Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Okeydoke"
History
Today is Wednesday, Nov. 9, the 313th day of 2005. There are 52 days left in the year.
1731 Benjamin Banneker, astronomer, mathematician, urban planner and inventor, is born free in Maryland.
1872, fire destroyed nearly a thousand buildings in Boston.
1918, Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm II announced he would abdicate. He then fled to the Netherlands.
1925 Paul Robeson makes his film debut in Oscar Micheaux's "Body and Soul". Hailed as one of the greatest men of his time, this multi-talented entertainer excelled in sports, law, theater, and movies.
1935 Bob Gibson, a hard throwing right-hander who wins 251 major league games during 17 seasons, is born in Omaha, NE
1935, United Mine Workers president John L. Lewis and other labor leaders formed the Committee for Industrial Organization.
1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht."
1953, author-poet Dylan Thomas died in New York at age 39.
1961 The PGA Convention drops its "Caucasians Only" membership clause from its constitution and opens its ranks to Negroes and Asians. Charlie Sifford will become the first PGA Black golfer.
1963, twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and 160 people died in a train crash.
1965, the great Northeast blackout occurred as a series of power failures lasting up to 13 1/2 hours left 30 million people in seven states and two Canadian provinces without electricity.
1967, a Saturn 5 rocket carrying an unmanned Apollo spacecraft blasted off from Cape Kennedy on a successful test flight.
1970, former French president Charles De Gaulle died at age 79.
1988, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell, a major figure in the Watergate scandal, died in Washington at age 75.
1989, communist East Germany threw open its borders, allowing citizens to travel freely to the West; joyous Germans danced atop the Berlin Wall.
2000 Brown University's Board of Trustees vote to confirm Ruth Simmons to head the university. Ruth Simmons becomes the first Black to head an Ivy League school. She was also the first Black woman to lead Smith College, another elite school.
Ten years ago: In a pair of telephone interviews, O.J. Simpson told Associated Press reporter Linda Deutsch that people have supported rather than shunned him since his acquittal, and that he has learned that fame and wealth are illusions. Said Simpson: "The only thing that endures is character."
Five years ago: George W. Bush's lead over Al Gore in all-or-nothing Florida slipped beneath 300 votes in a suspense-filled recount, as Democrats threw the presidential election to the courts, claiming "an injustice unparalleled in our history."
One year ago: Attorney General John Ashcroft and Commerce Secretary Don Evans resigned; they were the first members of the Cabinet to leave as President Bush headed from re-election into his second term.
Kenny Chesney won the Country Music Association album of the year award for "When The Sun Goes Down" as well as entertainer of the year. Roger Clemens won his record seventh Cy Young Award
Missing in Action
1967 ARMSTRONG JOHN W. DALLAS TX
1967 BROWER RALPH W. STOW OH CRASH DEAD PILOT RECOV
1967 CLAY EUGENE L. ARLINGTON TX CRASH DEAD PILOT RECOV
1967 MAYSEY LARRY W. CHESTER NJ CRASH DEAD PILOT RECOV
1967 NOLAN MCKINLEY WASHINGTON TX 11/02/73 LAST SEEN
1967 REHN GARY LEE PARK RAPIDS MN
1967 SIJAN LANCE P. MILWAUKEE WI 03/17/74 REMAINS RETURNED DIED DURING RESCUE IN FIGHT W CAPTOR 01/22/68
Chicago Sun Times
Weather is 'Squishy'
Blasts rock 3 Jordan hotels
November 9, 2005
BY JAMAL HALABY ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMMAN, Jordan-- Suicide bombers attacked three hotels frequented by Westerners in the Jordanian capital Wednesday night, and at least 18 people were killed and 120 wounded, police said.
Maj. Bashir al-Da'aja said officials believe all three blasts were carried out by suicide bombers. The explosions indicated the involvement of al-Qaida, which has launched coordinated attacks on high-profile, Western targets in the past, a police official said.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/jordan09.html
Cop saves kidnapped woman
November 9, 2005
BY FRANK MAIN Crime Reporter
Loretta Wheeler had just found a place to park after a long day of work when carjackers pointed their guns at her, removed the spare tire from her red Mercury Sable and stuffed her in the trunk -- stopping at automatic teller machines to try to loot her bank account.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-jack09.html
Relaxed standards, better scores
November 9, 2005
BY KATE N. GROSSMAN AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters
When the state first released test results this summer, it looked as if more schools and districts had met federal testing goals than last year. But relaxed state standards this year, not necessarily better performance, account for some of that growth, new data analyzed by the Chicago Sun-Times shows.
This year, 27.1 percent of schools failed to meet federal testing targets. But after removing the 227 schools that benefited from the softer standards, that jumps to 33.1 percent. In 2004, 28.5 percent of schools failed.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-nclb09.html
Results get second look after drop 'raises an eyebrow'
November 9, 2005
BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters
Illinois education experts are taking a hard look at the results of this year's state tests after dozens of top-tier elementary schools saw their reading and math scores nosedive.
In reading, where a third of one test was thrown out, State Board of Education officials are split on whether the downturn reflects a serious reading problem among Illinois' best and brightest, or a flaw in scoring the very top end of the scale in the handwritten portions of 2005 state tests.
There is agreement on one point.
"We're concerned,'' said State Board spokeswoman Meta Minton. "Some of the results from some of the traditionally high-scoring schools have caused us to raise an eyebrow."
http://www.suntimes.com/schools/2005/news/cst-nws-main09.html
How six schools succeeded in improving scores
November 9, 2005
BY LESLIE BALDACCI AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters
The Chicago Sun-Times asked elementary schools selected from about 2,000 across Illinois to identify keys to their success on state reading and math tests this year. These short studies reveal factors that school leaders said helped students achieve.
Some are "old-school" solutions: small schools with small classes, increasing time spent on a subject or on test prep, improving teacher training.
Some schools benefitted from specialists, extra personnel or special programs.
http://www.suntimes.com/schools/2005/news/cst-nws-thumblock09.html
State tests show drop at the top
November 9, 2005
BY ROSALIND ROSSI AND ART GOLAB Staff Reporters
Reading and math scores tumbled at dozens of the state's top-scoring elementary schools this year, puzzling both state experts and local school leaders.
In reading, the drop made some state officials wonder if scores reflected a decline in skills among the state's best students.
Others questioned scoring of the Illinois Standards Achievement Test, especially in sections involving written responses scored by human beings, not machines.
In high school tests taken last April, a record four Chicago public schools scored among the top 10 in the state, according to this year's annual Chicago Sun-Times analysis of state reading and math scores.
http://www.suntimes.com/schools/2005/news/cst-nws-xmain09.html
Oil company execs defend profits
file:news4
November 9, 2005
BY H. JOSEF HEBERT ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON-- The chiefs of five major oil companies defended the industry's huge profits Wednesday at a Senate hearing where lawmakers said they should explain prices and assure people they're not being gouged.
There is a "growing suspicion that oil companies are taking unfair advantage," Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said as the hearing opened in a packed Senate committee room.
"The oil companies owe the country an explanation," he said.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/09oil.html
Texas Court clears way for new Yates trial
November 9, 2005
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
HOUSTON-- The state's highest criminal court on Wednesday let stand a lower court ruling that threw out Andrea Yates' murder convictions for drowning her children in a bathtub in 2001.
Harris County Assistant District Attorney Alan Curry said the case would be retried or a plea bargain considered. Jurors rejected Yates insanity defense in 2002 and found her guilty of two capital murder charges for the deaths of three of her five children.
Curry said if the case goes back to trial, he is confident Yates would be convicted again. He said a plea bargain also may be discussed.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/09yates.html
Attack kills 5 policemen in Baquoba
November 9, 2005
BY ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq-- A suicide bomber detonated his car Wednesday near a police patrol in Baquoba, 35 miles northeast of Baghdad, killing five policemen and wounding five others, officials said.
U.S. Air Force jets destroyed a building near the Syrian border Wednesday where al-Qaida insurgents hid weapons, the U.S. military said.
The attack occurred early in the day in the village of Bu Hardan near the cities of Qaim and Husaybah where U.S. and Iraqi troops conducted a major operation in the past four days.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/iraq09.html
Texas bans same-sex marriages
November 9, 2005
Texas voters Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, making their state the 19th to take that step. In Maine, however, voters rejected a conservative-backed proposal to repeal the state's new gay-rights law.
In California, voters had a chance to embolden or embarrass Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger as they considered four measures he promoted as part of a power struggle with legislators and public-employee unions.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-eside09.html
Gonorrhea rates fall; syphilis on the rise
November 9, 2005
BY MIKE STOBBE
ATLANTA -- Gonorrhea has fallen to the lowest level on record in the United States, while the rates of other sexually transmitted diseases -- syphilis and chlamydia -- are on the rise, federal health officials said Tuesday.
The seemingly paradoxical findings can be explained by the cyclical nature of syphilis outbreaks and a rise in risky sexual behavior among gay men, researchers said.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/health/cst-nws-std09.html
Sermon gets church in trouble with IRS
November 9, 2005
LOS ANGELES -- The Internal Revenue Service has warned a prominent liberal church that it could lose its tax-exempt status because of an anti-war sermon a guest preacher gave on the eve of the 2004 presidential election, according to church officials.
The Rev. George F. Regas did not urge parishioners at All Saints Episcopal Church to support either President Bush or John Kerry, but he was critical of the Iraq war and Bush's tax cuts.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/religion/cst-nws-lib09.html
Rein them in before they attack again
November 9, 2005
Here are some headlines culled from the Chicago Sun-Times over the last six months: "Aurora boy, 11, recovers from pit bull mauling"; "Lab badly hurt when she took on pit bull mauling 6th-grader"; "3-year-old home after pit bull attack"; "Pit bull fatally mauls girl, 4, in W. Virginia"; "Kids were heroes in pit bull tragedy." And that's just half a year. There have been hundreds of similar sad stories about pit bull attacks since the breed started to become popular two decades ago.
Including the story last week about the two 10-year-olds in McHenry County who were going door to door to fill candy orders when they knocked at Scott Sword's house and his three pit bulls leaped through the door and attacked them. Jourdan Lamarre may have to have reconstructive surgery on her leg as a consequence of the attack. Nick Foley was listed in critical condition in the hospital. Four adults who tried to hold the dogs off the children also were wounded.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/commentary/cst-edt-edits09.html
Michael Moore Today
Democrats Win Gov. Races in Va., N.J.
By Robert Tanner / Associated Press
Democrats swept both governors' races Tuesday, with Sen. Jon Corzine easily winning New Jersey and Lt. Gov. Tim Kaine taking Virginia despite a last-minute campaign push for his opponent from President Bush.
Elsewhere, Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional ban on gay marriage, GOP Mayor Michael Bloomberg easily clinched a second term in heavily Democratic New York, and Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was trailing in his re-election bid.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4817
Newsview: Bush Gambles, Loses Campaigning
By Ron Fournier / Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Iraq, Katrina, CIA leak, Harriet Miers. Things couldn't possibly get any worse for President Bush. Wait, they just did.
Bush put his wispy political prestige on the line in the Virginia governor's race and lost Tuesday when the candidate he embraced in a last-minute campaign stop was soundly defeated. While there are many reasons for Jerry Kilgore's defeat, chief among them his poor campaign, giddy Democrats said the Virginia race as well as a Democratic victory in New Jersey prove that Bush is a political toxin for Republicans.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4816
Voters Choose Black Mayor for Cincinnati
By Terry Kinney / Associated Press
CINCINNATI - Four years after riots tore this city apart, Cincinnati voters elected a black mayor for the first time.
State Sen. Mark Mallory defeated Councilman David Pepper, both Democrats, in a nonpartisan mayoral runoff Tuesday to lead Ohio's third-largest city.
Rioting broke out in 2001 after an unarmed black man was shot and killed by a white police officer trying to make an arrest. While racial tensions have calmed, crime, safety and revitalizing downtown remain leading issues.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4821
Schwarzenegger Hits Snag at Polling Place
By Robert Salladay / Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger showed up to his Brentwood neighborhood polling station today to cast his ballot in the special election — and was told he had already voted.
Elections officials said a Los Angeles County poll worker had entered Schwarzenegger's name into an electronic voting touch screen station in Pasadena on Oct. 25. The worker, who was not identified, was testing the voting machine in preparation for early voting that began the next day.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4818
Rove Resurfaces, Libby's Defense Trust Set
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Still under criminal investigation in the CIA leak probe, Karl Rove will be one of the leading speakers this week at the Federalist Society's annual convention, an influential group of conservative legal talent.
Rove will surface as the Thursday night banquet speaker, raising a public profile that had been reduced in the weeks following his fourth round of grand jury testimony on Oct. 14. The president's top political adviser did not accompany Bush on his just-completed trip to South America.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4822
Report Warned on C.I.A.'s Tactics in Interrogation
By Douglas Jehl / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 - A classified report issued last year by the Central Intelligence Agency's inspector general warned that interrogation procedures approved by the C.I.A. after the Sept. 11 attacks might violate some provisions of the international Convention Against Torture, current and former intelligence officials say.
The previously undisclosed findings from the report, which was completed in the spring of 2004, reflected deep unease within the C.I.A. about the interrogation procedures, the officials said. A list of 10 techniques authorized early in 2002 for use against terror suspects included one known as waterboarding, and went well beyond those authorized by the military for use on prisoners of war.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4824
C.I.A. Asks Criminal Inquiry Over Secret-Prison Article
By David Johnston and Carl Hulse / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 - The Central Intelligence Agency has asked the Justice Department to open a criminal investigation to determine the source of a Washington Post article that said the agency had set up a covert prison network in Eastern Europe and other countries to hold important terrorism suspects, government officials said on Tuesday.
The C.I.A.'s request, known as a crimes report or criminal referral, means that the Justice Department will undertake a preliminary review to determine if circumstances justify a criminal inquiry into whether any government official unlawfully provided information to the newspaper. The possibility of this new investigation follows by less than two weeks the perjury and obstruction indictment of I. Lewis Libby Jr., then Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, in a leak case involving other news reporting about a national security issue.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4825
CHALABI DOES IT ALL
Ahmad Chalabi -- accused Iranian spy, source of Bush's fake intelligence, possible new leader of Iraq, long the Bush administration's choice to lead Iraq, and much more -- is in Washington DC today, meeting with his esteemed peers Condi Rice and Dick Cheney. And for some reason, his meetings are shrouded in secrecy:
The talks at the State Department were declared off-limits to reporters and photographers, which is unusual since cameras are regularly permitted to record the start of Rice's meetings with prominent foreign visitors. But without explanation the cameras were excluded, as they were when Rice met with Chalabi two years ago when she was President Bush's national security adviser.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=539
The Jerusalem Post
Massive explosions rock major Amman hotels
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMMAN, Jordan
Explosions rocked three hotels in the Jordanian capital late Wednesday, killing at least 18 people, injuring more than 120 and sending ambulances screaming across downtown.
Jordanian police Maj. Bashir al-Da'aja said officials believe all the Amman hotel blasts were carried out by suicide bombers.
"The attacks carry the trademark of al-Qaida," one police official said on condition of anonymity in line with police regulations. "However it is not certain. We are investigating."
The explosions struck the Grand Hyatt, Radisson SAS and Days Inn hotels. A police officer at the Radisson site said it was caused "apparently by a bomb."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131367057309&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Hamas claims it is willing to negotiate
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Mahmoud A-Zahar, leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, announced Wednesday that he would be willing to consider negotiating with Israel, as long as any negotiations would serve the Palestinian interests of "withdrawing from Palestinian territory, releasing prisoners and reconstructing all that was destroyed by the occupation."
The Hamas leader called on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank and Jerusalem, stopping short of calling for a return to the 1948 borderline.
A-Zahar refused to consider disarming, telling Israel Radio that the Palestinian people need weapons in order to protect themselves.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131367053044&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Saudis stick to terms of Arab peace plan
By NATHAN GUTTMAN
WASHINGTON
Saudi Arabia would be willing to normalize relations with Israel only after the Israelis adopt the Arab League peace initiative, which calls for full withdrawal to the 1967 lines.
The new Saudi ambassador to the US, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday that the prospect of diplomatic relations between the two countries depended only on the actions of the government of Israel.
"As I mentioned, the peace initiative, the Arab peace initiative, the Abdullah peace initiative, envisions all that [full diplomatic relation]. Once there was an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territory, there would be normalization of relations, the Saudi ambassador told the Post following a speech in Washington.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131367050822&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Lebanese poll: Disarm Palestinians
By ORLY HALPERN
A poll published Tuesday in Lebanon showed the great dissatisfaction among Lebanese with the armed Palestinian factions in their midst.
According to the opinion poll conducted by Statistics Lebanon Ltd. and published by the Lebanese daily An-Nahar, 72 percent of the Lebanese want Palestinians in Lebanon disarmed. The poll surveyed 400 Lebanese from a cross-section of the population of Beirut, Mount Lebanon, the north, south and the Bekaa valley, according to An-Nahar.
The results are in tune with recent efforts by the Lebanese government to tighten the reins around Palestinian factions.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131367050900&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Archaeologists decry Wakf 'renovation'
By ETGAR LEFKOVITS
In a renewed dispute, a group of Israeli archaeologists has condemned the Wakf's planned renovation work of an ancient tower adjacent to the Temple Mount, warning that such a move is part of a long-running plan by the Islamic Trust to expand a recently-created mosque at the Jerusalem holy site.
The non-partisan 'Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount,' which has been leading the public campaign against Wakf construction at the site has sent a letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the Director of the Antiquities Authority Shuka Dorfman lambasting the proposed renovation work on the historic structure.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131367056883&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Revolt of the 'Arab street'
By MARK STEYN
Ever since 9/11, I've been gloomily predicting the European powder keg's about to go up. "By 2010 we'll be watching burning buildings, street riots and assassinations on the news every night," I wrote in Canada's Western Standard back in February.
Silly me. The Eurabian civil war appears to have started some years ahead of my optimistic schedule. As Thursday's edition of The Guardian reported in London: "French youths fired at police and burned over 300 cars last night as towns around Paris experienced their worst night of violence in a week of urban unrest."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1131367051298&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Judith Miller retires from New York Times
By DAVID B. CARUSO
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW YORK -- Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who was first lionized, then vilified by her own newspaper for her role in the CIA leak case, has retired from the Times, the paper announced Wednesday.
Miller, who joined the Times in 1977 and was part of a team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2001 for reporting on global terrorism, had been negotiating with the paper for several weeks about her future.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_CIA_Leak_Miller.html
House OKs $30.5B for energy, water budget
By ANDREW TAYLOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The House voted Wednesday to cut the budget for the troubled Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump well below this year's level and President Bush's request.
At the same time, lawmakers again rejected Bush's proposal to curb spending on water projects undertaken by the Army Corps of Engineers. But the president fared much better on his plans to send astronauts to Mars.
The moves came as the House adopted, by a 399-17 vote, a final House-Senate compromise on a $30.5 billion energy and water spending bill for the budget year that began Oct. 1. Reflecting tight budget times, the bill is $750 million below this year's levels.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_Congress_Spending.html
Israelite alphabet may have been found
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PITTSBURGH -- Two lines of an alphabet have been found inscribed in a stone in Israel, offering what some scholars say is the most solid evidence yet that the ancient Israelites were literate as early as the 10th century B.C.
"This is very rare. This stone will be written about for many years to come," archaeologist Ron E. Tappy, a professor at the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary who made the discovery, said Wednesday. "This makes it very historically probable there were people in the 10th century (B.C.) who could write."
Christopher Rollston, a professor of Semitic studies at Emmanuel School of Religion in Johnson City, Tenn., who was not involved in the find, said the writing is probably Phoenician or a transitional language between Phoenician and Hebrew.
"We have little epigraphic material from the 10th century in Israel, and so this substantially augments the material we have," he said.
The stone was found during an archaeological dig in June.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Hebrew_Alphabet.html
Arafat was killed, bodyguard says
Also claims Arab leaders urged deal over Jerusalem
By IBRAHIM BARZAK
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Fear of assassination kept Yasser Arafat from accepting a U.S.-brokered deal on sharing Jerusalem, despite pleas by Arab and other world leaders at the time, the Palestinian leader's longtime bodyguard said.
In his first interview with the foreign media since Arafat died a year ago at the age of 75, Mohammed Al Daya also told The Associated Press that he believes his former boss was murdered, but he didn't offer proof or identify any suspects.
Arafat's medical file is inconclusive about the cause of the leader's death on Nov. 11, 2004. Rumors have abounded in the Middle East that he died of AIDS or was poisoned by Israeli agents, a charge Israel denies.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/247590_arafat09.html
DNR official cut deal with timber on owls
But lands boss intervenes, orders all options discussed
By ROBERT McCLURE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
When a state board sits down today to decide how to best protect spotted owls, the man in charge will be a Department of Natural Resources official who privately huddled with timber industry executives and promised to soften proposed regulations.
An internal timber industry memorandum obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer outlines how Pat McElroy, chairman of the Forest Practices Board, agreed to eliminate a key DNR staff recommendation to be considered today.
The memo also suggests that McElroy had planned to alter his agency's recommendations without telling others involved in the talks, such as environmentalists and tribal leaders.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/247630_spottedowl09.html
China: Little progress on N. Korea talks
By ALEXA OLESEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BEIJING -- Negotiators trying to persuade North Korea to give up its nuclear ambitions focused Wednesday on the contentious details of how the North will disarm and what it will get in exchange, with the U.S. and North Korean delegations holding a separate meeting.
Host China said little progress had been made by day's end in the new round of six-nation talks.
Before the talks opened Wednesday morning at a Chinese government guesthouse, Washington affirmed its refusal even to discuss the North's demand for a civilian nuclear reactor until after Pyongyang disarms.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Koreas_Nuclear.html
Alito favored equal treatment on adultery
By ROSA CIRIANNI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TRENTON, N.J. -- Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito favored equal treatment for men and women in adultery cases in his analysis of the Italian court system in his senior thesis at Princeton University.
Alito, the son of an Italian who emigrated to the United States, was a student at Princeton from 1968-72 and received a scholarship from an outside group to study the courts in Italy one summer.
The 137-page thesis written by President Bush's nominee for the high court has been missing from Princeton. This week, Alito's thesis adviser, professor emeritus Walter F. Murphy, mailed a copy to the Ivy League school that was posted on its Web site.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1154AP_Alito_Italian_Court.html
Eastern oysters not considered endangered
By JANET MCCONNAUGHEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW ORLEANS -- The federal government is no longer considering whether it should declare Eastern oysters endangered, which would have affected people who make their living off the shellfish, but it still plans to finish a study on the species' health.
The man who filed the request that the federal government list oysters as an endangered species has taken it back.
Dieter Busch, a consultant, suggested the listing because the Chesapeake Bay population has collapsed, but said he withdrew his request because "there was so much misunderstanding, and the misunderstanding was being successfully channeled into complaints" by people who might be affected.
He said he did not realize when he filed the petition in January that listing the oysters as endangered also would have shut down beds north of the Chesapeake up to Rhode Island and south to the water off Louisiana and Texas, even though those areas still provide millions of pounds of oyster meat a year.
"I'm glad he's seen the light," Mike Voisin, owner of Motivatit Seafood and chairman of the Louisiana Oyster Task Force, said Tuesday.
Busch, who used to head an arm of a 15-state regulatory group, the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission, said he still thinks the request to the National Marine Fisheries Service was reasonable.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1501AP_Endangered_Oysters.html
FDA rejects tomato benefit proposal
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Producers of tomatoes, tomato sauce and dietary supplements containing lycopene - the substance that makes tomatoes red - will not be allowed to advertise claims that they reduce the risk of many forms of cancer.
The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it will allow only a few limited health claims to appear on packages of tomatoes and tomato sauce. It also rejected proposals to advertise lycopene as having cancer-related benefits.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/1500AP_FDA_Tomatoes.html
17-year-old Oregon girl missing in Brazil
By PAULO WINTERSTEIN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- A 17-year-old American exchange student missing in Brazil was seen trying to hitchhike to the capital the day she disappeared, Brazilian authorities said Wednesday.
MyKensie Martin, a senior at Summit High School in Bend, Ore., was reported missing Sunday, said Kreg and Judy Roth of the Rotary Youth Exchange Program in Bend.
A witness spotted the girl Sunday evening on the side of a highway leading to Brasilia from the town of Unai, about 80 miles from the capital, said Unai police detective Celso Avila Prado.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Brazil_Missing_Teen.html
Zimbabwe government summons U.S. diplomat
By MICHAEL HARTNACK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HARARE, Zimbabwe -- Zimbabwe's Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador Wednesday to protest a speech he made blaming President Robert Mugabe for the country's economic crisis, and the envoy will fly to Washington for consultations.
Foreign Minister Simbarashe Mumbengegwi, who alleged that Ambassador Christopher Dell's speech to students last week was an attempt to incite a revolt against Mugabe's 25-year rule, summoned the envoy and handed him a diplomatic note, U.S. Embassy spokesman Timothy Smith said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105AP_Zimbabwe_US_Ambassador.html
A look at U.S. military deaths in Iraq
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
As of Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005, at least 2,055 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,604 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers. The figures include five military civilians.
The AP count is three higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated at 10 a.m. EST Wednesday.
The British military has reported 97 deaths; Italy, 27; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 17; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Slovakia, three; Denmark, El Salvador, Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, two each; Hungary, Kazakhstan, Latvia one death each.
Since May 1, 2003, when President Bush declared that major combat operations in Iraq had ended, 1,916 U.S. military members have died, according to AP's count. That includes at least 1,495 deaths resulting from hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
Since the start of U.S. military operations in Iraq, 15,568 U.S. service members have been wounded, according to a Defense Department tally Wednesday.
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The latest deaths reported by the military:
- A Marine died Tuesday of wounds received when his vehicle was attacked near Fallujah, Iraq, with an explosive on Monday.
---The latest identifications reported by the military:
- Four U.S. soldiers died Monday in Baghdad, Iraq, when an explosive detonated near their patrol; assigned to the 3rd Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, Fort Carson, Colo.:
Army 1st Lt. Justin S. Smith, 28, Lansing, Mich.
Army Staff Sgt. Brian L. Freeman, 27, Lucedale, Miss.
Army Spc. Robert C. Pope II, 22, East Islip, N.Y.
Army Pfc. Mario A. Reyes, 19, Las Cruces, N.M.
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On the Net:
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/
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