Sydney Morning Herald
Father stunned to find ring after long search
By Andrew Clark
December 27, 2005
Lost to the tsunami ... Christian Nott and Moi Vogel at their wedding. They died while on an extended honeymoon in Thailand.
A BEREAVED Sydney businessman's search for his late son's wedding ring has ended successfully, almost a year after tragedy struck his family in the Asian tsunami.
Richard Nott, a company director from Pymble, has found the sapphire-encrusted ring worn by his son Christian, 34, who was killed alongside his pregnant wife Moi Vogel, 32, while on an extended honeymoon in Thailand.
A bag of possessions containing the ring, which was sent to Sydney on Christmas Eve by Thai authorities, also included a damaged mobile phone which Mr Nott hopes will provide clues to the pair's final movements.
"It's got a damaged chip," said Mr Nott. "But I'm trying to see if we can get any photos from it."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/father-stunned-to-find-ring/2005/12/26/1135445527344.html
A white-knuckle ride - and that's just the start
Riders of the storm … competitors and spectators churn up the harbour at the start of the Sydney to Hobart.
December 27, 2005
THE two super-maxi yachts charged through Sydney Heads about to make their turn south to Hobart and from the air the sea around them looked like a horizontal Blue Poles.
Hundreds of small craft boisterously rushed to farewell the Sydney to Hobart fleet yesterday, turning the water outside the harbour entrance into a potentially lethal maelstrom.
Some small craft were swamped and foolhardy kayakers tipped into the Tasman Sea as launches, yachts, ferries and tinnies churned the water into two-metre waves coming from all directions.
"One day, somebody's going to get hurt bad," said a skipper returning to the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia. "They ought to extend the exclusion zone right out the Heads to off Bondi."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/sydneytohobart/a-whiteknuckle-ride/2005/12/26/1135445529134.html
Sydney-Hobart Race Blog
http://blogs.smh.com.au/sydneytohobart/
Four killed as fierce winds topple passenger train
By Miwa Suzuki in Tokyo
December 27, 2005
Battling the elements … rescuers work to rescue passengers trapped on board the derailed express train in northern Japan.
Photo: AP
RESCUERS yesterday pulled the body of a fourth passenger from the twisted and snow-blown wreckage of a train that crashed in northern Japan after derailing during a blizzard.
Five of the train's six carriages left the tracks in strong winds in Yamagata prefecture late on Sunday. Three carriages toppled over and the front car slammed into a rail-side shack, local police said.
Rescuers crawling through wrecked carriages during a severe snowstorm had found the bodies of three passengers by early yesterday. About 33 other passengers were injured in the accident.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/four-killed-as-fierce-winds-topple-passenger-train/2005/12/26/1135445527356.html
Dozens treated after St Petersburg gas release
December 27, 2005 - 12:52AM
More than 70 people were sickened by an unidentified gas released in a store in Russia's second-largest city on Monday.
Boxes with wires and timers attached to containers possibly holding gas were found in other outlets of the chain, officials said.
A spokesman for the Emergency Situations Ministry, Viktor Beltsov, said 78 people sought medical care and 66 of them were hospitalised. None of them was assessed as being in life-threatening condition, he said.
He said all those sickened had been at one branch of the Maksidom home-goods chain.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/dozens-treated-after-st-petersburg-gas-release/2005/12/27/1135445533642.html
RAAF told me: cover up assault of girls
By Cynthia Banham Defence Reporter
December 26, 2005
Page 1 of 2
AN RAAF employee of 20 years whose children were sexually assaulted by a senior officer was forced to resign after defence bosses allowed the attacker continued access to the base where she worked.
The woman's daughters, aged 8 and 12, were assaulted by former wing commander Terry Morgan in June. When the woman tendered her resignation a month later, her commanding officer asked her to remove the reason from her letter, and to "let it go".
"You don't want this to follow you around," the woman says she was told.
Morgan, a pilot and former family friend, was convicted in September of four counts of indecent acts on a child under 16, and possession of child pornography. He resigned from the RAAF that month, taking with him the full "entitlements that were legally owing to him", the Department of Defence said. He continued to enjoy access to the base during the months before his trial, while on bail.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/12/25/1135445486554.html?from=top5
Family pleads with fugitive to give up
By Jordan Baker
December 26, 2005
FOR the family of Malcolm John Naden, this was Christmas: one cousin dead, another missing, and a third on the run from the homicide squad.
Distraught relatives of Naden, the bush fugitive who prompted a huge manhunt at Western Plains Zoo on Friday, are pleading with him to hand himself in, saying it was time to "sort this mess out".
Naden, an unemployed shearer and former skinner and boner at Dubbo abattoir, has been wanted since August, when the strangled body of Kristy Scholes, the wife of one of his cousins, was found in his bedroom.
He is also linked to the disappearance of another cousin, Lateesha Nolan.
The 31-year-old has been spotted working for cash in mines near Walgett, selling opals noodled from a dump and living in Western Plains Zoo. Each time, he has managed to elude police.
Janette Lancaster, his aunt, has sent a message to Naden over the internet in the hope someone will pass it on.
"Pop [their grandfather, who has had a heart attack] is very ill and he needs to know how you are and hear your side of the story in regards to Kristy," it said.
"Pop won't get better until he knows what's going on and nan is frantic with worry and the stress of all this is making her sick as well.
"Your mother is worried and needs to talk to you and all the family wants you to hand yourself in to the police and sort this mess out."
Ms Nolan's father, Mick Peet, told the Herald: "I plead for him to come forward. I really want to find out where my daughter's body is. I still think I am in a nightmare. I am very upset for [Lateesha's children]. It is their first Christmas without their mum."
Naden is a skilled bushman who can survive off the land. Relatives say he is proficient in martial arts. Police believe he has also been stealing food and staying with contacts.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/family-pleads-with-fugitive-to-give-up/2005/12/25/1135445486563.html
Drug firms dragging their feet over vaccine
By John Solomon in Washington
December 27, 2005
IN AN unusually candid admission, the US chief of AIDS research, Edmund Tramont, says he believes drug companies do not have an incentive to create a vaccine for HIV and are likely to wait to profit from it after the US government develops one.
That means Washington has had to spend more time focusing on the processes drug companies ordinarily follow in developing new medicines and bringing them to market, he said.
"We had to spend some time and energy paying attention to those aspects of development because the private side isn't picking it up," Dr Tramont testified in a deposition in a recent employment lawsuit.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/drug-firms-dragging-their-feet-over-vaccine/2005/12/26/1135445527368.html
Shared secrets expose teens to risk of sexual predators
By Guy Kovner in Santa Rosa, California
December 24, 2005
MILLIONS of American teenagers are engaging in risky behaviour on the internet, posting personal information and talking about sex with strangers, according to a survey released by the Polly Klaas Foundation in California.
"This is a wake-up call for parents," said Glena Records, the foundation's director of communication and education. She warned "safety lectures are not going to work in the current internet age".
Teens and tech-savvy predators knew more than many parents about cyberspace, both as a global communications medium and as a dark place for criminals to mask their identity and intent, Ms Records said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/shared-secrets-expose-teens-to-sexual-predators/2005/12/23/1135032186808.html
After the riots: city's map of racism
By Tony Stephens and AAP
December 26, 2005
Page 1 of 2
RESIDENTS of Mosman and Woollahra have joined those in the Sutherland Shire as among the Sydney people least tolerant of cultural diversity and multicultural values, a map of the city's racial attitudes reveals.
Two weeks after the Cronulla race riots, tens of thousands of people returned to Sydney's beaches for Christmas Day, while church leaders called on Australians to be tolerant and to take responsibility for the violence in the beach suburbs.
Now researchers have produced a map - based on a survey of 1800 Sydney residents - that they hope can be used in programs to counter racism.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/12/25/1135445486548.html?from=top5
The Miami Herald
Galápagos Islands face a complex stream of threats
Economic, political and environmental pressures are squeezing Ecuador's ecologically fragile Galápagos Islands.
BY STEVEN DUDLEY
sdudley@MiamiHerald.com
PUERTO AYORA, Ecuador - The town of Puerto Ayora might be the cleanest in Latin America. It recycles everything from lubricants to batteries. The number of cars allowed is limited. Birds dive into the bay to catch the bountiful fish. And sea lions sun themselves all around.
But Puerto Ayora has a problem: It's in Ecuador's Galápagos Islands, which have an ecosystem as fragile as the wings of a butterfly.
With its burgeoning population, an endless stream of tourists, an insatiable and powerful fishing industry and a corrupt and unstable national government, the islands -- as Charles Darwin knew them when he visited in the 19th century and developed his famed origin of species theory -- may be headed for extinction.
''If the situation remains the same, it will be catastrophic for the Galápagos,'' said Xavier Bustamante, the head of the Natura Foundation, an Ecuadorean non-governmental organization that monitors the country's protected lands.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13487489.htm
Padilla case weaves web of risks for government
The terrorism case of Jose Padilla, dubbed the 'dirty bomber' after his arrest in 2002, poses a complex legal challenge for the Justice Department.
BY JAY WEAVER
jweaver@MiamiHerald.com
When federal prosecutors lost a major terrorism trial against a Tampa scholar this month, the shocking verdict raised doubts about a terrorist case in Miami against Jose Padilla.
Now, further complicating the criminal case is the possible U.S. Supreme Court review of Padilla's detention as an ''enemy combatant.''
Padilla, arrested in Chicago in 2002 amid accusations that he had planned to detonate a radioactive ''dirty bomb'' on American soil, has been in military custody.
But after declaring Padilla an enemy combatant, the Bush administration switched its position last month and tossed the former Broward County resident into the criminal justice system.
The U.S.-born Padilla, who traveled from Broward to the Middle East allegedly for al Qaeda training, was added to a federal indictment that claims he and others conspired to ''murder, kidnap and maim persons'' in an Islamic holy war overseas.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13487487.htm
HANDING OUT HOPE
VOLUNTEERS HELP LIFT SPIRITS AND SERVE HOLIDAY MEALS AT CAMILLUS HOUSE
BY MATTHEW I. PINZUR
mpinzur@MiamiHerald.com
Every volunteer uses different words to explain why they came to a homeless shelter Christmas morning, but they all really have the same answer:
This is how we want to be as Christmas turns into New Year's, how we summon hope that we will do more in 2006 to rebuild the broken parts of the world.
This is how we see the best parts of ourselves.
''The greatest aspirations are born on Christmas,'' said Brother Majella Marchand, a director at Camillus House, which planned to serve more than 500 meals Sunday.
The downtown shelter normally has 15 to 20 volunteers helping serve daily meals, a mixture of religious organizations, student groups and petty criminals working off community-service sentences.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13487386.htm
The Oppenheimer Report
THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
2005: U.S. slipped as China rose in Latin America
Andres Oppenheimer
aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com
When historians in the future look back at the year 2005, they will describe it as the year in which the United States lost much of its once almighty influence in Latin America, and former outsiders -- such as China -- began to play a modest but rapidly growing role in hemispheric affairs.
Some researchers are likely to say the loss of U.S. clout in the region was due to the the rise of hostile regional subpowers such as oil-rich Venezuela, which won growing influence thanks to a combination of checkbook diplomacy and populist demagoguery.
Others will say it was a self-inflicted retrenchment, because the United States lost interest in a region stuck with 19th century anti-free-market ideologies at a time when China, India and the former Eastern Europe were embracing capitalism -- and U.S. corporations -- with near religious zeal.
Whichever the case, the fact is that Latin America's economy grew by a reasonably healthy 4.3 percent in 2005, but below the 5.7 percent combined average growth of all developing countries, and even more significantly behind China's 9 percent growth, or India's 7 percent growth, according to United Nations figures.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13482142.htm
Latin & Caribbean Briefs
GUATEMALA
FIVE CHILDREN DIE FROM FIREWORKS
GUATEMALA CITY - Five children died Christmas morning in a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Guatemala City when a blaze started by fireworks swept through their house, a fire official said.
The mother had left the five in their beds to go look for her other children when a traditional holiday firecracker called a silbador was shot into the small wooden house and started the fire, said fire department spokesman Mynor Cholotio.
The children's ages were 2, 3, 6, 10 and 13.
MEXICO
VOLCANIC ERUPTION ON CHRISTMAS DAY
MEXICO CITY -- Mexico's Popocatepetl volcano staged a spectacular pre-dawn explosion Sunday, sending a column of ash two miles into the air and spewing red-hot lava.
There were no reports of ash raining down or any other threat to nearby communities, Mexico's National Disaster Prevention Center reported.
The explosion was the latest in a series of moderate eruptions from the 17,886-foot volcano located 40 miles southeast of the Mexican capital.
GUYANA
STATE AID TO FARMERS SUFFERING AFTER FLOOD
GEORGETOWN -- Guyanese farmers will receive $2 million in government aid after torrential rains killed 30 people and destroyed rice crops across the nation, the president said.
Parts of Guyana were flooded when five feet of rain fell between Dec. 26, 2004 and mid-January.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13487498.htm
MIAMI BEACH
Cubans walking on causeway detained
By CARLI TEPROFF
cteproff@MiamiHerald.com
Fourteen Cuban migrants, who apparently landed undetected Christmas morning on Miami Beach, were rounded up after being found walking along Julia Tuttle Causeway, police said.
Few details were available Sunday about the group, spotted at about 9 a.m. on the causeway near the Alton Road exits, according to U.S. Border Patrol and the Miami Beach police.
It was unclear whether the group was smuggled and dropped off or whether they arrived on their own boat. The group was taken to the Krome detention center in West Miami-Dade for processing.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13487393.htm
Lives are in limbo at FEMA camp
Life in a camper has been a blessing for some left homeless by Hurricane Wilma, but a tough transition for others.
BY NATALIE P. McNEAL
nmcneal@MiamiHerald.com
Delphine Green, her five children and her disabled stepfather live in two government-issued trailers in Oakland Park.
After losing their Dania Beach apartment to Hurricane Wilma, then spending five weeks in three Red Cross shelters, the family was looking forward to being back in a place of their own.
But living in the county's Easterlin Park in a camper among wildlife and nature trails isn't exactly what they had in mind.
''A raccoon attacked my car the other day,'' Green said. ``I'm not used to living like this.''
The evacuees in the Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers all live in the same type of RVs, but their adjustment to life after Hurricane Wilma is as varied as the parks they are scattered in.
For some of the evacuees, living in the ''FEMA villages'' is a welcome relief -- a godsend even -- from the anxiety of their waterlogged, uninhabitable homes. For others, particularly those living in trailers far from their homes, it's been a tough transition.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13486999.htm
Hanukkah songs on Web
The Judaica Sound Archives at Florida Atlantic University is making available over the Internet a collection of songs to celebrate the Festival of Lights.
BY LONA O'CONNOR
Palm Beach Post
Just in time for Hanukkah, the Judaica Sound Archives is launching the Children's Music Project, a collection of songs to celebrate the Festival of Lights.
The project, sponsored by the Florida Atlantic University libraries, includes familiar tunes such as The Dreidel Song and Once There Was a Time.
Hanukkah, which began at sunset Sunday night, celebrates the rededication of the holy temple in Jerusalem, which the Jews won back from the Greeks in 165 B.C. After fighting the Greeks for three years, the Jews entered their damaged and looted temple.
They wanted to celebrate by lighting the menorah, but could find only a little oil. Miraculously, the oil kept the menorah lit for eight nights.
The Hanukkah songs are available on the Internet.
The site also includes songs for Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Passover and other holy days.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13487002.htm
Fear destroys what bin Laden could not
ROBERT STEINBACK
rsteinback@MiamiHerald.com
One wonders if Osama bin Laden didn't win after all. He ruined the America that existed on 9/11. But he had help.
If, back in 2001, anyone had told me that four years after bin Laden's attack our president would admit that he broke U.S. law against domestic spying and ignored the Constitution -- and then expect the American people to congratulate him for it -- I would have presumed the girders of our very Republic had crumbled.
Had anyone said our president would invade a country and kill 30,000 of its people claiming a threat that never, in fact, existed, then admit he would have invaded even if he had known there was no threat -- and expect America to be pleased by this -- I would have thought our nation's sensibilities and honor had been eviscerated.
If I had been informed that our nation's leaders would embrace torture as a legitimate tool of warfare, hold prisoners for years without charges and operate secret prisons overseas -- and call such procedures necessary for the nation's security -- I would have laughed at the folly of protecting human rights by destroying them.
If someone had predicted the president's staff would out a CIA agent as revenge against a critic, defy a law against domestic propaganda by bankrolling supposedly independent journalists and commentators, and ridicule a 37-year Marie Corps veteran for questioning U.S. military policy -- and that the populace would be more interested in whether Angelina is about to make Brad a daddy -- I would have called the prediction an absurd fantasy.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13487511.htm
Hurricane windfall -- follow the money
OUR OPINION: STATE'S EXTRA REVENUE SHOULD BENEFIT POLICYHOLDERS
Here's the latest kick in the shins to the state's beleaguered windstorm-insurance policyholders: a suggestion that they should be overlooked when it comes to distributing the sales-tax windfall that followed this year's storms. This is an insult to Florida homeowners who are bracing themselves for the next steep increase in rates.
Usually, Gov. Jeb Bush is keen to ensure that Florida's residents are treated fairly by the state. It's hard to see why he opposes the use of the extra revenue generated by hurricane reconstruction to support policyholders who rely on the state-created insurer of last resort.
New revenue growth
Perhaps it would help to follow the money. The trail begins with Florida policyholders paying a premium to Citizens Property Insurance. Keep that in mind, because without this premium the pot of gold that the state is holding wouldn't exist. After a hurricane, the policyholder files a claim with Citizens, the state's second-largest windstorm-insurance company, to cover storm damage. The claim is paid, using the accumulated premiums of all policyholders. The homeowner then spends $20,000 for a new roof.
The state comes into the picture by getting its cut in the form of a sales tax when roofing materials, replacement furniture, etc., is purchased. Multiply this by hundreds of thousands of claims and associated economic activity, and suddenly the state is projecting an estimated $3.2 billion in new revenue growth -- i.e., an increase over previous predictions of revenue growth. This creates a big surplus in the state treasury. That's good for Florida, but it's not the end of the story.
Citizens remains woefully undercapitalized, despite years of back-to-back, double-digit rate increases. This year, it assessed all homeowners, including those covered by other companies, 6.8 percent of their premiums to cover a loss of more than $500 million from the four hurricanes that hit Florida in 2004. Next year, a second, larger assessment is expected to cover the cost of the 2005 storms.
Plenty of cash
So here's the question: Wouldn't it make sense to use the revenue surplus that was generated originally by policyholders to balance the state insurance company's books? Gov. Bush says he doesn't want to bail out the insurance company, but that overlooks the policyholder whose premium payments generate the funding that keeps the insurance system in operation.
The state has plenty of cash to make up the difference, even without the extra revenue. It should use these funds to help policyholders who cannot go without hurricane-insurance protection and are already strapped to meet current premiums. Otherwise, the state is left holding the pot of gold, and policyholders are left holding the bag.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13487503.htm
Body found in Atlantic may be missing Chalk's crash victim
BY CHARLES RABIN
crabin@herald.com
Two Miami-Dade County Fire Rescue divers who were out sailfishing this morning found a body in the Atlantic Ocean about three miles east of Key Biscayne, and authorities are trying to determine if it's the lone unrecovered body from the crash of Chalk's Ocean Airways flight 101.
The seaplane, carrying 18 passengers and two crew members, crashed Monday in the shallow waters near the Government Cut jetty on Miami Beach.
Witnesses and video images showed the right wing and engine on fire as it fell into the water ahead of the fuselage. The flight had just taken off from Watson Island and was heading to Bimini in the Bahamas.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13475419.htm
A holiday tragedy for two neighbors
OUR OPINION: CHALK'S FLIGHT 101 CRASH TOOK A DEADLY, PERSONAL TOLL
The tragedy of the Chalk's Ocean Airways plane crash into Government Cut that took 20 lives on Monday is horribly sad. It takes on more poignancy because it happened so close to holidays that draw family and friends together. The deaths cast a deep pall for all who knew those who perished. No words of condolence are adequate to say to mourners beyond these: We're sorry for your loss.
Recorder no help
National Transportation and Safety Board investigators have a tough job to manage, one made even more difficult because the Grumman G-73T Mallard wasn't equipped with a data box and its recovered voice recorder appears to have malfunctioned. It will take months to determine the cause of the crash
Many worry that the crash could trigger the demise of Chalk's, a beloved Miami institution. The airline has flown from here to Bimini and Nassau for more than 75 years. Generations of Bahamians have ferried between the U.S. mainland and the islands on the amphibian crafts as easily as if taking a city bus.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13472200.htm
Presidential hopefuls have drug ties, sources in Haiti, U.S. claim
Some candidates for president of Haiti have ties to drug traffickers, according to Haitian and U.S. officials.
By JOE MOZINGO
jmozingo@MiamiHerald.com
PORT-AU-PRINCE - At least three candidates in Haiti's upcoming elections have links to a cocaine-trafficking industry that wants to ensure the next government is weak and corruptible, a half-dozen Haitian and U.S. officials say.
Two of Haiti's best-financed presidential candidates -- Guy Philippe and Dany Toussaint -- have long been linked to cocaine trafficking by U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13472170.htm
Mariah Carey ties Elvis on singles chart
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Mariah Carey's "Don't Forget About Us" rose to the top of Billboard's Hot 100 chart, putting her in a tie with Elvis Presley for second place among artists with the most No. 1 singles in the rock era.
Carey and Presley have 17 No. 1 hits, second only to the Beatles, who had 20. (Some music sources report Presley had 18 No. 1 hits by counting the double-sided single "Don't Be Cruel" and "Hound Dog" as two hits instead of one.)
"Don't Forget About Us" was Carey's second No. 1 song this year, following her ballad "We Belong Together." Both tunes are from her Grammy-nominated album, "The Emancipation of Mimi."
It has taken Carey just over 15 years to accumulate the 17 hit singles. Her first was "Vision of Love" in 1990.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13476809.htm
State of emergency declared after attack
LIMA - (AP) -- Peru's president declared a state of emergency in six jungle provinces and promised to stamp out the nation's remaining Shining Path guerrillas after suspected rebels killed eight police officers in an ambush.
Under Peruvian law, a state of emergency suspends civil rights, such as the right to assembly, and gives police and the military sweeping powers to enter homes and conduct searches.
President Alejandro Toledo decreed a two-month state of emergency in six coca-producing provinces in the central jungle and said his Cabinet had also approved the creation of an emergency commission to bring urgently needed social development to the area.
''This supreme decree will allow the armed forces and the police to jointly enter and take action in this zone for 60 days,'' Toledo said in an address aired on state-run television.
The goal, he said, was to provide ``a greater state presence, within the law, respecting human rights.''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13472196.htm
Fox hires lobbyist for U.S.
The Texan who advised President Vicente Fox's election campaign will now try to sweeten U.S. views on immigration.
BY SAM ENRIQUEZ
Los Angeles Times Service
MEXICO CITY -- President Vicente Fox has rehired the Texas public relations man and GOP political consultant who quietly helped engineer his election victory in 2000. This time, Fox wants Rob Allyn & Co. to put the brakes on growing anti-immigration, anti-Mexican sentiment in the United States.
Last week, the U.S. House approved a bill to add 700 miles of border fencing and make illegal immigration a felony. Fox denounced the measure as shameful. His foreign minister called it stupid and underhanded.
''The contributions of Mexicans in the United States, who are making their best effort, generating lots of wealth, are not known,'' said Rodrigo Iván Cortés Jiménez, an elected deputy in Mexico's lower house and a member of its commission on foreign affairs.
The immigration bill, expected to reach the Senate in February, has no provision for allowing temporary Mexican workers -- a further slap, in Fox's view. He and President Bush agree on the need for a ''guest worker'' program.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13472193.htm
New Zealand Herald
Tsunami couple remembered
27.12.05
By Simon O'Rourke
"Andrew and Belinda went home earlier than we thought they would."
The married couple who lost their lives in the Boxing Day tsunami were remembered with love at a ceremony beside a magnolia tree in a Huntly garden yesterday.
About 20 friends and family gathered to re-tell favourite stories, in a relaxed memorial which had a deeply spiritual theme - the pair were committed Christians and family and friends believe they are now with the God they loved so much.
"Quite early in the piece we accepted they were in it," elder brother Jeremy Welch told the gathering at his semi-rural home overlooking Lake Hakanoa.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10361591
Chants and incense for remembrance
27.12.05
By Catherine Masters
KHAO LAK - The smell of incense and the peaceful sounds of chanting drift in the still air at the devastated Sofitel Magic Lagoon and Spa resort on the beachfront at Khao Lak in southern Thailand.
Nine orange-robed Buddhist monks sit cross-legged in a row holding a long piece of white string stretched out in front of them.
The string is like a pathway, helping the offerings placed in front of the monks - toothpaste, toothbrush, hairbrush, practical things - to travel to the spirits of the tsunami victims.
Among the mostly Thai congregation at this intimate memorial service of about 30 people sit two Australians.
The mother and sister of Kim Walsh, 39, who died in room number 3122 on the ground floor, clasp their hands in prayer with the others.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=0006F7FE-D671-13AF-BF2983027AF1010F
NZ Government to continue tsunami assistance
26.12.05 4.00pm
New Zealand will continue assisting Asian nations recovering from the Boxing Day tsunami for as long as needed, Foreign Minister Winston Peters said today.
"There is much more to do, and many of those affected by the tsunami have lost everything and are not yet back on their feet," he said.
"New Zealand is committed to continuing our role in the recovery for as long as it takes, and delivering our assistance in a meaningful and accountable way."
New Zealanders here and across Asia will today remember the tsunami which killed 216,000 people and displaced 1.7 million in 12 countries bordering the Indian Ocean.
"Our thoughts go out to the families of those who died or were injured by last year's tsunami, and also to the areas which are still rebuilding," Mr Peters said in a statement.
New Zealand gave its biggest aid contribution of $68 million in the aftermath of the December 26 disaster.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=00048DB3-4AE8-13AF-AD2283027AF1FE9F
Quiet tsunami prayers mark Christmas in Thailand
26.12.05 1.00pm
By Darren Schuettler
KHAO LAK, Thailand - Simple Buddhist ceremonies marked Christmas Day in Thailand's tsunami zone as relatives of victims remembered their loved ones on the eve of the Indian Ocean disaster's first anniversary.
"I will have to die before I can forget," said 80-year-old Thai Sorjia Aiawsakul, who lost her son, daughter-in-law and niece in the December 26 tragedy, which killed an estimated 231,000 people in Asia and Africa.
Thailand's official death toll stands at 5,395.
"He was the son I liked most. Even though a year has passed I think about him each day. I still cry every day," she said as saffron-robed monks intoned Buddhist chants at Wat Ban Muang on Khao Lak, the coastline where most of Thailand's victims died.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=0000F6CE-25A8-13AF-A32783027AF10017
Tourists sacrifice holidays to help with cleanup
26.12.05 1.00pm
By Marcus Brogden
KOH PHI PHI, Thailand - New Zealander John William Farrington Morgan is just one of the many tourists who have sacrificed part of their holiday to help clean up the Thai divers' paradise Koh Phi Phi.
Volunteers are rebuilding and repairing the island where more than 1000 people died after the tsunami roared in on Boxing Day 2004, when holiday revellers were sleeping off Christmas hangovers.
With its sheer limestone cliffs, jagged waterfronts and tucked-away beaches in stunning lagoons, the island has long been a haven for backpackers and divers.
The local economy of Koh Phi Phi, which gained fame when it was featured in the Leonardo Di Caprio movie The Beach, was devastated.
One year on, only about 60 per cent of its buildings remain. All around, tourists, many with backs burned from the searing sun, are carting rocks, levelling ground and helping to restore the one-time tourist paradise to its pre-tsunami glory.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=00091C3D-1EC8-13AF-89A583027AF10017
How the beach has lost its aura of innocence
27.12.05
By Kathy Marks
SYDNEY - The golden sweep of sand at Bondi was carpeted with people enjoying a traditional Christmas at the beach.
There were backpackers, families, surfers, sunbathers - and police patrolling in cars and on foot.
The crowd can get a bit high-spirited at Bondi at Christmas, which is why an alcohol ban was introduced last year. But police were not stationed at Sydney's most iconic beach in case the revelry got out of hand. They were there, supposedly, to step in if rival ethnic gangs decided to rampage.
Almost overnight, Sydney has changed. Australia's most beautiful, laid-back city is effectively under martial law. Emergency legislation has given police draconian new powers to "lock down" entire neighbourhoods, stop and search, and confiscate cars and mobile phones.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10361560
Death sentences against nurses lifted
27.12.05
By Jerome Taylor
LONDON - Bulgaria yesterday welcomed the decision by Libya's Supreme Court to scrap death sentences against five Bulgarian nurses and order a retrial of the cases, which have harmed Tripoli's efforts to build ties with the West.
The nurses and a Palestinian doctor were sentenced to death by firing squad in May 2004 after a court found them guilty of knowingly injecting 426 children with HIV.
The accused have maintained their innocence, saying they were tortured and forced to confess.
Bulgaria, the European Union and the United States have consistently urged their release, accusing Libya of making up the charges to avoid domestic criticism of the HIV scandal.
Libya's Supreme Court suggested it believed the accused had been tortured in custody and ordered the retrial after Libya and Bulgaria agreed on an aid package for the victims.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10361561
Deadbeat dads could be tagged
27.12.05
LONDON - Tougher penalties against absent fathers who refuse to make child maintenance payments will be included in a shake-up of Britain's Child Support Agency next month.
New sanctions being considered by ministers include imposing curfews backed by electronic tagging to restrict the movements of fathers. Ministers will also order much greater use of existing but little-used powers such as confiscating driving licences.
Government figures show that only nine absent parents have been banned from driving and only 27 sent to jail since these penalties for non-payment were introduced in 2001.
Tagging is seen as a more realistic option than prison, since parents could remain in work and keep up their maintenance payments.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10361565
German efficiency wins once again
27.12.05
By Karin Strohecker
BERLIN - With a confident smile on his face and a spring in his step, German rail chief Hartmut Mehdorn walks through the buzzing Berlin building site where Europe's largest railway station is going up.
After more than 10 years of work, the round-the-clock project is on budget and on time to open at the end of May, two weeks before the start of the soccer World Cup that will bring more than a million extra visitors to Germany.
"The light at the end of the tunnel is definitely getting brighter," said the chief executive of rail operator Deutsche Bahn. "A load will drop off our minds when that station is finally finished."
Loved by some, loathed by others, the former Lehrter Bahnhof station is nearing the end of its estimated 700 million ($1.19 billion) transformation from a World War II ruin to one of Europe's key rail hubs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10361568
Vietnamese boat person sets sail for home
27.12.05
By Rachel Pannett
Mitchell Pham describes himself as the "black sheep" of his family. His mother, father, sister and brother are all engineers.
It is a tongue-in-cheek reference, however, as there is no way his parents would frown on his career path. Nevertheless, Pham, who launched software firm Augen as a fresh-faced graduate from Auckland University with four mates in 1993, stands out.
He is a risk-taker, an entrepreneur, with a knack for new ideas and the courage to follow through. It is a courage Pham, 34, exhibited at 12 when his parents put him in a boat then launched it into the South China Sea with 67 other Vietnamese refugees.
As supporters of the South Vietnamese Government during the Vietnam War, Pham's parents were outcasts under the post-war communist rule from the North.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10361569
Busman's holiday for bank workers
27.12.05
By Adam Bennett
The Bank of New Zealand sent many of its staff on holiday not just with best wishes for the festive period, but with a request they drum up business for the bank among family and friends.
In an email to team leaders, BNZ marketing and business development general manager Shona Bishop said: "It is important that we keep up and maintain our sales and service focus right through the holiday season to ensure a successful 2006 for the bank.
"It does not matter where you are over the holiday period ... at work or on the beach ... there will be numerous opportunities to provide financial solutions to family and friends by referring them to Bank of New Zealand."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10361571
Mexico's snowy 'smoking mountain' spits ash, rocks
26.12.05 1.00pm
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's giant Popocatepetl volcano threw up an ash column almost 2 miles high and spat glowing rocks down its snow-clad slopes today, but nearby towns were not affected, officials said.
Popocatepetl, whose name means "smoking mountain" in the Nahuatl Indian language spoken by the Aztecs, spewed out the huge plume of ash and rocks in a three-minute exhalation.
"The recent activity is within the expected scenarios and there is no evidence of a major risk in the following days," said the disaster prevention center Conapred.
"No reports of ash fall have been received."
Sunday's activity was the latest in a recent series of disturbances which started December 1, when the 5,452 metre volcano showered ash on the nearby town of Amecameca.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10361537
Men catching up to women in life expectancy
26.12.05
As the first of the 75 million baby boomers touch 60 in January, there's good news for the men: They are catching up to women in life expectancy.
A new Longevity Index by Credit Suisse First Boston shows that while women still live four years longer on average, men are gaining twice as fast in the age race.
Medical experts say women are working harder, smoking more and undergoing more stress, which leads to the No 1 killer - heart disease.
"We are getting equality in ways we may not want," said Dr Sharon Brangman, a board member of the American Geriatrics Society.
The Longevity Index is designed to help insurance companies and pension funds hedge their risk as both men and women live longer - and cost more - in pension payments and lifetime annuity payments.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10361452
Eating seafood twice weekly will make you healthy and wise
24.12.05
NEW YORK - Eating seafood twice a week is good for you, Americans have been told.
New US guidelines recommend that people, especially children and pregnant and nursing women, eat seafood that often.
The guidelines summarise scientific findings presented at a conference in Washington reiterating that seafood helps people to live longer and healthier, cutting the risk for heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, stroke, diabetes and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis.
The conference was sponsored by the Governments of the US, Norway, Canada and Iceland, aided by the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Nutrients such as omega-3 fatty acids, iodine, iron and choline, present in fish such as wild and farmed salmon, shrimp and catfish, are important in brain development and may lessen the effects of dyslexia, autism, hyperactivity and attention-deficit disorder, researchers have found, and some studies have linked those nutrients with increased intelligence in infants and children.
William E.M. Lands, a retired professor of biochemistry at the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois says, "not eating seafood is more harmful than eating it".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10361324
Scientists vote Darwinian evolution as year's breakthrough
23.12.05 1.00pm
By Steve Connor
American scientists have thumbed their noses at new-age creationists who peddle the idea of intelligent design by voting Darwinian evolution as breakthrough of the year.
The editors of the journal Science said that several studies published in 2005 have shown beyond any doubt how evolution underpins all aspects of modern biology.
This year has seen many advances in several areas of research that uncover the intricacies that drive the evolution of all organism, from viruses to primates, the journal says.
"Painstaking field observations shed new light on how populations diverge to form new species - the mystery of mysteries that baffled Darwin himself," write the editors of Science.
"Ironically, also this year some segments of American society fought to dilute the teaching of even the basic facts of evolution," they say.
"With all this in mind, Science has decided to put Darwin in the spotlight by saluting several dramatic discoveries each of which reveals the laws of evolution in action," they add.
In 2005, scientists decoded the genome of the chimpanzee to confirm that the chimp is our closest living relative, descended from a common ancestor.
Other researchers sequenced the genome of the 1918 flu virus retrieved from the frozen corpse of an Alaskan woman who died in the pandemic.
A second team of scientists used the sequence to rebuild the virus in the laboratory in order to analyse why it was so deadly.
They also found that it had evolved directly from a bird flu virus.
"Understanding the evolution of last century's deadly bird flu may help us to predict and cope with the current bird flu threat," say the Science editors.
Other studies have shown how small changes or mutations in the DNA of a species can result in dramatic evolutionary transformations, such as the creation of two species from one.
"Researchers found that a single genetic change can be all it takes to turn one species into many, as in the case of the Alaskan stickleback fish that lost its armour and evolved from an ocean-loving species to a variety of landlocked lake dwellers," they say.
David Kingsley, professor of developmental biology at Stanford University in California, said that the stickleback research in 15 different species of fish showed for the first time that a single genetic mutation was responsible for evolutionary changes.
People who believe in intelligent design argue that such major changes cannot come about through Darwinian evolution but this is obviously false, said Professor Kingsley.
"Sticklebacks with major changes in skeletal armour and fin structures are thriving in natural environments. And the major differences between forms can now be traced to particular genes," he said.
Further research into the behaviour and genetics of crickets and caterpillars found that small behavioural changes, such as what to eat or when to mate, may be all that is needed to turn a single inter-breeding population of animals into two or more distinct species.
Darwin discovered how evolution can take place through natural selection and his central problem was trying to understand the process of speciation - the creation of species.
"Today evolution is the foundation of all biology, so basic and all-pervasive that scientists sometimes take its importance for granted," says Science.
- INDEPENDENT
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