China View
Beijing suspends live poultry trade against bird flu
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-07 18:51:34
Special report: Worldwide fight against bird flu
Inspectors examine a live poultry stall at an agricultural and sideline products market in Beijing, capital of China, Nov. 7, 2005. (Xinhua photo)
BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- All live poultry trade and downtown poultry feeding was temporarily suspended here as of Monday, an effort by the municipal authority to prevent an outbreak of bird flu.
In compliance with the central government's measures against bird flu, Beijing has suspended poultry trading and culling in all its 168 markets, poultry feeding in downtown areas and poultry imports from regions outside the national capital, according to the headquarters in charge of vital animal epidemic prevention andcontrol.
The municipal government also ordered the closing of bird markets, the cessation of domesticated pigeon flying and the quarantine of imported poultry products through land, railroad and air.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/07/content_3746033.htm
China's central bank publishes first report on financial stability
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-07 20:29:24
BEIJING, Nov. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, Monday described in a report that the country's financial situation is stable "in general", the risks left over from the past have been dealt with, and a financial stability mechanism is coming into being.
According to its first report on the country's financial stability, the central bank said China needs to pay special attention to 10 major problems facing the country in order to maintain financial stability.
"Financial stability" refers to the situation in which the financial system is capable of playing its key roles effectively, according to the report.
Transforming its economic growth mode was listed as the first of the 10 issues.
China's inefficient use of raw materials and energy in the past decades has been blamed for the country's shortage of key raw materials and energy and rising prices on both domestic and overseas markets.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/07/content_3746562.htm
Azerbaijanis vote under eyes of int'l monitors
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-06 22:53:48
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- Azerbaijani voters cast their ballots Sunday in the country's parliamentary election under close scrutiny of international observers, and the major opposition bloc claimed there have been frauds that could undermine the integrity of the voting.
About 5,100 polling stations across the oil-rich Caspian Sea nation opened at 08:00 local time (0400 GMT) for Azerbaijanis to elect a new parliament, or the Milli Mejlis. Some 1,541 candidates are vying for places in the 125-seat parliament, which will sit for five years.
At the stations, invisible ink was applied on voters' thumbs after election officials checked their documents. The ink, indelible and detectable by ultraviolet monitors, is used to prevent frauds such as voting twice.
Also on site were more than 1,500 observers from international bodies like the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/06/content_3742059.htm
Outbreak kills 9,000 chickens in Liaoning
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-06 19:44:33
Quarantine workers set up temporary quarantine station at the entrance to Heishan County Nov. 6, 2005.
BEIJING, Nov. 6 -- The latest outbreak of bird flu, which has killed 8,940 chickens in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, has been brought under control, the provincial government said on Friday.
The fourth case of infection China has reported in a month may have been caused by migratory birds, the Ministry of Agriculture said. No human deaths have been reported in the outbreak.
Minister Du Qinglin and a team of experts have rushed to the scene of the outbreak in Gongtai Village, Badaohao Town of Heishan County, a ministry statement said.
Heishan County lies around 300 kilometres northeast of Beijing and is on the migratory bird route from East Asia to Australia. More than 20 magpies and other wild birds have been found dead in the county, according to Fu Jingwu, deputy chief of the Liaoning Provincial Animal Health Supervision Administration.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/06/content_3740515.htm
Human infection of bird flu not ruled out in Hunan cases
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-06 19:04:51
BEIJING, Nov. 6 -- China said Sunday that the possibility of human infection of bird flu in the three reported pneumonia cases in Hunan Province, including one death, could not be ruled out, a Ministry of Health spokesman said.
The spokesman said the ministry had invited the World Health Organization experts to make a joint investigation and to find out the cause for the death.
Three people living in central China's Hunan province came down with pneumonia from unknown causes last month following an outbreak of the H5N1 strain among local poultry. One of them, a 12-year-old girl, died. Her 9-year-old brother and a 36-year-old middle school teacher recovered.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/06/content_3740297.htm
China reports 3 pneumonia cases of unknown causes
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-06 00:04:04
BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- China's Ministry of Health Sunday gave a briefing on three pneumonia cases of unknown causes in Xiangtan County, central China's Hunan Province, where an H5N1 bird flu epidemic broke out recently.
"After conducting comprehensive analysis, experts said although the three cases are diagnosed as pneumonia of unknown causes at present, the possibility of human infection of the highly deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu can not be ruled out," a spokesman for the ministry said.
"We still need further test in the laboratory to find the exact causes," he said, adding a lab under the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention is carrying out the test.
He said the ministry has reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) about the three cases and prevention and control measures.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/06/content_3742435.htm
US, China agree on textile imports, report
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-06 19:07:02
BEIJING, Nov. 6 -- China and the United States have reached a tentative agreement on imports of Chinese clothing and fabric, the Washinigton Post reported Saturday.
The deal is expected to resolve a festering dispute between the two nations, the newspaper cited industry sources as saying.
The deal would begin on Jan. 1 and last through 2008 -- a concession by China, which wanted it to expire in 2007, a anonymous source was quoted as saying.
It would allow imports of most major textile and apparel products from China to increase by 8 to 10 percent in 2006, by 13 percent in 2007 and by 17 percent in 2008 -- a concession by the United States, which had proposed keeping annual growth close to 7.5 percent, according to the Post.
Although a few details remain to be resolved, the agreement is likely to be signed next week by U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman and Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, the report said.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/06/content_3740313.htm
1/30 people in Shanghai own private business: survey
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-06 10:20:43
SHANGHAI, Nov. 6 (Xinhuanet) -- In China's largest city Shanghai, there is one private business owner out of every 30 people of employable age, a recent survey among Shanghai's working population has found.
The survey, conducted by the Shanghai municipal labor and social security department, shows 3.1 percent of the 25,000 citizens surveyed are operating their private business entities and hold stakes.
Meanwhile, an additional 1.8 percent of the respondents said they are making concrete preparations for a private business, bringing the actual proportion of private entrepreneurs in the city to 4.9 percent.
The percentage is higher than the 3.3 percent reported in Hong Kong and 4.3 percent in Taiwan, but lags behind the southern booming city Shenzhen, where 10.5 percent of the working population are private business owners, said Sheng Zuhuan, a laborand social security official.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/06/content_3738555.htm
Sino-Russian cooperation substantial despite squabbling
www.chinaview.cn 2005-11-04 20:38:15
BEIJING, Nov. 4 (Xinhuanet) -- From a 200 million US dollar buyers' credit to a pledge to treat kids in the Beslan hostage crisis, Russian Prime Minister Fradkov pocketed nine cooperation documents after a short but high-profile China visit.
The pacts, however, excluded the highly anticipated but long delayed oil pipeline project, which enables China to ship crude oil from oil-rich Siberia.
Enterprises are still working hard to seek a solution "satisfactory to both", he told the press after the 10th regular prime ministers meeting between he and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao,adding that Russia will "honor its commitment" for energy cooperation with China.
By means of a railway shipments, China is expected to receive 8 million tons of crude oil in 2005, up from 5.8 million in 2005.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-11/04/content_3732358.htm
New York Times
Delays Hurting U.S. Rebuilding in Afghanistan
By DAVID ROHDE and CARLOTTA GALL
Published: November 7, 2005
TURMAI, Afghanistan, Nov. 2 - Islamuddin Ahmadiyar, a 22-year-old student, remembers the excitement in this dusty farming hamlet in central Afghanistan when American contractors broke ground two years ago.
Scott Eells for The New York Times
Mohammed Ali, 40, a security guard who has not been paid for six months, keeping watch recently at an unfinished clinic in Turmai, Afghanistan.
Scott Eells for The New York Times
Ramazan Bashardost, who has accused foreigners and government officials of pocketing reconstruction funds, was elected to Parliament.
A one-story, 12-room health clinic, nestled between apple and mulberry tree groves, was to replace the mud hut where the village's lone doctor labored through Afghanistan's quarter-century nightmare of Soviet occupation, civil war and Taliban rule.
But the clinic remains an unfinished shell, one of 96 American-financed clinics and schools that a New Jersey-based company was supposed to build by September 2004. To date, nine clinics and two schools have been completed and passed inspection, according to the company.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/international/asia/07afghan.html?hp
Tornado Slams Southern Indiana; at Least 22 Die
Robert Brown and his father-inlaw, John Jackson, in the ruins of his home near Evansville, Ind.
Cecelia Hanley/Associated Press
Steve Auten hugged his mother, Shelly, after a tornado swept through Newburgh, Ind., early Sunday.
Cecelia Hanley/Associated Press
A house in Newburgh, Ind., was damaged by the tornado.
Mr. Blackburn said he called to warn his son, who lives about a half-mile away, and then set off with his wife, Judy, to his son's home to take refuge in the basement.
"We just barely got to the foot of the steps when it hit," Mr. Blackburn said. "I heard this roaring noise."
At least 22 people were killed, most of them neighbors of Mr. Blackburn in the mobile home park, and hundreds were injured when a tornado tore across southwestern Indiana and northern Kentucky about 2 a.m. on Sunday, cutting a path of destruction about 20 miles long and three-quarters of a mile wide.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/national/07tornado.html?hp&ex=1131426000&en=456503804c5bf3fa&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Another Choice for Elderly: Charity or Medicare?
By STEPHANIE SAUL
Published: November 7, 2005
The pharmaceutical industry's version of a campaign bus, the "Help Is Here Express," has toured 25 states this year to spread the word about charity prescription programs sponsored by drug companies.
Ruby Washington/The New York Times
Walter Bach, rear left, volunteers at the Medicare Rights Center in Manhattan. In the foreground is Betty Duggan, a program director.
But even as the bright orange bus travels from state to state enrolling patients in the programs, the assistance may be coming to a halt for thousands of elderly people.
One of them is Walter Bach of Glendale, Queens.
Mr. Bach, 65, who is blind, received worrisome news last month from Bristol-Myers Squibb. The free Plavix he gets from the company's charitable foundation will stop if he enrolls in the new Medicare prescription program that begins in January.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/business/07drug.html
Marine Killed in Ambush on Iraq-Syria Border
A group of marines began to search the house, which appeared to be empty, and were met with a hail of gunfire, which killed one marine and drove the others outside. The insurgent gunman was killed by other marines as he tried to flee from the roof.
The sweep of the 3-square-mile town, involving 3,500 American and Iraqi soldiers, began Saturday and is the largest assault the marines have conducted since their invasion of the restive city of Falluja last February. It is the latest in a series aimed at halting the flow of foreign jihadists, including suicide bombers, who have entered Iraq from the Syrian frontier.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/international/middleeast/07iraq.html
Azerbaijan Votes, Amid Accusations of Fraud and Abuse
By C. J. CHIVERS
Published: November 7, 2005
BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 6 -After months of pre-election tension in a nation that has never had a free and fair election under its ruling family, voters in Azerbaijan cast their ballots for Parliament on Sunday amid new accusations of fraud and government abuses
Misha Japaridze/Associated Press
A woman voted in Baku on Sunday beneath a portrait of Heydar Aliyev, the former president of Azerbaijan.
C.J. Chivers/The New York Times
A voter photographed in Zyra with three ballots was hustled away by an election aide. After a heated talk, she returned with one.
The turnout appeared modest, with the preliminary government figures from many districts showing 40 percent to 50 percent of eligible voters casting ballots and the ruling party with a firm official lead in seats for the 125-member Parliament. The day was largely peaceful, if chaotic.
But the possibility of violence remained, as the government and its opponents came to starkly different conclusions about the conduct of the vote and ballot counting and as the government appeared to have tampered with the results of at least one prominent race.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/international/asia/07azerbaijan.html
When Cleaner Air Is a Biblical Obligation
With increasing vigor, evangelical groups that are part of the base of conservative support for leading Republicans are campaigning for laws that would reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which scientists have linked with global warming.
In the latest effort, the National Association of Evangelicals, a nonprofit organization that includes 45,000 churches serving 30 million people across the country, is circulating among its leaders the draft of a policy statement that would encourage lawmakers to pass legislation creating mandatory controls for carbon emissions.
Environmentalists rely on empirical evidence as their rationale for Congressional action, and many evangelicals further believe that protecting the planet from human activities that cause global warming is a values issue that fulfills Biblical teachings asking humans to be good stewards of the earth.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/politics/07air.html
I am looking forward to it. Sounds great. Refreshing.
An Evolutionist's Evolution
Heidi Schumann for The New York Times
The exhibit, opening Nov. 19, offers one of Darwin's most famous notebooks, written from 1837 to 1839, with a sketch of the first evolutionary tree of life.
According to a CBS News poll last month, 51 percent of Americans reject the theory of evolution, saying that God created humans in their present form. And reflecting a longstanding sentiment, 38 percent of Americans believe that creationism should be taught instead of evolution, according to an August poll by the Pew Research Center in Washington.
An ongoing federal trial in Harrisburg, Pa., may determine whether a local school board can compel teachers to inform students about the theory of intelligent design - the idea that life on earth is too complex to have arisen through evolution alone. And though there is no credible scientific support for this position, President Bush, when asked in August about evolution and intelligent design, said that "both sides ought to be properly taught."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/07/nyregion/07darwin.html
New Zealand Herald
Susan Wood wins legal battle against TVNZ
07.11.05 6.30pm
By Hannah Lawrence
Susan Wood has won a legal battle against her employer Television New Zealand, with the Employment Relations Authority ruling she is a permanent employee and that TVNZ cannot cut her salary without her consent.
Close Up presenter Wood took a personal grievance against TVNZ on learning of plans to cut $100,000 from her $450,000 annual pay packet.
She claimed TVNZ was using her fixed-term agreement to force a significant salary reduction and asked authority member Leon Robinson to rule that as she was a permanent employee, TVNZ could not cut her salary.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10354039
Woman bashed to death over stolen Nazi flag
07.11.05 1.00pm
A Christchurch man bashed his former de facto partner to death in a blind rage over a stolen Nazi flag, a High Court jury was told today.
Nicholas Robert Marsh, 38, has denied kidnapping and murdering Nicola Jane Hackell at his Christchurch flat last March 26.
His trial before Justice Fogarty and a jury of seven men and five women began in the High Court at Christchurch today.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10353986
Arab parents donate son's kidney to Israeli
07.11.05 1.00pm
By Eric Silver
The family of a 12-year-old Palestinian boy, killed by Israeli soldiers, this weekend donated his kidney to an Israeli boy who desperately needed a transplant.
"It doesn't matter," they said, "whether the recipient was a Jew or an Arab." Ahmed Khatib was shot in the head and pelvis on Thursday during a firefight in the West Bank city of Jenin.
He was rushed to the emergency room at Rambam hospital in Haifa, but died without recovering consciousness.
The army expressed regret and ordered an investigation, but claimed the boy was toting a toy gun which soldiers mistook for a rifle. The family said he was with a group of boys waving toy guns to celebrate the Id el-Fitr festival.
Jamil Khatib, his uncle, said the boy's father, Ismail Khatib, agreed to donate the organ after he saw the young Israeli kidney patient suffering in the hospital.
"He felt he had to go beyond politics," the uncle explained.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353961
Erceg helicopter search fleet now at 20
07.11.05 1.00pm
Three more helicopters have joined the search for missing multi-millionaire Michael Erceg and a Dutch passenger who disappeared on a flight from Auckland to Queenstown on Friday.
Search officials added three more helicopters to the fleet about mid-morning and 20 machines were now searching between Mokau on the west coast north of Taranaki, and Wanganui.
Mr Erceg's Eurocopter was last seen near Mokau in north Taranaki on Friday as it headed to Wanganui to refuel.
Rescue Co-ordination Centre spokesman Steve Corbett said the search area was mostly covered by thick bush and it would be extremely difficult to find a downed helicopter.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10353982
Ex-Saddam guard 'on the run' in NZ
07.11.05 8.45am
One of Saddam Hussein's former bodyguards is thought to be on the run in Wellington after allegedly defrauding an Auckland doctor of $129,500.
Isaac Meti Yosef Jago, 41, has disappeared from Auckland after allegedly fooling Iraqi doctor Haider Jasim and his wife into handing over a bank cheque to buy a luxury Mercedes.
In May, Mr Jago was outed by NZ First leader Winston Peters as a former member of Saddam Hussein's palace guard.
Dr Jasim did not know Mr Jago personally but did not think to question the sale, because all the paperwork and receipts were from car dealers Coutts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10353948
Puppy killer gets 200 hours
07.11.05
A teenager who threw a 6-week-old puppy through the air and then kicked it like a football when it landed has been sentenced to 200 hours' community work.
The female puppy, one of a litter of Doberman-type pups, died soon afterwards from haemorrhaging resulting from a ruptured liver.
Halen Joseph Heemi, 17, formerly of Kaitaia, admitted an Animal Welfare Act charge laid by the Bay of Islands SPCA of wilfully ill-treating the puppy on Ahipara Beach, near Kaitaia, last February 3.
SPCA prosecutor Jim Boyd said Heemi was seen to take the puppy by the scruff of its neck and throw it with some force for about 10m.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10353907
Sudden death rocks Greens worldwide
07.11.05
SYDNEY - The death of Rod Donald will send shockwaves through the Green movement around the world, Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said yesterday.
"Like so many others, I have lost a good friend. I was shocked to hear the news," Senator Brown said.
"I spent some time with Rod during the New Zealand election campaign and he was hale and hearty, full of vim and vigour.
"It is shocking that he has died at 48 at the height of his political acumen and career.
"This will send shockwaves through the Greens internationally as Rod was known around the world.
"His efforts in bringing a fairer voting system to New Zealand and becoming co-leader with Jeanette Fitzsimons made him one of the most respected Greens in Asia-Pacific and indeed the planet."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10353902
Homemade bomb rocks Christchurch suburb
07.11.05 5.00am
A carload of youths exploded a homemade bomb in a Christchurch street last night.
The device smashed glass panels in a telephone booth outside a dairy on Edgeware Rd in St Albans.
It was suspected of being a bolt bomb, after a lump of metal was discovered among the debris, thrown metres through the air.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10353897
Azeri opposition calls for street protests claiming election flawed
07.11.05 1.00pm
By Andrew Osborn
Oil-rich Azerbaijan appeared to be slipping into a political crisis after pro-democracy activists keen on engineering a Ukraine-style orange revolution accused the government of rigging parliamentary elections, setting the stage for mass public protests and possible violence.
The Azadliq (Freedom) coalition of opposition parties dismissed claims by President Ilham Aliyev that yesterday's vote had gone smoothly and said it had evidence of 21,104 voting irregularities in 113 of the country's 125 constituencies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353981
Missile embedded in cruise ship, says Downer
07.11.05 11.20am
CANBERRA - A cruise ship with up to 19 Australians on board has an unexploded missile embedded in an accommodation unit after a possible terrorist attack off the east African coast, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says.
The passengers on the US-owned Seabourn Spirit were woken by machinegun fire and a rocket-propelled grenade crashing into the vessel at dawn on Saturday about 160km off the coast of the lawless nation of Somalia.
The luxury cruise ship is about to dock in the Seychelles, but Mr Downer said that could be delayed while officials disarm the unexploded ordnance.
"We're not sure whether in the early stages the ship will be able to tie up at the wharf there because of concern about an unexploded rocket that is embedded in some of the passenger accommodation of the ship," Mr Downer told the Nine Network.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353956
Iraq gets ready for a tourist boom
07.11.05 1.00pm
By Kim Sengupta
A $85 million, five star, 23-storey hotel rising in the city centre; an opulent palace complex being turned into a theme park; cheap flights to the picturesque 'Venice of the East': all the trappings of a country gearing up for a tourist boom.
Except that the country in question is Iraq, possibly the most dangerous place in the world, with a daily toll of dead from bombs and bullets, and foreigners viewed as kidnapping material.
After President George W Bush officially declared a successful end to the Iraq War, investors rushed to seminars and conferences eager to get their slice of the action of the commercial riches.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353964
Iran opens military base, calls for nuclear talks
07.11.05 1.00pm
TEHRAN - Iran sought to defuse tensions over its nuclear programme today, confirming it had let UN inspectors visit a military complex and calling for a revival of European Union talks on the issue.
The official IRNA news agency said Iran had written to Britain, France and Germany, calling for the resumption of negotiations which broke down in August.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) could, when it meets this month, discuss sending Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council, where Tehran could face sanctions.
But in a further sign Iran wants to avoid confrontation, it confirmed that it had allowed UN nuclear inspectors to visit a military base suspected by Washington of links to a covert nuclear weapons programme.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353990
Armed men kills 11 family members in Baghdad
07.11.05 6.20am
Eleven members of a family have been killed and three wounded by armed men who ambushed their minibus north-east of Baghdad.
Officials in the village of Baladruz, 50km northeast of Baghdad, say the family had come to visit relatives.
On their way back to the nearby town of Naharuwan, near Baghdad, they were intercepted by gunmen in two cars who forced their vehicle to stop and sprayed the minibus with bullets
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353893
Blast near Somali PM's car kills 3
07.11.05 10.20am
MOGADISHU - An explosion tore through a convoy of cars carrying Somalia's Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi in Mogadishu on Sunday killing three but leaving him unhurt, residents said.
Government aides said a landmine caused an explosion that sharply raised tensions in a city controlled largely by Gedi's political foes. One witness said the convoy appeared to have been targeted deliberately.
The blast set ablaze at least one vehicle among several that were ferrying and one of his deputies from an airstrip to the lawless Indian Ocean city.
Gedi had flown in from his headquarters north of the capital to try to hold talks with a dissident faction of ministers based in Mogadishu to end a rift in the government stirring fears of renewed civil war.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353957
Firms claim to have generic version of Tamiflu
07.11.05
By Jason Nisse
Two Asian groups are claiming to have produced a generic form of Tamiflu, the Roche-made medicine that may protect against bird flu.
The move could open up the bottleneck of Tamiflu supplies, which has left many countries desperately short of the anti-viral drug. Scores of people have died from bird flu in Asia, where poultry is being slaughtered to try to control the disease. It has now entered the eastern reaches of Europe.
Roche has said it will license Tamiflu to interested firms but the company claimed it was difficult to make and it would take time for rivals to develop the expertise.
However, Cipla, an Indian drugs maker, and Taiwan's National Health Research Institute, have said they had made batches of Tamiflu.
Roche has now admitted the difficulties may have been overstated.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353903
Peru's Fujimori makes surprise arrival in Chile
07.11.05 12.20pm
SANTIAGO, Chile - Peru's ex-President Alberto Fujimori, who is wanted in Peru on an international arrest warrant on human rights abuse and corruption charges, made a surprise arrival in Chile on Sunday.
Fujimori, who led Peru from 1990 to 2000, has been a fugitive in Japan since he fled there in November 2000 when a corruption scandal toppled his government.
In a statement received by Reuters, Fujimori said he left the Japanese capital, Tokyo, on Sunday and flew to Santiago, Chile, arriving there at 3:30 local time.
"It is my aim to temporarily remain in Chile as part of my efforts to return to Peru and keep my promise to an important part of the Peruvian people who have called on me to be a candidate in the 2006 elections," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353978
Arrested Ecstasy model linked to minister's son
07.11.05
Australian model Michelle Leslie was reportedly with the son of a senior Indonesian minister when she was arrested for possession of two Ecstasy tablets in Bali.
The link between Leslie and the highest levels of the Indonesian Government was reported in Bali newspapers at the weekend.
The DenPost said that when the 24-year-old model was arrested she was in a Toyota Kijang car bearing the logo of a luxury Bali resort travelling with the son of a senior Government official with a financial interest in that resort.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353920
Schwarzenegger election campaign greeted with hostility
07.11.05
By Andrew Gumbel
Arnold Schwarzenegger has stopped using the word "fantastic" to describe his life in politics.
He can no longer count on adoring crowds wherever he goes. At his first public forum in Los Angeles last Thursday, he was pummelled with hostile questions as angry voters accused him of being wrong on issues and deceitful in the way he has sold his policy agenda.
On Tuesday, he hopes voters will approve a package of measures that he either put on the ballot himself or personally approved. But the election has been denounced as a waste of time and money by a majority of the electorate, and the four key Schwarzenegger-backed issues are rated anywhere from modestly to catastrophically in opinion polls.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353901
Warren Beatty shadows Schwarzenegger through California
07.11.05
By Marty Graham
SAN DIEGO - Liberal actor Warren Beatty shadowed Republican California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as he traversed Southern California seeking support for four initiatives days before a special election.
Reenacting a technique that helped bring him to office two years ago, Schwarzenegger set out on a bus tour of four cities to greet friendly audiences. This time, the former "Terminator" star jockeyed for attention with Beatty on the sidelines.
No actor wants to be overshadowed, so Schwarzenegger's staff blocked the star of "Bonnie and Clyde" and "Dick Tracy" from entering the governor's first stop at a private aircraft hangar in San Diego.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10353869
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