Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Daily Contact;
DeLay's office kept Abramoff, now under criminal investigation, routinely apprised of congressional efforts to block new regulations on his client, the Northern Mariana Islands.
Records Show DeLay, Lobbyist Daily Contact
By Sharon Theimer / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Over two years, Rep. Tom DeLay had at least two dozen discussions with a lobbyist working to keep a U.S. territory's factories free from new labor laws. The lobbyist contributed to the House leader's campaigns and arranged travel for him.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2398
DeLay, the Lobbyist and the Mariana Islands
Texans Protest DeLay Visit;
"This is not a Democrat or a Republican issue. Tom DeLay is a disgrace to Texas." (video)
DeLay Gets Mixed Welcome at Home
Fox News
HOUSTON — Back home in Houston over this past weekend, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay found little respite from his current political troubles.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2395
THEY NEED TO RECUSE THEMSELVES !!! IF NOT the Democrats on the Panel should be taking it before the Supreme Court !!
Donations link DeLay, ethics panel
By Jim Drinkard / USA Today
All five Republicans on the House ethics committee have financial links to Tom DeLay that could raise conflict-of-interest issues should the panel investigate the GOP majority leader.
Public records show DeLay's leadership political action committee (PAC) gave $15,000 to the campaign of Rep. Melissa Hart, R-Pa. - $10,000 in 2000 and $5,000 in 2002. Hart would chair a panel to investigate DeLay if the committee moves forward with a probe.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2401
U.S. Figures Show Sharp Global Rise In Terrorism
State Dept. Will Not Put Data in Report
By Susan B. Glasser / Washington Post
The number of serious international terrorist incidents more than tripled last year, according to U.S. government figures, a sharp upswing in deadly attacks that the State Department has decided not to make public in its annual report on terrorism due to Congress this week.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2409
Rights Group: Abu Ghraib Abuses 'Tip of Iceberg'
By Ian Simpson / Reuters
BAGHDAD - A rights watchdog said on Wednesday the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were just the "tip of the iceberg" of U.S. mistreatment of Muslim prisoners.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2404
Iraqi MP Killed; No Government Announced
By Michael Georgy / Reuters
BAGHDAD - Gunmen assassinated an Iraqi woman member of parliament Wednesday in a fresh shock to politicians whose failure to form a government three months after elections has allowed violence to thrive unchecked.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2400
BBC
US 'conceals high terror figures'
The Madrid bombings were among the most deadly attacks of 2004
Data withheld from an annual report on terrorism by the US state department show a sharp increase in attacks in 2004, a top Democratic lawmaker says.
Henry Waxman, citing official briefings given to congressional aides, said the number of "significant" attacks had risen more than three-fold in a year.
He said there were about 650 such attacks in 2004 - up from 175 in 2003.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4488513.stm
China's Yao Ming wins Party award
By Louisa Lim
BBC News, Beijing
Yao Ming's contract is worth nearly $18m
Communist China has officially named a multi-millionaire basketball star, Yao Ming, as a model worker.
It is an annual award given ahead of the Labour Day festivities on 1 May. But this year's choice has sparked controversy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4492819.stm
Worldwide cancer rates 'double'
A million women are diagnosed with breast cancer annually
Breast and lung cancer rates have doubled around the world over the last 30 years, a report shows.
Cancer Research UK said much of the growth was due to more people living longer - as cancer is a disease which usually affects older people.
But they said habits such as smoking and diet also had a significant effect.
They said the analysis showed which populations were at more risk of certain cancers, pointing towards ways of tackling those forms of the disease.
Click here to see global rates of cancer
Pasted from <http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4490271.stm>
Japan train crash toll tops 100
As wreckage was cleared away the front car became visible
Rescue workers have retrieved more bodies from the wreckage of a Japanese commuter train, which crashed on Monday, bringing the death toll to 104.
One of the bodies was confirmed to be that of the train's 23-year-old driver, Ryujiro Takami.
Investigators estimate the train was travelling at more than 100km/h (62mph) when it slammed into an apartment block in the western city of Amagasaki.
The front carriage is still embedded in a car park under the block.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4492267.stm
Japan's fame for rail safety
By Sarah Buckley
BBC News
Japan's latest train crash will send shock waves through a country which prides itself on the efficiency and safety of its rail industry.
One Japanese station manager committed suicide a few years ago because his trains were late, and the country is widely considered to have one of the best rail safety records of anywhere in the world.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4480965.stm
The changing face of Jerusalem
By Matthew Price
BBC News, in Jerusalem
Every day the number 163 bus drives through the orthodox neighbourhoods of Jewish West Jerusalem.
Palestinians say the barrier risks ending co-existence between Arabs and Jews
It heads for Bethlehem in the West Bank. The journey takes about 40 minutes. Skirting Arab-dominated East Jerusalem which Israel has occupied since 1967.
By the time the 163 reaches the checkpoint into Bethlehem the bus is full of Jewish worshippers. The men in black coats and hats, the women in long skirts.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4490671.stm
Iraqi MPs approve partial cabinet
An MP was killed this week, the first in the new parliament
MPs in Iraq have approved a new government by a large majority despite failure to agree on several top posts.
Seven posts were left vacant, including oil and defence, but Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari promised that they would be filled very soon.
The government's formation has been held up for months, partly over how to draw in the Sunni minority.
Among the names on the new list is Shia politician Ahmed Chalabi, a one-time US favourite who fell from grace.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4492457.stm
Syria withdrawal: Lebanese speak
Syria used to have 40,000 troops in Lebanon
After Syria's withdrawal of the last of its troops from Lebanon, following a 29-year long presence in the country, the BBC News website spoke to four Lebanese about their feelings on the historic move.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4482883.stm
Putin reassures Israel over Iran
Mr Putin says Iran should be allowed to use modern technology
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that the nuclear collaboration between his country and Iran is merely for "peaceful uses" of atomic energy.
Mr Putin was talking to Israel's Channel 1 ahead of a historic trip to Israel - the first by a Russian leader.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4475445.stm
What happened to Elian Gonzalez?
By Stephen Gibbs
BBC correspondent in Cardenas, Cuba
Elian now lives with his father Juan Miguel in Cuba
"He's just a normal little boy" - is what almost everyone in this small, dusty Cuban town will tell you when you ask them about Elian Gonzalez.
A normal little boy who is doing well at school, has plenty of friends, and thinks that maybe he will be a gymnast when he grows up.
It is a far cry from the high drama of five years ago, when Elian was the world famous symbol of a bitter dispute between two nations, two political systems, and one family.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4471099.stm
Moussaoui seeks Muslim land grave
Moussaoui was arrested a month before the US attacks
Admitted terrorist plotter Zacarias Moussaoui has said he wants to be buried in a Muslim land if executed.
Moussaoui asked one of his lawyers to help bring about his wish by recruiting Muslim academic Professor Sadiq Reza.
"I wanted to ask Professor Reza if he could follow up the issue," Moussaoui privately told his trial judge, newly released court papers said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4492127.stm
'Bribes' let Bin Laden evade US
The use of Afghan allies at Tora Bora was a controversial strategy
Osama Bin Laden gave US forces the slip by bribing the Afghan militias tasked with tracking him down, according to Germany's spy chief, August Hanning.
Mr Hanning told German newspaper Handelsblatt that using Afghans was the key mistake in the hunt for Bin Laden.
He said Bin Laden paid "a lot of money" to buy a safe passage from the Tora Bora caves, which he had retreated to during the US assault in 2001.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4442045.stm
Top generals sacked in Colombia
The town of Toribio has been badly damaged in recent clashes
Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe has sacked four top army generals for reportedly disagreeing with reforms within the military.
The generals were all critics of plans to improve co-operation between the different branches of the armed forces.
The move comes as Marxist rebels have stepped up their attacks in the south-west of the country.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4491823.stm
Al Jazeera
EU to postpone Iran nuclear talks- Iranian official
The European Union (EU) has called for postponing current negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, a top Iranian official said in Tehran Wednesday.
The official IRNA news agency has quoted Ali Aqa Mohammadi, top official of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as saying that the EU made its call because of Iran's preparations for the presidential elections, scheduled to be held in June and Britain's parliamentary elections, due in May.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8038
NATO asked by the African Union to assist in Darfur
The African Union (AU) has asked to start talks with NATO for logistical support in its mission in Sudan's war-torn western Darfur region.
The request was made in a letter sent to NATO’s Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer by AU Commission Chairman Alpha Oumar Konare, NATO spokesman James Appathurai said Wednesday.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8160
Human Rights Watch: Abu Ghraib abuses tip of iceberg
The New York based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Wednesday the abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison were just the "tip of the iceberg" of U.S. mistreatment of Muslim prisoners.
According to the rights watchdog, the abuses at Abu Ghraib are part of a larger pattern of U.S. rights violations of detainees in Afghanistan, Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8071
Iraqi woman MP shot dead in Baghdad
Unknown gunmen shot dead an Iraqi woman MP on the doorstep of her home in eastern Baghdad on Wednesday, an interior ministry official said.
"Armed men knocked at her door and when she answered, they shot her," the official said.
Lamiya Abed Khadawi was a member of former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi’s coalition.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8016
Myers admits the U.S. failed to kill the Iraqi resistance
Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff admitted on Tuesday that the Iraqi resistance is "about where it was a year ago".
However, Myers insists the U.S.-led occupation forces are winning the war and is confident of victory.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8075
Advocacy group strongly critical of U.S. policy on Darfur
A leading international advocacy group has lambasted the United States for playing down the crisis in Sudan saying it should take the lead in global efforts to resolve the conflict.
The International Crisis Group (ICG), a nongovernmental body that seeks to promote solutions to conflicts worldwide, also called for African Union troop monitors in Sudan to be increased fivefold and for the appointment of a high-profile international mediator on the Sudan conflict.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8027
Israel pressures Russia to cancel Syrian missile deal
The Israeli government is pressuring Russia to cancel its MI-18 anti-aircraft missiles sale to Syria claiming that such missiles might reach the hands of the Palestinian resistance, particularly in the West Bank.
According to Israeli military and security sources the Israeli civil aviation and air force crafts will be jeopardized if such missiles reach the West Bank from Syria via the Lebanese Hezbollah organization.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8019
Lebanon rejects calling Hezbollah “militia” group
The Lebanese Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud on Wednesday rejected Hezbollah's designation as a militia in a report by the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
”We stress that Hezbollah is not a militia, but a national resistance movement defending Lebanon and seeking the liberation of occupied Lebanese territory,” Mahmoud said in reference to the disputed Shabaa Farms in southern Lebanon which the UN considers as part of Syria.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8156
Abbas accuses Israel of reneging on its commitments
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that Israel is reneging on the commitments and the “understandings” reached with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at the Feb. 8 summit in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Abbas said that Israeli authorities are not committed to the ceasefire and that they are delaying the security transfer of five West Bank towns, including Ramallah, to the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).
Israeli Occupation
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8012
Council on Europe condemns U.S. for using torture on Gitmo detainees
4/26/2005 10:00:00 PM GMT
Europe’s human rights body condemned the United States Tuesday for using "torture" on suspects held at Guantanamo Bay and called on European countries not to cooperate in interrogating Guantanamo detainees.
A Pentagon spokesman said the United States was running "a safe, humane and professional detention operation at Guantanamo that is providing valuable information in the war on terror."
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8040
Official: Pakistani commandos being trained by U.S
U.S. troops have been in Pakistan recently to train Pakistani Special Services Group (SSG) commandos, a U.S. military official said Wednesday.
The troops, consisting of a small number of U.S. military advisers, have been focusing on training the Pakistanis in day and night helicopter air assault operations, the official said.
http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=8163
Sydney Morning Herald
Rebels in Iraq as strong as a year ago
April 28, 2005
We're winning: General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Photo: AP
Iraq's insurgents have lost none of their ability to stage attacks, despite all the efforts to crush the rebels, the senior US military officer, General Richard Myers, said.
"Where they are right now is where they were almost a year ago," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during a Pentagon briefing on Tuesday.
But the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, was not so direct when he was asked: "Are we winning the war?"
"The United States and the coalition forces, in my personal view, will not be the thing that will defeat the insurgency," Mr Rumsfeld said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Rebels-in-Iraq-as-strong-as-a-year-ago/2005/04/27/1114462101423.html
News turns bad for Arctic ozone layer
April 28, 2005
London: The protective ozone layer over the Arctic has thinned this northern winter to the lowest levels since records began, alarming scientists who believed it had begun to heal.
The increased loss of ozone allows more harmful ultraviolet light to reach the Earth's surface, making children and outdoor enthusiasts such as skiers more vulnerable to skin cancer - a disease that is already dramatically increasing.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/News-turns-bad-for-Arctic-ozone-layer/2005/04/27/1114462104157.html
Extradition request for alleged Nazi
April 27, 2005 - 10:35PM
The Australian government is considering a request from Hungary to extradite an 86-year-old alleged Nazi war criminal accused of killing a Jewish teenager during World War II.
Hungary asked the Australian government last month to extradite Perth resident Charles Zentai, the country's ambassador to Australia Lajos Fodor said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Extradition-request-for-alleged-Nazi/2005/04/27/1114462102954.html
Concrete threat to Kurnell's last dune
By Tim Dick Urban Affairs Reporter
April 28, 2005
Dust to dust … Darren Hunt, Rocla's production manager, surveys the Kurnell site.
Photo: Dallas Kilponen
The owner of Kurnell's last significant dune has vowed to remove the sand there and use it for concrete after the State Government rejected its mining application.
Rocla Quarry Products said it had a 40-year-old consent allowing it to mine the 1.5 million-tonne dune, which is three kilometres from Captain Cook's landing site.
The Planning Minister, Craig Knowles, denied Rocla's application to mine the dune and the sand below it because it contravened the Government's policy of phasing out mining at Kurnell.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Concrete-threat-to-Kurnells-last-dune/2005/04/27/1114462103497.html
Police want death for Bali nine
By Matthew Moore, Lindsay Murdoch and Philip Cornford in Denpasar
April 28, 2005
The Bali nine ... the accused Australians.
Each of the nine Australians held in Bali on heroin charges is a big step closer to death row.
Indonesian police say they want all of them to face a firing squad for drug trafficking. Previously they had said that only the four arrested with 8.3 kilograms of heroin strapped to their stomachs and thighs at Bali's international airport would be charged with a capital offence.
But another five could now also face a firing squad after police said yesterday they were being investigated for trafficking heroin rather than possession.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Police-want-death-for-Bali-nine/2005/04/27/1114462101414.html
Correct form of a dress for bar staff: very short
She posed in a bikini for a men's magazine and, like many women, wore a miniskirt socially. But what gaming room attendant Susie Zhang did in her private life ended up being used against her in court.
Ms Zhang had complained that her employer had no right to ask her to wear a miniskirt at work, but Federal Magistrate Rolf Driver found against her.
However, in dismissing the sexual harassment and sex discrimination claim, the magistrate has reignited a debate about women's attire.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Correct-dress-at-work-very-short/2005/04/27/1114462103503.html
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