The Arizona Republic
Terrorist attack seen as less likely in America
Several factors cut odds, analysts say
Philip Dine
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - On the heels of the second terrorist strike in two weeks on the London mass transit system and a series of bomb attacks in Egypt, terrorism experts had some words of comfort for jittery Americans: It's less likely to happen here.
"I wouldn't say it's inevitable in the United States," said Juliette Kayyem, co-director of Harvard University's project on U.S. legal strategy vs. terrorism and an expert on counterterrorism and homeland security.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0724terror24.html
Crisis of care
Arizona faces physician shortage that's far worse than in most states and isn't easily cured
Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
When Barbara Straining learned it would be more than a month to see a doctor for another bout of bronchitis, she called her physician "back home" in New Jersey to ask him to phone in two prescriptions to a Valley pharmacy.
The quick-fix strategy worked, and the 54-year-old Straining quickly recovered.
http://www.azcentral.com/health/news/articles/0724drshortage-main24USE.html
Brutal Valley heat wave claims 18 lives in 5 days
Hot days, nights send fatality rate climbing; all but 3 are homeless
Judi Villa
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 21, 2005 12:00 AM
The stifling heat has claimed more Valley lives in the past five days than it did statewide in all of July last year.
By Wednesday, 17 people in Phoenix and one in Tempe had died of the blistering heat. Most were transients.
Officials blame a longer stretch of above-average temperatures, a lack of humidity that has left the air unusually dry and even the Valley's poor air quality for the recent series of deaths. Nighttime temperatures have dipped only to the low 90s, and the monsoon rains are two weeks late.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0721heatdeaths21.html
Many heat deaths may go uncounted
Other causes often listed on certificates
Judy Nichols
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
The double-digit death toll attributed to heat in the Valley this month is probably only a small portion of the true figure, according to experts.
The actual number is probably much higher, a number not captured in statistics because heat is either not listed on the death certificate or listed only as a contributing factor.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0724homeless24.html
Border between life and death is too easily crossed
Jul. 21, 2005 12:00 AM
When she was reunited with her abducted children in Mexico, Isabel Acosta was quoted as saying, "I am so proud of my country. What the authorities of the United States couldn't do, they succeeded in doing here. This is my Mexico."
I wonder if she'll feel the same way two or three decades from now, when the man accused of stealing her children and killing her mother, father and brother walks out of prison. Assuming he even gets that much time.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0721montini21.html
2 Ariz. cases show 'tangled mess' U.S. immigration law has become
Dennis Wagner and Susan Carroll
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 21, 2005 12:00 AM
A pair of controversies involving Arizona children have focused a spotlight on the vagaries of U.S. law when it comes to undocumented immigrants.
In one case, a Mexican woman will be allowed to remain in the United States after her children were kidnapped and other members of her family were murdered. Isabel Acosta of Queen Creek, who authorities say is undocumented, is expected to be a crucial witness in the prosecution of her ex-boyfriend, Rodrigo Cervantes Zavala.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0721immigration21.html
Banks help undocumented migrants buy homes
Companies tap into new market
Yvette Armendariz
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
Undocumented immigrants now have a legal way of getting a home mortgage to buy into the American dream.
All they need is an individual taxpayer identification number issued by the Internal Revenue Service, a steady income for at least two years and a good credit rating.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0724immigrantloans24.html
Counterfeit IDs easy to get, hard to spot
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
Regarding the letter to the editor "Place border blame where it belongs," (Letters, Thursday): I wonder if the letter writer noticed in Thursday's paper the article about federal authorities busting up a counterfeit immigration-and-identification document ring ("Federal agents disrupt huge phony ID operation"). It said that "the fake Social Security cards, driver's licenses and other documents . . . were so sophisticated that only a crime lab could distinguish them from the real thing."
Most employers I know of ask for the required documentation. It's just that you can't tell if it is real or not. We need a type of identification that is not so easily counterfeited. - P. Wilbur, Yuma
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0724sunlets241.html
Barriers to extradition loom
Legal codes of Ariz., Mexico conflict in suspect exchange
Michael Kiefer
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
If Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas hopes to persuade Mexican authorities to turn over a Mexican national suspected of killing three people near Queen Creek on July 11, he's going to have to forget about seeking the death penalty.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0724extradite24.html
Valley residents rally behind Wilson Four
Immigration judge to decide the ex-classmates' fate today
Mel Meléndez
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 21, 2005 12:00 AM
The chants of "Save the Wilson Four!" and "Student rights are human rights!" said it all Wednesday as about 200 Valley residents protested plans to deport four undocumented former classmates from Phoenix.
The diverse group, which included activists, seniors, students and toddlers in strollers, weathered the sweltering heat to attend a rally outside the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office at 2035 N. Central Ave. in Phoenix. It was held to draw attention to the plight of Oscar Corona, Jaime Damian, Yuliana Huicochea and Luis Nava.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0721wilsonrally21.html
Rains help cool off 2 wildfires
Blaze-closed roads to Payson reopened
Emily Bittner and Katie Nelson
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
Friday and Saturday night rainstorms have calmed two wildfires that had forced the closure of three major highways leading to Payson and other popular high-country places.
The state Department of Public Safety reported Saturday that the roads were open with traffic flowing normally near the fires.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0724wildfires24.html
Political question for the new age: Do you tattoo?
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
Before we get to the part where I'm asked if Gov. Janet Napolitano has a tattoo, we need to put the current craze for getting "inked" into perspective.
There will come a time, 30 or 40 years from now, when young women will point to their mothers or grandmothers and laughingly refer to a certain type of body decoration as an "old lady tattoo."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/columns/articles/0724montini24.html
A trust in the future
New initiative for managing state lands is dynamite mix for conservation and education
Jul. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
Saving outstanding stretches of Arizona's amazing landscape. Putting extra dollars into schools. Enhancing local plans for development.
What a dynamite combination.
And they're wrapped together in a ballot initiative, Conserving Arizona's Future. The measure was filed with the secretary of state last week and would update the state Constitution's rules for managing state trust land.
… • Conservation. Favorite hiking places like Picacho Peak, down Interstate 10, and Burro Creek, northwest of Wickenburg, would be protected from encroaching development. Grasslands, crucial for filtering water to aquifers, would remain home to elk and pronghorn antelope.
Major landmarks, such as the Superstition Mountains, would get natural buffers. The research plots at Tumamoc Hill in Tucson, some of the longest continuously studied sites in the nation, and other university experimental sites would continue to operate.
In all, 694,000 acres would be set aside either immediately or through purchase. This is an area the size of Rhode Island. And it would still leave about 8.5 million acres to sell and lease.
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0724sun1-24.html>
The Pakistan "Daily Times"
Moderate quake jolts Peshawar
PESHAWAR: A moderate earthquake jolted the city on Saturday night, but there was no word on any damage or casualties, an official said.
The magnitude 5.5 quake was centered 300 kilometres north of Peshawar, said Nasir Mahmood, an official at the seismological center. He gave no other details. Moderate earthquakes are often felt in Pakistan and many are often centered in the Hindu Kush mountains in neighbouring Afghanistan. ap
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_40
Scientists call for nuclear abolition
TOKYO: Scientists and academics from 40 countries Saturday called for the abolition of nuclear weapons to mark the 60th anniversary of the atomic bombing of the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
The appeal was made in Hiroshima at the annual convention of the Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs, an organisation dedicated to reducing and eliminating the threat posed by nuclear weapons and war.
Opportunities for lasting peace after the end of the Cold War and the break-up of the Berlin Wall were frittered away, Pugwash council president MS Swaminathan said as he opened the meeting that lasts until Wednesday.
“The prospect for nuclear terrorism and adventurism have become real. The voice of sanity of the survival of the 1945 nuclear annihilations in Hiroshima and Nagasaki is yet to be heard,” the Indian biologist said. afp
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_6
Nobody can speculate on safety of Pakistan’s nuclear assets
* Musharraf says Pakistan not oblivious to regional developments
RAWALPINDI: President General Pervez Musharraf on Saturday said that no one had a right to speculate on the safety of Pakistan’s well-guarded nuclear assets.
Musharraf’s comments at a meeting of the National Command Authority, a body that controls Pakistan’s nuclear programme, came days after Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concern about the security of Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg1_4
United States wants India to be a ‘positive force’ on world scene
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: A fact-sheet issued by the US government on Friday stresses the point that the US has established a “global partnership with India which encourages India’s emergence as a positive force on the world scene.”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_13
US building India as counterpoise to China
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: From the moment they took office, President George Bush and his administration were keen to do everything they could to counter the expanding Chinese military, one way being to develop a relationship with India, according to a veteran observer and commentator of South Asian affairs.
Steven R Weisman, the chief diplomatic correspondent of the New York Times, who was the newspaper’s bureau chief in New Delhi during the 1980s made this and several other observations in an interview with Bernard Gwertzman of the Council on Foreign Relations.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_30
R E G I O N: Don’t demand an end to nuclear work, Iran tells European Union
TEHRAN: Iran said on Saturday it had delivered a message to European foreign ministers in London last week, telling them not to try to solve a nuclear dispute by asking Tehran to surrender atomic technology.
An EU troika of Britain, Germany and France has been negotiating with Tehran to try to defuse a crisis over Iran’s nuclear programme. The EU group has asked Iran to stop making nuclear fuel in return for economic incentives.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_12
India says Iran pipeline risky
* Pakistan can effectively deal with security issue: Jadoon
NEW DELHI: India’s oil minister said on Saturday that a proposed gas pipeline from Iran across Pakistan was a risky venture that would be difficult to finance, but talks on the project should continue.
“The pipeline proposal is, as the Indian prime minister stated, fraught with terrible risks,” Mani Shankar Aiyar told a news conference. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed concerns about the project during his visit to the US this week, when President George Bush recognised India as a responsible nuclear state and promised cooperation with its civilian atomic power programme.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_1
EDITORIAL: Scuttling the pipeline project would be disastrous
The India-United States agreement on nuclear energy cooperation has various dimensions that will play out in the near future. But one factor seems to have immediately surfaced to the chagrin of not just Pakistan, but also discerning analysts in India. Following the agreement, India’s prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, has cast doubts over the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline. Acknowledging that India desperately needs new sources of energy for its rising demand, Dr Singh, however, noted that in relation to the proposed pipeline, “I am realistic enough to realise that there are many risks, because considering all the uncertainties of the situation there in Iran, I don’t know if any international consortium of bankers would underwrite this.”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg3_1
Provinces may get 6pc increase in gas royalty
By Sajid Chaudhry
ISLAMABAD: All the four federating units-- Punjab, Sind, NWFP and Balochistan-- are expected to get 6 percent increase in the share of their gas royalty in the current fiscal 2005-06, an official at Ministry of Finance told Daily Times on Saturday.
The increase in provincial shares in gas royalty is based on expected increase in gas production and improved collection of excise duty from its sale by the gas producing companies in the current fiscal.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg5_1
Dates for talks with APHC soon: India
SRINAGAR: New Delhi will soon set dates for fresh talks with moderate separatists in held Kashmir, said Indian Junior Home Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal on Saturday.
“We’ll soon fix dates for talks with the Hurriyat Conference,” Jaiswal said, referring to the mainly separatist alliance, the All Parties Hurriyat Conference, which is split between moderates and hardliners. “The government is ready to hold talks. Our doors are open for anybody and everybody who wants peace and normalcy to return to Kashmir,” Jaiswal told a news conference in Srinagar.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_2
North Korea would welcome visit by Bush, Rice
TOKYO: North Korea has told the United States it would welcome a visit by US President George W Bush or Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to help normalise ties, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said on Saturday.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_5
Four militants, 3 soldiers killed in Kashmir
SRINAGAR: Fighting between Indian security forces and suspected militants left seven dead in held Kashmir on Saturday, as soldiers raided a village and continued a gunbattle with infiltrators from Pakistan, officials said.
The pre-dawn raid by soldiers on the village of Ajar triggered a gunbattle in which one suspected insurgent and three soldiers were killed, a local police officer said on condition of anonymity. Ajar is about 75 kilometres north of Srinagar. On the border, three suspected intruders from Pakistan were killed on the 11th day of a running gunbattle with Indian forces.
Fifteen of about 35 militants who sneaked into Indian territory through a remote, snowbound mountain pass in the region known as Kabuli Gali on July 13, have been killed, said army spokesman Lt Col VK Batra. Nearly a dozen militants groups have been fighting since 1989 for Kashmir’s independence from India or its merger with Pakistan. ap
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_3
Muslim headman among three killed in Thailand
BANGKOK: A Muslim village headman was among three people killed and another man was critically injured in the latest attacks in violence-plagued southern Thailand, police said Saturday.
Two people were reported killed on Saturday, including village defence volunteer Anont Boonmatakrut, 51, who was shot dead by unknown gunmen in Waeng district of Narathiwat province as he travelled with his wife by motorcycle. Prasert In-me, 36, an employee of the Pattani province irrigation department, was gunned down early Saturday in Sai Buri district while on his way to work, police there said. Village headman Yusoh Meesa, 41, was shot and killed by motorcycle gunmen Friday evening in Pattani’s Thung Yang Daeng district. afp
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_35
3 cops kidnapped from Sui
QUETTA: Four people, including three policemen, were reportedly kidnapped on Saturday in the Pikoh area located between Sui and Naseerababd.
A sub inspector and two constables were kidnapped along with their friend while they were on a private visit to the area. This is second kidnapping in the area this month. Four policemen were kidnapped from the Chattar area in the second week of July. However, Naseerabad District Police Officer Mahmood Dogar said that he did not know if the policemen were kidnapped. azizullah khan
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_6>
3 govt officials killed in Kandahar
KANDAHAR: Suspected Taliban insurgents on Saturday shot dead a judge in violence-plagued southern Afghanistan, where a government official and a policeman were also killed in separate attacks. Two gunmen killed Qazi Namatullah, a district judge and cleric in Panjwayi district of Kandahar province, as he walked to a mosque for morning prayers in Kandahar city, said Panjwayi district governor Niaz Mohammed Sarhadi. “The Taliban were riding a motorbike, and they managed to escape the area,” he said. The same morning, Mohammed Shafi, the district administration chief of Shawalikot, was killed by a remote-controlled bomb blast at the gate of his family home, said district police chief Abdul Malik. “At this stage we don’t know who was behind the attack,” he said. “We are investigating the case.” In an attack early Friday, a highway policeman was killed on the road to the western city of Herat, just outside Kandahar in Zhari district, said Kandahar police chief Mohammed Hakim. Taliban spokesman Mullah Abdul Latif Hakimi – who has claimed the movement was responsible for the killings of four pro-government clerics in the past two months – was not available for comment on Namatullah’s death. Meanwhile, kidnappers released two election workers and a third hostage unharmed on Saturday in northeast Afghanistan, said an official with the country’s UN-backed electoral commission. agencies
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_8
PM to visit Kabul today
KABUL: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz will arrive in Kabul today (Sunday) amid growing Afghan irritation over Taliban infiltration across its southern border in the run up to the September 18 parliamentary polls.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_10
Pak delegation leaves for Afghanistan
ISLAMABAD: A delegation led by Advisor on Finance and Revenue Dr. Salman Shah left for Afghanistan on Saturday to attend the meeting of Pak-Afghan joint Business Commission.
Secretary Ministry of Ministry of Commerce Tasneem Noorani and Chairman Central Board of Revenue (CBR) Abdullah Yousuf are part of the delegation. Sources said that five certain items included in negative list would be underlined and tax irritants would be discussed during this visit. Pakistani trade volume to Afghanistan has increased during some last years after the fall of Taliban regime and both sides are trying to remove the irritants that are hampering the trade between two countries. online
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg5_6
UN unveils revised draft for reform
UNITED NATIONS: A revised draft for the most sweeping overhaul of the 60-year-old United Nations, including a proposed expansion of the Security Council, was released on Friday less than two months before it is to be submitted to a summit world leaders here.
“It is a work in progress,” Dutch UN ambassador Dirk Jan van den Berg, one of the diplomats tasked with shepherding the mammoth project through the UN machinery, told reporters. “It is an important step toward preparation of the summit.” The blueprint outlined 159 recommendations that expanded on UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s “In larger freedom” report presented in March on preparations for the September world summit.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg1_6
Schroeder says Germany can still win UNSC seat
BERLIN: Germany still has a chance of winning a seat on the UN Security Council and opposition to expanding the body is aimed at other countries, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in a newspaper interview on Saturday. “As for the UN Security Council, nothing is decided yet,” Schroeder told German daily Bild.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_3
88 die in Egyptian resort bombings
* Nine foreigners among victims
* About 200 wounded
* Mubarak vows to fight terror
* Qaeda claims responsibility
* 35 arrested
SHARM EL-SHEIKH: Suicide car bombers unleashed a trail of carnage in Egypt’s tourist-packed Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on Saturday, killing at least 88 people, including nine foreigners.The attacks on the popular Sinai water sports centre at the peak of the tourist season were the deadliest targeting foreigners in Egypt, topping the 62 people, most of them holidaymakers, killed in Luxor eight years ago, and drew swift condemnation from across the globe.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg1_1
Quarter of British Muslims sympathise with bombers’ motives
LONDON: Around a quarter of British Muslims have some sympathy with the motives of the London bombers, if not their methods, while a third believe Western society is “immoral”, a poll said on Saturday.
The survey in the Daily Telegraph asked the Muslim-only respondents whether they felt the July 7 blasts in which 56 peopled died, including the suicide bombers, were “justified”, to which six percent said they were. In contrast, 71 percent said they were not justified at all, with 11 percent saying they were “on balance” not justified.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_4
VIEW: Musharraf’s new campaign against extremism —Dr Hasan-Askari Rizvi
Some senior officials maintain that these institutions do not give military training while others argue that they do not preach militancy. The government circles need to be clear about the role of the seminaries before embarking on reforms
President General Pervez Musharraf’s address to the senior officers of the law enforcement agencies on July 15 signals the beginning of a new campaign against religious bigotry and extremism in Pakistan. He directed the administration to take action against the banned militant Islamic organisations and others who have invoked Islam to preach and practice hatred and violence or supported terrorist activities.
Three days later he addressed the youth convention in Islamabad, reiterating his determination to eliminate terrorism and extremism. He commented on this in his address to the nation on July 21. While announcing tough measures to curb terrorism, extremism and intolerance, Pervez Musharraf sought the people’s cooperation for this campaign.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg3_2
Body formed to scrutinise militants
* NWFP police chief says arrested activists might be tried under Anti-Terrorism Act
Staff Report
PESHAWAR: A committee was formed to scrutinise arrested people in connection with the crackdown against banned militant organisations and their involvement in sectarian and other forms of terrorism, NWFP Inspector General of Police Raffat Pasha said.
“The committee’s task is to ensure that no harm comes to innocent people, so it will look into each individual’s case to ascertain which form of terrorism he was involved in,” the police chief told Daily Times in an exclusive interview at his office on Saturday.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_23
GAZA IS NOT A GATEWAY TO AGGRESSION BY Palestine either with the area closed. I think all this needs to proceed as Israel requires until Gaza is again stable. There is too much risk to leave it open and I am confident there will be check points they can cross. Rice is wrong to ask this of Israel.
Rice urges Israel not to close Gaza
* Praises Palestinian efforts to ensure security ahead of pullout
RAMALLAH: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Saturday reported progress in efforts to coordinate the Israeli pullout from Gaza, as she urged Israel not to seal off the territory after its departure.
Just weeks before the historic pullout of Israeli troops and settlers is to begin on August 17, Rice flew to the region to ensure that next month’s pullout is carried out successfully and not marred by militant violence.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_1
That's okay. Israel is left in the dark to the PA's plans as well as Hamas and Hezbollah. Don’t just point a finger at Israel.
Palestinians left in dark on Israel’s Gaza plans, says Abbas
RAMALLAH: President Mahmoud Abbas said the Palestinians were ready to coordinate the Gaza pullout with Israel but were being left in the dark on crucial issues. “I will tell her, ‘Dr. Rice, we need answers from the Israelis. Is Gaza going to be turned into a large prison? The Israelis are not cooperating’,” Abbas told Reuters in an interview in the West Bank city of Ramallah where he meets Rice on Saturday.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_2
Lebanese calls for direct Hizbollah- US dialogue
BEIRUT: A Lebanese minister close to Hizbollah has urged the United States to take the group off its “terror list” and seek a way to start a dialogue with its leaders.
“I call on the US to change its stance towards Hizbollah and I support direct dialogue between the two sides to that effect,” Labour Minister Trad Hamadeh told Reuters in an interview on Friday night.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_11
Myanmar decision on ASEAN leadership overshadows meeting
VIENTIANE: Southeast Asian senior officials met here Saturday to prepare for their foreign ministers’ annual gathering next week at which Myanmar will announce if it will assume the ASEAN chair in mid-2006.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg4_14
Man ‘sacrifices’ donkey cart for LG poll
MULTAN: A poor person sold his donkey cart for Rs 5,000 to compete in the local bodies elections for the councillor seat. He submitted his candidature for labour councillor after depositing Rs 1,000 of the money as surety. Allah Bakhsh, 35, a cart driver told journalists that the government “should not fix fees for peasants, labourers and workers because they were already poor and unable to take part in the elections”. “Taking advantage of this situation, local influentials and office bearers put up servants and stooges for this seat,” he said. But this time he foiled their attempt, and filed the candidature from union council Binda Ishaq (Shehr Sultan) in Muzaffargarh district. staff report
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg1_5
PML for annulling ‘women-less’ polls
* Tariq to make formal request to CEC
* Tripartite pact bans women’s role in Battagram
By Shahzad Raza and Iqbal Khattak
ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: Tariq Azeem, information secretary of the Pakistan Muslim League (PML), on Saturday said that the PML would request the chief election commissioner (CEC) to annul local elections in those areas where women were not allowed to vote.
“It now lies with the Election Commission to protect the political rights of thousands of women. It is un-Islamic, unconstitutional and illegal to disallow women voters from casting votes in the upcoming local government elections,” said Azeem.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg1_3
Karamat denies Bush’s Pakistan visit report
By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: The Embassy of Pakistan has denied a report appearing in a Pakistani English language newspaper (not Daily Times) on Saturday that President George Bush will pay an official visit to Pakistan in January.
Ambassador Jehangir Karamat, when asked by Daily Times if the report was correct, replied, “We do not know anything about this.”
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg7_33
Japan tolerating yuan fallout, but could intervene
TOKYO: China’s surprise move this week to make the yuan more flexible could not have come at a better time for the Japanese authorities, who had been calling for such action but were also worried about fallout on the yen. Despite a 2 percent jump against the dollar after Beijing’s yuan announcement on Thursday, the yen is still within Tokyo’s comfort zone and remains pressured by widening US-Japan interest rate differentials and risks of political turmoil in Japan.
That, however, doesn’t mean Japan won’t end its 15-month hiatus from currency market intervention, should the yen’s rise gather pace and threaten Japan’s fragile economic recovery. “There is no change in our stance that we will take appropriate action if there are any movements that are not in line with economic fundamentals,” a senior Japanese Finance Ministry official told Reuters.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_24-7-2005_pg5_24
The Boston Globe
Mass. firms decry lack of workers
Labor shortage blamed on recession departures
By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff July 24, 2005
The state's labor market has only begun to recover from the recent recession, but already employers from the Berkshires to the Boston suburbs say it's getting hard, and in some industries almost impossible, to find workers.
http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/07/24/mass_firms_decry_lack_of_workers/
Maine's most wanted: junkyard polluter
Owner left mess that cost millions
By Beth Daley, Globe Staff July 24, 2005
MEDDYBEMPS, MAINE -- The crimes of Harry Smith Jr., a former selectman and one of Maine's most wanted fugitives, ooze in his hometown.
There was the radioactive neutron generator that officials discovered nestled in weeds on his land off Route 191. There was the tractor-trailer packed with chemicals so reactive its side spontaneously melted in the woods he owns. Last year, workers found half-century-old acids leaking from containers stuffed in Smith's mother's basement next to the federally protected Dennys River.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/07/24/maines_most_wanted_junkyard/
Egypt bomb toll rises to 88
Red Sea resort reeling; official cites possible tie to '04 blast in Sinai
By Anne Barnard and Dan Ephron, Globe Staff and Globe Correspondent July 24, 2005
SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt -- The death toll climbed sharply to 88 yesterday in the triple bombings that struck this Red Sea resort, and security forces explored possible links between the attacks and another on the Sinai Peninsula nine months ago.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/07/24/egypt_bomb_toll_rises_to_88/
British admit mistake in shooting
Slain man not linked to attacks, police say
By Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff July 24, 2005
LONDON -- British police acknowledged yesterday that the man plainclothes officers shot and killed in an Underground station Friday as commuters watched in horror was not in any way connected to the failed attacks on London's transportation system the day before.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/07/24/british_admit_mistake_in_shooting/
Feud threatens to dampen AFL-CIO's 50th birthday party
Long in decline, organized labor at a crossroads
By Ron Fournier, Associated Press July 24, 2005
CHICAGO -- Labor's toughest negotiators are turning their bruising tactics on each other, playing a high-stakes game of chicken inside the AFL-CIO at a perilous time for the long-fading union movement.
A politically charged feud over the future of organized labor heads to a climax this week when nearly 1,000 delegates gather to celebrate the 50th year of the AFL-CIO. Four of the federation's 56 affiliates, representing about one-third of its dues-paying union members, are poised to leave Chicago before the convention begins tomorrow and, eventually, bolt the AFL-CIO itself.
A divided House of Labor threatens the Democratic Party, which relies on the AFL-CIO's organizing powers on Election Day, and could affect the livelihoods of 13 million workers represented by the federation's affiliates. Whether the civil war jolts organized labor from its slumber or hastens its decline is a subject of intense debate.
''Divided we fall," said Gerald McEntee, president of a government workers' union who hopes to keep the AFL-CIO intact.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/07/24/feud_threatens_to_dampen_afl_cios_50th_birthday_party/
Frank pitches fund for N.E. rail projects
Proposal seeks to redirect money
By Alan Wirzbicki, Globe Correspondent July 24, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Funding for regional rail projects would get a boost under an idea floated by US Representative Barney Frank this week for New England lawmakers to pool the millions of dollars each receives annually for small projects in their districts into one large-scale regional transportation fund.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/07/24/frank_pitches_fund_for_ne_rail_projects/
16 years after quake, Bay Bridge project poised to begin
By Bobby Caina Calvan, Globe Correspondent July 24, 2005
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Sixteen years after a major earthquake collapsed a portion of the eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, construction of a sturdier replacement span is finally poised to begin after years of bickering about aesthetics and skyrocketing costs that drew comparisons to Boston's Big Dig.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/07/24/16_years_after_quake_bay_bridge_project_poised_to_begin/
6.0 earthquake strikes Tokyo area, injuring 27
By Associated Press July 24, 2005
TOKYO -- An earthquake with magnitude 6.0 shook the Tokyo area yesterday, injuring at least 27 people, rattling buildings across the sprawling capital, and causing a temporary suspension of flights and train service.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/07/24/60_earthquake_strikes_tokyo_area_injuring_27/
Gym floor wasn't level when this girl played
By Judy Van Handle, Globe Staff March 2, 2005
It would be difficult to find a sport that has been transformed as dramatically in recent years as girls' basketball. As high school tournaments get under way this week, this two-part series -- about school stars past and present -- illustrates just how much has changed.
LACONIA, N.H. -- Every day, Pat Corliss is surrounded by all manner of plants and flowers as she tends to her garden center in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire. It's easy to imagine the lush greenery serving as a metaphor for Corliss's long-ago basketball achievements. Once her reputation and future in the sport bloomed, bright and dazzling, but almost as quickly it withered away, as forgotten as a summer garden in January.
A little more than three decades ago, Corliss was known as Pat White, one of the most talented high school basketball players in New England, leading one school to a state championship and another to a league title. She became one of the earliest female 1,000-point scorers in New Hampshire, if not the first.
http://www.boston.com/sports/schools/basketball/articles/2005/03/02/gym_floor_wasnt_level_when_this_girl_played?mode=PF
The goose glut
July 24, 2005
THE CALL of migratory geese as they cross the sky in V-shaped formation is one of nature's most stirring sounds. But the thousands of Canada geese that befoul public playing fields, beaches, and golf courses throughout Greater Boston have taken on a verminous quality. Many don't bother to migrate and are so lazy that they have earned the name ''lawn carp." People should feel no hesitation about any humane method to limit their numbers.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/07/24/the_goose_glut/
The New Zealand Herald
Rain could make famine in Niger worse
A young boy tills a field in southern Niger after rains kindled hopes a devastating drought may be ending, but also brought warnings. Picture / Reuters
24.07.05 5.00pm
By Geoffrey Lean
Rain is finally falling on the parched land of Niger, but it may make the famine now threatening 2.5 million of its people even worse, top aid officials said yesterday.
Torrential rains, following 13 months of drought, are adding a savage new twist to what the UN calls the world's "number one forgotten and neglected emergency"
It has forced parents to feed poisonous leaves to their children to try to keep them alive.
Some 800,000 children under five now need emergency food supplies, but aid has been desperately slow in coming even though the crisis has been predicted since late last year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337342
London bomber 'linked to suicide attack on Tel Aviv'
A British forensics officer searches a property in south London after police shot dead a man at Stockwell Underground station. They later said the man, a Brazilian, was mistakenly killed. Picture / Reuters
24.07.05 1.00pm
By Severin Carrell and Paul Lashmar
One of the July 7 London suicide bombers had links to a British man who planned a suicide attack on Tel Aviv two years ago, raising fears that the network of Islamist hardliners is wider than first thought.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337339
No immunity plea received for Corby witnesses, Canberra says
24.07.05 1.00pm
CANBERRA - Schapelle Corby's Indonesian lawyer has not contacted federal authorities with a request for immunity for potential witnesses, the Australian government says.
Justice Minister Chris Ellison says the commonwealth director of public prosecutions (DPP) has received no approach from Hotman Paris Hutapea regarding immunity for witnesses who may back the beauty student's innocence claim.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337340
Mubarak defiant as death toll climbs to 88
24.07.05 8.30am
By Tom Perry
SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said the killing of 88 people in tourist resort bomb attacks would only serve to stiffen his resolve to combat militant attackers.
Bombs ripped through shopping and hotel areas in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh overnight in Egypt's worst attack since 1981.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337324
Shot man's tie to bombing suspects unclear
24.07.05
An Asian man shot dead by police as he tried to board a London Underground train turned out not to be one of the four men suspected of the attempted attacks in the capital.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337314
UN report slams Zimbabwe's razing of urban slums
23.07.05 1.00pm
UNITED NATIONS - A UN report has called Zimbabwe's bulldozing of urban slums a disastrous venture and blamed the government for the demolition campaign but avoided putting responsibility on President Robert Mugabe.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337272
Pakistan leader wants a crackdown
23.07.05
Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, who this week ordered sweeping raids against Islamic militants after the earlier London bombings, has urged Britain to crack down with equal zeal on home-grown extremists.
In a national address, the Pakistani leader vowed to jointly fight terror with Britain, saying the London bombers could not be called human.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337235
Beirut blast wounds 12 in busy street
23.07.05 10.30am
BEIRUT - A bomb exploded near a popular street in Beirut today, wounding 12 people, destroying cars and spraying shards of glass inside crowded restaurants hours after a brief visit by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The blast in a Christian neighbourhood of Beirut was the latest to hit Lebanon and came three days after a new government was formed, the first since Syrian forces withdrew in April.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337263
Small plane crashes at German parliament
Policemen try to extinguish flames from a small aircraft following a crash in front of the Reichstag in Berlin in this photograph taken by an amateur photographer. Picture / Reuters
23.07.05 11.00am
BERLIN - The pilot of an ultra-light aircraft was killed when it crashed onto the lawn in front of the Reichstag building that houses the German lower house of parliament in central Berlin today, police said.
Berlin Interior Minister Ehrhart Koerting told a news conference at the scene there was no indication the crash was in any way related to terrorism.
The plane appeared to have taken off from Brandenburg, the eastern state that surrounds the German capital, Koerting said, adding that the pilot's identity was still unknown.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337265
London and New York step up checks on travellers
Police officer James Cullen patrols New York's Times Square subway station following the London attacks. Picture / Reuters
22.07.05 4.00pm
British Transport police have been told to challenge more suspect passengers as security on London's Underground network was further increased after yesterday' bomb attacks.
And commuters on New York subways will be subjected to random searches of backpacks and packages, the city's police said.
However, the introduction of airport-style checks on travellers in London has been ruled out as impractical on a system that carries three million people a day.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337149
UN to tell Zimbabwe to halt demolitions
22.07.05 4.00pm
UNITED NATIONS - A crucial UN report accuses the Zimbabwean government of a disastrous policy in demolishing urban slums and calls on it to stop razing the shantytowns, according to those who have seen the document, to be released later today.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan promised Security Council members last week that the report would "pull no punches" and the final version will condemn the demolitions as a wrongful crackdown that has affected some 2 million people, the envoys said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10337142
concluding ...
