Rooster "Cock-a-Doodle-Do"
"Okeydoke"
History
One view from a desolate hillside
Leader
Friday December 23, 1988
The Guardian
Two days before Christmas, two tides flow strongly. One - the greater tide - is the tide of peace. More nagging, bloody conflicts have been settled in 1988 than in any year since the end of the Second World War. There are forces for good abroad in the world as seldom before. There is also a tide of evil, a force of destruction. By just one of those ironies which afflict the human condition, peace came to Namibia yesterday. Meanwhile, on a Scottish hillside, the body of the Swedish UN Commissioner for Namibia was one amongst hundreds strewn across square miles of debris: a victim - supposition, but strongly based - of a random terrorist bomb which blown a 747 to bits at 31,000 feet. No-one could quite tell who was responsible. In a sick world, sick, anonymous voices called newspapers to claim conflicting responsibility. I am the Devil .. No, I am the Devil. There are two responses to that second, malevolent tide. One (valid, necessary) is to go about business as normal. To search the houses of Sherwood Crescent, Lockerbie , for the unknown corpses. To make statements of horror and compassion. To sift the hills for clues. To praise the efficiency of those who rushed to the rescue. And, of course, to ask questions. Was it structural failure in an elderly Jumbo? Or was the US Moscow embassy's relaxed alert, warning of a December bomb attack on a Pan Am flight from Frankfurt, more than coincidence? If so, why did routine security allow a bomb aboard? But if so, why was there a warning at all? What did it gain?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/fromthearchive/story/0,12269,1378098,00.html
History
Today is Wednesday, Dec. 21, the 355th day of 2005. There are 10 days left in the year. Winter arrives at 1:35 p.m. Eastern time.
1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.
On this date:
1767 Poet Phillis Wheatley's first poem appears in Newport Mercury Newspaper.
1804, British statesman Benjamin Disraeli was born in London.
1872 Robert S. Duncanson, a landscape artist, dies in Detroit, MI.
1898, scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
1911 Baseball legend Josh Gibson, who will be inducted into the 1972 Baseball Hall of Fame, is born in Buena Visto, GA.
1914, the first feature-length silent film comedy, "Tillie's Punctured Romance," was released.
1921 Acting Governor P.B.S. Pinchback of Louisiana dies in Washington, DC.
1942, the Supreme Court ruled all states had to recognize divorces granted in Nevada.
1945, Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.
1948 Actor Samuel Leroy Jackson who will be noted for his film roles in Jungle Fever, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, and The Negotiator, is born in Washington, DC.
1948, the state of Eire (formerly the Irish Free State) declared its independence.
1959 Olympic track star sprinter Florence Griffith Joyner, who will win a gold medal for the 100 and 200 meter dashes at the Summer Olympics, is born in Los Angeles, CA
1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.
1971, the U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.
1978, police in Des Plaines, Ill., arrested John W. Gacy Jr. and began unearthing the remains of 33 men and boys that Gacy was later convicted of murdering.
1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.
Ten years ago: The House approved sweeping welfare reform that President Clinton said he would veto. (He later signed a revamped version.)
The city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to Palestinian control.
Five years ago: President-elect Bush resigned as governor of Texas; Lt. Gov. Rick Perry was sworn in to replace him.
One year ago: A suicide bombing at a mess hall tent near Mosul, Iraq, killed 22 people, including 14 U.S. service members and three American contractors. Two French reporters held hostage for four months in Iraq were released.
Missing in Action
1966 GLENN DANNY ELLOY MUSKOGEE OK 03/04/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 SCURLOCK LEE D. RESTFUL LAKE OH
1968 ALLEE RICHARD K. PORT JERVIS NY REMAINS RETURNED 1996 REMAINS IDENTIFIED 04/30/98
1972 BEBUS CHARLES J. MINNEAPOLIS MN REMAINS RETURNED 11/88
1972 BEENS LYNN R. SALT LAKE CITY UT 03/27/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 BIRCH JOEL RAY PHOENIZ AZ NOT ON OFFICIAL DIA LIST. PARTIAL REMS RECOVERED 1972
1972 CRADDOCK RANDALL J. NORMAN OK REMAINS RETURNED 05/89
1972 CAFFARELLI CHARLES J. TYRONE PA
1972 DARR CHARLES E. LITTLE ROCK AR CREW MEMBERS BODY RETURNED REMAINS RETURNED 1988
1972 DICKENS DELMA E. OMEGA GA DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85
1972 ELLIOTT ROBERT T. EL DORADO AR DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85
1972 FENTER CHARLES F. TUCSON AZ DEAD -REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85 FAMILY NOT ACCEPT
1972 FULLER JAMES R. CIBOLO TX DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85 ID RECINDED
1972 GOULD FRANK A. NEW YORK NY
1972 GRAUSTEIN ROBERT STEWART FRYEBURG ME REMAINS RETURNED 12/04/85
1972 HART THOMAS T. III ORLANDO FL DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85 ID RECINDED
1972 HEGGEN KEITH R. RENWICK IA 03/13/74 REMAINS RETURNED
1972 HIGDON KENNETH H. SAN FRANCISCO CA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED ALIVE IN 99
1972 JOHNSON EDWARD H. NEWBURG OR NO SUBSQUENT INTEL INFO REMAINS RETURNED 05/89
1972 KIRBY BOBBY A. ALTANTA GA REMAINS RETURNED 07/25/89
1972 KROBOTH STANLEY N. SAVANNAH GA DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85
1972 LAGERWALL HARRY R. CARMEL NY DEAD REMAINS RECOVERED 02/21/85
1972 LILES ROBERT L. JR. SHREVEPORT LA DEAD REMAINS RECOVERED 02/21/85
1972 LOCKHART GEORGE B. SULPHUR SPRINGS TX REMAINS RETURNED 04/89
1972 LOLLAR JAMES L. KILMICHAEL MS 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV
1972 LYNN ROBERT R. JACKSONVILLE IL REMAINS RETURNED 06/89
1972 MAC DONALD GEORGE D. EVANSTON IL DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85 ID RECINDED
1972 MEDER PAUL O. JAMICA NY REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85
1972 NAGAHIRO JAMES Y. HONOLULU HI 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 NAKAGAWA GORDON R. NEW CASTLE CA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 PERRY RONALD D. GALLATIN TN 12/21/75 SRV RETURNED REMAINS
1972 REAID ROLLIE K. DORA AL DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/01/85
1972 WADE BARTON S. JASPER IN REMAINS RETURNED 12/04/85
1972 WALSH FRANCIS A. WESTPORT CT DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85
1972 WALTERS DONOVAN K. LEBANON NE REMAINS RETURNED 12/15/88
1972 WINNINGHAM JOHN Q. GROVER CITY CA DEAD REMAINS RETURNED 02/21/85
December 20
1965 JONES EDWIN D. RESCUED REFNO 0214
1965 HUDSON HENRY M. RESCUED
1965 JOHNSON GUY D. SEATTLE WA REMAINS RETURNED 03/18/77
1965 JEFFREY ROBERT D. LOS ANGELES CA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL IN 98
1965 MIMS GEORGE I. JR. MANNING SC
1965 NORDAHL LEE E. CHOTEAU MT PROB DEAD
1965 PITCHFORD JOHN J. NATCHEZ MS 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED ALIVE IN 98
1965 TRIER ROBERT DOUGLAS MEMPHIS TN POSS KIA RESISTING CAPTURE REM RET 10/14/82
1965 WAX DAVID J. BROOKLINE MA REMAINS IDENTIFIED 02 AUG 93
1966 LUCAS LARRY F. MARMET WV
1966 LUM DAVID ANTHONY HONOLULU HI
1967 CRANER ROBERT R. COHOES NY RETURNED 3/14/73 NOT ON ORIG DIA LIST DECEASED 10/03/80
1967 GRUTERS GUY D. SARASOTA FL 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1968 BOUCHARD MICHAEL L. MISSOULA MT
1968 KENT ROBERT DUANE DALLAS TX
1968 MORIN RICHARD GIRARD TWEKSBURY MA
1969 LONG CARL EDWIN COLLEGE STATION TX
1972 ARCURI WILLIAM Y. SATELLITE BEACH FL 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 GELONECK TERRY M. DECATUR AL 02/19/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 GRANGER PAUL L. SAN FRANCISCO CA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 KLOMANN THOMAS J. OAK FOREST IL 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 LERNER IRWIN S. STRATFORD CT POSS KIA
1972 MADDEN ROY JR. HAYWARD CA 02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV INJURED DECEASED 1997
1972 MARTINI MICHAEL R. LOS ANGELES CA 02/19/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 96
1972 MC LAUGHLIN ARTHUR V. JR. ROXBURY MA POSS KIA
1972 PAUL CRAIG A. COLUMBUS OH 09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV
1972 PERRY RANDOLPH A. JR. TROY MT POSS KIA
1972 SPENCER WARREN R. LA CRESCENTA CA 09/30/77 REMAINS RETURNED BY SRV
1972 STUART JOHN F. INDIANAPOLIS IN
1972 WIELAND CARL T. ORLAND FL RELEASED 03/29/73 DECEASED
December 19
1968 PAYNE NORMAN CLEVELAND OH
1971 FORAME PETER C. MC LEAN VA
1971 JOHNSON KENNETH R. MINNEAPOLIS MN 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1971 POYNOR DANIEL R. ENID OK REMAINS IDENTIFIED 06/27/95
1971 SKILES THOMAS W. BUFFALO WY
1971 THOMAS LEO T. JR. GEORGETOWN KY REMAINS IDENTIFIED 06/27/95
1971 VAUGHAN SAMUEL R. ST. GEORGE SC 03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV " ""DICK"" ALIVE AND WELL 98"
1972 ALEXANDER FERNANDO DALLAS TX 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 BARROWS HENRY C. WESTFIELD NJ 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 BROWN CHARLES A. JR. BOSTON MA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 1998
1972 COOPER RICHARD W. JR. SALISBURY MD
1972 POOLE CHARLIE S. GIBSLAND LA PROB DEAD / LAO DONG 6 CHILDREN/WIFE DIED 1996
1972 WILSON HAL K. HAMBURG NY 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV " ""RED"" ALIVE AND WELL
December 18
1968 BARRAS GREGORY I JACKSON MS "REMAINS RETURNED, IDENTIFIED 12/03/98"
1971 HILDEBRAND LELAND L. FIFIELD WI 03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 1998
1971 WELLS KENNETH VANCOUVER WA 03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 CERTAIN ROBERT G. SILVER SPRINGS MD 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 FERGUSON WALTER L. DETROIT MI 08/23/78 REMAINS RETURNED MONTGOM HANOI
1972 JOHNSON RICHARD E. OCEANSIDE CA 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 MC ELVAIN JAMES R. LA VERNE CA
1972 RISSI DONALD L. COLLINSVILLE IL 08/23/78 REMAINS RETURNED MONTGON HANOI
1972 SIMPSON RICHARD T. ANDERSON SC 03/29/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1972 THOMAS ROBERT J. MIAMI FL 08/23/78 REMAINS RETURNED MONTGOM HANOI
1972 WARD RONALD J. ANADARKO OK
December 17
1967 BOYER TERRY L. VISALIA CA 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1967 ELLIS JEFFREY T. CALDWELL NJ 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
1967 FLEENOR KENNETH R. BOWLING GREEN KY 03/14/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
The New York Times
Gas Emissions Reached High in U.S. in '04
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: December 21, 2005
American emissions of greenhouse gases linked to global warming reached an all-time high in 2004, rising 2 percent from the year before, the Energy Department said, nearly double the average annual rate measured since 1990.
The department's Energy Information Administration, in a report issued Monday, also raised earlier government estimates of emissions for 2003, pushing that year past 2000 into second place.
No estimates were available for United States emissions in 2005, although energy experts say increased economic growth this year is likely to make it another record-setter.
The increases in 2003 and 2004 followed a brief dip in emissions in 2001 and 2002. Government officials said that decline reflected a slowdown in the economy, the departure of some manufacturing industries overseas, and emissions cuts in other industries.
Less than two weeks ago, Bush administration officials at climate-treaty talks in Montreal repeatedly cited the short-lived drop in emissions after 2000 as evidence that President Bush's climate policy, using voluntary measures to slow growth in the gas releases, was working.
In its report, the energy agency said that while overall emissions were growing, the rate of growth continued to slow relative to economic growth, and so remained on the track set by Mr. Bush.
Yesterday, Lord Rees, the president of the Royal Society, an independent British scientific academy similar to the National Academies in the United States, said the new American data showed that all industrialized countries needed to intensify efforts to cut emissions. He noted that Britain's emissions had also risen in the last two years.
Lord Rees said that the two countries and the other members of the Group of 8 biggest industrialized nations clearly had to do more to live up to a statement they issued at a summit meeting in Scotland in July, in which they resolved to act with "urgency" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
"We should not underestimate the challenge of achieving economic growth whilst reducing emissions, and the United States is not the only country that is struggling to do this," Lord Rees said in a statement. "But it seems unlikely that the present U.S. strategy of only setting emissions targets relative to economic growth, reducing so-called greenhouse gas intensity, will be enough."
Carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas generated by humans, remains an unavoidable byproduct of burning the fossil fuels that underpin modern life. Other powerful greenhouse gases include methane, which leaks from landfills and gas pipelines, and nitrous oxide, released mainly from fertilizer use in large-scale farms.
The gases are measured collectively in tons of carbon dioxide by converting the heat-trapping capacity of each gas into the amount of carbon dioxide that would have the same warming effect.
By this measure, total American emissions of the six major greenhouse gases in 2004 added up to the equivalent of 7.1 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide, up 2 percent from 6.98 billion metric tons in 2003. Emissions in 2000 were 6.97 billion tons, the agency said.
The energy agency's greenhouse gas report is online at eia.doe.gov/environment.html.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/national/21pollute.html
Spying Program Snared U.S. Calls
By JAMES RISEN and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: December 21, 2005
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - A surveillance program approved by President Bush to conduct eavesdropping without warrants has captured what are purely domestic communications in some cases, despite a requirement by the White House that one end of the intercepted conversations take place on foreign soil, officials say.
The officials say the National Security Agency's interception of a small number of communications between people within the United States was apparently accidental, and was caused by technical glitches at the National Security Agency in determining whether a communication was in fact "international."
Telecommunications experts say the issue points up troubling logistical questions about the program. At a time when communications networks are increasingly globalized, it is sometimes difficult even for the N.S.A. to determine whether someone is inside or outside the United States when making a cellphone call or sending an e-mail message. As a result, people that the security agency may think are outside the United States are actually on American soil.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/politics/21nsa.html
In Final Hours, M.T.A. Took a Big Risk on Pensions
By STEVEN GREENHOUSE
Published: December 21, 2005
On the final day of intense negotiations, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, it turns out, greatly altered what it had called its final offer, to address many of the objections of the transit workers' union. The authority improved its earlier wage proposals, dropped its demand for concessions on health benefits and stopped calling for an increase in the retirement age, to 62 from 55.
Cars waited in traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge during the Tuesday evening commute. More Photos >
But then, just hours before the strike deadline, the authority's chairman, Peter S. Kalikow, put forward a surprise demand that stunned the union. Seeking to rein in the authority's soaring pension costs, he asked that all new transit workers contribute 6 percent of their wages toward their pensions, up from the 2 percent that current workers pay. The union balked, and then shut down the nation's largest transit system for the first time in a quarter-century.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/21collapse.html?hp&ex=1135227600&en=aebb5027b30744cc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
That Blur? It's China, Moving Up in the Pack
By DAVID BARBOZA and DANIEL ALTMAN
Published: December 21, 2005
SHANGHAI, Dec. 20 - Many economists have long suspected that official government statistics here provided only a shadow of reality.
With China's announcement on Tuesday that its economy was considerably bigger than previously estimated, economists and financial prognosticators are scrambling to rethink their assessment of China's rise and its role on the world stage. China's new figures suggest that it probably has passed France, Italy and Britain to become the world's fourth-largest economy.
Some economists are even accelerating their timetables for when China may eclipse the United States as the world's biggest economy. With the new figures offering a more expansive view of economic activity, some said China could overtake the United States as early as 2035, at least five years earlier than previous projections.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/business/worldbusiness/21yuan.html
Hussein Returns to Court for Resumption of Trial
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: December 21, 2005
Filed at 7:22 a.m. ET
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- A noticeably calmer Saddam Hussein sat quietly in his defendant's chair at the resumption of his trial Wednesday, two weeks after he called the court ''unjust'' and boycotted a session. When the judge refused to let him take a break to pray, the former leader closed his eyes and appeared to pray from his seat.
Saddam and seven co-defendants are on trial in the deaths of more than 140 Shiite Muslims following a 1982 assassination attempt against him in the town of Dujail, north of Baghdad.
During previous sessions, Saddam has been defiant and combative at times, often trying to dominate the courtroom. He and his half brother-- Barazan Ibrahim, who was head of the Iraqi intelligence during the Dujail incident-- have used the procedures to protest their own conditions in detention.
The deposed president had refused to attend the previous session on Dec. 7. ''I will not come to an unjust court! Go to hell!'' he said in an outburst in court the day before.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Saddam-Trial.html
Afghan Parliament Opens, and Finds Democracy Is a Bit Untidy
By CARLOTTA GALL
Published: December 21, 2005
KABUL, Afghanistan, Dec. 20 - The two houses of Parliament began their first sessions on Tuesday, and in just a few hours provided a glimpse of democracy Afghan style, with the upper house ignoring the rules of procedure and the lower house getting bogged down in debate.
A presidential appointee and close ally of President Hamid Karzai, Sebaghatullah Mojadeddi, was elected chairman of the upper chamber, the House of Elders, although he won only after shaming his main opponent into stepping down out of respect for his age and reputation.
The lower chamber, the House of the People, which approves the cabinet and senior appointments, spent the morning debating whether to agree on rules of procedure first, or to elect a chairman and deputies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/international/asia/21afghan.html
New Drug Points Up Problems in Developing Cancer Cures
By GARDINER HARRIS
Published: December 21, 2005
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 - Despite promising discoveries and multibillion-dollar investments, cancer research is quietly undergoing a crisis. Federal drug regulators will soon announce several initiatives that they hope will help salvage the field.
Few drugs are being marketed, and most of those that have been introduced are enormously expensive and provide few of the benefits that patients expect. Officials of the Food and Drug Administration suggest that the failures may result from an obsolete testing system.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/health/21cancer.html
New Yorkers Contend With 2nd Day of Transit Strike
By JENNIFER STEINHAUER
Published: December 21, 2005
New Yorkers headed to work on the second day of the transit strike this morning without subways or buses, as negotiations between the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the transit union remained at an impasse.
Roger Toussaint, president of Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union, announced the strike at union headquarters around 3 a.m. More Photos
Traffic was snarled this morning along many of the city's major roadways, including the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, as many commuters tried to get to get into Manhattan before a 5 a.m. ban on cars with fewer than four people took effect.
"It's really a hardship," said Bonnie Bromell, 50, who got up at 3 a.m. to drive in from Hastings, in Westchester County. "It's encroaching on the Christmas season. There are other things we could be doing, but we're not."
Pasted from <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/21cnd-strike.html?hp&ex=1135227600&en=6ea13bcca6d0ebc3&ei=5094&partner=homepage>
A Transit Local Lacking the Support of Its Parent Union
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: December 21, 2005
The transit workers' union, despite taking the extraordinary step of calling its first strike in 25 years, has revealed itself over the last 48 hours to be an organization wrestling with considerable discord - a local union, in fact, that is at complete odds with its larger parent organization.
The union's vote to strike, made at 1:15 a.m. yesterday in a closed-door session of the executive board, was opposed by three of seven vice presidents of the union, Local 100 of the Transport Workers Union. A fourth abstained.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/21negotiation.html?hp&ex=1135227600&en=d265d9810e072af3&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Thrown Together in a Crisis, Strangers Share Cars and Life Stories
By ALAN FEUER
Published: December 21, 2005
The BMW in Brooklyn held an office temp, a lawyer and a technology worker. The courier's van in Queens was crowded with the driver and his buddies and a man who had flagged them down.
Then there was the minivan, down from the Bronx, in northern Manhattan. In it were a doorman, a dental office worker and a man with his son.
Yesterday was a day many New Yorkers will long recall, a day when many put aside their fear and loathing of the stranger, a day when doctors, dancers and designers traded in the normal anonymity of subway trains for the intimacy of an unfamiliar car.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/21coping.html?hp&ex=1135227600&en=61a1f98c923d6e00&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Strike Inflicts Broad Economic Pain
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: December 21, 2005
At Century 21, the discount department store near Wall Street where shopping is usually a contact sport, a smattering of customers yesterday found the retail version of a Christmas miracle: entire aisles to themselves and no lines at the registers.
At F. illi Ponte, a venerable TriBeCa restaurant that gave its employees cab fare on Monday to make sure they would show up to work yesterday, half the day's reservations were canceled.
And at a Midtown spot near Bryant Park where a 52-story office tower is being built, barely half the construction workers made it to the job, and those who did were slowed by delays in getting building materials delivered.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/nyregion/nyregionspecial3/21business.html?hp&ex=1135227600&en=fa58925676d2f99b&ei=5094&partner=homepage
New Jersey Plans Broad Steroid Testing for School Sports
By RICHARD LEZIN JONES
Published: December 21, 2005
WEST ORANGE, N.J., Dec. 20 - New Jersey's acting governor signed an executive order Tuesday that requires random steroid testing for athletes on high school teams that qualify for postseason play. The order makes the state the first to test high school students in all sports for performance-enhancing drugs.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/21/sports/othersports/21steroids.html
Old Curative Gets New Life at Tiny Scale
By BARNABY J. FEDER
Published: December 20, 2005
Silver, one of humankind's first weapons against bacteria, is receiving new respect for its antiseptic powers, thanks to the growing ability of researchers to tinker with its molecular structure.
Doctors prescribed silver to fight infections at least as far back as the days of ancient Greece and Egypt. Their knowledge was absorbed by Rome, where historians like Pliny the Elder reported that silver plasters caused wounds to close rapidly. More recently, in 1884, a German doctor named C. S. F. Crede demonstrated that a putting a few drops of silver nitrate into the eyes of babies born to women with venereal disease virtually eliminated the high rates of blindness among such infants.
But silver's time-tested - if poorly understood - versatility as a disinfectant was overshadowed in the latter half of the 20th century by the rise of antibiotics.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/20/health/20nano.html
RIA Novosti
United States has problems with democracy
19:46
16/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW. (Gennady Yevstafyev for RIA Novosti.) A chain of scandalous revelations about Washington's human rights violations both in the U.S. and abroad is increasingly worrying even those who look with patience at the conduct of the current U.S. Administration.
These condescending people believed that the painful lessons learned in Iraq and other places would sober up the men in Washington, but this hasn't happened.
The recent arguments about secret U.S. jails in third countries, and "flying prisons" prove that Washington has not learned any lessons from previous scandals involving an illegal concentration camp for Afghans located at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba, not to mention the crimes committed by U.S. officials in the secret Iraqi prison of Abu Grabe.
Let's examine the case of Khaled El-Masri, whom the American Civil Liberties Union helped take the CIA to court for creating a chain of secret prisons and torturing prisoners. Even though he is a German citizen, he was illegally abducted in Macedonia and subjected to illegal and prohibited methods of investigation: torture, regular beatings, and the use of drugs. It appeared that he was completely innocent, and was merely mistaken for someone else. This is not the only case.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20051216/42528298.html
Russia to take Syria's side if conflict with U.S. arises - Russian MPs
20:41
20/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will take Syria's side if charges against Syrian officials with involvement in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri cause a conflict between the United States and Syria, two Russian parliamentary members said Tuesday.
"If Russia is to choose between its two strategic allies, it will undoubtedly take Syria's side," said Shamil Sultanov, a coordinator of an inter-faction association, Russia and the Islamic World: A Strategic Dialogue.
Nikolai Leonov, a member of parliament's security committee, who had recently visited Syria along with Sultanov and other MPs, said it was primarily beneficial for the U.S. to accuse Syria of murdering Hariri. "Indeed, Syria is an excellent oil corridor with access to deep-water Mediterranean ports. Besides, this is a good pretext to distract the world community's attention from the events in Iraq," the MP said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051220/42587105.html
Russian plan may boost talks on Iran's nuclear program - viewpoint
15:42
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's initiative on uranium enrichment on its territory may help break the deadlock in the talks on Iran's nuclear program, the head of the Russian Political Studies Center said Wednesday.
Vladimir Orlov said he did not expect any significant results from Iran's talks with the EU troika (Britain, France and Germany) opening in Vienna Wednesday.
He said the meeting itself was important given the current cooling of Iran's relations with the world community.
He also said Iran's position on Russia's proposal to create a bilateral joint venture to enrich uranium in Russia was critical and that the initiative was backed by the United States, the EU troika, the IAEA and other countries.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051221/42605091.html
Budget revenue from subsoil auctions to hit $1.2 bln in 2005
13:21
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Budget revenues from mineral deposit auctions in 2005 will total more than 35 billion rubles ($1.2 billion), a 38-fold increase against last year's figure, the Russian natural resources minister said Wednesday.
Yury Trutnev said last year's revenues from mineral deposit auctions amounted to 919 million rubles ($32.1 million).
He added that payments for the use of forests would add $118.6 million ($108.2 million in 2004) to the budget and tariffs on water would contribute $373.2 million ($334.9 million in 2004).
http://en.rian.ru/business/20051221/42598405.html
Russia to auction off 800 hydrocarbon deposits in 2006
13:00
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Federal Agency for Subsoil Use intends to hold 1,000 auctions next year, including 800 hydrocarbon and 200 solid mineral deposit tenders, the natural resources minister said Wednesday.
Yury Trutnev said the 2006 budget plan for one-time payments would be 20 billion rubles (about $699 million) and that the ministry would spend 4.6 billion (about $160 million) rubles in 2006 on the construction of water facilities.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20051221/42597535.html
Subsoil law to be adopted early next year
14:40
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - The delay in the approval of the new version of the subsoil law could be one to two months, the natural resources minister said Wednesday. Yury Trutnev said the delay was not decisive for Russia as a whole and expressed the hope that the law would be adopted in the first half of 2006.
According to Trutnev, his ministry would finalize the law and send it to the regions for repeat discussion.
Trutnev said the current amendments did not change the structure of the law.
"They deal with the admission of foreign companies to deposits, the procedure of getting the right of subsoil use under the licenses issued before the adoption of the new law and the possibility for the state to terminate such contracts out of court," he said.
Trutnev said it was necessary to determine subsoils where preferences for domestic companies should be made.
The minister said the criteria of more than 1 trillion cu m of gas and 150 million metric tons of oil for deposits to be called strategic were necessary in the new law.
"Otherwise, we would simply deceive our foreign partners," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20051221/42602617.html
URGENT: Sibneft buys 75% stake in company licensed to survey Sakhalin shelf
14:28
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russian oil major Sibneft has purchased from the Russian-British joint venture TNK-BP a 75% stake in a company licensed to survey the Lopukhovsky section of the Sakhalin shelf in the Far East, Sibneft said Wednesday.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051221/42601789.html
URGENT: Court upholds bank syndicate's $482mln tax claim against Yukos
15:00
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow's arbitration court upheld a $482 million tax claim against the embattled oil major Yukos filed by a syndicate of foreign banks.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051221/42603961.html
Lawyers appeal 14-yr sentence for Yukos official
12:38
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Lawyers for a former manager of embattled oil giant Yukos sentenced to 14 years in prison for money laundering filed an appeal with the Moscow City Court Wednesday.
"We consider the verdict illegal and ungrounded," Yury Larin, attorney for former Yukos-Moskva deputy manager Alexei Kurtsin, said.
On December 1, Moscow's Lefortovo court handed down a guilty verdict for all those involved in the Yukos-Moskva case, sentencing eight former managers to up to 13 years in prison. An investigation showed that Kurtsin and Yukos-Moskva Senior Vice President Mikhail Trushin, who is still at large, laundered 342 million rubles ($11.9 million) through fictitious charities registered in several large Russian cities. Investigators claim the bulk of laundered funds went directly to Trushin and Kurtsin.
Yuganskneftegaz, the main production subsidiary of state-owned oil company Rosneft, has been declared an injured party though it did not file suit during the trials.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051221/42596757.html
Number of poisoned people in Chechnya increases
15:36
21/ 12/ 2005
GROZNY, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - The number of Chechen residents poisoned by an unidentified substance has reached 63 people, many of whom are children, a local healthcare official said Wednesday.
"Fifty-five people with symptoms of severe poisoning have been hospitalized," Umar Akhyadov said, adding that 45 of them were children.
The victims are residents of four settlements in the Shelkovsky district of Chechnya.
Medical personnel are still attempting to establish the cause of poisoning, the official said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051221/42605068.html
Russian Regional Jet enters the world market
15:09
20/ 12/ 2005
Moscow. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrey Kislyakov) The Russian Regional Jet (RRJ) is the most ambitious and dynamic national aviation industry program.
The first RRJ prototype is scheduled to make its maiden flight next year.
Being a new next generation airliner, the RRJ family is highly advanced, economical, has excellent flying characteristics, equipped with the latest in avionics and has a modern customer support infrastructure.
Russia is definitely going to enter the regional aircraft world market. In late November 2005, Sukhoi Civil Aviation (SCA) Concern and Concord Aviation, a leasing company from Dubai, signed a contract for the delivery of 40 95-seat RRJ-95s.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20051220/42580439.html
Global development program awards Armenia $237-mln grant
13:53
21/ 12/ 2005
YEREVAN, December 21 (RIA Novosti, Gamlet Matevosyan) - The board of the U.S. Millennium Challenge Account Corporation has approved a $236.65-million grant for Armenia, a spokesman for the Armenian National Committee of America said Wednesday.
"The grant is designed to reduce poverty in Armenia by improving the efficiency of the country's agriculture," the Armenian representative said. The two-part program will rebuild the country's rural roads and develop its irrigation system, with allocations of $67 million and $146 million, respectively. About $22 million has been designated to manage and monitor the program. The Millennium Challenge Account will monitor Armenian policies throughout the five-year term of the grant, maintaining the right to halt or cancel the program if Armenia fails to honor its commitments.
The program is expected to cover 75% of the rural sector in the hope that the annual revenue of Armenia's rural population will reach $36 million by 2010 and $113 million by 2015.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20051221/42599906.html
Court upholds constitutionality of new gubernatorial election procedures
13:16
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Constitutional Court confirmed Wednesday that the president-proposed new gubernatorial election procedures were lawful.
The court said the new procedures accounted for regional interests since they stipulated that the president's gubernatorial candidates must be approved by local legislatures. The court ruled that the procedures were not a violation of "the principle of the division of powers and federalism."
The court was considering a complaint filed by Vladimir Grishkevich, a resident of Tyumen (Urals) who tried to challenge the local legislature's approval of Sergei Sobyanin's candidacy for Tyumen governor February 17. A regional court declined to review the case, so Grishkevich then appealed to the Constitutional Court.
"Sergei Sobyanin being appointed governor with a five-year term by the local legislature, rather than being elected to the post through general elections, violates my constitutional right to participate in elections at all levels," Grishkevich said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051221/42598207.html
Constitutional Court hesitant about moving to St. Petersburg
13:25
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - The chairman of the Constitutional Court expressed hope Wednesday that the court would not move from Moscow to St. Petersburg anytime soon.
"I cannot comment on it [the move], because we still do not have an official legislative document," Valery Zorkin said. "But I hope that the country will make a correct decision, and the move will not happen anytime soon, and we will stay here [in Moscow] for a while."
Speaker of the lower house of parliament Boris Gryzlov said Tuesday that the State Duma was planning to submit the bill on the move to the government as early as this week.
Zorkin said he could not comment on the political implications of the move, but the issue "should be considered thoroughly."
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051221/42598583.html
Putin wishes Georgian counterpart happy birthday
12:28
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - Vladimir Putin sent a presidential birthday greeting to Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili Wednesday, the Russian presidential press service said.
"I'm sure the constructive dialogue on all the spheres of Russian-Georgian cooperation will improve bilateral relations, meet the interests of the two countries' peoples and consolidate peace and stability in the Caucasus," the Russian president said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051221/42596429.html
President Putin: no branches of foreign banks in Russia
17:05
16/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti economic commentator Nina Kulikova.) Russian President Vladimir Putin supported the banking community's desire to restrict the activities of foreign bank branches in the country at a meeting with Russian bankers in Novosibirsk yesterday.
"I want to confirm that the Russian government agrees with our banking community that activities of foreign bank branches in Russia should today be restricted or, in fact, prohibited," Putin said. Thus, he publicly endorsed the stance adopted by many bankers and experts who had repeatedly spoken against admitting them into the country.
The problem of admitting foreigners to Russian financial markets appeared as the country began integrating in the global economy. It remains one of the main obstacles in Russia's WTO accession talks. Foreign partners demand that Russia allow branches to work in the country, but the position of Russian negotiators is firm. The country cannot afford it, because such changes may cause severe problems for its underdeveloped banking system.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20051216/42524682.html
Foreign currency exchange rates as fixed by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation for December 22
12:55
21/ 12/ 2005
MOSCOW, December 21 (RIA Novosti) - The following rates of exchange of foreign currencies to the ruble of the Russian Federation have been fixed for the purposes of accounting and customs duty payments from December 22, 2005:
1 Australian dollar - 21.1810 rubles
1 British pound sterling - 50.5537 rubles
1,000 Belarusian rubles - 13.3664 rubles
10 Danish krones - 45.8154 rubles
1 US dollar - 28.7629 rubles
1 euro - 34.1962 rubles
100 Icelandic krones - 45.2531 rubles
100 Kazakh tenges - 21.5396 rubles
1 Canadian dollar - 24.5459 rubles
1 new Turkish lira - 21.2665 rubles
10 Norwegian krones - 42.4188 rubles
1 unit of conditional drawing rights - 41.4471 rubles
1 Singapore dollar - 17.2491 rubles
10 Ukrainian hryvnias - 56.6400 rubles
10 Swedish kronas - 36.2130 rubles
1 Swiss franc - 22.0051 rubles
100 Japanese yen - 24.5774 rubles
The foreign currency exchange rates to the ruble of the Russian Federation entail no obligation on the part of the Bank of Russia to buy or sell the currencies according to the above rates.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20051221/42597362.html
The Washington Post
Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest
Jurist Concerned Bush Order Tainted Work of Secret Panel
By Carol D. Leonnig and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A01
A federal judge has resigned from the court that oversees government surveillance in intelligence cases in protest of President Bush's secret authorization of a domestic spying program, according to two sources.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson, one of 11 members of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, sent a letter to Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. late Monday notifying him of his resignation without providing an explanation.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122000685.html
Defending Science by Defining It
By David Brown and Rick Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A20
The opinion written by Judge John E. Jones III in the Dover evolution trial is a two-in-one document that offers both philosophical and practical arguments against "intelligent design" likely to be useful to far more than a school board in a small Pennsylvania town.
Jones gives a clear definition of science, and recounts how this vaunted mode of inquiry has evolved over the centuries. He describes how scientists go about the task of supporting or challenging ideas about the world of the senses -- all that can be observed and measured. And he reaches the unwavering conclusion that intelligent design is a religious idea, not a scientific one.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001715.html
Transit Strike Throws Off the Meter of N.Y. With Cabs a Last Resort, City Uses a Zone Defense
By David Segal
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page C01
NEW YORK, Dec. 20 -- The fate of New York City fell on the hunched shoulders of Sotirios Gavritsas on Tuesday. And frankly, it sort of bummed him out.
"I'm depressed, you know what I mean?" he said, taking a right turn onto Lexington Avenue at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. "I don't like it one bit. I find it very depressing."
Forget those rates: Cabbies were forced to use zoned fares on the first day of the strike. (By Chris Hondros -- Getty Images)
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You'd think that Gavritsas would be having the time of his life. He's part of the legion of New York taxi drivers, which for now makes him the best hope for the teeming masses trying to cover Manhattan ground. Transit workers walked off their jobs early Tuesday morning, after leaders of their union rejected a final offer from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the organization that oversees the largest subway and bus system in the country.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001762.html
The Christmas He Dreamed for All of Us
By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A31
The white Christmases that Irving Berlin dreamed of weren't the earliest ones he used to know. He spent his first five Christmases in czarist Russia, and his only recollection of that time, at least the only one he'd acknowledge as an adult, was that of watching his neighbors burn his family's house to the ground in a good old-fashioned, Jew-hating pogrom.
So it's no surprise that when Berlin got around to writing his great Christmas song in 1941, nearly half a century after his family had fled the shtetl of Mohilev for New York's Lower East Side, it was flatly devoid of Christian imagery. It is, for all that, a religious song. It's just that Berlin's religion was America.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001011.html
4 GOP Senators Hold Firm Against Patriot Act Renewal
More Safeguards Needed, They Say
By Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 21, 2005; Page A04
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) could barely conceal his anger.
"The Patriot Act expires on December 31, but the terrorist threat does not," he told reporters at the Capitol yesterday. "Those on the Senate floor who are filibustering the Patriot Act are killing the Patriot Act."
GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski, with staff on the Hill, said, "I think the responsible thing to do at this point is to move forward with a three-month extension." (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)
Patriot Act Primer
The USA PATRIOT Act, approved overwhelmingly by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, greatly expanded the government's power to monitor, search, detain or deport suspects in terrorism-related investigations.
Politics Trivia
Former Sen. William Proxmire died on Dec. 15 at age 90. Which record does he hold in the Senate?
Longest filibuster in Senate history.
Most consecutive roll call votes cast by a senator.
Sat in the same seat for the duration of his Senate tenure.
Missed the greatest percentage of votes during his Senate tenure.
There was just one problem. Well, four problems, actually. Four of the 46 senators using the delaying tactic to thwart the USA Patriot Act renewal are members of Frist's party. It is a pesky, irritating fact for Republicans who are eager to portray the impasse as Democratic obstructionism, and a ready-made rejoinder for Democrats expecting campaign attacks on the issue in 2006 and 2008.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/20/AR2005122001488.html
Lebanon's Emerging Civil Society
Lebanon is a nation in transition. Wracked by civil war in the 1970s and 1980s, then dominated by Syria from 1990 to 2005, this diverse country of 3.8 million people is seeking to remake its political system. It won't be easy. The assassination of former prime minister Rafiq Hariri last February led to the ending of Syria's domination of the country and brought a mandate for democracy. But it also stoked tensions among the country's Muslim and Christian populations. A new round of elections in 2005 brought in an anti-Syrian majority determined to secure a more democratic system. The first order of business for this new parliament is to rewrite the country's electoral law.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/custom/2005/12/20/CU2005122000921.html
Solstice Holidays
Five thousand years of human history--maybe more--have enfolded this season in rich garb--many layers of celebration, folklore and tradition. Here's where you get to unwrap the gift. We'll be adding more every day throughout the holiday season.
http://www.candlegrove.com/home.html
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