The Miami Herald
Katrina disrupts nation's economy
Economic activity in the United States could be severely crimped by the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina
Herald Staff and Wire Report
From gas stations to grocery stores, farms to factories, the force of Hurricane Katrina is raging through the U.S. economy.
The storm hit a chokepoint in the economy -- a concentration of ports, rail lines, barge traffic and major highways making up one of the nation's major trade hubs. Major transportation arteries are clogged, and imports and exports have slowed to a crawl.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12538591.htm
Gas prices climb; Bush makes a plea
Gas prices continued rising in South Florida, as Gov. Bush -- with Labor Day weekend approaching -- urged everyone to conserve fuel.
BY MATTHEW HAGGMAN, DOUGLAS HANKS III AND MARY ELLEN KLAS
mhaggman@herald.com
Neighborhood gas prices rose nine cents a gallon in one day amid reports of scattered outages Thursday, a Herald survey of South Florida fuel stations showed.
Average local fuel prices have jumped nearly 20 cents a gallon since Monday when Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf coast, one of the most important energy-producing regions to the nation -- and Florida.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12539209.htm
Storm surge, debris shut 2 national parks
Katrina's storm surge swept across Everglades National Park and Dry Tortugas Park, causing rangers to keep both closed until they clean up debris left behind.
BY PETER BAILEY
pbailey@herald.com
Most of the facilities at Everglades National Park will remain closed because of damage caused by the storm surge following Hurricane Katrina.
Officials closed the areas surrounding the park's main entrance west of Florida City and at Shark Valley off the Tamiami Trail west of Miami because of flooding that rose to more than five feet.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12539386.htm
2,000 still without power in Dade
By JOHN DORSCHNER
jdorschner@herald.com
Florida Power & Light announced Friday morning that its crews have finished the power restoration effort in Broward County, and were working on getting the remaining 2,000 powerless homes in Miami-Dade back on line.
The 2,000 are all that remain of the 1.45 million who lost power when Hurricane Katrina slammed through South Florida on Thursday, Aug. 25. The company's goal is to have all 2,000 customers restored by this evening.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12544431.htm
Woman awaits word on fate of her family
A Gulfport native now living in Coral Springs fears for the safety of her family after Hurricane Katrina left many in the New Orleans area homeless, widowed and orphaned.
BY DARRAN SIMON
Madeline Andrews doesn't know whether her family members are alive or dead.
Days after Hurricane Katrina slammed Mississippi and Louisiana, killing hundreds and leaving thousands homeless, Andrews waits for word.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12539210.htm
Stranded pets get aid from Broward
Humane Society of Broward County staff will leave on Saturday to assist the Houston Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in helping animals displaced as a result of Hurricane Katrina.
A team of seven from Broward will help set up a staging ground in Houston to care for the animals.
The humane society will rotate teams to Houston and such areas as Mississippi for at least the next eight weeks. As each team returns, they are to bring pets with them that need new homes in South Florida.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12539229.htm
The Cheney Observer
Political behavior in Plame case despicable
Re "A CIA Cover Blown, a White House Exposed," Aug. 25
Thank you for a comprehensive article on the leaking of the identity of a CIA operative for political purposes. The Valerie Plame Wilson story is complicated to the point of confusion, but the essence is this: The Bush administration was willing to compromise national security to prevent the American people from learning that Bush lied to get America to go to war against Iraq. I look forward to special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's report and the eventual impeachment of President Bush.
JOHN WEINELL
Dana Point
The fact that no one has yet been held accountable for this despicable behavior proves that Bush is either incompetent as a manager or is attempting to hide who in his group of associates leaked the information. All he had to do to resolve this issue is what any competent CEO would do under the same circumstance: summon all of his advisors and subordinates and inform them that if he didn't have the name or names of who committed this despicable act on his desk in one week, they'd all be replaced.
This incident, along with the lies and distortions that have produced the current dilemma in Iraq, should prove to any reasonable, thoughtful person that this president is unworthy of our trust.
MATT GIORGI
Brea
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-le-sunday28.4aug28,1,6166414.story
'L.A.Times' Offers Mammoth Piece On Plame Leak
By E&P Staff
Published: August 25, 2005 11:30 AM ET
NEW YORK In a mammoth 5,500-word piece Thursday headlined “A CIA Cover Blown, A White House Exposed,” Tom Hamburger and Sonni Efron lay out in The Los Angeles Times what happened in the days leading up to, and beyond, the now infamous July 2003 leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to the press.
“Beyond the whodunit,” they write, “the affair raises questions about the credibility of the Bush White House, the tactics it employs against political opponents and the justification it used for going to war.”
The article includes some fresh revelations or comments. For example, it notes that allies of Karl Rove defend his talks with reporters in which he tried to counter claims by former Ambassador Joseph Wilson. Then it adds that “some of Rove's colleagues say that he and others used poor judgment in talking about Wilson's wife. 'With the benefit of hindsight, it's clear our focus should have been on Wilson's facts, not his conclusions or his wife or his politics,' said one official who was helping with White House strategy at the time.”
http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001021628
A CIA Cover Blown, a White House Exposed
Submitted by editor on August 25, 2005 - 2:13pm.
By Tom Hamburger and Sonni Efron
Source: LA Times
WASHINGTON — Toward the end of a steamy summer week in 2003, reporters were peppering the White House with phone calls and e-mails, looking for someone to defend the administration's claims about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
About to emerge as a key critic was Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat who asserted that the administration had manipulated intelligence to justify the Iraq invasion.
At the White House, there wasn't much interest in responding to critics like Wilson that Fourth of July weekend. The communications staff faced more pressing concerns — the president's imminent trip to Africa, growing questions about the war and declining ratings in public opinion polls.
http://mediachannel.org/blog/node/749
Ex-Halliburton worker pleads guilty to bribes
Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:24 PM ET
HOUSTON (Reuters) - A former Halliburton Co. worker pleaded guilty late last week to taking more than $110,000 in bribes from an Iraqi company in 2004 and defrauding the United States, court documents showed.
The man, Glenn Allen Powell, is facing up to 20 years in prison plus a $1.25 million fine for the crimes, which he committed while working for Halliburton's KBR engineering and construction unit, the U.S. government's largest private contractor in Iraq.
http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyID=2005-08-22T202433Z_01_SCH273329_RTRIDST_0_USREPORT-ENERGY-HALLIBURTON-DC.XML
Ex-Halliburton employee pleads guilty to accepting bribes for Iraq work
Jeannie Shawl at 6:06 PM ET
[JURIST] Glenn Allen Powell, a former employee of Halliburton [official website; JURIST news archive] subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR) [official website], has pleaded guilty to charges that he accepted bribes and defrauded the US government when awarding a contract to an Iraqi company in 2004. According to the plea agreement, KBR discovered during an internal investigation that Powell had accepted more than $110,000 in exchange for a $609,000 contract to renovate a warehouse in Iraq. Powell will be sentenced November 18 and could face up to 20 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine. In March, Jeff Alex Mazon, another an ex-KBR employee, was indicted on fraud charges [JURIST report]. It is alleged that Mazon cost the federal government $3.5 million by inflating subcontractor bids and taking kickbacks on contracts awarded.
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/08/ex-halliburton-employee-pleads-guilty.php
Chicago Bridge gets Halliburton-related subpoena
Dow Jones/AP
WASHINGTON — Chicago Bridge & Iron Co., a Netherlands-based engineering and construction company, has received a subpoena from a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation into a Halliburton Co. construction project in Nigeria where Chicago Bridge was a subcontractor.
ADVERTISEMENT
Houston-based Halliburton's foreign operations have been the focus of investigations by various regulatory agencies. The U.S. Department of Justice and the SEC have been investigating allegations of bribery of Nigerian officials connected to the construction of a natural-gas liquefaction plant at Bonny Island.
Halliburton said it was under formal SEC investigation in June 2004.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/3320122
Oriental Oil Kish activities suspended in Iran
Tuesday, August 23, 2005 - ©2005 IranMania.com
LONDON, August 23 (IranMania) - Oriental Oil Kish has been barred from continuing the projects it has at hand or has commitment to implement pending judicial inquiries into its activities, said a senior National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) official.
Mohammad Reza Moqaddam, NIOC director for planning affairs, told ISNA that the NIOC has the authority to ?halt the activities of companies involved in financial corruption as well as those which have just begun to do so?.
?Since it was revealed that this company (Oriental Oil Kish) is involved in financial corruption, it was decided that its activities must be brought to an end,? he said, adding that Pars Oil and Gas Company will hand over the project to develop South Pars phases IX and X to another contractor or complete the drilling operations using its own facilities.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=34651&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
Whistle-blowers need more protection
OUR OPINION: TOO MANY PUNISHED FOR CALLING IT AS THEY SEE IT
In theory, federal employees who refuse to play along when they see wrongdoing in government enjoy protection against reprisals, but don't tell that to Bunnatine H. Greenhouse. She's the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers procurement official who lost her job last week after refusing to back away from criticism of Pentagon contracts involving the Halliburton Company, formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, for work in Iraq. The demotion of Ms. Greenhouse appears to be a particularly egregious instance of punishing a federal whistle-blower who won't bend to the political winds.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12539759.htm
Florida sweeps up from Katrina, but braces for a possible encore
By Jill Barton; NHC
August 26, 2005
MIAMI (AP) - Residents of the Florida Panhandle nervously monitored the path of Hurricane Katrina early Saturday as weary South Florida homeowners swept the muddy residue of floodwaters from their basements and street crews canoed through miles of inundated roadways.
Katrina threatened an encore visit as early as Monday after ripping through southern Florida and leaving seven people dead. Though the storm appeared to have turned more toward the Louisiana-Mississippi coastline, forecasters were uncertain of exactly where along the northern Gulf Coast it might strike.
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/wptv/article/0,2547,TCP_1213_4023191,00.html
Unrest intensifies at Superdome shelter
By ADAM NOSSITER
Associated Press Writer
See Expanded Coverage
More Stories, Multimedia
NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Fights and trash fires broke out, rescue helicopters were shot at and anger mounted across New Orleans on Thursday, as National Guardsmen in armored vehicles poured in to help restore order across this increasingly desperate and lawless city.
"We are out here like pure animals. We don't have help," the Rev. Issac Clark, 68, said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where corpses lay in the open and evacuees complained that they were dropped off and given nothing.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HURRICANE_KATRINA?SITE=FLSTU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=HURRICANE
Louisiana refugees safe at Port Salerno home
By Ike Crumpler
staff writer
September 1, 2005
PORT SALERNO — Waiting for Hurricane Katrina to amass into the ominous monster that sent anxiety levels skyrocketing in their Gulf Coast homes wasn't an option for Amber Bartron and Kerri Esteves.
"We have kids to think about," said Bartron.
http://www.tcpalm.com/tcp/local_news/article/0,,TCP_16736_4045517,00.html
Forget Freedom Fries: U.S. Lawmaker Jones Turns Against the War
Sept. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Walter Jones says the French may have been right about Iraq after all.
This isn't just any U.S. politician having second thoughts. Jones, a Republican representative from North Carolina, is the guy who was so incensed at France's opposition to the U.S. invasion he had the French fries served in congressional cafeterias renamed ``Freedom'' fries.
Now Jones has changed his mind about the war, and critics who called his gesture a trivializing stunt may be changing theirs about him. ``I don't think Walter's the only member'' of Congress rethinking Iraq, said Representative Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who called Freedom fries ``one of the silliest things'' he'd ever seen in Congress. ``What's unusual about Walter is he's willing to say it.''
Jones says he has lined up 46 co-sponsors of legislation he introduced with two anti-war Democrats in June calling on President George W. Bush to set a timetable for bringing U.S. troops back. He says he expects the number of co-sponsors to increase after Congress resumes next week.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=a7ixq_XdNgNA&refer=us
Gosh, he must be proud of himself.
EXCLUSIVE: Karl Rove Makes Surprise Visit to Camp Casey!
Greets, Thanks Bush Supporters Opposing Cindy Sheehan
Snubs, Ignores Combat Vets, Gold Star Families Who Made Ultimate Sacrifice for Bush's War
CRAWFORD, TX - Driving his own pickup, with two trucks blockading both sides of the street, Bush Administration Senior Political Advisor and Deputy Chief of Staff, Karl Rove made a surprise sunset visit/photo-op Tuesday night to the half dozen or so Bush supporters camped across the street from "Camp Casey" in Crawford, Texas where Cindy Sheehan -- whose son, Casey, was killed in Iraq -- originally made her stand requesting a meeting and an explanation from George W. Bush, The BRAD BLOG has learned from eye-witnesses.
According to supporters from both the Bush and Sheehan sides of the street at the makeshift protest sites, Rove's visit occurred as the bulk of Sheehan supporters and volunteers were enjoying a final "thank you dinner" down at the larger Camp Casey II several miles down the road on Tuesday evening.
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001784.htm
Rove caught at Crawford protest site
RAW STORY
Senior Bush adviser Karl Rove was spotted at the camp of President Bush's supporters outside the Cindy Sheehan anti-war protest near Bush's Crawford Texas ranch, RAW STORY has learned.
BradBlog.com, who anchored Raw Radio's daily broadcast from the protest site, has acquired photographs of Rove greeting Bush supporters on site.
In one photo, Rove stands with a supporter's arm thrown around him in a white shirt outside a white pickup truck, grinning.
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Rove_caught_at_Crawford_protest__0901.html
Cindy Sheehan Rallies In Austin
Thursday, Cindy Sheehan takes her anti-war message to Houston, and the Office of U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Wednesday's bus tour stop was in the Capital City.
Nearly 2,000 people marched from the capitol to city hall and heard Sheehan talk about Casey, the son she lost in Iraq.
"They did the worst thing they could do to me on April 4, 2004. They took my oldest son away from me for nothing, and I wanted to come up here and say," Sheehan said, "'George Bush, you keep saying my son died for a noble cause. What is that noble cause? Why did you send my son, my oldest child, my baby boy, to die?'"
http://www.kxan.com/Global/story.asp?S=3794540&nav=0s3de1fj
In the Bush administration, yes men (and women) will do nicely
It ought to be obvious to all by now -- it certainly is to me -- that what we have in George W. Bush is a "What-me-worry?, Don't-bring-me-no-bad news" kind of guy.
Case in point:
I've just finished reading reading Michael Shnayerson's harrowing account in Vanity Fair about the trashing of Bunnatine (Bunny) Greenhouse.
Greenhouse, as Shnayerson reports, has one of those compelling personal histories.
She's one of six children of a not-very-formally-educated-but-common-sense-blessed, God-fearing, Bible-reading African-American couple who (despite rearing their family in the rigidly segregated South) imbued their little ones (including, besides Bunny, basketball legend Elvin Hayes) with a hunger for educational excellence.
So it's no surprise that Greenhouse earned her undergraduate degree in mathematics with honors, and subsequently earned three masters degrees. Until recently, she was the highest ranking civilian at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Her job was to ensure a fair process for allocating multi-million and multi-billion-dollar Corps contracts.
http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050901/COLUMNISTS09/509010373
Cheney to host Talent fundraiser
Published Thursday, September 1, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney will host a major fundraiser for Sen. Jim Talent in September as the Missouri Republican gears up for a challenge from Democratic state Auditor Claire McCaskill.
Talent spokesman Rich Chrismer confirmed yesterday that Cheney would host the event in St. Louis on Sept. 19.
With about $3.4 million in his war chest, Talent already holds a sizable advantage over McCaskill. That includes more than $1 million from a June event that President George W. Bush attended in St. Louis.
With the race expected to garner national attention, both candidates could beat previous records for a U.S. Senate race in Missouri, said Terry Jones, a professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Sep/20050901News017.asp
OhmyNews International Talk Back Board
Subject : Dick Cheney Running To Canada
Name : cranston36
Date : 2005-09-02 04:05 View : 116
Dick Cheney is headed for Calgary, Alberta, Canada on September 8th and hosted by the The Fraser Institute
Fraser is based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Michael Walter, founder of the ?쁈nstitute??is quoted as saying, "It's a private dinner for a few friends of ours with the vice president. It's by invitation only."
The cost for dinner ranges from $5,000 to $10,000.
Cheney is the Vice President of the United States. Why does he have official business in Calgary before a group that describes itself like this: ?쏧n raising the level of understanding about economic and social policy, the Institute's ideas contribute directly to the economic well-being of individual Canadians.??
What do Canadians expect to learn about social policy from Dick Cheney who has carped at the United Nations and publicly used profanity?
It might be that Dick is attracted to them.
In 2001 they released some information entitled, ?? Canadians not as generous as Americans according to the annual "Generosity Index"?? Maybe he has found his true home after all.
Other studies this ?쁈nstitute??released include :
?쏯ew study says poverty in Canada continues to be overstated??which was followed by ?쏳eturning British Columbia to Prosperity??
Cheney, is from Wyoming where 85 percent of petroleum production is controlled by British Petroleum during these times of economic trouble in the United States may be trying to gain insight from a report the Institute put out in 2001, ?쏷he Perfect Food in a Perfect Mess: The Cost of Milk in Canada??
http://english.ohmynews.com/TALK_BACK/bbs_view.asp?ba_code=63&bb_code=301791
Prices in area climb past $3 per gallon
By KATE CLEMENTS
Published Online August 31, 2005
As gas prices topped $3 per gallon in East Central Illinois, the Bush administration announced today it would release oil from federal reserves.
Meanwhile, frustrated with rising gas prices and worried about their effect on the economy, area lawmakers are pushing for action in Springfield.
One of the solutions backed by state Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville, and state Rep. Chapin Rose, R-Mahomet, is a 60-day holiday from the state's sales tax on gasoline.
"It's absolutely, positively criminal that the state of Illinois is gouging its citizens at the pump," Rose said. "It's absolutely egregious because the higher the price of gas is, the higher the tax is."
The Bush move to release reserves, which was expected later in the day, is designed to give refineries a temporary supply of crude oil to take the place of interrupted shipments from tankers or offshore oil platforms affected by the storm.
http://www.news-gazette.com/localnews/story.cfm?Number=18886
The New Zealand Herald
Typhoon strengthens, heads for Okinawa
02.09.05 2.15pm
TOKYO - A powerful typhoon churning toward Japan's Okinawa islands strengthened by Friday to a Class Five storm -- technically the same strength as Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans -- and experts said it could also threaten Japan's southernmost main island.
Typhoon Nabi -- Korean for "butterfly" -- increased in power to super-typhoon status, the Tropical Storm Risk group at University College London said on its website, www.tropicalstormrisk.com
An official at Japan's Meteorological Agency warned that the storm could reach Okinawa by Monday and could curve up to hit Japan's southernmost main island of Kyushu.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343729
Louisiana troops will 'shoot and kill' to end violence
03.09.05 6.15pm UPDATE
BATON ROUGE, Louisiana - Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco warned rioters and looters in New Orleans that National Guard troops are under her orders to "shoot and kill" to end the rampant violence in the city in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343753
NZ offers hurricane help, Kiwis missing
02.09.05 1.00pm
New Zealand has offered hurricane assistance to the United States.
Foreign Minister Phil Goff has been in touch with the White House and the US State Department.
He said as a friend of the United States, New Zealand stands ready to help. The response from the Americans has been that there is no request for specific assistance as yet.
Meanwhile there is growing concern for the safety of at least three New Zealanders unaccounted for in New Orleans.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10343698
Bodies litter New Orleans streets
02.09.05 1.00pm
By Mark Babineck
NEW ORLEANS - Rotting bodies litter New Orleans streets as troops headed in to control looting and violence and thousands of desperate survivors of Hurricane Katrina plead to be evacuated from the flooded city, or even just fed.
The historic jazz city became a playground for armed looters, and sporadic gunfire hampered chaotic and widely criticised rescue efforts.
The mayhem in New Orleans, after Katrina's attack on the US Gulf Coast on Monday, resembled a refugee crisis in a Third World hot spot. There was a television report that a sniper opened fire on rescue workers as they tried to evacuate sick patients from a flooded hospital.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343714
Lebanon charges four with murder in Hariri case
02.09.05 1.00pm
By Lin Noueihed
BROUMMANA, Lebanon - Lebanon has charged four pro-Syrian generals with murder over the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, judicial sources said.
They said Lebanon's Public Prosecutor Saeed Meerza also charged the four, detained on Tuesday on the recommendation of chief UN investigator Detlev Mehlis, with attempted murder and carrying out a terrorist act. Hariri and 20 others were killed in a massive bombing in Beirut on February 14.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343700
Iraqi Shi'ites bury dead after stampede tragedy
02.09.05 1.00pm
NAJAF, Iraq - Thousands of mourners poured into the holy city of Najaf to bury some of the victims of the stampede in Baghdad in the burial ground most sacred to Iraq's Shi'ite Muslims.
The stampede on a bridge over the river Tigris during a religious festival on Wednesday killed around 1000 people, the greatest loss of Iraqi life in a single incident since the United States invasion of 2003.
The government announced a full judicial inquiry.
Hundreds of graves were dug at a cemetery in Najaf, 160km south of Baghdad. This Reuters correspondent saw at least 130 bodies being buried, with other graves open.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343704
US confirms its troops killed journalist in Iraq
02.09.05 1.00pm
BAGHDAD - The US military confirmed on Thursday that its soldiers killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq but said their action was "appropriate".
Describing Sunday's incident, when television soundman Waleed Khaled was killed by multiple shots, Major General Rick Lynch said: "That car approached at a high rate of speed and then conducted activity that in itself was suspicious. There were individuals hanging outside with what looked to be a weapon.
"It stopped and immediately put itself in reverse. Again suspicious activity. Our soldiers on the scene used established rules of engagement and all the training received ... decided that it was appropriate to engage that particular car.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343707
US confirms its troops killed journalist in Iraq
02.09.05 1.00pm
BAGHDAD - The US military confirmed on Thursday that its soldiers killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq but said their action was "appropriate".
Describing Sunday's incident, when television soundman Waleed Khaled was killed by multiple shots, Major General Rick Lynch said: "That car approached at a high rate of speed and then conducted activity that in itself was suspicious. There were individuals hanging outside with what looked to be a weapon.
"It stopped and immediately put itself in reverse. Again suspicious activity. Our soldiers on the scene used established rules of engagement and all the training received ... decided that it was appropriate to engage that particular car.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343707
Solar power firms warm up for stock market debuts
02.09.05 1.00pm
A number of solar power firms are considering floating their shares in the coming months as the soaring price of oil draws increasing interest from governments trying to reduce their dependence on importing costly and polluting fossil fuels.
The largest markets for solar power -- Germany and Japan -- have already been boosted by state support, which has made relatively-costly products such as roof-top solar panels affordable to the general public.
And despite the sharp rise in oil prices most solar companies are likely to remain dependent on political support for the medium term, which exposes investors to political risks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10343683
Two Kiwi technology firms make Asia's 'A' list
02.09.05
By Georgina Bond
Two small Kiwi companies have scored big in getting on a prestigious list of the most promising technology companies in Asia.
Esphion and Argent Networks were last week named on international magazine Red Herring's Top 100 Private Companies of Asia - the only two from New Zealand.
In doing so they sit alongside Google and eBay, both of which are now public, and which, in their early days, were spotted by Red Herring as companies that would help change the way people live and work.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10343626
Signs of Israeli diplomatic thaw with Muslim world
02.09.05 1.00pm
By Gareth Jones
ISTANBUL - Israel has held its first public talks with Pakistan in a diplomatic breakthrough spurred by its Gaza pullout that signalled a possible thaw in relations with longtime foes in the Muslim world.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri said after a high-level meeting in Istanbul that his country had decided to "engage" with Israel after years as one of its harshest critics over its handling of the Palestinian uprising.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343718
High US death toll in Iraq
02.09.05
American military deaths in Iraq last month were the highest monthly total since January, and US officials predict escalating insurgent violence before the constitutional referendum in October.
At least 84 United States troops were killed in August, according to a count of deaths announced by the military.
Since the US-led invasion in March 2003, there have been 1879 American military deaths in Iraq, the Pentagon said, with another 14,265 troops wounded.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343653
Russia criticises US bio-arms report
02.09.05 9.20am
Russia has sharply criticised a United States report that suggests Moscow maintains an offensive biological weapons programme.
A US State Department report said the conclusion was based on all available evidence.
But the Kremlin said it strictly adhered to an international agreement that controls biological arms.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10343651
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