The Boston Globe
State admits lax dam oversight
Orders inspection of private and Mass. structures
By Scott Helman and Lucas Wall, Globe Staff October 19, 2005
Romney administration officials acknowledged yesterday that the state's oversight of dams has been lax, and the governor ordered an immediate inspection of 186 private and state-owned dams across Massachusetts that, if breached, could threaten residents' lives and property.
Forty-eight dams in the state have not been inspected since 1998, figures show. An additional 47 had their last inspection in 1999 or 2000. All are considered high-hazard, meaning that their failure could cause loss of life or significant property damage and that they should be inspected every two years.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/19/state_admits_lax_dam_oversight/
Why do it the right way, like finding alternative sources and providing tax cuts, state sponsored assistance in achieving an alternative to oil and gas home heating. Why provide vouchers in financial relief to help pay for fuel costs? Why treat the circumstances of government negligence of a responsible Federal/State/Local Energy Policy/Bill responsibly? Let's just compromise the environment more and pollute more and cause cancer more. Sounds like a lack of a plan to me.
Romney may ease curbs on power plants
Move to avert outages could add pollution
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff October 19, 2005
Governor Mitt Romney is considering easing air-pollution restrictions on oil-fueled power plants to allow them to produce more electricity to stave off potential catastrophic blackouts and natural gas shortages this winter.
The move could lead to more pollution from power plants in Everett, Salem, Somerset, and a handful of smaller units in the state. But it reflects how alarmed state officials are about the possibility of life-threatening power failures during the coldest stretches of this winter. It also follows recent moves by the Bush administration after the Gulf hurricanes to ease air-pollution restrictions to maintain adequate energy supplies.
At the heart of the issue is the recent massive runup in natural gas prices and disruptions to Gulf of Mexico supplies after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. After a flurry of gas-fired power plant construction in the late 1990s and early 2000s driven by tougher regulations, Massachusetts and New England now get nearly half of their electricity from gas, which pollutes less than oil.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/19/romney_may_ease_curbs_on_power_plants/
Woman returns bag of full of cash to Dunkin' Donuts
October 19, 2005
SOUTH PORTLAND, Maine --Dunkin' Donuts employees were thanking their good luck Tuesday after a woman who was accidentally given a bag with $771 in cash instead of the bagel with cream cheese she had ordered turned in the money.
Pati Fine of Readfield picked up her order at the drive-through window around 10 a.m. at the Dunkin' Donuts on Broadway.
She then drove to a spot on the waterfront to eat her snack, but when she opened the bag she found a bunch of bills instead of a bagel, police said.
Fine took the money to the police department, where officers counted out the cash. Officers then brought the money to the doughnut shop, where they found frantic employees who thought they might lose their jobs over the lost cash.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/maine/articles/2005/10/19/woman_returns_bag_of_full_of_cash_to_dunkin_donuts/
Students bake 468-pound pumpkin pie
October 17, 2005
WINDSOR, Calif. --The students of Windsor High School baked hard and baked long, but it wasn't enough to retain the town's title for the world's largest pumpkin pie.
The 468-pound, 6-foot-4-inch diameter culinary concoction, unveiled Sunday at the Windsor Farmers Market, was the town's latest effort to take the Guinness World Record, which it has successfully held for the past two years.
Little did they know that another town had much bigger plans up its sleeve.
Earlier this month, bakers in New Bremen, Ohio, made a pumpkin pie that was 12 feet, 4 inches, in diameter and weighed 1,500 pounds -- more than three times heavier than Windsor's effort.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2005/10/17/students_bake_468_pound_pumpkin_pie/
Despite crisis Indian village perserves
By Denis D. Gray, Associated Press Writer October 19, 2005
SULTANDAKI, India --The school principal in this Himalayan mountainside community has buried students cut down by artillery, seen families impoverished by drought and now endured the destruction of all but one of the village's 374 buildings in a savage earthquake.
Outside aid has been insufficient and available tents can sleep only 170 of the 3,000 residents who are already suffering through freezing temperatures at night. Vital water supplies are contaminated by sulfurous springs disgorged by the Oct. 8 earthquake.
Despite the crisis, headmaster Seen Mohammad and his fellow villagers in Sultandaki are persevering as they have done for years, refusing to give up or simply beg for handouts.
"I have told them (villagers) the government will help us. But the first option is to help ourselves," he said. "To bring the children out of trauma, to send them back to school, that is our work."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/10/19/despite_crisis_indian_village_perserves/
Pakistan Kashmiri militants back border opening
October 19, 2005
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A Pakistan-based alliance of Kashmiri militants groups on Wednesday backed Islamabad's call for India to allow Kashmiris to cross the heavily militarized frontier in the divided region hit by a deadly earthquake.
"It is in line with our position that the Line of Control is an unrealistic line," Syed Salahuddin, head of the United Jihad Council, said of the cease-fire line dividing a region over which the two countries have fought two of their three wars.
"We have never accepted this Line of Control as a border in the past nor we will accept it in future," he told Reuters by telephone from Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistani Kashmir devastated by the October 8 earthquake.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/10/19/pakistan_kashmiri_militants_back_border_opening/
Japan, US struggle with military base realignment
By Linda Sieg October 19, 2005
TOKYO (Reuters) - When U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld visited Okinawa two years ago, he got an unwelcome earful of complaints from the governor about the American military presence on the southern Japanese island.
This week, Rumsfeld is skipping Japan altogether on a tour of China and nearby countries, after Tokyo and Washington failed to settle a row over a U.S. base on Okinawa, reluctant host to about half the nearly 50,000 U.S. military personnel in Japan.
Officials on both sides have played down the significance of the gap in Rumsfeld's itinerary. But they agree the feud over the Marines' Futenma air base is the main obstacle to a broad deal on realigning U.S. bases in Japan, part of Washington's plan to transform its military globally into a more flexible force.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/10/19/japan_us_struggle_with_military_base_realignment/
Study: Obesity surgery may be riskier
By Lindsey Tanner, AP Medical Writer October 19, 2005
CHICAGO --Obesity surgery, the most drastic way to lose weight, is far more than a cosmetic procedure and involves considerably higher risks of death than previously thought, new research suggests.
Some previous studies of people in their 30s to their 50s -- the most common ages for obesity surgery -- found death rates well under 1 percent. But among 35- to 44-year-olds in a new study, more than 5 percent of men and nearly 3 percent of women were dead within a year, and slightly higher rates were seen in patients 45 to 54.
Among patients 65 to 74, nearly 13 percent of men and about 6 percent of women died. In patients 75 and older, half of the men and 40 percent of the women died.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/10/19/study_obesity_surgery_may_be_riskier/
Bank that will make stem cell lines open
By Jeff Donn, Associated Press Writer October 19, 2005
SEOUL, South Korea --A bank that will create and supply new lines of embryonic stem cells for scientists around the world opened in Seoul on Wednesday as part of a global partnership in the contentious field.
The World Stem Cell Hub will serve as the main center in the international consortium, which includes the United States and Britain. It aims to accelerate research into embryonic stem cells that scientists someday hope to use to replace and repair diseased and damaged parts of the body.
Underscoring South Korea's strong official backing of the project, President Roh Moo-hyun made an appearance at the opening ceremony. South Korea bans cloning for reproductive reasons but provides full support for scientists doing it for medical research.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2005/10/19/bank_that_will_make_stem_cell_lines_open/
Dementia drugs can increase death risks
By Lindsey Tanner, AP Medical Writer October 18, 2005
CHICAGO --Drugs often used to treat elderly patients with dementia-related aggression and delusions can raise their risk of death, according to a study that reinforces new warning labels required on the medications.
The researchers pooled results of 15 previous studies on drugs known as atypical anti-psychotics and sold under the brand names Zyprexa, Risperdal, Seroquel and Abilify.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/aging/articles/2005/10/18/dementia_drugs_can_increase_death_risks/
Puget Sound region feeling climate change
October 18, 2005
SEATTLE --The Puget Sound region is feeling the impact of climate change -- from flooding to warmer waters -- and things could be getting worse, according to a report by University of Washington researchers.
"We've been in denial about this problem," said Brad Ack, director of the Puget Sound Action Team, a state agency responsible for protecting the Puget Sound. "Denial is no longer an option."
The future of the region in the next 100 years is unknown, but the report released this week makes a number of dire predictions: vanishing beaches; increasingly inhospitable water for salmon and shellfish; more rain and less snow, causing a chain reaction of flooding and landslides.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/18/puget_sound_region_feeling_climate_change/
Expert: Warming trends could plague N.M.
October 18, 2005
ALBUQUERQUE --Warming trends could cause more water shortages in New Mexico, a climatologist predicts. Experts point to carbon dioxide emissions at the primary cause of global warming.
Researchers are trying to prove that fossil fuel emissions have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the air, trapping heat in the atmosphere and causing an increase in the Earth's temperature. Computer simulations support the idea, but that's not necessarily proof, said David Gutzler, a University of New Mexico climatologist.
"We've never gone through global temperature changes like this before," he said. "But if we're waiting for 100 percent ironclad proof, we'll just have to keep going and see what happens."
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/18/expert_warming_trends_could_plague_nm/
U.S. weighs Wyo. request on wolf status
By Mead Gruver, Associated Press Writer October 18, 2005
CHEYENNE, Wyo. --The federal government said Monday that it will review Wyoming's request to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list after a 10-year effort to restore the predator's population.
The government cannot move forward with a proposal to remove the wolf from the list until Montana, Idaho and Wyoming adopt wolf-management plans deemed acceptable by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wyoming is the only state without an approved plan.
Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for the agency, said the announcement does not mean it has changed its mind about Wyoming's plan. Rather, he said, officials simply decided that some of the ideas raised by the state in a petition this summer deserved a closer look.
"Hopefully people won't read any more into this than that," he said.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/18/us_weighs_wyo_request_on_wolf_status/
In case Perez doesn't recognize it, it's called Anti-Semitism.
Pakistan's dirty laundering
By Jeff Jacoby, Globe Columnist October 19, 2005
''PAKISTAN on Saturday welcomed an offer of earthquake assistance from Israel," the Associated Press reported on Oct. 15, ''but said it would have to be channeled through the United Nations, the Red Cross, or donated to a relief fund."
On the surface, an unremarkable detail amid the devastation in Kashmir. But this is a story worth pausing over. For between the lines, it speaks volumes about the real stakes in the war between the civilized world and radical Islam.
The magnitude 7.6 earthquake that struck on Oct. 8 triggered, in the words of Pakistan's prime minister, ''a disaster of unprecedented proportions in Pakistan's history." In one terrible upheaval, it killed tens of thousands of people, trapped or injured thousands more, and left an estimated 2 million homeless.
Pakistan's president, General Pervez Musharraf, went on television with an urgent plea for international help. Among the offers of humanitarian aid that began streaming into Islamabad was one from Israel, which is all too experienced in disaster rescue and relief. When a natural calamity strikes, Israel is often among the first nations to offer help; within 48 hours of the tsunami last December, for example, Israel had airlifted teams of medical and emergency workers, as well as 80 tons of supplies, to the stricken countries.
But as days went by and the Pakistani death toll mounted, there was no reply to Israel's offer of assistance. The Jerusalem Post recalled the 2003 earthquake in Iran, when the Tehran theocracy announced that it would welcome ''all kinds of humanitarian aid from all countries and international organizations, with the exception of the Zionist regime." Pakistan, the world's second-most-populous Muslim nation, had never established diplomatic relations with Israel, but, unlike Iran, its attitude was supposed to be changing. In Istanbul on Sept. 1, the Israeli and Pakistani foreign ministers had met publicly for the first time; two weeks later Musharraf had shaken Ariel Sharon's hand at a United Nations reception in New York. Equally dramatic was Musharraf's conciliatory speech to the American Jewish Congress on Sept. 17, the first time a Pakistani ruler had ever addressed an audience of American Jews.
Yet it was not until Oct. 14, six days after Israel had communicated its willingness to help the earthquake victims ''in any way possible," that it finally received a formal response. Yes, aid from Israel would be welcome, provided it was laundered through a third party. ''We have established the president's relief fund, and everyone is free to contribute to it," a government spokeswoman coolly acknowledged. ''If Israel was to contribute -- that's fine, we would accept it." Israel could help save Pakistani lives, in other words, as long as it wasn't too public about doing so. There mustn't be any embarrassing images of planes with Israeli markings offloading relief supplies at Islamabad's airport.
And no one should imagine that Israel's generosity toward a nation that has long been among its harshest critics and in which anti-Semitism is rampant would have any effect on Islamabad's thinking. According to the Daily Times, a Pakistani newspaper, the spokeswoman insisted that ''accepting an indirect donation from Israel did not mean that Pakistan had planned to recognize it" or to alter its stance toward Israel, ''which was unchangeable."
Israel will not criticize Pakistan's insulting behavior, preferring to understand it as a reality of Pakistani domestic politics. For Musharraf, a diplomat in the Israeli Foreign Ministry told me, ''the number one priority is regime survival" -- and any regime that failed to treat the Jewish state with the appropriate level of contempt would outrage Pakistani public opinion.
But that loathing of Israel and Jews is not just a quirk of Pakistani politics. It is a hallmark of the radical Islamists whose terrorism worldwide has shed so much blood -- and who hold sway over more than 70 percent of Pakistan, according to Tashbih Sayyed, editor of the weekly newspaper Pakistan Today. An outspoken Muslim moderate, Sayyed sees Musharraf's recent overtures toward Israel as a feint -- an insincere tactic intended to impress Washington.
''That is why he has done nothing to challenge the way Jews and Israel are portrayed by the Islamists -- as demons, as an evil force," he argues. Many Pakistanis would welcome a genuine effort from the top to combat the radicals' hatred and lies but are not brave enough to fight them on their own. And so the Islamists go on spreading their lethal ideology.
And that, writ large, is the problem at the core of the war on terrorism. ''The Muslim world is plunged into an abyss of darkness, antimodernity, anti-Americanism, and anti-Semitism," Sayyed says. Only a minority of Muslims are personally hateful or fanatic. But a minority can wreak enormous damage when the majority is unwilling to act.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/10/19/pakistans_dirty_laundering/
Sydney Morning Herald
Hurricane Wilma turns 'extremely dangerous'
October 19, 2005 - 5:24PM
Hurricane Wilma intensified into an "extremely dangerous category five hurricane" today as it pushed northward between western Cuba and Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, the US National Hurricane Centre said.
Wilma, the record-equalling 21st storm of the Atlantic season, strengthened to the highest level on the SaffirSimpson scale, the Miami-based centre said in a bulletin at 1630 AEST.
"Data from a reconnaissance aircraft indicate that Hurricane Wilma has become an extremely dangerous category five hurricane," the centre said.
The US National Hurricane Centre's long-range forecast track, which has a wide margin of error, had it crossing southern Florida on Saturday.
The state was hit by four hurricanes last year and has been struck by Hurricanes Dennis, Katrina and Rita this year.
Wilma was the 21st tropical cyclone of the Atlantic hurricane season, tying the record for most storms set in 1933.
It was also the 12th hurricane and tied the record for most hurricanes in a season, set in 1969. The season still has six weeks to run.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
Days of steady rain from Wilma caused mudslides that killed at least seven people and as many as 10 in mountainous Haiti, government officials said.
Wilma threatened Honduras and Nicaragua with flooding rain, compounding the woes of Central America.
More than 1000 people in Guatemala and El Salvador were killed by landslides and floods triggered by Hurricane Stan this month.
Wilma was not expected to threaten New Orleans or Mississippi, where Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1200 people and caused more than $US30 billion ($39 billion) of insured damage in August.
Katrina was followed in September by Hurricane Rita.
Wilma was also expected to miss the Gulf of Mexico oil and gas facilities that are still reeling from Katrina and Rita.
But frozen orange juice futures closed at a six-year high yesterday amid fears Wilma could ravage Florida groves that had just begun to rebound from the hurricanes that destroyed 40 per cent of last year's crop.
"We have not really begun harvesting, so much of the crop is still on the trees, which obviously is a concern for growers," said Casey Pace, spokeswoman for the Florida Citrus Mutual growers' association.
Wilma was about 300 kilometres south of Grand Cayman, the largest of the Cayman Islands, a British colony south of Cuba, the US National Hurricane Centre said last night.
It was moving west-north-west at 13 kmh and was expected to turn north-west today. The hurricane centre predicted Wilma would skirt western Cuba on Friday and curve east toward Florida's southern Gulf coast.
Storm alerts were in effect for the Cayman Islands, parts of Cuba, Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and coastal Honduras.
Wilma was expected to deluge the Caymans, Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, Honduras and Nicaragua, with isolated rainfall amounts of up to 38 centimetres possible.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hurricane-wilma-turns-extremely-dangerous/2005/10/19/1129401300556.html
Ozone hole's 'peaked'
October 19, 2005 - 4:14PM
Depletion of the ozone layer above Antarctica, caused by emissions of industrial chemicals, seems to have peaked, indicating that global environmental pacts were working, UN scientists said today.
The seasonal hole above the South Pole and Antarctica is now shrinking after falling short of the record years of 2003 and 2000, the United Nations' World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said in its latest bulletin.
It peaked at 26.9 million sq kms on September 19, it said, against 29 million sq km in September 2003, which most scientists say was the record.
"It is the third largest ever, more or less as one would expect from present levels of chlorine and bromine in the atmosphere," Geir Braathen, WMO's top ozone expert, told a news briefing.
"It doesn't look as if the ozone hole is going to get any bigger (in coming years). It seems like we have reached a plateau...," he added.
Chlorofluorcarbons (CFCs) containing chlorine and bromine are blamed for thinning the earth's protective layer - which filters harmful ultraviolet radiation that can cause skin cancer and cataracts.
AdvertisementAdvertisement
They were banned 20 years ago under the Vienna Convention and its Montreal Protocol of 1987.
"As the amount of chlorine and bromine will continue to decline over the next decades, but very slowly, one expects the ozone hole to get smaller and smaller," Braathen said.
But uncertainties remained regarding the pace of the ozone's recovery, according to the Norwegian expert.
"At the same time there is this issue of climate change which will lead to higher temperature on the ground - the globe is warming up - but in the stratosphere temperatures will decrease.
That will encourage more ozone loss in the Arctic and the Antarctic," he added.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/ozone-holes-peaked/2005/10/19/1129401305757.html
Film rolls as troops burn dead
By Tom Allard
October 19, 2005
US soldiers in Afghanistan burnt the bodies of dead Taliban and taunted their opponents about the corpses, in an act deeply offensive to Muslims and in breach of the Geneva conventions.
An investigation by SBS's Dateline program, to be aired tonight, filmed the burning of the bodies.
It also filmed a US Army psychological operations unit broadcasting a message boasting of the burnt corpses into a village believed to be harbouring Taliban.
According to an SBS translation of the message, delivered in the local language, the soldiers accused Taliban fighters near Kandahar of being "cowardly dogs". "You allowed your fighters to be laid down facing west and burnt. You are too scared to retrieve their bodies. This just proves you are the lady boys we always believed you to be," the message reportedly said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/film-rolls-as-troops-burn-dead/2005/10/18/1129401256154.html
Secret tape exposes N Korean executions
By Mark Honigsbaum
October 19, 2005
A crowd gathers in a dusty field somewhere in North Korea to see a trial. "Mum, I want to go," a child is heard to whisper on the audio.
Soon an official - presumably the judge - declares: "Kim Jong-il is great in comparison to these worthless criminals … they trafficked women across the border to China. We have to build up a strong guard to keep these influences out."
The image jumps to the prisoner, blindfolded and tied to a post. "Forward, right," the judge tells armed men. "Shoot. Shoot. Shoot."
The man falls and another prisoner is brought forward. Moments later, the anonymous cameraman enters a nearby building and says: "I watched soldiers executing people by firing squad … children and adults watch the whole thing and then they go home."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/secret-tape-exposes-n-korean-executions/2005/10/18/1129401256163.html
Mugabe in food-for-votes scam
October 19, 2005
Harare: A judge in Zimbabwe has confirmed that the President, Robert Mugabe, used food to threaten and bribe his country during the recent general election. The finding came the same day Mr Mugabe used a speech to the United Nations food agency to denounce the US President, George Bush, and the British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, as "the two unholy men of our millennium".
The High Court's Justice Rita Makarau said Mr Mugabe bought opposition members with food in the March general election and threatened hungry peasants with starvation if they failed to support his ruling Zanu-PF party.
"It was made clear to the villagers that supporting the MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] meant going without food," she wrote in a judgment on the election process in Makoni North, a rural constituency, 129 kilometres south-east of Harare.
The judge quoted the "sad example" of one villager attending a public meeting exchanging his MDC T-shirt for a bag of food. "The other MDC members were then invited to do likewise if they wanted the food hand-outs," she said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/mugabe-in-foodforvotes-scam/2005/10/18/1129401256178.html
Queries over huge yes vote
By Dexter Filkins and Robert Worth in Baghdad
October 19, 2005
Iraqi election officials said they were investigating "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many 99 per cent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favour of Iraq's new constitution, raising the possibility that the results of the referendum could be called into question.
In a statement released on Monday evening, the Independent Election Commission of Iraq said that the results of the last Saturday's referendum would have to be delayed "a few days" because the apparently high number of yes votes required that election workers "recheck, compare and audit" the results.
The statement made no mention of the possibility of fraud, but said that results were being re-examined to comply with internationally accepted standards. Election officials say that under those standards voting procedures should be re-examined any time a candidate or a ballot question received more than 90 per cent of the vote.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/queries-over-huge-yes-vote/2005/10/18/1129401256160.html
Bali accused scared of gang retaliation: lawyer
October 19, 2005 - 3:40PM
Fear of reprisals ... Martin Stephens.
Photo: Jason South
Related
One of the Bali nine is to testify against his co-accused in a bid to escape the firing squad, although he fears reprisals from a drug gang, his lawyer said today.
Martin Stephens, 29, from Wollongong, was one of four alleged drug smugglers appearing in court in Bali today as trials continued for the Bali nine, who are all facing the death penalty for heroin trafficking.
The lawyer for Stephens, Adnan Wirawan, said his client would testify against other members of the group caught in Bali in April, allegedly trying to smuggle more than eight kilograms of heroin back to Australia.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/bali-accused-scared-of-gang-retaliation-lawyer/2005/10/19/1129401297724.html
Headlight defect sparks major Toyota recall
October 19, 2005 - 12:33PM
Top Japanese carmaker Toyota says its largest recall ever affects cars in Japan, Australia, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia, but will not detail how much it will cost.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the recall by Toyota Motor Corp, covering 1.27 million vehicles from 17 car models, would set Toyota back about $167 million, based on an estimated repair price of $131 a car.
Toyota spokeswoman Ai Ishitoya today said the company was not detailing costs of the recall or giving repair estimates. She said an electrical defect could cause the headlights to fail, but that the problem only affected cars with right-hand steering.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/headlight-defect-sparks-major-toyota-recall/2005/10/19/1129401295277.html
The Indpendant
Falconio's girlfriend points finger of guilt
By Matthew Beard
Published: 19 October 2005
The girlfriend of the missing backpacker Peter Falconio stared directly at his alleged killer in court yesterday and accused him of murder.
The court in Darwin, Australia, fell silent as Joanne Lees, 32, looked directly at Bradley Murdoch after being asked if she could see her former boyfriend's killer and replied: "Yes, I'm looking at him."
Mr Murdoch, wearing a light blue shirt, shook his head but Ms Lees nodded and held him in her gaze.
The confrontation, on the second day of Mr Murdoch's trial for the murder of Mr Falconio, came as Ms Lees spoke in harrowing detail of her ordeal in July 2001.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article320569.ece
The Washington Times
A Year Later, Goss's CIA Is Still in Turmoil
Congress to Ask Why Spy Unit Continues to Lose Personnel
By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 19, 2005; Page A01
When Porter J. Goss took over a failure-stained CIA last year, he promised to reshape the agency beginning with the area he knew best: its famed spy division.
Goss, himself a former covert operative who had chaired the House intelligence committee, focused on the officers in the field. He pledged status and resources for case officers, sending hundreds more to far-off assignments, undercover and on the front line of the battle against al Qaeda.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801549.html
The Economics of Return
Class, Color May Guide Repopulation of New Orleans
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 19, 2005; Page A01
NEW ORLEANS -- It was a Thursday, the first of September, just four days after Hurricane Katrina, and floodwater stood seven feet deep in the living room of Robert Bouchon's big brick house on Memphis Street in Lakeview, this city's largest middle-class, white neighborhood.
The Bouchon family, though, had already assembled an interim middle-class life on the outskirts of Houston, where Robert and his wife, Cathy, together with their three young children, had fled in their minivan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801910.html
The Fate of 'Made in the USA'
By Robert J. Samuelson
Wednesday, October 19, 2005; Page A21
The question posed by the bankruptcy filing of Delphi Corp. -- the largest U.S. auto parts company -- is whether manufacturing in America has a future. Or is it sliding toward extinction? Viewed historically, the question is misleading. It's true that manufacturing employment now accounts for only one in nine jobs, down from one in three in 1950. But the decline mostly reflects higher efficiency. Americans make more things with fewer people. From 1990 to 2000, for example, manufacturing output rose 61 percent while employment fell 2 percent, reports economist David Huether of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM). This is generally a good thing. It frees more workers to produce services (software, education, health care) that Americans want.
Of late, however, the news about manufacturing has seemed particularly dismal. Since mid-2000, 3 million jobs have vanished. Though overall corporate profitability has been strong, manufacturing has until recently been a conspicuous exception. From 2000 to 2004, the sector's profits averaged only 60 percent of their 1999 peak. It's retailing, finance (banks, stockbrokers) and real estate that account for big profit gains. Finally, imports represent a growing share of Americans' consumption of manufactured goods. In a recent report, the NAM cites these figures for 2003: 35 percent for motor vehicles and parts; 45 percent for computers and parts; 22 percent for chemicals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801215.html
A Serious Message May Get a Serious Diva Into Argentine Congress
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 19, 2005; Page A15
BUENOS AIRES -- Wearing a hip-hugging leather skirt and nothing above the waist but a strategically coiled artificial snake, Moria Casan shimmied her way to the place she knows best: the spotlight at center stage.
At the Broadway Theater one recent evening, the 56-year-old cabaret star shook through a steamy dance routine and cracked a few equally uninhibited jokes about Argentine politicians. Then Nito Artaza, a co-star in her comic song and dance revue, turned to the crowd and gestured toward Casan.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801550.html
A Web of Truth
Whistle-Blower or Troublemaker, Bunny Greenhouse Isn't Backing Down
By Neely Tucker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 19, 2005; Page C01
Bunny Greenhouse was once the perfect bureaucrat, an insider, the top procurement official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Then the 61-year-old Greenhouse lost her $137,000-a-year post after questioning the plump contracts awarded to Halliburton in the run-up to the war in Iraq. It has made her easy to love for some, easy to loathe for others, but it has not made her easy to know.
In late August, she was demoted, her pay cut and her authority stripped. Her former bosses say it's because of a years-long bout of poor work habits; she and her lawyer say it's payback for her revelations about a politically connected company.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801796.html
Forces of Nature Create Challenge For Young Minds
Middle-Schoolers Team Up at U-Md. For National Science Competition
By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 19, 2005; Page B09
Five budding scientists leaned over a glass beaker filled with a cloudy white solution yesterday morning, watching it intently.
Nothing happened.
Anudeep Gosal, left, Colleen Ryan, Iftin Abshir and Elijah Mena measure the wind velocity of a tornado they created as part of an exercise to help them understand the forces of nature. (Photos By Nikki Kahn -- The Washington Post)
"You think it will be a slow reaction?" asked Rhonda Reist, a high school science teacher who was helping the students with the experiment. "Or --"
"Whoa!" the students exclaimed together, cutting her off. In a split second, the solution had turned jet black.
"Can you do it again?" asked 14-year-old Melanie Kabinoff of Boynton Beach, Fla .
" You can do it as many times as you want," Reist said.
She gathered materials the students would need to figure out how the experiment worked. But that task alone would be too easy. These were no ordinary students. They were among the 40 top young scientific minds from across the country who have come to Washington this week for the seventh annual Discovery Channel Young Scientist Challenge.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/18/AR2005101801699.html
San Francisco Chronicle
LAFAYETTE
Lawyer asserts he had no motive for killing his wife
'The love of my life' had no assets of her own, Horowitz says
As days go by without a named suspect in the beating death of Pamela Vitale, the victim's husband, prominent criminal defense lawyer and television commentator Daniel Horowitz, said he knows that eyes will be turning on him.
So Horowitz wants to make it perfectly clear -- he has no motive for killing his 52-year-old wife.
Police have described Horowitz as being very cooperative in their investigation, but said they haven't ruled anyone out as a suspect.
The Lafayette lawyer found Vitale dead in the doorway of their mobile home around 6 p.m. Saturday. Contra Costa County Sheriff's officials said she died from a blow or blows to the head, but have said little else about their investigation.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/19/HOROWITZ.TMP
VALLEJO
Wine warehouse fire was arson, police say
Court records show business was mired in partnership feud
Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Investigators looking into the Mare Island warehouse fire that destroyed up to $100 million of vintage wine said Tuesday that last week's blaze was deliberately set.
Police and arson investigators said during a news conference in Vallejo that they have interviewed about two dozen people in their preliminary investigation of the fire, and they expect to question many others associated with the Wines Central storage facility.
No suspects have been named, and police would not say how the fire was started, nor would they speculate on a motive.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/19/WINE.TMP
Drugmaker Roche willing to let others make flu drug
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
(10-18) 12:56 PDT -- Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche said today it is willing to license other companies or foreign governments to make Tamiflu, an antiviral drug deemed the first line of defense against the bird flu that scientists fear could one day spread rapidly among humans.
"We are prepared to discuss all available options, including granting sub-licenses,'' said William Burns, chief executive of the Roche Pharma Division in Basel, Switzerland.
The stance appears to represent an abrupt about-face for Roche, which last week declared that it "fully intends to remain the sole manufacturer of Tamiflu'' in response to a growing international clamor for the company to permit others to make the potentially life-saving drug.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/10/18/MNGJRFAACJ7.DTL&type=science
BALCO defendants get short prison terms
Judge blasts steroid dealer for continuing to protect stars to whom he provided drugs
Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, Chronicle Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
An international sports doping scandal that shook Major League Baseball, the National Footbal League and the U.S. Olympic movement ended in a San Francisco courtroom Tuesday with light sentences for the defendants and a scolding from a federal judge.
At a hearing in U.S. District Court, Victor Conte, 55, founder of Burlingame's BALCO lab, was sentenced to four months in federal prison and four months of house arrest for masterminding a conspiracy to distribute undetectable steroids to some of the world's top athletes.
Greg Anderson, 39, weight trainer to San Francisco Giants' star Barry Bonds, was sentenced to three months in prison and three months of home confinement for conspiring to distribute steroids to professional baseball players.
A third defendant, Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative Vice President James Valente, 51, was put on probation.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/19/BALCO.TMP
WORLD VIEWS: What is Iraq facing now?; and Nobel prize-winning playwright Harold Pinter's politics
Edward M. Gomez, special to SF Gate
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
Last Saturday's referendum on a new, U.S.-backed constitution in Iraq went off relatively smoothly. Although ballots are still being counted, with some disputes over propriety, it still seems like an opportune moment to ask what the implications of this historic event might be on Iraq's war-torn road to democracy.
"If the constitution passes, Iraq will go to the polls again in December to elect a new, four-year parliament in a step that Washington says will mark its full emergence as a sovereign democracy and new Western ally," Reuters reported.
Similarly, the foreign editor of The Times (London), pointing out that "in some of the key Sunni areas that [had] boycotted the January elections," voter turnout for the referendum was high, concluded optimistically: "This shows that, for the moment, Iraqis are prepared to embrace the framework of building a democracy set by the [U.S.-led, occupying] coalition and their own temporary government."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2005/10/18/worldviews.DTL
OPINION: Mr. Galloway Goes to San Francisco
Cinnamon Stillwell
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
When George Galloway, a member of Parliament in Britain's Respect Party, visited San Francisco last month, he was greeted as a conquering hero.
Galloway was wrapping up his Stand Up and Be Counted Tour, which happened to coincide with the unveiling of his new book, "Mr. Galloway Goes to Washington." The book reportedly details Galloway's experience before a U.S. Senate subcommittee regarding allegations that he'd personally profited from the U.N. oil-for-food scandal.
In San Francisco for a book signing, Galloway certainly picked fertile ground for his leftist politics. Speakers at last month's anti-war rally described him in only the most glowing terms, and now it seems that the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has decided to bestow an official commendation upon Galloway. Supervisors Chris Daly and Ross Mirkarimi, two frequent promoters of ridiculous resolutions, presented this one in September, and it was adopted by the board with nary an objection. According to the resolution, Galloway is being honored for "his efforts to promote peace in Iraq."
If peace were all that Galloway was pushing, this resolution might be seen merely as a harmless "only in San Francisco" gesture. But instead of preaching peace, all too often Galloway seems to be preaching jihad. Far from living up to the anti-war mantle he claims, Galloway has repeatedly made excuses for terrorism, defended dictators and employed the language of Islamic terrorists in their propaganda battle against the West.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/10/12/cstillwell.DTL
Creation and the limits of science
Universal questions aren't all answered
Paul P. Craig
Sunday, October 16, 2005
In the science-versus-creationism controversy, the scientific community sometimes forgets its limits. As I'll discuss below, one statement scientists often make but cannot justify is that the world was not created 6,000 years ago!
Science is a powerful way to organize observations about the material world. By developing theoretical organizing structures, science provides powerful insights into how the world works. These insights have made possible many of the technical advances that have so changed our lives and our world.
Science explores cause and effect. One important "cause and effect" question asks, "What happened before that?" As science progresses, questions about first causes change. They never go away.
Today, the universe acts as if it began in a "big bang" some 14 billion years ago. But what happened before or outside of that? Scientists are seeking to approach this with multidimensional theories for which there is little evidence at present, but for which there someday may be.
Regardless of changes in theories, the question will remain: "What happened before that?"
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/10/16/INGFTF7EMT1.DTL
New Zealand Herald
Brazil fears epidemics in Amazon drought
19.10.05 4.20pm
BRASILIA - Brazil's government on Tuesday set aside more relief funding for the Amazon region, which is facing its worst drought in 40 years, to stave off health epidemics and help residents cope.
A week after saying it would use the army to prevent food shortages and sickness in over 900 towns and villages, the federal government budgeted an additional US$14 million ($20.33 million) for its biggest Amazon relief effort.
"We have to prevent epidemics, the most worrying thing is the pollution of drinking water," National Integration Minister Ciro Gomes said.
Since the drought began two months ago, millions of fish have died and rotted in the dry beds of Amazon tributaries that provided water, food and access to river communities.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10351062
Help children and fight bird flu, experts urge
19.10.05 4.00pm
By Maggie Fox
WASHINGTON - Moving swiftly against age-old child killers such as diarrhoea and pneumonia could help the world get ready to combat a bird flu pandemic, health experts said on Tuesday.
"We can't do anything about stopping avian flu if it comes in the next two years. But we can save 6 million child lives and we can do something about pandemic flu if it comes in the next five to 10 years," said Dr Nils Daulaire, president and chief executive officer of the Global Health Council.
This, in turn, could help create the capacity to cope with outbreaks of new diseases such as H5N1 avian flu. The key lies with supply. Quarantines are unlikely to help much and influenza spreads quickly.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10351050
Key dates in the spread of bird flu
19.10.05 8.25am
2003
December 15 - South Korea confirms a highly contagious type of bird flu at a chicken farm near Seoul and begins a mass cull of poultry when the virus spreads rapidly across the country.
December 31 - Taiwan reports its first case and later destroys thousands of chickens with a milder form of avian flu.
2004
January 8 - Vietnam says bird flu found on poultry farms.
January 13 - World Health Organisation confirms the deaths of three people in Vietnam are linked to bird flu.
January 25 - Indonesia discovers an outbreak among chickens.
January 26 - Thailand confirms the death of a six-year-old boy, its first human death from bird flu.
February 12 - The World Health Organisation says tests confirm there is no evidence bird flu is passing from person to person.
March 16 - China Decemberlares it has stamped out the disease.
May 26 - Thailand reports a fresh case of bird flu in several dead chickens on a university research farm.
August 19 - Malaysia says a strain of bird flu has been found in two chickens that died near the Thai border, its first cases.
September 27 - Thailand says it has found a case where one human probably infected another with bird flu. It said this was an isolated incident that posed little risk to the population.
December 15 - Taiwan says it has discovered two strains of avian flu in migratory birds in the north of the island, the milder H5N2 strain and the H5N6 strain.
2005
April 5 - The UN says the H7 strain of bird flu, previously undetected in Asia, has been found in North Korea.
July 8 - The Philippines says it has found ducks with bird flu but later says the strain was not highly pathogenic.
July 20 - Indonesia confirms its first deaths from bird flu.
July 26 - Japan says a new outbreak of bird flu has been discovered on a chicken farm in east Japan. All outbreaks in the Ibaraki prefecture were confirmed as the weak H5N2 strain.
August 10 - The bird flu virus has been found in Tibet, the world animal health body OIE says.
August 15 - Russia reports an outbreak of bird flu in the Urals region of Chelyabinsk, the sixth region to be affected.
August 23 - An outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu strain in seven villages in Kazakhstan is confirmed as dangerous to humans.
September 1 - Vietnam reports one new human death from bird flu, taking its total to 44. 65 people have died in Asia in total, including 12 in Thailand, five in Indonesia, four in Cambodia.
October 8 - Turkey reports its first cases of avian flu, and Romania reports suspected avian flu. Both cull birds to prevent the disease from spreading.
October 10 - Bosnia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Switzerland announce a ban on poultry imports from Turkey and Romania. The European Commission announces a ban on imports of live birds and feathers from Turkey to the 25-nation EU.
October 11 - Georgia bans poultry imports from countries affected by bird flu and Egypt bans the import of live birds.
October 13 - A strain of the H5 bird flu virus has been detected in samples from Romanian ducks found in the Danube delta, confirming the virus has arrived in Europe.
-- The European Commission confirms the Romanian findings and immediately says it will ban Romanian imports.
-- The world animal health body says veterinary authorities in Iran have detected a high death rate among wild waterfowl but the cause remains unclear. Iran says there is no evidence so far that bird flu is the cause.
- The European Commission confirms that the virus found in Turkey is avian flu H5N1 high pathogenic virus.
October 18 - Bird flu confirmed on Greek island.
- REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10351022
False passport used to get $180,000 mortgage
19.10.05 1.00pm
Lawyers are being warned of a false passport scam after a woman used one to take out a $180,000 mortgage on a home that was not hers.
The woman had gone to West Auckland lawyer Don Thomas asking him to act in a mortgage ASB Bank had agreed to give her, Auckland District Law Society magazine Law News reported.
She provided Mr Thomas with a passport, IRD certificate and bank statements to prove she lived at a Mt Albert property in Auckland.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10351036
High energy on Fashion Week catwalks
20.10.05 6.15pm
Pacific Island divas stole the show at New Zealand Fashion Week today, when they strutted down the catwalk bejewelled in pearls and designer Annah Stretton's glamourous creations.
Stretton's winter collection 2006 "Jewel in the Crown" fused pacific tapa cloth prints with tailored tuxedo jackets dripping in jewels and bursting with bold colours, as well as soft feminine pastels.
The four glamorous fa'afafine - Pacific Island transvestites named Buckwheat, Cindy, Barbara and Venus - lapped up the applause and sashayed to the beat of pacific drums.
Buckwheat said she had a lot of fun, but took her role seriously too.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10351078
Auckland scientist scoops international award
19.10.05 1.00pm
An Auckland University neurobiologist who has won a prestigious international award for her work, almost didn't enter the competition because she didn't think she'd have any chance of winning.
Dr Johanna Montgomery, 33, has become the first southern hemisphere scientist to be awarded an Eppendorf and Science Prize for Neurobiology, for her research into how human brains are wired.
"I almost didn't enter it because I didn't think I had any chance of winning, and then I did win and I was just absolutely rapt," she said. "It was a very big surprise to win."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10351037
Race yachts face checks
19.10.05 9.00am
Divers are to check the hulls of some of more than 230 yachts taking part in the Coastal Classic race to try to prevent the spread of the invasive sea squirt from the Waitemata Harbour to the Bay of Islands.
The pest, a plant-like animal, threatens New Zealand's $300 million mussel industry.
All yachties registered for the Auckland to Russell race, which starts on Friday, are being contacted about the cleanliness of their hulls, Biosecurity New Zealand said yesterday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10351011
Britain risks generation of non-voters
19.10.05 4.00pm
LONDON - Poor turnout among young British adults raises the risk that there will be a whole generation of non-voters who are not interested in taking part in polls, Britain's election watchdog said on Wednesday.
Research by the Electoral Commission suggested that since the 1960s there had been a steady rise in numbers of young people who did not vote and then kept up their non-participation as they aged, heralding what it described as a possible "Generation No-X".
A turnout of 61.4 per cent of eligible voters for this year's election, won by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party in May, was the third-lowest since 1847.
It followed another poor turnout in 2001 when just 59 per cent voted, the lowest since the end of World War 1, meaning nearly 18 million people had not bothered.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10351064
Women bosses could help UN fight sex abuse, says report
19.10.05 1.00pm
UNITED NATIONS - Putting more women managers, soldiers and police in UN peacekeeping missions would help the world body combat sexual abuse of civilians by peacekeepers, a relief group said on Tuesday.
Since most peacekeeping personnel are now men, a "boys will be boys" attitude prevails in these operations that encourages sexual exploitation and rewards those who remain silent about it, Refugees International said in a new report.
That attitude will continue to prevail until it is recognised that sexual exploitation and abuse "are primarily problems of abuse of power that merit disciplinary action and only secondarily problems of sexual behaviour," said the report based on interviews in Guinea, Haiti, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Sierra Leone over the past three years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10351055
Air pollution may reduce male birth rate
19.10.05
By Maxine Frith
High rates of air pollution can reduce the number of boys born and may be linked to increased rates of miscarriage, according to research.
Researchers in Brazil studied the proportion of male to female births in different areas of Sao Paulo, one of the most polluted cities in the world.
They found that in the least polluted area of the city, 51.7 per cent of all live births resulted in a boy, while in districts with the worst air quality, only 50.7 per cent of births were male.
The differences were statistically significant, although experts still do not know for certain why pollution affects the male birth rate more than female.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10350936
NZ Iraq refuser 'not conscientious objector'
18.10.05 2.00pm
The New Zealander refusing to serve a third tour in Iraq for Britain's Royal Air Force is prepared to go to jail over his belief that the war is illegal.
Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith, who has dual New Zealand and British citizenship, is five years into a six-year contract as a doctor with the Royal Air Force.
He has already served in Afghanistan and on two trips to Iraq but is now facing a court martial after refusing to travel to the troubled Middle Eastern country for a third time.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10350856
NO REPORT FROM SCOTT BASE TODAY
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:
39 °F / 4 °C
Overcast
Windchill:
36 °F / 2 °C
Humidity:
87%
Dew Point:
36 °F / 2 °C
Wind:
5 mph / 7 km/h from the NNW
Pressure:
29.84 in / 1010 hPa
Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Few 1000 ft / 304 m
Mostly Cloudy 1700 ft / 518 m
Overcast 3400 ft / 1036 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
