The Washington Post
There cannot be Global Warming/Climate Change measures without limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions. This legislation skirts the issue. It is empty legislation and will never achieve standards that will stop this hideous process in any significant way. I am outraged at the insignificance the distress the people of this country endure due to Climate Change only to be 'toyed' with in this gross example of pandering to Big Oil. I wnat to hear from the Union of Concerned Scientists regarding this and the urgency to bring Greenhouse Gases under control.
Senate Rejects Greenhouse Gas Limits
By Justin Blum
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A08
The Senate yesterday rejected a measure calling for mandatory limits on emissions linked to global warming, siding with the Bush administration's position that the restrictions would cost jobs, drive industry overseas and run up consumers' energy bills.
Voting 60 to 38, lawmakers rejected an amendment to a major energy bill that would have forced reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases to 2000 levels by 2010 and created an emissions trading program. Eleven Democrats joined Republicans in opposing the measure, and six Republicans voted with the Democrats to support it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062200465.html
Exploring Inroads for Tysons Foot Traffic
Refashioning N.Va. Hub Into a Downtown Faces a Major Roadblock: Route 7
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A01
Every once in a while, someone tries to cross Route 7 in Tysons Corner on foot.
It isn't easy. At 170 feet curb to curb, the suburban strip is far wider than the Champs-Elysees in Paris, Las Ramblas in Barcelona or Fifth Avenue in New York. Worse, crosswalk and "Walk/Don't Walk" signals, which engineers say would impede traffic, are deliberately scarce.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202097.html
House GOP Offers Plan For Social Security
Bush's Private Accounts Would Be Scaled Back
By Mike Allen and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A01
After watching the Social Security debate from the sidelines, House Republican leaders yesterday embraced a new approach to Social Security restructuring that would add individual investment accounts to the program, but on a much smaller scale than the Bush administration favors.
The new accounts would be financed by the Social Security surplus -- the amount of payroll tax revenue not needed to pay current benefits. That money is now used to fund other government activities and is expected to run out after 2016 as the baby-boom generation retires.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062200406.html
I think this is great. As a party the Deomcrat need cohesive leadership. The stand Joe Biden has taken in regard to this issue is not a matter of politics but a matter of completely the record before a vote. That is what a Chief Executive is supposed to do before submitting a nominee. Guessing is not part of the voting 'deal' and a complete record does not automatically mean approval. It can expedite the process and that is what a busy legislature is looking for from the Executive Branch. Bush/Cheney are very remiss in their responsiblities and it is reflected everywhere.
Senate Democrat Offers Pledge on Bolton Vote
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; A04
The White House renewed its insistence yesterday that the Senate confirm John R. Bolton to be U.N. ambassador, but key senators said they see no evidence of a plan to make it happen.
With the Senate having voted twice to sustain a filibuster against Bolton, the Bush administration and congressional leaders appeared to assign each other the responsibility of breaking the three-month impasse. Several senators said they do not understand why President Bush is demanding Bolton's approval without presenting a strategy for picking up the handful of needed Democrats.
"I don't see anything happening," said Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (Del.), a Democratic leader of the Bolton fight. "I think the train has left the station" in terms of finding a compromise.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062201336_pf.html
Is there no joy in Nomination Mudville Anywhere? That's odd.
Senator May Block Successor to Defense Policy Chief Feith
By Bradley GrahamWashington Post Staff WriterThursday, June 23, 2005; Page A25
The senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee has warned the Pentagon that he may block the nomination of a new defense policy chief unless documents involving the departing policy head -- Douglas J. Feith -- are turned over for review.
The action by Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) threatens to hold up another important presidential appointment as lawmakers remain deadlocked with the Bush administration over the nomination of John R. Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations. That dispute, too, involves Democratic requests for documents the White House has refused to surrender.
Hillary Clinton's Swift Boaters and can the 'Swift Boaters' come up with a plan for Biden?
Hillary Clinton Attacked by Man From Mars
By Tina Brown
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page C01
Maybe it's a secret fantasy of girl-on-girl action that makes Ed Klein obsess about Sen. Hillary Clinton's supposed lesbian ethos in his new book "The Truth About Hillary." It's hard to know what else he has to draw on. Yelling "lesbian" at powerful heterosexual women has always been the pathetic projection of the menaced male, but it's especially baffling in Klein's case. As the former editor of the New York Times Magazine, with some bestsellers behind him, Klein used to be a workmanlike scribe with glamour aspirations when he was flat-footing around in the Jackie O crypto-sphere. He's not the usual sniper in the Republican stage army, which is perhaps why such paid-up members as the New York Post's John Podhoretz have elected to play smart and trash the book, too. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that misogyny is a sure boomerang.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202301.html
INTOLERANCE? THAT IS an understatement. This is unquestionable bigotry and every offender should be expelled from the academy and now.
Intolerance Found at Air Force Academy
Military Report Criticizes Religious Climate but Does Not Cite Overt Bias
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A02
A military study of the religious climate at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs found several examples of religious intolerance, insensitivity and inappropriate proselytizing on the part of Air Force officers and cadets, but a report issued yesterday at the Pentagon concluded that the school is not overtly discriminatory and has made improvements in recent months.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062200598.html
Car Bombs Kill Dozens in Baghdad
Shiite Neighborhoods Targeted in Coordinated Attacks Over Two Days
By Andy Mosher
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 23, 2005; 6:44 AM
BAGHDAD, June 23 -- Seven car bombs killed more than three dozen people in Shiite Muslim neighborhoods of Baghdad over a 10-hour span on Wednesday night and Thursday morning in what appeared to be a new attempt to inflame Iraq's sectarian divisions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/23/AR2005062300363.html
Evangelicals Building a Base in Iraq
Newcomers Raise Worry Among Traditional Church Leaders
By Caryle Murphy
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A01
BAGHDAD -- With arms outstretched, the congregation at National Evangelical Baptist Church belted out a praise hymn backed up by drums, electric guitar and keyboard. In the corner, slide images of Jesus filled a large screen. A simple white cross of wood adorned the stage, and worshipers sprinkled the pastor's Bible-based sermon with approving shouts of "Ameen!"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202335.html?nav=hcmodule
Progress and Struggle For Vietnam's Catholics
As Restrictions Are Eased, Membership Grows
By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A16
YEN KHANH, Vietnam -- As organ music filled the 115-year-old Catholic church, the Rev. Joseph Tran Van Khoa faced more than 1,000 worshipers and raised his arms. The overflow crowd began to sing.
Khoa, who once studied in secret to become a priest in this communist country, beamed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202182.html?nav=hcmodule
Pharmaceuticals in Waterways Raise Concern
Effect on Wildlife, Humans Questioned
By Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 23, 2005; Page A03
Academics, state officials and environmental advocates are starting to question whether massive amounts of discarded pharmaceuticals, which are often flushed down the drain, pose a threat to the nation's aquatic life and possibly to people.
In waterways from the Potomac to the Brazos River in Texas, researchers have found fish laden with estrogen and antidepressants, and many show evidence of major neurological or physiological changes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062201988.html?nav=hcmodule
Feds Target Pot Dispensaries in California
By DON THOMPSON
The Associated Press
Wednesday, June 22, 2005; 11:27 PM
SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Federal drug agents launched a crackdown on medical marijuana providers in California Wednesday, raiding more than 20 dispensaries and charging two people.
In San Francisco, drug agents searched three pot clubs and more than 20 homes and businesses, capping a two-year investigation into an alleged marijuana trafficking ring. Officials would not say how many people were arrested or give other details, pending a news conference Thursday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/22/AR2005062202461.html?nav=hcmodule
Unwanted pregnancies
Refugees-Kenya:Contraceptives - Both Needed And Scorned
Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
June 20, 2005
Posted to the web June 20, 2005
Joyce Mulama
Nairobi
As the international community marks World Refugee Day, a Somali woman's tale of how she helped fellow refugees terminate pregnancies has highlighted the shortcomings of reproductive health care in refugee camps.
Mariam*, who lived at the Dadaab camp in northern Kenya from 1992 to 1998, discreetly performed abortions on girls and women.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200506201056.html
June 8, 2005
New Law Will Regulate Birthing Centers
May 31, 2005, 01:04 PM
(Muncie) -- A new law requires private birthing centers to be inspected and regulated by the Indiana State Health Department. Supporters say the law will give women with low-risk pregnancies more options for natural births.
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3411932&nav=0Ra7aTxe
New law requires inspection, regulation of birthing centers
Nurse midwives say it will show the public the facilities are safe.
From The Associated Press
MUNCIE — A new state law that requires private birthing centers to be inspected and regulated by state health officials could give women with low-risk pregnancies more options for natural births.
Certified nurse midwife Barb Bechtel said the law that takes effect July 1 will help her stay in business. She owns Indiana’s only free- standing birthing centers — Expectations Women’s Health and Child Bearing Center in Muncie and Nurse Midwives of Indianapolis.
http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/fortwayne/news/local/11788589.htm
Wash. Times editorial mischaracterized Virginia "partial-birth" abortion law ruled unconstitutional
A June 7 Washington Times editorial decried a ruling in the case of Richmond Medical Center v. Hicks, in which the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a Virginia "partial-birth" abortion statute. The Times mischaracterized the content of the statute to emphasize supposed differences between it and a Nebraska "partial-birth" abortion law that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 2000. Though the Times claimed the Nebraska and Virginia statutes are dissimilar, they are in reality quite alike, and both were ruled unconstitutional for the same reason -- they failed to include an exception that permits the banned procedure when it is necessary to preserve the health of the pregnant woman.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200506080005
Infanticide in Virginia
What happens when a court constitutionalizes infanticide? We ask the question because a federal appeals court in Virginia appears to have done just that.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20050606-101058-5934r.htm
Morons in the News: Man gets life for giving girlfriend back-alley abortion
Posted by Frankie on Jun. 08, 2005
(18 comments from readers)
This happened in Texas. Surprise, surprise.
Go Orwell!
Students for an Orwellian Society, working to bring about the realization of Ingsoc, because 2005 is 21 years too late.
As reported in the U.K. Guardian:
17-year-old Erica Basoria was 4 months pregnant with twins, and regretted not getting an abortion when she could. So, when jogging and punching her own stomach didn't end the pregnancy, she asked her 19-year-old boyfriend (and father of the twins), Gerardo Flores, to step on her stomach while she kept hitting it.
http://web.morons.org/article.jsp?sectionid=1&id=6310
'Pro-voice' abortion counseling
Oakland talk line helps women deal with their decision after it's done
By Rebecca Vesely, STAFF WRITER
Nine months after having an abortion, Monica Lois began feeling intense grief.
A supporter of abortion rights, she didn't regret her decision to terminate her pregnancy when she was 25, but she found herself crying a lot. She was so distraught she nearly dropped out of California State University, East Bay, where she was getting her bachelor's
degree.
"Once these feelings started surfacing, I didn't know what to do with myself," Lois said. "I basically had a nervous breakdown."
Through the Internet, she found Exhale, an Oakland-based free talk line for women who have had abortions, and their partners. She called and spoke to a peer counselor.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_2792235
On your own: Freedom can backfire if you don't keep these things in mind
From Staff and Wire Reports
Ah, the freedom.
You can stay up until 4 a.m., eat pizza at every meal and buy what you want at the mall. You're out of the house, on your own and have the power to control your own destiny.
For some, the sudden independence after high school can be dizzying.
"It's a little bit of both excitement and nervousness," said Jeremy Babers. Babers is a graduating Fair Park High School senior who is heading to Loyola University in New Orleans in the fall. "I'm 18 years old now and have been in Shreveport all my life. So, I'm ready to experience new things. After 18 years, it's time. But at the same time, I'm kind of a momma's boy and I want to be close to home."
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050520/LIVING/505200301/1004
COMMENTARY: Celebrate the benefits of birth control
By JANET KUSCH La Crosse
.
June 7 marked the 40th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Griswold vs. Connecticut 1965, in which the court recognized the constitutional right of married couples to use contraception.
This anniversary gives pause to reflect on how access to contraception has benefited all. The National Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association describe the following:
n The ability of women to control their fertility and avoid unintended pregnancy has led to a dramatic decline in maternal and infant mortality rates and has improved infant and maternal health.
In 1965, there were 31.6 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births, in 2000, there were 9.8 maternal deaths per 100,000 live births.
In 1965, 24.7 infants under one year died per 100,000 live births; in 2003 this figure has declined to 7 infant deaths per 100,000 live births.
n The ability for women to control their fertility has enabled them to achieve personal educational and professional goals critical to the nation's economic success. In 1965, 7 percent of women completed four or more years of college compared to 26 percent in 2004. In 1965, women age 16 and over constituted 39 percent of the work force compared to 59 percent in 2004. Since 1975, the number of women physicians has nearly tripled, from 9 percent to 25 percent and women are expected to account for more than one third of the medical work force by 2010.
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2005/06/14/opinion/02commentary14.txt
Does Atkins Hinder Birth Control?
June 14, 2005
Dear eDiets:
Will the Atkins Nutritional Approach interfere with the effectiveness of birth control pills or will the pills hinder success on Atkins?
-- Name Withheld
There has been no research to evaluate the effect of any weight loss program on the efficacy of oral contraceptives. However, because birth control pills contain estrogen, they may impact your ability to lose weight on Atkins. Estrogen causes more fat to be stored in your tissues rather than being burned as energy. This increases insulin resistance, making weight loss more difficult.
http://www.ediets.com/news/article.cfm?cmi=1200548&cid=28
Birth Control Notification Bill Offers 5-Day Alert to Parents
(CNSNews.com) - Minors would have to provide their parents with five days notice before they could receive birth control drugs or devices at federally subsidized clinics, under terms of legislation introduced Tuesday by two congressional conservatives.
A top abortion rights advocate fired back, calling the bill's sponsors "anti-birth control zealots," who were just trying to "score points with the radical right."
U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, (R-Okla.), who is also a practicing obstetrician/gynecologist; and U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, (R-Mo.) are sponsors of the Parents Right to Know Act, which would affect Title X clinics that provide family planning services to low income individuals.
http://www.townhall.com/news/politics/200506/POL20050622a.shtml
When moms don't want babies, Safe Haven does
Posted: 06/20/2005 03:32 pm
Last Updated: 06/20/2005 05:07 pm
Indiana - An Indiana group that helps women with unwanted pregnancies wants to bring more attention to the state's Safe Haven Law.
The law allows women to drop off their newborn at a designated Safe Haven site but the Newborn Lifeline Network says the law may not have saved a single infant's life since it took effect.
It's been a law for five years in Indiana.
At least 15 Indiana newborns have been abandoned, injured or killed by their mothers since July 2000.
http://www.wndu.com/news/062005/news_42970.php
Assembly Passes Ban on Morning After Pill in Wisconsin
June 20, 2005 9:11 a.m. EST
Christina Ficara - All Headline News Staff Reporter
WASHINGTON (AHN) -A new bill bassed by the State Assembly, Thursday, could make Wisconsin the first state to ban the distribution of the morning-after pill on state college campuses. If it continues to approval by the state Senate, the restriction will be the first of its kind in the U.S.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/cgi-bin/news/newsbrief.plx?id=2238546208&fa=1
Taking Aim at Student Sex
This should stop them from having sex.
The Wisconsin Assembly approved a bill last week that would bar student health centers on all University of Wisconsin campuses from advertising, prescribing or dispensing an emergency contraception pill. The “morning after” pill, which is designed for women to take when condoms break or other forms of birth control somehow fail, provides a very high dose of progestin that prevents ovulation or fertilization, effectively ending any possibility of a pregnancy.
http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/06/20/morning
NOBODY IS AKSING FOR his approval. If he is unable to help women who want a quality of life as they see then he should consider himself a man who victimizes women and not help them !!
Anti-abortion doctor, FDA adviser, stands firm in political storm
BY SARAH VOS
Knight Ridder Newspapers
LEXINGTON, Ky. - (KRT) - Until Dr. W. David Hager performed his first and only abortion, he believed that women had the right to choose.
But as he watched fetal tissue from a first-trimester pregnancy pass through a plastic tube sometime around January 1973, his views changed...
The doctor's role in helping to convince the FDA to reject a proposal to make Plan B, an emergency contraceptive, available over the counter and an allegation from his ex-wife that he sexually abused her during their marriage have put him at center stage in an ongoing political tug of war. Hager says the allegations of abuse are false and that an article in The Nation that publicized them was incomplete.
"He's been a target," said David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical Association, who has known Hager since college. "He's become the poster boy for the other side."
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/11939335.htm
The Case Against Abstinence-Only Sex Education
'I started seeing girls my age getting pregnant, getting STDs,' says a former chastity pledger who advocates broader sex ed.
Interview with Shelby Knox
Shelby Knox grew up a Southern Baptist in the conservative town of Lubbock, Texas. Now almost 19, she is the subject of a P.O.V. documentary The Education of Shelby Knox, which chronicles the controversy over sex education in her district's public schools.
When you were 15, you pledged abstinence in a True Love Waits ceremony. When it comes to premarital sex and marriage, what do you want in terms of your own life?
For me, I think that when I find the person that I want to have sex with, I will, whether it’s before our wedding night or... the important thing is I have the education to protect myself.
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/168/story_16871_1.html
Half of young Americans to get sex diseases
Half of all young Americans will get a sexually transmitted disease by the age of 25, perhaps because they are ignorant about protection or embarrassed to ask for it, according to several reports. The reports, issued on Tuesday publicised by two non-profit sexual and youth health groups, said there were 9 million new cases of STD among teens and young adults aged 15 to 24 in 2000.
They said the U.S. government's policy of preferring abstinence-only education would only increase those rates.
"For the 27 million young Americans under the age of 25 who have had sex, the stakes are simply too high to talk only about abstinence," James Wagoner, president of Advocates for Youth, said in a statement.
"Given the prevalence of STDs, young people need all the facts -- including medically accurate information on condoms."
The reports, released jointly by Advocates for Youth -- a non-profit group advocating for sex education, and the sexual health-oriented Alan Guttmacher Institute, pull together information from several different publications.
They include a Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report in the latest issue of the journal Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, and a University of North Carolina report based on interviews with teens and young adults.
"Approximately 18.9 million new cases of STD occurred in 2000, of which 9.1 million (48 percent) were among persons aged 15 to 24," the CDC report reads.
It said three diseases -- human papillomavirus or genital wart virus, a parasitic infection called trichomoniasis and chlamydia -- accounted for 88 percent of all new cases of STDs in 15- to 24-year-olds. Wart virus is the major cause of cervical cancer while chlamydia can cause infertility.
http://webnewswire.com/article436941.html
The New Zealand Herald
Whale burger on menu at Japanese fast food chain
23.06.05 4.00pm
TOKYO - With Japan under fire for plans to expand its whaling programme, a fast food chain is offering a new product aimed at using up stocks from past hunts -- whale burger.
The $4.94 (380 yen) slice of fried Minke whale in a bun went on sale on Thursday at Lucky Pierrot, a restaurant chain in the port city of Hakodate on Japan's northernmost island of Hokkaido.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332327
Japan rebuked over plan to kill more whales
NZ conservation minister Chris Carter (left) and Japanese delegate Joji Morishita at the IWC meeting. Pictures / Reuters
23.06.05 7.30am
ULSAN, South Korea - Japan's whaling ambitions were dealt a symbolic blow last night when the International Whaling Commission voted to urge Tokyo to cut its so-called "scientific research" whaling.
Although the vote puts more political pressure on Japan, it will be still able to expand its whaling as the "research" project is not regulated by commission rules. Critics say Japan's programme is a commercial hunt dressed up as data collection.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332251
Spain's senate rejects gay marriage law
23.06.05 12.20pm
MADRID - The upper house of Spain's parliament voted against a government proposal to legalise gay marriage, but the legislation remains likely to be made law despite outcry from Catholics.
The Senate defeated the bill when legislators from a Catalan Christian Democrat party joined the centre-right opposition Popular Party in opposing it.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332292
Spain arrests 186 in child pornography crackdown
23.06.05
MADRID - Spanish police have arrested 186 people throughout the country in a crackdown on the distribution of child pornography, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.
In two parallel operations, 650 officers searched 188 homes and found evidence of child pornography distribution across the Internet using "peer-to-peer" (P2P) software and a system of passwords.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332249
Australian Deputy PM quits, triggering government reshuffle
Trade Minister Mark Vaile is to become Australia's Deputy Prime Minister. Picture / Reuters
23.06.05 5.55pm
CANBERRA - Australian Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson resigned today, saying he had a prostate problem and had lost his passion for politics, forcing a reshuffle of the conservative government's senior ministries.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332335
White House won't criticise Israel assassinations
23.06.05 4.20pm
WASHINGTON - The White House declined to criticise Israel for resuming an assassination policy against Islamic Jihad militants and called on the Palestinian leadership to do more to combat "terrorist" groups attempting to derail peace efforts.
In a sign that a truce with Palestinians has deteriorated significantly, Israel has now resumed the policy of "targeted assassination" of militants it shelved in February.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332331
Hundreds of thousands flee as floods kill 80 in China
23.06.05 4.00pm
BEIJING - Heavy flooding across south China has killed 80 people, left 38 missing and forced almost 700,000 to evacuate their homes, the China Daily said.
And the worst may be to come with torrential rain forecast to pound south and Southeast China at least until the end of the week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332329
Harassed Chinese protester fighting 'state machine'
Chen Yonglin is chasing political asylum. Picture / Reuters
23.06.05
By Nick Squires
SYDNEY - Chin Jin is a marked man. His home telephone is tapped, his mobile is monitored, and his computer is routinely hacked into and bombarded with strange viruses.
The harassment reached a peak three months ago when Chin, 48, who lives in Sydney, was organising a conference on promoting democracy in China.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332160
Kim tried to reach Bush over N-policy
23.06.05
WASHINGTON - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il attempted to engage President George W. Bush directly on the nuclear weapons issue three years ago but the Administration spurned the overture, say two American experts on Asia.
Writing in the Washington Post, former United States Ambassador to South Korea Donald Gregg and former journalist Don Oberdorfer expressed concern that Kim's November 2002 initiative was never pursued and urged Bush to respond positively to the overture Kim made last week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332222
S spyplane crashes after Afghan mission
23.06.05 1.20pm
WASHINGTON - The pilot of a US Air Force U-2 spyplane was killed when the plane crashed in Southwest Asia after a reconnaissance mission over Afghanistan, the US military said.
"The aircraft had completed its mission and was returning to base when the crash occurred," Air Force Capt. David Small, a spokesman for the US Central Command Air Forces, or CENTAF, said by telephone from the Gulf region.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332303
Gunfire erupts as new Haiti ministers take office
23.06.05 2.20pm
HAITI - Heavy gunfire erupted near Haiti's presidential palace as interim president Boniface Alexandre delivered a speech at a ceremony to appoint four new cabinet members.
It was not clear if the gunmen fired directly on the palace, but the gunshots created panic outside the building in Port-au-Prince.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332309
Berlusconi's playboy quip irks Finland
23.06.05 3.20pm
ROME - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi found himself in the diplomatic doghouse after saying he charmed Finland's woman president into giving up a bid to site the EU's new food agency there in favour of Italy.
"Our ambassador to Helsinki was called to (Finland's) Foreign Ministry," Italy's Foreign Ministry said, adding it appeared "tied to" Berlusconi's comments about the president.
The 68-year-old billionaire prime minister, who once worked as a cruise ship crooner, said on Tuesday he had persuaded Finnish President Tarja Halonen to give up her country's offer to site the European Union's new food safety agency there.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332287
Costs force closure of vaccine lab
23.06.05
Norway is closing the laboratories that did the work on which New Zealand's meningococcal B vaccine is based.
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health's internationally respected vaccine research group has been axed because it is too expensive to run.
The group developed the vaccine which has been used as the basis for New Zealand's $200 million immunisation programme.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10332148
concluding ...
