San Francisco Chronicle
SAN FRANCISCO
Mexico extradites man wanted for rape
Joe Garofoli
Thursday, October 27, 2005
FBI agents arrested a 28-year-old San Francisco man in Guadalajara, Mexico, who was wanted for rape in the Bay Area, the agency said Wednesday.
Edwin Adelson Palacios was arrested without incident Tuesday in Mexico and extradited to San Francisco, where he will face local and federal charges.
He is suspected of raping a 19-year-old woman in his Ford Expedition near Larkin and Polk streets on Aug. 26, 2004, according to court records. He allegedly attacked her after seeing her leave her boyfriend's car during a dispute, police said.
He let her go but pinned her against a wall with his sport utility vehicle and "threatened to kill the victim if she told anyone about the incident," according to an FBI affidavit filed last year in federal court in San Francisco.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/27/BABADIGEST3.DTL
Ex-CIA agents differ on import of outing Plame
Matthew B. Stannard, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, October 28, 2005
When Larry Johnson heard from a friend that Valerie Plame, an old classmate from his CIA training class, had been identified in a newspaper column as a CIA operative, his first reaction was shock.
"I was furious," said Johnson, who left the CIA in 1989 for the U.S. State Department's Office of Counterterrorism and now runs a business consulting firm. His growing sense that Plame was outed for the political benefit of the White House has only heightened his sense of outrage. "People ought to be fired, lose their jobs and face prosecution," he said.
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former case officer in the CIA's clandestine service who is now a resident fellow with the American Enterprise Institute, had a different reaction.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/10/28/MNGUJFFFSJ1.DTL
George Takei, 'Mr. Sulu' of Star Trek fame, comes out
Thursday, October 27, 2005
(10-27) 19:48 PDT Los Angeles (AP) --
George Takei, who as helmsman Sulu steered the Starship Enterprise through three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual in the current issue of Frontiers, a biweekly Los Angeles magazine covering the gay and lesbian community.
Takei told The Associated Press on Thursday that his new onstage role as psychologist Martin Dysart in "Equus," helped inspire him to publicly discuss his sexuality. He described the character as a "very contained but turbulently frustrated man." The play opened Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out.
The current social and political climate also motivated Takei's disclosure, he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/10/27/entertainment/e165838D33.DTL
The NFL's nasty little secret
Betting Fool, SFGate
Thursday, October 27, 2005
I shall preface all this by saying that I have purchased NFL Sunday Ticket and I enjoy it and it has instant fantasy stats and my right thumb is ready for a marathon.
Of course, Sunday Ticket is a lot better and much more useful if you can manage a sports bar hookup and have three different TVs in front of you. Trying to catch the action on one screen can be really frustrating.
But I bought into it because, after all, watching sports is part of my job.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2005/10/27/fool386.DTL
Michael Moore Today
The Lies of the State of the Union Address, January 2003
"... the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa, ..."
United States of America v. I. Lewis Libby
"Libby was advised by the Vice President of the United States that Wilson's wife worked at the CIA"
The Indictment - Justice is Sweet
http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/iln/osc/documents/libby_indictment_28102005.pdf
Libby indictment likely, Rove investigation continues
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Top Cheney Aide Resigns
WASHINGTON, Oct. 28, 2005 (CBS/AP) Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby resigned Friday after being charged with obstruction of justice, making a false statement and perjury in the CIA leak case.
President Bush's top political adviser Karl Rove escaped charges for the time being but will remain under investigation by a new grand jury.
The indictment charged Libby, 55, with one count of obstruction of justice, two of perjury and two false statement counts. If convicted on all five counts, he could face as much as 30 years in prison and $1.25 million in fines.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4694
Cheney's top aide indicted on five counts
Cheney Adviser Resigns After Indictment
By JOHN SOLOMON and PETE YOST, Associated Press Writers 8 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The vice president's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr., was indicted Friday on charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the
CIA leak investigation, a politically charged case that casts a harsh light on President Bush's push to war.
Libby, 55, resigned and left the White House.
Karl Rove, Bush's closest adviser, escaped indictment Friday but remained under investigation, his legal status casting a dark cloud over a White House already in trouble. The U.S. military death toll in
Iraq exceeded 2,000 this week, and the president's approval ratings are at the lowest point since he took office in 2001.
Friday's charges stemmed from
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051028/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_leak_investigation
Libby's rise to power comes down in a crash
(AP) -- I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby quietly rose to the highest corridors of power in Washington only to be brought down in a scandal that thrust him into the limelight that he so explicitly avoided.
Libby's behind-the-scenes involvement in the public exposure of a covert CIA agent led to his indictment Friday on obstruction, false statement and perjury charges, depriving Vice President Dick Cheney of his closest adviser.
The Columbia University-trained lawyer has foreign policy expertise as a former aide in the Defense and State departments. He has been extremely loyal to Cheney and, in return, had the vice president's unwavering trust.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4692
Indictment Adds to White House's Woes
By Ron Fournier / Associated Press
These are dark days for the White House. And they could get darker.
Less than a year after winning re-election by a comfortable margin, President Bush's approval ratings are at the lowest since he took office in 2001 and he is being whipsawed this week by events, some of his own making.
_The U.S. death toll in Iraq hit 2,000 on Tuesday, a fresh reminder of the president's push to war over weapons of mass destruction that were never found.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4695
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. dollar may weaken, along with stock and bond prices, analysts say, if the investigation of the leak of a CIA agent's name results in indictments against White House insiders.
The grand jury investigation is due to conclude by Friday, amid signs the prosecutor in the case is preparing to seek criminal charges over the leaking of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003 after her diplomat husband Joseph Wilson accused the Bush administration of misusing intelligence prior to the war on Iraq.
http://atrios.blogspot.com/2005_10_23_atrios_archive.html
F.B.I. Is Still Seeking Source of Forged Uranium Reports
By Douglas Jehl / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 - A two-year inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation has yet to uncover the origin of forged documents that formed a basis for sending an envoy on a fact-finding trip to Niger, a mission that eventually exploded into the C.I.A. leak inquiry, law enforcement and intelligence officials say.
A counterespionage official said Wednesday that the inquiry into the documents, which were intended to show that Iraq was seeking uranium for a nuclear weapons program, had yielded some intriguing but unproved theories. One is the possibility that associates of Ahmad Chalabi, the former Iraqi exile who was a leading champion of the American campaign to topple Saddam Hussein, had a hand in the forgery. A second hypothesis, described by some officials as more likely, is that the documents were forged at Niger's embassy in Rome, in a moneymaking scheme. The official said the matter was being investigated as a counterintelligence case, not a criminal one.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4693
Cheney, Libby Blocked Papers To Senate Intelligence Panel
By Murray Waas / National Journal
Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, overruling advice from some White House political staffers and lawyers, decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, according to Bush administration and congressional sources.
Among the White House materials withheld from the committee were Libby-authored passages in drafts of a speech that then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell delivered to the United Nations in February 2003 to argue the Bush administration's case for war with Iraq, according to congressional and administration sources. The withheld documents also included intelligence data that Cheney's office -- and Libby in particular -- pushed to be included in Powell's speech, the sources said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4686
Nomination Was Plagued By Missteps From the Start
By Peter Baker and Amy Goldstein / Washington Post
For Harriet Miers, the "murder boards" were aptly named. Day after day in a room in the Justice Department, colleagues from the Bush administration grilled her on constitutional law, her legal background and her past speeches in practice sessions meant to mimic Senate hearings.
Her uncertain, underwhelming responses left her confirmation managers so disturbed they decided not to open up the sessions to the friendly outside lawyers they usually invite to participate in prepping key nominees.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4687
The Rift's Repercussions Could Last Rest of Term
By Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post
The withdrawal of Harriet Miers's nomination to the Supreme Court yesterday was a triumph for conservative activists, but some of the drama's lead players said the bruising battle between erstwhile allies may have left scars for the remainder of President Bush's term.
Those who opposed Miers as insufficiently qualified and unreliably conservative said yesterday they would use their new zeal and organization to drive Bush not only to pick an outwardly conservative nominee but also to press a more conservative agenda through his last three years in office. Some accused those who stuck with Miers as showing themselves more loyal to the White House than their stated conservative principles.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4690
Republican Candidate Kilgore Shuns Bush in Tight Virginia Governor's Race
Oct. 28 (Bloomberg) -- Jerry Kilgore, the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia, was happy to have President George W. Bush at his side at a fundraiser last July. Kilgore won't be there today when the president makes a speech in Norfolk.
Kilgore, 44, is in a tight race with Democrat Tim Kaine in the Nov. 8 election, and Bush -- weighed down by the prolonged Iraq war, criticism of the government's response to hurricanes, high gasoline prices and the legal troubles of top Republican officials -- isn't an asset anymore.
``Bush is a drag, even in Virginia,'' said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics in Charlottesville.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4691
Strong Profits Put Oil Giants on Defensive
By Jad Mouawad and Simon Romero / The New York Times
A sudden interruption in oil supplies sent prices and profits skyrocketing, prompting Exxon's chief executive to call a news conference right after his company announced that it had chalked up record earnings.
"I am not embarrassed," he said. "This is no windfall."
That was January 1974, a few months after Arab oil producers cut back on supplies and imposed their short-lived embargo on exports to the United States. Oil executives, including J. K. Jamieson, Exxon's chief executive at the time, were put on the defensive, forced to justify their soaring profits while the nation was facing its first energy crisis.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4684
Grand Jury Issues New Subpoenas for DeLay
By April Castro / Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas - A Texas prosecutor asked Thursday for all e-mail sent and received in 2002 by three indicted associates of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay as part of an investigation into an alleged campaign finance scheme.
The latest subpoenas issued by District Attorney Ronnie Earle request correspondence to and from e-mail addresses belonging to John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren RoBold. He did not ask DeLay to provide e-mails.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4680
Noe indicted for laundering money to Bush campaign
By Christopher D. Kirkpatrick / Toledo Blade
A federal grand jury has indicted Tom Noe, the former Toledo-area coin dealer at the center of a state investment scandal, of illegally laundering money into President Bush’s re-election campaign.
The three-count indictment (view the indictment below) states that beginning in October 2003, Mr. Noe contributed to President Bush’s election campaign “over and above the limits established by the Federal Election Campaign Act."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4681
Grand Jury Issues New Subpoenas for DeLay
By April Castro / Associated Press
AUSTIN, Texas - A Texas prosecutor asked Thursday for all e-mail sent and received in 2002 by three indicted associates of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay as part of an investigation into an alleged campaign finance scheme.
The latest subpoenas issued by District Attorney Ronnie Earle request correspondence to and from e-mail addresses belonging to John Colyandro, Jim Ellis and Warren RoBold. He did not ask DeLay to provide e-mails.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4680
Island pair off to help in New Orleans
By Karla Araujo / Martha's Vineyard Times
When most of us watched the news coverage of hurricanes Katrina and Rita, we reacted with shock and disbelief. Some reached for checkbooks to make donations to charities, others simply returned to their daily lives, grateful that we live on an island off the coast of New England rather than in Louisiana. But two Island women, Wendy Breiby and Jennifer (J.J.) Johnston, decided to do something about their growing concern: they put out a call to friends and family to donate much-needed supplies, borrowed a truck from local painter David Morris, and hit the road for New Orleans this week.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=50
The New York Times
Winds Crumple Sugar Cane, a Staple of Florida Economy
Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times
Flattened sugar cane crops near South Bay, Fla. Agricultural losses in the region may run into the tens of millions of dollars, if not billions.
Published: October 28, 2005
SOUTH BAY, Fla., Oct. 27 - The green fields of sugar cane stretched to the horizon here on the southern edge of Lake Okeechobee. Normally the stalks rise ramrod straight, like battalions of soldiers in orderly ranks.
HOW TO HELP A partial list of relief organizations and other information on the Web.
YOUR STORY Share your experiences via e-mail or in this forum.
But after being beaten for hours by winds of more than 100 miles an hour from Hurricane Wilma, the columns of cane bent forward in defeat on Thursday, some nearly flat against the rich black soil of the Everglades, others tangled and twisted in sad bunches.
"This is going to have a huge economic impact, not only on growers, but on workers living paycheck to paycheck," said Representative Mark Foley, Republican of Florida, as he visited the emergency operations center in nearby Clewiston and a shelter for storm victims.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/national/nationalspecial/28wilma.html?hp&ex=1130558400&en=ac371b460285ea2b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Israeli Airstrikes Kill Gaza Militant
By STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: October 28, 2005
JERUSALEM, Oct. 28 - Israel launched new airstrikes on northern Gaza this evening, killing one Fatah militant in his car and wounding another as they were on their way to fire rockets toward Israel, according to the Israeli army, which cited unspecified intelligence.
The strikes came as the Israeli defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, expressed doubt that Israel could make peace "with the present leadership of the Palestinians," given their reluctance to crack down on terrorist groups, adding: "I don't think a Palestinian state will see the light of day in the coming years."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/international/middleeast/28cnd-mideast.html?hp&ex=1130558400&en=58ed6b92c48917c2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
W.H.O. Wants China to Run Tests in Girl's Death
By JIM YARDLEY
Published: October 28, 2005
BEIJING, Oct. 28 - The World Health Organization asked China today to conduct further tests to determine whether a 12-year-old girl died of avian influenza, cautioning that provincial health officials may have acted prematurely in declaring that her death was not linked to the deadly disease.
The new request by the health organization comes a day after China's state media quoted health officials in Hunan Province as saying that the girl had tested negative for bird flu and had instead died of pneumonia. The girl's younger brother, hospitalized with flu-like symptoms, was also reported to have tested negative.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/international/asia/28cnd-flu.html?hp&ex=1130558400&en=7f2ab6a69b10af39&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Firefighters Reach Accord With the City
By KAREEM FAHIM
Published: October 28, 2005
The city and the firefighters' union announced yesterday that they had agreed to a tentative 50-month contract that gives firefighters a raise of more than 17 percent. The two sides also extended an agreement that will keep 64 engine companies staffed with five people each.
In return, the firefighters agreed to several concessions, including a steep cut in wages for new hires, a reduction in vacation time and the withdrawal of several grievances against the city. The concessions follow a pattern that has characterized the city's negotiations with other municipal unions over the last few months.
"There has never been any question that these brave men and women deserve a raise," said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, announcing the tentative contract at a City Hall news conference. "The challenge has been finding ways to provide it.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/nyregion/28firefighters.html
E.P.A. Backs Bush Plan to Cut Air Pollution by Power Plants
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: October 28, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 27 - After its apparent demise in Congress six months ago, the Bush administration's plan to reduce air pollution from power plants returned to life on Thursday as the Environmental Protection Agency said the plan would cost less than competing proposals.
The assessment came after Stephen L. Johnson, the agency administrator, presented members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee with a detailed comparison of the administration plan, known as Clear Skies, and several others. All of the bills that were analyzed by the E.P.A. staff are intended to curb emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and mercury.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/politics/28enviro.html
Chiron Hired to Produce Bird Flu Vaccine
By ANDREW POLLACK
Published: October 28, 2005
Stepping up its preparations for a possible flu pandemic, the government has awarded a $62.5 million contract to the Chiron Corporation to manufacture millions of doses of a vaccine against the strain of bird flu that authorities fear.
The contract with Chiron, announced yesterday by Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, is the second one for the manufacture of large quantities of bulk vaccine that would be stored in a government stockpile.
Sanofi-Aventis received a $100 million contract in September and is expected to deliver its vaccine by the end of this year. Chiron, a biotechnology company based in Emeryville, Calif., is expected to deliver its vaccine in the first half of next year.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/business/28chiron.html
Mammograms Validated as Key in Cancer Fight
By GINA KOLATA
Published: October 27, 2005
Addressing a major unknown in the longstanding debate over mammograms, a new study sponsored by the National Cancer Institute found that the screening test contributed to a pronounced drop in the death rate from breast cancer.
The study, being published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, concludes that 28 to 65 percent of the sharp decrease in breast cancer deaths from 1990 to 2000 was due to mammograms. The rest was attributed to powerful new drugs to treat breast cancer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/27/health/27breast.html
Kansas Fight on Evolution Escalates
By JODI WILGOREN
Published: October 28, 2005
Two leading science organizations have denied the Kansas Board of Education permission to use their copyrighted materials as part of the state's proposed new science standards because of the standards' critical approach to evolution.
The rebuke from the two groups, the National Academy of Sciences and the National Science Teachers Association, comes less than two weeks before the board's expected adoption of the controversial new standards, which will serve as a template for statewide tests and thus have great influence on what is taught.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/28/science/sciencespecial2/28kansas.html
The Australian
West Wing tempest
Geoff Elliott
October 29, 2005
PRESIDENT George W. Bush, looking tired and privately seething, flew to Florida yesterday to assess the damage from the latest hurricane to hit the US. He'd be forgiven for thinking on his tour of the home state of his brother and fellow Republican, Governor Jeb Bush, that the mayhem from Wilma has nothing on the destruction he has been witnessing to his second-term administration.
Hours earlier, Bush's choice for a new judge for the US Supreme Court, his official legal adviser Harriet Miers, withdrew her nomination after an extraordinary backlash from Bush's conservative base.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17068345%255E28737,00.html
Blair warns of action against Iran
Philip Webster, Hampton Court, England
October 29, 2005
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair served warning yesterday that the West might have to take military action against Iran after worldwide condemnation of its President's call for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
Ending a one-day EU summit in Britain, Mr Blair called the explosive declaration by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday a "disgrace".
Promising discussions with Washington and other allies over how to react, Mr Blair said he had often been urged not to take action against Iran.
But, he continued: "If they carry on like this the question people will be asking us is - 'When are you going to do something about Iran?'
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17070358%255E601,00.html
More Aussies named in Iraq scam
Blair Speedy and Annabelle MacDonald
October 29, 2005
TWO more Australian companies have been accused of paying kickbacks to the Saddam Hussein regime under the UN's corrupt $12.8 billion oil-for-food program.
As AWB, whose sales of Australian wheat to Iraq were used to illegally funnel $US222 million ($296 million) to Saddam, appeared likely to escape punishment, two privately owned companies denied they had paid bribes to win contracts.
Queensland Alkaloids of Australia and Melbourne-based Rhine Ruhr said last night their contracts under the Iraqi aid program had been handled through the UN with its full approval and knowledge.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17070651%255E601,00.html
Aussie suppliers deny Iraq kickbacks
Annabelle MacDonald and Clive Mathieson
October 29, 2005
TWO private Australian companies drawn into the escalating oil-for-food scandal last night denied paying kickbacks to the government of Saddam Hussein to win contracts.
Queensland-based Alkaloids of Australia and Rhine Ruhr of Melbourne said last night they had provided goods to Iraq under the humanitarian program.
But both said they had always complied with UN rules and had never paid bribes.
The Volcker report names 2253 suppliers of humanitarian goods "for which the committee had evidence of actual or projected illicit payments". These payments were allegedly made through after-sales service fees (ASSFs) or inland transportation fees, which the report claims went to Saddam's regime.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17070670%255E601,00.html
Annan urges kickback charges
David Nason, New York correspondent
October 29, 2005
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has called on the governments of member nations to prosecute companies and individuals in their jurisdictions involved in paying bribes and kickbacks to former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein under the UN's ill-fated oil-for-food program.
Mr Annan's call followed the release of the 623-page final report of Paul Volcker's oil-for-food inquiry, which identified more than 2200 companies that made illegal payments to Saddam between 1999 and 2003.
The report named some of the world's best-known companies, including Volvo and DaimlerChrysler, and a string of political figures. They included British MP George Galloway, former French UN ambassador Jean-Bernard Merrimee, and Jean-Marie Benjamin, a priest tied to the Vatican.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17070329%255E601,00.html
Growing fat with Saddam
David Nason, New York correspondent
October 29, 2005
INVESTIGATOR Paul Volcker yesterday called it the "mother of all humanitarian programs". An Australian may have been tempted to use "money for jam". In the end, the best term for the UN's oil-for-food program remains that coined by Iraqi insiders who always knew the truth.
For them, the program that operated in Iraq from 1996 to 2003 was always "Saddam's bribery system", a suitably candid description that accurately conveyed the modus operandi as well as the identity of the chief beneficiary.
But as the long-awaited final report into oil-for-food, handed down by Volcker at UN headquarters in New York on Thursday, makes clear, it's the unprecedented international scale of the corruption rather than Saddam's fingerprints that makes this one of the great financial scandals of modern times.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17069974%255E601,00.html
$US1m bid for Lenin body
From correspondents in Moscow
October 29, 2005
THE head of the Russian Buddhist region of Kalmykia said today he was willing to pay $US1 million ($1.31 million) to give a new home to the embalmed body of Bolshevik leader Vladimir Lenin.
Last month a top aide to President Vladimir Putin suggested burying Lenin, now a tourist attraction in a guarded mausoleum on Moscow's Red Square, prompting a debate about the revolutionary's place in post-Soviet Russia.
Kalmykia's leader, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, offered to put Lenin on permanent display in Elista, the capital of Kalmykia, which lies on the Caspian Sea.
Some historians say Lenin was one quarter Kalmyk.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17072029%255E1702,00.html
Diva vs Phar Lap
Rhett Kirkwood
October 29, 2005
EVEN 75 years after the most famous Melbourne Cup of them all, Phar Lap's hero status continues to thrive. His name will be mentioned many times between now and Tuesday's great race, not necessarily because of the anniversary of his 1930 success, but because he is still the benchmark for any Australasian horse with a claim to greatness.
Already some pundits are asking where brilliant mare Makybe Diva will sit in comparison to 'Big Red' should she win a record third Melbourne Cup on Tuesday.
She is the best mare Australia has seen. But as far as comparisons are concerned, she will not be No.1 in the 'turf hero premiership' - and no other Australasian horse will ever take that mantle from Phar Lap.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17069961%255E2722,00.html
New Zealand Herald
Climate change to hit the Med most
29.10.05
Mediterranean countries will suffer the most in Europe because of global warming, facing severe water shortages, forest fires, a loss of agricultural land and an influx of potentially invasive species from the south.
The economy and landscape of the Alpine regions are also vulnerable to increased temperatures because a warmer climate will cause the mountain snow lines to rise, a study found.
International researchers said Europe would experience large changes. The study, published by the online version of the journal Science, tried to assess the wider impacts of climate change on a range of ecosystems that provide services such as forestry, farming or tourism.
In 1995, about 193 million people out of an EU population of 383 million faced water shortages. Several climate models predicted between 20 per cent and 38 per cent of the Mediterranean population would be living under "increased water stress".
Water scarcity was likely to be aggravated by greater demand for water for irrigation and tourism. Increasing rainfall was predicted for much of northern Europe, with higher levels of forestation and less land used for agriculture. Mountain areas were also likely to be hit hard by global warming, said the researchers.
Changes to the "run-off" from melting snow and ice would reduce water supply at peak times and increase the risk of winter floods.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352533
Tropical Storm Beta bears down on Central America
28.10.05 1.20pm
By Ivan Castro
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Rain and wind from Tropical Storm Beta lashed Caribbean islands off Nicaragua's jungle-clad coast today and was forecast to strengthen to a hurricane and dump water onto already sodden hills inland.
Strong winds and light rain swept over the idyllic Corn Islands, many of whose lobster-fishing residents are of British-West Indian descent.
"There's a lot of wind," said Naomi Gaitan, speaking by telephone from the island hotel where she works. "Since yesterday we've been without electricity."
Beta is the 23rd named tropical cyclone of an unrelenting Atlantic-Caribbean hurricane season, the most active since records began 150 years ago.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352471
Storms hit South India, death toll crosses 100
28.10.05 12.20pm
CHENNAI, India - Heavy rain and storms paralysed life in southern India today, flooding roads, snapping power and phone lines and disrupting flights as the death toll due to the bad weather this month crossed 100.
Tamil Nadu state was the worst hit by the latest downpour as many areas in the capital Chennai were inundated and cut off, while people and vehicles waded through waist-high water in some parts of the city, witnesses said.
Strong winds uprooted trees and snapped power and phone links in some parts of the city.
"We seem to be passing from one disaster to another since the tsunami," state relief commissioner R Santhanam said. Tamil Nadu took the brunt of the December's Indian Ocean tsunami on the Indian mainland.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352466
Fourth guard assaulted as prison crisis deepens
29.10.05
Tensions in Upper Hutt's Rimutaka Prison are at boiling point after the fourth staff assault in 48 hours.
A prison officers union says inmates are running riot at the jail, with management choosing to "bury its head in the sand" over the situation.
The assaults have occurred during a nationwide prison muster crisis, with inmate numbers at their highest ever.
The Corrections Department, which briefly used vans to house prisoners and a rugby club to shower and exercise them, has also had to cope with several escapes in recent days.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10352594
E-passports by end of year
29.10.05
By Helen Tunnah
Microchips holding a person's digital photograph and personal information will be embedded in passports by the end of the year.
The new e-passports will use face-scanning technologies, but will not yet hold sensitive and more invasive information from iris or finger scans, or DNA profiles.
New Zealand will become one of the first countries in the world to use e-passports, following Australia, which launched its version of the new travel document this week.
Some New Zealanders have already been issued with the microchip-carrying passport as trials are conducted on the technology in the United States.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10352591
Iran protesters denounce israel, back Ahmadinejad
29.10.05
TEHRAN - Chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America", thousands marched through Tehran on Friday in support of the Palestinians, days after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
The demonstrations, which also took place in other parts of Iran, were organised by Islamic hardliners to mark "Qods Day" (Jerusalem Day), which the Islamic republic observes on the last Friday of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan.
Iran says Israel has no right to exist. Tehran denies US allegations that it backs Islamic groups opposing Arab-Israeli peace accords and says it gives them only moral support.
The demonstrators, marching from nine different points in the Iranian capital, trampled on Israeli flags and set fire to both Israeli and US flags.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352578
Anti-Israeli comments nothing new, Iran public laments
29.10.05
By Angus McDowall
Iranians shrugged off their President's anti-Israeli diatribe as part of everyday rhetoric emanating from the leadership, as they predicted further isolation for their country.
"This is not anything new. Ayatollah Khomeini had said this before but I think it is irrational to say a whole country should be wiped off the face of the Earth, said 30-year-old civil engineer Mehran.
"When the heads of a state say such irrational things it's natural that opinion in the international community will turn against Iran."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352537
Australian wheat cash fed Saddam, says report
28.10.05 11.20am
SYDNEY - Australian wheat sales to Iraq were used to illegally funnel about US$200 million ($285.28 million) from the UN humanitarian oil-for-food programme to prop up Saddam Hussein's murderous regime, The Australian newspaper reported today.
The paper says the Howard Government is bracing itself for an explosive United Nations report, which identifies the AWB, formerly the Australian Wheat Board, as one of 3000 companies involved in a corruption scandal that syphoned US$12.8 billion to Saddam over the seven years the programme operated.
According to The Australian, the report, by UN chief investigator Paul Volcker and due to be released early today, says the AWB was involved in providing US$200 million in payments to a transport firm.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352459
British MP faces further Iraqi oil deal accusations
29.10.05
George Galloway faces fresh allegations of benefiting from Saddam Hussein's regime in a report into corruption in the United Nations' oil-for-food programme for Iraq.
The independent investigation by Paul Volcker has charged that the MP received an allocation of 18 million barrels of oil from the regime. It also claims US$120,000 ($169,856) in revenues from oil sales was paid into the bank account of Galloway's estranged wife.
The money allegedly paid to Amineh Abu Zayyad is a separate sum from the US$150,000 ($212,291) that another investigation, by the United States Senate, claimed she had received from oil sales.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352532
Prosecutor jokes about the truth with Bali 9's Sukumaran
29.10.05
DENPASAR, Bali, - With a laugh and a slap on the back, the man trying to send accused Bali Nine ringleader Myuran Sukumaran to the firing squad today urged him to tell the truth in his fight to beat the death penalty.
As the Australian martial arts expert was led to the court room, prosecutor Olopan Nainggolan strode beside Sukumaran from a cell at the rear of the Denpasar District Court.
"In front of the court you have to tell the truth, okay? Don't lie," he told him in English.
He then explained he was "only joking", prompting a rare smile in reply.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352538
No exceptions, death row Australian's supporters told
29.10.05
Singapore is standing firm with its plans to hang an Australian drug smuggler, despite a growing chorus of appeals to spare the Melbourne man.
The Singaporean Government said today it could not make an exception for former businessman Nguyen Tuong Van, 25, after rejecting his appeal for clemency.
It said Nguyen had been given a fair trial and the decision to execute him was consistent with past cases involving Singaporeans and foreigners alike.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352534
Seven Palestinians killed in Gaza air strike
28.10.05 9.20am
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
JABALYA, Gaza Strip - Israel killed an Islamic Jihad leader and six other Palestinians in an air strike in Gaza, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon vowed a broad offensive against Palestinian militants.
A missile blew apart a car carrying Shadi Mhanna in Jabalya refugee camp, witnesses said. At least one of the other Palestinians killed was also an Islamic Jihad militant. Ten people, among them bystanders, were wounded.
It was the deadliest such strike since March 2004, when Israeli missiles killed Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and seven others in Gaza.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352426
Colombian paramilitary combat leaves 80 dead
28.10.05 2.20pm
BOGOTA, Colombia - About 80 right-wing paramilitaries and Marxist rebels died in battle over lucrative cocaine-producing land in western Colombia, a local official said, a day after the morning to night gunfight.
"There was combat all day, from five in the morning to nine at night. The confrontations left 40 paramilitaries dead and an equal number of guerrillas," Federico Cuellar, a local official in the jungle town of San Jose del Palmar in Choco province said.
He said he got the information from fighters evacuated to the town after the battle in a nearby area that is home to large plantations of coca plants used in the production of cocaine.
Police and army officials confirmed there was fighting in the area but did not provide casualty numbers.
Both the rebels, who say they are fighting a 41-year war for socialist revolution despite very little public support, and the paramilitaries, guilty of some of the worst human rights atrocities of the conflict, use the Andean country's cocaine business to fund their activities.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352478
Bird flu drugmaker halts US supplies
28.10.05 10.20am
ZURICH - Drug maker Roche halted supplies of its antiviral drug to the United States to head off hoarding by consumers fearing bird flu, as another firm, and Vietnam, said they were preparing to make their own medicines.
Tests on the latest suspected human cases of the disease produced negative results yesterday, but fear remained high that bird flu was spreading around the world among wild birds and poultry and threatened to produce a human pandemic.
Roche Holding AG said it had halted deliveries of Tamiflu to pharmacists in the United States and Canada until the start of the flu season.
Media coverage of the spread of the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has driven sales higher, the company said.
"This resulted in increased demand for Tamiflu in part from individuals who are doing private stockpiling and at the moment there is no influenza circulating and the threat of a pandemic has not (materialised)," a spokeswoman said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352429
US Senate approves US$8b to fight avian flu
28.10.05 1.00pm
By Richard Cowan
WASHINGTON - The US Senate, increasingly concerned with the possibility of a deadly influenza pandemic, approved nearly US$8 billion ($11.46 billion) to help the government stockpile vaccines and other drugs to fight the disease.
Avian flu, which is widespread among flocks of poultry in Asia and has spread west into Eastern Europe, has only infected about 120 people, killing half of them. The deaths were in Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia.
But scientists fear that if the virus mutates in a way that humans could easily pass it among themselves, millions of people would succumb.
"What this pandemic could do to us as a people is even more threatening than what a few terrorists could do, even a few terrorists with a nuclear device," said Senator Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who led the drive for the emergency funds.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352461
continued ...
