Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
This entire situation with DeLay is Pathetic:
Newt Knocks DeLay;
"DeLay's problem isn’t with the Democrats; DeLay's problem is with the country,"
Gingrich Criticizes DeLay
CBS News/AP
There was fresh criticism Tuesday of embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay from a prominent member of his own party.
In an exclusive interview with CBS News Correspondent Gloria Borger, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said it's time for DeLay to stop blaming a left-wing conspiracy for his ethics controversy and to lay out his case for the American people to judge.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2212
Tom DeLay is a one man road show. Laugh a minute.
'Tell them that this is all a plot and the Democrats are out to get me.'
House leader DeLay appeals for GOP senators' support
By Jill Zuckman / Chicago Tribune
Embattled House Majority Leader Tom DeLay made an extraordinary appeal Tuesday to Senate Republicans, asking them for their patience and support as he fends off investigations into his conduct in both Washington and Texas.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2206
DeLay Likens GOP Contract to Magna Carta
DeLay Likens GOP Contract to Magna Carta
By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - To House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, the Republican Party's "Contract With America" ranks right up there with the Magna Carta, Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights among the "great documents of freedom."
So says DeLay's Internet Web site. It describes that 1994 campaign treatise, credited with helping the GOP end four decades of House rule by Democrats, "a written commitment that presented to the people an agenda for the House of Representatives."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2203
Every which way but loose. That is the expression that covers such illegality and immorality. The reason Tom DeLay can't 'cleanse' himself of the scandal is because he is guilty. No matter all the other 'monies' he took, which everyone knows he did, he also attempted a huge distraction by invading privacy in the Florida Right to Die issue. He and those involved in the Florida issue are abusing power. The entire nation witnessed it. There is no denying what happened by any of them. They are attacking our civil rights as guaranteed by the USA constitution and we all know it. Those that want to see it happen are the only ones that still favor any of these men.
Thank you, Michael.
Journalism at Risk
Press freedom being tested by Bush
As President George W. Bush began his visit to Europe (including France on 26-27 May), Reporters Without Borders notes the limitations on press freedom imposed by the US government since the attacks of 11 September last, such as undermining the confidentiality of Internet messages and restrictions on access to the military base at Guantanamo and to military operations in Afghanistan. In this country, medias were bombed and at least five journalists and media assistants were beaten or threatened with death by US soldiers or their Afghan allies.
In United-States, the foiling of a government plan to use disinformation and the outcry at President Bush's decision to no longer pass on certain confidential material to Congress for fear of leaks to the media show the robustness of democratic traditions beyond the understandable emotion aroused by the 11 September attacks.
Since the United States boasts of being the land of human rights, these steps are exploited by dictatorships. The Chinese authorities now call the separatists in the western province of Xinjiang "terrorists" to justify repression and shutting down publications. Respect for human rights has been downgraded in the foreign policy of the world's great power. The United States is thus less concerned by abuses in Chechnya since Russia declared itself on the US side in the fight against terrorism. When he was received by President Vladimir Putin, the secretary-general of NATO borrowed the the official Russian parlance and spoke of "the plague of terrorism in Chechnya."
Only a few hours after the 11 September attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, FBI agents went to the offices of Internet service providers AOL, Earthlink and Hotmail to install their Carnivore programme on the servers to monitor the e-mail of all their customers in the hope of finding traces of the attackers on the Internet.
This Internet monitoring was formalised on 24 October when the US House of Representatives passed the so-called Patriot Act, allowing the FBI to install Carnivore on any Internet service provider to monitor all e-mail messages and keep track of the web-surfing of people suspected of having contacts with a foreign power. To do this, the only permission needed is from a special legal entity whose activities are secret. The measures also eased the rules about phone-tapping. As well as the invasion of individual privacy, the confidentiality of journalists' sources is threatened by this blank cheque given to the FBI.
Encryption technology, which allows Internet users to code their messages to keep them private, is under attack from the FBI's Magic Lantern programme, a virus that can be sent to targets by e-mail without their knowledge and which records their keystrokes and thus the key to the encryption codes. After the press reported this, the FBI denied it had such a device, but admitted it was working on one.
War in Afghanistan: news under tight surveillance
From the first day of the US military's Operation Enduring Freedom, in Afghanistan on 7 October 2001, the Pentagon tried to control the filming of the war by signing an exclusive contract with the firm Space Imaging, preventing the company from "selling, distributing, sharing or providing" pictures taken by the Ikonos civilian satellite to the media, which were thus deprived of pictures of the results of the US bombings taken by this satellite. Ikonos is the most efficient of the civilian satellites.
A dozen media organisations covering the military operations were several times prevented from doing their work by US Special Forces troops and at least five journalists and media assistants were beaten or threatened with death by US soldiers or their Afghan allies. On 10 April this year, Ebadullah Ebadi, translator and assistant for the US daily The Boston Globe, was badly beaten by Afghan troops fighting with the US Special Forces, as the American soldiers watched. The Washington Post said that compared with recent wars, Rumsfeld's Pentagon has imposed greater restrictions on journalists' access to military operations and senior officers.
Restrictions were also decreed at the government-controlled radio Voice of America. The head of the station, Bob Reilly, asked editors to comply with the terms of a law adopted by Congress forbidding the radio to broadcast interviews with "any official of nations that sponsor terrorism or any representative or member of terrorist organisations."
The foreign media were not spared either. On 12 November, US troops bombed and seriously damaged the Kabul offices of the Qatari TV station Al-Jazeera. In February this year, the Pentagon refused to open an enquiry into the bombing, saying the building was suspected of harbouring Al-Qaeda militants and was therefore a military target. No apology was made to Al-Jazeera, which is frequently accused by the US government of giving too much air time to Osama Bin Laden and "encouraging anti-American feeling" in the Middle East. In October, US forces also bombed the installations of the taliban controlled media, Radio Shariat, and the state television (banned since 1996).
Difficult access to Guantanamo
Journalists from CNN, CBS, The Army Times and others were given permission on 11 January this year to photograph and film in Kabul the departure of about 20 prisoners being flown to the US naval base at Guantanamo, in Cuba. After the prisoners were flown out, the journalists were told they could not use their pictures. A Pentagon spokesman said they violated international agreements because they were "degrading" for the prisoners. Several media ignored the order.
A few months later, the Pentagon cited security concerns when it banned the media from covering the transfer of prisoners from Camp X-Ray to Camp Delta, both at the Guantanamo base. On 26 April, an army spokesman said that "we won't comment on the transfer of prisoners until it's over." Until then, the media had had some access to report on the building of Camp Delta.
The temptation to manipulate the media
The Bush Administration has several times tried to curb or control the flow of news. This anti-freedom temptation met resistance, which showed the country's solid democratic traditions.
On 5 October last year, President Bush, citing national security needs, instructed senior members of his government to stop sending certain confidential material to members of Congress for fear it would be leaked to the media. A few days earlier, the Washington Post had run a story saying members of Congress had been told a new terrorist attack on the United States was very likely. The president soon withdrew in the face of strong protests by members of Congress.
On 19 February, the New York Times reported that the Defense Department's Office of Strategic Influence (OSI) had proposed planting disinformation in the foreign media. At that time, the government feared the war against terrorism would be seen by foreigners as a war against Islam. The outcry set off by these revelations led White House spokesman Ari Fleischer to say President Bush knew nothing about the OSI project and had ordered the OSI closed down because, according to defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld, "the Pentagon does not lie to the American people" or to "foreign audiences."
Setting a bad example
Some authoritarian countries, such as Tunisia, have rallied to the anti-terrorist cause as a way to crack down on critical media by accusing them of siding with terrorists. In China, the communist regime has stepped up its repression of unauthorized publications in the Xinjiang region, where the majority of people are Uigurs, and where Islamic separatists have become "terrorists" funded by Osama bin Laden. Chinese authorities in this region have seized and destroyed many books and other publications. A local communist party official openly admitted that "the anti-terrorist campaign around the world since September 11 has helped the Chinese government increase repression of the Muslim minority" in the province.
When he visited Russia last November, NATO secretary-general Lord Robertson told his Russian host, who had just sided with the United States in the fight against terrorism, "we certainly see the plague of terrorism in Chechnya with different eyes now." The remark was typical of the way human rights have been shunted into the background of American foreign policy. The comment also pleased the Russian army, which is trying to wage a secret war in Chechnya and is strictly controlling media access to the region.
Recommendations
Reporters Without Borders calls on US President George W. Bush to:
- respect the confidentiality of information circulating on the Internet, notably by ordering the FBI not to use spyware such as "Carnivore" and "Magic Lantern" without rigorous legal controls.
- respect the free movement of journalists in Afghanistan and at Guantanamo, in accordance with Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that has been ratified by the United States.
- ensure that respect for human rights is once more at the heart of US foreign policy.
Reporters Without Borders calls on the German, French and Italian heads of state to support these recommendations and defend them when they meet their American counterpart.
Reporters Without Borders defends imprisoned journalists and press freedom throughout the world, as well as the right to inform the public and to be informed, in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Reporters Without Borders has nine national sections (in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom), representatives in Abidjan, Bangkok, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Montreal, Moscow, Nairobi, New York, Tokyo and Washington and more than a hundred correspondents worldwide.
Régis Bourgeat, Americas desk, Reporters sans frontières, 5, rue Geoffroy-Marie, 75009 Paris - France
tél. : +33 (0) 1 44 83 84 57
fax : +33 (0) 1 45 23 11 51
e-mail: ameriques@rsf.org
http://www.london-daily.co.uk/news/rsf.htm
Newspaper Director Shot to Death on Gulf Coast
The director of a newspaper on Mexico's Gulf coast was shot to death in an apparent ambush by drug hit men, police said.
Raul Gibb Guerrero, director of the La Opinion of Poza Rica newspaper, was driving to his home Friday night near Poza Rica, about 125 miles north of Veracruz, when four gunmen riddled his truck with bullets, witnesses said. He lost control and crashed.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-briefs10.6apr10,1,4268098.story?coll=la-headlines-world
Journalism Prof Faces China's Silent Treatment
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
WASHINGTON — Jiao Guobiao (search) may not be the only Chinese academic who abhors the state-run media system in communist China, but he is one of the recent few who have dared to write about it.
For his troubles, when — and if — the 42-year-old journalism professor returns to China after a six-month fellowship at the National Endowment for Democracy (search) in Washington, he won't have a job and may face a punishment much more severe than a lost paycheck.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,153258,00.html
MOROCCO: Journalist forbidden to report for 10 years
New York, April 12, 2005—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns a Moroccan court's decision today banning independent journalist and former newspaper owner Ali Lmrabet from practicing journalism for 10 years. The sentence comes just 10 days before Lmrabet was expected to receive a license to publish a new satirical weekly, Demain Libere.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Morocco12apr05na.html
Latin American Writers Demand Cuba Free Jailed Journalists
Over 100 reporters and editors join global denunciation of Castro regime
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- More than 100 prominent writers, editors and reporters throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have joined the global community in demanding that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro immediately release 23 jailed journalists.
The demand, sent in a March 16 letter to Castro by 108 journalists in 19 countries throughout the Americas, said the two-year-long imprisonments of the journalists violate "the most basic norms of international law" and represent "an affront to human dignity."
http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2005/Mar/17-602224.html
10) What are the implication of these bills specifically on press freedom and the people's right to know?
A PRIMER ON THE ANTI-TERRORISM BILL
By THE NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES
The anti-terrorism bill being pushed by the Philippine government in the legislature has been deemed by the NUJP as inimical to the public's right to a free press and an affront to civil liberties and democracy itself. In this primer, the NUJP highlights the provisions and scope of the bill that would curtail these basic freedoms.
...Reporters are supposed to develop as many sources as possible, including those the government might consider "terrorist." If any of the anti-terrorism bills now pending were passed, journalists would be obliged to become witnesses against these sources, or else be in danger of being themselves charged with helping terrorism.
More reporters would feel the need to restrain themselves when covering controversial sources. In effect, a broad range of ideas or information would be withheld from the people, affecting their ability to make informed judgments on important political and economic issues, such as the Muslim rebellion and the underground left movement, or even economic issues such as money laundering.
Coverage of Muslim issues is likely to further deteriorate, further aggravating Muslim citizens, and deepening the resentment many already feel over their present treatment.
Ignorance of the issues would impair the rights and responsibilities of all citizens to effectively participate in the democratic processes.
March 2005, Manila, Philippines
Sources:
Latest draft of the House working group
Briefing notes and minutes of the technical working group
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/storypage.aspx?StoryId=1162
Oscar Heck: In other words be honest, professional and respectful …
VHeadline.com commentarist Oscar Heck writes: Yesterday, March 28, the Washington Post published another article by Jackson Diehl, Chavez's Censorship” which, as usual, is filled with assumptions and distortions … assumptions and distortions which continue to represent the hate-filled diatribe of the anti-Chavez (anti-Venezuela and anti-democratic) Venezuelan movement (which is financially backed by the US government).
Memories are short … or long and intentionally re-worked and re-painted with the continued intent to destabilize democratically-elected Hugo Chavez’ government … a government whose leader, Hugo Chavez, received 58% support in a recent (August 2004) referendum.
(Note that 58% voter support is more than most “western” government leaders have at any given point in time!)
Ironically, Jackson Diehl states: “ … It’s easy to laugh at such buffoonery (laugh at statements made by Andres Izarra, Venezuela’s Minister of Information/Communication) if, like me, you have the privilege of working for an independent newspaper in a capital where demagogues such as Izarra aren’t taken seriously.”
http://www.vheadline.com/readnews.asp?id=28615
Adler 'should be jailed'
Mar 31 12:09
AAP
Prosecutors have recommended that Rodney Adler receive a full-time jail sentence, telling the former HIH director's sentencing hearing his crimes were very serious and a gross breach of trust.
As Adler faced the final day of the three-day hearing, prosecution barrister Lionel Robberds, QC, told the NSW Supreme Court that Adler had made a premeditated bid to mislead investors when he spoke to a journalist about his investment in HIH shares in June 2000.
Mr Robberds said Adler "used his position to further his interests to the detriment of the market and investors".
Adler's barrister Elizabeth Fullerton, SC, told the court her client could not be seen to have acted in a premeditated way because if the journalist had not contacted him, "no offence would have been committed".
http://afr.com/articles/2005/03/31/1111862507181.html
Niger: Director of Alternative Media Group Jailed
Media Foundation for West Africa (Accra)
PRESS RELEASE
March 31, 2005
Posted to the web March 31, 2005
Moussa Tchangari, Director of the Alternative Media Group, was on Tuesday, March 29th, 2005 jailed at the Penal Camp in Daikaina, located about 160km from Niamey.
Tchangari who was charged on two counts of “undermining the authority of the state and calling for an unarmed gathering”, is also the Communication Secretary of the Democratic Coalition of the Civil Society of Niger (CDSCN), one of the organizations calling for the withdrawal of the value added tax imposed on food products, water and electricity early this year.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200503310806.html
UK journalists deny illegally covering Zimbabwe poll
April 6, 2005
Norton, Zimbabwe: Two British journalists jailed in Zimbabwe on charges of reporting without permission pleaded not guilty yesterday and their lawyer said they would deny entering the country to cover its elections.
The Sunday Telegraph's chief foreign correspondent Toby Harnden and photographer Julian Simmonds appeared in court and entered not guilty pleas on charges they broke both Zimbabwe's tough media laws and immigration regulations.
The pair were arrested here on election day last Thursday and accused of reporting on the poll without official accreditation and overstaying their visas.
They entered the court handcuffed together, dressed in prison garb of khaki shorts and shirts frayed at the collar. They sat impassively as charges were read out, and occasionally passed notes to their lawyers.
http://www.capetimes.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=272&fArticleId=2471461
Press Freedom Groups Appeal to African Human Rights Commission
International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto)
PRESS RELEASE
April 6, 2005
Posted to the web April 6, 2005
The African Commission on Human and People's Rights (ACHPR) has agreed to hear a legal case against the Zimbabwean government, following an appeal filed by press freedom and human rights groups.
The human rights body, which assesses whether countries that have ratified the African Charter on Human and People's Rights are living up to their commitments, will hear an application filed by three organisations at its next session in the Gambia, which runs from 27 April to 11 May 2005.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200504060861.html
Jailed Saudi author, murdered Gambian newspaper publisher to receive 2005 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards
Country/Topic: International
Date: 06 April 2005
Source: PEN American Center
Person(s): Ali Al-Domaini, Deyda Hydara
Target(s):
Type(s) of violation(s):
Urgency: Bulletin
(PEN/IFEX) - The following is a 4 April 2005 PEN American Center press release:
Jailed Saudi Author, Murdered Gambian Newspaper Publisher To Receive 2005 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards
New York, New York, April 4, 2005 : PEN American Center today named Ali Al-Domaini, a leading Saudi literary figure who is one of three prominent intellectuals currently imprisoned for criticizing the pace and reach of human rights reforms in Saudi Arabia, and Deyda Hydara, a newspaper publisher and press freedom champion who was gunned down in December 2004 for challenging increasingly restrictive press laws in the Gambia, as recipients of its 2005 PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom to Write Awards. The awards, which honor international literary figures who have been persecuted or imprisoned for exercising or defending the right to freedom of expression, will be presented at PEN's Annual Gala on April 20, 2005 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/65808/
JOURNALISTS PROTEST AGAINST NEW CRIMINAL CODE
The Turkish government has delayed implementing a controversial new criminal code following vocal opposition from journalists who say it will lead to more restrictions on press freedom, report the International Press Institute (IPI), Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières, RSF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and the International Publishers Association.
Officials say the new Turkish Penal Code (TPC), adopted by the government in September 2004, will not come into force until 1 June 2005. It was supposed to have taken effect on 1 April.
Hundreds of journalists, including leaders of 15 press associations, have been demonstrating against the new legislation, which they say contains provisions that could restrict the right to report and may lead to the arbitrary prosecution of journalists and media.
http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/65785/
Commission hears claims by NGOs of Violations of Civil and Political Rights
The Commission on Human Rights this morning continued its debate on civil and political rights, hearing from 46 non-governmental organizations alleging violations of civil and political rights in many parts of the world.
Violations concerning religious freedom, arbitrary detention, torture, forced disappearances, freedom of opinion and expression and arbitrary killings were claimed, with the speakers alleging that the authorities of those States had not taken appropriate action to protect those rights or that they were the perpetrators of the crimes.
http://www.unpo.org/news_detail.php?arg=02&par=2282
UK journalists may be jailed in Zimbabwe
Published in: Legalbrief Today
Date: Mon 11 April 2005
Category: General
Issue No: 1312
Two British journalists arrested for working without accreditation in Zimbabwe are bracing for jail terms of up to two years if found guilty at a trial expected to end this week.
Toby Harnden and Julian Simmonds, who were detained during last week's disputed parliamentary elections, appeared in court on Friday, according to a Mail & Guardian Online report. The defence argues that The Sunday Telegraph journalists, who entered the country on tourist visas, were travelling through the country as tourists. Some experts say the two may be fined and deported immediately from Zimbabwe, but others warn that the authorities might seek to make an example of them. ‘The Mugabe government wants to make an example of them, to warn other foreign correspondents to stay out, and to frighten any Zimbabwe journalists who might be working without accreditation,’ said a legal expert in Harare. During the trial state witness Max Makowe, an election observer, testified that when he asked Simmonds for his accreditation the photographer admitted the pair were journalists and apologised for working without permits.
http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=2005041109442591
Jailed Russian tycoon dismisses charges against him as asset grab
Alex Nicholson
Canadian Press
MOSCOW (AP) - In a dramatic finale to Russia's biggest trial in decades, oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky dismissed the charges against him Monday as "fantasies of a pulp fiction writer" meant to cover up a government effort to seize his assets and silence him politically. The court set April 27 as the date for a verdict.
The trial has gripped Russia and unsettled foreign investors. Khodorkovsky, who was arrested nearly 18 months ago and has watched the demise of his company Yukos from behind bars, faces up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of fraud, tax evasion and other charges - as is widely expected.
http://www.canada.com/businesscentre/story.html?id=6c8c1724-af0b-4825-83db-9d7bfbdc3c3a
Cuba won't let ex-political prisoner leave for United States
By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press Writer
April 11, 2005
Dissident Jorge Olivera has wanted to leave communist-run Cuba for years.
The independent journalist managed to get a visa to the United States in 2002, and was preparing to head north when he was picked up in a government crackdown of 75 political activists in March 2003.
After serving 21 months, Olivera was released from prison for colon problems in December. U.S. visa and political refugee papers in hand, he has been ready to leave since, but still finds himself in Havana after months waiting for an exit permit from the Cuban government.
http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050411/APN/504111203&cachetime=3&template=dateline
The New Zealand Herald
Thousands evacuated as Indonesia volcano rumbles
Villagers of Bukit Sileh village carry their belongings as they evacuate after the Mt Talang volcano erupted. Picture / Reuters
13.04.05 3.30pm
By John Nedi
TANJUNG AUA, Indonesia - More than 25,000 panicked residents have been evacuated from the slopes of a volcano on Indonesia's Sumatra island.
Officials today raised the alert level as the mountain's activity intensified.
The heightened rumbling of Mount Talang has coincided with a string of moderate earthquakes on Sumatra, which is still recovering from a massive December 26 quake and tsunami that killed nearly 130,000 people in Aceh province to the north.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120276
Israel's Vanunu on trial for breaking restrictions
13.04.05 5.20pm
JERUSALEM - Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu went on trial today accused of violating terms of his release from prison by talking to foreign reporters and trying to visit the West Bank.
Vanunu, 50, was released last April after serving an 18-year term for spilling secrets about the Dimona nuclear reactor to a British newspaper. The revelations of the former technician led experts to conclude that Israel had nuclear weapons.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120244
North Korea calls Japan a political dwarf
13.04.05 1.00pm
North Korea's government has called Japan a "political dwarf", denouncing what it says are gross distortions in a new Japanese school textbook.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120236
Europe mulls $1.8 billion drug fund for bird flu
13.04.05 4.20pm
STRASBOURG, France - The European Union should be able to dip into a one billion euro ($1.8 billion) disaster fund to buy emergency vaccines and anti-viral drugs if there were a bird flu pandemic, the EU executive Commission said today.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120227
Second man charged in Scream theft
13.04.05 2.20pm
OSLO - Oslo police have charged a second man in connection with stealing the painting The Scream last year and said they remained hopeful of finding that and another missing masterpiece by Edvard Munch.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120242
Lebanon impasse puts poll in doubt
13.04.05 1.00pm
BEIRUT - Lebanon slipped deeper into a political vacuum today after bickering among officials held back the formation of a new government and made a delay in general elections set for May almost inevitable.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120232
Storm delays second phase of seal slaughter
The conservation ship Farley Mowat seen in calmer weather during the first phase of the seal kill on April 1. Picture / Reuters
13.04.05 1.00pm
by Neil Sanderson
Conservationists attempting to disrupt the second phase of the annual Canadian seal kill are crediting a spring storm with keeping most of the sealers ashore.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120257
Japan to kill more whales in Antarctic
13.04.05
The Japanese Government intends to expand what it describes as research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean to include humpback and fin whales from late this year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120208
US tipped to cut 37,000 troops from Iraq
13.04.05
By ANDREW BUNCOMBE
The United States is planning to withdraw up to a quarter of its forces from Iraq - possibly next year.
Reports suggest military commanders believe they are making sufficient progress against insurgents and in training Iraqi security forces that the Pentagon has started to plan to reduce US forces from the current 142,000 to as few as 105,000.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120180
US prepares to promote democracy in Iran
12.04.05 4.00pm
by Rupert Cornwell
WASHINGTON - The United States has earmarked US$3m ($4.16m) to promote democracy in Iran - a tiny sum but one that has been denounced by Teheran as impermissible meddling in its internal affairs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120059
US car makers hit by trend to smaller vehicles
Arnold Schwarzenegger at the launch of the Hummer H2 Sport Utility Truck in April, 2001. Americans are now buying fewer large vehicles. Picture / Reuters
12.04.05 1.00pm
by Katherine Griffiths
Just when America's ailing car industry thought conditions could get no worse, it is finding it cannot even rely on the country's love of all things big to buoy up profits.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120054
China arrests 15 in Aids blood donor scandal
14.04.05 2.35pm
BEIJING - China has arrested 15 people for involvement in illegal blood-selling schemes blamed for widespread HIV/Aids infections in the 1990s, the China Daily said on Thursday.
The arrests were linked to 106 cases of unsafe blood collection, illegal organisation of people to sell plasma and "serious malpractice" in blood market supervision, the newspaper quoted Vice Minister of Health Ma Xiaowei as saying.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120457
Muslims keep eye on case of detained NY girls
14.04.05 1.00pm
NEW YORK - Immigrants and Muslim communities watched with concern today as the US government prepared a case against two local teenage girls detained on immigration charges amid reports that they were seen as possible suicide bombers.
The two girls, both 16, one born in Bangladesh and one in Guinea, were being held in federal custody at an immigration centre in Pennsylvania.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120412
Opium farmers battle soldiers
14.04.05
By NICK MEO
The first day of Afghanistan's new push to eradicate opium production exploded into violence, as soldiers and police battled with farmers for control of their narcotic crops.
The fields around Maiwand in Kandahar became the backdrop to fierce firefights, as hundreds of Afghan workers tried to destroy blooms before harvest time.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120358
Nurses in nighties stage pyjama protest
14.04.05 4.20pm
JOHANNESBURG - South African nurses are wearing pyjamas and nighties to work to demand a higher uniform allowance, drawing criticism from health officials who say they are confusing patients and turning hospitals into bedrooms.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120436
French court orders retrial of Diana paparazzi
14.04.05 12.20pm
PARIS - Three photographers who took pictures of Princess Diana and Dodi al Fayed on the night of their fatal crash must be retried for breaching privacy laws, a French court has ruled.
The court annulled a ruling made last September, which acquitted Jacques Langevin, Christian Martinez and Eric Chassery of breaking the laws, an offence punishable by up to a year in jail.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120417
HOW DOES THE USA know they are not funding Osama's War? I mean the USA Military already has donated 380 tonnes of high explosives to militants in Iraq, why would they be any smarter about their spending? Osama probably owns an armor plating company for all we know.
US war spending hard to track, says watchdog
14.04.05 10.20am
WASHINGTON - The US Defence Department is unable to track how it spent tens of millions of dollars in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere in the US war on terrorism, Congress' top investigator said today.
The department "doesn't have a system to be able to determine with any degree of reliability and specificity how we spent" tens of millions in war-related emergency funds set aside by Congress, Comptroller General David Walker told a Senate Armed Services subcommittee.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120414
20-year-old woman shot dead for 'immoral behaviour'
14.04.05
By DONALD MacINTYRE
Hamas has mounted a desperate damage-limitation exercise in Gaza after one of its units shot dead an innocent 20-year-old Palestinian woman for "immoral behaviour" as she enjoyed a day out with her future husband.
Horrified residents of Beit Lahia, close to Gaza City, have demanded - so far in vain - that the Islamic armed faction hands over three of the gunmen still at large to the Palestinian Authority after what the victim's family believe was a - tragically unjustified - type of so-called honour killing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120316
Bush's man a 'kick-down' bully
14.04.05
WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush's nominee for United Nations ambassador, John Bolton, was a bully who tried to force an analyst to bend intelligence on Cuba's weapons to fit a speech, a Senate hearing was told.
The Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is considering the nomination, was told Bolton berated a State Department's intelligence analyst who held up a speech which stated Cuba had a biological arms programme.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120361
Pope's successor all sewn up
Filippo Gammarelli (right) outside the family's tailor shop where the three papal vestments are displayed. Picture / Reuters
14.04.05
ROME - Cardinals start choosing a new Pope next week, but the successor to John Paul will be all sewn up well before the secret conclave opens.
In a cobblestoned street behind Rome's Pantheon, tailor Filippo Gammarelli is adding the final stitches to an item that Monday's meeting will not start without - the white vestments the new Pope will wear when he is first revealed to the world.
Because Gammarelli has no clue who that Pope will be, he is making three versions of the silk and wool outfit, in small, medium and large, to clothe the most lean or corpulent cardinal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120317
Petrol bombers target Northern Ireland hotel
14.04.05
BELFAST - More than 100 guests were evacuated from a Northern Ireland hotel after it was attacked with petrol bombs early on Wednesday, police said.
No one was injured and little damage was caused in the attack, in which five petrol bombs were thrown at the Days Hotel on the edge of the Sandy Row area, a tough Protestant neighbourhood near Belfast city centre.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10120338
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Clear
-26.0°
Updated Wednesday 13 Apr 8:59PM
A DROP IN 24 HOURS OF 7 degrees C. That was the heat coming in from the equator. When ice is exposed to heat like this there is no immediate visible melting. It is a process called sublimination which take ice from a solid state to a gaseous state skipping the liquid state. So even though the surface air temperature states it is very cold, that does not mean the ice is safe. It means there is virtually undetectable evaporation (like an ice cube that erodes over time in a freezer) as the hot air from the equator swirls around the ice continent to cool off.
Scott Base
Overcast
-19.0°
Updated Thursday 14 Apr 8:59PM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Glacier Bay National Park
36 °F / 2 °C
Mostly Cloudy
Humidity:
81%
Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.01 in / 1016 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds (AGL):
Mostly Cloudy 3200 ft / 975 m
end
