The Rooster
Friday, January 26, 2007
Morning Papers
Michael Moore Today
Escalate Yourself This Weekend!
Anti-War Groups Plan Surge on Washington
By Aaron Glantz / IPS
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 24 - Peace activists from around the United States will converge on Washington Saturday for what organisers hope will be the largest demonstration to date against the Iraq war.
"We expect a turnout in the six figures," said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman who now runs the group Win Without War, which is organising the march along with True Majority, Working Assets, the RainbowPUSH Coalition, the National Organisation for Women and the national umbrella group United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ).
UFPJ's Leslie Cagan told IPS that the level of energy in the antiwar movement has spiked since the November election, when voters ended Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
"The voters of this country figured out that they could use the November elections as a vehicle to voice their opposition to the war," Cagan said. "What happened there was that the voters gave Congress a mandate to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9079
"...the voters gave Congress a mandate to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home."
"The 110th Congress must stand up to the president."
United for Peace and Justice
March on Washington, January 27, 2007
Assemble on the National Mall,
between 3rd and 7th Streets, at 11 am.
Rally 11am-1pm.
March will kick off at 1pm.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
MARCH ROUTE, MAPS & LOGISTICS
Weather: Predicted to be 48 F and sunny! However, because there might be some precipitation in Washington, DC, before Saturday, the Mall could be a little muddy. So you may wish to wear boots, or at least bring an extra pair of socks.
Confirmed speakers: Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Danny Glover, Jane Fonda, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Reps. Kucinich, Waters, and Woolsey, Bob Watada, and more ...
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
Transportation Center for January 27
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ride.php
Have Housing
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/housing.php
Spread the Word About the January 27th Mobilization!
On Jan. 27, 2007, we are bringing the Mandate for Peace to Washington DC. You can help ensure that the new Congress gets the message by spreading the word far and wide. Help us make this the biggest and loudest demonstration for peace possible!
Here's how you can get involved:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3437
Jan. 27-29 Schedule of Events
Below is a schedule for the events of the Jan. 27-29 mobilization in Washington DC. Further details will be added as they are finalized, so please keep checking back here.
EVENTS ORGANIZED BY UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE (Please scroll down for information on the Interfaith Service, the Veterans For Peace action on Thursday, CodePink's Walk in Their Shoes installation, and other actions being organized during the weekend.)
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3489
Jan. 27 March Route, Parking, Logistics, What to Bring, Etc.
Scroll down and look to the right-hand side of the page for a link to a printer-friendly version of this page.)
MAP OF ASSEMBLY AREA
Click here to download a map of the assembly area on the Mall, and contingent formation locations.
MARCH ROUTE
After an arduous and long process of negotiating with the U.S. Capitol Police, a final route for the march on Jan. 27th has been agreed to. Here are the details:
1 pm -- March steps off from 3rd Street and Jefferson Drive, NW. We will take 3rd Street north to Constitution, the east on Constitution to 1st Street, NE, then south to East Capital Street. At that point we will make a U-turn in the street and head north on 1st Street to Constitution. The march will proceed west on Constitution to 1st Street, NW, where we will head south, passing between the Reflecting Pool and the West Lawn of the Capitol. The march will pick up Maryland Ave., heading west until it intersects with Independence and then going west to 4th Street. We will then turn north on 4th and end up back on the Mall.
Yes, the march will double back on itself. This means that unlike other marches, most of us will have a chance to see and be inspired by the stream of contingents from all over the nation. We will be on three sides of the Capitol building sending our message loud and clear: This war must end now!
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3499
Democratic senators won't join Iraq war protest in Washington
By Jeff Zeleny / International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON -- Tens of thousands of demonstrators are set to arrive in the capital this weekend for the largest anti-war march since Democrats gained control of Congress, staging the first of several protests to persuade lawmakers to do more than simply speak out against President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq.
But do not look for senators to be standing among the protesters on the National Mall. Despite the consensus building around a resolution to oppose sending more troops to Iraq, even the most liberal among Democratic senators do not appear eager to align themselves with a traditional anti-war protest.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9087
Cheney increasingly on the defensive
By Ron Hutcheson / McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney, often considered the hidden power behind the White House throne, is increasingly out in the open and on the defensive.
He's scheduled to testify at the perjury trial of his former top aide; congressional Democrats want to probe his role in the White House; and his unprecedented clout may be waning. Once widely considered a source of wisdom and experience in the White House, the vice president has become a frequent target of criticism.
On Wednesday, a testy Cheney sparred with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer over Iraq and al-Qaida and insisted that Bush administration policies have succeeded in both cases. While he's acknowledged mistakes in Iraq, he bristled when Blitzer suggested that Cheney had lost credibility because of blunders there.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9070
The Boston Globe
North Pole temperature exceeds Boston's
By Michael Grillo
Boston.com Staff
January 26, 2007
Looking to get some relief from today's icy cold temperatures? Take a trip to Anchorage, Alaska or even the North Pole.
Both locations today reached a balmy 24 and 10.5 degrees, respectively, compared to Boston's high of 12 degrees.
Bostonians are feeling the chill of single-digit temperatures with wind chills as low as -15 degrees as an arctic air mass makes its way through the region.
Temperatures in the single-digits swept into many New England cities this morning: 3 in Worcester; 9 in Hartford, Conn.; 3 in Concord, N.H.; and -3 in Bangor, Maine.
International Falls, located near the Canadian border in Minnesota and notorious for some of America's coldest weather, was 23 degrees at about 11 a.m. Even the Arctic was considerably warmer than New England: the temperature in Nuuk, a city on the coast of Greenland, reached 36 degrees today.
In Europe, it was 21 degrees in Prague; 30 in Helsinki, Finland; 28 in Oslo, Norway; and 30 in Geneva, Switzerland.
But if those hot spots don't warm your cockles, check out flights to the Bahamas (73 degrees) or Buenos Aires where it's summer and a pleasant 71.
http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2007/01/26/north_pole_temperature_exceeds_bostons/?p1=MEWell_Pos1
Troops died after, not in, sneak attack
By Steven R. Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra
Associated Press Writers
January 26, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq --Four American soldiers were abducted during a sophisticated sneak attack last week in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and their bodies were found up to 25 miles away, according to new information obtained by The Associated Press.
The brazen assault, 50 miles south of Baghdad on Jan. 20, was conducted by nine to 12 militants posing as an American security team. They traveled in black GMC Suburban vehicles -- the type used by U.S. government convoys -- had American weapons, wore new U.S. military combat fatigues, and spoke English.
In a written statement, the U.S. command reported at the time that five soldiers were killed while "repelling the attack." Now, two senior U.S. military officials as well as Iraqi officials say four of the five were captured and taken from the governor's compound alive. Three of them were found dead and one mortally wounded later that evening in locations as far as 25 miles east of the governor's office.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/01/26/us_soldiers_not_killed_in_sneak_attack/
Cold turns boiling water to snow and keeps the MBTA up all night
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Amanda I. Bergeron, Globe Correspondent
On days as cold as today on the top of Mount Washington, a pan of boiling water thrown into the air will turn to snow before it hits the ground.
Crowbars used to clear ice off meteorological instruments snap in half like twigs.
Neil Lareau, the weather observer on duty today atop the mountain, wore three ski-masks, a pair of goggles, and a Gore-Tex hood just to step outside to take the temperature.
That's because a new record low for Jan. 26 was set today at the Mount Washington Observatory when it stayed 32.5 degrees below zero for more than four hours this morning. Add sustained winds of 67 mph, and the wind chill at the summit hit minus 83 degrees.
"We live for days like today," said Lareau, 26, who is one of six people stationed at the observatory this week. "We kind of thrive on having this reputation for the world's worst weather."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/01/cold_turns_boil.html
Hamas rallies across West Bank and Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip --In the year since Islamic Hamas swept parliamentary elections, Palestinians have sunk deeper into poverty, their government has been ostracized by the international community and hundreds have died in violence.
Yet the militant movement remains popular and its chief rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is reluctant to force a showdown, either by disbanding the government or setting a date for early elections.
Hamas marked the one-year anniversary of its upset victory in Palestinian elections on Friday with celebrations that were dramatically scaled back after a new outbreak of deadly factional violence, including a deadly attack on a group of Hamas militiamen on Thursday night and retaliation that spilled over into Friday, killing nine people.
Tensions were so high that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas bowed out of a planned appearance at a rally in Jebaliya, apparently fearing it would be too dangerous to travel there. In the end, only several thousand Hamas supporters gathered in Jebaliya to celebrate Hamas' ascent to power.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/01/26/hamas_rally_across_west_bank_and_gaza/
Calif. bans toxic dry-cleaning chemical
By Samantha Young
Associated Press Writer
January 26, 2007
SACRAMENTO, Calif. --By 2023, California will completely ban the most common chemical used by dry cleaners. Under the newly enacted ban, perchloroethylene is to be phased out starting next year. The state is still debating what the alternative will be. Dry cleaning businesses are upset.
The regulation by the California Air Resources Board begins to phase out the toxic chemical next year, banning dry cleaners from buying machines that rely on the solvent. State officials say the fluid causes a variety of cancers.
The state's 3,400 dry cleaners who now use it must get rid of machines that are 15 years or older by July 2010.
"That's the wave of the future -- nontoxic, non-smog forming," said Annette Kondo, spokeswoman for the Coalition for Clean Air, a California environmental group. "We think this is going to ripple down to other states across the country."
Environmental and health advocates embraced the new rule, though they had urged the air board to accelerate the ban because of the chemical's health effects as a potential carcinogen. The solvent has contaminated one in 10 wells in California.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/01/26/california_bans_dry_cleaning_chemical/
Mass. housing market ends worst year in decade
Prices, sales tumble in December; condos are sole bright spot
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | January 26, 2007
Massachusetts house prices tumbled 5.4 percent in December, in a sour endnote to the worst year for the state's housing market in a decade.
Amid new evidence the state is still struggling to emerge from the housing downturn, economists said it is likely prices for single-family houses will continue to decline this year. Single-family sales for 2006 were 41,593, which was the lowest total since 1996, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, which released its monthly market report yesterday.
"We're working through the correction," said Larissa Duzhansky, an economist with Global Insight, a Lexington economics and consulting firm. She predicted, "We're going to see home prices going down in 2007."
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/01/26/mass_housing_market_ends_worst_year_in_decade/?p1=MEWell_Pos2
Bob Seger
He's a father now, but triumphant return shows he's still a
By Sarah Rodman, Globe Staff | January 26, 2007
When Bob Seger laughs, it sounds exactly as you might it imagine it would.
It's a deep, rusty chuckle that starts in his belly and fights its way through the nicotine-coated throat famous for a whole mess of songs familiar to anyone who has ever listened to a classic-rock station or seen a truck commercial.
At 61, Seger is a jolly soul who laughs often. At his good fortune -- more than 50 million albums sold, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acclaim, a concert tour drawing rave reviews that comes to the TD Banknorth Garden tomorrow and the DCU Center on Tuesday. At the senior moments, he and his manager of 40 years, "Punch" Andrews, have been experiencing lately. At his ability, after an 11-year hiatus, to record an album as rock solid as his recently released "Face the Promise." And, unlike a lot of artists his age, at hearing his songs on the radio with his kids in the car.
"Oh yeah," he says in his friendly bellow on the phone from his home in Detroit. "I know every nook and cranny of all of 'em, and it's fun to hear 'em on the radio, we usually turn it up every time!"
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2007/01/26/bob_seger/
God's gay child
January 15, 2007
LOVE AND let love.
God gave me a gift, a wonderful son who happens to be gay. God does not give inferiors gifts. God does not make mistakes. This little boy that God gave to me is now a fine young man. But my son is treated like a second-class citizen by my church. Maybe my state constitution will treat him likewise. I pray that it will not.
If you had a gay loved one in your family you would be a better person. You would be sensitive to the discrimination gays endure. You would realize that they, too, are entitled to mutual love.
God will continue to send gay babies. We must take them into our hearts and our lives. That would please God.
DOROTHY DONAHUE
Norwell
Old Romney debate clip is now a hit on the Web
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff
January 11, 2007
WASHINGTON -- A video recording of former Governor Mitt Romney expressing liberal views became an Internet sensation in the political world yesterday, prompting Romney to call a conservative webcast to say that he has "grown a bit wiser" in the past 13 years
He also accused opponents of his nascent presidential campaign of attacking him because of his record fighting for conservative causes.
The five-minute clip from an October 1994 debate against Senator Edward M. Kennedy shows Romney endorsing a series of liberal viewpoints and includes statements of support for abortion rights and gay rights. The clip was viewed more than 12,000 times on Youtube.com yesterday by 10 p.m.
Last night, Romney called in to the conservative Internet broadcast "The Glenn and Helen Show" to react to the distribution of what his presidential exploratory committee called "ancient footage."
"I'm grayer, I'm a little heavier, and I hope I've grown a bit wiser as well," Romney said. "Of course, I was wrong on some issues back then. I'm not embarrassed to admit that. I think most of us learn with experience. I know I certainly have."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/11/old_romney_debate_clip_is_now_a_hit_on_the_web/
Patrick highlights black heritage more as governor
By Glen Johnson, AP Political Writer | January 26, 2007
BOSTON --Deval Patrick was on the cusp of becoming the first black governor of Massachusetts, yet during his campaign last year he was reluctant to talk about such a groundbreaking prospect.
Since then, the Democrat has been far more willing to publicly embrace his African-American heritage.
When a woman told him on his way into his inaugural ball it was the most integrated event she had ever seen in Boston, Patrick told the crowd of 15,000 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, "Get used to that!"
Patrick's transformation began even before he took the oath of office. It started when he placed his left hand on a Bible as he raised his right to be sworn in.
The book used at the inauguration was the so-called Mendi Bible, which slaves who commandeered the ship "Amistad" gave to former President John Quincy Adams for securing their freedom after he argued their case all the way to the Supreme Court in 1841.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/26/patrick_highlights_black_heritage_more_as_governor/
Sculpture lovely to look at, and thought-provoking, too
By Ken Johnson, Globe Staff | January 26, 2007
Would you like to see a miracle? I'm talking about a 1-foot square slab of marble whose surface has been transformed into a vision of the Virgin Mary seated in the clouds with her infant son in her lap and cherubic angels in fluttering attendance. It's carved in low relief with breathtaking delicacy, and it looks as though the stone had melted away, leaving only this dreamy, uncannily luminous mirage.
Made between 1425 and 1435 by Donatello, who was, next to Michelangelo, the greatest sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, "Madonna of the Clouds" welcomes visitors right at the start of "Donatello to Giambologna: Italian Renaissance Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," an excellent, medium-size exhibition.
For the show, curators dusted off and gathered together almost every piece of Italian Renaissance sculpture the museum owns, including works in stone, bronze, wood, and clay. It also borrowed some items from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and, from a private collection, a fascinating array of tabletop-scale bronzes.
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2007/01/26/sculpture_lovely_to_look_at_and_thought_provoking_too/
R.I. newspapers to be sold for $7.6m
Journal Register Co. agreed to sell three daily newspapers and its weekly newspaper group in Rhode Island for $7.6 million.
The Pennsylvania company publishes 27 daily newspapers including the New Haven Register and 368 non-daily publications.
The company identified the buyer as R.I.S.N. Operations Inc. A phone number for R.I.S.N. supplied by the Journal Register Co. belongs to Horizon Publications of Marion, Ill., which owns and operates daily and weekly publications in 16 states and two Canadian provinces, including the Newport Daily Express of Newport, Vt., according to Horizon's website. A spokesman at Horizon declined comment.
Properties in the sale included the Call of Woonsocket, the Times of Pawtucket, Kent County Daily Times in West Warwick, and its weekly group, the Southern Rhode Island Newspaper Group.
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/01/ri_newspapers_s.html
Priest defrocked after rape conviction
January 26, 2007
BOSTON --A Roman Catholic priest who's in prison for raping a teenage boy in the 1980s has been defrocked by the Vatican, the Boston Archdiocese said Friday.
Paul William Hurley, of Sandwich, can no longer perform public ministry, except for offering absolution to the dying, and will not receive financial support from the archdiocese, the archdiocese said in a statement.
Hurley was placed on administrative leave in 2001 after the allegation of sexual misconduct. He was convicted in June of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old South Boston boy in 1987 and 1988 in the rectory of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Cambridge, where Hurley was assigned.
Hurley was sentenced in July to four years in prison.
Church law requires that priests be permanently removed from ministry if an act of sexual abuse of a minor is admitted or proven through a church investigation.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/26/priest_defrocked_after_rape_conviction/
Norway may ease ban on stem cell study
January 26, 2007
OSLO, Norway --Norway's government on Friday proposed lifting a national ban on using human embryonic stem cells for research, saying the change might help find cures to a broad range of diseases.
Embryonic stem cells have the ability to become any tissue in the body, leading scientists to see them as a possible source of medical breakthroughs.
Current Norwegian law, from 2003, bars use of fertilized eggs or stem cells taken from them in research and requires eggs left over after assisted pregnancies to be destroyed.
The proposed law would allow research on such eggs under strict legal and ethical limits, including consent from the parents and approval from a national ethics panel, the government proposal said.
"The government believes if is important to use the opportunities offered by science to gain knowledge that can be used to treat serious illnesses in the future," Minister of Health and Care Services Silvia Brustad said in presenting the legislation.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/01/26/norway_may_ease_stem_cell_research_ban/
Standard Register to close Vermont plant
January 26, 2007
DAYTON, Ohio --Standard Register Co., a provider of document services, on Friday said it will close a facility in Middlebury, Vt., and transfer equipment and production operations to three other U.S. plants.
The Middlebury plant, which employs about 112 people and produces business forms, will continue to perform limited production through March.
Standard Register is providing all affected employees with severance and job-finding assistance. Most workers will be able to apply for open positions at other facilities, with relocation assistance.
The redistribution of manufacturing assets to its Murfreesboro, Tenn., York, Pa. and Fayetteville, Ark. plants will move production closer to customers' locations, Standard Register said.
Shares of Standard Register rose 10 cents to $12.64 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Novell gets second warning from Nasdaq
Novell Inc. of Waltham received a second noncompliance letter from the Nasdaq Stock Market due to its late fiscal 2006 annual report.
Novell received the first noncompliance notice in September because it didn't file its third-quarter report. Novell delayed filing both reports pending the completion of the view of historical stock-based compensation practices.
In January, Novell had a hearing before the Nasdaq panel regarding the first noncompliance letter. The panel granted the company's request for continued listing as long as on or before March 1, Novell provides information regarding the stock-option review, and on or before March 13, the company files its quarterly report and any necessary restatements.
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/01/novell_gets_sec.html
Examining the path to YouTube stardom
By Jake Coyle
AP Entertainment Writer
January 26, 2007
NEW YORK --So you want to be a viral video star.
Now that web sites like YouTube have created a democratized platform for celebrity, anyone who uploads a video has a chance to become a sensation. And we've seen deals follow with TV networks and record labels.
Sounds easy, right? Except that more than 70 million videos are watched on YouTube daily. In that enormous digital wilderness, most videos fall without a sound.
To reach the pinnacle of YouTube celebrity, your video must generally rank among either the most-viewed or most-subscribed lists, which each include only 100 videos, arranged daily, weekly, monthly and by all-time.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/01/26/examining_the_path_to_youtube_stardom/
Googling YouTube
Source: Ars Technica
When Google bought YouTube last fall you may have wondered, what happens to Google Video? Well here's an answer. Go on Google Video today and do a search and you'll get both Google and YouTube videos in your search results (often mostly YouTube). Google is aiming to make Google Video be the place you'll go to "search for the world's online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted." Ars Technica says it's only a matter of time before GooTube tells copyright holders "Hey, why don't you sell your video on the same pages as these uploaded clips." Instant upsell.
http://www.boston.com/business/blog/filter/
N.Y. scanners spark union cries of "geoslavery"
By Michelle Nichols | January 26, 2007
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Every morning Dennis Colson, a surveyor at New York City's Department of Design and Construction, begins his work day by placing his hand on a scanner to log his time and attendance at the office.
The use of hand geometry and other biometric data, like facial and iris recognition, is not new -- the University of Georgia pioneered the use of hand geometry when it installed scanners in its student dining hall in 1974.
But the planned roll-out of hand geometry scanners in all New York City government agencies has sparked union cries of "geoslavery" and assertions that technology developed for security will be used to track, label and control workforces.
"It's frustrating, it's kind of an insult," Colson, 53, told Reuters. "They are talking about going to voice and retina scanners and that's an invasion of privacy in that they can track you wherever you go."
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/01/26/ny_scanners_spark_union_cries_of_geoslavery/
'God' references are removed from movie
By Giovanna Dell'Orto, Associated Press Writer | January 25, 2007
ATLANTA --So much for God and country, at least during some in-flight showings of the Oscar-nominated movie "The Queen." That's because all mentions of God are bleeped out of a version of the film given to some commercial airlines.
Even in these politically correct times, censoring references to God in the film wasn't a statement of some kind. Rather, it was the mistake of an overzealous and inexperienced employee for a California company that edits movies selected for onboard entertainment.
The rookie censor was told to edit out all profanities -- including any blasphemy -- for the version of the movie distributed to Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Air New Zealand, and other carriers.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2007/01/25/god_references_are_removed_from_movie/
Mistrial after lawyer falters at closing
January 26, 2007
FARMVILLE, Va. --A judge declared a mistrial in an attempted-murder case after the defense lawyer said he couldn't continue his closing statement because he had lost his train of thought. Judge Ernest P. Gates Sr. also suggested that attorney James E. Sheffield seek medical help.
Gates declared the mistrial Thursday in the case of a man accused of shooting a police officer in the leg in 2005.
Sheffield, 74, a former judge, returned from a recess to say that he could not continue the closing argument.
Russell Smith, charged with attempted capital murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm, offered to finish the job himself.
"This is about me," he told Gates.
The judge warned against it, and Smith requested the mistrial.
Drunk man goes for unexpected train ride
January 26, 2007
FARGO, N.D. --A drunk man who tried to climb over a freight train stopped at a downtown crossing ended up going for a ride when the train took off. The 23-year-old man called 911 from his cell phone early Friday when the train reached the Casselton area west of Fargo because he was cold and wanted off, said Cass County Deputy Sheriff Shawn Getz.
Dispatchers called BNSF Railway, which alerted the train conductor.
"A few miles west of Casselton they were able to stop the train and (the man) got off," Getz said.
Authorities said the man did not require any medical treatment, and the railroad did not press charges. The man was taken to a detox center, Getz said.
Church hosts 'porn and pancakes' event
January 26, 2007
ONTARIO, N.Y. --It's not your typical church breakfast. An event billed as "Porn and Pancakes" is being hosted by a church in rural upstate New York.
The breakfast discussion on the pornography industry in America is planned next month at the Living Word Assembly of God Church in the town of Ontario, about ten miles east of Rochester.
A billboard advertisement near the church shows the words "Porn and Pancakes" written in syrup on a stack of flapjacks.
Organizers told a Rochester TV station that the event on February 10th will be an honest discussion about pornography and its impact on society. The discussion will be led by Triple-X Church, a group of youth ministers who travel the country talking about porn and the porn industry.
The pastor of the Wayne County church and churches from Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse have asked about hosting "Porn and Pancakes" events.
On the Net:
http://www.livingwordag.com/
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2007/01/26/church_hosts_porn_and_pancakes_event/
Polite nude jogger shocks hikers, bikers
January 25, 2007
SARATOGA, Calif. --Who was that undressed man? That's the question startled hikers, bikers and horseback riders are asking about a jogger seen streaking through an open space preserve wearing nothing but sneakers, glasses and a black tam hat.
"He passed me and said `Good evening,'" said equestrian Sue Bowdoin, who spotted the naked man, middle-aged and sporting a pale paunch, while riding her horse, Randy, on a trail in Fremont Older Open Space Preserve last summer. "I thought: Ugh!"
Although numerous park users have reported seeing the exhibitionist over the last year-and-a-half, rangers have been unable to identify and arrest him for exposing himself, said Gordon Baillie of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.
By most accounts, the man is polite and does nothing other than run in the buff.
A woman who saw him said he looked scared and backed away after she cornered him with her horse and told him he was offending people.
People who use the park regularly have not reported recent sightings in the cold weather, but they theorize he may be incognito because he is clothed. With dark hair, sweaty red skin and lack of body hair, he is easily recognizable, Bowdoin said.
"He's frumpy. Plain. Not in good physical shape," Bowdoin said. "It's not a pretty sight.'
Scientist develops caffeinated doughnuts
January 26, 2007
DURHAM. N.C. --That cup of coffee just not getting it done anymore? How about a Buzz Donut or a Buzzed Bagel? That's what Doctor Robert Bohannon, a Durham, North Carolina, molecular scientist, has come up with. Bohannon says he's developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods, without the bitter taste of caffeine. Each piece of pastry is the equivalent of about two cups of coffee.
While the product is not on the market yet, Bohannon has approached some heavyweight companies, including Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks about carrying it.
Twins give birth to sons within hours
January 25, 2007
AUBURN, Ind. --Nicole Cramer had little idea when she went to the hospital to see her twin sister's newborn son that within hours, she would give birth to a son of her own.
Her sister, Naomi Sale, had scheduled a Caesarean section on Tuesday morning and gave birth to Ethan Alexander at 8:29 a.m. Cramer, also nine months pregnant, visited Sale and her new nephew in the hospital but was having contractions and didn't stay long.
"I thought, after I did the C-section, on my way home, 'I wonder if her sister would go into labor?'" said Dr. Thaddeus Weghorst, the obstetrician for both women.
Within hours, Cramer was in the delivery room of DeKalb Memorial Hospital.
After a 1 1/2-hour labor, Cramer delivered Carter Nathaniel Birchfield.
"This solidifies the theory on the bond between twins," Weghorst said. "Even their uteri have a bond."
Cramer and Sale celebrate their 23rd birthdays Jan. 29. They were due to give birth within a day of each other at the end of January, but Weghorst's office didn't figure out they were twins until they were eight months along.
The sisters explained, in unison, that they usually had their appointments on the same day, but at different times.
Weghorst, who has been in practice for eight years, said the close deliveries were a first for him.
"I've delivered two sets of twins in the same day, but never this," he said.
The Jordan Times
Improper use of heaters leads to rise in fatalities, injuries
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The number of fatalities and injuries as a result of improper use of gas, wood and kerosene heaters has risen dramatically this year with officials warning of a further rise if safety measures are not properly applied by citizens.
Lieutenant Colonel Farid Shareh, head of the Public Relations Department at the Civil Defence Department (CDD), said the majority of incidents were a direct result of the public’s failure to abide by safety procedures.
During the Eid holiday, seven people, including three children, died in separate gas heater incidents in Amman and other governorates. Reports of fatalities continued after the 9-day vacation with incidents of individuals dying in their sleep because they left these heaters on overnight without proper ventilation.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews4.htm
4 dead in Beirut cast shadow over aid pledges
Paris conference pledges $7.6 billion
BEIRUT (Reuters) — Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in Lebanon on Thursday, overshadowing a $7.6 billion aid deal by international donors to shore up the US-backed government.
Two opposition students and two other people were shot dead and 100 were injured, many by gunfire, at Beirut's Arab University, security sources said.
The Lebanese army declared a night curfew in Beirut after the clashes and leaders of both sides appealed for calm.
A campaign led by Hizbollah and Shiite and Christian allies against the government, which is struggling to recover from last year's war with Israel, has raised tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon, still recovering from a 1975-90 civil war.
Fighting started between students with sticks and stones on the university campus then spilled into nearby streets. It developed into exchanges of gunfire from assault rifles and pistols involving students and residents from both sides.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news1.htm
Israel, Jordan, Palestinians agree on economic zone — Peres
DAVOS (AP) — Israel's foreign minister reached out to the Palestinian president in an emotional speech Thursday as he sat next to her at the World Economic Forum, saying lasting peace is the dream of her people and promising that a future Palestinian state is "not an illusion... It's achievable". Tzipi Livni made clear, however, that her government would not compromise on its need for security and urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to compromise with extremists, a reference to the Hamas government's refusal to disavow its call for Israel's destruction.
But Livni, turning to face Abbas, also made a personal and impassioned plea for dialogue to begin.
"I would like to negotiate, to speak, to meet, to talk," she said. On finding peace, she said: "There is nothing I want more ... this is part of our dream, this is part of our goal." Abbas, for his part, said he was confident that the peace process could be put back on track. "We are ready as of now to start serious negotiations," he said during the public session. Afterward, the two warmly shook hands. They are to meet one-on-one at a hotel near the forum on Friday. "We are creating this momentum ... to put the train on the track and push it after that," Abbas told the Associated Press.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news2.htm
Young Global Leaders brief Queen Rania on dignity project
AMMAN (JT) — Her Majesty Queen Rania joined Young Global Leaders (YGL) for a briefing on their recent projects, including the launch of the Global Dignity Project, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday.
Discussions focused on the YGLs' role in using their expertise and experience in helping their local communities as well as the global community.
One project recently launched by the YGLs is the dignity project, which seeks to raise global awareness of the universal right of every human being to lead a dignified life, and compel people around the globe to move to action in implementing these rights.
People from all over the world are welcome to sign the Dignity Principles on their website (http://www.globaldignity.org).
The Dignity Principles are based on both ethics and enlightened self-interest, the YGLs told the Queen.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews2.htm
34 killed, but Maliki vows to pursue gunmen
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Bombs killed at least 34 people in Baghdad on Thursday but Iraq's prime minister vowed a crackdown in the capital would leave gunmen nowhere to hide.
In a speech to parliament, Nouri Maliki urged politicians on all sides to support his security plan, backed by 17,000 US reinforcements and seen by many as a last chance to halt sectarian violence in the capital.
"There will be no safe haven — no school, no home, no [Sunni] mosque or Shiite mosque. They will all be raided if they are turned into a launchpad for terrorism, even the headquarters of political parties," he said.
Maliki said his determination had already borne fruit.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news3.htm
As Iraq war drags on, comparisons with Vietnam grow
WASHINGTON (AP) — Another Vietnam? Defenders of President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy have long shrugged off such comparisons. But as the war heads towards the four-year mark and a newly-empowered Democratic Congress takes aim at presidential spending for more troops, the comparisons are becoming more frequent.
Despite Bush’s State of the Union appeal for Congress to give his new war strategy a chance, congressional Democrats joined by some Republicans are forging ahead with a resolution opposing Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq.
Congress has clear constitutional authority to declare war and set spending levels. Yet limiting troops or war spending has never been easy. In Vietnam, it took years.
Nine years after Congress in its Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorised President Lyndon B. Johnson to escalate the Vietnam War, Congress voted in 1973 to cut off remaining funds for combat operations in Southeast Asia. By then, President Richard Nixon had already withdrawn most ground troops.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news9.htm
On winning the peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Jonathan Power
Pervez Musharraf, president and military strongman of Pakistan, opened his eyes wide, sat bolt upright on his sofa, and said: “I never thought of that.” He repeated the phrase and looked, I dare suggest, a little bewildered.
In many years of interviewing top leaders I have never before felt the sensation of catching someone totally off balance. Yet all I had asked was: “Why don’t you talk to your enemies, the Taleban and Al Qaeda?”
In two hours of conversation there was no effort, as is usual with senior Pakistani officials, to persuade me that the Taleban and Al Qaeda were being defeated or that the war in Afghanistan was going well. Indeed, there was an absence of bravado and a receptivity to new, so far unconsidered, ideas.
Pakistan is the hub of the Anglo-American/NATO war against Al Qaeda and the Taleban. The British have here their largest embassy in the world. The city is full to the brim with American secret agents and senior military people. But the truth is the war in Afghanistan is going badly. The Taleban are gaining the upper hand, financially fuelled by proceeds from growing poppy, which they now encourage in a reverse of policy when they were in power, when they ruled that it was un-Islamic. Al Qaeda, too, high up in the mountains of Pakistan, is rebuilding its strength.
Katsav — Israel’s bland president facing disgrace
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli President Moshe Katsav, whose leave of absence over a looming rape indictment was approved by parliament on Thursday, is a bland bureaucrat who rose from impoverished origins as an immigrant from Iran to assume the nation's top job.
After more than four hours of debate, a Knesset committee approved by a vote of 13 to 11 that Katsav be suspended from office for three months because of the allegations — the most serious ever levelled against an Israeli leader.
Katsav requested the leave of absence after the attorney general said on Tuesday that he intended to indict him on a slew of charges including rape, sexual harassment and abuse of power.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news5.htm
Mortars hit Somalia’s international airport, killing 2
MOGADISHU (AP) — Gunmen launched mortars on Mogadishu International Airport, killing at least two people a day after powerful troops from neighbouring Ethiopia began withdrawing from this chaotic nation.
Also Wednesday, US defence officials said the United States launched an air strike earlier this week in Somalia against suspected terrorist targets — the second such attack this month.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the strike was carried out in secret by an Air Force AC-130 gunship earlier this week, provided few details and were uncertain whether the intended target was killed.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news7.htm
UK consultancy to provide technical assistance for water management
By Hana Namroqa
AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation on Thursday signed a 1.175-million euro agreement with the European Commission for improving management of water and wastewater services in the country.
Under the deal, signed by Minister of Water and Irrigation Thafer Alem and Head of the European Commission Delegation in Amman Patrick Renauld, the Ian Pope Associates (IPA) Energy + Water Consulting will provide the ministry with technical assistance for the project.
As part of the EU-funded agreement, an audit unit to monitor the water sector’s performance will be created if approved by the government.
In addition, the British consulting company will provide technical assistance to the programme management unit (PMU) at the ministry to help it implement all water-related projects, Renauld said during the signing ceremony.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews6.htm
The new cold war — Middle East style
Rami G. Khouri
Lebanon and Palestine are the most dramatic examples of the new ideological battle that now defines much of the Middle East, where local players and medium-strength regional powers often interact with one another in parallel with foreign powers’ interests and goals.
While tensions were increasing in Beirut last weekend in anticipation of the January 23 national strike by the Hizbollah-led opposition against the Siniora-Hariri-led government, in nearby Damascus, the leaders of the two major Palestinian political groups, Hamas and Fateh, were meeting under Syrian auspices to try and solve their dispute over who rules Palestine and defines its foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel.
If you were too young to remember the cold war between the American- and Soviet-led global camps, study this dynamic closely, because it is a miniature regional version of the former global contest. It is possible that the Middle East-anchored new cold war we are living through these days may persist for many years, or it may be over in two or three years, depending on how both sides harness and use their competitive assets. For now, we can only identify some of the new rules and realities of the regional confrontation.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion2.htm
Escalate Yourself This Weekend!
Anti-War Groups Plan Surge on Washington
By Aaron Glantz / IPS
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan 24 - Peace activists from around the United States will converge on Washington Saturday for what organisers hope will be the largest demonstration to date against the Iraq war.
"We expect a turnout in the six figures," said Tom Andrews, a former Democratic congressman who now runs the group Win Without War, which is organising the march along with True Majority, Working Assets, the RainbowPUSH Coalition, the National Organisation for Women and the national umbrella group United for Peace and Justice (UFPJ).
UFPJ's Leslie Cagan told IPS that the level of energy in the antiwar movement has spiked since the November election, when voters ended Republican majorities in both houses of Congress.
"The voters of this country figured out that they could use the November elections as a vehicle to voice their opposition to the war," Cagan said. "What happened there was that the voters gave Congress a mandate to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9079
"...the voters gave Congress a mandate to end the war in Iraq and bring the troops home."
"The 110th Congress must stand up to the president."
United for Peace and Justice
March on Washington, January 27, 2007
Assemble on the National Mall,
between 3rd and 7th Streets, at 11 am.
Rally 11am-1pm.
March will kick off at 1pm.
SCHEDULE OF EVENTS
MARCH ROUTE, MAPS & LOGISTICS
Weather: Predicted to be 48 F and sunny! However, because there might be some precipitation in Washington, DC, before Saturday, the Mall could be a little muddy. So you may wish to wear boots, or at least bring an extra pair of socks.
Confirmed speakers: Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins, Danny Glover, Jane Fonda, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Reps. Kucinich, Waters, and Woolsey, Bob Watada, and more ...
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/
Transportation Center for January 27
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ride.php
Have Housing
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/housing.php
Spread the Word About the January 27th Mobilization!
On Jan. 27, 2007, we are bringing the Mandate for Peace to Washington DC. You can help ensure that the new Congress gets the message by spreading the word far and wide. Help us make this the biggest and loudest demonstration for peace possible!
Here's how you can get involved:
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3437
Jan. 27-29 Schedule of Events
Below is a schedule for the events of the Jan. 27-29 mobilization in Washington DC. Further details will be added as they are finalized, so please keep checking back here.
EVENTS ORGANIZED BY UNITED FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE (Please scroll down for information on the Interfaith Service, the Veterans For Peace action on Thursday, CodePink's Walk in Their Shoes installation, and other actions being organized during the weekend.)
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3489
Jan. 27 March Route, Parking, Logistics, What to Bring, Etc.
Scroll down and look to the right-hand side of the page for a link to a printer-friendly version of this page.)
MAP OF ASSEMBLY AREA
Click here to download a map of the assembly area on the Mall, and contingent formation locations.
MARCH ROUTE
After an arduous and long process of negotiating with the U.S. Capitol Police, a final route for the march on Jan. 27th has been agreed to. Here are the details:
1 pm -- March steps off from 3rd Street and Jefferson Drive, NW. We will take 3rd Street north to Constitution, the east on Constitution to 1st Street, NE, then south to East Capital Street. At that point we will make a U-turn in the street and head north on 1st Street to Constitution. The march will proceed west on Constitution to 1st Street, NW, where we will head south, passing between the Reflecting Pool and the West Lawn of the Capitol. The march will pick up Maryland Ave., heading west until it intersects with Independence and then going west to 4th Street. We will then turn north on 4th and end up back on the Mall.
Yes, the march will double back on itself. This means that unlike other marches, most of us will have a chance to see and be inspired by the stream of contingents from all over the nation. We will be on three sides of the Capitol building sending our message loud and clear: This war must end now!
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3499
Democratic senators won't join Iraq war protest in Washington
By Jeff Zeleny / International Herald Tribune
WASHINGTON -- Tens of thousands of demonstrators are set to arrive in the capital this weekend for the largest anti-war march since Democrats gained control of Congress, staging the first of several protests to persuade lawmakers to do more than simply speak out against President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq.
But do not look for senators to be standing among the protesters on the National Mall. Despite the consensus building around a resolution to oppose sending more troops to Iraq, even the most liberal among Democratic senators do not appear eager to align themselves with a traditional anti-war protest.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9087
Cheney increasingly on the defensive
By Ron Hutcheson / McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney, often considered the hidden power behind the White House throne, is increasingly out in the open and on the defensive.
He's scheduled to testify at the perjury trial of his former top aide; congressional Democrats want to probe his role in the White House; and his unprecedented clout may be waning. Once widely considered a source of wisdom and experience in the White House, the vice president has become a frequent target of criticism.
On Wednesday, a testy Cheney sparred with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer over Iraq and al-Qaida and insisted that Bush administration policies have succeeded in both cases. While he's acknowledged mistakes in Iraq, he bristled when Blitzer suggested that Cheney had lost credibility because of blunders there.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9070
The Boston Globe
North Pole temperature exceeds Boston's
By Michael Grillo
Boston.com Staff
January 26, 2007
Looking to get some relief from today's icy cold temperatures? Take a trip to Anchorage, Alaska or even the North Pole.
Both locations today reached a balmy 24 and 10.5 degrees, respectively, compared to Boston's high of 12 degrees.
Bostonians are feeling the chill of single-digit temperatures with wind chills as low as -15 degrees as an arctic air mass makes its way through the region.
Temperatures in the single-digits swept into many New England cities this morning: 3 in Worcester; 9 in Hartford, Conn.; 3 in Concord, N.H.; and -3 in Bangor, Maine.
International Falls, located near the Canadian border in Minnesota and notorious for some of America's coldest weather, was 23 degrees at about 11 a.m. Even the Arctic was considerably warmer than New England: the temperature in Nuuk, a city on the coast of Greenland, reached 36 degrees today.
In Europe, it was 21 degrees in Prague; 30 in Helsinki, Finland; 28 in Oslo, Norway; and 30 in Geneva, Switzerland.
But if those hot spots don't warm your cockles, check out flights to the Bahamas (73 degrees) or Buenos Aires where it's summer and a pleasant 71.
http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2007/01/26/north_pole_temperature_exceeds_bostons/?p1=MEWell_Pos1
Troops died after, not in, sneak attack
By Steven R. Hurst and Qassim Abdul-Zahra
Associated Press Writers
January 26, 2007
BAGHDAD, Iraq --Four American soldiers were abducted during a sophisticated sneak attack last week in the Shiite holy city of Karbala and their bodies were found up to 25 miles away, according to new information obtained by The Associated Press.
The brazen assault, 50 miles south of Baghdad on Jan. 20, was conducted by nine to 12 militants posing as an American security team. They traveled in black GMC Suburban vehicles -- the type used by U.S. government convoys -- had American weapons, wore new U.S. military combat fatigues, and spoke English.
In a written statement, the U.S. command reported at the time that five soldiers were killed while "repelling the attack." Now, two senior U.S. military officials as well as Iraqi officials say four of the five were captured and taken from the governor's compound alive. Three of them were found dead and one mortally wounded later that evening in locations as far as 25 miles east of the governor's office.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/01/26/us_soldiers_not_killed_in_sneak_attack/
Cold turns boiling water to snow and keeps the MBTA up all night
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff, and Amanda I. Bergeron, Globe Correspondent
On days as cold as today on the top of Mount Washington, a pan of boiling water thrown into the air will turn to snow before it hits the ground.
Crowbars used to clear ice off meteorological instruments snap in half like twigs.
Neil Lareau, the weather observer on duty today atop the mountain, wore three ski-masks, a pair of goggles, and a Gore-Tex hood just to step outside to take the temperature.
That's because a new record low for Jan. 26 was set today at the Mount Washington Observatory when it stayed 32.5 degrees below zero for more than four hours this morning. Add sustained winds of 67 mph, and the wind chill at the summit hit minus 83 degrees.
"We live for days like today," said Lareau, 26, who is one of six people stationed at the observatory this week. "We kind of thrive on having this reputation for the world's worst weather."
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/01/cold_turns_boil.html
Hamas rallies across West Bank and Gaza
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip --In the year since Islamic Hamas swept parliamentary elections, Palestinians have sunk deeper into poverty, their government has been ostracized by the international community and hundreds have died in violence.
Yet the militant movement remains popular and its chief rival, moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is reluctant to force a showdown, either by disbanding the government or setting a date for early elections.
Hamas marked the one-year anniversary of its upset victory in Palestinian elections on Friday with celebrations that were dramatically scaled back after a new outbreak of deadly factional violence, including a deadly attack on a group of Hamas militiamen on Thursday night and retaliation that spilled over into Friday, killing nine people.
Tensions were so high that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas bowed out of a planned appearance at a rally in Jebaliya, apparently fearing it would be too dangerous to travel there. In the end, only several thousand Hamas supporters gathered in Jebaliya to celebrate Hamas' ascent to power.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2007/01/26/hamas_rally_across_west_bank_and_gaza/
Calif. bans toxic dry-cleaning chemical
By Samantha Young
Associated Press Writer
January 26, 2007
SACRAMENTO, Calif. --By 2023, California will completely ban the most common chemical used by dry cleaners. Under the newly enacted ban, perchloroethylene is to be phased out starting next year. The state is still debating what the alternative will be. Dry cleaning businesses are upset.
The regulation by the California Air Resources Board begins to phase out the toxic chemical next year, banning dry cleaners from buying machines that rely on the solvent. State officials say the fluid causes a variety of cancers.
The state's 3,400 dry cleaners who now use it must get rid of machines that are 15 years or older by July 2010.
"That's the wave of the future -- nontoxic, non-smog forming," said Annette Kondo, spokeswoman for the Coalition for Clean Air, a California environmental group. "We think this is going to ripple down to other states across the country."
Environmental and health advocates embraced the new rule, though they had urged the air board to accelerate the ban because of the chemical's health effects as a potential carcinogen. The solvent has contaminated one in 10 wells in California.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/01/26/california_bans_dry_cleaning_chemical/
Mass. housing market ends worst year in decade
Prices, sales tumble in December; condos are sole bright spot
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff | January 26, 2007
Massachusetts house prices tumbled 5.4 percent in December, in a sour endnote to the worst year for the state's housing market in a decade.
Amid new evidence the state is still struggling to emerge from the housing downturn, economists said it is likely prices for single-family houses will continue to decline this year. Single-family sales for 2006 were 41,593, which was the lowest total since 1996, according to the Massachusetts Association of Realtors, which released its monthly market report yesterday.
"We're working through the correction," said Larissa Duzhansky, an economist with Global Insight, a Lexington economics and consulting firm. She predicted, "We're going to see home prices going down in 2007."
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2007/01/26/mass_housing_market_ends_worst_year_in_decade/?p1=MEWell_Pos2
Bob Seger
He's a father now, but triumphant return shows he's still a
By Sarah Rodman, Globe Staff | January 26, 2007
When Bob Seger laughs, it sounds exactly as you might it imagine it would.
It's a deep, rusty chuckle that starts in his belly and fights its way through the nicotine-coated throat famous for a whole mess of songs familiar to anyone who has ever listened to a classic-rock station or seen a truck commercial.
At 61, Seger is a jolly soul who laughs often. At his good fortune -- more than 50 million albums sold, Rock and Roll Hall of Fame acclaim, a concert tour drawing rave reviews that comes to the TD Banknorth Garden tomorrow and the DCU Center on Tuesday. At the senior moments, he and his manager of 40 years, "Punch" Andrews, have been experiencing lately. At his ability, after an 11-year hiatus, to record an album as rock solid as his recently released "Face the Promise." And, unlike a lot of artists his age, at hearing his songs on the radio with his kids in the car.
"Oh yeah," he says in his friendly bellow on the phone from his home in Detroit. "I know every nook and cranny of all of 'em, and it's fun to hear 'em on the radio, we usually turn it up every time!"
http://www.boston.com/ae/music/articles/2007/01/26/bob_seger/
God's gay child
January 15, 2007
LOVE AND let love.
God gave me a gift, a wonderful son who happens to be gay. God does not give inferiors gifts. God does not make mistakes. This little boy that God gave to me is now a fine young man. But my son is treated like a second-class citizen by my church. Maybe my state constitution will treat him likewise. I pray that it will not.
If you had a gay loved one in your family you would be a better person. You would be sensitive to the discrimination gays endure. You would realize that they, too, are entitled to mutual love.
God will continue to send gay babies. We must take them into our hearts and our lives. That would please God.
DOROTHY DONAHUE
Norwell
Old Romney debate clip is now a hit on the Web
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff
January 11, 2007
WASHINGTON -- A video recording of former Governor Mitt Romney expressing liberal views became an Internet sensation in the political world yesterday, prompting Romney to call a conservative webcast to say that he has "grown a bit wiser" in the past 13 years
He also accused opponents of his nascent presidential campaign of attacking him because of his record fighting for conservative causes.
The five-minute clip from an October 1994 debate against Senator Edward M. Kennedy shows Romney endorsing a series of liberal viewpoints and includes statements of support for abortion rights and gay rights. The clip was viewed more than 12,000 times on Youtube.com yesterday by 10 p.m.
Last night, Romney called in to the conservative Internet broadcast "The Glenn and Helen Show" to react to the distribution of what his presidential exploratory committee called "ancient footage."
"I'm grayer, I'm a little heavier, and I hope I've grown a bit wiser as well," Romney said. "Of course, I was wrong on some issues back then. I'm not embarrassed to admit that. I think most of us learn with experience. I know I certainly have."
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/01/11/old_romney_debate_clip_is_now_a_hit_on_the_web/
Patrick highlights black heritage more as governor
By Glen Johnson, AP Political Writer | January 26, 2007
BOSTON --Deval Patrick was on the cusp of becoming the first black governor of Massachusetts, yet during his campaign last year he was reluctant to talk about such a groundbreaking prospect.
Since then, the Democrat has been far more willing to publicly embrace his African-American heritage.
When a woman told him on his way into his inaugural ball it was the most integrated event she had ever seen in Boston, Patrick told the crowd of 15,000 at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, "Get used to that!"
Patrick's transformation began even before he took the oath of office. It started when he placed his left hand on a Bible as he raised his right to be sworn in.
The book used at the inauguration was the so-called Mendi Bible, which slaves who commandeered the ship "Amistad" gave to former President John Quincy Adams for securing their freedom after he argued their case all the way to the Supreme Court in 1841.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/26/patrick_highlights_black_heritage_more_as_governor/
Sculpture lovely to look at, and thought-provoking, too
By Ken Johnson, Globe Staff | January 26, 2007
Would you like to see a miracle? I'm talking about a 1-foot square slab of marble whose surface has been transformed into a vision of the Virgin Mary seated in the clouds with her infant son in her lap and cherubic angels in fluttering attendance. It's carved in low relief with breathtaking delicacy, and it looks as though the stone had melted away, leaving only this dreamy, uncannily luminous mirage.
Made between 1425 and 1435 by Donatello, who was, next to Michelangelo, the greatest sculptor of the Italian Renaissance, "Madonna of the Clouds" welcomes visitors right at the start of "Donatello to Giambologna: Italian Renaissance Sculpture at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston," an excellent, medium-size exhibition.
For the show, curators dusted off and gathered together almost every piece of Italian Renaissance sculpture the museum owns, including works in stone, bronze, wood, and clay. It also borrowed some items from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and, from a private collection, a fascinating array of tabletop-scale bronzes.
http://www.boston.com/ae/theater_arts/articles/2007/01/26/sculpture_lovely_to_look_at_and_thought_provoking_too/
R.I. newspapers to be sold for $7.6m
Journal Register Co. agreed to sell three daily newspapers and its weekly newspaper group in Rhode Island for $7.6 million.
The Pennsylvania company publishes 27 daily newspapers including the New Haven Register and 368 non-daily publications.
The company identified the buyer as R.I.S.N. Operations Inc. A phone number for R.I.S.N. supplied by the Journal Register Co. belongs to Horizon Publications of Marion, Ill., which owns and operates daily and weekly publications in 16 states and two Canadian provinces, including the Newport Daily Express of Newport, Vt., according to Horizon's website. A spokesman at Horizon declined comment.
Properties in the sale included the Call of Woonsocket, the Times of Pawtucket, Kent County Daily Times in West Warwick, and its weekly group, the Southern Rhode Island Newspaper Group.
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/01/ri_newspapers_s.html
Priest defrocked after rape conviction
January 26, 2007
BOSTON --A Roman Catholic priest who's in prison for raping a teenage boy in the 1980s has been defrocked by the Vatican, the Boston Archdiocese said Friday.
Paul William Hurley, of Sandwich, can no longer perform public ministry, except for offering absolution to the dying, and will not receive financial support from the archdiocese, the archdiocese said in a statement.
Hurley was placed on administrative leave in 2001 after the allegation of sexual misconduct. He was convicted in June of repeatedly raping a 15-year-old South Boston boy in 1987 and 1988 in the rectory of Blessed Sacrament Parish in Cambridge, where Hurley was assigned.
Hurley was sentenced in July to four years in prison.
Church law requires that priests be permanently removed from ministry if an act of sexual abuse of a minor is admitted or proven through a church investigation.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/26/priest_defrocked_after_rape_conviction/
Norway may ease ban on stem cell study
January 26, 2007
OSLO, Norway --Norway's government on Friday proposed lifting a national ban on using human embryonic stem cells for research, saying the change might help find cures to a broad range of diseases.
Embryonic stem cells have the ability to become any tissue in the body, leading scientists to see them as a possible source of medical breakthroughs.
Current Norwegian law, from 2003, bars use of fertilized eggs or stem cells taken from them in research and requires eggs left over after assisted pregnancies to be destroyed.
The proposed law would allow research on such eggs under strict legal and ethical limits, including consent from the parents and approval from a national ethics panel, the government proposal said.
"The government believes if is important to use the opportunities offered by science to gain knowledge that can be used to treat serious illnesses in the future," Minister of Health and Care Services Silvia Brustad said in presenting the legislation.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2007/01/26/norway_may_ease_stem_cell_research_ban/
Standard Register to close Vermont plant
January 26, 2007
DAYTON, Ohio --Standard Register Co., a provider of document services, on Friday said it will close a facility in Middlebury, Vt., and transfer equipment and production operations to three other U.S. plants.
The Middlebury plant, which employs about 112 people and produces business forms, will continue to perform limited production through March.
Standard Register is providing all affected employees with severance and job-finding assistance. Most workers will be able to apply for open positions at other facilities, with relocation assistance.
The redistribution of manufacturing assets to its Murfreesboro, Tenn., York, Pa. and Fayetteville, Ark. plants will move production closer to customers' locations, Standard Register said.
Shares of Standard Register rose 10 cents to $12.64 in afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
Novell gets second warning from Nasdaq
Novell Inc. of Waltham received a second noncompliance letter from the Nasdaq Stock Market due to its late fiscal 2006 annual report.
Novell received the first noncompliance notice in September because it didn't file its third-quarter report. Novell delayed filing both reports pending the completion of the view of historical stock-based compensation practices.
In January, Novell had a hearing before the Nasdaq panel regarding the first noncompliance letter. The panel granted the company's request for continued listing as long as on or before March 1, Novell provides information regarding the stock-option review, and on or before March 13, the company files its quarterly report and any necessary restatements.
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/2007/01/novell_gets_sec.html
Examining the path to YouTube stardom
By Jake Coyle
AP Entertainment Writer
January 26, 2007
NEW YORK --So you want to be a viral video star.
Now that web sites like YouTube have created a democratized platform for celebrity, anyone who uploads a video has a chance to become a sensation. And we've seen deals follow with TV networks and record labels.
Sounds easy, right? Except that more than 70 million videos are watched on YouTube daily. In that enormous digital wilderness, most videos fall without a sound.
To reach the pinnacle of YouTube celebrity, your video must generally rank among either the most-viewed or most-subscribed lists, which each include only 100 videos, arranged daily, weekly, monthly and by all-time.
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2007/01/26/examining_the_path_to_youtube_stardom/
Googling YouTube
Source: Ars Technica
When Google bought YouTube last fall you may have wondered, what happens to Google Video? Well here's an answer. Go on Google Video today and do a search and you'll get both Google and YouTube videos in your search results (often mostly YouTube). Google is aiming to make Google Video be the place you'll go to "search for the world's online video content, irrespective of where it may be hosted." Ars Technica says it's only a matter of time before GooTube tells copyright holders "Hey, why don't you sell your video on the same pages as these uploaded clips." Instant upsell.
http://www.boston.com/business/blog/filter/
N.Y. scanners spark union cries of "geoslavery"
By Michelle Nichols | January 26, 2007
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Every morning Dennis Colson, a surveyor at New York City's Department of Design and Construction, begins his work day by placing his hand on a scanner to log his time and attendance at the office.
The use of hand geometry and other biometric data, like facial and iris recognition, is not new -- the University of Georgia pioneered the use of hand geometry when it installed scanners in its student dining hall in 1974.
But the planned roll-out of hand geometry scanners in all New York City government agencies has sparked union cries of "geoslavery" and assertions that technology developed for security will be used to track, label and control workforces.
"It's frustrating, it's kind of an insult," Colson, 53, told Reuters. "They are talking about going to voice and retina scanners and that's an invasion of privacy in that they can track you wherever you go."
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2007/01/26/ny_scanners_spark_union_cries_of_geoslavery/
'God' references are removed from movie
By Giovanna Dell'Orto, Associated Press Writer | January 25, 2007
ATLANTA --So much for God and country, at least during some in-flight showings of the Oscar-nominated movie "The Queen." That's because all mentions of God are bleeped out of a version of the film given to some commercial airlines.
Even in these politically correct times, censoring references to God in the film wasn't a statement of some kind. Rather, it was the mistake of an overzealous and inexperienced employee for a California company that edits movies selected for onboard entertainment.
The rookie censor was told to edit out all profanities -- including any blasphemy -- for the version of the movie distributed to Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines, Air New Zealand, and other carriers.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2007/01/25/god_references_are_removed_from_movie/
Mistrial after lawyer falters at closing
January 26, 2007
FARMVILLE, Va. --A judge declared a mistrial in an attempted-murder case after the defense lawyer said he couldn't continue his closing statement because he had lost his train of thought. Judge Ernest P. Gates Sr. also suggested that attorney James E. Sheffield seek medical help.
Gates declared the mistrial Thursday in the case of a man accused of shooting a police officer in the leg in 2005.
Sheffield, 74, a former judge, returned from a recess to say that he could not continue the closing argument.
Russell Smith, charged with attempted capital murder, malicious wounding and use of a firearm, offered to finish the job himself.
"This is about me," he told Gates.
The judge warned against it, and Smith requested the mistrial.
Drunk man goes for unexpected train ride
January 26, 2007
FARGO, N.D. --A drunk man who tried to climb over a freight train stopped at a downtown crossing ended up going for a ride when the train took off. The 23-year-old man called 911 from his cell phone early Friday when the train reached the Casselton area west of Fargo because he was cold and wanted off, said Cass County Deputy Sheriff Shawn Getz.
Dispatchers called BNSF Railway, which alerted the train conductor.
"A few miles west of Casselton they were able to stop the train and (the man) got off," Getz said.
Authorities said the man did not require any medical treatment, and the railroad did not press charges. The man was taken to a detox center, Getz said.
Church hosts 'porn and pancakes' event
January 26, 2007
ONTARIO, N.Y. --It's not your typical church breakfast. An event billed as "Porn and Pancakes" is being hosted by a church in rural upstate New York.
The breakfast discussion on the pornography industry in America is planned next month at the Living Word Assembly of God Church in the town of Ontario, about ten miles east of Rochester.
A billboard advertisement near the church shows the words "Porn and Pancakes" written in syrup on a stack of flapjacks.
Organizers told a Rochester TV station that the event on February 10th will be an honest discussion about pornography and its impact on society. The discussion will be led by Triple-X Church, a group of youth ministers who travel the country talking about porn and the porn industry.
The pastor of the Wayne County church and churches from Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse have asked about hosting "Porn and Pancakes" events.
On the Net:
http://www.livingwordag.com/
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2007/01/26/church_hosts_porn_and_pancakes_event/
Polite nude jogger shocks hikers, bikers
January 25, 2007
SARATOGA, Calif. --Who was that undressed man? That's the question startled hikers, bikers and horseback riders are asking about a jogger seen streaking through an open space preserve wearing nothing but sneakers, glasses and a black tam hat.
"He passed me and said `Good evening,'" said equestrian Sue Bowdoin, who spotted the naked man, middle-aged and sporting a pale paunch, while riding her horse, Randy, on a trail in Fremont Older Open Space Preserve last summer. "I thought: Ugh!"
Although numerous park users have reported seeing the exhibitionist over the last year-and-a-half, rangers have been unable to identify and arrest him for exposing himself, said Gordon Baillie of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District.
By most accounts, the man is polite and does nothing other than run in the buff.
A woman who saw him said he looked scared and backed away after she cornered him with her horse and told him he was offending people.
People who use the park regularly have not reported recent sightings in the cold weather, but they theorize he may be incognito because he is clothed. With dark hair, sweaty red skin and lack of body hair, he is easily recognizable, Bowdoin said.
"He's frumpy. Plain. Not in good physical shape," Bowdoin said. "It's not a pretty sight.'
Scientist develops caffeinated doughnuts
January 26, 2007
DURHAM. N.C. --That cup of coffee just not getting it done anymore? How about a Buzz Donut or a Buzzed Bagel? That's what Doctor Robert Bohannon, a Durham, North Carolina, molecular scientist, has come up with. Bohannon says he's developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods, without the bitter taste of caffeine. Each piece of pastry is the equivalent of about two cups of coffee.
While the product is not on the market yet, Bohannon has approached some heavyweight companies, including Krispy Kreme, Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks about carrying it.
Twins give birth to sons within hours
January 25, 2007
AUBURN, Ind. --Nicole Cramer had little idea when she went to the hospital to see her twin sister's newborn son that within hours, she would give birth to a son of her own.
Her sister, Naomi Sale, had scheduled a Caesarean section on Tuesday morning and gave birth to Ethan Alexander at 8:29 a.m. Cramer, also nine months pregnant, visited Sale and her new nephew in the hospital but was having contractions and didn't stay long.
"I thought, after I did the C-section, on my way home, 'I wonder if her sister would go into labor?'" said Dr. Thaddeus Weghorst, the obstetrician for both women.
Within hours, Cramer was in the delivery room of DeKalb Memorial Hospital.
After a 1 1/2-hour labor, Cramer delivered Carter Nathaniel Birchfield.
"This solidifies the theory on the bond between twins," Weghorst said. "Even their uteri have a bond."
Cramer and Sale celebrate their 23rd birthdays Jan. 29. They were due to give birth within a day of each other at the end of January, but Weghorst's office didn't figure out they were twins until they were eight months along.
The sisters explained, in unison, that they usually had their appointments on the same day, but at different times.
Weghorst, who has been in practice for eight years, said the close deliveries were a first for him.
"I've delivered two sets of twins in the same day, but never this," he said.
The Jordan Times
Improper use of heaters leads to rise in fatalities, injuries
By Rana Husseini
AMMAN — The number of fatalities and injuries as a result of improper use of gas, wood and kerosene heaters has risen dramatically this year with officials warning of a further rise if safety measures are not properly applied by citizens.
Lieutenant Colonel Farid Shareh, head of the Public Relations Department at the Civil Defence Department (CDD), said the majority of incidents were a direct result of the public’s failure to abide by safety procedures.
During the Eid holiday, seven people, including three children, died in separate gas heater incidents in Amman and other governorates. Reports of fatalities continued after the 9-day vacation with incidents of individuals dying in their sleep because they left these heaters on overnight without proper ventilation.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews4.htm
4 dead in Beirut cast shadow over aid pledges
Paris conference pledges $7.6 billion
BEIRUT (Reuters) — Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in Lebanon on Thursday, overshadowing a $7.6 billion aid deal by international donors to shore up the US-backed government.
Two opposition students and two other people were shot dead and 100 were injured, many by gunfire, at Beirut's Arab University, security sources said.
The Lebanese army declared a night curfew in Beirut after the clashes and leaders of both sides appealed for calm.
A campaign led by Hizbollah and Shiite and Christian allies against the government, which is struggling to recover from last year's war with Israel, has raised tensions between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon, still recovering from a 1975-90 civil war.
Fighting started between students with sticks and stones on the university campus then spilled into nearby streets. It developed into exchanges of gunfire from assault rifles and pistols involving students and residents from both sides.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news1.htm
Israel, Jordan, Palestinians agree on economic zone — Peres
DAVOS (AP) — Israel's foreign minister reached out to the Palestinian president in an emotional speech Thursday as he sat next to her at the World Economic Forum, saying lasting peace is the dream of her people and promising that a future Palestinian state is "not an illusion... It's achievable". Tzipi Livni made clear, however, that her government would not compromise on its need for security and urged Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas not to compromise with extremists, a reference to the Hamas government's refusal to disavow its call for Israel's destruction.
But Livni, turning to face Abbas, also made a personal and impassioned plea for dialogue to begin.
"I would like to negotiate, to speak, to meet, to talk," she said. On finding peace, she said: "There is nothing I want more ... this is part of our dream, this is part of our goal." Abbas, for his part, said he was confident that the peace process could be put back on track. "We are ready as of now to start serious negotiations," he said during the public session. Afterward, the two warmly shook hands. They are to meet one-on-one at a hotel near the forum on Friday. "We are creating this momentum ... to put the train on the track and push it after that," Abbas told the Associated Press.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news2.htm
Young Global Leaders brief Queen Rania on dignity project
AMMAN (JT) — Her Majesty Queen Rania joined Young Global Leaders (YGL) for a briefing on their recent projects, including the launch of the Global Dignity Project, at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, Thursday.
Discussions focused on the YGLs' role in using their expertise and experience in helping their local communities as well as the global community.
One project recently launched by the YGLs is the dignity project, which seeks to raise global awareness of the universal right of every human being to lead a dignified life, and compel people around the globe to move to action in implementing these rights.
People from all over the world are welcome to sign the Dignity Principles on their website (http://www.globaldignity.org).
The Dignity Principles are based on both ethics and enlightened self-interest, the YGLs told the Queen.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews2.htm
34 killed, but Maliki vows to pursue gunmen
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Bombs killed at least 34 people in Baghdad on Thursday but Iraq's prime minister vowed a crackdown in the capital would leave gunmen nowhere to hide.
In a speech to parliament, Nouri Maliki urged politicians on all sides to support his security plan, backed by 17,000 US reinforcements and seen by many as a last chance to halt sectarian violence in the capital.
"There will be no safe haven — no school, no home, no [Sunni] mosque or Shiite mosque. They will all be raided if they are turned into a launchpad for terrorism, even the headquarters of political parties," he said.
Maliki said his determination had already borne fruit.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news3.htm
As Iraq war drags on, comparisons with Vietnam grow
WASHINGTON (AP) — Another Vietnam? Defenders of President George W. Bush’s Iraq war policy have long shrugged off such comparisons. But as the war heads towards the four-year mark and a newly-empowered Democratic Congress takes aim at presidential spending for more troops, the comparisons are becoming more frequent.
Despite Bush’s State of the Union appeal for Congress to give his new war strategy a chance, congressional Democrats joined by some Republicans are forging ahead with a resolution opposing Bush’s plan to send more troops to Iraq.
Congress has clear constitutional authority to declare war and set spending levels. Yet limiting troops or war spending has never been easy. In Vietnam, it took years.
Nine years after Congress in its Gulf of Tonkin Resolution authorised President Lyndon B. Johnson to escalate the Vietnam War, Congress voted in 1973 to cut off remaining funds for combat operations in Southeast Asia. By then, President Richard Nixon had already withdrawn most ground troops.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news9.htm
On winning the peace in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Jonathan Power
Pervez Musharraf, president and military strongman of Pakistan, opened his eyes wide, sat bolt upright on his sofa, and said: “I never thought of that.” He repeated the phrase and looked, I dare suggest, a little bewildered.
In many years of interviewing top leaders I have never before felt the sensation of catching someone totally off balance. Yet all I had asked was: “Why don’t you talk to your enemies, the Taleban and Al Qaeda?”
In two hours of conversation there was no effort, as is usual with senior Pakistani officials, to persuade me that the Taleban and Al Qaeda were being defeated or that the war in Afghanistan was going well. Indeed, there was an absence of bravado and a receptivity to new, so far unconsidered, ideas.
Pakistan is the hub of the Anglo-American/NATO war against Al Qaeda and the Taleban. The British have here their largest embassy in the world. The city is full to the brim with American secret agents and senior military people. But the truth is the war in Afghanistan is going badly. The Taleban are gaining the upper hand, financially fuelled by proceeds from growing poppy, which they now encourage in a reverse of policy when they were in power, when they ruled that it was un-Islamic. Al Qaeda, too, high up in the mountains of Pakistan, is rebuilding its strength.
Katsav — Israel’s bland president facing disgrace
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israeli President Moshe Katsav, whose leave of absence over a looming rape indictment was approved by parliament on Thursday, is a bland bureaucrat who rose from impoverished origins as an immigrant from Iran to assume the nation's top job.
After more than four hours of debate, a Knesset committee approved by a vote of 13 to 11 that Katsav be suspended from office for three months because of the allegations — the most serious ever levelled against an Israeli leader.
Katsav requested the leave of absence after the attorney general said on Tuesday that he intended to indict him on a slew of charges including rape, sexual harassment and abuse of power.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news5.htm
Mortars hit Somalia’s international airport, killing 2
MOGADISHU (AP) — Gunmen launched mortars on Mogadishu International Airport, killing at least two people a day after powerful troops from neighbouring Ethiopia began withdrawing from this chaotic nation.
Also Wednesday, US defence officials said the United States launched an air strike earlier this week in Somalia against suspected terrorist targets — the second such attack this month.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the strike was carried out in secret by an Air Force AC-130 gunship earlier this week, provided few details and were uncertain whether the intended target was killed.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/news/news7.htm
UK consultancy to provide technical assistance for water management
By Hana Namroqa
AMMAN — The Ministry of Water and Irrigation on Thursday signed a 1.175-million euro agreement with the European Commission for improving management of water and wastewater services in the country.
Under the deal, signed by Minister of Water and Irrigation Thafer Alem and Head of the European Commission Delegation in Amman Patrick Renauld, the Ian Pope Associates (IPA) Energy + Water Consulting will provide the ministry with technical assistance for the project.
As part of the EU-funded agreement, an audit unit to monitor the water sector’s performance will be created if approved by the government.
In addition, the British consulting company will provide technical assistance to the programme management unit (PMU) at the ministry to help it implement all water-related projects, Renauld said during the signing ceremony.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/homenews/homenews6.htm
The new cold war — Middle East style
Rami G. Khouri
Lebanon and Palestine are the most dramatic examples of the new ideological battle that now defines much of the Middle East, where local players and medium-strength regional powers often interact with one another in parallel with foreign powers’ interests and goals.
While tensions were increasing in Beirut last weekend in anticipation of the January 23 national strike by the Hizbollah-led opposition against the Siniora-Hariri-led government, in nearby Damascus, the leaders of the two major Palestinian political groups, Hamas and Fateh, were meeting under Syrian auspices to try and solve their dispute over who rules Palestine and defines its foreign policy vis-à-vis Israel.
If you were too young to remember the cold war between the American- and Soviet-led global camps, study this dynamic closely, because it is a miniature regional version of the former global contest. It is possible that the Middle East-anchored new cold war we are living through these days may persist for many years, or it may be over in two or three years, depending on how both sides harness and use their competitive assets. For now, we can only identify some of the new rules and realities of the regional confrontation.
http://www.jordantimes.com/fri/opinion/opinion2.htm
The troposphere today is grossly out of balance.
When is the last time anyone reading this has seen a 'straight' line of demarcation moving from the Equator to the North Pole as if drawn with a straight edge?
Yet, in the satellite image below at 8 o'clock and in the satellite images of UNYSIS that is exactly what is occuring over the Pacific Ocean and off the west coast of the North American continent.
This is profoundly dangerous. It is important the leaders of the free world are taking the initiative to aggressively 'take care of Earth.'
A sincere thank you to all of them.
When is the last time anyone reading this has seen a 'straight' line of demarcation moving from the Equator to the North Pole as if drawn with a straight edge?
Yet, in the satellite image below at 8 o'clock and in the satellite images of UNYSIS that is exactly what is occuring over the Pacific Ocean and off the west coast of the North American continent.
This is profoundly dangerous. It is important the leaders of the free world are taking the initiative to aggressively 'take care of Earth.'
A sincere thank you to all of them.
On brink of climate disaster
GLOBAL warming has accelerated and the carbon emitted this century will continue to warm the Earth for more than a thousand years, according to the scientific advice commissioned by the world's governments.
Officials from about 180 governments, including Australia, will meet in Paris next week for the first Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in six years.
Confidential research to go to the meeting predicts rainfall will increase in the tropics over this century. But it is likely rainfall will diminish in the regions near the tropics, which includes most of the inhabited parts of Australia.
The reductions in rainfall due to global warming could be as much as 20 per cent under some of the scenarios the working group finds plausible.
The updated expert scientific advice for the meeting is considerably more confident that global warming is caused by man-made emissions of greenhouse gases. The best assessment for the last climate change panel meeting put the likelihood at more than 66 per cent that human activity was to blame. But the scientists now assert it is more than a 90 per cent likelihood, say sources familiar with the confidential advice.
The likelihood of a continuing global trend to more warm days and fewer cold ones is rated greater than 99 per cent.
Research on the physical science of climate change, prepared by 49 of the foremost experts, finds warming caused by carbon emissions increased by 20 per cent in the past 10 years, the fastest in at least 500 years.
The scientists predict that the average global temperature will rise by 0.2 degrees in each of the next two decades, double the rate of warming that would have occurred if greenhouse outputs had been stabilised at 2000 levels.
The advice to the governments says man-made carbon dioxide emissions already under way in the 21st century - even if they were to cease at the end of the century - will continue to exert a warming effect for more than a thousand years because it takes time for the gas to leave the Earth.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister, John Howard, yesterday brushed off an accusation from the Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, that his Government had dragged the climate change chain. Mr Howard said he was not "bowled over by some of the doomsday scenarios".
Among other effects the scientists predict are that sea ice will shrink in the Arctic and Antarctic under all plausible scenarios, extremes including heatwaves will continue to become more frequent and snow cover will contract. There are projected to be fewer tropical cyclones, but their intensity will grow.
In a projection less troubling than the previous report, the scientists now believe the rise in the sea level will be smaller. The scientists are uncertain of the strength of the feedback effects that will accompany global warming - that is, its propensity to be self-perpetuating.
The findings will be the basis for debate and negotiations over measures governments might take to address global warming.
Eastern Cape swelters in near-hazardous heat
The Eastern Cape had temperatures so high on Friday that they were almost hazardous to health, the South African Weather Service said.
"Both Port Elizabeth and East London are at around a discomfort index of 107," said spokesperson Garth Sampson, adding that an index of 110 is hazardous to health.
When temperature and humidity are both high, the body cannot cool itself adequately by sweating. The discomfort index is a measure of this.
"People should not engage in vigorous outdoor activities as some areas along the coast might have reached 110 already. Special care should be taken to keep the sick and elderly people cool," said Sampson.
In Uitenhage, the temperature was 40,2 degrees Celsius, while Somerset East recorded 40,7. In East London and Port Elizabeth, the temperatures were above 35 degrees Celsius.
"The good news is the wind should turn west by 3pm, bringing instant relief in Port Elizabeth.
"But East Londoners will have to wait until around 5pm when the wind will change in that area, bringing the temperatures down," Sampson said.
Meanwhile, the Herald newspaper reported on Friday that dozens of fires had destroyed large tracts of veld in the Nelson Mandela metropolitan area as a result of the heat wave.
The high temperatures are wreaking havoc on agricultural production, with farmers saying if good rains do not come soon, a crippling drought is imminent.
"The blistering heat has caused a string of veld fires in the past two days, with firefighters, in Nelson Mandela Bay in particular, working around the clock fighting runaway fires sparked by the heat and dry weather."
At least 55 veld fires have been reported in and around the city in the past two days, the newspaper reported.
Weather officials said it is normal at this time of the year to experience hot conditions and very little rain. The rest of the country has also been experiencing hot conditions, Sampson said, adding that it will be cooler on Friday night.
"On Saturday it would be warm with maximum temperatures in most parts of the country at 25 degrees Celsius."
He said the temperatures are expected to rise in the whole country by Sunday.
"The temperatures had been high in the country for the past week, with Cape Town also reaching 40 degrees Celsius. The heat will cool off tomorrow [Saturday] but start heating up again on Sunday." -- Sapa
Terror, climate are CEOs' big worries today (if clicked on there are a lot of pop ups from India)
ARE THESE PEOPLE IN TOUCH WITH REALITY?
Not surprisingly, this year's event has 17 sessions in which the impact of climate change and its subsequent impact on profitability will be discussed. Add to this a few sessions on the conflict between Israel and Palestine and the future of Iraq.
Having said that, PricewaterhouseCooper’s (PWC) annual global CEO survey released here on Wednesday shows CEO confidence at record levels. Almost twice as many chief executives feel confident about revenue growth over the next 12 months compared to five years ago.
Nearly 90% of the 1,100 CEOs surveyed are upbeat about revenue growth in the next 12 months. The optimism stems from stable interest rates globally, oil prices coming down, countries and companies learning to live with high prices that were seen last year, low unemployment levels and booming corporate profitability, the highest in the last seven years.
Interestingly, another recent survey published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) indicates that Indian CEOs are more bullish about the future than their Chinese counterparts. "India-based executives are practically melting with excitement," it says.
Fear of the future, and how ministers hope to avoid it
West Pacific Satellite
· Public debate invited on scientific innovations
· Groups will be invited to discuss scenarios for 2025
James Randerson, science correspondent
Friday January 26, 2007
The Guardian
The government hopes to head off public rows over controversial scientific advances with a project aimed at gauging the public's attitude to future technologies, it was announced yesterday.
The idea is to avoid, or at least anticipate, hostile public reaction such as that seen with GM food and the recent controversy over human-animal hybrids.
"Clearly the GM episode was not a good one in terms of public understanding and public debate," said the minister for science and innovation, Malcolm Wicks, at the launch of the "science horizons" public consultation exercise yesterday. "There's certainly a great difference between well-informed public debate that can affect decision makers and a particular lobby getting organised.
"Some of the biggest issues facing us now have a really strong science and technology dimension. It's actually crucial that that's not just a debate for elites. It's important that we engage a wider public on some of these issues," he said. "Science is too important to leave to the scientists."
He said that climate change and an ageing population would present technological dilemmas for which society must be ready.
The consultation is based on a series of futuristic scenarios set around technologies shaping society in 2025.
The public will be invited to attend open sessions to give their views on a variety of scenarios. The futuristic stories include a man at risk of a heart attack being offered a custom-made replacement organ grown in a lab, a mother agonising over whether she can afford the "premium enhancement" medical package that will turn her daughter into a star athlete, and an in-car computer that tells the driver off for bad driving and can take over the wheel.
The predictions are based on suggestions about likely scientific developments from leading scientists in academia, government and business. The Department of Trade and Industry, which is organising the project, wants small groups of people to discuss the scenarios and respond.
One scenario involves George, a man in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. He is prone to forgetting his way home and getting lost, so his wife has fitted his clothes with tiny GPS tags so that she can find him whenever he goes missing. He also carries his own personal satnav in the form of a cap that gives him directions when he is out. Mr Wicks asked whether these are liberating developments that allow George greater freedom or an infringement of his rights.
In another scenario, Malcolm's new car is fitted with an onboard computer and sensor system that communicates with other cars, smart traffic signals and road-side sensors. It reprimands Malcolm when he drives badly and on certain routes it can take over the wheel altogether. The scenario also raises the possibility that the onboard spy could remove Malcolm's licence altogether if he makes too many driving errors. When he reaches the supermarket, Malcolm's fridge communicates remotely with an electronic display on his trolley that tells him what to buy to satisfy his chosen diet plan without duplicating what is already on his shelves.
In a third case, Rajpal is about to embark on a journey home to India, but doesn't have enough personal carbon credits to get back. He will either have to use some of those allocated to his Indian relatives, or buy some on the international market.
"The public are not stupid. They don't want something forced on them. But equally, they are not the experts, that's why we have scientists," said Martin Earwicker, director of the Science Museum, who is coordinating the consultation.
He said people were often cautious or hostile when faced with new technology. For example, the first cars had to be preceded by a person on foot to stop them going too fast. "The public will accept a certain level of risk so long as there's a corresponding benefit."
DAVOS Consortium set up to standardize co reporting of climate risk - UPDATE
Africa - Europe Satellite
(Updating with comments, company support, funds interest)
DAVOS, Switzerland (AFX) - The World Economic Forum (WEF), which is meeting in Davos, Switzerland, has announced the formation of a new international partnership to create a framework for the standardized reporting of climate risk-related issues by corporations.
Members of the partnership, the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB), will align their core requests for information from companies to ensure that the companies report climate change-related information uniformly in annual reports, WEF said.
This will mean investors, managers and the public can compare and analyse information more easily, WEF said in a statement.
Key climate information to be disclosed in annual reports will be the assessment of physical and regulatory risks of climate change, and the strategic analysis of climate risk and emissions management.
CDSB will initially comprise the California Climate Action Registry, Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Ceres, The Climate Group, International Emissions Trading Association, World Economic Forum Global Greenhouse Gas Register, and World Resources Institute.
The statement cited support from Royal Dutch Shell (nyse: RDSA - news - people ), Duke Energy Corp (nyse: DKE - news - people ), JP Morgan Chase, Swiss Re, and top accounting firms.
In news conference comments, CDP's James Cameron said his organisation speaks on behalf of investors with 34 trln usd of funds under management.
Ceres representative Mindy Lubber said firms in the US with a material risk from climate change effects have a legal obligation to file this data, with the SEC wanting to know if they will be sued.
'I think eventually governments will make this mandatory,' she said.
Australian of the Year lashes government on climate change
The Australian government came under attack for its environmental policies from Tim Flannery, the scientist it named as citizen of the year just a day earlier.
The leading environmentalist and author slammed Australia as the "worst of the worst" on global warming, highlighting its failure to sign the Kyoto Protocol.
"There's no doubt this government's been dragging the chain," Flannery told public radio.
"I've said in the past that Australia has been the worst of the worst in terms of addressing climate change ... but I'm hopeful that we'll see over this year some movement."
Flannery said by refusing to ratify the Kyoto agreement on reducing greenhouse emissions, Prime Minister Howard's government had held back the rest of the world.
"We've lost a decade of inaction and we've held the world back really from addressing this issue because we haven't been part of Kyoto. So we need to move doubly swiftly now and this year is the year we need to see that action," Flannery told Sky News.
In his acceptance speech Thursday, Flannery warned he would continue to criticise anyone he thought was pursuing "wrong-headed" policies in this area.
Flannery welcomed Howard's new 10 billion dollar (7.7 billion US) plan to protect Australia's dwindling water supplies but warned that was just part of the environmental jigsaw puzzle.
Howard, who insisted until late last year that there was little evidence for global warming, said he was not embarrassed by the criticism from the Australian of the Year on Australia Day, the country's major holiday.
"Does it embarrass me? No it doesn't," Howard told commercial radio.
"We do live in a democracy and I'm not so thin-skinned and not so desiring in uniformity that I want every Australian of the Year to engage in fullsome praise of the government -- that would be ridiculous."
Although Howard now admits "climate change is occurring", he said he remained unconvinced of Flannery's arguments about the need to back Kyoto.
"We've got to remember that many of the international rules in this whole area particularly Kyoto have been written by Europeans to suit Europeans with scant regard for the interests of countries such as Australia," he said.
North Pole temperature exceeds Boston's
By Michael Grillo, Boston.com Staff | January 26, 2007
Looking to get some relief from today's icy cold temperatures? Take a trip to Anchorage, Alaska or even the North Pole.
Both locations today reached a balmy 24 and 10.5 degrees, respectively, compared to Boston's high of 12 degrees.
Bostonians are feeling the chill of single-digit temperatures with wind chills as low as -15 degrees as an arctic air mass makes its way through the region.
Temperatures in the single-digits swept into many New England cities this morning: 3 in Worcester; 9 in Hartford, Conn.; 3 in Concord, N.H.; and -3 in Bangor, Maine.
International Falls, located near the Canadian border in Minnesota and notorious for some of America's coldest weather, was 23 degrees at about 11 a.m. Even the Arctic was considerably warmer than New England: the temperature in Nuuk, a city on the coast of Greenland, reached 36 degrees today.
In Europe, it was 21 degrees in Prague; 30 in Helsinki, Finland; 28 in Oslo, Norway; and 30 in Geneva, Switzerland.
But if those hot spots don't warm your cockles, check out flights to the Bahamas (73 degrees) or Buenos Aires where it's summer and a pleasant 71.
Analysis: Merkel gives climate change top priority
Praised U.S. commitment to reduce oil consumption
By Stefan Nicola
UPI Germany Correspondent
BERLIN -- Calling them "humanity's two greatest challenges," German Chancellor Angela Merkel in her opening speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, put climate change and energy security on top of the agenda for her European Union and Group of Eight presidencies.
"We want to give impulses for climate protection, strengthen energy efficiency efforts and raise energy security," Merkel told an audience of chief executives and political leaders Wednesday at the Swiss mountain resort. Her audience included, among others, U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman, British Petroleum Chief Executive Officer John Browne and Zhang Xiaoqiang, the vice chairman of China's National Development Reform Commission, the government's top economic planning agency.
Merkel, a former environment minister, as of today leads Europe's biggest economy, the 27-member EU and the G8; she used her clout to call on companies and governments of the world to join forces to reduce greenhouse gases in a bid to avoid catastrophic effects of climate change, which are sure to descend onto the world once the yearly temperature increase surpasses 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
Merkel praised the commitment issued by U.S. President George W. Bush in his State of the Union speech to cut U.S. oil consumption over the next decade by 20 percent; she also spoke positively about the proposals by the European Commission to set post-Kyoto emission cuts to 30 percent by 2020.
Yet "politics by itself cannot prevent climate change," she said. "We need a binding climate regime that involves all major greenhouse emitters. Of the overall Co2 emissions we (the EU) have 15 percent. Eighty-five percent of those emissions come from somewhere else and the share of Europe is going to go down, so it is a global responsibility."
The German chancellor said energy security was becoming increasingly important for the EU, and said she and Russian President Vladimir Putin had agreed to improve direct communication "in the case of difficulties," a clear reference to the brief interruption of Russian westward oil flow after a gas price row with Belarus.
Developing nations dig in heels on climate issue
DAVOS: Developing countries stand to suffer the worst effects of global warming, and should not have to pay for a problem created mainly by the rich, executives and experts said on Thursday.
At a gathering of 2,400 of the world’s most powerful people at Davos, a ski resort in the Swiss Alps, leaders from emerging nations said they wanted the United States, European Union and others in the West to be more accountable for the heat-trapping emissions their cars and factories produce.
They also asserted their right to stoke their own economies, even if greenhouse gas levels rise as a result.
“We, as a billion people, are going to be consuming a lot of services and goods that will create emissions. We will need technology, we will need money,” said Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of the telecommunications company Bharti Enterprises.
On the World Economic Forum’s opening day on Wednesday, with freezing temperatures ending a balmy start to the Swiss winter, participants voted climate change as most likely to have an impact on the world in years ahead, as well as the issue global leaders are least ready for.
Leaders from rich countries have acknowledged the need for action to address the impacts of global warming for emerging nations, but made no major commitments to help during the World Economic Forum sessions.
Barbara Stocking, director of Oxfam Britain, said the poor were particularly squeezed by growing calls to limit use of fossil fuels, which trap solar rays in the atmosphere and contribute to severe storms and ecological damage.
They are also most vulnerable to global warming’s effects, including irregular rainfall, floods and droughts that have decimated fertile lands and made subsistence farming difficult in much of Africa, as well as Afghanistan, Haiti and elsewhere.
World: Conference Focuses On Terror Potential Of Abrupt Climate Change
26 January 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Much of the attention devoted recently to global climate change has focused, understandably, on its causes and possible prevention. But a group of international experts gathered on January 24 for a conference, organized by a think tank focused on security issues, on the potential for extremists to use the effects of climate change to their own advantage.
Attendees at the conference focused on the large-scale security threats that could accompany catastrophic climate change.
It is an aspect of the challenge facing governments, in particular, as the impact of global warming becomes more clear.
"The reason we're doing it now is that the science behind climate change is now reaching a very strong consensus that we have got a real problem -- many challenges ahead of us," says Rear Admiral Richard Cobbold, the director of Britain's Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, which organized the conference. "What I think is quite new is that these challenges are bringing with them security challenges. And that's what our business is."
Cobbold says obstacles could include catastrophic shortages of water, food, and energy resources that might threaten all of mankind. There might also be loss of life and mass human migrations as a result of flooding or drought that climate change threatens to bring.
Extremist Threat
Authorities fear that some of those events could be exploited by terrorists.
Cobbold makes a hypothetical example of Bangladesh. Just a slight rise in sea level would plunge roughly half of that country underwater, forcing perhaps 17 million people to seek refuge in neighboring India. But India is constructing a 3,000-kilometer fence along its border with Bangladesh, and could hardly feed or shelter such a huge influx of people.
Difficulties are multiplied in cases when gaps in prosperity are even greater between those countries, according to Sir Crispin Tickell, the director of policy foresight at the James Martin Institute for Science and Civilization at Oxford University.
"The reactions to climate change can fall into many categories," Tickell says. "But I think there's going to be a lot of defensive ones in the case of states which are relatively well endowed and can cope with the problems created by climate change [while there will be] offensive reactions of those who feel themselves to be the sufferers and who would like very much to take an advantage of the resources that seem to be just over the fence."
Tickell stresses that disputes could be over water rights -- use of a river that flows through two neighboring countries -- or about greener pastures in a border area affected by differences in rainfall. Such tensions could trigger regional conflicts. If they then involve major energy resources -- such as oil or gas -- security implications would become immediately clear.
Creating A Referee
A former senior aide to the European Commission's Presidency and U.K. representative to the UN, Tickell advocates the creation of an arbiter. He likens such a "new, strong international body" -- which he calls the World Environment Organization -- to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in trade affairs.
William K. P. Kucera, a strategic planner for energy and environment at the international consulting firm Mott MacDonald and a delegate to the London conference, says there is a precedent for such an arbiter -- it's known as the Environment and Security Initiative.
"It's jointly run by NATO, OSCE, [the UN Development Program (UNDP)] and [the UN Environment Program (UNEP)]," Kucera says. "It started in 2003 and it currently operates in Central Asia, the Caucasus, Eastern Europe, and the Balkans, or Southeastern Europe. It basically maps areas first at the environmental level, looking at environmental degradation, different aspects, and then it also maps them from a security perspective."
Kucera explains that the organization focuses on preventing security headaches in the future that might resemble the hypothetical Bangladesh-India mentioned by Cobbold.
Russian Preparations
The attitude of energy-rich Russia also makes some experts uneasy. They think Moscow should be diversifying for the future, but is not doing so.
"Russia is probably the worst possible example of a country that should take a direct interest in this issue but does not for the moment," says Jonathan Eyal, the director of international security studies at the Royal United Services Institute. "Clearly, as a major energy producer, it should be worried about the discussion, whose entire purpose is to diversify away from the use of energy in the way that it is being used now."
As for the other former Soviet republics, Eyal says those with their own energy resources should start diversifying -- devoting proceeds to securing future food and water needs. Their pipeline connections to energy-hungry China should then lay foundations for future energy security and stability to the east.
Eyal suggests that countries like Georgia and Ukraine -- which lack resources and are being strong-armed by Russia -- should not despair.
"It may be that Russian blackmail is doing these countries a favor by forcing them -- at a much earlier stage -- to concentrate on a real economic model and one that moves away from high energy dependency," Eyal says.
World Economic Forum - 'London must take lead on climate change'
Mayor of London Ken Livingstone will say in Davos today that he aims to make London the world's leading centre for research and financial development on climate change over the next five years. The Mayor is in Davos to attend the World Economic Forum. He will be concentrating today (Thursday) on how government and business can work with cities to accelerate global emissions reductions. London established the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group - to accelerate emissions reductions in the world's largest cities. Last August the Mayor announced a partnership with the Bill Clinton's Foundation to take this forward.
(Media-Newswire.com) - Mayor of London Ken Livingstone will say in Davos today that he aims to make London the world's leading centre for research and financial development on climate change over the next five years.
The Mayor is in Davos to attend the World Economic Forum. He will be concentrating today ( Thursday ) on how government and business can work with cities to accelerate global emissions reductions.
Ken Livingstone said today:
?The challenge of climate change requires immediate action across governments and business to effect change.
'Cities produce 75 per cent of global carbon emissions and it is therefore in cities that the battle against climate change will have to be won.
'To win this battle three things are required.
'First, determination to tackle climate change and not denial of its reality or consequences.
'Second, the most sophisticated financial institutions to respond to carbon trading and investment in new technologies.
'Third, state of the art scientific and technical research facilities to develop the technological solutions of the future.
'A number of cities have parts of this solution. But London is the only one that brings together all three. My administration is totally focused on this.
'That is why I am setting the target that in the next five years London should become the undisputed world leader in research and financial development on climate change.
'Climate change is a tremendous challenge to humanity. But for London it is also a tremendous opportunity. The world is shifting to a new technical and financial system in which we do not produce and waste energy, in the form of carbon, but must conserve it. London has the potential to be at the centre of this shift and intends to work with all the other great world cities to achieve it. That is why London established the C40 group of major world cities on climate change.'
ENDS
Notes to Editors
London established the C40 Large Cities Climate Leadership Group - to accelerate emissions reductions in the world's largest cities. Last August the Mayor announced a partnership with the Bill Clinton's Foundation to take this forward.
The World Economic Forum is an independent international organisation committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. WEF is expecting over 2,000 leaders from business, politics, academia, the media and civil society to attend.
A plane takes off for the North Pole in 1937.
The image, captured by Soviet photographer Vladislav Mikosha, went on display this week in an exhibition called "The Arctic Is Our Home."
Organized by the Moscow House of Photography, the exhibition tells the story of Russian exploration of the Arctic.
It especially stresses the 1930s, a time when Arctic explorers - or polyarniki - basked in attention from both the public and the official media, much like cosmonauts a generation later.
The exhibition runs to Feb. 18 in the Manezh Exhibition Hall, located at 1 Manezh Square.
Economy of Somalia
Gunmen Kill Ethiopian Soldier in Somalia
By NASTEEX DAHIR FARAH Associated Press Writer
January 25,2007 | KISMAYO, Somalia -- Gunmen attacked Ethiopian soldiers stationed in southern Somalia on Thursday, killing one and wounding another with a gunshot to the chest, witnesses said. The violence, an apparent sign of tensions between Ethiopian military forces and Somali civilians, broke out in the currency exchange market in Kismayo, said Abdullahi Hassan, a money changer.
"The gunmen used pistols. ... They have taken the Ethiopian soldiers' AK-47s," Hassan said.
Ethiopian troops, whose military strength was crucial to helping Somalia's government drive out a radical Islamic militia, began their withdrawal earlier this week. It was not clear when it would be complete.
Many Somalis resent the presence of Ethiopian troops here; the two countries fought a war in 1977. But without Ethiopia's tanks and fighter jets, the Somali government could barely assert control outside one town and couldn't enter the capital, Mogadishu, which was ruled by fighters loyal to the Council of Islamic Courts. The U.S. accused the group of having ties to al-Qaida.
The withdrawal of Ethiopia, which says it cannot afford to maintain troops in Somalia, has begun in advance of the arrival of a proposed African peacekeeping force. The African Union has approved a plan to send about 8,000 peacekeepers for a six-month mission that would eventually be taken over by the U.N.
Meanwhile, a businessman who financed Somalia's ousted Islamic movement pleaded guilty Thursday in a Nairobi courtroom to being in Kenya illegally, but his attorney argued he shouldn't be deported because he was fleeing for his life.
Abukar Omar Aden, 72, a well-known commodities trader in the Somali capital Mogadishu, was charged along with his son, Omar Abukar Omar, who served as a finance official for the Council of Islamic Courts. The son said he had a visa for Kenya and denied entering the country illegally.
http://www.salon.com/wire/ap/archive.html?wire=D8MSC8AO3.html
Ethiopia: No Security Vacuum in Somalia
Ethiopia said its phased troop withdrawal from Somalia would not create a security vacuum as has been suggested by some. Bereket Simon, an advisor to Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said Ethiopia has also achieved almost all of its goals for going into Somalia.
“Absolutely! In fact, we have achieved a lot more by sending our troops to Somalia. Our first goal was to ensure that the threat that was posed to Ethiopia was overcome, and with the defeat of the extremes in the Islamic Courts, we have succeeded in achieving our goal. In addition to this, we have been able to bring about peace and stability in most parts of Somalia, including Mogadishu. We have been able also to disarm the warlords and incorporate their militias with the federal army,” he said.
Simon dismissed suggestions by some that a quick Ethiopian withdrawal from Somalia may create a security vacuum there.
http://www.huliq.com/8088/ethiopia-no-security-vacuum-in-somalia
Somalia: Libya Will Provide Financial Support to the AU Forces
Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
January 26, 2007
Posted to the web January 26, 2007
Mogadishu
The Libyan leader and summit host Moamer Kadhafi held talks on Wednesday with some of the leaders of the African states comprising the Community of Sahel-Saharan States (CEN-SAD), the official JANA news agency said.
CEN-SAD, which held the summit in the town of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast east of Tripoli, was formed in 1998 to promote regional economic integration and has its headquarters in the Libyan capital.
The Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel Rahman said "Libya will provide financial support to the the Africa Union force for Somalia."
The Somali people's eyes will be on the Ethiopian capital over the next few days as Africa's heads of state prepare to gather for the full summit which starts on Monday to help the the withdrawal of Ethiopian troops but warned if peacekeepers were not deployed soon the situation on the ground could deteriorate.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200701260355.html
Libya hosts African leaders gathering
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi chaired a meeting of African presidents and other top officials on Thursday to prepare for an African Union summit, officials said.
"The next AU summit is very important. The leaders met today to coordinate and narrow their positions and standpoints so that they go to the summit united and speaking in one voice," Libyan Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam told reporters.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was among the 11 heads of state and eight government representatives attending the meeting of the Sahel and Sahara African grouping, most of whose members are instrumental players in the AU which holds its next summit in Ethiopia in July.
"The meeting in Sirte focused on ways to strengthen the AU Commission further and the possibility of setting up an AU government supervising defence, foreign affairs, foreign trade and telecommunications ministries," Shalgam added.
Groups Head to Capital to Step Up Antiwar Drive
Members of the Veterans for Peace gathered for an antiwar rally Thursday on Capitol Hill. A major antiwar march is planned this weekend.
Thursday, January 25, 2007
Morning Papers - continued
The Moscow Times
Putin Clinches Reactor Deal
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer
President Vladimir Putin sealed an agreement Thursday in New Delhi for Russia to build at least four more nuclear reactors in India, a project potentially worth up to 8 billion euros ($10.35 billion).
But Russia will only be able to pull it off if India is freed from international restrictions on nuclear cooperation. And if the restrictions are lifted, the United States and France are likely to compete with Russia for a share of the vast nuclear energy market in India's booming economy.
Putin met Thursday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The letter of intent was signed in their presence by Federal Atomic Energy Agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko and his Indian counterpart, Anil Kakodka.
Under the agreement, Russia would build four reactors for the Kundankulam nuclear power station on the Indian Ocean where it is already building two similar 1,000-megawatt reactors, the Federal Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. The agreement also would give Russia an option to build more reactors at other sites, the agency said.
At a news conference after the talks, Singh thanked Russia for its assistance in developing the nuclear energy sector and support in the efforts to lift the international restrictions.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/001.html
Sting Nets Highly Enriched Uranium
By Simon Saradzhyan
Staff Writer
Georgian and U.S. authorities have announced that Tbilisi had caught a Russian citizen in the act of selling weapons-grade uranium nearly one year ago, only for Russian energy officials Thursday to dismiss the claim as a "provocation."
One Russian citizen and three Georgian citizens were arrested for conspiring to sell 100 grams of enriched uranium in Georgia last February in a sting operation set up by Georgian police and aided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Georgian authorities identified the seller as Oleg Khinsagov, 50, a resident of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia. Khinsagov boasted that if the deal came off he would be prepared to sell two to three kilograms of highly enriched uranium that was stored in his apartment, The New York Times reported.
Three to four kilograms of highly enriched uranium would be sufficient to create a small implosion bomb if the bombmakers possessed a sophisticated design and production capacity, said Matthew Bunn, a senior research associate who focuses on nuclear theft and terrorism at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/002.html
Snow Brings Hassles and Relief
By David Nowak
Staff Writer
Moscow ground to a halt Thursday as a major blizzard caused dozens of flights to be diverted and snarled traffic on the city's roads.
As much as 20 centimeters of snow was expected by the end of Thursday. The storm began at around 6 a.m., bringing the warmest winter weather on record to a dramatic end.
The daytime temperature on Thursday averaged minus 10 degrees Celsius, and the mercury is expected to dip to minus 20 C next week.
Muscovites stuck in rush-hour traffic jams may have despaired as winter arrived in force, but others regarded the sudden change in the weather as a godsend: Ski areas were open for business at last, and the bears at the zoo were finally getting some shut-eye.
For travelers, the news was all bad on Thursday. At least 31 flights into Moscow's busiest airport, Domodedovo, and the smaller Vnukovo Airport, had been diverted to Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg and other Moscow airports by mid-afternoon Thursday.
"This is Domodedovo," said Vera Bragina, an airport spokeswoman. "We're used to it."
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/011.html
Registration Service Denies Chechen Legal Aid Group
Reuters
The government has refused for a second time to register the Moscow office of a Dutch-based human rights group that gives legal aid to Chechens who accuse the Russian military of torture and abuse, the group said Thursday.
In a letter dated Jan. 19, the Federal Registration Service informed the nongovernmental organization Russian Justice Initiative that its application had been rejected on technical grounds.
The day before, two Chechen brothers prevailed in a case before the European Court of Human Rights, the first conviction of torture against federal forces in the two wars the government has fought against rebels in Chechnya since 1994.
The brothers received legal aid and advice from Russian Justice Initiative, which helps Chechens with grievances against the Russian military.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/013.html
Governors Appointed for Loyalty and Votes
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer
Since acquiring the power to appoint and remove governors two years ago, President Vladimir Putin has avoided a major shake-up, allowing most regional leaders to hang on to their jobs.
The terms of 23 governors came to an end in 2005, and another 21 asked for the president's backing before their terms had expired. Putin reappointed the overwhelming majority of them. Last year, the president retained six regional leaders and replaced three.
Putin seems to have been guided in his personnel decisions by a desire to minimize the negative consequences of a change in leadership for the Kremlin. "When it comes to replacing governors, the most important thing for the Kremlin is not to make the situation any worse," said Rostislav Turovsky, a regional analyst with the Center for Political Technologies.
The logic behind this policy is familiar from any large bureaucracy, where loyalty to superiors and the willingness to follow orders are the most important qualities for employees eager to keep their jobs.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/015.html
Chemical Plant Fined $128,000
The Associated Press
BEIJING -- A chemical plant in northeast China has been fined 1 million yuan ($128,000) in connection with one of the country's worst toxic spills that cut off water to millions of Chinese and Russians, state media said Thursday.
A Nov. 13, 2005, explosion at the plant in the city of Jilin discharged tons of benzene and other dangerous chemicals into the Songhua River, which flows downstream into the major city of Harbin in a neighboring province and the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk.
China's Cabinet "considers it a major pollution incident" and the State Environmental Protection Agency has fined the plant 1 million yuan, the official Xinhua News Agency said on its web site.
No other details were given but it is the highest fine possible under environmental protection laws, the report said.
The plant is operated by a subsidiary of China's biggest oil company, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.
A Cabinet investigation showed the explosion was caused by negligence and a failure to observe regulations on the plant's operations. It killed eight people and forced 10,000 more to flee their homes.
Putin Slams U.S. Space Weapons
The Associated Press
NEW DELHI -- President Vladimir Putin on Thursday criticized U.S. plans for space-based weapons, saying it was the reason behind a recent Chinese anti-satellite weapons test.
Asked about the Chinese test at a news conference in New Delhi after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Putin avoided directly criticizing China, saying only that Russia was against putting any weapons in space.
Instead, Putin chose to issue a warning to the United States on the dangers of the militarization of space.
"At the same time, I would like to note that China was not the first country to conduct such a test," Putin said.
The Jan. 11 test, first reported last week by the magazine Aviation Week, destroyed a defunct Chinese weather satellite by hitting it with a warhead deployed from a ballistic missile.
"The first such test was conducted back in the late 1980s and we also hear today about U.S. military circles considering plans of militarization of space. We must not let the genie out of the bottle," Putin said.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/018.html
Cheney Combative After Senate Ruling
Combined Reports
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the administration had achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq but complained that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" that they are undermining U.S. troops in a war zone, striking a far more combative tone than U.S. President George W. Bush did in his State of the Union address the night before.
In a television interview that turned increasingly contentious, Cheney rejected the gloomy portrayal of Iraq that has become commonly accepted even among some Bush supporters. "There's problems" in Iraq, he said, but it is not a "terrible situation." And congressional opposition "won't stop us" from sending 21,500 more troops, he said, it will only "validate the terrorists' strategy."
On Tuesday night, the Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed plans for a troop buildup in Iraq as "not in the national interest" of the United States.
Chuck Hagel, the only one of 10 committee Republicans to support the nonbinding resolution, called the Iraq war a "pingpong game with American lives."
In his annual address, Bush acknowledged deep troubles in Iraq and made little effort to paint it a success.
Cheney rejected the idea that there had been any failure, however, and voiced the aggravation that many in the White House feel as Democrats step up their attacks on the Bush administration.
As leading Democrats lace their rhetoric with words such as "blunder" and "reckless," the White House has tried to calibrate how hard to push back.
Cheney, it seems, chose to push back hard, saying the administration would disregard the resolution opposing the troop increase, which he said undermined soldiers in a war zone. "It won't stop us," he added.
Cheney has been criticized in the past for presenting what some called an overly rosy view of the situation in Iraq, most notably in 2005 when he said the insurgency was in its "last throes." The view he expressed Wednesday seemed no less positive, and he sparred repeatedly with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, telling him "you're wrong" and suggesting that he was embracing defeat.
When Blitzer asked whether the administration's credibility had been hurt by "the blunders and the failures" in Iraq, Cheney interjected: "Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash."
In fact, Cheney said, the operation in Iraq has achieved its original mission. "What we did in Iraq in taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do," he said. "The world is much safer today because of it. There have been three national elections in Iraq. There's a democracy established there, a constitution, a new democratically elected government. Saddam has been brought to justice and executed. His sons are dead. His government is gone."
Cheney was curt, as well, about leading Democrats. Asked whether he thought Senator Hillary Clinton would make a good president, Cheney said simply: "No, I don't."
And how did it feel to sit next to Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as House speaker, on Tuesday night?
"I prefer Dennis Hastert."
Dudley Sees Gazprom Deal by This Summer
By Andrew McChesney
Staff Writer
DAVOS, Switzerland -- TNK-BP chief Robert Dudley said Thursday that he expected to reach a deal with Gazprom around the middle of this year under which his company would keep a "sufficient" stake in the giant Kovykta gas field and be actively involved in its operation.
Gazprom in turn would gain a potentially large stake in the $20 billion project in exchange for cash, assets or something else of value that reflected TNK-BP's investment into the field, Dudley said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Kovykta is caught in a high-profile licensing dispute that investors fear is an attempt to pressure TNK-BP into handing control of the east Siberian field to Gazprom, and Dudley said he was being deluged with questions from Davos participants wanting to hear his side of the story.
Dudley said government officials had asked him to offer "a very balanced view" of the dispute at the forum.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/003.html
First Budget Airline Takes to the Skies
By Max Delany
Staff Writer
When the inaugural Sky Express flight takes off from Moscow's Vnukovo Airport for Sochi on Monday afternoon, the low-cost airline phenomenon familiar in Europe and the United States will have finally come to Russia.
The brainchild of Boris Abramovich, general director of the country's third-largest carrier, KrasAir, Sky Express will be the first budget airline to start operating in the country. With a handful of competitors expected to follow, the airline looks set to change the face of domestic air travel by offering tickets for as little as 500 rubles ($19).
As the country's airlines have struggled to adapt to market conditions over the last 15 years, the number of passengers taking internal flights in the country has plummeted from over 130 million per year to fewer than 20 million.
Now Sky Express hopes to step into this breach.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/004.html
In the Spotlight
When it comes to celebrity breakups, there seems to be an inverse relationship between how interesting they are and the amount of coverage they get.
By Anna Malpas
Published: January 26, 2007
This week, it was hard to avoid a certain starry couple: singers Natalya Podolskaya and Vladimir Presnyakov. When they weren't skiing in France on two full pages of Hello! magazine, they were taking up four pages of the less glamorous Seven Days magazine with excessively nauseating scenes of coupledom.
She's a former Eurovision contestant (15th place) and, before that, a contestant on the television talent show Star Factory (third place). He's a luxuriantly locked popster who performs toe-tapping numbers on Saturday-evening music shows. Together, their star wattage is at least high enough to power their straightening irons.
Apparently, the Seven Days story was prompted by tabloid rumors that the couple had broken up. I somehow managed to miss this headline news, but I certainly appreciate P and P's thoughtfulness in letting the nation know that they're still snuggling up in a photogenic way. He calls her Tusya, she calls him Vova, and snarling singletons are already dreading the thought of their Valentine's Day interview.
The article said the two have been going out for almost a year. But I only found out last summer, when the magazine ran a photo shoot of them involving surf, white shirts and no underwear. This was just wrong, and surely had housewives across Russia choking on their mid-morning cake crumbs, just as their pens were poised to fill in the crosswords.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/110.html
The Beauty of Belief
Contemporary artists explore the theme of faith in an unusual project at Winzavod.
By Brian Droitcour
Published: January 26, 2007
In the months before it opened, "I Believe" was heralded as a turning point, an exhibition that would encourage its participants to eschew the irony and intellectual play that have become embedded in contemporary art, and to make new works with the sincerity and seriousness usually associated with icon painting. While the outcome falls short of meeting these lofty goals, the exhibition in the partially renovated cellars of Winzavod -- a pre-revolutionary winery currently being converted into a contemporary arts center -- succeeds in communicating the inquiry and discovery that went into its creation.
"I Believe" is the brainchild of Oleg Kulik, an artist who in recent years has recorded his own spiritual quest in projects like "Gobi Test," a travelogue of his 2004 journey to Mongolia. Kulik became a minor celebrity in the mid-1990s thanks to television news coverage of performances where he acted like a rabid dog, or collected signatures to establish a Party of Animals for the 1996 elections (when officials at the Central Electoral Commission saw the paw prints on his petitions, they refused to let him register). Before that, Kulik worked as a curator for Regina Gallery and established its reputation as Moscow's most radical and controversial exhibition space. "I Believe" signals his return to curating, and it has been just as successful in creating buzz as his earlier project.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/102.html
In the Beginning
"The Creation," Haydn's celebrated oratorio inspired by the Book of Genesis, gets a rare performance in Moscow.
By Raymond Stults
Published: January 26, 2007
Recent seasons have found the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra at the forefront of Moscow orchestral ensembles in unearthing forgotten or rarely heard masterpieces and in seeking to play them in the performance styles of their respective eras.
On Saturday evening, Musica Viva, joined by a chorus and vocal soloists from abroad, brings another such masterpiece to the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory: Joseph Haydn's magnificent oratorio "The Creation," a work hardly forgotten, but seldom heard live either here or anywhere else.
"It probably hasn't been done in Moscow for 20 years, and never before in a full and authentic version," Musica Viva music director Alexander Rudin said at a Wednesday news conference.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/107.html
Trafficking in Puzzlement and Wonder
Three cheers for nonverbal communication! Несловесный язык (nonverbal language) helps you figure out what's going on when you are still struggling to understand словесный язык (verbal language). It's particularly useful on Russian roadways. Even if you can't always understand what the Russian traffic cop is shouting at you, his facial expression, whistles, waves of the baton and hand gestures give you a good sense of what you should -- or should not -- do.
And how about communication between drivers? Amazing how just one hand gesture can contain such emotional and intellectual richness.
Дорожные знаки (road signs) are another good example of nonverbal communication. As someone who spends a lot of time sitting in traffic jams, I've had plenty of time to contemplate them and try to divine their meaning. The problem, it turns out, is that my skills at interpreting nonverbal messages appear to have grown a bit rusty.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/007.html
New York Times
Testimony by Former Cheney Aide Hurts Libby
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 – Vice President Dick Cheney’s spokeswoman told a jury today that she informed Mr. Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr. , that a prominent war critic’s wife worked for the C.I.A. days before Mr. Libby contended he learned it from a reporter.
Cathie Martin, who was Mr. Cheney’s chief spokeswoman, was the fourth witness for the prosecution in the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of Mr. Libby, who is charged with lying during an investigation to determine who leaked the name of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson. Unlike the previous three witnesses who worked at the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department, Ms. Martin provided an insider’s perspective, one from within the Office of the Vice President.
Her testimony under questioning from a federal prosecutor was damaging to Mr. Libby. She testified that both Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby were intensely interested in Ms. Wilson and her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had been sent on a mission to Africa by the C.I.A. to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger for his nuclear weapons program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/washington/25cnd-libby.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=63e179b421f77c54&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program
The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency’s highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges’ clerks cannot see its secret filings. Judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowed to keep copies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/washington/26nsa.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=9044950dc6386d92&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Iraq Leader and Sunni Officials in Clash on Security
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 — Iraq’s Shiite prime minister and Sunni lawmakers hurled insults at one another during a raucous session of Parliament on Thursday, with the prime minister threatening a Sunni lawmaker with arrest and the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit.
The Reach of War
The uproar revolved around the new Baghdad security plan, but it came as the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, is under increasing pressure to demonstrate evenhandedness. President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq hinges in large measure on the Iraqi government’s ability to rein in both Shiite and Sunni militants.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=7d79f651441cca5c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Colleges Regroup After Voters Ban Race Preferences
With Michigan’s new ban on affirmative action going into effect, and similar ballot initiatives looming in other states, many public universities are scrambling to find race-blind ways to attract more blacks and Hispanics.
At Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, a new admissions policy, without mentioning race, allows officials to consider factors like living on an Indian reservation or in mostly black Detroit, or overcoming discrimination or prejudice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/education/26affirm.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=ff8555b301a8c973&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Groups Head to Capital to Step Up Antiwar Drive
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 — Tens of thousands of demonstrators are set to arrive in the capital this weekend for a major antiwar march, staging the first of several protests intended to persuade the new Democratic-controlled Congress to do more than simply speak against President Bush’s Iraq policy.
But do not look for senators to be standing among the protesters on the Mall on Saturday. Despite a consensus building around a Senate resolution to oppose sending more troops to Iraq, even the most liberal Democratic senators do not appear eager to align themselves with a traditional antiwar protest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/washington/26left.html?ei=5094&en=e4fdb7cc0284b4c2&hp=&ex=1169874000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1169826389-Ey3d603So+Gb5J3aiMf31Q
Lebanon Army Lifts Beirut Curfew
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah held funeral processions on Friday for three of its members shot dead during sectarian clashes in Beirut and called for unity among the Lebanese to stop their country sliding to civil war.
The Lebanese army lifted a curfew in Beirut, but schools and universities were closed a day after Sunni-Shi'ite violence killed four people and injured some 200.
``We urge all religious figures, Christian and Muslim, and all sensible people in Lebanon to shoulder their responsibility before it's too late,'' senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbik told mourners at one of the funerals.
``This pure, precious blood was spilled for the sake of unity and it will leave its mark.''
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-lebanon.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=678f14109ee7b366&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Army Patrols Expand in Tense Beirut
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Soldiers reinforced patrols and checkpoints Friday following a rare nighttime curfew imposed by authorities seeking to quell escalating clashes between factions supporting the Western-backed government and Hezbollah protesters trying to bring it down.
The order to clear the streets -- lifted just before dawn -- came after rival groups turned a university campus into a battle zone on Thursday with at least three people killed when mobs faced off with homemade clubs and stones.
Army officers reported snipers opening fire during the melee, but there was no clear indication of whether the gunmen were acting on orders from any of the leaders locked in the deepening standoff or saboteurs seeking to inflame the situation.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Lebanon.html
Bombing at Hotel in Pakistani Capital
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A man set off a bomb outside the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital on Friday, killing himself and a guard and wounding at least seven other people in an apparent suicide attack, officials said.
Police cordoned off the scene in downtown Islamabad, near Parliament and the president's office. The blast badly damaged the hotel around a side entrance that leads to the nightclub.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Rana Najam, a Marriott housekeeping manager, said witnesses told him they saw a man running toward the side entrance, where he was stopped by a hotel guard. The man then detonated explosives, killing himself and the guard, he said.
Police said another hotel guard was in critical condition.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pakistan-Blast.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=a1eba7eee8c2d99e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Ms. Rice seeks allies to carry more and more of the USA responsibility in Afghanistan because Bush is taking USA troops from that theater to replace attrition in Baghdad
Rice Seeks Allies' Help With Aghanistan
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed to allies Friday to do more to help Afghanistan, and placed a hefty U.S. aid increase on the table as an incentive. The Bush administration wants NATO allies to increase money, troops and other support for the unsteady democracy in Afghanistan, and is also working to dispel European suspicion that the United States is too busy in Iraq to pay attention to the older Afghan fight.
''Every one of us must take a hard look at what more we can do to help the Afghan people, and to support one another,'' Rice told a gathering of NATO foreign ministers that was arranged to commence planning for an expected Taliban military offensive in the spring.
Among other issues Rice raised Friday were the divisions within the alliance on sharing the burden in Afghanistan. Some NATO countries have shown a greater willingness than others to send troops to areas of conflict.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-US-Afghanistan.html
Bush to Seek More Aid for Afghanistan as Taliban Regroups
By HELENE COOPER and DAVID S. CLOUD
BRUSSELS, Jan. 25 — President Bush plans to ask Congress for $10.6 billion in aid for Afghanistan, primarily to beef up the country’s security forces, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
The aid request would come before what is expected to be another spring offensive by resurgent forces linked to the Taliban, the former rulers of Afghanistan. In Washington, the Pentagon announced Thursday that it was delaying the departure of a 3,200-soldier combat brigade from Afghanistan for as long as three months, increasing the American force level there to around 24,000. An additional 20,000 soldiers from other NATO countries are also deployed there.
The aid request would include $8.6 billion for training and equipping Afghan security forces and would go toward increasing the size of Afghanistan’s national army by 70,000 and its local police forces by 82,000, said a senior American official familiar with the issue.
An additional $2 billion would go to reconstruction projects like building roads, laying down electric power lines, development in rural areas, and counternarcotics efforts, administration officials said. The officials said that they planned to use some of the money to help Afghanistan and Pakistan battle the Taliban and other insurgents along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/world/asia/26afghan.html?pagewanted=print
14 Killed in Central Baghdad Bomb Attack
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A bomb hidden in a box holding pigeons tore through a crowded pet and livestock market Friday, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens, police said, in a blast that left the carcasses of dead birds, dogs and other animals scattered on the blood-soaked ground.
The attack struck a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insisted there will be ''no safe place in Iraq for terrorists,'' and a suicide car bombing in the Shiite neighborhood of Karradah. Police raised the casualty toll in that attack to 30 killed and 61 wounded.
Al-Maliki's comments came Thursday during a raucous session of parliament, with a heated exchange between the Shiite leader and Sunni legislator and cleric Abdul-Nasser al-Janabi, who accused the Shiite-dominated government of carrying out purges against Sunnis, the minority sect in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html
Senate Confirms New U.S. Commander in Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Friday voted unanimously to confirm the nomination of Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus to command U.S. troops in Iraq at a time when President Bush is building up American forces there.
Petraeus' 81-0 approval was in contrast to the widespread public and congressional opposition to Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Congress is moving toward votes in coming weeks on nonbinding resolutions opposing the troop build up.
Public sentiment has turned strongly against a war that has dragged on for nearly four years with more than 3,000 American dead and violence unabated by insurgents and sectarian militias.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Iraq-General.html
Fearing Protectionism, in India
DAVOS, Switzerland
As India and China have grown rapidly in recent years, there has been no shortage of forecasts of protectionist backlashes in the developed world, although the actual effect of those complaints has been minor.
But now there is talk of a different threat.
“Backlash within India is a bigger problem,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, a co-founder and president of Infosys, an Indian company that has become one of the biggest winners from the era of globalization. Its stock price has quintupled in less than four years, and over the last 12 months it has hired 22,000 people.
“There is one part of India which is rapidly growing and another part that is being left behind,” he said in an interview here. “In the last round of Indian elections,” both at the national and state levels, “any chief minister who was seen as pro-business lost.”
At the World Economic Forum here this week, business and government leaders have celebrated what they see as the success of globalization. Unemployment is low around the world, and growth is strong. Worries about a United States slowdown have faded, and even the self-appointed pessimist on one panel of economists here, Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Global Economics, saw the threat in the United States as being a “growth recession” rather than a real recession. In such a downturn, the American economy would see a few quarters of growth below 1 percent.
If a few years ago the big question about China was whether it would have a hard landing or a soft one, now no one sees any landing at all. Instead, there are questions about what it will do with all that money. Zhu Min, an official of the Bank of China, offered assurances that China would not have trouble managing another $200 billion in foreign currency reserves that it will add this year.
And Montek S. Ahluwalia, a member of the Indian government as deputy chairman of the state planning commission, can talk of being dissatisfied with an economic growth rate of over 8 percent, promising to raise it to 10 percent within five years. A few years ago, a growth rate of 8 percent would have seemed like a wonderful dream.
But the growth has come, and with it concern about unequal distribution. Mr. Gopalakrishnan said 37 percent of Indians are illiterate, and more than 30 percent live in poverty.
Infosys, which prospered from the outsourcing of technical work from companies in the developed world, played a role in India’s growth. But its direct benefits remain restricted to the most educated sectors of Indian society, even if it does reach further down the education hierarchy than it once did.
A decade ago, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said, Infosys hired 90 percent of its new employees from the top tier of Indian universities. Now that proportion is down to about 10 percent, simply because there is a lot of competition for the graduates of those colleges.
Instead, it hires most of its new employees from 200 Indian colleges, and puts all new workers through a 16-week training program that leads to about 4 percent of them failing. It also hires workers from the countries where it seeks contracts, including 130 in the last year from American colleges. It is trying to become more of a strategic consultant to its clients, a plan that requires more local knowledge.
But even as Infosys and other Indian companies have prospered, they have contributed to rising inequality in India — in part by helping to bid up salaries for those who get top jobs — and Infosys now seeks workers willing to take less than it pays in India.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan said Infosys aimed at having about 30 percent of the work on its typical contract done in the country where the client is, and the rest done remotely. All of that remote work used to be done in India, but now Infosys has added locations in China, Mauritius and the Czech Republic, and is looking for a location in Latin America.
It is not hard to imagine an Indian politician denouncing that strategy in terms that would be familiar to Ross Perot. And that explains why it is not enough to say that globalization has produced unprecedented growth.
“Democratic societies,” said Laura D’Andrea Tyson, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, “need to have a population that feels the benefits from this process are shared by them.”
And that is no sure thing, even in India. “It is an amazing time,” Mr. Gopalakrishnan said, pointing to the rapid economic growth in much of the world. “How long it will last is anybody’s guess.”
Trying to Imagine a Woman in the White House
Categories: Politics
Is America ready to elect a woman president?
These days, the most frequent answer is an unambiguous yes. A Newsweek poll last month found that 86 percent of Americans said they would vote for a qualified woman for president. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll last week found that only 4 percent of registered voters said they would not vote for a woman for president.
Support for the idea appears to be near-unanimous. (A CBS/New York Times poll last year found that 92 percent of people were willing to vote for a qualified woman.) But there’s a curious thing: when the question about women is phrased differently – as in “Do you believe America is ready for a female president?” – this lovely consensus falls apart.
In Newsweek’s poll, only 55 percent of respondents said they believed that America was ready. Gallup and CNN – and the New York Times – found similar results: at most, 61 percent of their respondents said they thought their compatriots could accept a woman in the White House.
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/
Tremors at the Door
By VIKAS BAJAJ and CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Wall Street’s big bet on risky mortgages may be souring a lot faster than had been previously thought.
The once booming market for home loans to people with weak credit — known as subprime mortgages and made largely to minorities, the poor and first-time buyers stretching to afford a home — is coming under greater pressure. The evidence can be seen in rising default rates, increasingly strained finances at mortgage lenders and growing doubts among investors.
Now, Wall Street firms, which had helped fuel the growth in the market by bankrolling and investing in subprime mortgage lenders, have begun to pinch off the money spigot.
Several mortgage lenders have recently collapsed. While the failures so far are small in number, some industry officials are concerned that they could be the first in a wave. The subprime sector, which produced loans worth more than $500 billion in the first nine months of last year, could shrink significantly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/business/26mortgage.html
In Clue to Addiction, a Brain Injury Halts Smoking
By BENEDICT CAREY
Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting today that an injury to a specific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanently break a smoking habit. People with the injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as one man put it, “forgot the urge to smoke.”
The finding, which appears in the journal Science, is based on a small study. But experts say it is likely to alter the course of addiction research, pointing researchers toward new ideas for treatment.
While no one is suggesting brain injury as a solution for addiction, the finding suggests that therapies might focus on the insula, a prune-size region under the frontal lobes that is thought to register gut feelings and is apparently a critical part of the network that sustains addictive behavior.
Previous research on addicts focused on regions of the cortex involved in thinking and decision making. But while those regions are involved in maintaining habits, the new study suggests that they are not as central as the insula is.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/science/26brain.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=36091ef2e541105c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
A Convenient Truth
Melbourne, Australia
CAN it be ethical for a young girl to be treated with hormones so she will remain below normal height and weight, to have her uterus removed and to have surgery on her breasts so they will not develop? Such treatment, applied to a profoundly intellectually disabled girl known only as Ashley, has led to criticism of Ashley’s parents, of the doctors who carried out the treatment, and of the ethics committee at Seattle Children’s Hospital, which approved it.
Ashley is 9, but her mental age has never progressed beyond that of a 3-month-old. She cannot walk, talk, hold a toy or change her position in bed. Her parents are not sure she recognizes them. She is expected to have a normal lifespan, but her mental condition will never improve.
In a blog, Ashley’s parents explain that her treatment is not for their convenience but to improve her quality of life. If she remains small and light, they will be able to continue to move her around frequently and take her along when they go out with their other two children. The hysterectomy will spare her the discomfort of menstrual cramps, and the surgery to prevent the development of breasts, which tend to be large in her family, will make her more comfortable whether lying down or strapped across the chest in her wheelchair.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/opinion/26singer.html
New Rocket Is Progressing, NASA Reports
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 — The new rocket that will replace the space shuttle for carrying crews to the International Space Station is on schedule and within weight guidelines, NASA officials said Thursday.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s associate administrator for exploration, Scott Horowitz, said that the design of the rocket, the Ares I, was progressing well and that the rocket should be ready for its first test flight on schedule in 2009.
Mr. Horowitz acknowledged that the design had had an increase in weight, a subject of speculation in the aerospace industry, but said that was not unexpected in the early stages of rocket development.
Mr. Horowitz said the rocket, derived from the solid-rocket boosters that lift the shuttles at the starts of their flights, was well within performance limits to lift the 25-ton Orion crew exploration vehicle into orbit. The Orion is to carry crews of six to the space station starting in 2014 and also serve as a crew vehicle for later flights to the Moon under President Bush’s expanded exploration plans for NASA.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/science/space/26rocket.html
Pork Producer Says It Plans to Give Pigs More Room
CHICAGO, Jan. 25 — The world’s largest pork processor said on Thursday that it would phase out confinement of pigs in individual gestation crates over the next decade, a move animal welfare advocates said would end one of the cruelest practices in the agriculture industry.
The processor, Smithfield Foods, which raises sows at 187 farms in eight states, said it would replace individual metal cages with pens where the sows would be housed in groups, allowing more mobility.
Animal welfare activists praised the move. “This is perhaps the most important moment in animal welfare in the agribusiness sector in 50 years,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/business/26pigs.html
HOUSES NEAR ICE BOATING
Fun When It Freezes
As told to BETHANY LYTTLE
WHO Doug Kolner, 47, owner of a biotech manufacturing company and commodore of the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club
WHERE Monona, Wis.
WHAT 1-bedroom house
This cabin is less than 10 minutes from our house in Madison and it’s only about 700 square feet. But it’s right on the lake, and it has a detached garage. That was the real attraction for me, because up until then, I’d been trying to build a Renegade ice yacht in my basement. This required punching a hole in the wall, something that wasn’t very pleasing to my wife. This garage, on the other had, is already in borderline tear-down condition, so, you know, knocking out holes isn’t that big a deal.
I must have been 11 or 12 years old the first time I saw an ice boat. It was one of those years with beautiful black ice on the lake. I was skating with a group of friends, and this guy sailed by and offered to tow us across the lake. I knew I had to have one.
So, right after college, I started building and sailing. From the beginning, I had great help from the guys at the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club. It’s been around for about 80 years, and the older guys have been real mentors to me. Nothing gets me out of bed like checking on the work I did on a boat the day before. I just grab a cup of coffee and go straight to the garage to take a look.
Ice boating is similar to sailing, but unlike regular sailing, the friction is minimal, you can sail upward of five times the speed of wind. Therein lies the thrill. Sitting low, so close to the ice, it feels like you’re going 100 miles an hour. For years, I was able to lie about things like that, but now with global positioning systems, I know it’s more like 60. As told to Bethany Lyttle
Ford Loses Record $12.7 Billion in ’06
DEARBORN, Mich., Jan. 25 — The Ford Motor Company had the worst year in its history in 2006, losing $12.7 billion and suffering sharp erosion of its share of the United States auto market.
Ford lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter alone, the company reported today. In the same period a year earlier, it lost a comparatively trivial $74 million.
The company took in $160.1 billion in revenue in 2006, 9 percent less than in 2005.
Ford’s full-year loss, equivalent to $6.79 per share, far exceeded the $7.39 billion it lost in 1992, the worst previous year in its 103-year history, and it even surpassed the $10.6 billion loss posted by General Motors in 2005. But it is still short of the $23.5 billion that G.M. lost in its worst year, 1992.
Most of Ford’s red ink in 2006 came from the cost of shrinking and reorganizing the company, buying out workers and writing down asset values. Those charges accounted for $9.9 billion of the full-year loss after taxes. But Ford’s day-to-day business did very poorly as well, with a loss of $2.8 billion on continuing operations, compared with a $1.9 billion loss in 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/business/25cnd-ford.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=0c1b2034be84b3a2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Several Casualties Reported in Beirut Clashes
BEIRUT, Lebanon Jan. 25 — Violence erupted in Beirut today for the second time in three days, as a lunchroom altercation at a Beirut university escalated into rioting and gunfire.
The army declared a nighttime curfew in Beirut, amid fears that Lebanon’s political crisis had entered a decidedly violent phase.
At least three people were shot dead and 35 were wounded in street fighting today that began with a scuffle inside the student cafeteria of the Beirut Arab University in the Sunni neighborhood of Tariq Jadideh. It spilled over into street violence in the surrounding area.
As the violence worsened, opposition supporters appeared by the vanload at the school, smashing cars, setting them on fire and burning tires. The air filled with thick black smoke as young men hurled stones at one another.
Television stations run by each side of the political divide blamed the other for the violence, while leaders on both sides called for calm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/middleeast/25cnd-lebanon.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=a7b4666d75e404c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Donors Pledge $7.6 Billion for Lebanon
PARIS, Jan. 25 — Led by Saudi Arabia and the United States, more than 30 countries and agencies pledged $7.6 billion in aid for Lebanon today in a bold bid to try to prop up the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
But even as Mr. Siniora was shaking hands and thanking world leaders in Paris, chaos reigned back at home in Beirut, where at least three people were shot dead and dozens injured in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists. The Lebanese army declared a night curfew in Beirut, and leaders from both sides appealed for calm.
Today’s clashes, which came as Mr. Siniora sought to present his country to world donors as ripe for investment, were another embarrassment to the Prime Minister, who is fighting to keep his government afloat. In Lebanon, the political faction led by Hezbollah and backed by Iran and Syria has been calling for Mr. Siniora’s resignation for more than two months now. Beirut was brought to a virtual standstill on Tuesday by rioting and protests from the Hezbollah faction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/middleeast/25cnd-diplo.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=155ac4eef2a14156&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Big States’ Push for Earlier Vote Scrambles Race
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — As many as four big states — California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey — are likely to move up their 2008 presidential primaries to early next February, further upending an already unsettled nominating process and forcing candidates of both parties to rethink their campaign strategies, party officials said Wednesday.
The changes, which seem all but certain to be enacted by state legislatures, mean that the presidential candidates face the prospect of going immediately from an ordered series of early contests in relatively small states in January to a single-day, coast-to-coast battlefield in February, encompassing some of the most expensive advertising markets in the nation.
The changes would appear to benefit well-financed and already familiar candidates and diminish the prospects of those with less money and name recognition going into such a highly compressed series of contests early next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/us/politics/25vote.html?
ei=5094&en=d7c7f5f0aa7675dd&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Scientists Tie Part of Brain to Urge to Smoke
By BENEDICT CAREY
Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting that an injury to a specific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanently break a smoking habit, effectively erasing the most stubborn of addictions. People with the injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as one man put it, “forgot the urge to smoke.”
The new finding, which is to appear in the journal Science on Friday, is likely to alter the course of addiction research, pointing researchers toward new ideas for treatment, experts say. While no one is suggesting brain injury as a solution for addiction, the findings suggest that therapies might focus on the insula, a prune-sized region under the frontal lobes that is thought to register gut feelings and is apparently a critical part of the network that sustains addictive behavior.
Previous research on addicts focused on regions of the cortex involved in thinking and decision-making. But while those regions are involved in maintaining habits, the new study suggests that they are not as central.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/science/25cnd-brain.html?ei=5094&en=4e508e8daffaae23&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Afghan Gov't Won't Spray Poppy Crop
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided against a Colombia-style program to spray this country's heroin-producing poppies after the Cabinet worried herbicide would hurt legitimate crops, animals and humans, officials said Thursday.
The decision, reportedly made Sunday, dashes U.S. hopes for mounting a campaign using ground sprayers to poison poppy plants to help combat Afghanistan's opium trade after a record crop in 2006.
Karzai instead ''made a very strong commitment'' to lead other eradication efforts this year and said if that didn't cut production he would allow spraying in 2008, a Western official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Counternarcotics, Said Mohammad Azam, said this year's effort will rely on ''traditional techniques'' -- sending laborers into fields to trample or plow under opium poppies before they can be harvested. A similar campaign during 2006 failed.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Drugs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
U.S. to Seek $10.6 Billion for Afghan Aid
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- President Bush will ask Congress for $10.6 billion to help Afghanistan strengthen its security forces and rebuild from years of war, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
The money would be on top of $14.2 billion in aid the United States has already given to Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the repressive Taliban.
The request, which Bush will make formally next month, comes after a year in which Taliban forces launched surprisingly fierce attacks across the country. U.S. and NATO forces are bracing for a renewed offensive by Taliban fighters in the spring
''The challenges of the last several months have demonstrated that we want to and we should redouble our efforts,'' Rice told reporters flying with her to Brussels for NATO meetings on Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Afghanistan.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=71fd7127dca4b3e4&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Angry Dispute Erupts Among Iraqi Lawmakers
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s presentation of a new Baghdad security plan to the Iraqi Parliament on Thursday broke down in bitter sectarian recriminations, with Mr. Maliki threatening a Sunni Arab lawmaker with arrest and, in response, the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit.
Eventually, the tensions eased and lawmakers approved the security plan, which gives Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, more authority. But the episode provided the Iraqi public with a live televised view of the extent of raw anger dividing Shiite and Sunni politicians.
Outside of Parliament, bloody sectarian battles continued on the streets of Baghdad. Three hours after the confrontation between lawmakers, a huge car bomb killed at least 25 people in the Karrada district, less than a mile from Parliament in an area favored by leading Shiite politicians. Residents there reported a horrific scene, with two busloads of people trapped in their vehicles and burned alive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/middleeast/26iraqcnd.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=31af6d48b5f1d150&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Soldier Admits Murdering Iraqi Detainees
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- A 101st Airborne Division soldier pleaded guilty Thursday to murdering three detainees in Iraq last year, saying he went along with a plan to make it look like they were escaping.
Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, 21, was one of four soldiers from the division's 3rd Brigade ''Rakkasans'' who were accused in the detainees' deaths during a May 9 raid on the Muthana chemical complex in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
In an agreement with prosecutors, Clagett, of Moncks Corner, S.C., pleaded guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors dropped a second obstruction charge and charges of disrespecting an officer and threatening.
The military judge, Col. Theodore Dixon, accepted Clagett's plea and started the sentencing phase of the trial. Clagett faces life in prison, but should get a lighter sentence because of his plea.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Soldiers-Charged.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=c12c02c382e4e325&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Strict Vegan Ethics, Frosted With Hedonism
By JULIA MOSKIN
ISA CHANDRA MOSKOWITZ, a vegan chef, does not particularly like to talk about tofu. Ditto seitan, tempeh and nutritional yeast.
“I think vegan cooks need to learn to cook vegetables first,” she said last week during a cupcake-baking marathon. “Then maybe they can be allowed to move on to meat substitutes.”
Ms. Moskowitz, 34, was born in Coney Island Hospital, lives in Brooklyn, and is a typically impatient and opinionated New Yorker. She can’t stand how slowly most cooks peel garlic, makes relentless fun of Rachael Ray and rolls her eyes at the mention of California hippies.
But as a vegan and a follower of punk music since age 14, she is also part of a culinary movement that helped turn the chaotic energy of punk culture of the 1970s and 1980s into a progressive political force.
“Punk taught me to question everything,” Ms. Moskowitz said. “Of course, in my case that means questioning how to make a Hostess cupcake without eggs, butter or cream.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/dining/24vega.html?ei=5070&en=5ce52edf74826ead&ex=1170392400&emc=eta1&pagewanted=print
Can Polyester Save the World?
JOSEPHINE COPELAND and her 20-year-old daughter, Jo Jo, visited Primark at the Peacock Center mall here, in the London suburbs, to buy presents for friends, but ended up loaded with clothes for themselves: boots, a cardigan, a festive blouse, and a long silver coat with faux fur trim, which cost £12 but looks like a million bucks. “If it falls apart, you just toss it away!” said Jo Jo, proudly wearing her purchase.
Environmentally, that is more and more of a problem.
With rainbow piles of sweaters and T-shirts that often cost less than a sandwich, stores like Primark are leaders in the quick-growing “fast fashion” industry, selling cheap garments that can be used and discarded without a second thought. Consumers, especially teenagers, love the concept, pioneered also by stores like H&M internationally and by Old Navy and Target in the United States, since it allows them to shift styles with speed on a low budget.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/fashion/25pollute.html?em&ex=1169874000&en=566c698ee205fe2e&ei=5087%0A
Davos Diary
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/category/davos-2007/
Rarely Seen Sea Monster Captured, Then, Following Script, Dies
Yet another rare-freaky sea creature has made a rare-freaky video appearance — courtesy Japanese marine researchers — before being promptly declared dead.
At the end of last month, we wrote about video images of a live giant squid — the almost mythic creature that is occasionally found dead but almost never alive. The squid was videotaped off the Ogawawara Islands after Japanese researchers snagged it on a hook, and it fought off being reeled toward the side of the boat.
Now it seems that a rarely-seen, prehistoric-looking goblin of the deep — the frilled shark — was pulled from shallow waters by researchers at the Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, after they were tipped off by a fisherman at a nearby port, who reported “an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth,” according to Reuters.”
Frilled sharks are sometimes called “living fossils,” according to one report, because they appear to have changed little since prehistoric times.
Researchers captured and brought the beast to the marine park, where widely distributed images of the ghoulish, 5-foot long creature were taken — before it went belly up.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/rarely-seen-sea-monster-captured-then-following-script-dies/
Senior State Department Official Resigns
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Robert Joseph, the State Department's senior arms control and security official, has submitted his resignation to President Bush.
Joseph resigned amid uncertainty about the future of negotiations to curb nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. Talks on both fronts have moved slowly, with U.N. sanctions against both countries showing limited results.
His departure follows that of several other top diplomatic officials, including Philip Zelikow, who was a close adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick, and John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations;
Joseph joined the State Department in 2005 after working on Bush's national security council staff.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Arms-Chief-Quits.html?_r=1&oref=login
Energy Research on a Shoestring
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
GOLDEN, Colo. — Thirty years after it was founded by President Jimmy Carter, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at the edge of the Rockies here still does not have a cafeteria.
Evaporation chambers for new solar energy systems look like they belong in an H. G. Wells movie. Technicians had to knock out a giant door from a testing facility to fit modern wind turbine blades, which now stick out like a bare toe from an old sock.
The hopes for this neglected lab brightened a bit just over a year ago when President Bush made the first presidential call on the lab since Mr. Carter and spelled out a vision for the not-too-distant future in which solar and wind power would help run every American home and cars would operate on biofuels made from residues of plants.
But one year after the president’s visit, the money flowing into the nation’s primary laboratory for developing renewable fuels is actually less than it was at the beginning of the Bush administration. The lab’s fitful history reflects a basic truth: Americans may have a growing love affair with renewables and the idea of cutting oil imports and conserving energy, but it is a fickle one.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/business/25lab.html?pagewanted=print
The State of Our Energy Policy
This is what I wish President Bush would say about energy in his State of the Union message:
In 2001 I said we needed to increase energy supplies, and in my State of the Union speech in 2002 I said we needed to increase energy production at home to make America less dependent on foreign oil. That was wrong. I’m sorry. The United States has only 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves, so it’s obvious that we need to reduce demand at home. On my watch, we’ve become more dependent on imports. Six years ago, when I came into office, we were importing 11 million barrels of oil a day; last week we brought in 14 million barrels a day. Meanwhile, federal funding for energy efficiency programs has fallen by a third.
In 2003 I promised that a child born that year would have a hydrogen car as his or her first car. I’m sorry — it’s just not clear that hydrogen fuel, fueling stations and cars will be ready by that date. Or ever, for that matter.
http://pipeline.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/the-state-of-our-energy-policy/#comments
Police Won’t Use $140 Million Radio System
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
For more than 10 years, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been working to correct a major hindrance to police work in the subway system: a radio network that keeps transit officers underground from talking with officers patrolling the streets above.
The goal was simple but potentially revolutionary: replace an antiquated radio system with a network that would make it possible, for instance, for an officer chasing a suspect down a subway stairway to radio ahead to other officers.
Last October, after spending $140 million, the authority completed the installation of the system citywide.
But it has not been turned on.
That is because the Police Department refuses to use it, saying the new system is hobbled by widespread interference that garbles communication and creates areas where radios cannot receive properly. “What you get is distorted audio,” said Joseph Yurman, a communications engineer for New York City Transit. “You can hear it, but it sounds as if you’re talking through a glass of water.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/nyregion/25radio.html
Senate Panel Rejects Bush’s Plan for Iraq
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — One day after President Bush implored Congress to give his Iraq strategy a chance to succeed, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution on Wednesday denouncing the plan to send more troops to Baghdad, setting up the most direct confrontation over the war since it began nearly four years ago.
The full Senate is poised to consider the nonbinding, yet strongly symbolic, repudiation of Mr. Bush as early as Wednesday. Democratic leaders agreed to tone down the language in the resolution, hoping to make it more acceptable to Republicans in an effort to send a strong, bipartisan rebuke to the White House.
“This is not designed to say, ‘Mr. President, ah-ha, you’re wrong,’ ” said Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat and chairman of the committee. “This is designed to say, ‘Mr. President, please don’t go do this.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/washington/25capital.html?pagewanted=print
Smuggler’s Plot Highlights Fear Over Uranium
TBILISI, Georgia, Jan. 24 — Last January, a Russian man with sunken cheeks and a wispy mustache crossed into Georgia and traveled to Tbilisi by car along a high mountain road. In two plastic bags in his leather jacket, Georgian authorities say, he carried 100 grams of uranium so refined that it could help fuel an atom bomb.
The Russian, Oleg Khinsagov, had come to meet a buyer who he believed would pay him $1 million and deliver the material to a Muslim man from “a serious organization,” the authorities say.
The uranium was a sample, just under four ounces, and the deal a test: If all went smoothly, he boasted, he would sell a far larger cache stored in his apartment back in Vladikavkaz, two to three kilograms of the rare material, four and a half to six and a half pounds, which in expert hands is enough to make a small bomb.
The buyer, it turned out, was a Georgian agent. Alerted to Mr. Khinsagov’s ambitions by spies in South Ossetia, Georgian officials arrested him and confiscated his merchandise. After a secret trial, the smuggler was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/europe/25nuke.html
Home Sales Figures Signal a Slowing Market
Sales of existing homes declined 0.8 percent in December, according to the National Association of Realtors, a sign of further slowing in the nation’s once-effervescent housing market.
For the full year, sales fell 8.4 percent, the largest decline in 24 years, after five years of boom times.
Despite the falling sales volume, prices have largely held their ground. The median price of a house sold in 2006 rose 1.1 percent, far short of the double-digit increases of the five previous years. The median price rose 12.4 percent in 2005.
Homes sold in December at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million, down from 6.27 million in November. The December figure was down 7.9 percent from the previous December.
The sales decline in 2006 was the biggest since 1982, when sales dropped 17.7 percent during an economic recession.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/business/25cnd-home.html
Budget Office Forecasts Drop in U.S. Deficit
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted on Wednesday that the federal budget deficit would shrink again this year and could actually swing into a surplus in 2012 — but only if President Bush’s tax cuts expire in 2010.
The agency predicted that the deficit for 2007 would decline to about $200 billion. It would be the third big annual decline in a row, and it would come even though spending on the war in Iraq is expected to remain high this year.
The decline of the deficit comes on the heels of unexpectedly large increases in tax revenue over the last two years and slower-than-expected increases in spending on Medicare.
Much of that increased revenue came from taxes on sharply higher corporate profits and big gains in the stock market, even though Congress reduced the tax rate on capital gains and stock dividends in 2003.
The agency’s “baseline” estimate — one that assumes current law does not change — is that the deficit will decline to $172 billion this year, from $248 billion in the past fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2006. As a practical matter, officials said, the actual deficit will probably be about $200 billion because of outlays for the war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/washington/25budget.html?pagewanted=print
Bush Proposes Broadening the No Child Left Behind Act
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24—The Bush administration called on Wednesday for an array of changes to the president’s signature education law. The proposals would give local school officials new powers to override both teachers’ contracts and state limits on charter schools in the case of persistently failing schools.
The proposals are part of the administration’s blueprint for revising the No Child Left Behind Act, which Congress is scheduled to renew this year. Margaret Spellings, the education secretary, said the goal was to provide students in failing schools with other options and “to make sure we have our best personnel in the neediest places.”
President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002. It requires schools to test students in reading and math annually in grades three to eight, and establishes progressively more severe penalties for schools that fail to make adequate progress, including shutting the schools altogether.
Administration officials said there were currently about 1,800 of these schools across the country, where students have failed to meet state targets for reading and math for more than five years. But they said that loopholes in the current law allowed them to avoid serious action indefinitely.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/us/25child.html?pagewanted=print
At Sundance, Art and Journalistic Ethics on Trial
By DAVID CARR
Amir Bar-Lev sat on a bench at The Art Is In, a gallery in Park City, Utah, looking at a series of very energetic acrylic abstract paintings with titles like “Ocean” and “Lollipop House.” Mr. Bar-Lev, who knows and likes the artist, chatted with Mark Weiler about their respective favorites in the showing of six pieces that was held during the Sundance Film Festival.
But underlying the exchange about aesthetics was one about process, a continuation of a discussion that dominates “My Kid Could Paint That,” a documentary directed by Mr. Bar-Lev that had its premiere at the festival to immediate acclaim and was bought by Sony Pictures Classics for $2 million.
The painter, Marla Olmstead, was 4 years old when her work, with its vivid swirls of colors and dynamic brush strokes, began selling for thousands of dollars. She became a news media cat toy, with writers and camera crews parachuting into Binghamton, N.Y., from all over to cover the prodigy, a term her parents, Mark and Laura Olmstead, have never used. As often happens, the coverage crested, then curdled, and it was alleged by Charlie Rose on “60 Minutes” that her father, a night shift manager at a Frito-Lay plant and an amateur painter, was helping her with the work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/movies/25kid.html
White Doctors, Black Subjects: Abuse Disguised as Research
By DENISE GRADY
The most notorious medical experiment in American history was surely the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which 400 black men with syphilis were left untreated for 40 years, from 1932 until 1972, so government doctors could study the course of the disease. The experiment ended only because a journalist exposed it, igniting a firestorm of public outrage over its racism and cruelty. By then, as many as 100 of the men had already died of syphilis.
Tuskegee was just part of a pattern of experimental abuse, one of many shameful chapters in what Harriet A. Washington calls “the long, unhappy history of medical research with black Americans.”
Ms. Washington, a journalist and research scholar in ethics, writes in “Medical Apartheid” that this history has left blacks with an ugly legacy of distrust for research and even treatment, and that it is a lingering stain on the history of medicine.
She does not oppose medical research or blacks’ inclusion in it. On the contrary, she calls research “utterly essential,” and blacks’ participation necessary. “African-Americans,” she writes, “desperately need the medical advantages and revelations that only ethical, essentially therapeutic research initiatives can give them.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/health/23book.html?ref=science
New Zealand Herald
NZ Government tapes whale slaughter
The Government has released Defence surveillance footage of a Japanese whaling fleet in the Ross Sea, in an attempt to sway Japanese public opinion over their Government's whaling programme.
The footage, taken in the past three days, was released yesterday at a press conference in Auckland by Conservation Minister Chris Carter.
Mr Carter said a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion undertaking surveillance against illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean had "come across" the Japanese whaling vessels.
The footage shows three whaling vessels harpooning, hauling and processing whales.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421149
Howard turns on waterworks
CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard has moved dramatically to shore up his environmental credentials with a massive A$10 billion ($11.1 billion) plan to develop and manage water resources in the planet's driest inhabited continent.
Smarting under increasing criticism of his policies on climate change and water supplies, Howard yesterday unveiled a vision for "radical and permanent" change to the nation's present, unsustainable, overuse of water.
But a central plank of the policy - announced as the Government prepares to seek a fifth term later in the year - may thrust him into an election-year constitutional battle with Labor-controlled states.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420928
Daggers taken on plane reveal gap in security
A group of Sikh priests has exposed a gaping loophole in airport security after they boarded an Air New Zealand plane carrying ceremonial daggers under their robes.
The pilot confiscated the daggers after they managed to board the flight without having to pass through any form of security at Auckland's domestic terminal.
The men, who are understood to be priests visiting from India, were walking on to the Napier-bound flight on Sunday when alarmed passengers noticed the daggers poking out from under their traditional dress.
They told the cabin crew, who alerted the pilot before the daggers were seized and locked in the cockpit for the flight.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10420958
Demotion by banknote for Nepal's king
New 7:15AM Friday January 26, 2007
Nepal's humbled King Gyanendra is likely to have his picture removed from the Himalayan nation's currency notes, a Cabinet minister said, another blow to the unpopular monarch.
Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said the central Nepal Rastra Bank had proposed that the picture of the King be replaced by that of Lord Buddha.
King Gyanendra has lost most of his powers, including his control over the Army, after being forced to end his absolute rule last year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420931
Cancer risk for long-time mobile users
People who use mobile phones over more than a decade are far more likely to grow brain tumours on the side of their head, new research shows.
Results from a European study of almost 5000 people showed that long-term mobile users were 40 per cent more likely to develop a type of nervous system tumour near their phone ear.
But the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) has warned the overall results showed no increased risk and should "not be taken too far".
The unpublished study, reported in a US newsletter Microwave News, adds to the mixed bag of findings on the dangers of mobile phone use.
Another recent study also suggested increased risks of head tumours, but several others have found no links.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420957
Beirut funds overshadowed by clashes
BEIRUT - Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in Lebanon on Thursday, casting a shadow over donor pledges of US$7.6 billion ($10.8 billion) to the US-backed government facing a Hezbollah-led challenge.
Two opposition students and two other people were shot dead and 35 were injured, many by gunfire, at Beirut's Arab University, security sources said.
Fighting started between students with sticks and stones on the university campus then spilt into nearby streets. It developed into exchanges of gunfire from assault rifles and pistols involving students and residents from both sides.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420961
Litvinenko murderer will die from poison, ex-spy says
MOSCOW - The shadowy figure who poisoned former Russian counter-intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in London will pay the ultimate price for his crime and die of radiation poisoning within three years, it has been claimed.
Litvinenko died in a London hospital last November after being poisoned with polonium-210, a rare and expensive radioactive chemical, in a Cold war-style plot reminiscent of a John Le Carre thriller.
But according to Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB spy to have ever defected to Britain, the extraordinary story is not yet over.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420964
Iraq court delays ruling on ex-vice president
BAGHDAD - An Iraqi court put off a decision on Thursday on whether to accept an appeal court recommendation that former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan be executed, adjourning until February 12.
The court had been expected to decide whether to accept the recommendation to toughen Ramadan's sentence from life imprisonment to the death penalty for crimes against humanity.
Ramadan was convicted in November after being tried with Saddam Hussein and several other defendants for the killing of 148 Shi'ite men and boys from Dujail after a failed assassination attempt in 1982.
Saddam and two other defendants have already been hanged.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420947
North Korea shows flexibility on nuclear talks
SEOUL - North Korea appears more open to US and South Korean incentives to scrap its nuclear weapons programme, Seoul said today, providing further hope for progress in talks on the communist state's atomic ambitions.
North Korea's chief envoy to the six-country negotiations hinted on Tuesday there could be a change to his country's demand for an end to a US crackdown on its finances before returning to the talks.
"South Korea and the United States have put forward, through close consultations, an aggressive proposal for the implementation of the Sept. 19 joint statement," South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told reporters.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420861
300 passengers on luxury liner struck down by contagious virus
SAN FRANCISCO - More than 300 passengers and crew aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, which is heading for Auckland next month, have been struck down by a highly contagious form of stomach virus.
Some 276 of the 1652 travellers on board or 16.7 per cent - contracted a suspected stomach flu in recent days, US health officials said on Wednesday after the world famous cruise ship docked in San Francisco.
The others affected were crew members.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was notified by Cunard Line, owner of the Queen Elizabeth 2, on Jan. 11 that some passengers had fallen ill with symptoms associated with norovirus, a virus responsible for gastroenteritis marked by stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea that last two to three days.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420867
Singapore's crime-free image goes down the drain
SINGAPORE - It is considered one of Asia's safest cities, but authorities in Singapore have a theft problem -- spurred by a surge in metals prices.
Thefts of drain covers, prayer urns, copper cables and other metal items doubled in Singapore last year, police said today.
While the overall crime rate in Singapore dropped 10 per cent last year, metal-related thefts jumped, with 1092 cases in 2006 compared with 526 cases in the previous year.
"Most of the stolen metal items are sold to Karung Guni men," said Tan Puay Kern, the senior assistant commissioner of police, referring to Singapore's rag-and-bone men. He added that thieves had made off with lightning conductors, street signs, and the housings for cable-television equipment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420854
US eyes heat-beaming weapon to control mobs by 2010
Email this storyPrint this story 10:50AM Thursday January 25, 2007
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Georgia - The US Defence Department today unveiled what it called a revolutionary heat-beaming weapon that could be used to control mobs or repel foes in conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The so-called Active Denial System causes an intense burning sensation causing people to run for cover, but no lasting harm, officials said.
"This is a breakthrough technology that's going to give our forces a capability they don't now have," Theodore Barna, an assistant deputy undersecretary of Defence for advanced systems and concepts, told Reuters. "We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could happen as early as 2010."
The weapon, mounted on a Humvee, uses a large rectangular dish antenna to direct an invisible beam toward a target. It includes a high-voltage power unit and beam-generating equipment and is effective at more than 500 meters.
Existing counter-personnel systems designed not to kill -- including bean bag munitions and rubber bullets -- work at little more than "rock-throwing distances," said Marine Col. Kirk Hymes, director of the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.
US eyes heat-beaming weapon to control mobs by 2010
10:50AM Thursday January 25, 2007
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Georgia - The US Defence Department today unveiled what it called a revolutionary heat-beaming weapon that could be used to control mobs or repel foes in conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The so-called Active Denial System causes an intense burning sensation causing people to run for cover, but no lasting harm, officials said.
"This is a breakthrough technology that's going to give our forces a capability they don't now have," Theodore Barna, an assistant deputy undersecretary of Defence for advanced systems and concepts, told Reuters. "We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could happen as early as 2010."
The weapon, mounted on a Humvee, uses a large rectangular dish antenna to direct an invisible beam toward a target. It includes a high-voltage power unit and beam-generating equipment and is effective at more than 500 meters.
Existing counter-personnel systems designed not to kill -- including bean bag munitions and rubber bullets -- work at little more than "rock-throwing distances," said Marine Col. Kirk Hymes, director of the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420834
International aid worker raped in Darfur
PARIS/KHARTOUM - An international aid worker was raped in Darfur, a French aid agency said today of the first such reported assault in Sudan's west and the latest in a wave of attacks against the world's largest humanitarian operation.
Action Contre La Faim, which fights malnutrition in the vast region, said one employee was raped, others were sexually assaulted and there was a mock execution during an attack on their compound in December in rebel-controlled Gereida town.
"There were sexual assaults including one rape," an ACF spokeswoman said in Paris.
"They ... looted everything, stole vehicles, communication equipment, beat employees, local and international staff," she added.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420793
Lenin statue found out in the cold
Email this storyPrint this story 6:15AM Friday January 26, 2007
At the geographic centre of Antarctica - one of the world's most inhospitable spots - Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin stares out over a frozen wasteland.
A British and Canadian team who last month became the first to reach the Pole of Inaccessibility on foot were surprised to find a bust of Lenin still visible at a Soviet base that was abandoned almost 50 years ago.
"It was slightly yellow, but not a bit of snow on him," Henry Cookson, a British member of the team, told Associated Press radio.
Mega-beasts once roamed Australia
Marsupial lions, kangaroos as tall as trucks and wombats the size of a rhinoceros roamed Australia's outback before being killed off by fires lit by invading humans, scientists said.
The giant animals lived in the arid Nullarbor Desert around 400,000 years ago, but died out around 50,000 years ago, relatively shortly after the arrival of human settlers, according to new fossil skeletons found in caves.
Fossilised remains were uncovered almost intact in a series of three deep caves in the centre of the Nullarbor Desert - east of the west coast city of Perth - in October 2002. "Three subsequent expeditions produced hundreds of fossils so well-preserved that they constitute a veritable "Rosetta Stone for Ice-Age Australia", expedition leader Gavin Prideaux said of the find, detailed in the latest edition of the journal Nature.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420903
Shanghai - City of the super-rich
The last time the Chinese police really captured the world's attention was in 1989 when they appeared on the TV hitting Chinese students over the head with big sticks.
They still have the sticks and the ability to look impassive in the face of a large and determined crowd. But outside the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, they just look a bit confused. There are people waving thick white invitations at them and bunches of flowers.
Read any human-rights report on China and sooner or later you'll see the word "policeman" coupled with words such as "torture" and "brutality".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421131
$1 million riding on colt's breeding
There's a saying in racing that you breed the best to the best and hope for the best.
Trevor McKee did the first when he mated his champion mare, Sunline, to outstanding stallion Zabeel.
Around 4pm on Tuesday, Mr McKee will be waiting in the wings, watching and hoping. when the resulting handsome colt goes through New Zealand Bloodstock's Karaka sale ring.
This is the first of Sunline's progeny to be offered for sale and, actually, there's more expectation than hope.
Under an auction system, it is impossible to predict yearling prices but the safest bet this week is that this will be a million-dollar colt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421178
Freeze-framing history
Outside in the dark, the cold will freeze tears on your cheeks, turn your fingers black, harden your clothes into bread-boards.
Inside these wooden walls, the air is warm, the acetylene lamps blaze, there's a cloud of cocoa-laden milky steam, puffing up from the stove. Men are talking, whistling. Someone snores in his bunk. The shelves are lined with tins of food; Moir's Minced Steak, Aberdeen Marrow Fat, Bird's Egg Powder.
A century later, the men are gone, but their traces remain. The shelves are still stacked with tins. Rowntree's Elect Cocoa, announces one bluntly, in the frill-free advertising language of Edwardian England. Spratt's Wholemeal Biscuits. Tripe and Onions. The labels are peeling a little from Mutton Cutlets and Boiled Fowl.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421071
Howard turns on waterworks
CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard has moved dramatically to shore up his environmental credentials with a massive A$10 billion ($11.1 billion) plan to develop and manage water resources in the planet's driest inhabited continent.
Smarting under increasing criticism of his policies on climate change and water supplies, Howard yesterday unveiled a vision for "radical and permanent" change to the nation's present, unsustainable, overuse of water.
But a central plank of the policy - announced as the Government prepares to seek a fifth term later in the year - may thrust him into an election-year constitutional battle with Labor-controlled states
Marine life bears brunt of ship beaching
BRANSCOMBE BEACH, East Devon - Hundreds of birds have been covered in the oil leaking from the MSC Napoli which is beached off the Devon coast.
Crowds who had excitedly scavenged for washed-up cargo of motorbikes, carpets, women's shoes and nappies have been accused of adding to the environmental damage and described as "despicable" by officials.
But the impact on wildlife is causing greater concern. The 200 tonnes of leaked oil has formed an 8km slick is and environmentalists have warned the breeding population of the guillemot will be threatened.
continued …
Putin Clinches Reactor Deal
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer
President Vladimir Putin sealed an agreement Thursday in New Delhi for Russia to build at least four more nuclear reactors in India, a project potentially worth up to 8 billion euros ($10.35 billion).
But Russia will only be able to pull it off if India is freed from international restrictions on nuclear cooperation. And if the restrictions are lifted, the United States and France are likely to compete with Russia for a share of the vast nuclear energy market in India's booming economy.
Putin met Thursday with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The letter of intent was signed in their presence by Federal Atomic Energy Agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko and his Indian counterpart, Anil Kakodka.
Under the agreement, Russia would build four reactors for the Kundankulam nuclear power station on the Indian Ocean where it is already building two similar 1,000-megawatt reactors, the Federal Atomic Energy Agency said in a statement. The agreement also would give Russia an option to build more reactors at other sites, the agency said.
At a news conference after the talks, Singh thanked Russia for its assistance in developing the nuclear energy sector and support in the efforts to lift the international restrictions.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/001.html
Sting Nets Highly Enriched Uranium
By Simon Saradzhyan
Staff Writer
Georgian and U.S. authorities have announced that Tbilisi had caught a Russian citizen in the act of selling weapons-grade uranium nearly one year ago, only for Russian energy officials Thursday to dismiss the claim as a "provocation."
One Russian citizen and three Georgian citizens were arrested for conspiring to sell 100 grams of enriched uranium in Georgia last February in a sting operation set up by Georgian police and aided by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Georgian authorities identified the seller as Oleg Khinsagov, 50, a resident of Vladikavkaz in North Ossetia. Khinsagov boasted that if the deal came off he would be prepared to sell two to three kilograms of highly enriched uranium that was stored in his apartment, The New York Times reported.
Three to four kilograms of highly enriched uranium would be sufficient to create a small implosion bomb if the bombmakers possessed a sophisticated design and production capacity, said Matthew Bunn, a senior research associate who focuses on nuclear theft and terrorism at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/002.html
Snow Brings Hassles and Relief
By David Nowak
Staff Writer
Moscow ground to a halt Thursday as a major blizzard caused dozens of flights to be diverted and snarled traffic on the city's roads.
As much as 20 centimeters of snow was expected by the end of Thursday. The storm began at around 6 a.m., bringing the warmest winter weather on record to a dramatic end.
The daytime temperature on Thursday averaged minus 10 degrees Celsius, and the mercury is expected to dip to minus 20 C next week.
Muscovites stuck in rush-hour traffic jams may have despaired as winter arrived in force, but others regarded the sudden change in the weather as a godsend: Ski areas were open for business at last, and the bears at the zoo were finally getting some shut-eye.
For travelers, the news was all bad on Thursday. At least 31 flights into Moscow's busiest airport, Domodedovo, and the smaller Vnukovo Airport, had been diverted to Nizhny Novgorod, St. Petersburg and other Moscow airports by mid-afternoon Thursday.
"This is Domodedovo," said Vera Bragina, an airport spokeswoman. "We're used to it."
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/011.html
Registration Service Denies Chechen Legal Aid Group
Reuters
The government has refused for a second time to register the Moscow office of a Dutch-based human rights group that gives legal aid to Chechens who accuse the Russian military of torture and abuse, the group said Thursday.
In a letter dated Jan. 19, the Federal Registration Service informed the nongovernmental organization Russian Justice Initiative that its application had been rejected on technical grounds.
The day before, two Chechen brothers prevailed in a case before the European Court of Human Rights, the first conviction of torture against federal forces in the two wars the government has fought against rebels in Chechnya since 1994.
The brothers received legal aid and advice from Russian Justice Initiative, which helps Chechens with grievances against the Russian military.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/013.html
Governors Appointed for Loyalty and Votes
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer
Since acquiring the power to appoint and remove governors two years ago, President Vladimir Putin has avoided a major shake-up, allowing most regional leaders to hang on to their jobs.
The terms of 23 governors came to an end in 2005, and another 21 asked for the president's backing before their terms had expired. Putin reappointed the overwhelming majority of them. Last year, the president retained six regional leaders and replaced three.
Putin seems to have been guided in his personnel decisions by a desire to minimize the negative consequences of a change in leadership for the Kremlin. "When it comes to replacing governors, the most important thing for the Kremlin is not to make the situation any worse," said Rostislav Turovsky, a regional analyst with the Center for Political Technologies.
The logic behind this policy is familiar from any large bureaucracy, where loyalty to superiors and the willingness to follow orders are the most important qualities for employees eager to keep their jobs.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/015.html
Chemical Plant Fined $128,000
The Associated Press
BEIJING -- A chemical plant in northeast China has been fined 1 million yuan ($128,000) in connection with one of the country's worst toxic spills that cut off water to millions of Chinese and Russians, state media said Thursday.
A Nov. 13, 2005, explosion at the plant in the city of Jilin discharged tons of benzene and other dangerous chemicals into the Songhua River, which flows downstream into the major city of Harbin in a neighboring province and the Russian Far East city of Khabarovsk.
China's Cabinet "considers it a major pollution incident" and the State Environmental Protection Agency has fined the plant 1 million yuan, the official Xinhua News Agency said on its web site.
No other details were given but it is the highest fine possible under environmental protection laws, the report said.
The plant is operated by a subsidiary of China's biggest oil company, state-owned China National Petroleum Corp.
A Cabinet investigation showed the explosion was caused by negligence and a failure to observe regulations on the plant's operations. It killed eight people and forced 10,000 more to flee their homes.
Putin Slams U.S. Space Weapons
The Associated Press
NEW DELHI -- President Vladimir Putin on Thursday criticized U.S. plans for space-based weapons, saying it was the reason behind a recent Chinese anti-satellite weapons test.
Asked about the Chinese test at a news conference in New Delhi after a meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Putin avoided directly criticizing China, saying only that Russia was against putting any weapons in space.
Instead, Putin chose to issue a warning to the United States on the dangers of the militarization of space.
"At the same time, I would like to note that China was not the first country to conduct such a test," Putin said.
The Jan. 11 test, first reported last week by the magazine Aviation Week, destroyed a defunct Chinese weather satellite by hitting it with a warhead deployed from a ballistic missile.
"The first such test was conducted back in the late 1980s and we also hear today about U.S. military circles considering plans of militarization of space. We must not let the genie out of the bottle," Putin said.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/018.html
Cheney Combative After Senate Ruling
Combined Reports
WASHINGTON -- U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said Wednesday that the administration had achieved "enormous successes" in Iraq but complained that critics and the media "are so eager to write off this effort or declare it a failure" that they are undermining U.S. troops in a war zone, striking a far more combative tone than U.S. President George W. Bush did in his State of the Union address the night before.
In a television interview that turned increasingly contentious, Cheney rejected the gloomy portrayal of Iraq that has become commonly accepted even among some Bush supporters. "There's problems" in Iraq, he said, but it is not a "terrible situation." And congressional opposition "won't stop us" from sending 21,500 more troops, he said, it will only "validate the terrorists' strategy."
On Tuesday night, the Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed plans for a troop buildup in Iraq as "not in the national interest" of the United States.
Chuck Hagel, the only one of 10 committee Republicans to support the nonbinding resolution, called the Iraq war a "pingpong game with American lives."
In his annual address, Bush acknowledged deep troubles in Iraq and made little effort to paint it a success.
Cheney rejected the idea that there had been any failure, however, and voiced the aggravation that many in the White House feel as Democrats step up their attacks on the Bush administration.
As leading Democrats lace their rhetoric with words such as "blunder" and "reckless," the White House has tried to calibrate how hard to push back.
Cheney, it seems, chose to push back hard, saying the administration would disregard the resolution opposing the troop increase, which he said undermined soldiers in a war zone. "It won't stop us," he added.
Cheney has been criticized in the past for presenting what some called an overly rosy view of the situation in Iraq, most notably in 2005 when he said the insurgency was in its "last throes." The view he expressed Wednesday seemed no less positive, and he sparred repeatedly with CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer, telling him "you're wrong" and suggesting that he was embracing defeat.
When Blitzer asked whether the administration's credibility had been hurt by "the blunders and the failures" in Iraq, Cheney interjected: "Wolf, Wolf, I simply don't accept the premise of your question. I just think it's hogwash."
In fact, Cheney said, the operation in Iraq has achieved its original mission. "What we did in Iraq in taking down Saddam Hussein was exactly the right thing to do," he said. "The world is much safer today because of it. There have been three national elections in Iraq. There's a democracy established there, a constitution, a new democratically elected government. Saddam has been brought to justice and executed. His sons are dead. His government is gone."
Cheney was curt, as well, about leading Democrats. Asked whether he thought Senator Hillary Clinton would make a good president, Cheney said simply: "No, I don't."
And how did it feel to sit next to Nancy Pelosi, the first woman to serve as House speaker, on Tuesday night?
"I prefer Dennis Hastert."
Dudley Sees Gazprom Deal by This Summer
By Andrew McChesney
Staff Writer
DAVOS, Switzerland -- TNK-BP chief Robert Dudley said Thursday that he expected to reach a deal with Gazprom around the middle of this year under which his company would keep a "sufficient" stake in the giant Kovykta gas field and be actively involved in its operation.
Gazprom in turn would gain a potentially large stake in the $20 billion project in exchange for cash, assets or something else of value that reflected TNK-BP's investment into the field, Dudley said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Kovykta is caught in a high-profile licensing dispute that investors fear is an attempt to pressure TNK-BP into handing control of the east Siberian field to Gazprom, and Dudley said he was being deluged with questions from Davos participants wanting to hear his side of the story.
Dudley said government officials had asked him to offer "a very balanced view" of the dispute at the forum.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/003.html
First Budget Airline Takes to the Skies
By Max Delany
Staff Writer
When the inaugural Sky Express flight takes off from Moscow's Vnukovo Airport for Sochi on Monday afternoon, the low-cost airline phenomenon familiar in Europe and the United States will have finally come to Russia.
The brainchild of Boris Abramovich, general director of the country's third-largest carrier, KrasAir, Sky Express will be the first budget airline to start operating in the country. With a handful of competitors expected to follow, the airline looks set to change the face of domestic air travel by offering tickets for as little as 500 rubles ($19).
As the country's airlines have struggled to adapt to market conditions over the last 15 years, the number of passengers taking internal flights in the country has plummeted from over 130 million per year to fewer than 20 million.
Now Sky Express hopes to step into this breach.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/004.html
In the Spotlight
When it comes to celebrity breakups, there seems to be an inverse relationship between how interesting they are and the amount of coverage they get.
By Anna Malpas
Published: January 26, 2007
This week, it was hard to avoid a certain starry couple: singers Natalya Podolskaya and Vladimir Presnyakov. When they weren't skiing in France on two full pages of Hello! magazine, they were taking up four pages of the less glamorous Seven Days magazine with excessively nauseating scenes of coupledom.
She's a former Eurovision contestant (15th place) and, before that, a contestant on the television talent show Star Factory (third place). He's a luxuriantly locked popster who performs toe-tapping numbers on Saturday-evening music shows. Together, their star wattage is at least high enough to power their straightening irons.
Apparently, the Seven Days story was prompted by tabloid rumors that the couple had broken up. I somehow managed to miss this headline news, but I certainly appreciate P and P's thoughtfulness in letting the nation know that they're still snuggling up in a photogenic way. He calls her Tusya, she calls him Vova, and snarling singletons are already dreading the thought of their Valentine's Day interview.
The article said the two have been going out for almost a year. But I only found out last summer, when the magazine ran a photo shoot of them involving surf, white shirts and no underwear. This was just wrong, and surely had housewives across Russia choking on their mid-morning cake crumbs, just as their pens were poised to fill in the crosswords.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/110.html
The Beauty of Belief
Contemporary artists explore the theme of faith in an unusual project at Winzavod.
By Brian Droitcour
Published: January 26, 2007
In the months before it opened, "I Believe" was heralded as a turning point, an exhibition that would encourage its participants to eschew the irony and intellectual play that have become embedded in contemporary art, and to make new works with the sincerity and seriousness usually associated with icon painting. While the outcome falls short of meeting these lofty goals, the exhibition in the partially renovated cellars of Winzavod -- a pre-revolutionary winery currently being converted into a contemporary arts center -- succeeds in communicating the inquiry and discovery that went into its creation.
"I Believe" is the brainchild of Oleg Kulik, an artist who in recent years has recorded his own spiritual quest in projects like "Gobi Test," a travelogue of his 2004 journey to Mongolia. Kulik became a minor celebrity in the mid-1990s thanks to television news coverage of performances where he acted like a rabid dog, or collected signatures to establish a Party of Animals for the 1996 elections (when officials at the Central Electoral Commission saw the paw prints on his petitions, they refused to let him register). Before that, Kulik worked as a curator for Regina Gallery and established its reputation as Moscow's most radical and controversial exhibition space. "I Believe" signals his return to curating, and it has been just as successful in creating buzz as his earlier project.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/102.html
In the Beginning
"The Creation," Haydn's celebrated oratorio inspired by the Book of Genesis, gets a rare performance in Moscow.
By Raymond Stults
Published: January 26, 2007
Recent seasons have found the Musica Viva Chamber Orchestra at the forefront of Moscow orchestral ensembles in unearthing forgotten or rarely heard masterpieces and in seeking to play them in the performance styles of their respective eras.
On Saturday evening, Musica Viva, joined by a chorus and vocal soloists from abroad, brings another such masterpiece to the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory: Joseph Haydn's magnificent oratorio "The Creation," a work hardly forgotten, but seldom heard live either here or anywhere else.
"It probably hasn't been done in Moscow for 20 years, and never before in a full and authentic version," Musica Viva music director Alexander Rudin said at a Wednesday news conference.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/107.html
Trafficking in Puzzlement and Wonder
Three cheers for nonverbal communication! Несловесный язык (nonverbal language) helps you figure out what's going on when you are still struggling to understand словесный язык (verbal language). It's particularly useful on Russian roadways. Even if you can't always understand what the Russian traffic cop is shouting at you, his facial expression, whistles, waves of the baton and hand gestures give you a good sense of what you should -- or should not -- do.
And how about communication between drivers? Amazing how just one hand gesture can contain such emotional and intellectual richness.
Дорожные знаки (road signs) are another good example of nonverbal communication. As someone who spends a lot of time sitting in traffic jams, I've had plenty of time to contemplate them and try to divine their meaning. The problem, it turns out, is that my skills at interpreting nonverbal messages appear to have grown a bit rusty.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2007/01/26/007.html
New York Times
Testimony by Former Cheney Aide Hurts Libby
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 – Vice President Dick Cheney’s spokeswoman told a jury today that she informed Mr. Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Jr. , that a prominent war critic’s wife worked for the C.I.A. days before Mr. Libby contended he learned it from a reporter.
Cathie Martin, who was Mr. Cheney’s chief spokeswoman, was the fourth witness for the prosecution in the perjury and obstruction of justice trial of Mr. Libby, who is charged with lying during an investigation to determine who leaked the name of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson. Unlike the previous three witnesses who worked at the Central Intelligence Agency and the State Department, Ms. Martin provided an insider’s perspective, one from within the Office of the Vice President.
Her testimony under questioning from a federal prosecutor was damaging to Mr. Libby. She testified that both Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby were intensely interested in Ms. Wilson and her husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, who had been sent on a mission to Africa by the C.I.A. to investigate reports that Saddam Hussein was trying to buy uranium from Niger for his nuclear weapons program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/washington/25cnd-libby.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=63e179b421f77c54&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Secrecy Is at Issue in Suits Opposing Spy Program
The Bush administration has employed extraordinary secrecy in defending the National Security Agency’s highly classified domestic surveillance program from civil lawsuits. Plaintiffs and judges’ clerks cannot see its secret filings. Judges have to make appointments to review them and are not allowed to keep copies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/washington/26nsa.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=9044950dc6386d92&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Iraq Leader and Sunni Officials in Clash on Security
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 — Iraq’s Shiite prime minister and Sunni lawmakers hurled insults at one another during a raucous session of Parliament on Thursday, with the prime minister threatening a Sunni lawmaker with arrest and the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit.
The Reach of War
The uproar revolved around the new Baghdad security plan, but it came as the prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, is under increasing pressure to demonstrate evenhandedness. President Bush’s new strategy for Iraq hinges in large measure on the Iraqi government’s ability to rein in both Shiite and Sunni militants.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/world/middleeast/26iraq.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=7d79f651441cca5c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Colleges Regroup After Voters Ban Race Preferences
With Michigan’s new ban on affirmative action going into effect, and similar ballot initiatives looming in other states, many public universities are scrambling to find race-blind ways to attract more blacks and Hispanics.
At Wayne State University Law School in Detroit, a new admissions policy, without mentioning race, allows officials to consider factors like living on an Indian reservation or in mostly black Detroit, or overcoming discrimination or prejudice.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/education/26affirm.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=ff8555b301a8c973&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Groups Head to Capital to Step Up Antiwar Drive
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 — Tens of thousands of demonstrators are set to arrive in the capital this weekend for a major antiwar march, staging the first of several protests intended to persuade the new Democratic-controlled Congress to do more than simply speak against President Bush’s Iraq policy.
But do not look for senators to be standing among the protesters on the Mall on Saturday. Despite a consensus building around a Senate resolution to oppose sending more troops to Iraq, even the most liberal Democratic senators do not appear eager to align themselves with a traditional antiwar protest.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/washington/26left.html?ei=5094&en=e4fdb7cc0284b4c2&hp=&ex=1169874000&adxnnl=1&partner=homepage&adxnnlx=1169826389-Ey3d603So+Gb5J3aiMf31Q
Lebanon Army Lifts Beirut Curfew
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah held funeral processions on Friday for three of its members shot dead during sectarian clashes in Beirut and called for unity among the Lebanese to stop their country sliding to civil war.
The Lebanese army lifted a curfew in Beirut, but schools and universities were closed a day after Sunni-Shi'ite violence killed four people and injured some 200.
``We urge all religious figures, Christian and Muslim, and all sensible people in Lebanon to shoulder their responsibility before it's too late,'' senior Hezbollah official Sheikh Mohammed Yazbik told mourners at one of the funerals.
``This pure, precious blood was spilled for the sake of unity and it will leave its mark.''
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-lebanon.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=678f14109ee7b366&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Army Patrols Expand in Tense Beirut
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Soldiers reinforced patrols and checkpoints Friday following a rare nighttime curfew imposed by authorities seeking to quell escalating clashes between factions supporting the Western-backed government and Hezbollah protesters trying to bring it down.
The order to clear the streets -- lifted just before dawn -- came after rival groups turned a university campus into a battle zone on Thursday with at least three people killed when mobs faced off with homemade clubs and stones.
Army officers reported snipers opening fire during the melee, but there was no clear indication of whether the gunmen were acting on orders from any of the leaders locked in the deepening standoff or saboteurs seeking to inflame the situation.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Lebanon.html
Bombing at Hotel in Pakistani Capital
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) -- A man set off a bomb outside the Marriott Hotel in Pakistan's capital on Friday, killing himself and a guard and wounding at least seven other people in an apparent suicide attack, officials said.
Police cordoned off the scene in downtown Islamabad, near Parliament and the president's office. The blast badly damaged the hotel around a side entrance that leads to the nightclub.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility.
Rana Najam, a Marriott housekeeping manager, said witnesses told him they saw a man running toward the side entrance, where he was stopped by a hotel guard. The man then detonated explosives, killing himself and the guard, he said.
Police said another hotel guard was in critical condition.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Pakistan-Blast.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=a1eba7eee8c2d99e&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Ms. Rice seeks allies to carry more and more of the USA responsibility in Afghanistan because Bush is taking USA troops from that theater to replace attrition in Baghdad
Rice Seeks Allies' Help With Aghanistan
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed to allies Friday to do more to help Afghanistan, and placed a hefty U.S. aid increase on the table as an incentive. The Bush administration wants NATO allies to increase money, troops and other support for the unsteady democracy in Afghanistan, and is also working to dispel European suspicion that the United States is too busy in Iraq to pay attention to the older Afghan fight.
''Every one of us must take a hard look at what more we can do to help the Afghan people, and to support one another,'' Rice told a gathering of NATO foreign ministers that was arranged to commence planning for an expected Taliban military offensive in the spring.
Among other issues Rice raised Friday were the divisions within the alliance on sharing the burden in Afghanistan. Some NATO countries have shown a greater willingness than others to send troops to areas of conflict.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-US-Afghanistan.html
Bush to Seek More Aid for Afghanistan as Taliban Regroups
By HELENE COOPER and DAVID S. CLOUD
BRUSSELS, Jan. 25 — President Bush plans to ask Congress for $10.6 billion in aid for Afghanistan, primarily to beef up the country’s security forces, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
The aid request would come before what is expected to be another spring offensive by resurgent forces linked to the Taliban, the former rulers of Afghanistan. In Washington, the Pentagon announced Thursday that it was delaying the departure of a 3,200-soldier combat brigade from Afghanistan for as long as three months, increasing the American force level there to around 24,000. An additional 20,000 soldiers from other NATO countries are also deployed there.
The aid request would include $8.6 billion for training and equipping Afghan security forces and would go toward increasing the size of Afghanistan’s national army by 70,000 and its local police forces by 82,000, said a senior American official familiar with the issue.
An additional $2 billion would go to reconstruction projects like building roads, laying down electric power lines, development in rural areas, and counternarcotics efforts, administration officials said. The officials said that they planned to use some of the money to help Afghanistan and Pakistan battle the Taliban and other insurgents along the Afghan-Pakistan border.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/world/asia/26afghan.html?pagewanted=print
14 Killed in Central Baghdad Bomb Attack
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A bomb hidden in a box holding pigeons tore through a crowded pet and livestock market Friday, killing at least 14 people and wounding dozens, police said, in a blast that left the carcasses of dead birds, dogs and other animals scattered on the blood-soaked ground.
The attack struck a day after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insisted there will be ''no safe place in Iraq for terrorists,'' and a suicide car bombing in the Shiite neighborhood of Karradah. Police raised the casualty toll in that attack to 30 killed and 61 wounded.
Al-Maliki's comments came Thursday during a raucous session of parliament, with a heated exchange between the Shiite leader and Sunni legislator and cleric Abdul-Nasser al-Janabi, who accused the Shiite-dominated government of carrying out purges against Sunnis, the minority sect in Iraq.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iraq.html
Senate Confirms New U.S. Commander in Iraq
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Friday voted unanimously to confirm the nomination of Army Lt. Gen. David Petraeus to command U.S. troops in Iraq at a time when President Bush is building up American forces there.
Petraeus' 81-0 approval was in contrast to the widespread public and congressional opposition to Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops to Iraq. Congress is moving toward votes in coming weeks on nonbinding resolutions opposing the troop build up.
Public sentiment has turned strongly against a war that has dragged on for nearly four years with more than 3,000 American dead and violence unabated by insurgents and sectarian militias.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/washington/AP-Iraq-General.html
Fearing Protectionism, in India
DAVOS, Switzerland
As India and China have grown rapidly in recent years, there has been no shortage of forecasts of protectionist backlashes in the developed world, although the actual effect of those complaints has been minor.
But now there is talk of a different threat.
“Backlash within India is a bigger problem,” said Kris Gopalakrishnan, a co-founder and president of Infosys, an Indian company that has become one of the biggest winners from the era of globalization. Its stock price has quintupled in less than four years, and over the last 12 months it has hired 22,000 people.
“There is one part of India which is rapidly growing and another part that is being left behind,” he said in an interview here. “In the last round of Indian elections,” both at the national and state levels, “any chief minister who was seen as pro-business lost.”
At the World Economic Forum here this week, business and government leaders have celebrated what they see as the success of globalization. Unemployment is low around the world, and growth is strong. Worries about a United States slowdown have faded, and even the self-appointed pessimist on one panel of economists here, Nouriel Roubini of Roubini Global Economics, saw the threat in the United States as being a “growth recession” rather than a real recession. In such a downturn, the American economy would see a few quarters of growth below 1 percent.
If a few years ago the big question about China was whether it would have a hard landing or a soft one, now no one sees any landing at all. Instead, there are questions about what it will do with all that money. Zhu Min, an official of the Bank of China, offered assurances that China would not have trouble managing another $200 billion in foreign currency reserves that it will add this year.
And Montek S. Ahluwalia, a member of the Indian government as deputy chairman of the state planning commission, can talk of being dissatisfied with an economic growth rate of over 8 percent, promising to raise it to 10 percent within five years. A few years ago, a growth rate of 8 percent would have seemed like a wonderful dream.
But the growth has come, and with it concern about unequal distribution. Mr. Gopalakrishnan said 37 percent of Indians are illiterate, and more than 30 percent live in poverty.
Infosys, which prospered from the outsourcing of technical work from companies in the developed world, played a role in India’s growth. But its direct benefits remain restricted to the most educated sectors of Indian society, even if it does reach further down the education hierarchy than it once did.
A decade ago, Mr. Gopalakrishnan said, Infosys hired 90 percent of its new employees from the top tier of Indian universities. Now that proportion is down to about 10 percent, simply because there is a lot of competition for the graduates of those colleges.
Instead, it hires most of its new employees from 200 Indian colleges, and puts all new workers through a 16-week training program that leads to about 4 percent of them failing. It also hires workers from the countries where it seeks contracts, including 130 in the last year from American colleges. It is trying to become more of a strategic consultant to its clients, a plan that requires more local knowledge.
But even as Infosys and other Indian companies have prospered, they have contributed to rising inequality in India — in part by helping to bid up salaries for those who get top jobs — and Infosys now seeks workers willing to take less than it pays in India.
Mr. Gopalakrishnan said Infosys aimed at having about 30 percent of the work on its typical contract done in the country where the client is, and the rest done remotely. All of that remote work used to be done in India, but now Infosys has added locations in China, Mauritius and the Czech Republic, and is looking for a location in Latin America.
It is not hard to imagine an Indian politician denouncing that strategy in terms that would be familiar to Ross Perot. And that explains why it is not enough to say that globalization has produced unprecedented growth.
“Democratic societies,” said Laura D’Andrea Tyson, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley, “need to have a population that feels the benefits from this process are shared by them.”
And that is no sure thing, even in India. “It is an amazing time,” Mr. Gopalakrishnan said, pointing to the rapid economic growth in much of the world. “How long it will last is anybody’s guess.”
Trying to Imagine a Woman in the White House
Categories: Politics
Is America ready to elect a woman president?
These days, the most frequent answer is an unambiguous yes. A Newsweek poll last month found that 86 percent of Americans said they would vote for a qualified woman for president. A Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll last week found that only 4 percent of registered voters said they would not vote for a woman for president.
Support for the idea appears to be near-unanimous. (A CBS/New York Times poll last year found that 92 percent of people were willing to vote for a qualified woman.) But there’s a curious thing: when the question about women is phrased differently – as in “Do you believe America is ready for a female president?” – this lovely consensus falls apart.
In Newsweek’s poll, only 55 percent of respondents said they believed that America was ready. Gallup and CNN – and the New York Times – found similar results: at most, 61 percent of their respondents said they thought their compatriots could accept a woman in the White House.
http://warner.blogs.nytimes.com/
Tremors at the Door
By VIKAS BAJAJ and CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY
Wall Street’s big bet on risky mortgages may be souring a lot faster than had been previously thought.
The once booming market for home loans to people with weak credit — known as subprime mortgages and made largely to minorities, the poor and first-time buyers stretching to afford a home — is coming under greater pressure. The evidence can be seen in rising default rates, increasingly strained finances at mortgage lenders and growing doubts among investors.
Now, Wall Street firms, which had helped fuel the growth in the market by bankrolling and investing in subprime mortgage lenders, have begun to pinch off the money spigot.
Several mortgage lenders have recently collapsed. While the failures so far are small in number, some industry officials are concerned that they could be the first in a wave. The subprime sector, which produced loans worth more than $500 billion in the first nine months of last year, could shrink significantly.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/business/26mortgage.html
In Clue to Addiction, a Brain Injury Halts Smoking
By BENEDICT CAREY
Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting today that an injury to a specific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanently break a smoking habit. People with the injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as one man put it, “forgot the urge to smoke.”
The finding, which appears in the journal Science, is based on a small study. But experts say it is likely to alter the course of addiction research, pointing researchers toward new ideas for treatment.
While no one is suggesting brain injury as a solution for addiction, the finding suggests that therapies might focus on the insula, a prune-size region under the frontal lobes that is thought to register gut feelings and is apparently a critical part of the network that sustains addictive behavior.
Previous research on addicts focused on regions of the cortex involved in thinking and decision making. But while those regions are involved in maintaining habits, the new study suggests that they are not as central as the insula is.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/science/26brain.html?hp&ex=1169874000&en=36091ef2e541105c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
A Convenient Truth
Melbourne, Australia
CAN it be ethical for a young girl to be treated with hormones so she will remain below normal height and weight, to have her uterus removed and to have surgery on her breasts so they will not develop? Such treatment, applied to a profoundly intellectually disabled girl known only as Ashley, has led to criticism of Ashley’s parents, of the doctors who carried out the treatment, and of the ethics committee at Seattle Children’s Hospital, which approved it.
Ashley is 9, but her mental age has never progressed beyond that of a 3-month-old. She cannot walk, talk, hold a toy or change her position in bed. Her parents are not sure she recognizes them. She is expected to have a normal lifespan, but her mental condition will never improve.
In a blog, Ashley’s parents explain that her treatment is not for their convenience but to improve her quality of life. If she remains small and light, they will be able to continue to move her around frequently and take her along when they go out with their other two children. The hysterectomy will spare her the discomfort of menstrual cramps, and the surgery to prevent the development of breasts, which tend to be large in her family, will make her more comfortable whether lying down or strapped across the chest in her wheelchair.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/opinion/26singer.html
New Rocket Is Progressing, NASA Reports
WASHINGTON, Jan. 25 — The new rocket that will replace the space shuttle for carrying crews to the International Space Station is on schedule and within weight guidelines, NASA officials said Thursday.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s associate administrator for exploration, Scott Horowitz, said that the design of the rocket, the Ares I, was progressing well and that the rocket should be ready for its first test flight on schedule in 2009.
Mr. Horowitz acknowledged that the design had had an increase in weight, a subject of speculation in the aerospace industry, but said that was not unexpected in the early stages of rocket development.
Mr. Horowitz said the rocket, derived from the solid-rocket boosters that lift the shuttles at the starts of their flights, was well within performance limits to lift the 25-ton Orion crew exploration vehicle into orbit. The Orion is to carry crews of six to the space station starting in 2014 and also serve as a crew vehicle for later flights to the Moon under President Bush’s expanded exploration plans for NASA.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/science/space/26rocket.html
Pork Producer Says It Plans to Give Pigs More Room
CHICAGO, Jan. 25 — The world’s largest pork processor said on Thursday that it would phase out confinement of pigs in individual gestation crates over the next decade, a move animal welfare advocates said would end one of the cruelest practices in the agriculture industry.
The processor, Smithfield Foods, which raises sows at 187 farms in eight states, said it would replace individual metal cages with pens where the sows would be housed in groups, allowing more mobility.
Animal welfare activists praised the move. “This is perhaps the most important moment in animal welfare in the agribusiness sector in 50 years,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/26/business/26pigs.html
HOUSES NEAR ICE BOATING
Fun When It Freezes
As told to BETHANY LYTTLE
WHO Doug Kolner, 47, owner of a biotech manufacturing company and commodore of the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club
WHERE Monona, Wis.
WHAT 1-bedroom house
This cabin is less than 10 minutes from our house in Madison and it’s only about 700 square feet. But it’s right on the lake, and it has a detached garage. That was the real attraction for me, because up until then, I’d been trying to build a Renegade ice yacht in my basement. This required punching a hole in the wall, something that wasn’t very pleasing to my wife. This garage, on the other had, is already in borderline tear-down condition, so, you know, knocking out holes isn’t that big a deal.
I must have been 11 or 12 years old the first time I saw an ice boat. It was one of those years with beautiful black ice on the lake. I was skating with a group of friends, and this guy sailed by and offered to tow us across the lake. I knew I had to have one.
So, right after college, I started building and sailing. From the beginning, I had great help from the guys at the Four Lakes Ice Yacht Club. It’s been around for about 80 years, and the older guys have been real mentors to me. Nothing gets me out of bed like checking on the work I did on a boat the day before. I just grab a cup of coffee and go straight to the garage to take a look.
Ice boating is similar to sailing, but unlike regular sailing, the friction is minimal, you can sail upward of five times the speed of wind. Therein lies the thrill. Sitting low, so close to the ice, it feels like you’re going 100 miles an hour. For years, I was able to lie about things like that, but now with global positioning systems, I know it’s more like 60. As told to Bethany Lyttle
Ford Loses Record $12.7 Billion in ’06
DEARBORN, Mich., Jan. 25 — The Ford Motor Company had the worst year in its history in 2006, losing $12.7 billion and suffering sharp erosion of its share of the United States auto market.
Ford lost $5.8 billion in the fourth quarter alone, the company reported today. In the same period a year earlier, it lost a comparatively trivial $74 million.
The company took in $160.1 billion in revenue in 2006, 9 percent less than in 2005.
Ford’s full-year loss, equivalent to $6.79 per share, far exceeded the $7.39 billion it lost in 1992, the worst previous year in its 103-year history, and it even surpassed the $10.6 billion loss posted by General Motors in 2005. But it is still short of the $23.5 billion that G.M. lost in its worst year, 1992.
Most of Ford’s red ink in 2006 came from the cost of shrinking and reorganizing the company, buying out workers and writing down asset values. Those charges accounted for $9.9 billion of the full-year loss after taxes. But Ford’s day-to-day business did very poorly as well, with a loss of $2.8 billion on continuing operations, compared with a $1.9 billion loss in 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/business/25cnd-ford.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=0c1b2034be84b3a2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Several Casualties Reported in Beirut Clashes
BEIRUT, Lebanon Jan. 25 — Violence erupted in Beirut today for the second time in three days, as a lunchroom altercation at a Beirut university escalated into rioting and gunfire.
The army declared a nighttime curfew in Beirut, amid fears that Lebanon’s political crisis had entered a decidedly violent phase.
At least three people were shot dead and 35 were wounded in street fighting today that began with a scuffle inside the student cafeteria of the Beirut Arab University in the Sunni neighborhood of Tariq Jadideh. It spilled over into street violence in the surrounding area.
As the violence worsened, opposition supporters appeared by the vanload at the school, smashing cars, setting them on fire and burning tires. The air filled with thick black smoke as young men hurled stones at one another.
Television stations run by each side of the political divide blamed the other for the violence, while leaders on both sides called for calm.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/middleeast/25cnd-lebanon.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=a7b4666d75e404c7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Donors Pledge $7.6 Billion for Lebanon
PARIS, Jan. 25 — Led by Saudi Arabia and the United States, more than 30 countries and agencies pledged $7.6 billion in aid for Lebanon today in a bold bid to try to prop up the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.
But even as Mr. Siniora was shaking hands and thanking world leaders in Paris, chaos reigned back at home in Beirut, where at least three people were shot dead and dozens injured in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists. The Lebanese army declared a night curfew in Beirut, and leaders from both sides appealed for calm.
Today’s clashes, which came as Mr. Siniora sought to present his country to world donors as ripe for investment, were another embarrassment to the Prime Minister, who is fighting to keep his government afloat. In Lebanon, the political faction led by Hezbollah and backed by Iran and Syria has been calling for Mr. Siniora’s resignation for more than two months now. Beirut was brought to a virtual standstill on Tuesday by rioting and protests from the Hezbollah faction.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/middleeast/25cnd-diplo.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=155ac4eef2a14156&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Big States’ Push for Earlier Vote Scrambles Race
By ADAM NAGOURNEY
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — As many as four big states — California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey — are likely to move up their 2008 presidential primaries to early next February, further upending an already unsettled nominating process and forcing candidates of both parties to rethink their campaign strategies, party officials said Wednesday.
The changes, which seem all but certain to be enacted by state legislatures, mean that the presidential candidates face the prospect of going immediately from an ordered series of early contests in relatively small states in January to a single-day, coast-to-coast battlefield in February, encompassing some of the most expensive advertising markets in the nation.
The changes would appear to benefit well-financed and already familiar candidates and diminish the prospects of those with less money and name recognition going into such a highly compressed series of contests early next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/us/politics/25vote.html?
ei=5094&en=d7c7f5f0aa7675dd&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Scientists Tie Part of Brain to Urge to Smoke
By BENEDICT CAREY
Scientists studying stroke patients are reporting that an injury to a specific part of the brain, near the ear, can instantly and permanently break a smoking habit, effectively erasing the most stubborn of addictions. People with the injury who stopped smoking found that their bodies, as one man put it, “forgot the urge to smoke.”
The new finding, which is to appear in the journal Science on Friday, is likely to alter the course of addiction research, pointing researchers toward new ideas for treatment, experts say. While no one is suggesting brain injury as a solution for addiction, the findings suggest that therapies might focus on the insula, a prune-sized region under the frontal lobes that is thought to register gut feelings and is apparently a critical part of the network that sustains addictive behavior.
Previous research on addicts focused on regions of the cortex involved in thinking and decision-making. But while those regions are involved in maintaining habits, the new study suggests that they are not as central.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/science/25cnd-brain.html?ei=5094&en=4e508e8daffaae23&hp=&ex=1169787600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print
Afghan Gov't Won't Spray Poppy Crop
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- Rebuffing months of U.S. pressure, Afghan President Hamid Karzai decided against a Colombia-style program to spray this country's heroin-producing poppies after the Cabinet worried herbicide would hurt legitimate crops, animals and humans, officials said Thursday.
The decision, reportedly made Sunday, dashes U.S. hopes for mounting a campaign using ground sprayers to poison poppy plants to help combat Afghanistan's opium trade after a record crop in 2006.
Karzai instead ''made a very strong commitment'' to lead other eradication efforts this year and said if that didn't cut production he would allow spraying in 2008, a Western official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
The spokesman for Afghanistan's Ministry of Counternarcotics, Said Mohammad Azam, said this year's effort will rely on ''traditional techniques'' -- sending laborers into fields to trample or plow under opium poppies before they can be harvested. A similar campaign during 2006 failed.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Afghan-Drugs.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
U.S. to Seek $10.6 Billion for Afghan Aid
BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- President Bush will ask Congress for $10.6 billion to help Afghanistan strengthen its security forces and rebuild from years of war, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday.
The money would be on top of $14.2 billion in aid the United States has already given to Afghanistan since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001 that toppled the repressive Taliban.
The request, which Bush will make formally next month, comes after a year in which Taliban forces launched surprisingly fierce attacks across the country. U.S. and NATO forces are bracing for a renewed offensive by Taliban fighters in the spring
''The challenges of the last several months have demonstrated that we want to and we should redouble our efforts,'' Rice told reporters flying with her to Brussels for NATO meetings on Afghanistan.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-US-Afghanistan.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=71fd7127dca4b3e4&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Angry Dispute Erupts Among Iraqi Lawmakers
BAGHDAD, Jan. 25 — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki’s presentation of a new Baghdad security plan to the Iraqi Parliament on Thursday broke down in bitter sectarian recriminations, with Mr. Maliki threatening a Sunni Arab lawmaker with arrest and, in response, the Sunni speaker of Parliament threatening to quit.
Eventually, the tensions eased and lawmakers approved the security plan, which gives Mr. Maliki, a Shiite, more authority. But the episode provided the Iraqi public with a live televised view of the extent of raw anger dividing Shiite and Sunni politicians.
Outside of Parliament, bloody sectarian battles continued on the streets of Baghdad. Three hours after the confrontation between lawmakers, a huge car bomb killed at least 25 people in the Karrada district, less than a mile from Parliament in an area favored by leading Shiite politicians. Residents there reported a horrific scene, with two busloads of people trapped in their vehicles and burned alive.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/middleeast/26iraqcnd.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=31af6d48b5f1d150&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Soldier Admits Murdering Iraqi Detainees
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) -- A 101st Airborne Division soldier pleaded guilty Thursday to murdering three detainees in Iraq last year, saying he went along with a plan to make it look like they were escaping.
Pfc. Corey R. Clagett, 21, was one of four soldiers from the division's 3rd Brigade ''Rakkasans'' who were accused in the detainees' deaths during a May 9 raid on the Muthana chemical complex in Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad.
In an agreement with prosecutors, Clagett, of Moncks Corner, S.C., pleaded guilty to charges of murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to obstruct justice. Prosecutors dropped a second obstruction charge and charges of disrespecting an officer and threatening.
The military judge, Col. Theodore Dixon, accepted Clagett's plea and started the sentencing phase of the trial. Clagett faces life in prison, but should get a lighter sentence because of his plea.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Soldiers-Charged.html?hp&ex=1169787600&en=c12c02c382e4e325&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Strict Vegan Ethics, Frosted With Hedonism
By JULIA MOSKIN
ISA CHANDRA MOSKOWITZ, a vegan chef, does not particularly like to talk about tofu. Ditto seitan, tempeh and nutritional yeast.
“I think vegan cooks need to learn to cook vegetables first,” she said last week during a cupcake-baking marathon. “Then maybe they can be allowed to move on to meat substitutes.”
Ms. Moskowitz, 34, was born in Coney Island Hospital, lives in Brooklyn, and is a typically impatient and opinionated New Yorker. She can’t stand how slowly most cooks peel garlic, makes relentless fun of Rachael Ray and rolls her eyes at the mention of California hippies.
But as a vegan and a follower of punk music since age 14, she is also part of a culinary movement that helped turn the chaotic energy of punk culture of the 1970s and 1980s into a progressive political force.
“Punk taught me to question everything,” Ms. Moskowitz said. “Of course, in my case that means questioning how to make a Hostess cupcake without eggs, butter or cream.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/24/dining/24vega.html?ei=5070&en=5ce52edf74826ead&ex=1170392400&emc=eta1&pagewanted=print
Can Polyester Save the World?
JOSEPHINE COPELAND and her 20-year-old daughter, Jo Jo, visited Primark at the Peacock Center mall here, in the London suburbs, to buy presents for friends, but ended up loaded with clothes for themselves: boots, a cardigan, a festive blouse, and a long silver coat with faux fur trim, which cost £12 but looks like a million bucks. “If it falls apart, you just toss it away!” said Jo Jo, proudly wearing her purchase.
Environmentally, that is more and more of a problem.
With rainbow piles of sweaters and T-shirts that often cost less than a sandwich, stores like Primark are leaders in the quick-growing “fast fashion” industry, selling cheap garments that can be used and discarded without a second thought. Consumers, especially teenagers, love the concept, pioneered also by stores like H&M internationally and by Old Navy and Target in the United States, since it allows them to shift styles with speed on a low budget.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/fashion/25pollute.html?em&ex=1169874000&en=566c698ee205fe2e&ei=5087%0A
Davos Diary
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/category/davos-2007/
Rarely Seen Sea Monster Captured, Then, Following Script, Dies
Yet another rare-freaky sea creature has made a rare-freaky video appearance — courtesy Japanese marine researchers — before being promptly declared dead.
At the end of last month, we wrote about video images of a live giant squid — the almost mythic creature that is occasionally found dead but almost never alive. The squid was videotaped off the Ogawawara Islands after Japanese researchers snagged it on a hook, and it fought off being reeled toward the side of the boat.
Now it seems that a rarely-seen, prehistoric-looking goblin of the deep — the frilled shark — was pulled from shallow waters by researchers at the Awashima Marine Park in Shizuoka, south of Tokyo, after they were tipped off by a fisherman at a nearby port, who reported “an odd-looking eel-like creature with a mouthful of needle-sharp teeth,” according to Reuters.”
Frilled sharks are sometimes called “living fossils,” according to one report, because they appear to have changed little since prehistoric times.
Researchers captured and brought the beast to the marine park, where widely distributed images of the ghoulish, 5-foot long creature were taken — before it went belly up.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/rarely-seen-sea-monster-captured-then-following-script-dies/
Senior State Department Official Resigns
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Robert Joseph, the State Department's senior arms control and security official, has submitted his resignation to President Bush.
Joseph resigned amid uncertainty about the future of negotiations to curb nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea. Talks on both fronts have moved slowly, with U.N. sanctions against both countries showing limited results.
His departure follows that of several other top diplomatic officials, including Philip Zelikow, who was a close adviser to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary Robert Zoellick, and John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations;
Joseph joined the State Department in 2005 after working on Bush's national security council staff.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Arms-Chief-Quits.html?_r=1&oref=login
Energy Research on a Shoestring
By CLIFFORD KRAUSS
GOLDEN, Colo. — Thirty years after it was founded by President Jimmy Carter, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory at the edge of the Rockies here still does not have a cafeteria.
Evaporation chambers for new solar energy systems look like they belong in an H. G. Wells movie. Technicians had to knock out a giant door from a testing facility to fit modern wind turbine blades, which now stick out like a bare toe from an old sock.
The hopes for this neglected lab brightened a bit just over a year ago when President Bush made the first presidential call on the lab since Mr. Carter and spelled out a vision for the not-too-distant future in which solar and wind power would help run every American home and cars would operate on biofuels made from residues of plants.
But one year after the president’s visit, the money flowing into the nation’s primary laboratory for developing renewable fuels is actually less than it was at the beginning of the Bush administration. The lab’s fitful history reflects a basic truth: Americans may have a growing love affair with renewables and the idea of cutting oil imports and conserving energy, but it is a fickle one.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/business/25lab.html?pagewanted=print
The State of Our Energy Policy
This is what I wish President Bush would say about energy in his State of the Union message:
In 2001 I said we needed to increase energy supplies, and in my State of the Union speech in 2002 I said we needed to increase energy production at home to make America less dependent on foreign oil. That was wrong. I’m sorry. The United States has only 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves, so it’s obvious that we need to reduce demand at home. On my watch, we’ve become more dependent on imports. Six years ago, when I came into office, we were importing 11 million barrels of oil a day; last week we brought in 14 million barrels a day. Meanwhile, federal funding for energy efficiency programs has fallen by a third.
In 2003 I promised that a child born that year would have a hydrogen car as his or her first car. I’m sorry — it’s just not clear that hydrogen fuel, fueling stations and cars will be ready by that date. Or ever, for that matter.
http://pipeline.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/01/22/the-state-of-our-energy-policy/#comments
Police Won’t Use $140 Million Radio System
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
For more than 10 years, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority has been working to correct a major hindrance to police work in the subway system: a radio network that keeps transit officers underground from talking with officers patrolling the streets above.
The goal was simple but potentially revolutionary: replace an antiquated radio system with a network that would make it possible, for instance, for an officer chasing a suspect down a subway stairway to radio ahead to other officers.
Last October, after spending $140 million, the authority completed the installation of the system citywide.
But it has not been turned on.
That is because the Police Department refuses to use it, saying the new system is hobbled by widespread interference that garbles communication and creates areas where radios cannot receive properly. “What you get is distorted audio,” said Joseph Yurman, a communications engineer for New York City Transit. “You can hear it, but it sounds as if you’re talking through a glass of water.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/nyregion/25radio.html
Senate Panel Rejects Bush’s Plan for Iraq
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — One day after President Bush implored Congress to give his Iraq strategy a chance to succeed, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved a resolution on Wednesday denouncing the plan to send more troops to Baghdad, setting up the most direct confrontation over the war since it began nearly four years ago.
The full Senate is poised to consider the nonbinding, yet strongly symbolic, repudiation of Mr. Bush as early as Wednesday. Democratic leaders agreed to tone down the language in the resolution, hoping to make it more acceptable to Republicans in an effort to send a strong, bipartisan rebuke to the White House.
“This is not designed to say, ‘Mr. President, ah-ha, you’re wrong,’ ” said Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., a Delaware Democrat and chairman of the committee. “This is designed to say, ‘Mr. President, please don’t go do this.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/washington/25capital.html?pagewanted=print
Smuggler’s Plot Highlights Fear Over Uranium
TBILISI, Georgia, Jan. 24 — Last January, a Russian man with sunken cheeks and a wispy mustache crossed into Georgia and traveled to Tbilisi by car along a high mountain road. In two plastic bags in his leather jacket, Georgian authorities say, he carried 100 grams of uranium so refined that it could help fuel an atom bomb.
The Russian, Oleg Khinsagov, had come to meet a buyer who he believed would pay him $1 million and deliver the material to a Muslim man from “a serious organization,” the authorities say.
The uranium was a sample, just under four ounces, and the deal a test: If all went smoothly, he boasted, he would sell a far larger cache stored in his apartment back in Vladikavkaz, two to three kilograms of the rare material, four and a half to six and a half pounds, which in expert hands is enough to make a small bomb.
The buyer, it turned out, was a Georgian agent. Alerted to Mr. Khinsagov’s ambitions by spies in South Ossetia, Georgian officials arrested him and confiscated his merchandise. After a secret trial, the smuggler was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/world/europe/25nuke.html
Home Sales Figures Signal a Slowing Market
Sales of existing homes declined 0.8 percent in December, according to the National Association of Realtors, a sign of further slowing in the nation’s once-effervescent housing market.
For the full year, sales fell 8.4 percent, the largest decline in 24 years, after five years of boom times.
Despite the falling sales volume, prices have largely held their ground. The median price of a house sold in 2006 rose 1.1 percent, far short of the double-digit increases of the five previous years. The median price rose 12.4 percent in 2005.
Homes sold in December at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 6.22 million, down from 6.27 million in November. The December figure was down 7.9 percent from the previous December.
The sales decline in 2006 was the biggest since 1982, when sales dropped 17.7 percent during an economic recession.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/business/25cnd-home.html
Budget Office Forecasts Drop in U.S. Deficit
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24 — The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office predicted on Wednesday that the federal budget deficit would shrink again this year and could actually swing into a surplus in 2012 — but only if President Bush’s tax cuts expire in 2010.
The agency predicted that the deficit for 2007 would decline to about $200 billion. It would be the third big annual decline in a row, and it would come even though spending on the war in Iraq is expected to remain high this year.
The decline of the deficit comes on the heels of unexpectedly large increases in tax revenue over the last two years and slower-than-expected increases in spending on Medicare.
Much of that increased revenue came from taxes on sharply higher corporate profits and big gains in the stock market, even though Congress reduced the tax rate on capital gains and stock dividends in 2003.
The agency’s “baseline” estimate — one that assumes current law does not change — is that the deficit will decline to $172 billion this year, from $248 billion in the past fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2006. As a practical matter, officials said, the actual deficit will probably be about $200 billion because of outlays for the war.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/washington/25budget.html?pagewanted=print
Bush Proposes Broadening the No Child Left Behind Act
By DIANA JEAN SCHEMO
WASHINGTON, Jan. 24—The Bush administration called on Wednesday for an array of changes to the president’s signature education law. The proposals would give local school officials new powers to override both teachers’ contracts and state limits on charter schools in the case of persistently failing schools.
The proposals are part of the administration’s blueprint for revising the No Child Left Behind Act, which Congress is scheduled to renew this year. Margaret Spellings, the education secretary, said the goal was to provide students in failing schools with other options and “to make sure we have our best personnel in the neediest places.”
President Bush signed the No Child Left Behind Act into law in 2002. It requires schools to test students in reading and math annually in grades three to eight, and establishes progressively more severe penalties for schools that fail to make adequate progress, including shutting the schools altogether.
Administration officials said there were currently about 1,800 of these schools across the country, where students have failed to meet state targets for reading and math for more than five years. But they said that loopholes in the current law allowed them to avoid serious action indefinitely.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/us/25child.html?pagewanted=print
At Sundance, Art and Journalistic Ethics on Trial
By DAVID CARR
Amir Bar-Lev sat on a bench at The Art Is In, a gallery in Park City, Utah, looking at a series of very energetic acrylic abstract paintings with titles like “Ocean” and “Lollipop House.” Mr. Bar-Lev, who knows and likes the artist, chatted with Mark Weiler about their respective favorites in the showing of six pieces that was held during the Sundance Film Festival.
But underlying the exchange about aesthetics was one about process, a continuation of a discussion that dominates “My Kid Could Paint That,” a documentary directed by Mr. Bar-Lev that had its premiere at the festival to immediate acclaim and was bought by Sony Pictures Classics for $2 million.
The painter, Marla Olmstead, was 4 years old when her work, with its vivid swirls of colors and dynamic brush strokes, began selling for thousands of dollars. She became a news media cat toy, with writers and camera crews parachuting into Binghamton, N.Y., from all over to cover the prodigy, a term her parents, Mark and Laura Olmstead, have never used. As often happens, the coverage crested, then curdled, and it was alleged by Charlie Rose on “60 Minutes” that her father, a night shift manager at a Frito-Lay plant and an amateur painter, was helping her with the work.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/25/movies/25kid.html
White Doctors, Black Subjects: Abuse Disguised as Research
By DENISE GRADY
The most notorious medical experiment in American history was surely the Tuskegee syphilis study, in which 400 black men with syphilis were left untreated for 40 years, from 1932 until 1972, so government doctors could study the course of the disease. The experiment ended only because a journalist exposed it, igniting a firestorm of public outrage over its racism and cruelty. By then, as many as 100 of the men had already died of syphilis.
Tuskegee was just part of a pattern of experimental abuse, one of many shameful chapters in what Harriet A. Washington calls “the long, unhappy history of medical research with black Americans.”
Ms. Washington, a journalist and research scholar in ethics, writes in “Medical Apartheid” that this history has left blacks with an ugly legacy of distrust for research and even treatment, and that it is a lingering stain on the history of medicine.
She does not oppose medical research or blacks’ inclusion in it. On the contrary, she calls research “utterly essential,” and blacks’ participation necessary. “African-Americans,” she writes, “desperately need the medical advantages and revelations that only ethical, essentially therapeutic research initiatives can give them.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/23/health/23book.html?ref=science
New Zealand Herald
NZ Government tapes whale slaughter
The Government has released Defence surveillance footage of a Japanese whaling fleet in the Ross Sea, in an attempt to sway Japanese public opinion over their Government's whaling programme.
The footage, taken in the past three days, was released yesterday at a press conference in Auckland by Conservation Minister Chris Carter.
Mr Carter said a Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion undertaking surveillance against illegal fishing in the Southern Ocean had "come across" the Japanese whaling vessels.
The footage shows three whaling vessels harpooning, hauling and processing whales.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421149
Howard turns on waterworks
CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard has moved dramatically to shore up his environmental credentials with a massive A$10 billion ($11.1 billion) plan to develop and manage water resources in the planet's driest inhabited continent.
Smarting under increasing criticism of his policies on climate change and water supplies, Howard yesterday unveiled a vision for "radical and permanent" change to the nation's present, unsustainable, overuse of water.
But a central plank of the policy - announced as the Government prepares to seek a fifth term later in the year - may thrust him into an election-year constitutional battle with Labor-controlled states.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420928
Daggers taken on plane reveal gap in security
A group of Sikh priests has exposed a gaping loophole in airport security after they boarded an Air New Zealand plane carrying ceremonial daggers under their robes.
The pilot confiscated the daggers after they managed to board the flight without having to pass through any form of security at Auckland's domestic terminal.
The men, who are understood to be priests visiting from India, were walking on to the Napier-bound flight on Sunday when alarmed passengers noticed the daggers poking out from under their traditional dress.
They told the cabin crew, who alerted the pilot before the daggers were seized and locked in the cockpit for the flight.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10420958
Demotion by banknote for Nepal's king
New 7:15AM Friday January 26, 2007
Nepal's humbled King Gyanendra is likely to have his picture removed from the Himalayan nation's currency notes, a Cabinet minister said, another blow to the unpopular monarch.
Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat said the central Nepal Rastra Bank had proposed that the picture of the King be replaced by that of Lord Buddha.
King Gyanendra has lost most of his powers, including his control over the Army, after being forced to end his absolute rule last year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420931
Cancer risk for long-time mobile users
People who use mobile phones over more than a decade are far more likely to grow brain tumours on the side of their head, new research shows.
Results from a European study of almost 5000 people showed that long-term mobile users were 40 per cent more likely to develop a type of nervous system tumour near their phone ear.
But the Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) has warned the overall results showed no increased risk and should "not be taken too far".
The unpublished study, reported in a US newsletter Microwave News, adds to the mixed bag of findings on the dangers of mobile phone use.
Another recent study also suggested increased risks of head tumours, but several others have found no links.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420957
Beirut funds overshadowed by clashes
BEIRUT - Four people were shot dead in clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in Lebanon on Thursday, casting a shadow over donor pledges of US$7.6 billion ($10.8 billion) to the US-backed government facing a Hezbollah-led challenge.
Two opposition students and two other people were shot dead and 35 were injured, many by gunfire, at Beirut's Arab University, security sources said.
Fighting started between students with sticks and stones on the university campus then spilt into nearby streets. It developed into exchanges of gunfire from assault rifles and pistols involving students and residents from both sides.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420961
Litvinenko murderer will die from poison, ex-spy says
MOSCOW - The shadowy figure who poisoned former Russian counter-intelligence agent Alexander Litvinenko in London will pay the ultimate price for his crime and die of radiation poisoning within three years, it has been claimed.
Litvinenko died in a London hospital last November after being poisoned with polonium-210, a rare and expensive radioactive chemical, in a Cold war-style plot reminiscent of a John Le Carre thriller.
But according to Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB spy to have ever defected to Britain, the extraordinary story is not yet over.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420964
Iraq court delays ruling on ex-vice president
BAGHDAD - An Iraqi court put off a decision on Thursday on whether to accept an appeal court recommendation that former Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan be executed, adjourning until February 12.
The court had been expected to decide whether to accept the recommendation to toughen Ramadan's sentence from life imprisonment to the death penalty for crimes against humanity.
Ramadan was convicted in November after being tried with Saddam Hussein and several other defendants for the killing of 148 Shi'ite men and boys from Dujail after a failed assassination attempt in 1982.
Saddam and two other defendants have already been hanged.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420947
North Korea shows flexibility on nuclear talks
SEOUL - North Korea appears more open to US and South Korean incentives to scrap its nuclear weapons programme, Seoul said today, providing further hope for progress in talks on the communist state's atomic ambitions.
North Korea's chief envoy to the six-country negotiations hinted on Tuesday there could be a change to his country's demand for an end to a US crackdown on its finances before returning to the talks.
"South Korea and the United States have put forward, through close consultations, an aggressive proposal for the implementation of the Sept. 19 joint statement," South Korean Foreign Minister Song Min-soon told reporters.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420861
300 passengers on luxury liner struck down by contagious virus
SAN FRANCISCO - More than 300 passengers and crew aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, which is heading for Auckland next month, have been struck down by a highly contagious form of stomach virus.
Some 276 of the 1652 travellers on board or 16.7 per cent - contracted a suspected stomach flu in recent days, US health officials said on Wednesday after the world famous cruise ship docked in San Francisco.
The others affected were crew members.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it was notified by Cunard Line, owner of the Queen Elizabeth 2, on Jan. 11 that some passengers had fallen ill with symptoms associated with norovirus, a virus responsible for gastroenteritis marked by stomach cramps, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea that last two to three days.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420867
Singapore's crime-free image goes down the drain
SINGAPORE - It is considered one of Asia's safest cities, but authorities in Singapore have a theft problem -- spurred by a surge in metals prices.
Thefts of drain covers, prayer urns, copper cables and other metal items doubled in Singapore last year, police said today.
While the overall crime rate in Singapore dropped 10 per cent last year, metal-related thefts jumped, with 1092 cases in 2006 compared with 526 cases in the previous year.
"Most of the stolen metal items are sold to Karung Guni men," said Tan Puay Kern, the senior assistant commissioner of police, referring to Singapore's rag-and-bone men. He added that thieves had made off with lightning conductors, street signs, and the housings for cable-television equipment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420854
US eyes heat-beaming weapon to control mobs by 2010
Email this storyPrint this story 10:50AM Thursday January 25, 2007
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Georgia - The US Defence Department today unveiled what it called a revolutionary heat-beaming weapon that could be used to control mobs or repel foes in conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The so-called Active Denial System causes an intense burning sensation causing people to run for cover, but no lasting harm, officials said.
"This is a breakthrough technology that's going to give our forces a capability they don't now have," Theodore Barna, an assistant deputy undersecretary of Defence for advanced systems and concepts, told Reuters. "We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could happen as early as 2010."
The weapon, mounted on a Humvee, uses a large rectangular dish antenna to direct an invisible beam toward a target. It includes a high-voltage power unit and beam-generating equipment and is effective at more than 500 meters.
Existing counter-personnel systems designed not to kill -- including bean bag munitions and rubber bullets -- work at little more than "rock-throwing distances," said Marine Col. Kirk Hymes, director of the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.
US eyes heat-beaming weapon to control mobs by 2010
10:50AM Thursday January 25, 2007
MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Georgia - The US Defence Department today unveiled what it called a revolutionary heat-beaming weapon that could be used to control mobs or repel foes in conflicts like Iraq and Afghanistan.
The so-called Active Denial System causes an intense burning sensation causing people to run for cover, but no lasting harm, officials said.
"This is a breakthrough technology that's going to give our forces a capability they don't now have," Theodore Barna, an assistant deputy undersecretary of Defence for advanced systems and concepts, told Reuters. "We expect the services to add it to their tool kit. And that could happen as early as 2010."
The weapon, mounted on a Humvee, uses a large rectangular dish antenna to direct an invisible beam toward a target. It includes a high-voltage power unit and beam-generating equipment and is effective at more than 500 meters.
Existing counter-personnel systems designed not to kill -- including bean bag munitions and rubber bullets -- work at little more than "rock-throwing distances," said Marine Col. Kirk Hymes, director of the Pentagon's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420834
International aid worker raped in Darfur
PARIS/KHARTOUM - An international aid worker was raped in Darfur, a French aid agency said today of the first such reported assault in Sudan's west and the latest in a wave of attacks against the world's largest humanitarian operation.
Action Contre La Faim, which fights malnutrition in the vast region, said one employee was raped, others were sexually assaulted and there was a mock execution during an attack on their compound in December in rebel-controlled Gereida town.
"There were sexual assaults including one rape," an ACF spokeswoman said in Paris.
"They ... looted everything, stole vehicles, communication equipment, beat employees, local and international staff," she added.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420793
Lenin statue found out in the cold
Email this storyPrint this story 6:15AM Friday January 26, 2007
At the geographic centre of Antarctica - one of the world's most inhospitable spots - Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin stares out over a frozen wasteland.
A British and Canadian team who last month became the first to reach the Pole of Inaccessibility on foot were surprised to find a bust of Lenin still visible at a Soviet base that was abandoned almost 50 years ago.
"It was slightly yellow, but not a bit of snow on him," Henry Cookson, a British member of the team, told Associated Press radio.
Mega-beasts once roamed Australia
Marsupial lions, kangaroos as tall as trucks and wombats the size of a rhinoceros roamed Australia's outback before being killed off by fires lit by invading humans, scientists said.
The giant animals lived in the arid Nullarbor Desert around 400,000 years ago, but died out around 50,000 years ago, relatively shortly after the arrival of human settlers, according to new fossil skeletons found in caves.
Fossilised remains were uncovered almost intact in a series of three deep caves in the centre of the Nullarbor Desert - east of the west coast city of Perth - in October 2002. "Three subsequent expeditions produced hundreds of fossils so well-preserved that they constitute a veritable "Rosetta Stone for Ice-Age Australia", expedition leader Gavin Prideaux said of the find, detailed in the latest edition of the journal Nature.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10420903
Shanghai - City of the super-rich
The last time the Chinese police really captured the world's attention was in 1989 when they appeared on the TV hitting Chinese students over the head with big sticks.
They still have the sticks and the ability to look impassive in the face of a large and determined crowd. But outside the Shanghai Oriental Arts Centre, they just look a bit confused. There are people waving thick white invitations at them and bunches of flowers.
Read any human-rights report on China and sooner or later you'll see the word "policeman" coupled with words such as "torture" and "brutality".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421131
$1 million riding on colt's breeding
There's a saying in racing that you breed the best to the best and hope for the best.
Trevor McKee did the first when he mated his champion mare, Sunline, to outstanding stallion Zabeel.
Around 4pm on Tuesday, Mr McKee will be waiting in the wings, watching and hoping. when the resulting handsome colt goes through New Zealand Bloodstock's Karaka sale ring.
This is the first of Sunline's progeny to be offered for sale and, actually, there's more expectation than hope.
Under an auction system, it is impossible to predict yearling prices but the safest bet this week is that this will be a million-dollar colt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10421178
Freeze-framing history
Outside in the dark, the cold will freeze tears on your cheeks, turn your fingers black, harden your clothes into bread-boards.
Inside these wooden walls, the air is warm, the acetylene lamps blaze, there's a cloud of cocoa-laden milky steam, puffing up from the stove. Men are talking, whistling. Someone snores in his bunk. The shelves are lined with tins of food; Moir's Minced Steak, Aberdeen Marrow Fat, Bird's Egg Powder.
A century later, the men are gone, but their traces remain. The shelves are still stacked with tins. Rowntree's Elect Cocoa, announces one bluntly, in the frill-free advertising language of Edwardian England. Spratt's Wholemeal Biscuits. Tripe and Onions. The labels are peeling a little from Mutton Cutlets and Boiled Fowl.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10421071
Howard turns on waterworks
CANBERRA - Prime Minister John Howard has moved dramatically to shore up his environmental credentials with a massive A$10 billion ($11.1 billion) plan to develop and manage water resources in the planet's driest inhabited continent.
Smarting under increasing criticism of his policies on climate change and water supplies, Howard yesterday unveiled a vision for "radical and permanent" change to the nation's present, unsustainable, overuse of water.
But a central plank of the policy - announced as the Government prepares to seek a fifth term later in the year - may thrust him into an election-year constitutional battle with Labor-controlled states
Marine life bears brunt of ship beaching
BRANSCOMBE BEACH, East Devon - Hundreds of birds have been covered in the oil leaking from the MSC Napoli which is beached off the Devon coast.
Crowds who had excitedly scavenged for washed-up cargo of motorbikes, carpets, women's shoes and nappies have been accused of adding to the environmental damage and described as "despicable" by officials.
But the impact on wildlife is causing greater concern. The 200 tonnes of leaked oil has formed an 8km slick is and environmentalists have warned the breeding population of the guillemot will be threatened.
continued …
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