Sunday, June 26, 2005

Morning Papers - It's Origins

Rooster "Crowing"

"Okeydoke"


History . . .

1892,
Pearl S. Buck, novelist

1904, Peter Lorre, actor

1911, Babe Didrikson, American athlete, named the greatest woman athlete of the first half of the 20th century by an Associated Press poll in 1950. She was born Mildred Didrikson in Port Arthur, Texas. She excelled in many sports, including basketball, swimming, track and field, and especially
golf. In her teens she twice won a place on the All-American women's basketball team and established three national records in track and field events. A contender in the 1932 Olympic Games held in Los Angeles, she not only won but set records for the javelin throw (143 ft 4 in) and the 80-m hurdle (11.7 sec). She then played professional basketball, appeared in vaudeville, and learned to play golf. Between 1936 and 1954 she won every major women's golf championship, including the U.S. amateur championship (1946), and the world championship (1948, 1949, 1950, 1951) and U.S. Women's Open (1948, 1950, and 1954), both professional tournaments. Her autobiography, This Life I've Led, was published in 1955.

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.aspx?refid=761576942

1961,
Greg LeMond, cyclist

1965,
Bernard Berenson, art critic

1483, In a royal drama later told by Shakespeare, Richard, Duke of Gloucester, takes the crown of England as Richard III, following the death of King Edward IV and the imprisonment of the young Edward V.

1858, China and Britain sign the Treaty of Tianjin, bringing a temporary end to the Second Opium War.

1870, In Atlantic City, New Jersey, the world's first oceanside boardwalk was opened to the public.

1894, Railroad workers led by Eugene V. Debs begin a national strike in sympathy with employees at the Pullman railcar company. Later, troops sent by President Grover Cleveland put a violent end to the strike.

1900, a commission that included Dr. Walter Reed began the fight against yellow fever.

1917, the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force arrived in France during World War I.

1925, The Gold Rush, Charlie Chaplin's epic comedy set in Alaska, opens. A critical and popular success, it is immediately acclaimed as a landmark in film history premiered at Grauman's Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.

1945, the charter of the United Nations was signed by 50 countries in San Francisco.

1959, Queen and Eisenhower open seaway
The Queen and US President Dwight D Eisenhower have inaugurated the St Lawrence Seaway in Canada that links the Atlantic with the Great Lakes in North America.

Crowds cheered and waved flags, church bells rang out, sirens wailed and bands played as the Royal Yacht Britannia began the first leg of the 2,300-mile journey from Montreal harbour to the Atlantic Ocean.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/newsid_2988000/2988148.stm

BEFORE Ronald Reagan asked the Berlin Wall be taken down; John Kennedy embraced the German People.

1963, Kennedy: 'Ich bin ein Berliner'
The US President, John F Kennedy, has made a ground-breaking speech in Berlin offering American solidarity to the citizens of West Germany.
A crowd of 120,000 Berliners gathered in front of the Schöneberg Rathaus (City Hall) to hear President Kennedy speak.
They began gathering in the square long before he was due to arrive, and when he finally appeared on the podium they gave him an ovation of several minutes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/newsid_3379000/3379061.stm

1968, Chief U.S. Justice Earl Warren announced his intention to resign.

1970, Violence flares as Devlin is arrested
Riots have broken out in Londonderry after it was revealed Bernadette Devlin had been arrested.
The Mid-Ulster MP was to address a meeting in Bogside before handing herself in to police after she lost an appeal against her December conviction.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/newsid_2519000/2519711.stm

1977, 42 people were killed when a fire sent toxic smoke pouring through the Maury County Jail in Columbia, Tenn.

1986, Branson on course for Blue Riband
Entrepreneur Richard Branson has set off on his second attempt to claim the transatlantic crossing record for Britain.
Mr Branson and his team left New York at dawn on their 72 ft powerboat Virgin Challenger II for the 3,000 mile (4,828 km) voyage.
If they reach Bishop's Rock, off the Isles of Scilly, by 2100 BST on 29 June they will recapture the Blue Riband for the UK - held by liner SS United States since 1952 for a crossing in three days and 10 hours.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/newsid_2519000/2519869.stm

Three Days Later

1986: Branson beats Atlantic speed record
Millionaire Richard Branson has smashed the world record for the fastest crossing of the Atlantic.
His 72-ft powerboat, the Virgin Atlantic Challenger, reached the Bishop Rock off the Isles of Scilly just after 1930BST.
Mr Branson completed the voyage more than two hours faster than the previous record-holder, the SS United States, which has held the title since 1952.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/29/newsid_2520000/2520929.stm

2000: IRA weapons dump inspected
International inspectors say they have seen a large number of IRA weapons "safely and adequately stored" in bunkers.
After the first inspection of its kind, former president of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari, and former ANC general secretary, Cyril Ramaphosa, said they were satisfied the guns and explosives could not be used.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/june/26/newsid_2519000/2519757.stm

2003, Strom Thurmond, the longest-serving senator in U.S. history, died in Edgefield, S.C., at age 100.

Missing in Action

1968
CORNELIUS JOHNNIE C. WILLIAMS AFB AZ
1968
WOODS ROBERT FRANCIS SALT LAKE CITY UT

Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

The Problem With Karl Rove's Phone

The Problem With Karl Rove's Phone
Yesterday I tried to call Karl Rove at the White House. You will not be surprised to learn that they were insulting and snippy to me and I could not get through to his office. The comment line was as close as I got and they were clueless as to why the switchboard would not transfer me to the public servant known as Mr. Rove.
If I had reached him I would have asked him as he blathered about how anxious and proud the conservatives were who jumped at the chance to have a war -- where are they now on the streets of Baghdad? My son was a very liberal Democrat, when he signed up for the National Guard no one asked, when he was deployed no one asked his opinion or his politics, and after he lost his life protecting the people looking for those weapons of mass destruction no conservative hawk came forth to take his place. Nor have they lined up at recruiters offices to answer the needs of our exhausted Army.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3122


Sign An Open Letter to George


An Open Letter to President Bush
Mr. President, your most senior advisor has purposely twisted the truth about a great moment of American unity for political gain. You cannot remain silent. Fire Karl Rove.

Dear President Bush,
In the days following the 9/11 attacks, you movingly spoke of the unity of purpose emanating all across America. Now, Karl Rove, your top political aide, wants us to believe that you weren't telling the truth -- that Americans were offering "therapy and understanding to the attackers." You cannot remain silent as your most senior advisor purposely twists the truth about a great moment of American unity for political gain.
It isn't the first time Karl Rove has crossed the line. It needs to be the last. I call on you to thoroughly reject his cheap, divisive efforts to challenge the patriotism of your political opponents. It's time to fire Karl Rove.
Sincerely,
Your name here

http://www.johnkerry.com/petition/rove.php


Big Apple May Take Bite Out of Bush Administartion


City Council To Weigh Bill Asking For Karl Rove's Resignation
NY1
The City Council is weighing in on the controversial comments made by President George W. Bush's top adviser about the 9/11 attacks.
Democratic Speaker Gifford Miller says the Council will introduce a resolution next week that calls on the president to fire White House Senior Adviser Karl Rove.
The resolution reads: "Rove's rhetoric and cynical strategy of dividing Americans against each other for partisan gain has no place in our nation's public discourse."
The president’s top advisor claimed during a conservative party fundraiser Wednesday that liberals did not understand the consequences of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3123


Iraqi Student Unions Also Call for Withdrawal of Occupation Troops
By Abdel-Wahed Tohmeh /
Occupation Watch
Baghdad -- 11 Student Unions approved the call made on al-Jaafari's Government to put a timetable for the withdrawal of multinational forces and considered that the request made [by the Government at the UN] for the extension of their presence is "an infringement on Parliament's prerogatives."
The 11 Unions issued yesterday a statement, of which Al-Hayat got a copy, supporting the members of the Independent National Bloc and other MPs [see the article by the same author dated June 20] and calling on "al-Jaafari's Government, the United Nations and its Security Council to adopt these demands." The statement also said: "We have taken part in the election and voted, risking our lives going to the polling stations, only for one essential issue that the electoral slates adopted and put in their political programs, and that is the demand for the withdrawal of occupation troops from Iraq."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3131

Thirteen With the C.I.A. Sought by Italy in a Kidnapping
By Stephen Grey and Don Van Natta /
New York TImes
MILAN, June 24 - An Italian judge has ordered the arrest of 13 officers and operatives of the Central Intelligence Agency on charges that they seized an Egyptian cleric on a Milan street two years ago and flew him to Egypt for questioning, Italian prosecutors and investigators said Friday.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3130

Required Report on Trip by House Ethics Chairman Is Missing
By Mike Allen /
Washington Post
The chairman of the House ethics committee apparently did not properly file a required report about a $3,170 trip to Canada last year. His staff said it must have been lost in the mail.
Perhaps the report, due nine months ago, will turn up. But this is a potentially embarrassing juncture for the chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), to suffer a paperwork blunder.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3129

Safer Vehicles for Soldiers: A Tale of Delays and Glitches
By Michael Moss /
New York Times
When Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Iraq last year to tour the Abu Ghraib prison camp, military officials did not rely on a government-issued Humvee to transport him safely on the ground. Instead, they turned to Halliburton, the oil services contractor, which lent the Pentagon a rolling fortress of steel called the Rhino Runner.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3126

49% Say Bush Responsible for Provoking Iraq War, 44% Say Hussein
Rasmussen Reports
June 23, 2005--Forty-nine percent (49%) of Americans say that President Bush is more responsible for starting the War with Iraq than Saddam Hussein. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 44% take the opposite view and believe Hussein shoulders most of the responsibility.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=3124

Seattle Post Intelligencer

Report: U.S. secretly met with insurgents
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON -- U.S. officials held secret talks in Iraq with the commanders of several Iraqi insurgent groups recently in an attempt to open a dialogue with them, a British newspaper reported Sunday.
The commanders "apparently came face to face" with four American officials during meetings on June 3 and June 13 at a summer villa near Balad, about 25 miles north of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, according to The Sunday Times.
The Sunday Times said neither the Iraqi government nor U.S. officials in Baghdad would confirm its report about the talks.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Britain%20Iraq

Gay pride parade is brought to you by ...
Microsoft, Starbucks, Wamu among local corporate supporters
By
BRAD WONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
If Microsoft Corp. was skittish about supporting gay rights legislation in Olympia, it doesn't seem to have reservations about being a sponsor in tomorrow's gay pride parade in Seattle.
More than 100 Microsoft employees, including members of the Gay and Lesbian Employees at Microsoft, are expected to march in the parade. The Redmond software company also will have a booth in Volunteer Park as part of the festivities.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/230034_gaypridebusiness25.html

Four children among six dead in Ariz. home
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
YUMA, Ariz. -- Police were searching for a man seen running from a home where six people, including four children, were killed in western Arizona.
Officers responding to a call late Friday found a man with a gunshot wound in the back yard, said Officer Clint Norred, a spokesman for the Yuma Police Department. The man later died at the hospital.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Arizona%20Slayings

Car bomb explodes near Madrid stadium
By MAR ROMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Policemen investigate two burnt out cars at the scene where a car bomb exploded in Madrid, Saturday, June 25, 2005. The bomb went off at a parking lot outside the Peineta complex, which is one of the sites that is part of the city's bid to host the 2012 Olympics. The blast came after a warning call made in name of the Armed Basque separatist group ETA to the Basque daily newspaper Gara. (AP Photo/Jasper Juinen)
MADRID, Spain -- A car bomb exploded Saturday near a Madrid stadium used to promote the city's bid to host the 2012 Olympics after a warning call by the Basque separatist group ETA, officials said. No injuries were reported.
The bomb went off about 7 p.m. at a parking lot outside the Peineta track and field complex, the Interior Ministry said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Spain%20Explosion

Organic farmers concerned about new rules
By FREDERIC J. FROMMER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Some farmers are worried that a federal court ruling requiring that the Agriculture Department must come up with stricter standards for organic food will slow the fast-growing industry.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Organic%20Farming

Fire crews battles blazes across Southwest
By JENNIFER DOBNER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Firefighters, from left, Chris Ford, Capt. Chris Woods, Capt. Steve Molacek, and Squad Commander Brad Knowles of the Los Padres Hot Shots from Santa Barbara, Calif., watch day turn to night as a section of the Cave Creek Complex Fire burns Thursday, June 23, 2005, near Carefree, Ariz. As of Thursday night, the fire had consumed more than 30,000 acres, resulting in the evacuation of hundreds of homes. (AP Photo/Matt York)
ST. GEORGE, Utah -- Fire crews continued trying to extinguish a string of blazes that covered southwestern Utah in a black fog and threatened hundreds of homes amid high winds and hot, dry conditions.
Flames up to 10 feet high were visible Saturday from Interstate 15 just north of St. George before the fire eventually jumped the road and forced its closure.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Western%20Wildfires

U.N. to boost troop levels in Ivory Coast
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
This photo provided by the United Nations shows Laurent Gbagbo, President of Ivory Coast, left, shaking hands with United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan after a meeting of the United Nations Security Council in New York, Friday June 24, 2005. The U.N. Security Council voted Friday to send more peacekeepers and police to Ivory Coast in a bid to get the country's peace process back on track. (AP Photo/United Nations, Evan Schneider)
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. Security Council voted Friday to send more peacekeepers to Ivory Coast in an attempt to get the West African country's peace process back on track, while the country's president said the rebels should make the first move toward peace.
The resolution, adopted by a vote of 15-0, authorizes 850 more troops and 375 police. France had wanted more troops to complement the 6,200-strong mission but faced opposition, including from the United States on the swelling costs of peacekeeping.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apafrica_story.asp?category=1105&slug=UN%20Ivory%20Coast

Mystery shrouds disappearance in Aruba
By PETER PRENGAMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

Volunteer member of Texas EquuSearch, Mark Janson, right, of Houston, TX, prepares diving and sonar equipment as a tourist looks on in Palm Beach, Aruba, Saturday, June 25, 2005. EquuSearch members began search efforts this Dutch Caribbean island for missing Alabama teen Natalee Holloway. (AP Photo/Leslie Mazoch)
ORANJESTAD, Aruba -- As the mystery of a missing Alabama honors student drags on, questions abound about Aruban authorities' handling of the Dutch Caribbean island's highest-profile case in decades.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/aplatin_story.asp?category=1102&slug=Aruba%20The%20Question

Haaretz

Settlers, troops clash as IDF razes vacant Katif buildings
By Haaretz Service and agencies
Settlers and far-right activists clashed with IDF troops Sunday as army bulldozers prepared to demolish abandoned beachfront cottages in Gush Katif, which authorities feared would be turned into barricaded strongholds by anti-pullout activists.
A group opposed to the Gaza pullout had begun in recent weeks to refurbish the buildings, which were used as vacation villas by Egyptians before Israel captured Gaza in 1967.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/592312.html

Israel bows to U.S. pressure, will curb defense exports
By
Ze'ev Schiff
Israel has decided to comply with all of Washington's demands in a bid to end the crisis with the United States over arms exports.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz last week agreed to comply with the Americans' demands regarding the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) deal with China and changes in the supervision of Israel's arms exports.
On Friday Sharon instructed an Israeli delegation leaving today for Washington to agree to American demands. The delegation is expected to draft a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on weapons exports with the United States.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/592246.html

Cabinet okays Nitzanim plan for Gaza settlers
By
Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service
The Cabinet on Sunday approved an agreement with the Gush Katif settlers on the details of their relocation to the Nitzanim area after the disengagement. The ministers also voted down two ministers' objection to the agreement.
Fourteen ministers voted in favor of the agreement, Interior Minister Ophir Pines-Paz and Environment Minister Shalom Simhon, both of Labor, voted against, while Labor Vice Premier Shimon Peres abstained.
Under the agreement, Nitzanim will become an independent local council if more than 5,000 settlers move there. Furthermore, the agreement set a price for the lands the settlers will receive in Nitzanim, which will be deducted from the amount of compensation they are due.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/592371.html

20-year-old woman reports being raped at Tel Aviv club
By
Roni Singer, Haaretz Correspondent
A 20-year-old woman filed a complaint over the weekend stating she was raped by an unknown person in the restroom of the "Oman 17" nightclub in Tel Aviv. The police have opened an investigation but have not yet arrested any suspects.
The woman called the police early Saturday morning, reporting that she had been raped a short time prior in the restroom of the southern Tel Aviv club. An investigation team met the woman at the club and sent her for medical tests at a hospital after taking her testimony.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/592069.html

Panel vetoes Sharansky bid for J. Agency head; Bielski elected
By
Charlotte Halle, Haaretz Correspondent
Ra'anana Mayor Zeev Bielski was unanimously voted to be chairman of the Jewish Agency on Friday after former minister Natan Sharansky's candidacy was vetoed by the agency's most senior panel.
"I am very happy. It was a long month of ups and downs. I feel a great responsibility from next week when I start working for the Jewish people," Bielski told Haaretz.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/591987.html

Anglicans urge action on companies' ties with Israel
By The Associated Press
NOTTINGHAM, England - A council of the worldwide Anglican Communion urged its member churches to put pressure on companies linked to Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories, including possibly divesting their money from such businesses.
The Anglican Consultative Council voted unanimously Friday for a resolution that suggested the 38 national churches examine their investments to make sure companies in which they have holdings do not support either the occupation or Palestinian violence against innocent Israelis.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/592250.html

The Boston Globe

Colleges question MCAS success
Many in state schools still need remedial help
By Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff June 26, 2005
Massachusetts instituted the MCAS exam to guarantee that high school graduates would have basic skills needed for the future. But a Globe review shows that the test appears to have had little effect on the skill level of a significant group, those who enter the state's public colleges.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/mcas/articles/2005/06/26/colleges_question_mcas_success/

More US Muslims aspiring to become lawyers
By Nahal Toosi, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel June 26, 2005
MILWAUKEE -- Aisha Zaidi already had accomplished plenty: a master's in business administration, an analyst's position at Bank One, and motherhood, too. Still, the 32-year-old hadn't fulfilled her dream of becoming a lawyer.
Then came Sept. 11, 2001. In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks, Muslims in America faced heightened scrutiny. Federal agencies began questioning and detaining Muslims. Some were deported. Many had a hard time boarding a plane. Others were too nervous to leave the country for fear they wouldn't be allowed to return.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/06/26/more_us_muslims_aspiring_to_become_lawyers/

Follow the money
Forget Howard Dean's mouth. The real issue facing the Democrats is dollars.
(Illustration / Thomas Fuchs)
By Chris Suellentrop June 26, 2005
AS HOWARD DEAN stormed through Boston last week, the media focus was on the controversy stirred by his recent series of brash remarks. (To paraphrase, he has said that Republicans are a bunch of white Christians who don't make honest livings.) But the real problem facing Dean right now isn't his mouth. In the past several weeks, major Democratic donors have begun to grumble that the onetime presidential candidate turned party chairman isn't paying them enough attention and that the Democratic National Committee isn't raising enough money to compete with its Republican counterpart.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2005/06/26/follow_the_money/

Aspirin, angioplasty cut state heart attack deaths
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff June 26, 2005
Deaths from heart attacks in Massachusetts dropped by 24 percent in eight years, according to state data analyzed by The Boston Globe. That translates into 1,200 fewer lives lost annually -- even though studies show that the number of heart attacks has not declined.
Doctors credit this success story to technological breakthroughs that allow specialists to use tiny medical tools to unclog choked arteries, as well as more aggressive use of aspirin, the age-old panacea.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/06/26/aspirin_angioplasty_cut_state_heart_attack_deaths/

A sorrow their mother cannot bury
Woman to search for slain children
By Jenna Russell, Globe Staff June 26, 2005
HILLSBOROUGH, N.H. -- In her imagination, she knows the place as well as she knows her children's faces: the opening in tall grass; the shade trees bending to earth; the yellow building in the distance; and, closer by, the old abandoned water pump.
The place is almost real to Teri Knight, two years after her children, Sarah and Philip, disappeared. She believes that if she finds it, she will find the bodies of her son and daughter, buried there by her former husband, Manuel Gehring, who confessed to killing his children before killing himself in jail seven months later.
Determined to bring her lost children back home to New Hampshire, Knight will embark on a wrenching journey next month, when she plans to drive the route Gehring followed through the heartland in July 2003 and search for the rural grave site he later described to police.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/06/26/a_sorrow_their_mother_cannot_bury/

In danger's way
Trapped in cycles of poverty, children toil in Bolivia's mines
By Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Globe Staff June 26, 2005
POTOSI, Bolivia -- The day Lucas Garito's father died, his childhood ended. The family needed an income to survive, so 7-year-old Lucas and his brother Marco, then 11, went to work the next week on the storied mountain that had taken their father's life and those of countless other miners over the last five centuries.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/06/26/in_dangers_way/

Blair's son to intern with U.S. Republicans
June 26, 2005
LONDON (Reuters) - British Prime Minister Tony Blair's eldest son Euan will work as an intern with Republican staff in the U.S. House of Representatives, the prime minister's office said on Sunday.
Euan, 21, will spend three months working with a committee which determines how U.S. legislation is considered in the lower chamber of Congress.
"Euan Blair has been given the opportunity to take up a short, unpaid internship with the Rules Committee of the House of Representatives," said a spokesman at the prime minister's Downing Street office.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/06/26/blairs_son_to_intern_with_us_republicans/

Taiwanese buy up sale-priced U.S. beef
A butcher works on pieces of European beef in his store Sunday, June 26, 2005, in Taipei, Taiwan. On Saturday Taiwan's Premier Frank Hsieh ordered an immediate ban on all U.S. beef imports after tests confirmed that an American animal was infected with mad cow disease. The Taiwanese action came two months after the island removed an earlier ban imposed in February 2004 following the discovery of the disease in a Washington state heifer. (AP Photo/Jerome Favre)
June 26, 2005
TAIPEI, Taiwan --After the U.S. confirmed its second mad cow case, Taiwan's authorities swiftly banned beef imports. But consumers didn't seem as worried: Scores flocked to supermarkets, wholesale outlets and butcher shops Sunday, stocking up on sale-priced cuts before they disappear.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/06/26/taiwanese_buy_up_sale_priced_us_beef/

Syrian human rights activist acquitted
June 26, 2005
DAMASCUS, Syria --A Syrian court on Sunday acquitted a leading human rights activist of various accusations of anti-government activity, dropping all charges against him.
The State Security Court said Aktham Naisse, chairman of the Committees for the Defense of Democratic Liberties and Human Rights in Syria, was exonerated of all charges.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/06/26/syrian_human_rights_activist_acquitted/

continued . . .