The Boston Globe
Owner of bus that burned warned on records
By Matt Curry, Associated Press Writer September 29, 2005
DALLAS --The bus company being investigated after its vehicle burned during a Hurricane Rita evacuation, killing 23 elderly passengers, was warned in 2002 about inadequate inspection and maintenance records, state records show.
Global Limo Inc. failed to test employees for use of alcohol or controlled substances, failed to keep records of vehicle inspections and maintenance and did not retain proof of the qualifications of brake inspectors who worked on its buses, according to Department of Public Safety records released Wednesday.
The company was told to comply with those regulations, but no enforcement action was taken.
Global's owner, James Maples, told the Texas Department of Transportation a month after the April 2002 review that he had made the requested changes. The report was first published Wednesday in The Dallas Morning News.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/09/29/owner_of_bus_that_burned_warned_on_records/
Man's creation could make solar power more accessible
By Dirk Perrefort, Connecticut Post September 29, 2005
MILFORD, Conn. --Who would have thought the material used to make potato chip bags could revolutionize the solar energy industry?
Nobody, until Milford resident Michael Costner came along. And now the mechanical engineer hopes to patent his visionary idea to make solar energy technology less expensive and more accessible to a larger market.
"We've developed a design that would deliver solar energy at more affordable costs," said Costner, a consultant with Aerospace Structural Research in Milford. "Our goal is to reduce the price so that solar energy can become more widely accepted. We think we're there."
Previous attempts to design a solar collector system, which focuses sunlight on a central beam, have been unsuccessful because of the costs involved, he said. Mirrors used in prototype collector systems to reflect the light are often too expensive and heavy for traditional uses.
Costner and his partner, Eric Hochberg, an optics expert with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, decided to use an aluminum mylar to reflect the sun's rays. The mylar is the same material used in potato chip bags. The material is not only light but cheap, Costner said.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2005/09/29/mans_creation_could_make_solar_power_more_accessible/
Ukraine marks anniversary of Nazi killings
By Natasha Lisova, Associated Press Writer September 29, 2005
KIEV, Ukraine --Weeping survivors clutching red carnations paid tribute Thursday to tens of thousands of Jews massacred by the Nazis 64 years ago at the ravine known as Babi Yar.
At a memorial park erected at the chasm just outside Kiev's city center, about 200 people bowed their heads and laid flowers at the bronze monument marking the area where the killings took place in September 1941. Senior Jewish community leaders bemoaned the fact that some of the country's most senior leaders were unable to attend.
"People must understand that this tragedy is important, not only for Jewish people, but also for all Ukrainians," Ukraine's chief rabbi Yakov Blaikh told The Associated Press after the ceremony. "If children learned a lesson from history, no skinheads would attack people on the streets."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/09/29/ukraine_marks_anniversary_of_nazi_killings/
Civil rights lawyer Baker Motley dies
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, chats with his wife, Coretta, left, and civil rights champion Constance Baker Motley before the start of an S.C.L.C. banquet in this Aug. 9, 1965 file photo in Birmingham, Ala. Motley, a federal judge who as a young lawyer represented Martin Luther King Jr. and played a pivotal role in reducing racial injustice in America in the 1960s, has died. She was 84. Motley died Tuesday, Sept. 27, 2005, after a career that in its early days found her fighting blatant racism in many of the nation's landmark segregation cases. (AP Photo/File)
By Larry Neumeister, Associated Press Writer September 29, 2005
NEW YORK --When she was 15, Constance Baker Motley was turned away from a public beach because she was black. It was only then -- even though her mother was active in the NAACP -- that the teenager really became interested in civil rights.
She went to law school and found herself fighting racism in landmark segregation cases including Brown v. Board of Education, the Central High School case in Arkansas and the case that let James Meredith enroll at the University of Mississippi.
Motley also broke barriers herself: She was the first black woman appointed to the federal bench, as well the first one elected to the New York state Senate.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/09/29/federal_judge_civil_rights_lawyer_dies/
American appeals Hong Kong conviction
September 29, 2005
HONG KONG --An American found guilty of murdering her investment banker husband after a sensational trial that featured lurid testimony about drugs, wealth and sexual abuse has filed an appeal, an attorney said Thursday.
Nancy Kissel was sentenced to life in prison on Sept. 1 for the killing of her husband, Robert, in what became known as the "Milkshake Murder."
Kissel, 41, was found guilty of lacing her husband's milkshake with sedatives before bashing his head with a metal ornament at the couple's Hong Kong luxury apartment.
Her attorney, Simon Clarke, said the appeal was filed Wednesday but declined to discuss the grounds for the appeal.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/09/29/american_appeals_hong_kong_conviction/
Kansas City Star
DeLay’s troubles a warning for GOP
While Americans have yearned for a less divisive atmosphere in Washington, U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay has long threatened and antagonized not just Democrats but many Republicans, too.
The Texas Republican has a reputation for wringing campaign “contributions” out of corporations and lobbying firms with all the finesse of an angry loan shark.Nicknamed “the Hammer,” DeLay has ordered trade associations and corporations to hire Republicans as lobbyists and blasted one industry group for simply hiring a former Democratic lawmaker as its president.DeLay has issued reckless statements that seem more appropriate to violence-torn banana republics than to the United States.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/12766778.htm
Brown digs deeper hole
Every time he opens his mouth, Michael Brown shows the American people why he’s now the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.Take Tuesday’s appearance before a congressional committee investigating local, state and federal responses to Hurricane Katrina.Brown was a political appointee who lacked emergency management experience.
This was his chance to show some remorse, and to apologize for the federal agency’s mistakes and plodding reactions to the devastating Gulf storm.Remember Brown’s televised appearances days after Katrina struck, when he insisted aid was quickly getting to New Orleans and thousands of evacuees were being fed in the city’s convention center? Little of what he said turned out to be correct.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/opinion/12766783.htm
Woman must carry grisly details about Rader ‘until the day he dies’
Tainted by BTK, attorney searches for normal
The Associated Press
“I don’t think anybody can appreciate what it was like to be in the trenches with him. But the bottom line is that I treated another human with respect and compassion, and for that I don’t apologize. I did what I had to do.”
Sarah McKinnon
HUTCHINSON, Kan. — Sarah McKinnon spent hours each day with Dennis Rader. She helped guide him through the legal process that ended with 10 life terms for a series of sadistic murders that terrified Wichita for decades.
Now the Reno County woman wonders how long it will take for life to return to normal — if it ever does.
“I’m still trying to find my stride,” McKinnon told The Hutchinson News for a story in Sunday’s editions. “I’m still trying to find where regular is — where I left off six months ago, where normal used to be.”
Adding to the strain, the defense attorney said, is that attorney-client privilege prevents her from discussing too many specifics.
“It’s not like you can call your best friend or your mom and dump it on them,” she said. “Because of this case’s high profile, I’ve had to carry it inside of me. And now that it’s said and done, I can’t just spill my guts.
“I’ve seen things I never wanted to see,” said McKinnon, who has lost 25 pounds since the Sedgwick County public defender’s office took the case in March. “I have information I never wanted, and I have things inside of me that I don’t want … but it’s stuff I have to keep until the day he dies.”
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/front/12742201.htm
Chicago Tribune
Former top aide begins testimony against Ryan
By Mike RobinsonThe Associated PressPublished September 29, 2005, 11:27 AM CDT
George Ryan's former right-hand man took the stand Thursday in the past governor's corruption trial, saying the reason he's testifying against his old boss is to help his fiance, who was accused in a bid-rigging indictment."I happen to love Andrea and you guys got my head in a vice," Scott Fawell told prosecutors.Fawell is serving a 61/2-year racketeering sentence and is testifying for the prosecution in hopes of getting a break at sentencing for himself and his fiance, Andrea Coutretsis, in a multimillion dollar bid-rigging scheme.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050929ryantrial,1,1445293.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
Ryan's inner circlePublished September 29, 2005
LAWRENCE WARNERChicago businessman and close friend of RyanRole in Ryan case: Ryan's co-defendant.Result of Operation Safe Road: Indicted in 2002 on charges he improperly used his influence in the secretary of state's office to benefit himself and others. Indicted again in 2003 on charges he illegally received $3 million in profits from secretary of state contracts and leases since 1991.ROGER STANLEYFormer state senator, lobbyist and friend of RyanRole in Ryan case: Agreed to cooperate in the probe in return for a reduced prison term of 27 months; is expected to testify for the prosecution.Result of probe: In 2003 admitted that he paid kickbacks to Udstuen to win state contracts and campaign business and that he took part in a payroll scam.SCOTT FAWELLFormer top aide to Ryan in the secretary of state's office, ex-chief executive officer of McPierRole in Ryan case: Star witness against Ryan, currently serving a 6 1/2-year prison term. Agreed to cooperate to win a reduced sentence for his fiance and former aide, Alexandria Coutretsis, who has pleaded guilty twice in corruption probes.Result of probe: Convicted in 2003 for diverting secretary of state resources to work on Ryan's gubernatorial campaign. In 2004 pleaded guilty to rigging a multimillion-dollar contract to oversee McCormick Place expansion.DONALD UDSTUENRyan confidant and former Metra board memberRole in Ryan case: Allowed federal investigators to secretly record his telephone calls to Ryan; is expected to testify for the prosecution.Result of probe: Pleaded guilty in 2002 to participating in a kickback scheme involving state contracts. In a separate scheme, admitted to taking about $380,000 in kickbacks from Warner.ARTHUR "RON" SWANSONFormer state senator, lobbyist and friend of RyanRole in Ryan case: Declined to cooperate in the probe but is expected to testify for the prosecution.Result of probe: Pleaded guilty in 2004 to lying to a federal grand jury about pocketing a $50,000 lobbying fee to win a state prison in southern Illinois, knowing Ryan had already decided to place it there.Source: U.S. attorney's office, Tribune reports
11 people hospitalized after derailment
JIM SALTER Associated PressBLACKWELL, Mo. - Eleven people suffered minor injuries late Wednesday when an Amtrak train derailed in eastern Missouri.
Jefferson County Sheriff Glenn Boyer said none of the injuries were life threatening.
The Texas Eagle, which runs between Chicago and San Antonio, derailed around 11 p.m., Amtrak spokeswoman Vernae Graham said. It had departed from Chicago at 3:20 p.m.
Graham said the train contained 90 passengers and 13 crew members.
Boyer said the train was moving slowly through a winding area of Jefferson County, about 50 miles south of St. Louis, when it apparently struck a rock slide.
Boyer described boulders about half the size of a car hood on the track.
The cause of the slide was not known, but the area received about 1 1/2 inches of rain Wednesday night.
"We're fortunate the engineer had to slow down," Boyer said. "It probably could have been a lot more serious."
Graham said the engine and four of the six cars were off the tracks. But Boyer said the train had seven cars, and all of them derailed. He said the engine turned over on its side, but the engineer walked away unharmed.
All the passenger cars remained upright, both said.
The 11 passengers taken to the hospital complained mostly of neck and back pain, Boyer said.
One of the passengers was a pregnant woman who complained that she felt labor pains.
The National Transportation Safety Board planned to investigate, Boyer said. School buses took the uninjured passengers to the fire house in De Soto to spend the night. It wasn't clear how long they would remain in the town just north of the scene of the derailment.
Authorities also didn't know how long the track would be closed.
Earlier Wednesday, a high-speed Amtrak Acela train plowed into a car at a crossing in Waterford, Conn., killing a woman and her 8-year-old grandson and causing major delays along the Boston-to-Washington corridor.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/12769515.htm
Mail & Guardian
High drama as EU sets talks on Turkish entry
European Union foreign ministers will meet in Luxembourg on October 2 in an eleventh-hour bid to finalise guidelines for membership talks with Turkey, scheduled to start a day later.Diplomats said ministers, meeting for a working dinner on Sunday night, would focus on overcoming Austrian demands that Ankara be offered a watered-down partnership instead of full membership of the 25-nation bloc.Vienna is also insisting that the EU should set a date for the early opening of entry negotiations with Croatia.The decision to hold the last-minute ministerial meeting in Luxembourg was taken after senior EU officials failed once again on Thursday to approve a framework for negotiations with Turkey.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=252260&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Kebble won't step into son's shoes
Roger Kebble, father of slain mining magnate Brett Kebble, is not planning to step into his son's shoes.Speaking at a press briefing at his son's home in Inanda, Johannesburg, on Thursday, he said he did not think he was the right person to pick up his son's cudgels."I'm just a fairly simple miner. I will stick to my knitting. I don't think I'm going to step into those shoes," Kebble said.
He did not say who would take over his son's many business interests, but he did hint that it was likely to be his empowerment partners.Family spokesperson David Barritt said Brett Kebble's personal finances would be wound up by his widow.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=252277&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Theories abound over Kebble's death
Theories and speculation on why and how mining magnate Brett Kebble was killed on Tuesday this week abounded in South African media on Thursday."Was mining magnate Brett Kebble the victim of a classic diamond murder?" Beeld newspaper asked in an article on Thursday.The newspaper said the question is being asked amid growing speculation that missing shares in Kebble's Randgold Resources were related to his diamond interests in Angola and Lesotho. It said there are strong similarities between Kebble's killing in Melrose Road Extension and the murder of socialite Hazel Crane on November 10 2003 -- 800m from where Kebble died. Crane had been on her way to testify about illegal diamond trading when she was shot dead in her car. Kebble (42), known as the "new Barney Barnato" for the excitement he had injected into Johannesburg's mining industry, was on his way to the house of his partner, Sello Rasethaba, when he was shot at about 9pm on Tuesday evening.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=252224&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Deaths highlight EU immigration troubles
The deaths of five people during a night of clashes on the Spanish-Moroccan border on Thursday once again threw into focus the growing pressure exerted by illegal immigration on the gateways into the European Union across the Mediterranean Sea.Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero met his Moroccan counterpart Driss Jettou in Seville on Thursday for talks on the problem following the unrest on Morocco's border with Ceuta, a Spanish enclave on the North African coast.Five people died before dawn when hundreds of would-be immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa attempted to storm the border fence around the enclave, just across the Strait of Gibraltar that divides Africa from mainland Europe.The European Commission called on its members to bolster cooperation with third countries to avert similar incidents.Spain's troubles are by no means unique among its fellow EU member-states that border the Mediterranean. All face a daily challenge in trying to contain illegal immigration, while also respecting the rights of potential asylum-seekers.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=252281&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
BAe's secret £1m to Pinochet
The United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is expected to launch an investigation into disclosures that the British arms company BAe secretly paid more than £1-million to the former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.The Guardian revealed how BAe had been identified in United States banking records as routing the payments through front companies between 1997 and last year.Calls for action were led by the British Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy. He said: “These allegations will be deeply embarrassing for BAe, a leading British company with ready access to Downing Street under this and previous governments and a company which receives significant subsidies from the public purse ... The government needs to send a strong message to British companies that corruption and bribery will not be permitted or excused.’’SFO investigators are studying the files relating to Red Diamond Trading, a front company controlled by BAe and registered in the British Virgin Islands. It is alleged that the arms company has been using Red Diamond to channel secret commissions worldwide to agents on arms sales, and may have circumvented laws on corruption and money-laundering.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=252132&area=/insight/insight__international/
Zimbabwe hospitals lack lab materials for HIV tests
Public hospitals in Zimbabwe are finding it difficult to conduct HIV/Aids tests because of a lack of essential laboratory chemicals, the state-run Herald newspaper reported on Wednesday.Zimbabwe has one of the highest HIV infection rates in the world. An estimated one in four Zimbabweans is HIV-positive.Tendai Nyakuedzwa, a laboratory scientist at Chitungwiza General Hospital, a large public hospital about 20km from the capital Harare, was cited as saying there was a "critical shortage" of reagents used in HIV-testing.Nyakuedzwa said machines used for accurate HIV-testing had not been operating at the hospital for four months because of the lack of the reagents.The hospital's HIV viral load machine has also been lying unused for the past year because of the lack of reagents, he said. The chemicals have to be imported from neighbouring South Africa, but Zimbabwe is facing critical
shortages of foreign currency needed to pay for such imports.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=252126&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Four thousand children still missing in Uganda
At least 4 000 children who were among some of the tens of thousands abducted by the Ugandan rebels from the north of the country cannot be traced, a Ugandan human rights group said in a report obtained on Wednesday.The report by Uganda Human Rights Commmission (UHRC) also accuses the government's forces of torturing civilians in the war-ravaged region, using methods that included suspending weights on genitals for extracting information or instilling discipline.The war is waged by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) guerillas who have displaced over 1,5-million people and abducted nearly 30 000 children and youth whom they have forced into their army. The LRA has also forced abducted girls into sex slavery. Many of the children had come back home after escaping from the LRA or being rescued by government forces but according to UHRC, "by the end of 2004, out of the 26 000 children abducted by the LRA, 4 000 were still unaccounted for in northern Uganda".
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=252170&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Almost 50 killed in attack on Chadian village
Almost 50 people have been killed in a village in eastern Chad during an attack by an armed group from neighbouring Sudan and subsequent clashes with Chadian forces, the government spokesman said on Tuesday.The attack took place in the eastern Wadai region on Monday morning, Hurmaji Musa Dumgor said in a statement."Armed and uniformed horsemen from Sudan infiltrated Chadian territory on Monday between 8am and 9am (7am and 8am GMT)... and took to massacring Chadian people and stole their livestock," he said."The Chadian armed forces responded rapidly," he added, saying the soldiers had killed eight of the attackers and captured seven.The horsemen had earlier killed at least 36 villagers in Madayun, according to army sources.Eastern Chad borders on the Darfur region of Sudan, where tens of thousands of people have been killed and more than a million displaced since rebels rose up in February 2003, prompting a fierce response from government forces and allied militia.The most notorious of these allies are the Janjaweed, armed men on horse- and camel-back widely condemned by human rights groups for their atrocities against civilians. - AFP
Cholera epidemic has killed 800 in West Africa
A current cholera epidemic spreading across West Africa is more serious than other recent outbreaks because of the fast spread of the disease in Senegal, Guinea-Bissau and Mauritania, the World Health Organisation said on Tuesday."Is it worse than in previous years? Yes, because of the big outbreaks it is worse," said WHO's cholera chief Claire-Lise Chaignat.This year's cholera epidemic across West Africa has sickened tens of thousands of people and killed around 800 amid heavy rains and resulting flooding, particularly in Dakar, Senegal's capital.Chaignat said that countries generally were not well enough prepared to handle the situation."We are concerned: Although countries have reacted, they should do more preparedness so that you can diminish the effects," she said, adding that poverty is the main reason for the spread of the disease.Epidemics of cholera, transmitted by infected water, are linked to poor hygiene, overcrowding, inadequate sanitation and unsafe water. West Africa is home to some of the world's poorest countries."It touches the poorest of the poor, those who live in shantytowns, don't have access to proper water and [pit] latrines," Chaignat said.According to WHO, more than 31 000 people were infected with cholera in nine west African countries between June and late August. Chaignat declined
to update that figure because of difficulties compiling overall figures.She also warned that the cholera season is only about to start in eastern and southern Africa. - Sapa-AP
Honolulu Advertiser
Pilot error blamed in deadly Iraq crash
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Human error caused a helicopter crash in western Iraq in January that killed 26 Hawai'i Marines and a sailor, according to an investigative report released yesterday on the deadliest crash in more than two years of combat in Iraq.
The crew of the California-based CH-53E Super Stallion became disoriented when weather turned bad and visibility was quickly reduced, and flew the helicopter into the ground, the Los Angeles Times reported. The crash killed the Hawai'i Marines, a Navy corpsman and four crew members based out of California.
The Jan. 26 crash occurred at 1:20 a.m. local time in a sandstorm near Rutbah, a corner of Iraq that touches the Syrian and Jordanian borders.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050929/NEWS01/509290341
HECO gets approval for 3.3% rate hike
Electric bills are going up by about $5 a month.
Hawaiian Electric Co. said yesterday that the state Public Utilities Commission granted its request for a 3.3 percent interim rate hike to pay for major capital improvements over the past 10 years.
The increase, which went into effect yesterday, is HECO's first in its base rate since 1995, when it raised rates by 1.3 percent.
On top of the base rate, electric bills have been rising because of higher fuel costs. In the past year, fuel costs have added about 16 percent to the typical bill.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050929/NEWS01/509290342/1001
Tougher oversight of relief spending needed
The unprecedented scope of the natural disasters that hit the Gulf Coast in Hurricanes Katrina and Rita will lead to an equally unprecedented flood of dollars designed to help the region rebuild.
Along with that comes the responsibility of making sure those dollars are spent wisely.
That's the issue facing members of Congress and oversight officials within the agencies most directly involved, including the Department of Homeland Security.
More auditors and specialists have been brought on board, but clearly there's a need for a smart, coordinated oversight plan.
Critics who fear this relief effort will become a funnel for extravagant waste and improper spending already have their poster child.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has contracted with Carnival Cruise Lines for three ships to be stationed off the Gulf as emergency housing. The deal — designed ostensibly to offset the losses the line will experience by pulling the ships out of commercial service — works out to $1,275 per evacuee per week.
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050929/OPINION01/509290309/1105/OPINION
The Moscow Times
Likely agenda for Russia-EU summit in London
RIA NOVOSTI. September 29, 2005, 7:45 PM
MOSCOW, (Yury Borko for RIA Novosti). --
At the sixteenth EU-Russia summit, which will be held on October 4 in London, the leaders of Russia and the European Union member states will for the first time discuss their relations within the context of the "roadmaps" approved at the EU-Russia summit held in Moscow in May 2005.These "roadmaps" anticipate the gradual creation of four common spaces in EU-Russia relations: economic; freedom, security and justice; external security; and research, science and education. The establishment of these common spaces is a long-term strategic aim and it will be too early to assess the success or otherwise of this objective in London. Instead, the summit participants will most likely discuss specific measures to implement each of the roadmaps and agree timescales for their implementation.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/doc/HotNews.html#58506
Putin Gives State Award to Key Player in Yukos Saga
By Anatoly Medetsky Staff Writer
President Vladimir Putin has presented a state award for services to the country to a key player in last year's sale of Yuganskneftegaz, the one-time crown jewel of the Yukos oil giant.
Nikolai Borisenko, the first deputy president of the state-owned Rosneft oil company, is among dozens of state oil workers who received the Order for Services to the Fatherland, Second Class, under a presidential decree signed Sept. 20, the Kremlin press service announced this week.
Borisenko represented Gazpromneft at an auction in December 2004 when the government sold Yuganskneftegaz for $9.4 billion to partially recover $28 billion in back tax claims against Yukos.
Gazpromneft, a former subsidiary of Gazprom, was initially created as a tool to create an oil and gas giant by merging Gazprom and Rosneft, a plan that has not materialized.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/09/29/010.html
Fight While Putin Took Questions
The Moscow Times
The husband of a human rights activist lost several teeth in a clash with guards who wanted to prevent the couple from participating in President Vladimir Putin's call-in show, news reports said Wednesday.
Nagitulla Khaidarov and his wife, Yevgenia Khaidarova, entered a security perimeter in the mining city of Vorkuta to join a group of people who had been selected to ask Putin questions via video link during Tuesday's show.
The trouble started when Khaidarova, head of the local chapter of Memorial, raised a banner saying that laws on the rehabilitation of victims of Soviet purges and on compensation for veterans should not be changed.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/09/29/014.html
UPDATE: Russia, EU hope for visa agreement at October 4 summit
RIA NOVOSTI. September 29, 2005, 7:00 PM
MOSCOW/LONDON, September 29 (RIA Novosti) -
Russia and the European Union may sign an agreement on simplifying visa regulations at the October 4 summit in London, the British ambassador to Moscow said Thursday. Tony Brenton told a joint news conference with Marc Franco, the head of the European Commission's Office in Moscow, that both the EU and Russia were working hard to strike a deal. Russia's envoy to London, Yury Fedotov, said Wednesday the planned agreement was only a step toward a visa-free regime. "If this is done, it will be an important and easy-to-understand result of the summit because it [the simplification of visa regulations] affects interests of millions," the diplomat said. But the signing of this agreement "does not remove the strategic task of achieving visa-free regulations between Russia and the EU." EU's Franco said the visa agreement should come along with a deal on a readmission agreement. The readmission agreement will be applied to stateless persons, while simplified visa regulations will regard students, journalists, diplomats and other people who need long-term visas, Franco added. Readmission agreements are bilateral agreements between the EU and a non-EU country and are designed to facilitate the expulsion of illegal immigrants. It introduces an obligation on the non-EU country to readmit, without any formalities, its own nationals and people coming from or having lived in that country. In return, non-EU countries would receive funds to take back and resettle these people.
New Ukrainian PM rules out re-privatization
RIA NOVOSTI. September 29, 2005, 5:51 PM
KIEV, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - The Ukrainian government does not plan any further re-privatization, the prime minister said Thursday."Re-privatization is over," Yuriy Yekhanurov said in Dnepropetrovsk, eastern Ukraine.The prime minister, approved in the post last week, said he planned to restore trust between authorities and business in the first month of his office. "The authorities should make the first steps toward business, moving on from tough control to support," Yekhanurov said.The premier said respect for private property rights was highly important. "The property that had to be re-nationalized has been de-privatized. All the current disputable issues will only be resolved through negotiations and agreements," Yekhanurov said, adding the authorities would not get involved in corporate conflicts or comment on them. The previous cabinet headed by Yuliya Tymoshenko launched a campaign to re-privatize some of the assets belonging to businessmen seen as close to former President Leonid Kuchma. In particular, these assets included Ukraine's largest steel mill, Krivorozhstal, holding 20% of the market, and the Nikopol ferroalloy plant. Opponents saw the move as Tymoshenko's attempt to promote the interests of certain business groups.Yekhanurov is expected to visit Moscow Friday.
Russia to supply Syria with ammunition, train officers
RIA NOVOSTI. September 29, 2005, 5:47 PM
MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will provide Syria with small arms ammunition and allow more Syrian students to study at Russian defense ministry universities, a ministry spokesman said Thursday.Syrian Chief of Staff General Ali Habib, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, and Chief of Staff Yury Baluyevsky reached this agreement during talks in Moscow September 27-28, the source said."[The parties] agreed on small supplies of ammunition for small arms to Syria and doubling the number of Syrian students in Russian higher education institutions under the Ministry of Defense. There are about 30 Syrian officers studying in Russia now," the spokesman said.The source also said the parties had not signed any high-level agreements during the talks.While in Russia, the Syrian general visited the Instrument Production Design Bureau in Tula (about 200 km south of Moscow), which has developed and produced 130 types of arms and military equipment for the Russian armed forces
AMERICAN TROOPS PULL OUT OF UZBEK BASE: WILL UNCLE SAM FIND A WORTHWHILE REPLACEMENT?
RIA NOVOSTI. September 29, 2005, 5:13 PM
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Pyotr Goncharov) - The United States is losing its best base for continuing the anti-terror operation in Afghanistan - Karshi-Khanabad - situated in south-eastern Uzbekistan in direct proximity to the area of fighting. American troops are to leave Uzbekistan without any chance of return. Late last Tuesday, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Fried told a news conference in Tashkent that his talks with President Islam Karimov failed to produce the desired result. Karimov was adamant in his demands and American troops are forced to leave without any further talks. Karshi-Khanabad will revert to Uzbek control by the end of the year.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/doc/HotNews.html#58505
Chechen Police Find Large Bomb
The Associated Press
ROSTOV-ON-DON -- Chechen police discovered a large homemade bomb in a car they stopped near Grozny, and there were concerns that a second car they did not manage to head off could also contain explosives, the Interior Ministry said Wednesday.
The police officers tried to stop the two small, Russian-made sedans for inspection Tuesday outside the village of Pobedinskoye, said Roman Shchekotin, spokesman for the Southern Federal District office of the Interior Ministry. Instead of stopping, the people in the cars opened fire. Two people then jumped from one of the cars into the other and made their getaway.
http://www.moscowtimes.ru/stories/2005/09/29/016.html
The Stage for Scandal
The fourth annual New Drama Festival promises to bring the usual mix of novelty and controversy to the Moscow theater scene.
By John FreedmanPublished: September 23, 2005
Someone is bound to say it over the next week, so I might as well beat them to the punch: "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." For those not accustomed to reading books from the Oprah Winfrey list, that is a quote from the beginning of Leo Tolstoy's "Anna Karenina."Tolstoy will be on the minds of many over the next week thanks to the organizers of the fourth annual New Drama Festival, which opened Thursday and runs to Sept. 30. No, there won't be any productions of Tolstoy's plays, although there will be a contemporary adaptation by the Presnyakov brothers of his novel "Resurrection." More importantly, however, several of the festival's daily discussion groups, bearing titles such as "Intimacy: To Offer It or Not?" and "War" parts one and two, are to be conducted in the light of epigrammatic quotes from works by Tolstoy. Apparently, in an age when moral authorities are conspicuous primarily by their absence, the easiest way to jumpstart a serious debate is to fall back on a figure like Tolstoy whose power to galvanize opinion -- for or against -- remains almost as strong as it was 100 years ago.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/09/23/101.html
Bush's plan to reconstruct the Gulf Coast is the biggest crony cash-cow in U.S. history
Global Eye
Available Light
By Chris FloydPublished: September 23, 2005
The sea was pink with sunset, the last light draining as high tide slowly reclaimed the beach. A huge harvest moon, flecked with clouds, was hanging just above the horizon in a sky still barely blue. On the distant line where the world curved away, you could see the white speck of the Channel ferry, bound for Calais. Standing on the high seawall -- with no one around, no sound but the insistent boundless roar of the waves -- you could watch and wait, wait for a hint of wind to rake the clouds away from the moon. The pink sea shaded into gray. First one and then another of the seawall steps were covered by the swarming tide; the waves and the darkness were advancing together. A horsehead cloud flashed black against the vast yellow presence, then bowed its neck, drifted on -- and the moon emerged.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/09/23/120.html
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