The Sydney Morning Herald
History revised: Saddam vanishes from schoolbooks
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
September 13, 2005
New syllabus … a class at the Akal primary school in southern Baghdad.
Iraq's children have returned to school for the start of a fresh academic year with a new syllabus that has all but erased Saddam Hussein from its history.
After two years of debate, the education department has completed textbooks to replace those that portrayed the past purely from a Baathist view.
However, in a tribute to the sensitivities of post-Saddam Iraq, the revised version of history is, on some subjects, as partial and shot through with gaps as the old.
Baghdad no longer wins the Iran-Iraq war nor confronts the evil of Zionism alone. Primary schools will not have to teach reading with phrases such as "I love Saddam".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/history-revised-saddam-vanishes-from-schoolbooks/2005/09/12/1126377257168.html
Rise of China good for all, says Howard
By Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent in New York
September 13, 2005
The rise of China as an economic and political power was good for the world, the Prime Minister, John Howard, told an Asia Society lunch in New York.
At a time when the US-China relationship remains tense, especially over Taiwan and the imbalance of trade in China's favour, Mr Howard said China's rise would inevitably place stress on the international system.
"But to see China's rise in zero-sum terms is overly pessimistic, intellectually misguided and potentially dangerous," he said. "It is also a negation of what the West has been urging in China for decades now."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rise-of-china-good-for-all-says-howard/2005/09/13/1126377262936.html
Belfast rioters shoot at police on second day of violence
September 13, 2005
Impasse … a Protestant marcher confronts police in west Belfast. Later, rioters fired on security forces.
Photo: AP
Dublin: Protestant mobs rioted for a second consecutive night in Belfast and in towns on the city's outskirts on Sunday, seriously injuring 32 police officers in the province's worst violence in seven years.
Crowds of men wearing masks or hooded sweatshirts pulled over their faces terrorised citizens and attacked the security forces. Cars were set alight at intersections, closing a motorway into Belfast.
The 2000-strong force of police officers and British soldiers were bombarded with homemade explosives and bottles of flaming petrol while they held rioters back at main intersections.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/belfast-rioters-shoot-at-police-on-second-day-of-violence/2005/09/12/1126377257162.html
Katrina rattles the glasses in Monaco
By Lisa Murray
September 13, 2005
Executives from the world's biggest insurance companies have descended on Monte Carlo for their annual reinsurance conference.
While the set theme for the five-day event is "terrorism", most executives are focused on natural disasters, with estimates of insurance losses from Hurricane Katrina swelling to as much as $US60 billion ($77.8 billion).
That would make Katrina, which late last month ravaged the US states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana and flooded the city of New Orleans, the industry's costliest ever hurricane.
But Australia's biggest international insurer, QBE, is confident it will emerge from this year's hurricane season relatively unscathed, although the season still has six weeks to go.
Analysts and credit rating agencies agree.
Macquarie Research Equities expects QBE's losses from Katrina to be less than $125 million, much less than the losses being flagged by its peers. Morgan Stanley reckons Katrina could end up being a positive for the stock as it will push up commercial premium rates. In hotel rooms around Monte Carlo, rate negotiations are already starting with Katrina fresh in peoples' minds.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/katrina-rattles-the-glasses-in-monaco/2005/09/12/1126377257249.html
Allianz warns Katrina may cost $A772m
September 10, 2005 - 7:29AM
Europe's biggest insurer, Allianz AG, has warned that its exposure to Hurricane Katrina could be as much as 470 million euros ($A772.39 million), but it still expects to reach its 2005 profit target of four billion euros ($A6.57 billion).
The Munich-based company said that Hurricane Katrina, which struck the US Gulf Coast last month and is expected to result in approximately 30 billion euros ($A49.3 billion) in insured damage from Florida to Louisiana, could be the costliest natural disaster in the insurance industry's history.
Risk Management Solutions, a Newark, California-based consulting firm, has estimated the overall damage from Katrina in terms of insured losses to be between $US20 billion and $US35 billion ($A26.28 billion and $A46 billion).
http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/10/1125772718551.html
US reels as hurricane claims $68 billion
September 9, 2005 - 12:02PM
The US Congress has approved $US51.8 billion ($A68 billion) in Hurricane Katrina emergency funding, even as politicians begin to fret loudly over the staggering costs of the relief effort.
The huge aid bill, which passed overwhelmingly today in both the House and the Senate, is the second tranche of Katrina emergency funds passed after the US legislature last week approved an initial $US10.5 billion ($A13.8 billion) emergency package.
But with estimates of the costs of Katrina now approaching $US200 billion ($A262.78 billion), Republicans and Democrats expressed reservations about the runaway spending, and called for the appointment of an official to oversee and manage Katrina-related federal aid.
http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/09/1125772674451.html
Hail to the chief
September 13, 2005
Suddenly, China holds the levers of the world economy - and Washington is worried, writes Hamish McDonald.
WANG Xiaoyun is the face of China that fascinates and alarms the United States. A mathematics professor at Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, she recently startled US security circles by breaking a key US Government data encryption formula called SHA-1.
In the arcane world of high-level encryption and code breaking, SHA-1 is an algorithm for creating what is known as a "hash" - a single number representing a larger body of information. Wang's work exposed an unsuspected weakness in what was thought an almost unbreakable code.
Although Washington is increasingly worried by purposeful hacking into its secret databases that originates in China, Wang is no electronic spy, and wanted to present her findings to a meeting of US cryptographers in California last month.
But despite applying weeks in advance, Wang couldn't get a US visa in time to attend; nor could eight of the nine other Chinese researchers who applied. An associate, also Chinese but living in the US, presented her paper.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hail-to-the-chief/2005/09/12/1126377257226.html
Summit unlikely to finalise UN reform
By Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent in New York
September 13, 2005
The United Nations summit of world leaders due to get under way tomorrow looks almost certain to go ahead without an agreement on a final document on major UN reform, and on aid development targets aimed at eradicating world poverty.
More than 150 leaders are to attend the summit, which marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the UN at the end of World War II.
The leaders were expected to consider a draft document drawn up by ambassadors of a working party from 30 member countries, including Australia's ambassador to the UN, John Dauth, based on recommendations in a report commissioned by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan and presented to the UN General Assembly six months ago.
The recommendations are far-reaching and include reform of the UN Secretariat, heavily criticised in the Volcker report into the Iraq oil-for-food program, expansion of the Security Council, including new permanent members, an agreed definition of terrorism and reform of the discredited Human Rights Commission.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/summit-unlikely-to-finalise-un-reform/2005/09/12/1126377257165.html
Miami Herald
Last two dolphins of some 70 stranded in Keys hit open sea
By TERESA BRADLEY
tbradley@herald.com
The last two of nearly 70 rough-toothed dolphins stranded on shallow shoals off the Middle Keys last March hit the open sea once again today, released about 19 miles off Key Largo by a group from the Marine Mammal Conservancy.
About two dozen volunteers sponged and sprayed the sea mammals with ocean water during a one-hour-and-fifteen-minute boat ride out to sea. Cheering and clapping when the dolphins finally slipped from their deckside foam cushions and into the water, volunteers watched as the pair darted about the boat and away.
They both hit the water at the same time, dove and swam around the boat a couple laps, said Andy Newman, spokesman with the Keys Tourism Council who was onboard to witness the release. At one point, they started coming back to the boat, but then they set off to the east-southeast together.
In early March, nearly 70 rough-toothed dolphins beached themselves in the shallow waters off the coast of Key Vaca -- many sick, disoriented and starving. Nearly 30 died.
Of 12 dolphins rescued there and treated by the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo, two were released off Virginia Key in late April, and seven more off Key Largo in early May. One calf was sent to a marine mammal facility in the Florida Panhandle, Newman said.
Unlike the bottlenose dolphin made familiar by Flipper, round-toothed dolphins are a more angular, primarily deep-water species unused to shallow waters and the food supply found there, said Dr. Robert Stevens, one of three volunteer veterinarians on board for today's release.
But like their well-known cousins, round-toothed dolphins are a highly social species. They travel in ''pods'' so tightly knit that when a few members fall ill or end up in shallow waters, healthy dolphins tend to tag along.
''The bottom line is when that happens, the healthy animals go with them, and then face issues of getting overheated and beaten up by the surf,'' said Stevens. ``Oftentimes the sick ones bring in the healthy ones, and they end up getting sick too.''
That close-knit instinct can help in the healing process, even as it puts some dolphins in harm's way, Stevens added. ''They seem to derive some confidence and security from having more of their species around,'' he said. ``It's good to have a number of them to treat together.''
The two dolphins released today, known among volunteers by their identification numbers R134 and R372, were found to have had a high white blood cell count, indicating abnormal levels of bacteria in their bloodstream. They were treated regularly over the past five months with antibiotics and antiparasite drugs for tapeworms, lungworms and roundworms, Stevens said.
In recent weeks, the pair were tagged with satellite and tracking transponders set to locate them after their release. The devices will fall off within six weeks, Newman said, enough time to ensure that the dolphins make it back out to the open sea.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12626098.htm
Weakened Ophelia rests near Carolina coast
PAUL NOWELL
WILMINGTON, N.C. - Ophelia kept up its teasing dance along the coast of the Carolinas on Monday, dropping slightly in strength from hurricane to tropical storm as it barely moved toward land.
Although Ophelia was centered more than 200 miles offshore, nonresidents were ordered to leave one of North Carolina's Outer Banks islands and 300 National Guard troops were sent to mustering points along the coast. School systems in five counties closed, even though the storm's eye was predicted to remain offshore until Wednesday.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12620531.htm
Spy convict faces deportation to Cuba, lawyer says
A convicted Cuban spy who belonged to the now-dismantled Wasp Network faces deportation and would be the third forced to leave the country.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
Marisol Gari, an Orlando woman convicted of spying for the Cuban government, has been detained for possible deportation back to the island, her Miami attorney says.
Louis Casuso told The Herald his client was detained two weeks ago and is now being held at a detention facility outside Miami-Dade County in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which carries out deportation orders.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12621317.htm
Hurricane worries: Is this the new normal?
BY DOUGLAS HANKS III
woes have never been a secret. From the University of Miami Hurricanes to the cyclonic swirl that decorated the stage for MTV's recent Miami broadcast, fierce storms are probably the region's most famous liability.
But what if the downside gets worse? If predictions of newly active hurricane seasons come true, where will that leave the Sunshine State's reputation as a tropical getaway and balmy place to own real estate?
It's a question getting more and more attention as images of spinning hurricane patterns and devastation dominate the national media.
''I'm hearing -- and I'm sure a lot of baby boomers are -- that we could be in a period of heightened hurricane activity for 20 years,'' said Jack McCabe, a real estate analyst in Deerfield Beach. ``I think a lot of folks are going to consider: Do we really want to invest a lot of money in real estate in areas prone to that?''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12605803.htm
U.S. response as seen elsewhere
BY TRUDY RUBIN
A trip to Paris earlier this month made me painfully aware of the global impact of Hurricane Katrina.
The tardy national response to the suffering and death in New Orleans shocked both those who admire and those who criticize the American superpower. It caused foreigners to ask whether America is indeed a power in decline. If it can't protect its own, how can it aspire to lead others?
The Bush administration, which seems to believe its own spin, may not recognize the damage done to America's image. It should be paying attention. Unless reversed, the foreign perception of American incompetence will further erode America's influence and interests abroad.
The question I was asked repeatedly at a conference in Paris was: ''How could this happen in the world's most powerful country?''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12625390.htm
The New Zealand Herald
Bush tries to repair hurricane damage to his presidency
13.09.05 1.00pm
By Andrew Gumbel
NEW ORLEANS - Facing the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, George Bush took his first close-up tour of a devastated New Orleans in what appeared to be as much a political damage limitation exercise as an opportunity to size up the physical damage from Hurricane Katrina.
The tour came as the death toll climbed past 400, including 45 bodies found in a New Orleans Memorial Medical Centre hospital which was evacuated a week ago after it was surrounded by floodwaters, AP reported.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345341
US says LA and Melbourne threat 'propaganda'
13.09.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - A videotape threatening al Qaeda attacks on Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, appears to be a propaganda ploy from the militant network, timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, US officials said.
The videotape, aired on Sunday by ABC News, featured an American-sounding man with a concealed face whom officials believe to be Adam Yahiye Gadahn, an Islamic convert from Southern California wanted for questioning by the FBI.
"Yesterday, London and Madrid," the masked man says, referring to the mass-killings from bombings of trains in London and Madrid.
"Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing. And this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint and compassion."
An American speaker may have been chosen to issue the threat against Los Angeles to make the message appear more ominous, officials said. Concerns about local cells supporting al Qaeda have been heightened by the July 7 bombings in London, in which four British Muslims killed themselves and 52 other people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345342
Los Angeles grid stabilised after widespread outage
13.09.05 10.30am UPDATE
The electricity system in Los Angeles has been stabilised and is returning to normal, said a spokesman for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council.
A widespread power outage hit Los Angeles today, knocking out electricity to thousands of customers, snarling traffic and stranding high-rise office workers in elevators or trains as officials scrambled to determine the cause.
Authorities declared a state of emergency shortly after the 12.35pm PDT (7.35am NZT) blackout, which struck a wide swath of the city in seemingly random patches.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345317
Foxx leads Katrina aid efforts
13.09.05
Jamie Foxx, working on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, says when the going gets tough, celebrities need to get giving.
"The reason you have to do this is you have to let them know that you're real," Foxx said after a visit to Houston's Astrodome, where cots have been set up for victims.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345219
Signs of life in New Orleans, restrictions relaxed
13.09.05
By Kieran Murray
Signs of renewed life spread in New Orleans yesterday even though flood waters from Hurricane Katrina still swamped parts of the city and the hunt for the dead was far from over.
President George W. Bush spent the night aboard a military ship docked off New Orleans and was to tour the devastated city and visit areas in Mississippi later in the day.
The death toll from the storm climbed past 400, but the figure was far lower than initial fears that thousands had died in New Orleans alone.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345264
Bride and groom in trouble for kissing
13.09.05 8.20am
An Israeli couple who were getting married in India could be in trouble with police for kissing publicly at a Hindu holy place, reports say.
Hindu priests blew a fuse when the couple kissed on the banks of the holy Lake Pushkar in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.
"It spoiled the prayers. The wedding became a farce because of this unholy act," said pandit S. N. Garg.
The pandits have filed a complaint with police under an archaic law that treats kissing at religious places as a vulgar act. Those found guilty can be jailed for three months.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345259
Report says UK search powers aimed at blacks and Asians
13.09.05 1.00pm
By Marie Woolf
A fresh row over stop and search powers has erupted after it emerged anti-terrorist police have received orders singling out blacks and Asians.
Civil liberties campaigners and black groups have reacted furiously over official orders to the British Transport Police which says terrorist suspects are of "Asian, West Indian and East African origin." They have urged the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate.
Officers patrolling on the tube and train network, have been told not to "use stereotypical images of terrorists when deciding whether or not to use their powers of stop and search."
But the Operational Order, issued after the 7 July attacks, which the Independent has seen, adds: "It should be noted, however, that recent suspects have included individuals of Asian, West Indian and East African origin, some of whom have British Nationality."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345334
Radio Marigny gives New Orleans new heartbeat
13.09.05
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - As you round a corner in the club land district of Marigny, the silence of New Orleans is suddenly interrupted by blasting rock and bossa nova.
From a rickety wooden home, musician Kenny Claiborne and bartender Joshua Nascimento, are trying to breathe a bit of life back into a city devastated by Hurricane Katrina by turning their balcony into what they call "Radio Marigny."
Using power from a generator and the biggest speakers they could find, they have been broadcasting whatever their few remaining neighbors request or they themselves want to hear to drown out the roar of helicopters and military trucks that has replaced New Orleans' more usual sounds of jazz.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345222
Nicaragua's Miskito Indians sent food aid
12.09.05 2.20pm
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - The United Nations says it will send emergency food aid to thousands of Miskito Indians threatened with famine in a remote corner of Nicaragua after a plague of rats plundered their crops.
The UN will send 130 tonnes of food to 14 Indians near the Coco River who face food shortages because of the rodents, whose numbers have been boosted by snake-hunting, said World Food Programme representative Krystyna Bednarska.
"At the moment the crops are affected by a plague of rats which have destroyed 100 per cent of the rice crop, 50 per cent of the maize crop and some manioc," she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345203
Belfast accusations fly after riots
12.09.05 1.00pm
By David McKittrick
BELFAST - The air in Belfast, which on Saturday was thick with loyalist petrol bombs and blast bombs, was yesterday filled with recriminations following one of the city's worst nights of rioting for years.
The city drew breath following a lawless night in which police and troops came under sustained attack after the authorities refused to allow a controversial Orange parade to pass through a nationalist area of West Belfast.
Following an Orange call for supporters to take to the streets, disturbances broke out across County Antrim, with violence in the towns of Ballyclare, Carrickfergus and Larne, as well as the north Belfast suburbs of Glengormley and Rathcoole.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345188
Iraq constitution no nearer
12.09.05 1.00pm
BAGHDAD - Iraqi politicians have failed to conclude negotiations on a draft constitution and it remains unclear when a final text may be printed, less than five weeks before a referendum, Iraqi and UN officials said.
"We don't know when they'll finish," Nicholas Haysom, the United Nations official charged with the printing, said. "We'd like it as soon as possible."
Last week, Haysom said he expected the National Assembly formally to endorse a final text on Sunday, after making an amendment in talks that followed parliament's adoption of the draft on August 28. Any later, he had said, and it would be a "challenge" to get five million copies out to the electorate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345194
N Korea hardens stance ahead of nuclear talks
12.09.05 4.20pm
By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL - Six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes open on Tuesday in Beijing with Pyongyang having hardened its stance on its right to have a civilian programme -- a key sticking point in the discussions.
The talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States headed into a recess on August 7 after failing to settle even on a statement of principles during 13 days of discussions in Beijing.
Since then, North Korea has stepped up its rhetoric on what it says is its inherent right to a peaceful nuclear programme and delayed the original late-August date for restarting the talks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345205
Oracle to buy rival Siebel
13.09.05 1.10pm
SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp said it would buy rival Siebel Systems Inc in a deal that values Siebel at US$5.85 billion ($8.41 billion) and gives Oracle a stronger foothold in the robust niche of customer management software as it challenges industry leader SAP of Germany.
Oracle, hunting for takeovers in a consolidating software market, will buy Siebel for US$10.66 per share, a 16.8 per cent premium to Siebel's closing share price of US$9.13 on Friday. The agreement is worth US$3.61 billion after subtracting Siebel's US$2.24 billion in cash.
Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said the acquisition would immediately boost profits and help the Redwood Shores, California-based software maker close the gap with SAP -- the leading provider of business application software for large companies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10345344
This is Bush's Pre-emption. This will cause aggression by other nations before the USA could pull this off and Bush knows that and desires it SO HE HAS A REASON. The aggression of Pre-emption is aggression enough for any nation at this point. The USA is no longer a safe place to live. It's a target. Find your country of origin. Leave the USA to the Neocons.
Pentagon plans strike-first nuclear policy
12.09.05 1.00pm
By Rupert Cornwell
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has drawn up a new strategy, built on the 2002 "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive military strikes, that would allow the US to make first use of nuclear weapons to thwart an a WMD attack against the country.
Under the scheme, developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff but yet to be ratified by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, commanders would be able to request permission from the President to use nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.
According to the Washington Post, one possibility is an enemy that is using, or "is about to use" weapons of mass destruction against US military forces or civilian population.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345189
Astronomers detect distant cosmic explosion
13.09.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - Astronomers have detected a cosmic explosion at the very edge of the visible universe, a 13-billion-year-old blast that could help them learn more about the earliest stars.
The brilliant blast - known as a gamma ray burst - was probably caused by the death of a massive star soon after the Big Bang, but was glimpsed on September 4 by Nasa's new Swift satellite and later by ground-based telescopes.
The explosion occurred soon after the first stars and galaxies formed, perhaps 500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang explosion that scientists believe gave birth to the cosmos. The current scientific estimate for the age of the universe is 13.7 billion years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345335
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