from having these elephants," said Geoffery Hall, the zoo's executive vice president of Living Collections.
advertisement
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/1209phxelephants09.html
Zoo Welcomes Female Orangutan 'Violet'
POSTED: 4:25 pm HST December 8, 2005
UPDATED: 5:16 pm HST December 8, 2005
HONOLULU -- The Honolulu Zoo showed off Violet, the female orangutan brought there to be the companion of Rusti, for the first time Thursday.
Violet is little, about half the size of Rusti.
She is alone now in the zoo's new $700,000 orangutan enclosure. Violet will remain in quarantine for 30 days. Then, zookeepers will bring Rusti over to join her.
"We are hoping that it will be a very good match -- Match.com, one of those things," orangutan keeper Malia Davis said, laughing.
"Once we put them together, things can change and, of course, we are going to be monitoring that. If anything happens, we lock them up again and slowly introduce them," supervisor Maurice Bolosan said.
Violet and Rusti are in their 20s, so they will have a couple of decades of life together since orangutans can live to about age 50. They will not have offspring because both are neutered.
Violet arrived in Hawaii from the San Diego Zoo. The Honolulu Zoo Society and private donors paid for the new enclosure.
http://www.thehawaiichannel.com/news/5497166/detail.html
Private zoo owner says unruly tiger put to death in Foley
Associated Press
FOLEY, Ala. - A private zoo operator said a woman who wanted to give his 450-pound Bengal tiger a new home in Tennessee didn't contact him until after he had euthanized the animal.
Joe Higginbotham, owner of Kids Country Zoo in Foley, said the 2-year-old male tiger became dangerous and continually tried to break out of its cage. Higginbotham said he had searched for a suitable home for the animal, but no one wanted it.
http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/news/local/13362511.htm
Memorable, successful zoos are a work in progress
"We're in the job of creating memories," says the director of the Virginia Zoo.
By Marques G. Harper
Traditionally zoos have a vested interest in the preservation of animals and conservation efforts.
However, in this day of Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park and "Fear Factor"-style entertainment, an amount of marketing savvy also is necessary to attract zoo visitors.
"Zoos are just not about animals," said Lewis Greene, director of the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk. "We're in the job of creating memories."
Greene said people typically experience the zoo four times: as a toddler, as a student, as a parent and as a grandparent. Therefore, any zoo should want to distinguish itself from any other destination in the area, Greene said.
The Virginia Zoo attracts 300,000 visitors a year. Greene considers that number to be acceptable, but hopes to raise it with special events, once-a-year programs and a planned expansion.
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/wb/xp-42270
Feeding the animals coming back to zoos
Tampa, Fla. November 13, 2005 12:01:13 AM IST
Zoos across the country are warming up to the idea of letting visitors feed the animals as a marketing and educational tool.
At Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Fla., visitors pay $2 to feed crackers to giraffes, the Dallas Morning News reports.
That's done from platform that puts the visitors at eye level with the giraffes.
Zoo CEO Lex Salisbury said it provides a great experience that gets kids up close to the tall animal, witness the 18-inch tongue and smell its breath.
Chuck Siegel, deputy director of animal management at the Dallas Zoo, would like to make it more educational.
That zoo is contemplating a change from the past where feeding an animal was prohibited.
He wants to incorporate it with a guided tour or class.
Animal feeding was once common in zoos but ended when biologists worried about the affect on animals' health.
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=160720&cat=World
Feeding animals big lure at zoos
Some claim a close encounter is a way to outdo TV nature shows
By DAVID FLICK
Dallas Morning News
DALLAS - The newest endangered species at zoos these days might be the signs that read, "Please don't feed the animals."
An increasing number of zoos across the country are not just allowing but encouraging visitors to feed birds, fish or even such marquee attractions as giraffes and rhinos. Some are charging a fee to do so.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3455957.html
Zoos on watch for avian flu
Lincoln Park official helps organize effort
By William Mullen
Tribune staff reporter
November 13, 2005
As the nation and the city try to gird for the possible invasion of a deadly and all but invisible avian flu, zoos nationwide are volunteering for duty as sentinels.
There are others keeping watch, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which monitors farm animals for the disease, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which looks at wildlife.
But the 210 accredited zoos in the U.S. are particularly useful because at least one is near every major population center, and they house diverse animal populations that are under close daily observation by keepers alert to abrupt health changes.
If zoo animals are stricken, officials said, keepers will know almost immediately, and the information will be passed into the national monitoring system.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/chi-0511130406nov13,0,3398741.story?coll=ny-leadnationalnews-headlines
Zoo Tycoon 2 ships for the Mac
By Peter Cohen
It’s time to monkey around, because MacSoft has announced that it’s shipping Zoo Tycoon 2 for the Macintosh, a strategy game that puts you in charge of a zoo. It’s available for US$39.99 and should hit store shelves this week.
The Macintosh conversion of Zoo Tycoon 2 includes a special bonus — a DVD featuring film segments and trivial from National Geographic’s “Totally Wild” series.
In Zoo Tycoon 2, you build and operate your own zoo, doing everything from setting up the exhibits (making sure the environments are right for the animals, for example), to setting up concession and souvenir stands for the patrons, to making sure the park is well run with maintenance staff and animal caretakers.
http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/12/08/zootycoon2/index.php
continued ...
December 9, 2005.
Infrared image of the North Pacific Vortex (there are two vortices in this image) near Alaska and Western Canada.
See what happens is that these vortices move tropical aire to the ice areas of Earth to cool a very hot planet. Earth is hot because of the dense layers of CO2 (carbon dioxide).
It is hard to believe it's in the forties at Palmer, Alaska.
December 8, 2005.
Palmer, Alaska.
Windy and 46 degrees Fahrenheit states photographer.
1:53 AM AKST on December 09, 2005
Observed At: Palmer, Alaska
Elevation: 246 ft / 75 m
44 °F / 7 °C
Scattered Clouds
Windchill: 36 °F / 2 °C
Humidity: 58%
Dew Point: 30 °F / -1 °C
Wind: 18 mph / 30 km/h from the SE
Wind Gust: 31 mph / 50 km/h
Morning Papers - concluded
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Wind Chime) is no longer freezing:
Scott Base
Cloudy
1.0°
Updated Friday 09 Dec 9:59PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
45 °F / 7 °C
Overcast
FRIDAY...MORNING FOG. RAIN DEVELOPING...HEAVY AT TIMES IN THEAFTERNOON. BREEZY. HIGHS AROUND 42. SOUTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 25 MPH.CHANCE OF RAIN 100 PERCENT.
FRIDAY NIGHT...RAIN...HEAVY AT TIMES. BREEZY. LOWS AROUND 40.SOUTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 25 MPH. CHANCE OF RAIN 100 PERCENT.
Windchill:
41 °F / 5 °C
Humidity:
76%
Dew Point:
37 °F / 3 °C
Wind:
6 mph / 9 km/h from the SSW
Pressure:
29.92 in / 1013 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 2700 ft / 822 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Scott Base
Cloudy
1.0°
Updated Friday 09 Dec 9:59PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
45 °F / 7 °C
Overcast
FRIDAY...MORNING FOG. RAIN DEVELOPING...HEAVY AT TIMES IN THEAFTERNOON. BREEZY. HIGHS AROUND 42. SOUTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 25 MPH.CHANCE OF RAIN 100 PERCENT.
FRIDAY NIGHT...RAIN...HEAVY AT TIMES. BREEZY. LOWS AROUND 40.SOUTHEAST WINDS 15 TO 25 MPH. CHANCE OF RAIN 100 PERCENT.
Windchill:
41 °F / 5 °C
Humidity:
76%
Dew Point:
37 °F / 3 °C
Wind:
6 mph / 9 km/h from the SSW
Pressure:
29.92 in / 1013 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Overcast 2700 ft / 822 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Wednesday, December 07, 2005
December 7, 2005. To complete the picture. This is the Pacific.
December 7, 2005.
0732 pm est.
There is an entire votrex in the Southern Hemisphere that nearly completes a circle. A bit of a supercell if you will.
The Northern Hemisphere is dominated by the North Polar Vortex extending to the equator delivering frigid aire.
On Line Conversion Calculators (Click On)
You are welcome to use the coding for this calculator on your website in its entirety, or to strip it down to suit your own formats. An acknowledgement by way of a link to www.online-calculators.co.uk would be appreciated but is not a requirement.
View Code for Centigrade to Fahrenheit Conversion Calculator
View Code for Centigrade to Fahrenheit Conversion Calculator
Too cold for Santa's Reindeer to Fly !
December 6, 2005.
Westminster, Colorado
Zero Below Fahrenheit.
December 7, 2005.
1330z.
Wow. The Two Vortices are huge. I've never seen them this prominent with a reach across a hemisphere. The North Pacific and North Atlantic Vortex.
Kindly note below the temperature map. There is a severe change in mercury temperature as soon as one looks south of the influence of these vortices.
Now.
One has to ask. Do these vortices bring hot aire are up or cold air down? Where is the cold aire coming from? The Arctic Ocean. How can an ocean of ice distribute all those calories to southern latitudes without eventually disappearing? The European picture is not of frigid aire. Iceland is warm compared to this in the forties. The Arctic Circle is above freezing on this 7th day of December 2005.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)