The Gazette
The weather in Montreal (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Snow
Temperature
-6°C
Wind Chill
-12°C
Wind
15 km/h E
Relative Humidity
93%
Barometric Pressure
101.3 kPa
Dewpoint
-7°C
I didn't know USA policy was so delicate! When the biggest CO2 polluter on Earth goes to a climate conference it needs to be with specific and helpful polices not delicate feelings offended by 'brush burns.' Don't tell me the USA delegates are pouting by criticism. Get over it and feel lucky that is all that was said. Where it like a badge. Entertain that thought !
Martin's comments at climate conference triggers debate
Dennis Bueckert, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
MONTREAL -- With one day of talks to go at the UN climate conference, desperate efforts to draw the United States into the global effort to curb greenhouse emissions appear to have hit a brick wall, and Prime Minister Paul Martin is being blamed.
An official with close contacts in the U.S. delegation said any hopes of drawing Washington into the process were killed when Martin pointed a finger of blame at the United States in a news briefing at the conference.
"That was a big mistake," said the delegate, speaking on condition of anonymity Thursday. He said the U.S. delegation, which is directed from Washington by Vice-President Dick Cheney, was deeply angered by Martin's comments.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=6d80625b-062a-43da-b702-ba5fee9b3d4e&k=4466
Martin to head back to Montreal for Clinton meeting on climate change
Alexander Panetta, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
WINDSOR, Ont. (CP) - Paul Martin will make an impromptu trip back to Montreal on Friday to bask in the political glow of a fellow liberal - former U.S. president Bill Clinton, The Canadian Press has learned.
The prime minister has squeezed an additional campaign stop into his itinerary for a meeting with the popular two-term president, who still draws a large crowd whenever he visits Canada. For Martin - who has built part of his election campaign around his political differences with U.S. President George W. Bush - the encounter with Clinton presents a golden opportunity.
Clinton has been invited to the city by the Sierra Club to address a meeting of municipal leaders on the issue of climate change.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=d0ada315-edf5-49b0-ac2e-2acb56bd718c&k=17986
Youth stage bed-in at UN climate conference in memory of John Lennon
John Lennon arrives at The Hit Factory recording studio in New York, in this Aug. 22, 1980, file photo.
Peter Rakobowchuk, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
MONTREAL (CP) - It was reminiscent of the famous bed-in for peace that John Lennon and Yoko Ono staged in a Montreal hotel room in 1969, but this time it was for the earth's climate.
A small group of young environmentalists at the United Nations conference on climate change held a bed-in on Thursday to draw attention to their concerns. They staged event on the same day as the 25th anniversary of the shooting death of the former Beatle.
In May of 1969, Lennon and Ono recorded the song, Give Peace A Chance, in their Montreal hotel room.
Taking a line from that song, the environmentalists sang: Give The Climate A Chance.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=0c9a7b92-068b-40c7-b060-3f37103f0bf4&k=89425
Spending on health to hit all-time high in 2005, hitting 10.4 per cent of GDP
Helen Branswell, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - Health spending in Canada is expected to hit $142 billion this year, bringing expenditures in this sector to 10.4 per cent of GDP, an all time high, the Canadian Institute for Health Information reported Wednesday.
An 11-per-cent jump in spending on prescription and non-prescribed medications fuelled the rise - prompting the head of an independent health watchdog organization to predict governments will be moved to address the issue of rising drug consumption and costs.
Michael Decter, chair of the Health Council of Canada, said the significant and ongoing increase in spending on medications is outstripping the increases in costs for other parts of the health sector, including the running of hospitals and paying of physicians.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=7db13501-452c-45d5-b30a-7126a5594ee5&k=24739
Martin vows to fight gun violence; poll gives Liberals 12-point lead
NDP Leader Jack Layton smiles as supporters and NDP candidate Alexa McDonough applaud his speech. (CP PHOTO/Chuck Stoody)
Martin O?Hanlon, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) - Paul Martin, his sights set squarely on urban voters, is promising to get tough on big-city gun violence with a triple-barrelled blast that would ban handguns and crack down on criminals who use them.
After more than a week of reacting to Conservative campaign promises, the prime minister beat the Tories to the law-order punch Thursday.
He told supporters in a crime-plagued Toronto neighbourhood that a Liberal government would toughen weapons penalties, pump another $325 million into policing, and ban handguns, which are already severely restricted.
Martin is hoping to solidify support in cities where the Liberals hold a big lead over the Conservatives.
A new poll suggests the Liberals have increased that lead to 12 percentage points despite a string of big-ticket Tory pledges.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=759e995e-186f-44f1-8b8a-ff62fc44ab7f&k=52696
Striking workers demonstrate outside casino
Published: December 8, 2005
MONTREAL -- Thousands of striking public sector workers demonstrated outside the Montreal Casino on Thursday morning blocking access to building.
The demonstration was part of a series of strike days planned by public sector unions.
Union president, Monique Pauzé, said the casino was the perfect place to protest.
Pauzé wants the government to invest more in education instead of announcing investments and improvements to the casino.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=ffbd848d-dd6f-40f8-87bf-f3999adbb66d&k=2303
Martin gun proposal adds drama to election, but some question its usefulness
Jim Brown, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
OTTAWA (CP) - Prime Minister Paul Martin's proposal to ban handgun ownership in Canada is bound to inject some drama into the federal election campaign by putting the hot-button issue of gun control front and centre.
But would it achieve its stated aim of making the streets of the country's major urban centres safer? The available data leave room for doubt - not only about the effectiveness of a ban, but also about whether the country is really facing a crisis.
It's true, as Martin observed Thursday, that the latest figures from Statistics Canada show 65 per cent of all firearms-related homicides last year were committed with handguns.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=f33d35a5-b254-4e8a-8558-8aee4bba8037&k=1864
Apparent killing of U.S. consultant anguishes family of Cdn hostage in Iraq
Colin Perkel, Canadian Press
Published: Thursday, December 08, 2005
TORONTO (CP) - As prayers and efforts continued on behalf of four Christian aid workers kidnapped in Iraq, the apparent murder of an American security consultant Thursday provided a grim reminder of the horrific danger facing the hostages, two of them Canadian.
Word that the Islamic Army in Iraq was claiming to have killed its captive because U.S. President George W. Bush had failed to free prisoners in Iraq hit the family of one of the Canadian hostages especially hard.
"Any time anyone is killed who's being held captive in Iraq is very distressing for us," Ed Loney, the brother of hostage Jim Loney, told The Canadian Press.
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/story.html?id=bb31ee36-dea8-40dc-b5fc-e871704b0736&k=52027
The Los Angeles Times
Gov. Quiet on Williams' Fate
Prosecutors and lawyers for the convicted killer make their arguments as his execution date nears.
By Jenifer Warren, Times Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO — The fate of Stanley Tookie Williams rested in the hands of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday after lawyers for the condemned man made a final plea for his life and prosecutors said his crimes merit society's harshest punishment.
After hearing attorneys' arguments during a private, 75-minute meeting, Schwarzenegger made no comment and aides could not say how soon he would decide whether to grant Williams clemency.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tookie9dec09,0,920988.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Dark Days in Prisons at Home and Abroad
Suspected militant from Caucasus suffered at Guantanamo and now back home, family says.
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
NALCHIK, Russia — When Fatima Tekayeva heard that her son was about to be returned to Russia from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, she felt an aching fear.
Don't do it, she begged anyone who would listen. It's bad there, yes. It's worse here. Please don't send my son home.
All the same, the scenario unfolded like a scripted nightmare. Rasul Kudayev was put on a plane back to Russia. Soon he was released. He came home to the Caucasus region nothing like the broad-shouldered wrestling champion who had gone off to study Islam with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-prisoner9dec09,0,7324371.story?coll=la-home-headlines
West is best, but...
The Grammys' fondness for surprises might keep the rapper's "Late Registration" from taking home top album honors.
By Robert Hilburn, Times Staff Writer
December 9, 2005
Why don't we just flip a coin and get this whole Grammy thing over with?
Heads Kanye West wins for album of the year.
Tails he loses.
The record industry's most prestigious awards competition seems at times just as arbitrary as that, often bypassing great, cutting-edge artists, such as West, in favor of tame, mainstream bestsellers or sentimental favorites.
http://theenvelope.latimes.com/awards/grammys/env-et-notebook9dec09,0,5953693.story?coll=env-grammys&track=main-story
Mayor Shares Vision for L.A.
Villaraigosa's ideal city would be a prosperous 'global capital' with affordable housing, good schools -- and residents riding trains.
By Richard Fausset, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gave the yearly "state of the San Fernando Valley" speech Thursday, but he delivered something much broader: a discourse on the ideal Los Angeles of the future.
It was the latest version of a stock speech Villaraigosa has been giving for weeks at rubber-chicken galas and civic symposia all over town. In it, the mayor attempts to place his early moves in a strategic context, paint himself as a maverick reformer and justify some liberal policies as business-friendly.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-mayor9dec09,0,7940199.story?coll=la-home-local
Immigrant Traffic Increases Along Caribbean Sea Highway
The Mona Passage, from the Dominican Republic to Puerto Rico, has become a dangerous hot spot for those trying to enter the U.S. illegally.
By Ray Quintanilla, Chicago Tribune
OVER THE MONA PASSAGE, Puerto Rico — Strong winds and 20-foot waves tossed their rickety boat around like a toy in a bathtub, prompting passengers to scream with fear. Some vomited from motion illness.
Three gaunt women carrying rosary beads pushed their way to the middle of the jampacked vessel and began praying. An instant later, someone stood up, pointed to the heavens and shouted, "God save our souls!"
Then waves overturned the tiny boat, tossing 120 people into some of the Caribbean Sea's deepest waters.
The horrendous scene, as recounted by survivors, has become a common occurrence in the Mona Passage, the narrow channel running between the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico that has become the latest hot spot for illegal immigration to the United States.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-mona9dec09,0,6059531.story?coll=la-home-nation
Key Sudanese Islamist Sets His Sights on Return to Political Stage
Hassan Turabi, who has been in and out of power, and jail, for decades, is back on the scene, challenging the regime he once backed.
By Edmund Sanders, Times Staff Writer
KHARTOUM, Sudan — A turbaned Hassan Turabi sinks back into a large, plush sitting-room sofa, his stockinged feet barely touching the floor.
It's hard to comprehend that this aging former law professor with a chipmunk grin is the same man condemned by Western leaders as a terrorism-loving extremist and jailed repeatedly by Sudanese dictators he once helped empower.
"I'm an old man," the white-bearded Turabi, fresh out of his latest stint in prison, says with unconvincing modesty.
But behind the glinting teeth and rectangular spectacles is one of Africa's most influential Islamists, a man who has arguably had more impact on Sudan than anyone else.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-turabi9dec09,0,6395299.story?coll=la-home-world
Najaf, Iraq's Shiite Capital, Seeking a Higher Office
Home to some of Islam's holiest sites, the city aspires to be the center of global Shiism. But the sect's power struggles have brought setbacks.
By Ashraf Khalil, Times Staff Writer
NAJAF, Iraq — A straight black ribbon cuts through barren land on the edge of town like some sort of surrealist vision: a literal highway to nowhere.
The two-mile runway, still bearing skid marks from landing jets, is the only remnant of a former Iraqi air force base. For Najaf officials, it's the key to the next stage of evolution for this long-suffering city of faith.
After the fall of Saddam Hussein, pilgrims flocked to Najaf's shrines, some of the holiest in Shiite Islam, and the city's religious leadership emerged from seclusion to dominate the Iraqi political experiment. Iraq's oppressed Shiite majority had come alive, and Najaf was its heart.
Now, plans to turn the old asphalt runway into Imam Ali International Airport could cement Najaf's position as the second capital of Iraq — and the hub of an emerging Shiite super-region that could alter the dynamics of the Middle East.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-najaf9dec09,0,6522870.story?coll=la-home-world
Iraqi Sunnis Appeal for Hostages' Release
By PATRICK QUINN, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Prominent Sunni Arab clerics and residents of a Baghdad neighborhood where four kidnapped Christian humanitarian workers had aided people appealed Friday for their release a day before a deadline set by their abductors to kill them.
Sunni Arab clerics also took the opportunity of Friday prayers to urge a big Sunni turnout in the Dec. 15 elections, saying that voting was a "religious duty" that could hasten the departure of American troops.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top11dec09,0,645323.story
ElBaradei: World Losing Patience With Iran
OSLO, Norway -- Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mohamed ElBaradei said Friday the international community is losing patience with Iran over its nuclear program. ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he hopes the outstanding nuclear issues with Iran will be clarified next year.
"They are inching forward and I'm asking them to leap forward," said ElBaradei, who shares the award with the IAEA.
He said he hopes outstanding nuclear issues with Tehran will be clarified by the time he presents his next report on Iran in March, because "the international community is losing patience with the nature of that program."
"The ball is in Iran's court. It is up to Iran to show the kind of transparency they need to show," ElBaradei told reporters.
He encouraged European negotiators to continue talks with Iran.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top13dec09,0,1431757.story
Red Cross: U.S. Confirms Denial of Access
GENEVA -- A senior State Department official has confirmed that the United States has yet to grant the international Red Cross access to all its terror detainees, the Red Cross chief said Friday.
ICRC Jakob Kellenberger was commenting on a remark Thursday by State Department legal adviser John B. Bellinger III, who was asked during a visit to Geneva whether the ICRC has access to all other similar prisoners held by the United States elsewhere in the world. Bellinger replied, "No," and declined to say any more.
Kellenberger said that he has been urging top U.S. officials for at least two years to make sure the ICRC has access to all U.S. detainees. The agency is assigned under the Geneva Conventions on warfare to check on conditions of detainees.
"We continue to be in intense dialogue with them with the aim of getting access to all people detained in the framework of the so-called war on terror without any geographical limitation," Kellenberger said.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top14dec09,0,1824974.story
New Zealand Herald
Two go on trial for murder of rainforest activist
09.12.05 1.00pm
By Andrew Buncombe
More than 10 months after she was shot dead in the Amazon, two men will go on trial today for the murder of the rainforest activist and American nun Sister Dorothy Stang.
But as lawyers in prepare to lay out the case against the two gunmen who allegedly shot her, there have been claims that the government is ignoring a wider conspiracy directly related to the destruction of the rainforest.
The two men accused of shooting the 73-year-old to death last February in a remote rainforest encampment - Raifram Sales and Clodaoaldo Batista - will go on trial in the north-eastern city of Belem.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359213
No climate for change as America snubs talks
09.12.05
By David Fogarty
MONTREAL - The EU and host Canada piled pressure on the United States to join an international pact to curb greenhouse gas emissions and limit the predicted chaos from global warming.
Ministers from more than 90 nations sought to break a deadlock over how to launch talks that entice the US and big developing nations to join a system that limits emissions.
"We will continue to talk to our US partners and remind them of their commitments," US Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas said.
He said George W. Bush agreed at a summit of eight leading industrial nations in July and at a UN summit in September to advance global discussions in Montreal on long-term co-operation to curb climate change.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359105
Funds for Katrina victims
09.12.05 7.20am
Former US Presidents George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced US$90 million ($130.5 million) worth of grants from money they've raised for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Higher education institutions along the Gulf Coast will receive US$30 million. Another US$40 million will be divided among Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama and US$20 million will go to faith-based organisations.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359118
Shot passenger's wife cried 'my husband, my husband'
08.12.05 4.00pm
By Jim Loney
The wife of an American Airlines passenger killed by US air marshals after he claimed to be carrying a bomb in his backpack screamed "My husband, my husband" as he was shot, a witness said.
Federal officials said the 44-year-old American made threats and indicated he had a bomb in his bag as he was boarding a flight that had arrived from the Colombian city of Medellin and was heading to Orlando, Florida.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359055
Relatives say Iran officials knew plane not safe
08.12.05 2.20pm
TEHRAN - Angry relatives of more than 100 people killed in Iran's worst air disaster for three years have complained that officials knew in advance that the crashed plane was not safe to fly.
Military officials denied knowing that the Air Force plane had problems but the judiciary said it had appointed a judge to investigate the relatives' claims.
The US-made C-130 Hercules struck a Tehran apartment block on Tuesday as it tried to make an emergency landing at the capital's main airport after reporting engine problems.
The plane was taking scores of journalists to cover military exercises in the Gulf. All 94 aboard died and several others were killed as flames engulfed the building and nearby cars.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359006
Woman mourns partner she stabbed to death
09.12.05 4.00pm
By Danya Levy
A woman who stabbed her partner to death after an argument fuelled by an evening of drinking and drug taking will mourn him for the rest of her life, her lawyer said today.
Anamari Margaret Stone, 40, was today sentenced to three years' jail after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of Daniel Poata, 33.
Stone, of Upper Hutt, is the sister of Steven Williams who is serving at least 17 years' jail for the 2003 murder of his stepdaughter Coral-Ellen Burrows.
Both Williams siblings had been smoking pure methamphetamine, known as P, when the offences occurred.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359252
Put prisoners' victims first, say Nats
09.12.05 1.00pm
A Court of Appeal ruling upholding compensation for some of New Zealand's most dangerous prisoners should not deter Parliament from ensuring that the money gets to the victims of crime, National's law and order spokesman Simon Power said today.
Yesterday, the Court of Appeal upheld and increased an order to pay $130,000 to five inmates held illegally in solitary confinement.
The decision increases the chances of success of claims by the other 200 inmates held under the regime, unless the Crown wins any appeal to the Supreme Court.
The 200 have been awaiting the court's decision on a Crown appeal against the High Court's award last year of compensation to murderer Christopher Taunoa and four other inmates who were held illegally under the "behaviour management regime" for difficult prisoners at Auckland Prison, Paremoremo.
Taunoa, who killed Sanson publican Hugh Lynch in 1996, is serving a life sentence for murder.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10359201
Shops take on roadside fruit and vege traders
09.12.05 1.00pm
By John Cousins
Long-standing resentment towards roadside fruit and vegetable sellers has erupted with retailers desperately trying to get them banned from one town.
Shopkeepers took their fight to the city council in Tauranga yesterday - but failed in a determined bid to get rid of the vendors.
Grievances were mainly centred on traditional retailers complaining they were commercially disadvantaged by the extremely low-cost trading conditions enjoyed by the street traders.
The two sides fronted off, despite knowing that the council was legally prohibited from taking competitive forces into account when it made a decision.
The council's powers were confined to deciding whether the traders were causing a nuisance or endangering public health and safety. The bylaw was not intended to regulate competition.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359202
Blood clot victims' case against airlines thrown out
09.12.05 1.00pm
By Martin Hickman
Victims of deep vein thrombosis lost a four-year compensation battle against airlines yesterday in a ruling that gives the travel industry legal immunity for "economy class syndrome".
The British House of Lords ruled that lesser courts correctly threw out an application by passengers or their families seeking to sue two airlines, British Airways and China Airlines, for death and injury from deep vein thrombosis (DVT).
The action was a test case that could have thrown the air industry open to compensation claims for millions of dollars.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359216
UN attacks US torture stance
09.12.05
By Daniel Trotta
UNITED STATES - The United States-led war on terror has undermined the global ban on torture, weakening American moral authority on human rights worldwide, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said.
"The principle once believed to be unassailable - the inherent right to physical integrity and dignity of the person - is becoming a casualty of the so-called war on terror," Louise Arbour said ahead of Human Rights Day tomorrow.
Arbour decried two practices in particular: holding prisoners in secret detention centres, which she said was a form of torture, and rendering suspects to third countries outside normal extradition procedures, that is, without independent oversight.
"There are a lot of human rights that can be set aside in cases of emergency, lots of them, but not the right to life and not the protection against torture," she told a news conference.
The US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton rebuked Arbour, calling the criticism illegitimate second-guessing. Arbour's comments were not helpful in the fight against violent extremists, he said.
The US has denied practising torture but it has avoided denying or confirming a Washington Post report that the CIA has run secret centres in Eastern Europe to interrogate terrorism suspects. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, under pressure from European leaders during her ongoing visit to the continent, has defended the US treatment of detainees as lawful operations that prevent attacks. But Arbour said that it was difficult to accept such statements "because everything is done in total secrecy".
The US has also come under international criticism for prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay.
Arbour is a former Canadian Supreme Court justice and a chief prosecutor at the UN war crimes court for the former Yugoslavia. She praised past US leadership on expanding political and civil rights because it allowed Americans "to lecture others about their performances".
"To the extent that there's a perception that there is a withdrawal from the high-water mark of commitment to civil and political liberties, I think it makes it a lot more difficult for the US to exercise that kind of moral leadership on all human rights issues."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359123
Rice forced to defend prisoner renditions for the third time
09.12.05
By Rupert Cornwell
EUROPE - In a new attempt to defuse the row over United States treatment of terrorist detainees, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared yesterday that the CIA and the US military are forbidden to use torture, not only in America but around the world.
But human rights groups say any "concession" is cosmetic, and her own aides say her remarks are a clarification, and not a shift in policy.
Some Nato foreign ministers may take up the issue when they meet Rice in Brussels overnight (NZ time).
Speaking in Kiev on the penultimate stop of a European trip, Rice said obligations under the existing international torture law "extend to US personnel wherever they are, whether they are in the US or outside the US".
Her remarks were her third attempt in as many days to fend off criticism in Europe and beyond of a host of alleged practices by the US, including the "rendition" of captured suspects to countries where they were likely to face torture, and the alleged use of secret CIA prisons abroad.
Signs are growing that the House of Representatives will join the Senate in demanding a specific legal ban on "cruel, inhuman and degrading" treatment, as stipulated in the Convention Against Torture signed by the US. In October, the Senate passed its amendment by 90 votes to 9.
All this week, Rice has been insisting that is already the case. But Congressional action was being resisted, with Vice-President Dick Cheney arguing the ban would tie the hands of the CIA in the "war on terror".
Not only has that stance drawn bitter criticism at home - casting doubt on Bush's claim that "the US does not torture" - it has undercut every effort by Rice to convince sceptics that the US respects international norms.
The rough ride of Rice this week is the latest instalment of an issue dating back to the September 11 attacks.
Arguing the need to prevent attacks, the White House effectively jettisoned The Geneva Conventions to gain free rein in interrogations.
After a notorious January 2002 memo in which then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales described the conventions as "quaint," the Bush Administration steadily narrowed the definition of what constituted torture.
In June 2003, Bush reportedly authorised wide new CIA powers, including the right to run secret jails abroad.
Ultimately everything hinges on the precise definition of torture - whether this Administration believes that techniques used by the CIA, including simulated drowning, "cold rooms", sleep deprivation or systematic sexual humiliation, are torture.
"We need to know whether they are defining torture and cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment in the way that most people have defined it for many, many years," said Tom Malinowski, of Human Rights Watch.
"If so, that should rule out some of the techniques that were authorised for the CIA.
"My impression is that, for them, only something that leaves physical scars counts as torture."
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359121
UK bans 'torture evidence'
09.12.05 1.00pm
LONDON - The Law Lords ruled today that information obtained using torture anywhere in the world was unacceptable as evidence in the British courts.
Human rights groups said the ruling sent a clear signal to governments around the globe, who are wrestling with accusations they have benefited from information obtained by torture.
The decision by the House of Lords comes a day after the United States explicitly banned its interrogators from treating detainees inhumanely.
The issue has plagued US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on a European trip during which she has tried to convince sceptics Washington does not torture detainees despite reports of secret CIA prisons in East European countries and the covert transportation of prisoners.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10359222
September trial for London bomb suspects
09.12.05 10.20am
LONDON - Five men accused of planning to detonate bombs on London's transport system on July 21 will go on trial in September next year, a British court heard yesterday.
Four are charged with trying to detonate bombs on three underground trains and a bus, two weeks after suicide bombers killed 52 people and injured about 700 in identical attacks in the capital.
Muktar Said Ibrahim, 27, Ramzi Mohammed, 23, Yassin Hassan Omar, 24, and Hussain Osman, 27, are all charged with attempted murder and possessing explosives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359197
US hostage said killed in Iraq, 30 dead in bombing
09.12.05 7.45am
BAGHDAD - An Islamic insurgent group said today it had killed a US hostage who, if the claim is confirmed, would be the first foreign hostage killed in Iraq for four months and the first American in more than a year.
The reported killing came after a suicide bomber killed 30 people in an attack on a crowded bus in central Baghdad, the latest chapter in Iraq's bloody insurgency just a week before Iraqis vote in parliamentary elections.
A statement posted on a website often used by insurgents said the Islamic Army in Iraq killed the security consultant, identified as Ronald Schulz, because the US government had not met its demands, which included freeing all Iraqi prisoners.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359170
Spain catches top Croat war crimes fugitive
09.12.05 8.00am
By Elizabeth Nash and Vesna Peric Zimonjic
MADRID - Spanish police have detained a top Croatian war crimes suspect, General Ante Gotovina, in the Canary Islands after more than four years on the run, in a breakthrough for the UN war crimes tribunal.
General Gotovina, who is considered responsible for the deaths of 150 Serbs and the forced removal of up to 200,000 in 1995, had been under surveillance for several days while he moved around the Canary Islands, until Interpol gave Spanish police the arrest order.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359171
HIV donor probe
09.12.05 6.20am
Russian prosecutors opened a criminal investigation into how at least one patient accidentally received blood from an HIV-positive donor.
A woman in Voronezh, 475km south of Moscow, has been diagnosed HIV-positive after undergoing blood transfusion after childbirth. Voronezh chief sanitary doctor Mikhail Chubirko said that as many as 208 people could have been infected.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359116
Fatal attraction in Mexico
09.12.05 5.20am
The Mexican state of Jalisco launched a campaign to warn women about the dangers of dating drug traffickers, under the slogan "Stop! Love can cost you dearly."
The Jalisco Women's Institute and the state Public Safety Department say many women get involved in the drug trade through partners or male relatives. The number of women arrested for drug trafficking has risen by about 10 per cent in Jalisco over the past year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359113
Israel freezes talks over Gaza passage after suicide bombing
09.12.05 8.00am
By Donald Macintyre
JERUSALEM - Israel has frozen talks over plans to allow road passage between Gaza and the West Bank amid fresh strains on the de-facto ceasefire in the wake of the suicide bombing which killed five Israelis on Monday.
Two Palestinian militants from the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in the second Israeli air strike on Gaza within 24 hours and an Israeli was stabbed to death by a Palestinian near the Qalandiya checkpoint at the southern entrance to Ramallah.
Israel said the talks on the US-brokered plan to allow "safe passage" of Palestinians initially in bus convoys between Gaza and the West Bank, which is due to begin operating next week, had been suspended until the Palestinian leadership took more action against militant groups.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359174
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'No agenda' to suburb rioting
09.12.05
PARIS - French police believe recent riots in poor suburbs of France were not organised and had no leader or agenda, according to a police report cited in Le Parisien.
The conclusions contrast with comments made by some leaders during nightly unrest which abated in mid-November after three weeks.
"What France saw was a non-organised uprising which turned into a popular revolt on housing estates without any leader," Le Parisien quoted the report.
During the unrest, Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin blamed the violence indirectly on gangs, which he said sought to keep police out of their neighbourhoods.
The report also estimated the cost of the violence at more than 250 million ($413.3 million) although it did not explain what that figure included.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359102
Scientists find cancer 'nests'
09.12.05
Scientists have discovered how cancer spreads from a primary site to other places in the body in a finding that could open doors for new ways of treating and preventing advanced disease.
Instead of a cell just breaking off from a tumour and travelling through the bloodstream to another organ where it forms a secondary tumour, or metastasis, researchers in the United States have shown that the cancer sends out envoys to prepare the new site.
Intercepting those envoys or blocking their action with drugs might help in the prevention and treatment of cancer.
"We are basically looking at all the earlier steps that are involved in metastasis that we weren't previously aware of. It is complex, but we are opening the door to all these things that occur before the tumour cell implants itself," said Professor David Lyden, of Cornell University in New York.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359056
'Phishing' becoming common, study finds
09.12.05 7.40am
One in four US internet users have been targets of phishing attacks - phony emails seeking personal financial data, an internet study has found.
About 70 per cent of consumers who received such emails thought they were from legitimate companies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10359134
Shuttle services may go private
09.12.05
By Irene Klotz
CAPE CANAVERAL - With the space shuttles due to retire, Nasa is looking for private companies interested in taking over the potentially lucrative business of flying cargo and crew to the International Space Station.
The US space agency has sought proposals from firms interested in handling delivery services now provided by the three shuttles, which are due to stop flying by 2010.
"Certainly this is an opportunity for the new space companies," said Jim Banke, head of Florida operations for The Space Foundation industry trade association.
"They've been lobbying Nasa hard for something like this for years."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10359065
Kilometre-high skyscraper planned
09.12.05
By Rob Sharp
At more than a kilometre high, it is about to become the world's tallest building.
Set at the heart of a new multi-billion pound Arabian city, the 250-storey tower would form the centrepiece of a development that the Kuwati government hopes will establish it as a serious global player.
London-based architect Eric Kuhne & Associates is in talks with Kuwaiti government officials over the project, according to a report published in the Architects' Journal.
The 1,001m tower will form the centrepiece of the Madinat al Hareer, or "City of Silk", that would house 700,000 people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10359215
U2 ticket limit dropped, Post Shop pulls out
09.12.05 12.45pm
The number of tickets available to each buyer for the second U2 concert in Auckland in March has been dropped from eight to four.
Many of those planning to queue when tickets go on sale next Monday morning will also face a change of venue. Tickets will not be available from New Zealand Post Shops.
Tickets for the first concert on March 17 sold out in 90 minutes on Monday, and sales on online auction site Trade Me quickly escalated above $1000 angering genuine fans.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10359220
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