The Times Picayune
Nagin reopens New Orleans' Algiers section
9/26/2005, 2:51 p.m. CT
By MICHELLE ROBERTS
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Residents of one New Orleans neighborhood were invited to come home Monday and "help us rebuild the city."
The mayor's office announced that residents of Algiers, which largely escaped the flooding brought by the twin onslaughts of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, would be able to return starting at 10 a.m. Algiers has electricity, water and sewer service.
In addition, business owners in the Central Business District, the French Quarter and the Uptown section would be allowed in to inspect property and clean up.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/national-52/112773894593250.xml&storylist=hurricane
Catholic Church to cut jobs in New Orleans
9/26/2005, 9:16 a.m. CT
The Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Archdiocese of New Orleans, which was hit by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, said Monday that it will lay off a yet-to-be determined number of workers over the coming weeks.
In a news release, the Catholic Church's archdiocese said it is trying to determine how to best utilize diminished resources.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1127744640223500.xml&storylist=hurricane
Cameron Parish deluged by waters from Gulf
Homes, businesses get a historic pounding
By Jan Moller
and Leslie Williams
Staff writers
CAMERON - From several hundred feet above the devastation in Cameron Parish, the rubble from homes and businesses looks like Canal Street at the end of a long and rainy Carnival.
Bits and pieces of homes peek above the murky floodwaters, parts of walls roost in trees.
Hundreds of homes and businesses deconstructed by storm surge and brutal winds mark a trail of misery near the part of the parish not far from the Gulf of Mexio. Homes have been shoved off their foundations, others crushed with only slabs remaining in a brown soup of floodwaters just north of a now relatively calm Gulf.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_26.html
New Zealand Herald
Ice Age infants discovered in Austria
26.09.05 8.20am
The 27,000-year-old skeletons of two Ice Age infants have been found near Krems in northern Austria, the first discovery of its kind in Europe.
The perfectly preserved skeletons, measuring 40cm, had been protected by a mammoth's shoulder-blade bone, under which they had been buried on a sheltered hillside on the banks of the River Danube.
The grave, discovered 5.5m below ground, also contained a necklace of 31 pearls made from mammoth ivory and was located next to an area inhabited by ancient "homo sapiens fossilis," newspapers reported.
"It is the first discovery of a child's grave dating from this period," the excavation manager, Christine Neugebauer-Maresch, confirmed to the daily newspaper Kurier. "They may have been twins, but we have not yet been able to establish that," she told Die Presse.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10347244
Tsunami could catch Auckland off its guard
27.09.05
By Wayne Thompson
Auckland could be hit with little or no warning by a southbound tsunami from the Pacific Ocean near Fiji, a scientist has warned.
Dr James Goff, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, told a meeting of Civil Defence managers yesterday that Aucklanders needed to be more aware of the dangers of tidal waves in view of the Boxing Day tsunami in South-east Asia.
Devastated Sri Lanka was similar to many places in New Zealand in having a long, narrow stretch of exposed coast, which was open to wave after wave.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10347456
Fears over bird flu mean drug sells out
27.09.05
By Rebecca Walsh
Demand for the anti-bird flu drug Tamiflu is growing so fast the company that supplies it has not been able to keep up with orders.
New Zealanders, particularly travellers and those going on business to Southeast Asia, are seeking their own supplies as public fears of a global flu pandemic increase.
Bird flu has infected about 112 people and killed 57 in Asia since the end of 2003. Health experts have warned that as long as bird flu exists there is a risk it could mutate, become highly infectious and transfer from human to human.
Tamiflu is seen as the best way of preventing a pandemic - in conjunction with measures such as vigilant personal hygiene and avoiding public places.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10347462
Closing arguments ahead in Lynndie England abuse case
27.09.05
By Adam Tanner
FORT HOOD, Texas - Defense lawyers had a last chance yesterday to argue that U.S. soldier Lynndie England was not responsible for her actions when she posed for notorious photos of abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.
England, 22, faces up to 11 years in prison if convicted on all seven counts connected with the abuse, which included posing with Iraqis who were forced to masturbate and famously holding a leash tethered to the neck of a naked prisoner.
Final arguments are scheduled for Monday and a five-member military jury could begin deliberations and issue a verdict as early as later the same day. If they find the reservist guilty, sentencing would follow later in week.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10347424
Court to rule on school board's attempt to put creationism in class
27.09.05
By Leonard Doyle
HARRISBURG - In what is being described as the most important "creationist" legal battle in 18 years, a Pennsylvania court is due to hear opening arguments in a school board's attempt to include "intelligent design" in the curriculum.
Last October, the small, rural school district of Dover became the first public school district in the US to include the "alternative" to Darwin's theory of evolution in its biology curriculum.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10347421
Major quake rocks northern Peru, one dead
26.09.05 4.30pm
LIMA, Peru - A major 7.5 magnitude earthquake rocked Peru's northern jungle on Sunday and police said at least one person had died.
The US Geological Survey's website said the quake hit at 8:55pm (1.55pm NZT Monday) and the epicentre was 75km northeast of the town of Moyobamba.
"We have one dead and three injured. The victim is a man whose house fell on top of him," Ramiro Pozzi, a police spokesman in the town of Lamas, some 25km from Tarapoto, the biggest town in the area, told Reuters.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10347366
Left-handed women's risk of breast cancer higher
26.09.05 4.20pm
LONDON - Left-handed women are more than twice as likely as right-handers to suffer from breast cancer before reaching menopause, Dutch scientists said on Monday.
More than a million women are diagnosed with breast cancer worldwide each year. Three-quarters of cases occur after menopause, which usually begins around the age of 50.
Researchers at the University Medical Centre in Utrecht in the Netherlands speculate that there is a shared origin early in life for both left handedness and developing breast cancer, possibly exposure to hormones in the womb. "Left handedness is associated with breast cancer, most specifically pre-menopausal breast cancer," said Cuno Uiterwaal, an assistant professor of clinical epidemiology at the university, in an interview.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10347350
American troops fire 250,000 bullets for every local they kill
26.09.05
By Andrew Buncombe
WASHINGTON - United States forces have fired so many bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan - an estimated 250,000 for every insurgent killed - that American ammunition-makers cannot keep up with demand.
As a result the US is having to import supplies from Israel.
A US Government report says that US forces are using 1.8 billion rounds of small-arms ammunition a year. The total has more than doubled in five years, largely as a result of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as changes in military doctrine and increased training.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10347310
Police Hunt for Outback camel killer
27.09.05
DARWIN - Up to 30 camels have been slaughtered in a "thrill kill" in Outback Australia, police said.
The camels and several kangaroos were found dead at Henbury Station, about 140km south of Alice Springs in Central Australia.
They had been shot in the head in what police described as a "deliberate and calculated attack".
"The camels were partly domesticated and were in fenced paddocks, so it would have been easy for the offender to pick them off," Kulgera police sergeant Alistair Taylor said.
"What concerns us is the deliberate approach of the offender.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10347422
US offers Iraqi prisoner amnesty
27.09.05 6.20am
The US military began yesterday to release 1000 Iraqi detainees from Abu Ghraib Prison at the request of the Iraqi Government in honour of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Arab Governments often pardon non-violent offenders during Ramadan, but the action in Iraq is widely seen as an effort to persuade Iraqis to vote in the October 15 national referendum on Iraq's draft constitution.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10347420
Houston Chronicles
Beaumont Enterprise newsroom in "shambles"
Ron Franscell, a managing editor at the Beaumont Enterprise, checked in Sunday. He hadn't updated his blog since Friday afternoon, so I had become a little concerned.
He's back, and apparently the storm caused a fair amount of damage at the newspaper's building:
Not much time here. Power is still out and everything crucial piece of equipment is on priceless battery power.
We survived, battered and a little dazed. Our third-floor newsroom is a shambles. The ceiling caved in as Rita ramped up and, at about 3 a.m., we quickly removed everything that could help sustain us in the next few hours and days. The greater fear was that the rushing water would naturally migrate into the second floor, where most of us were bivouacked. By 5 a.m., it started to cascade throught the elevator shaft and from several spots in the second-floor ceiling. We were faced with a decision: Move people through the storm to the emergency command center across the street, or hope that the storm would pass over us before the situation became truly desperate.
http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/
5 found dead in Beaumont apartment
By ZEKE MINAYA and DALE LEZON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Video, graphics courtesy Associated Press and KHOU; free Real Player, Flash plug-in and Acrobat Reader may be required.)
BEAUMONT - Five people were found dead today in an apartment, apparently overcome by fumes from a generator they were using for power following Hurricane Rita, authorities said.
The bodies of a woman, man and three children were found after the children's aunt went to the apartment near the Neches River to check on the group, said Carmen Apple, a spokeswoman for the Beaumont Police Department.
Power was knocked out to Beaumont and Port Arthur after Rita roared into Texas Saturday morning. Authorities suspect carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause of death. Autopsies will be conducted for an official ruling.
The aunt told authorities that the 25-year-old woman was the mother of the children — a 9-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl — and the 47-year-old man was her companion. No names were released.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3369454
5 found dead in Beaumont apartment
By ZEKE MINAYA and DALE LEZON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Video, graphics courtesy Associated Press and KHOU; free Real Player, Flash plug-in and Acrobat Reader may be required.)
BEAUMONT - Five people were found dead today in an apartment, apparently overcome by fumes from a generator they were using for power following Hurricane Rita, authorities said.
The bodies of a woman, man and three children were found after the children's aunt went to the apartment near the Neches River to check on the group, said Carmen Apple, a spokeswoman for the Beaumont Police Department.
Power was knocked out to Beaumont and Port Arthur after Rita roared into Texas Saturday morning. Authorities suspect carbon monoxide poisoning as the cause of death. Autopsies will be conducted for an official ruling.
The aunt told authorities that the 25-year-old woman was the mother of the children — a 9-year-old boy, a 7-year-old girl and a 12-year-old girl — and the 47-year-old man was her companion. No names were released.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3369454
SOUTHEAST TEXAS
516,000 still without power in Texas
Thousands of workers labor in 16-hour shifts to restore service
By ERIC HANSON
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Video, graphics courtesy Associated Press and KHOU; free Real Player, Flash plug-in and Acrobat Reader may be required.)
About 493,000 customers in Southeast Texas still have no electricity today, as thousands of workers labor to restore power knocked out by Hurricane Rita.
Of the 700,000 CenterPoint Energy customers who lost electricity, mostly in the Houston area, all but 180,000 had power restored by midday, said Leticia Lowe, company spokeswoman. She said all are expected to be back on line by Friday.
Entergy, which serves the parts of East Texas that bore the brunt of the hurricane, had about 262,000 customers without power in Texas this morning, compared with 270, 000 right after the storm hit, company spokesman Morgan Stewart said
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3369262
LAKE LIVINGSTON
Dam damage called 'serious situation'
The drawdown continues, flooding the Trinity, so that experts can assess the storm damage
By CINDY HORSWELL and ARMANDO VILLAFRANCA
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Video, graphics courtesy Associated Press and KHOU; free Real Player, Flash plug-in and Acrobat Reader may be required.)
Engineers are slowing down the unprecedented release of water from the Lake Lake Livingston dam, which suffered "serious" damage from Hurricane Rita.
The water is expected to cause flooding along the Trinity River below the lake, with the worst coming Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. The river is expected to crest 3 feet above the flood stage at Liberty, sending water over roads but not into houses on stilts.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/topfront/3369376
Port of Houston opens to limited traffic
By BILL HENSEL Jr.
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
The Houston Ship Channel was reopened today to vessels with a draft of less than 35 feet, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
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That's only for daylight traffic and probably would not include oil tankers, since those vessels, at least when they are fully loaded, need a deeper channel. The channel, however, is open to tug and barge traffic, Coast Guard officials said.
The Port said it will offer a midday update on the results of inspections of the Ship Channel, and at that time they may to provide an update on when the deeper draft ships can travel up the channel.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3370141
Sydney Morning Herald
Judges ask for extension on Corby appeal
September 26, 2005 - 10:45PM
Convicted drug smuggler Schapelle Corby may have to wait another month to learn if she can go free from a Bali jail after judges wrote to Indonesia's highest court to ask for more time to make up their minds.
The appellant court, which could theoretically increase Corby's 20-year sentence, had been due to rule by Thursday whether it would agree to quash or cut Corby's sentence.
But lead lawyer Hotman Paris Hutapea told AAP that the judges wrote to the Supreme Court this afternoon to request another 30 days.
The request is extraordinary because a time extension is usually granted only once and the High Court has already pushed out the detention period by a month.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/judges-ask-for-extension-on-corby-appeal/2005/09/26/1127586795181.html
Bird flu drug aid boosted
By Cynthia Banham
September 27, 2005
Australia is giving Indonesia thousands more doses of the antiviral drug Tamiflu as it struggles to deal with the latest outbreak of bird flu.
As a 27-year-old Indonesian woman died in a Jakarta hospital yesterday from suspected bird flu, the Foreign Affairs Minister, Alexander Downer, announced Australia would fund 40,000 more courses of the antiviral drug, on top of the 10,000 it agreed to pay for last week.
Mr Downer said Indonesian authorities had been "caught a bit short" by the bird flu outbreak - which they have described as an epidemic - and were "finding it difficult to handle".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bird-flu-drug-aid-boosted/2005/09/26/1127586800447.html
Access forbidden: China's sweeping measures to police internet
By Hamish McDonald Herald Correspondent in Beijing
September 27, 2005
The Chinese Government has announced sweeping new controls on the fast-growing internet industry to put its content under the supervision of Communist Party propaganda officials, as is the case with print and broadcast media.
"We need to better regulate the online news services with the emergence of so many unhealthy news stories that will easily mislead the public," a State Council (cabinet) spokesman was quoted as saying.
Although there was a brief mention of pornography, gambling, violence and criminal use of the internet, it was made clear that the authorities were out to screen China's 100 million-plus internet users from political news and scandals challenging the party's rule. Eleven forbidden areas have been listed, including news that would endanger state security, state secrets not yet unclassified, reports inciting ethnic violence, challenges to the state's religious policies, banned cults, and news that promotes civil unrest or calls for public protests and assemblies.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/access-forbidden-chinas-sweeping-measures-to-police-internet/2005/09/26/1127586800456.html
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