Jailed journalists
Subpoenas on journalists squelch dissent, obscure issues
Though inevitably the drought will end, subpoenas rarely come these days to the Star-News. In fact it’s been several years since one of our reporters was slapped with a subpoena, which is a judicial order that compels testimony in court or requires turning over unpublished material that can be used as evidence.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050723/COLUMNIST17/50723010/1004/Local
Journalist Jailed for a Year in Kabul Feels Abandoned by U.S. as He Seeks Ways to Survive
By CARLOTTA GALL
KABUL, Afghanistan, July 19 - On visitors day at Kabul's once-notorious Pul-i-Charkhi prison, there is one inmate who stands out from the Afghans, wearing blue shades and an American T-shirt. It is Edward Caraballo, 43, an independent filmmaker from the Bronx, who was one of the three Americans found guilty last year by a Kabul court of running a private jail and torturing hostages.
"I usually wear Afghan clothes," he said during the visit earlier this month, referring to the baggy shirt and pants that is the local dress. "But today is the Fourth of July, so I put on my T-shirt in honor of my country."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/international/asia/24caraballo.html?pagewanted=print
Iran court to decide on photographer's death 'next week'
July 26, 2005
TEHRAN -- Iran's hardline judiciary on Tuesday said that it would give a new verdict in the death in custody trial for an Iranian-Canadian photographer next week.
"The court will give its verdict in a week's time," spokesman Jamal Karimi Rad told reporters, the day after a new appeal hearing over Zahra Kazemi's killing two years ago.
Karimi Rad said that lawyers of the victim's family, among them Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi who has denounced the court's refusal to comply with their requests, have asked to present new evidence this week.
"The lawyers of the victim's family will have one month after the issuance of the verdict to appeal before the supreme court," Karimi Rad said.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050726-083159-6440r
Dutch film-maker's killer gets life
Staff and agencies
Tuesday July 26, 2005
Mohammed Bouyeri. Photograph: AP
A Dutch court today sentenced the self-confessed murderer of Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh to life imprisonment.
Mohammed Bouyeri, 27, mounted no defence at his two-day trial earlier this month for the murder of Van Gogh, whom he accused of insulting Islam, and told the court he would do it again if given the chance.
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1536314,00.html
Diaz photographer convicted
Staff and agencies
Tuesday July 26, 2005
'Devastated'... John Rutter, who faces six years in jail. Photograph: Nick Ut/AP
The photographer who took topless photos of a 19-year-old aspiring model named Cameron Diaz, then attempted to sell them back to her for $3.5m after she became a movie star, is facing up to six years in prison.
John Rutter, 42, was yesterday convicted of forgery, attempted grand theft and perjury for the scheme involving 11-year-old photos and is set to be sentenced on September 15.
http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1536264,00.html
American Journalist Is Shot to Death in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 3, 2005
Filed at 2:43 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- An American freelance journalist was found dead in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, the U.S. Embassy said Wednesday.
Police said Steven Vincent had been shot multiple times after he and his Iraqi translator were abducted at gunpoint hours earlier.
''I can confirm to you that officials in Basra have recovered the body of journalist Steven Vincent,'' said embassy spokesman Pete Mitchell. ''The U.S. Embassy is working with British military and local Iraqi officials in Basra to determine who is responsible for the death of this journalist. Our condolences go out to the family.''
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Iraq-Journalist-Killed.html?hp&ex=1123128000&en=7c75125cda9adf3b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Consider the Source
By Tom Shoop
tshoop@govexec.com
When a reporter goes to jail to protect a confidential source, it's painful for the journalist and the news organization involved, but usually good for journalism in general. Typically, such reporters are treated as heroes for having the courage to keep their word to brave sources out to expose wrongdoing, even when it means defying government prosecutors and judges.
That was not the case when New York Times reporter Judith Miller was imprisoned in July for defying a federal judge's order to testify before a grand jury about whether someone in the executive branch leaked to her the identity of covert CIA employee Valerie Plame. Outside of the media itself, no one seemed to care much about the situation. And that indifference is cause for concern about the evolving relationship between the federal government and the mainstream media.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0805/080105ol.htm
Newspaper criticized for firing columnist
Amid polls that show public distrust of the media at an all-time high, and after several recent high-profile journalism scandals, media outlets are getting increasingly tough on enforcing their internal ethics policies.
http://www.usatoday.com/life/columnist/criticscorner/2005-07-31-critics-corner_x.htm
CPJ demands release of detained DR Congo`s journalist
Dakar, Senegal,07/30 - The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) Friday issued a statement calling on authorities in DR Congo "to release journalist Jean Pierre Phambu Lutette immediately" after being arrested and held by police with charge.
Lutette, managing director of the small private newspaper La Tolérance, was arrested Thursday by judicial police, who have accused him of "discrediting" a state prosecutor in an article published in his newspaper.
Lutette has been jailed in a cell at the public prosecutor`s department in Kinshasa, and has yet to be formally charged, according to the Kinshasa-based press freedom organisation Journaliste en Danger (JED).
http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=361430
Kremlin moves to bar ABC from reporting in Russia
New York, August 2, 2005—The Kremlin escalated its campaign of intimidation against foreign news media covering the war in Chechnya as authorities began moving today to bar the U.S. television network ABC from reporting in Russia. The Committee to Protect Journalists denounced the decision and called for its reversal.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement that ABC reporters are barred from speaking with government officials and that their accreditations will not be renewed when they expire. Russian authorities went on the offensive after the network broadcast an interview with Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev on its news program, "Nightline," last Thursday.
"ABC is undesirable for contact with all Russian government organizations and bodies," the ministry's statement said. It criticized the Basayev interview as "clearly supporting the propaganda of terrorism" with "calls for violence against Russian citizens."
http://cpj.org/news/2005/Russia02aug05na.html
Russia Bars ABC, Citing Interview With Chechen Rebel
By STEVEN LEE MYERS
Published: August 3, 2005
MOSCOW, Aug. 2 - Russia announced Tuesday that it was barring journalists from ABC News from working here, effectively expelling a foreign news organization for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union
NTV, via Agence France-Presse - Getty Images
The journalist Andrei Babitsky, left, with the Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, during an interview broadcast last week on "Nightline."
Russia's step came in retaliation for ABC's broadcast of an interview with Shamil Basayev, the Chechen rebel leader who has ordered or carried out some of the worst terrorist acts in the country's history, including the school siege in Beslan last September that left 330 people dead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/international/europe/03russia.html
Citizens Rally For Journalist
Bush Administration criticized as repressive and undemocratic.
By Chuck Hagee
July 28, 2005
Alice Myers and Lisa Krupicka join protestors at Market Square on Monday afternoon.
Freedom of the press got a moral boost Monday from Alexandria citizens assembled at Market Square to show their support for New York Times reporter Judith Miller now jailed in Alexandria for her refusal to reveal her source in the covert CIA operative outing story.
Organizer of the rally, City Councilman Andrew Macdonald noted in his announcement of the event, "It's a sad day when the government jails a journalist not for what she's written but simply for what she knows. What a double standard to imprison Judith Miller... because she refuses to reveal a source while Karl Rove, President Bush's advisor, remains free despite admitting he helped confirm the identity of a CIA agent."
http://www.connectionnewspapers.com/article.asp?article=53869&paper=59&cat=104
Honduran suspect threatens to escape, kill journalists
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras A 13-year-old boy jailed in Honduras and accused of killing a U-S Drug Enforcement Administration agent today vowed to escape -- and kill journalists.
Erlan Colindres spoke to reporters from a cell at the juvenile correction facility El Renacimiento, outside of Tegucigalpa.
Colindres has escaped from the facility three times since 2002.
Conlindres was arrested Saturday in the fatal shooting of 41-year-old D-E-A agent Michael Timothy Markey.
http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3672757
All Opinions Welcome
Who's for Freedom of Speech?
by Joe Grima
Joe Grima says sometimes Journalists are their own worst enemies
Tuesday, 02 August, 2005
This week, a delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (*CPJ) headed by former TV news anchor Tom Brokaw visited New York Times reporter Judith Miller in prison. Ms Miller described by her employers as "a dedicated, honourable, committed professional journalist" was jailed on July 6 by District Court Judge Thomas F. Hogan after the reporter refused to reveal a confidential source in a story involving the naming of a secret CIA operative.
http://www.di-ve.com/dive/portal/portal.jhtml?id=193365&pid=1
AFTRA Backs Media Bills
Union Supports Limiting Mergers, Wants Reporter Shield Law
By Roger Armbrust
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) is placing its support behind congressional efforts to limit media mergers and to protect journalists who won't reveal confidential sources.
U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey, a New York Democrat, has introduced the Media Ownership Reform Act of 2005, a bill to drastically overhaul media consolidation, a major concern of the entertainment industry unions.
http://www.backstage.com/backstage/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000998497
IAPA Will Visit Rare Journalist Jailed in USA: Judith Miller
By E&P Staff
Published: July 22, 2005 4:00 PM ET
CHICAGO Miami-based Inter American Press Association (IAPA) frequently sends members on missions to investigate abuses against journalists in Latin America. Friday, IAPA's top leadership said it would be sending a mission closer to home: the United States
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000990334
Steiger, Brokaw visit Miller in prison,
present message from CPJ
Alexandria, Va., July 28, 2005—A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists met with jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller in the Alexandria Detention Center tonight to deliver a message of support and call for an immediate end to her imprisonment.
Paul Steiger, CPJ chairman and Wall Street Journal managing editor, headed the delegation, which included Tom Brokaw of NBC News and CPJ Executive Director Ann Cooper. The group talked with Miller for a half hour though a clear plastic partition.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/USA28july05na.html
Cooper says reporter should not be jailed
State Attorney General Roy Cooper wants New York Times reporter Judith Miller out of jail.
Or at least Cooper thinks that, without a proper balance of the public's interests, Miller shouldn't have gone there in the first place for refusing to reveal her news sources in an investigation into the outing of a former CIA operative.
He was one of seven state attorneys general who persuaded 25 others to urge the U.S. Supreme Court to take Miller's appeal before she was jailed.
The high court didn't, and Miller is behind bars.
http://www.newsobserver.com/politics/dome/story/2636865p-9073315c.html
Imprisoned NYTimes Reporter Praises Staff At Detention
Alexandria, VA (AP) 07/29/05 - The New York Times reporter imprisoned for refusing to name a confidential source says she's allowed to read and write in jail , but she's been outside just twice in three weeks.
The Committee to Protect Journalists says a delegation of its members spoke to Judith Miller through a plastic partition for about a half hour yesterday.
The delegation included NBC's Tom Brokaw.
http://www.13wham.com/news/state/story.aspx?content_id=ED93FE89-7CB6-45A0-873A-E775F06C2D3D
Miller's time continues in Alexandria jail
ALEXANDRIA, Va. Like every other inmate, New York Times reporter Judith Miller begins her day at the Alexandria Detention Center at 7 a-m with breakfast, something like eggs or cereal _ part of the 3,600-calorie daily diet offered to all inmates.
Miller, jailed since July 6th for civil contempt for her refusal to testify to a grand jury investigating the leak of a C-I-A operative's identity, is one of about 475 inmates at the jail.
http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=3668140
US journalists are being jailed as the courts dilute their First Amendment rights by forcing them to reveal their sources. By Jon Robins
"It does feel like open season," Laura Handman, a First Amendment lawyer based at US firm Davis Wright Tremaine told The New York Times (NYT) last month in the aftermath of the Judith Miller affair. US journalists report that, in the land of the free, there are a rising number of court orders demanding that sources be disclosed. Miller, an NYT reporter, is the latest 'martyr to the cause'.
Handman blamed the Bush administration's emphasis on secrecy as one reason for the decidedly chilly turn in the legal climate surrounding journalists. "This leads to more leak inquiries, which in turn leads to more subpoenas," she argued.
http://www.thelawyer.com/cgi-bin/item.cgi?id=116306&d=122&h=24&f=46
Jailed reporter Miller missing freedom
01:11 PM CDT on Tuesday, August 2, 2005
Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — When August arrives in the nation's capital, Washingtonians stay inside to avoid the steamy heat. After almost a month in jail, New York Times reporter Judith Miller says she would like nothing better than to get outdoors.
“She joked that the swampy, humid air of Washington smelled as sweet as could be” on the couple of occasions she was allowed outside at the Alexandria Detention Center, said Times managing editor Jill Abramson, who visited Miller last week.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/nation/stories/080205dnnatmiller.34bcd829.html
The Feds Are Shielded From Logic
Submitted by editor on July 22, 2005 - 12:53pm.
By Andrew Cohen
Source: CBS
When it comes to the serious game of determining when a reporter must reveal his or her confidential sources under federal law, the Bush administration wants to continue to be both a player and the umpire. You don't need to talk to Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter jailed as a result of this perversion of impartiality, to help you decide whether that's the way you want your justice system to work.
http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/269
Jailed reporter meets with delegation
The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — New York Times reporter Judith Miller, imprisoned for refusing to name a confidential source, said she is allowed to read and write in jail, according to press freedom advocates.
But Miller said she has been outside just twice in three weeks. Through a plastic partition, she spoke for about a half-hour Thursday to a delegation of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the group reported on its Web site.
“There’s no good purpose in keeping this dedicated, honorable, committed professional in jail,” Paul Steiger, chairman of the group and managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, said after the meeting. The delegation also included NBC’s Tom Brokaw.
U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan ordered Miller imprisoned on July 6 on civil contempt charges after she refused to testify about a confidential source before a grand jury investigating the 2003 leak of a CIA operative’s identity.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/12260011.htm
Jailed reporter meets with delegation
The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. — New York Times reporter Judith Miller, imprisoned for refusing to name a confidential source, said she is allowed to read and write in jail, according to press freedom advocates.
But Miller said she has been outside just twice in three weeks. Through a plastic partition, she spoke for about a half-hour Thursday to a delegation of the Committee to Protect Journalists, the group reported on its Web site.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/12260011.htm
Leak Riddle: Who's Playing Whom?
Submitted by editor on July 25, 2005 - 1:35pm.
By Mark Feldstein
Source: Washington Post
Judith Miller, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter who now wears a brown and green prison jumpsuit, will soon enter her third week in a jail cell just a few miles from the White House where administration officials suspected of leaking classified information to journalists -- including the president's top political strategist, Karl Rove -- are still running the government.
http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/290
Soul Search
By John Dinges
For the last seven years, the press in Venezuela has had a story that would be the envy of any red-blooded, news-addicted reporter. It is a story of political upheaval and social change that began when Hugo Chavez was elected in 1998, and promptly rewrote the constitution. He has fended off efforts to dislodge him ever since. Chavez is floating vast income-redistribution programs, including housing and land reform that have peasants squatting on private property, on bonanza prices for Venezuela’s oil. He talks — often in public speeches or on televised talk shows that can run half a day — about revolution, socialism, and liberation from the “interventionism” of the United States. It is a formula that has earned him the adulation of the poor and lower middle class at home and throughout Latin America, invited comparisons to leftist icons like Fidel Castro and Salvador Allende, and sparked a war of words with the Bush administration.
http://www.cjr.org/issues/2005/4/dinges.asp
The Boston Globe
Beliefs drive research agenda of new think tanks
Study on gay adoption disputed by specialists
By Michael Kranish, Globe Staff July 31, 2005
WASHINGTON -- President Bush had a ready answer when asked in January for his view of adoption by same-sex couples: ''Studies have shown that the ideal is where a child is raised in a married family with a man and a woman," the president said.
Bush's assertion raised eyebrows among specialists. The American Academy of Pediatrics, composed of leaders in the field, had found no meaningful difference between children raised by same-sex and heterosexual couples, based on a 2002 report written largely by a Boston pediatrician, Dr. Ellen C. Perrin.
http://www.boston.com/news/specials/gay_marriage/articles/2005/07/31/beliefs_drive_research_agenda_of_new_think_tanks/
Gaza Strip relocation bewilders settlers
Last-minute rush is feared
By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff July 31, 2005
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza -- In 17 days, the Israeli Army plans to roll in to remove anyone who remains in the string of Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip. But many of the 1,500 settler families have yet to start packing, most haven't reached compensation agreements, and so far the government has set up just 160 of the deluxe trailers that are to be their new quarters just outside Gaza.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/07/31/gaza_strip_relocation_bewilders_settlers/
Suburban high schools try to ease up on teen stress
By Anand Vaishnav, Globe Staff July 31, 2005
WELLESLEY -- Students often huddle in classrooms and auditoriums at Wellesley High School well past the dinner hour, organizing tsunami relief efforts or rehearsing for the fall musical. Sophomores have to write a 5,000-word research paper; juniors visit as many as 12 prospective colleges. The tension builds through the school year, whether students or their teachers cause it.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/07/31/suburban_high_schools_try_to_ease_up_on_teen_stress/
Wade Boggs: 2005 Hall of Fame inductee
Nothing average about five-time batting champ
By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Staff July 31, 2005
Wade Boggs goes into the Hall of Fame today, representing the Red Sox, and stirring memories of a wild and wacky time in Boston baseball.
http://www.boston.com/sports/baseball/redsox/articles/2005/07/31/wade_boggs_2005_hall_of_fame_inductee/
Embryos and politics
By Eileen McNamara, Globe Columnist July 31, 2005
Forget Mitt Romney. The Massachusetts Legislature will override the governor's veto of the emergency contraception access bill.
More is at stake than one man's presidential ambitions when it is this easy to recast backup birth control as a stealth abortion bill. We are in Orwell country now, where he who controls the language defines the debate.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/07/31/embryos_and_politics/
State planning to tighten rules for free care
Romney aides want more Medicaid enrollees
By Alice Dembner, Globe Staff August 3, 2005
Two weeks after Governor Mitt Romney proposed legislation to provide health insurance for all state residents, his administration is moving to change the rules for a ''free care" program in ways that advocates say could make it harder for the uninsured to get healthcare.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/08/03/state_set_to_tighten_rules_for_free_care/
I don't think they are going to get their way with the Iraqi constitution. Give it up !
US envoy calls for equal rights for women in Iraq constitution
By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe Staff August 3, 2005
BAGHDAD -- The United States inserted itself squarely into the raucous debate over Iraq's new constitution yesterday when the new ambassador declared that equal rights for women was a fundamental requirement of democracy.
In the 11 days Zalmay Khalilzad has been in Iraq, the US envoy has reversed the embassy's policy of staying in the background of internal Iraqi political disputes, making daily public appearances and pressuring Iraqi politicians in an effort to break the deepening deadlock among constitutional negotiators.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/08/03/us_urges_rights_for_women_in_iraq_document/
New York Times
14 U.S. Marines Killed in Iraq When Bomb Hits Their Vehicle
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: August 3, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- Fourteen U.S. Marines and a civilian interpreter were killed Wednesday in western Iraq, the U.S. command said.
The Marines, assigned to Regimental Combat Team 2, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), were killed in action early Wednesday when their vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device, the military said. One Marine was also wounded in the attack.
The incident occurred during combat operations just outside Haditha, which is 140 miles northwest of Baghdad.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/international/middleeast/03wire-iraq.html?hp&ex=1123128000&en=425c515714247dc0&ei=5094&partner=homepage
The Boston Globe
Roberts begs for his Supreme Court Position. Evidently he didn't kiss Bush's ass on the campaign trail to be undone by a Bipartisan Committee seeking JUSTICE FOR ALL !
Roberts tells senators he would respect precedent
He also vows to avoid legislating on bench
By Rick Klein, Globe Staff August 3, 2005
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court nominee, Judge John G. Roberts Jr., told senators yesterday that he would respect judicial precedents and would refrain from encroaching on the role of the legislative branch if he is confirmed to the high court, in response to written questions submitted by the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Roberts was not asked and did not say how he would view any specific court precedents; such questions are likely to be asked later in the process by individual senators.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/03/roberts_tells_senators_he_would_respect_precedent/
Judgment at Guantanamo
August 3, 2005
JUST AS the US commitment to democracy is on trial in Iraq as that country ponders its new constitution, this nation's commitment to justice is on trial at Guantanamo Bay. Military officers there are preparing to resume war crimes trials of detainees from Afghanistan in which the accused are denied their basic rights under the Geneva Conventions -- the same rules that protect US troops if they are captured by hostile forces.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/08/03/judgment_at_guantanamo/
Natural disasters
Tornado force winds rip through Mascouche
2005-07-23 11:15:20
Century old trees went down like dominos in yesterday's "micro-burst" in Mascouche. The wind storm, clocked between 90 and 110 kilometres per hour, blew through town in minutes and left a path of destruction in its wake. Upscale homes were damaged by falling trees. Hundreds of Hydro customers lost power for the day. Mascouche Mayor, Richard Marcotte, says panicked residents hid in their basements, fearing for their lives. He says the violent storm caused considerable damage, but is thankful, there were no injuries.
http://www.940news.com/locale.php?news=1371
Tornado spotted near Winchester
04:28 PM PDT on Saturday, July 23, 2005
By SONJA BJELLAND / The Press-Enterprise
A mix of moisture, heat and easterly winds collided Saturday afternoon with downpours and reports of tornados.
Around 2 p.m., the National Weather Service issued a severe thunderstorm and tornado warning for the Hemet area. Spotters reported a tornado touched down near the intersection of highways 74 and 79 near Winchester, said Forecaster Steven Vanderburg.
The agency received reports of ¾ inch hail and flooding on the Domenigoni Parkway. Water covered two of the four lanes.
Some reports showed an inch of rain dropped in 15 minutes, he said.
Forecasts are predicting similar weather for Sunday.
http://www.pe.com/breakingnews/local/stories/PE_News_Local_D_web_weather24.25de663.html
Storm brings rain and tornado to Hemet
HEMET, Calif. A tornado moved through Hemet this afternoon, part of a storm that also brought heavy rain.
Riverside County Fire Captain Jerry Dalebout says it's still unclear whether the twister touched down or did any damage.
Rain was falling at a rate of one to two inches per hour.
The tornado was reported near the intersection of highways 74 and 79.
Dalebout says there was one report of power lines down and a possible brush fire from lightning strike.
http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=3631907
Tokyo rattled by earthquake
TOKYO, July 23 (UPI) -- An earthquake registering 6 on the Richter scale rattled Tokyo and surrounding areas Saturday afternoon, injuring at least 16 people.
The earthquake, which occurred at 4:35 p.m. local time, measured upper 5 on the Japanese seismic intensity scale of 7 in Tokyo's Adachi Ward and lower 5 in southern Saitama, Chiba and Kanagawa prefectures, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The JMA said aftershocks may occur for the next several days.
The government and police set up crisis management task forces, the Kyodo news agency reported.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20050723-16585700-bc-japan-quake.xml
Shaky Reasoning
Susan E. Hough
The Myth of Solid Ground: Earthquakes, Prediction, and the Fault Line Between Reason and Faith. David L. Ulin. xiv + 290 pp. Viking, 2004. $24.95.
My name appears in The Myth of Solid Ground: Author David Ulin expresses appreciation for my open-mindedness about ideas and possibilities that are out of the mainstream. He might not appreciate quite as much one of my favorite sayings—one that comes to mind reading his book: You don't want to be so open-minded that your brains fall out.
One doesn't get very far into the text before realizing that this is, in fact, a possibility. In the opening pages, Ulin describes his experiences the first time he felt an earthquake. The reader soon learns, however, that that particular earthquake never really happened. Fantasy and reality continue to blur seamlessly, along with other things, as one reads further: Ulin is talking about philosophy one second, science the next; science one second, pseudoscience and mythology the next.
http://www.americanscientist.org/template/BookReviewTypeDetail/assetid/44481;jsessionid=aaaeBAZsy_jSQS
The Sound of a Distant Rumble:
Researchers Track Underwater Noise Generated by December 26 Earthquake
Frequency spectrogram of T wave showing relative strength of different frequencies through time
When the sea floor off the coast of Sumatra split on the morning of December 26, 2004, it took days to measure the full extent of the rupture. Recently, researchers at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory analyzed recordings of the underwater sound produced by the magnitude 9.3 earthquake. Their unique approach enabled them to track the rupture as it moved along the Sumatra-Andaman Fault, raising the possibility that scientists could one day use the method to track underwater earthquakes in near real time and opening new avenues in seismologic research.
http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news/2005/07_20_05.htm
Showers, Thunderstorms Hit the Southeast
By The Associated Press
Scattered showers and thunderstorms fell across the Southeast, Tennessee Valley and mid-Atlantic regions on Friday.
Lightning, strong winds, hail and heavy downpours were reported in some areas. A weak tornado was spotted in Weeksville, N.C
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050729/APA/507290738
Earthquake jolts southwest Iran
Aug 2, 2005
A mild earthquake measuring 3.8 degrees in Richter scale shook Dowgounbadan city in mid-southwestern province of Kohgilouyeh and Bouirahmad.
According to the report of Seismography center affiliated to Tehran University Geophysics Institute the tremor occurred at 22:42:09 local time (18:12 GMT).
The epicenter of earthquake was at 30.48 latitude and 50.82 longitude.
There is no immediate report of possible damage or casualty.
http://www.iranian.ws/iran_news/publish/article_8609.shtml
Indonesia's Ambon
08.02.2005, 07:59 AM
JAKARTA (AFX) - An earthquake measuring 5.7 on the Richter scale jolted the eastern Indonesian island of Ambon today, prompting panic but there were no reports of casualties or damage, an official said.
The undersea quake struck at 5:39 pm and was located 96 kilometres southeast of the city of Ambon in the Maluku province, an official with the meteorological agency in Jakarta told Agence France-Presse.
Its epicenter was located some 33 kilometers under the floor of the Banda Sea, sending tremors that were also felt on Seram island, the official said.
The Detikcom online news service reported that the earthquake caused panic in Ambon, with residents rushing out of buildings and causing traffic jams.
http://www.forbes.com/work/feeds/afx/2005/08/02/afx2166821.html
Thunderstorms leave damage
8/2/2005 7:09 AM
By: News 10 Now Staff
Monday's line of thunder storms left damage throughout Jefferson and Oneida Counties.
One of the hardest hit places was in Pillar Point.
Officials with the Jefferson County Emergency Management
Office say a few homes were damage and a couple of cars destroyed by falling trees.
The damage to the homes range from minor to severe.
http://news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=46500
Thunderstorms cause flash flooding in southwestern Utah
rkfon
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Thunderstorms caused flash floods in southwestern Utah Tuesday, taking out a bridge, closing a highway and flooding several homes.
A Washington County sheriff's dispatcher said one of the bridges to Gunlock that had been washed out by floods in January and rebuilt was washed out again.
Utah 18 between St. George and Enterprise had 4 feet of water and was closed, but was expected to be reopened shortly.
Several homes in the county had flooding and a St. George police dispatcher said probably more than four homes there had flooding.
The flash flood warning for Washington County had expired by late Tuesday, but a warning remained in effect in Kane County, where the sheriff's office said no damage had been reported.
Lightning ignited several fires in Washington County, but most were a fraction of an acre. A one-half acre fire near Utah 18 was extinguished by the rain, fire information officers said.
Severe thunderstorm warnings were issued for most of northern and western Utah, but most were expiring by late Tuesday.
http://www.casperstartribune.net/apdata/wire_detail.php?wire_num=260768
Heat, Humidity in Midwest, Mid-Atlantic
By The Associated Press
The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 2, 2005; 5:50 PM
-- Hot and humid conditions continued Tuesday across the Midwest and mid-Atlantic regions, with temperatures in the 90s.
Heat index readings leaped into the triple digits in some areas, with a heat index of 113 degrees in Centralia, Ill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/02/AR2005080200438.html
Storm downs trees and power lines
Tue, Aug 2, 2005
ALLISSA KLINE
Observer-Dispatch
New York Mills village employee Thomas Guca removes a downed tree from Greenman Avenue after it was struck by lightning Monday evening in New York Mills.
TREVOR KAPRALOS / Observer-Dispatch
A lightning bolt strikes north of the Price Chopper parking lot on Commercial Drive Monday evening in New York Mills.
Thunderstorms heavy with lightning raced through parts of Oneida County Monday evening, leaving behind downed trees and wires in some areas.
In Remsen, lightning struck at least two houses, but no one was injured, a 911 Oneida County dispatcher said. Trees also fell in Stittville and struck a house on Powell Road, pulling wires down with it, Stittville Fire Department officials said. No one was injured.
http://www.uticaod.com/archive/2005/08/02/news/5853.html
Global Warming
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
Global warming makes sea less salty
Researchers predict effects on 'conveyor belt' of ocean currents
Updated: 6:15 p.m. ET June 29, 2005
You won't want to drink water straight from the ocean anytime soon. But the salt content is on the decline, a sign of potentially worrisome consequences that scientists can't accurately predict.
Since the late 1960s, much of the North Atlantic Ocean has become less salty, in part due to increases in fresh water runoff induced by global warming, scientists say. Now for the first time researchers have quantified this fresh water influx, allowing them to predict the long-term effects on a "conveyor belt" of ocean currents.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8408336/
UK insurers urge action on global warming or storm costs may reach 15 bln stg/yr
06.29.2005, 04:03 PM
LONDON (AFX) - The worldwide cost of cleaning up major storms could rise by two-thirds to 15 bln stg annually by 2080 unless urgent action is taken to fight global warming, said the Association of British Insurers.
'Governments now have a chance to make rational choices for the future before it is too late,' said Nick Starling, an executive with the ABI.
The ABI said in its Financial Risks of Climate Change report that the projected cost increases could be cut if governments take action now to reduce carbon emissions, improve coastal defences, boost flood protection inland and require more resilient buildings.
It said its Financial Risks of Climate Change report is based upon international scientific research from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/afx/2005/06/29/afx2117148.html
Clearing smoke may trigger global warming rise
Global warming looks set to be much worse than previously forecast, according to new research. Ironically, the crucial evidence is how little warming there has been so far.
Three top climate researchers claim that the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere should have warmed the world more than they have. The reason they have not, they say, is that the warming is being masked by sun-blocking smoke, dust and other polluting particles put into the air by human activity.
But they warn that in future this protection will lessen due to controls on pollution. Their best guess is that, as the mask is removed, temperatures will warm by at least 6°C by 2100. That is substantially above the current predictions of 1.5 to 4.5°C.
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7607
Global warming might create lopsided planet
Extra precipitation could add to ice at South Pole
By Robert Roy Britt
Updated: 5:18 p.m. ET June 29, 2005
Extra precipitation expected as a result of global warming could create a lopsided world in which sea ice increases around the South Pole while the far north melts away.
A new study illustrates the difficulty in predicting how the planet might react to overall warming, which most but not all scientists believe is underway, in part due to greenhouse gas emissions by industry and autos.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8408283/
Pressure builds on US over global warming
By Sophie Louet in Paris
June 30, 2005
Beating the heat … a Spanish tourist cools off in the fountain at Rome's Vittorio Emanuele Monument.
Photo: Reuters
The French President, Jacques Chirac, has warned of "difficult" negotiations ahead on climate change as insurers called on Group of Eight nations meeting in Scotland next week to act on global warming.
Mr Chirac said the evidence of global warming was mounting and he supported efforts by the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, to get the US to sign on for a strong climate agreement at the G8 summit in Gleneagles.
He said he was "not optimistic, but that does not stop me from being determined. I will not hide from you the fact that the negotiations are very difficult at the moment."
Mr Chirac's comments came as the Association of British Insurers said action was required on climate change or the financial costs would be huge.
Damage costs from the hurricanes in the US, typhoons in Japan and windstorms in Europe - would rise from $US16 billion ($21 billion) a year to $US27 billion by 2080 if carbon dioxide emissions doubled their current rate, the association's report said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/pressure-builds-on-us-over-global-warming/2005/06/29/1119724697196.html
Four injured in thunderstorms
The Associated Press
HUTCHINSON -- High winds and thunderstorms across a wide swath of the state downed trees and power lines, flooded roads and injured at least four people Sunday.
Four people were injured during heavy thunderstorms at Cheney Lake, in south-central Kansas. They were taken to a Wichita hospital, Reno County director of Emergency Management Bill Guy said.
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/070505/kan_thunderstorms.shtml
Man still missing after Cheney Lake storm
Kevin King
KWCH 12 Eyewitness News
Monday, July 4, 2005
Darkness put an end to a day of searching for a man, missing at Cheney Lake. He disappeared during Sunday night's storm.
Searchers found the Wichita man's boat capsized Monday morning. They say it was pretty beat up inside.
http://www.kbsd6.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=KBSD/MGArticle/BSD_BasicArticle&c=MGArticle&cid=1031783653805
Global Warmin' Is Fer Idjuts
Exxon writes America's energy policy, BushCo chops up emissions reports. Is there any hope at all?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, June 10, 2005
06/24/2005
Like anyone is the slightest bit shocked.
Like anyone is the slightest bit appalled anymore by the breathtaking litany of utter BS oozing forth from the White House these days, this time about how one of BushCo's top oil-lovin' henchmen has been hacking away at countless scientific reports for over two years, editing them at will, all to downplay the effects of emissions on global warming.
His name is Philip Cooney, and he has zero scientific training whatsoever and was formerly the "climate-team leader" (read: top flying monkey) and a lobbyist at the American Petroleum Institute, the largest trade group representing the oil industry. He is now chief of staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the group that helps devise and set the nation's environmental agenda; Cooney's cuts and edits of scientific emissions and global warming reports often made it into final White House policy.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/06/10/notes061005.DTL
US Wants G8 Climate Debate to Move Beyond Kyoto
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DENMARK: July 6, 2005
COPENHAGEN - President George W. Bush has not shifted his position on climate policy but wants to broaden the debate on the controversial issue, White House officials said on Tuesday ahead of a Group of Eight summit.
National security advisor Stephen Hadley said Bush wanted G8 leaders to discuss global climate change and work out an action plan that would take a broader view than the Kyoto accord's curbs on industrialised countries' greenhouse gas emissions.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/31529/story.htm
Scientists studying hillside hot spot
By: Matt Cota
Geologists say a mysterious hot spot in the Santa Barbara back country could ignite another wildfire.
According to geologists, a landslide last summer in the San Rafael Mountains triggered some kind of underground combustion. Just four inches below the surface, the temperature is more than 490 degrees, and as long as the hillside stays hot, the threat of another wildfire remains.
"There is the potential for another fire, certainly potential for another landslide, because there are new cracks," says geologist Allen King. "There is another large block of material which is poised and ready to go at some point in the future."
A team of scientists studying the hot spot speculate that the landslide may have triggered a chemical reaction between the oxygen in the air and the minerals in the rock. The landslide is more than three miles from the nearest hiking trail. Forest officials declined to be more specific, in order to discourage people from hiking in to get a closer look.
http://www.ksby.com/news/headlines/1683122.html
HAVING YOUR CAKE AND EATING IT TOO: IDENTIFYING RESERVE NETWORKS THAT CONSERVE BIODIVERSITY NOW AND ARE ROBUST TO FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE.
Pyke, Christopher; ANDELMAN, SANDY; Midgley, Guy. NCEAS, 735 State Street, Suite 300, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, andelman((AT))nceas.ucsb.edu (CP, SA). South African National Biodiversity Institute, Private Bag X7, Claremont 7735, Cape Town, South Africa.
Climate change threatens biodiversity persistence and challenges the effectiveness of reserve networks as a conservation strategy. Reserves are fixed in space, yet relatively small changes in climate can lead to shifts in the distribution of suitable habitat and environmental conditions for species and communities, jeopardizing the role of reserves as safe havens for biodiversity.
http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0723-cbc_climate.html
FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE - AN OVERLOOKED FACTOR IN BIODIVERSITY CONSERVATION PLANNING.
WILLIS, STEPHEN G.; Collingham, Yvonne C.; Hilton, Geoff; Rahbek, Carsten; Huntley, Brian. Institute of Ecosystem Science, School of Biological & Biomedical Sciences, University of Durham, South Road, Durham, DH13LE, UK (SGW, YCC, BH). Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire, UK (GH). Vertebrate Dept, Zoological Museum, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark (CR).
Policies for biodiversity conservation are currently based largely around networks of nature reserves, managed to protect biodiversity. Designation of such reserves is based entirely upon current patterns of biodiversity and takes no account of the fact that, over time, species ranges shift. Such shifts are driven primarily by climate change. Given past shifts in species ranges and predicted future changes in the global climate, it is essential that the effects of future climate change are incorporated into conservation planning to safeguard biodiversity in the long-term.
http://news.mongabay.com/2005/0723-cbc_climate.html
Eric Martin letter: Global warming must be considered
The Forum
Published Sunday, July 24, 2005
Sens. Kent Conrad and Byron Dorgan should be congratulated for their recent vote in support of a renewable portfolio standard, which would require 10 percent of our nation's electricity supply to be produced by renewable energy sources, such as solar, wind and biomass by 2020.
http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=98373§ion=Opinion
Global warming could cause drastic changes
Updated: 7/23/2005 9:57 PM
By: Kristin Smith, News 10 Now Web Staff
Scientists at the National Academy of Sciences this week agreed that the globe is warming at an alarming rate, and it’s caused primarily by humans.
Earth has warmed about seven-tenths of a degree since 1970.
While that may not feel like much to us, it could mean very big changes in our oceans and our weather, soon.
"Ocean circulation could change over a relatively short time scale, over a few years, that we could slowly increase the temperature, and ocean circulation would stay mostly the same,” said Dr. Theodore Dibble, SUNY ESF. “Then, all of a sudden, we get too far, and we tip the balance, and ocean circulation could change drastically, and drastically change the climate for most of the globe."
http://news10now.com/content/top_stories/default.asp?ArID=46048
A chilling attack on global warming
7/23/2005
By DAVID IGNATIUS
In today's partisan political climate, science has inevitably become a political football. But I can't remember anything quite as nasty - or as politically motivated - as Rep. Joe Barton's recent attack on scientists whose views on global warming he doesn't like.
Barton, an 11-term Republican from Texas, is chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and one of the oil lobby's best friends on Capitol Hill. Late last month, he fired off letters to professor Michael Mann of the University of Virginia and two other scientists demanding information about what he claimed were "methodological flaws and data errors" in their studies of global warming.
The scientists' offense was that they had authored a controversial study that reported a sharp rise in global temperatures during the 20th century, based on an analysis of tree rings, glacial ice and coral layers. The study was an important source for a 2001 report by the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that argued the 1990s had been the hottest decade in 1,000 years.
http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20050723/1057901.asp
Don't blame Wal-Mart for health-coverage gap
Tribune Editorial
August 2, 2005
Wal-Mart bashers got more ammunition last week when it was revealed that 10 percent of the retail giant's Arizona employees are enrolled in the state's health-care assistance program known as AHCCCS — about twice the rate for other major businesses.
http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=45524
BP chief urges corporate action on climate change
The head of corporate giant BP says companies must change their practices to help halt the effects of climate change.
BP's Australasian president, Gerry Hueston, has told a business gathering in Perth that companies should use less fossil fuel and adopt technology that reduces greenhouse gas emissions.
Mr Hueston says while demand for energy is expected to double within 50 years, the level of pollution should remain the same.
He says the technology exists to make that possible.
"Doubling the fuel economy of 2 billion cars, doubling the fuel economy from the average today of 12 to say 24 kilometres per litre," he said.
"Other examples are to replace coal with gas at feed stock for 1,400 power stations globally, to capture and store [carbon dioxide] at 700 coal-fired power stations."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1429272.htm
City experts team up to fight global warming
JANE BRADLEY
EDINBURGH scientists will become world leaders in the fight against global warming by examining ways to lock harmful emissions under the sea.
The Capital's top two universities are to join forces by creating a centre of excellence to monitor the long-term effects of dissolving carbon dioxide in deep sea reservoirs and in porous rock containing oil.
http://news.scotsman.com/edinburgh.cfm?id=1718252005
"Portfolio Manager" is Anti-Global Warming Wingnut
Says Global Warming a Myth "Propagated by the UN."
According to Reuters, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned today (August 2, 2005), that "the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season will be worse than previously expected." Fox News reporter Rebecca Gomez reported this in a short segment on Your World w/Neil Cavuto this afternoon. Gomez' segment was immediately followed by an interview Cavuto conducted with Steve Milloy, whom Cavuto identified as "the portfolio manager at Free Enterprise Action Fund."
Milloy said that "global warming is a myth. Global warming hysteria is junk science that is propagated by the UN, the European Union, radical environmentalists. You know," he continued, "the UN science behind global warming puts oil for food in the shade in terms of scandal." He said there is "no evidence at all that humans are having an adverse impact on climate."
http://www.newshounds.us/2005/08/02/portfolio_manager_is_antiglobal_warming_wingnut.php
Global warming changing Uganda’s climate drastically
Godwin Muhwezi
While on a field trip to Masaka I observed that many gardens have withered crops. Fishponds are dry and farmers are sad about the dry weather.
Masaka has not had sufficient rainfall since February but it is not the only affected district. Most of the areas around the country are experiencing prolonged dry spells. With the weatherincreasingly becoming unpredictable, farmers can no longer be sure of the best time to plant crops.
These things have happened in the past but it is the intensity and frequency with which they have occurred recently that gives us reason to get worried. So, what has caused the dry spells? "Carbondioxide concentration is increasing and is likely to bring about serious climate changes, if we do not take action now," says Philip Gwage a Climate change expert at the Ministry of Lands, water and Environment.
http://www.monitor.co.ug/monfocus/mon08011.php>
Canadians Assess Global Warming Measures
(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in Canada believe their federal administration has not done enough to deal with climate change, according to a poll by Ipsos-Reid for CanWest Global. 52 per cent of respondents believe the government has done a poor or very poor job to address concerns about global warming.
The term global warming refers to an increase of the Earth’s average temperature. Some theories say that climate change might be the result of human-generated carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/8358
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