Morning Papers
Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Okeydoke"
History…
1903, born Clare Booth Luce, playwright, legislator, and diplomat
1847, born Joseph Pulitzer, journalist and newspaper publisher
1894, born Ben Nicholson, painter and sculptor
1932, born Omar Sharif, Egyptian motion-picture actor, who is best known for his charismatic performance in the British epic film Lawrence of Arabia (1962). Born Michel Shahoub in Alexandria, Sharif was educated at Victoria College in Cairo, Egypt. His first important acting part was the lead role in the motion picture Sina Fil Wadi (The Blazing Sun, 1954), which featured Egypt's leading film star, Faten Hamama. Sharif's profile in Arabic cinema increased when he and Faten Hamama were later married. He performed in several other Middle-Eastern films in the 1950s, including Goha (1958), before British director David Lean cast him as a handsome and noble sheik in Lawrence of Arabia. The international success of this role led to parts for Sharif as characters from a variety of other nationalities.
1941, born Paul Theroux, novelist and travel writer
1790: The first U.S. patent law, protecting inventions against piracy, is approved.
1849, The safety pin was patented. Visit this site to explore other patented ideas—most not quite as useful as the safety pin.
1866, the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals was incorporated.
1912: The British luxury liner Titanic sets off on its maiden voyage across the Atlantic Ocean; five days later it sinks after hitting an iceberg.
1925, The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is published; it will become one of the most important novels of the 20th century.
1932, German president Paul Von Hindenburg was re-elected, with Adolf Hitler coming in second.
1953, the 3-D horror movie "House of Wax" premiered in New York.
1963, the nuclear-powered submarine USS Thresher failed to surface off Cape Cod, Mass., in a disaster that claimed 129 lives.
1972, the United States and the Soviet Union joined some 70 nations in signing an agreement banning biological warfare.
1974: Golda Meir, a founder of the state of Israel, announces that she is resigning as prime minister
1998, the Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiators reached a landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks.
2004, the White House declassified and released a document sent to President Bush before the Sept. 11 attacks which cited recent intelligence of a possible al-Qaida plot to strike inside the United States.
Missing in Action
1967 O'GRADY JOHN F. NEW HYDE PARK NY EJECTED NO RADIO CONTACT
1968 CARVER HARRY F. NEW ALBANY IN
1968 PADGETT SAMUEL J. TULSA OK
The Moscow Times
Forced Into Slavery
A new exhibition sheds light on a rarely discussed aspect of World War II.
By Stephen Boykewich
Published: April 8, 2005
Many Europeans -- and Russians are no exception -- scoff at the U.S. system of legal liability that generates $2.9 million damages awards for burns from spilled coffee. But one of the most staggering results of any case to emerge from U.S. courts had Russians among its main beneficiaries -- and nobody dared called it excessive.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/04/08/102.html
Teller of Tales
Some people consider Yury Norshtein the greatest animator in history.
By Anna Malpas
Published: April 8, 2005
He doesn't use a computer and has never seen "The Simpsons," but Yury Norshtein has directed two short animated films, "Tale of Tales" (Skazka Skazok) and "Hedgehog in the Fog" (Yozhik v Tumane), that critics have voted the greatest of all time. Now a major exhibition is revisiting his work.
The 63-year-old director met with journalists this week as the Museum of Private Collections opened a retrospective of the films he made with his wife, the artist Francheska Yarbusova. The exhibit is named after "Tale of Tales," a 29-minute almost wordless film that combines wartime episodes with scenes of postwar Soviet life and timeless scenes of family happiness and love, all viewed by the hero, a small wolf cub.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/141447/
Global Eye
The Big Fix
By Chris Floyd
Published: April 8, 2005
Let's face the facts. The game is over and we -- the "reality-based community," the believers in genuine democracy and law, the heirs of Jefferson and Madison, Emerson and Thoreau, the toilers and dreamers, all those who seek to rise above the beast within and shape the brutal chaos of existence into something higher, richer and imbued with meaning -- have lost. The better world we thought had been won out of the blood and horror of history -- a realm of enlightenment that often found its best embodiment in the ideals and aspirations of the American Republic -- is gone. It's been swallowed by darkness, by ravening greed, by bestial spirits and by willful primitives who now possess overwhelming instruments of power and dominion.
A gang of such spirits seized control of the U.S. government by illicit means in 2000 and maintained that control through rampant electoral corruption in 2004. The re-election of President George W. Bush last November was a deliberately shambolic process that saw massive lockouts of opposition voters; unverifiable returns compiled by easily hackable machines operated by avowed corporate partisans of the ruling party; and vast discrepancies between exit polls and final results – gaps much larger than those that led elections in Ukraine and Georgia to be condemned as manipulated frauds. Indeed, a panel of statisticians said last week that the odds of such a discrepancy occurring naturally were 959,000 to 1, the Akron Beacon-Journal reported.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/04/08/120.html
Defense Seeks Khodorkovsky's Acquittal
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
Lawyers for Mikhail Khodorkovsky on Thursday called on judges to acquit the former Yukos CEO on all charges as they wrapped up their closing arguments in the nine-month trial of Khodorkovsky and his business partner Platon Lebedev.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/04/08/003.html
200 Fly From Ufa to Deliver a Letter
Some 200 opposition activists flew in from Ufa on Thursday to demand the ouster of Bashkortostan President Murtaza Rakhimov at a rally on Lubyanskaya Ploshchad. Some protesters warned that brewing unrest could prompt a popular revolt like the one that recently toppled the president of Kyrgyzstan.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/04/08/002.html
With the aggressive atmosphere as witnessed by Cheney/Halliburton/Bush this is as it should be.
A String of Auctions Gets Canceled
A string of auctions for oil and gas development licenses have been canceled to prevent foreign companies from bidding, an official in the Natural Resources Ministry said.
The cancellations appear to constitute a de facto widening of the ban on bids by non-Russian-controlled companies, contradicting recent assurances from Natural Resources Minister Yury Trutnev and other ministers.
The latest cases also highlight uncertainties faced by foreign natural resource companies as the State Duma prepares to debate a long-anticipated bill on restricting foreigners' access to subsoil resources.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/04/08/001.html
Reuters
Taiwan bans news coverage by China's official media
Sun April 10, 2005 9:06 AM GMT+05:30
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan has stopped allowing journalists from China's official Xinhua news agency and People's Daily to cover news on the island, the first concrete retaliatory measure since China passed an anti-secession law in March.
Joseph Wu, chairman of the cabinet's Mainland Affairs Council, said on Sunday the decision was part of an overall review of exchanges with China, which views the self-ruled island of 23 million people as a breakaway province.
http://www.reuters.co.in/locales/c_newsArticle.jsp?type=worldNews&localeKey=en_IN&storyID=8133585
China Daily
There is something wrong ...
US, China agree to hold regular senior-level talks
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-09 09:35
The United States and China have agreed for the first time ever to hold regular, senior-level talks on a whole range of political and economic issues, the US State Department said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/09/content_432708.htm
Lien Chan expected to visit mainland in May
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-09 15:10
Lien Chan, leader of Taiwan's main opposition Kuomintang (KMT) party, is expected to make an historic visit to the mainland in May, KMT spokeswoman Cheng Li-wen said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/09/content_432751.htm
U.S. pushing Japan to boost military role
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-09 08:37
In the most sweeping re-examination of the U.S.-Japan security alliance in years, Japan and the United States are negotiating a military realignment that could move some or all of the nearly 20,000 Marines off the crowded island of Okinawa, close underused bases and meld an Army command in Washington state with a camp just south of Tokyo.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/09/content_432684.htm
Thousands rally against Japan in Beijing
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-04-09 22:37
More than 10,000 Chinese have joined the Saturday rally in Beijing protesting Japan's distortion of its wartime past and Tokyo's bid for a permanent seat on the UN
Security Council.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/09/content_432767.htm
… with this picture.
Shipping giant sets sail for big time
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-09 09:11
China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) announced on Friday it had bought China Ocean Shipping Tally Company (COSTACO), in a move expected to sharpen the competitiveness of the country's largest shipping firm.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/09/content_432690.htm
Nation steels itself against further price hikes
By Xie Ye (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-04-09 06:26
Steel makers adopted a hard line during negotiations with Australian mining company BHP Billiton Ltd on the price of iron ore, claiming they would not accept any unreasonable requests "under any circumstances."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/09/content_432680.htm
Beijing women most confident about bodies: survey
(Chinanews)
Updated: 2005-04-08 15:33
What are the characteristics of the female figure in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Taipei?
Are women in these cities satisfied with their bodies? An underwear company conducted a survey seeking to answer just such questions.
The results: Beijing women have the biggest chests; Guangzhou women have the slimmest waists; Shanghai women have the firmest breasts; while Taipei women have "hot," well-proportioned figures.
The survey shows that Beijing women are most confident about their bodies. 13% of Beijing women who participated in the survey say that they are not at all dissatisfied with their bodies. Although Beijing women have the thickest waists, 36% of them say they are satisfied with theirs, the highest rate of satisfaction in the four cities.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-04/08/content_432572.htm
Daily Times
Men in China’s most modern city ageing early
The percentage of men showing signs of early ageing in Shanghai, China’s most modern and one of its richest cities, has doubled over the past two decades, state media cited a survey saying.
Symptoms of “male menopause,” which includes weariness, vesicular diseases and deteriorating sexual ability, trouble 20 percent of Shanghai men under the age of 45, the China Daily quoted the survey saying. This compares to about 10 percent in the early 1980s, according to the survey by Shanghai’s Renji Hospital, the report said.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-4-2005_pg9_6
Palestinians shown ‘Gandhi’ in non-violence appeal
A US entrepreneur screened an Arabic language version of the 1982 film “Gandhi” to Palestinians in a bid to encourage non-violent methods of conducting their uprising against Israel.
The award-winning epic about pacifist Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi will be shown throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip over the next week and was endorsed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Jeff Skoll told a Ramallah audience.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-4-2005_pg9_1
Jewel thieves empty shop near presidential palace
A gang robbed a jewellery shop on a La Paz square within sight of guards at the presidential palace, prosecutors said. Between three and six men wearing police uniforms, witnesses said, entered a building next door to JL jewelers, took out the doorman and made a hole in the wall that opened into the shop.
The jeweller, one of the oldest in La Paz, is located 50 meteres from the government offices in Palacio Quemado, 100 metres from both the legislature and municipal government offices and just steps from the cathedral of La Paz. The robbery came a month after a gang stole nearly $250,000 from an exchange house, also in downtown La Paz, after entering from an abandoned house next door through a hole in the wall. afp
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_8-4-2005_pg9_4
The Japan Times
U.S. rejects September deadline for UNSC reform
Compiled from AP, Kyodo
UNITED NATIONS -- Secretary General Kofi Annan's sweeping plan for U.N. reform ran into new problems when the United States joined Russia and China in opposing his call for adoption of the entire package at a summit of world leaders in September.
… The latest U.S. position indicates that Japan faces a rocky road ahead in its bid for a permanent seat on the Security Council.
In Tokyo, government officials reiterated Japan's support Friday of Annan's proposal to decide by September on expanding the Security Council.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050409a1.htm
Tokyo's terms for joining China gas project rejected
Japan could accept China's offer to jointly conduct oil and gas exploration in the East China Sea, but only if Beijing provides details of its ongoing gas projects in the disputed waters and halts its operations there, the industry minister said Friday.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nb20050409a3.htm
Health ministry warns of serious blood shortage nationwide
Health facilities are facing an unprecedented blood shortage and may start running out in some areas as early as this week, according to the health ministry.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050410a2.htm
'Too friendly'? Hopelessly Midwestern
By AMY CHAVEZ
I am crossing America by Amtrak train and am now leaving the Wild West headed east through the Midwest. Much of the Midwest is prairie, farms and cows. Collectively these states are called the Plains States, probably because they are indeed very plain. Not a thing is growing at this time of year, but the planting season is just around the corner. If the spring planting is good, the corn will be "knee high by the 4th of July" and these states will produce enough soybeans to make tofu for all of Japan.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?fl20050409cz.htm
Michael Moore Today
G.O.P. Consultant Weds His Male Partner
By Adam Nagourney / New York Times
WASHINGTON, April 8 - Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2163
DeLay Says Federal Judiciary Has 'Run Amok,' Adding Congress Is Partly to Blame
By Carl Hulse and David D. Kirkpatrick / Washington Post
WASHINGTON, April 7 - Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, escalated his talk of a battle between the legislative and judicial branches of government on Thursday, saying federal courts had "run amok," in large part because of the failure of Congress to confront them.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2141
"Our next step, whatever it is, must be more than rhetoric." -- Tom DeLay
MORE THAN RHETORIC. Tom DeLay started a campaign against the Judicial Branch of our country on rhetoric? Oh. So, what next? Drummed up lies !!
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