A Surviving Sri Lanken Child
Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle_Do"
In History
…on January 9,…
...1793…Frenchman Jean Pierre Blanchard made the first piloted balloon ascent in America while President George Washington looked on.
...1914, born Gypsy Rose Lee, American entertainer (1914).
...1929: The Seeing Eye started in Nashville, Tennessee, to train guide dogs for the blind.
...1941, born Joan Baez, American professional folksinger, who is also known for her active political involvement. Born in Staten Island, New York, she studied at Boston University, but left school to sing in Boston coffee houses. Her clear soprano voice and simple, effective guitar accompaniments created a distinctive style that became increasingly popular after her Newport Folk Festival appearance in 1959 and her recording debut in 1960. Baez worked for civil rights during the antiwar movement, and for human rights in Southeast Asia, both through her singing and by founding Humanitas, an international human rights organization, and the Institute for the Study of Non-Violence. Baez wrote two autobiographies, Daybreak (1968) and And a Voice to Sing With (1987).
...1951: The United Nations headquarters open.
Jailed Journalists
Mugabe tightens press regulations
HARARE - Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe has enacted changes to media laws that will see unlicensed journalists jailed for up to two years, the government gazette announced.
http://www.bday.co.za/bday/content/direct/1,3523,1785110-6078-0,00.html
Children of imprisoned Cuban dissidents treated on Three Kings Day
BY NANCY SAN MARTIN
Knight Ridder Newspapers
(KRT) - Cuban children whose fathers have languished in prison for 21 months as part of a government crackdown against dissidents, gathered at a Havana home Saturday to receive toys as part of a Three Kings holiday tradition.
...
Pollan, wife of jailed independent journalist Hector Maseda Gutierrez, said all 53 children of dissidents across the island received gifts paid for with a donation by the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10599689.htm
Reuters
Oleic Acid Key to Olive Oil's Anti-Cancer Effect
Sun Jan 9, 2005 09:59 PM ET
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have discovered why eating a Mediterranean diet rich in fruits, vegetables and particularly olive oil can help to protect women from developing breast cancer.
The key is oleic acid, the main component of olive oil.
http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=healthNews&storyID=7275234
What garantees go along with policing the use of these monies and what constitutes reforms in Palestine?
Bush Reaches Out to Palestinians After Vote
Sun Jan 9, 2005 05:56 PM
By Adam Entous
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush said on Sunday that the United States stands ready to help the new Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, as he faces up to critical post-election challenges combating militants and carrying out reform.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=7274445
The Japan Times
Dozens of English teachers still missing
40 employees of Nova chain unaccounted for in tsunami-hit region
By KANAKO TAKAHARA
Staff writer
More than 40 English-language teachers working in Japan who may have been in areas hit by the Indian Ocean tsunamis on Dec. 26 were still unaccounted for as of Saturday.
http://www.japantimes.com/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050109a2.htm
The New York Times
Saving Jewish Children, but at What Cost?
By ELAINE SCIOLINO and JASON HOROWITZ
Published: January 9, 2005
PARIS, Jan. 8 - In October 1946, just a year after the defeat of the Nazis, the Vatican weighed in on one of the most painful episodes of the postwar era: the refusal to allow Jewish children who had been sheltered by Catholics during the war to return to their own families and communities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/international/09vatican.html?oref=login
The Pentagon has every reason to be proud.
Tsunami Tests U.S. Forces' Logistics, but Gives Pentagon a Chance to Show a Human Face
By THOM SHANKER and JAMES BROOKE
Published: January 9, 2005
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 - The huge American relief operation in the Indian Ocean carries risks for the Pentagon but also rewards, employing combat resources at a time the armed forces are stretched thin, but putting forth an image of an American military that is as caring and efficient in saving lives as it is violent and efficient in slaying adversaries.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/international/worldspecial4/09military.html
Astronauts Express Confidence in Safety of Planned Mission
By STEFANO S. COLEDAN
Published: January 8, 2005
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., Jan. 7 - The seven astronauts of the Discovery, the space shuttle that NASA hopes to launch this spring in the first flight since the Columbia disaster two years ago, said Friday that they were eager to return to orbit and resume the nation's human spaceflight program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/08/national/08shuttle.html
Bush's Drug Videos Broke Law, Accountability Office Decides
By JOHN FILES
Published: January 7, 2005
WASHINGTON, Jan. 6 - The Government Accountability Office, an investigative arm of Congress, said on Thursday that the Bush administration violated federal law by producing and distributing television news segments about the effects of drug use among young people.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/national/07drug.html
Tsunami's Ripples, Unnoticed, Washed Along Atlantic Coast
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
The tsunami that ravaged countries all around the Indian Ocean also hit the eastern United States, though only the tide gauges noticed.
A tide gauge at Atlantic City recorded the passage of a "train" of waves, just under nine inches from crest to trough, 32 hours after the earthquake struck off Sumatra's west coast on Dec. 26, said Dr. Alexander B. Rabinovich of the Canadian Institute of Ocean Sciences in Sidney, British Columbia. A gauge at Port Canaveral, Fla., recorded 13.4-inch waves 24 minutes later.
Dr. Rabinovich has been spearheading an international effort to chart the course of the fading ripples from the devastating tsunami set off by the earthquake.
The tsunami was so powerful that it swept around the world over the next 36 hours, with its last residual waves perceptibly jostling tide gauges from Russia's remote northeastern Pacific waters to the North Atlantic, scientists said yesterday.
The tsunami ripples would have been imperceptible to Floridians, mingled among the other sloshing of waters there, but were clearly discernible in the data, Dr. Rabinovich said. Other Atlantic gauges detected the waves in Bermuda and the Virgin Islands, he said.
The evidence of the tsunami's passage in the Atlantic is particularly significant, seismologists and oceanographers said, because data on how quake-generated waves move there are scant compared with information available for the Pacific.
The newly discovered records of the Atlantic waves from the Sumatran earthquake should help improve computer simulations of tsunami behavior in the Atlantic, said Dr. Vasily V. Titov, a tsunami expert who works for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Seattle. Such simulations can help scientists predict where tsunamis generated in the Atlantic might strike, he said.
The signal of the tsunami's quiet journey once it left the Indian Ocean was detected almost immediately in the Pacific Ocean, where 90 percent of tsunamis occur and tide gauges are specifically designed to catch trains of waves generated by underwater earthquakes, scientists said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/07/international/worldspecial4/07waves.html?pagewanted=print&position=
The Cheney Observer
Halliburton to Pump Iranian Oil !
Halliburton wins drilling tender in Iran
* The company insists it is not illegal for it to work in Tehran
TEHRAN: US oil services company Halliburton, whose operations in Iran have come under investigation by US authorities, has won a tender to drill a huge Iranian gas field, an official said on Sunday.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_10-1-2005_pg4_17
Trucker's body found
The Halliburton worker was missing since April.
Associated Press
CONCORD, N.H. - The body of a civilian truck driver missing since April has been found near the place where his convoy was ambushed in Iraq nine months ago.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/nation/10602365.htm
Mardi Gras reunion planned by family of missing truck driver
GARRY MITCHELL
Associated Press
MOBILE, Ala. - The family of a Mobile truck driver missing in Iraq since April hopes government officials will step up efforts to find him now that the body of a co-worker has been recovered from a shallow grave.
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/special_packages/iraq/10599200.htm
American Halliburton wins South Pars tender
TEHRAN, Jan. 9 (MNA) – Managing Director of Pars Oil and Gas Co. (POGC), Akbar Torkan, said that the American Halliburton Company will surely win the tender for development of South Pars phases 9 and 10.
Halliburton is the first American company ever participated in Iran’s oil and gas sector since the 1979’s Islamic Revolution.
http://www.mehrnews.ir/en/NewsDetail.aspx?NewsID=146979
China chases a global oil presence
By Richard McGregor, Enid Tsui and Andrew Yeh
Published: January 10 2005 02:00 Last updated: January 10 2005 02:00
The mooted takeover bid by China National Offshore Oil Corp, the country's third-largest oil and gas group, for Unocal shows little is off limits for ambitious Chinese companies in their search for secure resources.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/64867b0a-62ac-11d9-8e5d-00000e2511c8.html
Stuart Petroleum's record results
January 10, 2005 - 2:30PM
Adelaide-based Stuart Petroleum said it registered record oil production from the Cooper Basin last month.
Stuart Petroleum chief executive officer Tino Guglielmo said the company's share of oil production from the basin in South Australia in December was 82,000 barrels - a 34 per cent increase from November.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/Business/Stuart-Petroleums-record-resultss/2005/01/10/1105206028789.html
Reliance to sign Oman agreement
MUSCAT: Oman has granted India's Reliance Industries an offshore oil exploration concession with large reserve potential, a newspaper reported yesterday.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.asp?Article=100967&Sn=BUSI&IssueID=27296
White House paid US journalist, Democrats charge illegal propaganda
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A conservative black commentator has admitted to taking public money to promote President George W. Bush's education plan, which Democrats called illegal propaganda.
Television and radio personality Armstrong Williams told CNN that he took 240,000 dollars to flog Bush's No Child Left Behind plan.
"I used bad judgement," he said. "I apologize to my audience."
He said that because he owned a public relations company, he was not bound by journalistic ethics.
Anyway, he said, Bush's school reform matched his own conservative views.
The scandal broke in Friday's USA Today, and enraged the Democratic Party, which called this a case of "Bush wasting taxpayer's money for political propaganda."
"We believe that the act of bribing journalists to bias their news in favor of government policy undermines the integrity of our democracy," said a group of opposition Democrats headed by Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid.
Reid and the Democrats called on the White House to refund the public moneys.
House of Representatives Democrats lined up behind Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to sign a letter to Bush that said: "We ask you to publicly renounce the use of covert propaganda to influence public opinion."
The Washington Post and the New York Times also reported Friday that the General Accountability Office had found that an anti-marijuana television spot violated the law by not revealing that an actor in the message was not really a journalist.
In May, the GAO, the investigative office of Congress, found the Department of Health and Human Services similarly violated the law with a spot promoting a Bush health care policy.
Bechtel and Lockheed in frame as Labour plots nuclear sell-off
By Jason Nissé
09 January 2005
The Government is to enter detailed talks to sell British Nuclear Group, the main operating subsidiary of BNFL, as part of the first stage of a break-up of the troubled nuclear fuels group.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=598954
Big Dig job botched by contractor short cuts
By Casey Ross
Saturday, January 8, 2005
The Big Dig contractor that built an Interstate 93 tunnel section plagued by leaks and defective wall panels spent $45 million more than the original price to complete the job and did not use a specialized subcontractor to ensure quality work, according to construction documents and sources.
http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=62467
The Boston Globe
Death toll passes 150,000 in tsunami disaster; massive feeding program announced
By Jocelyn Gecker, AP January 8, 2005
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- Rescue workers pulled thousands more rotting corpses from the mud and debris of flattened towns along the Sumatran coast Saturday, two weeks after surging walls of water caused unprecedented destruction on the shores of the Indian Ocean. The death toll in 11 countries passed 150,000.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/01/08/death_toll_passes_150000_in_tsunami_disaster_massive_feeding_program_announced/
The Chicago Tribune
Hundreds of Vehicles Stuck in Calif. Snow
By PAUL CHAVEZ
Associated Press Writer
January 8, 2005, 7:35 PM CST
LOS ANGELES -- As many as 200 vehicles got stuck in deep snow early Saturday in the San Bernardino Mountains as the latest in a series of storms struck California. The storms quickly moved eastward, closing all three major highways over the Sierra Nevada.
Up to 10 feet was expected over the weekend at the Sierra's higher elevations, according to the National Weather Service.
Snow piled up 3 to 4 feet deep along a 15-mile stretch of highway between the Snow Valley ski resort and Big Bear dam, said Tracey Martinez, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino County fire department.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-storm-rdp,1,6257511,print.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Wal-Mart greeter sacked over photo
Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published January 8, 2005
MUSCATINE, IOWA -- A Wal-Mart greeter was sacked for apparently showing too much of his friendly side to customers.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0501080168jan08,1,1247168.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Mysterious jet tied to torture flights
Is shadowy firm front for CIA?
By John Crewdson
Tribune senior correspondent
Published January 8, 2005
PORTLAND, Ore. -- The first question is: Where is Leonard T. Bayard? The next question is: Who is Leonard T. Bayard? But the most important question may be: Does Leonard T. Bayard even exist?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0501080192jan08,1,1921181.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Julia Roberts Buys Land From Rumsfeld
By Associated Press
Published January 7, 2005, 7:04 PM CST
NEW YORK -- With newly born twins, it looks like Julia Roberts needs some extra space. The actress has bought 32 acres of Taos, N.M., real estate from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, People magazine reports.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-people-roberts,1,6060808.story?coll=chi-news-hed
John Kerry Meets With Syrian President
By ALBERT AJI
Associated Press Writer
Published January 8, 2005, 7:22 PM CST
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry met Saturday with Syria's president and said he was hopeful that strained U.S.-Syrian relations could be improved, provided Washington seized "a moment of opportunity" in the Middle East.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-mideast-kerry,1,5930918.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Virus Sickens 116 on Caribbean Cruise
By Associated Press
Published January 8, 2005, 10:39 AM CST
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Nearly 120 passengers and crew members became sick with a stomach virus aboard a ship that returned to port Saturday after a five-day Caribbean cruise, Royal Caribbean International officials said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/sns-ap-brf-sick-cruise,1,3560960.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Obesity Under the Microscope
Obesity
American Obesity Association
Here you will find what we think is the most comprehensive site on obesity and overweight on the Internet. Obesity is not a simple condition of eating too much. It is now recognized that obesity is a serious, chronic disease. No human condition — not race, religion, gender, ethnicity or disease state — compares to obesity in prevalence and prejudice, mortality and morbidity, sickness and stigma.
http://www.obesity.org/
Council to fight obesity in kids
By Ashleigh Wallace
awallace@belfasttelegraph.co.uk
07 January 2005
A series of activities aimed at tackling obesity in children are due to take place in leisure centres across Belfast.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=598680
Overweight and Obesity
NEW
Overweight and Obesity
State Programs
Find out what 's happening in the different funded state programs.
In the United States, obesity has risen at an epidemic rate during the past 20 years. One of the national health objectives for the year 2010 is to reduce the prevalence of obesity among adults to less than 15%. Research indicates that the situation is worsening rather than improving.
The following topics provide information about overweight and obesity.
http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/
Competing in the 'Obesity Olympics'
Athletes, Trainers Team Up With Families to Tackle Weight Problems
"20/20" paired up the Lechner family with an Olympic trainer, a dietitian and gold medal gymnast Paul Hamm to battle their obesity problem. (ABC News)
Jan. 7, 2005 — Between work and kids and school activities, American families are juggling a lot these days. With diet and exercise often getting lost in the mix of our increasingly harried lives, obesity has become a major health problem for Americans.
http://abcnews.go.com/2020/PersonalBest/story?id=390178&page=1
Obesity On-Line
Medical Benefits of Modest Weight Loss
Modest weight loss, of as little as 5% of initial body weight, can improve many of the concurrent medical complications associated with obesity, and prevent the development of new obesity-related illnesses. This talk reviews the data from studies that evaluated the effects of modest weight loss on obesity-related medical complications.
http://www.obesityonline.org/site/index.cfm
The Miami Herald
HYATT is practicing segregation. They don't want to identify themselves with a trendy ethnic hotel.
Hyatt keeps name off trendy hotel
The soon-to-open Hotel Victor will have everything cool on South Beach: chilly vodka bar, coed sauna -- even a 'vibe' manager. (Shhh, it's a Hyatt.)
BY DOUGLAS HANKS III
dhanks@herald.com
Hyatt has hired a vibe manager, put a DJ in the dining room, stocked the lobby aquarium with iridescent jellyfish and done just about everything possible to create an ultra-hip hotel in South Beach.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10595206.htm
Trucker, load of nickels vanish
Police said a Miami tractor-trailer driver hauling $180,000 worth of nickels for the Federal Reserve has disappeared -- along with the money.
BY LISA ARTHUR AND DAVID OVALLE
larthur@herald.com
Angel Ricardo Mendoza -- last known address, Miami -- picked up his cargo at the Federal Reserve in East Rutherford, N.J., on Dec. 17.: A tractor-trailer loaded with $180,000 worth of nickels. That's 3.6 million nickels; 45,000 pounds of nickels; 900 50-pound bags of nickels. Destination: a Federal Reserve facility in New Orleans.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/10595205.htm
The Sun Sentinel
Wives of jailed dissidents hand out presents from Miami group
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ
The Associated Press
Posted January 8 2005, 4:56 PM EST
HAVANA -- Wives of jailed Cuban dissidents held a holiday party Saturday for the children of political prisoners, handing out gifts bought by a politically powerful exile group in Miami.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-0108cubandissidents,0,5751565.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
Catholics Share Jewish Artifacts
South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board
Posted January 8 2005
Of the many achievements of Pope John Paul II's papacy, perhaps the one that will endure the longest is the reconciliation he has fostered between the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism. Now relations between the two religions are about to get even warmer.
A delegation of about 160 rabbis, cantors and Jewish lay people is to meet with the pope on Jan. 18 to thank him for the goodwill he has spent much of his papacy promoting. The latest example is an agreement by the Vatican to lend priceless Jewish artifacts owned by the church to Israel.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/editorial/sfl-edittdpopejan08,0,4949010.story?coll=sfla-news-editorial
The Sun Sentinel
Jailed Colombian drug kingpins seek deal to protect family members
By Dan Molinski
Associated Press Writer
Posted January 9 2005, 2:54 PM EST
BOGOTA, Colombia -- Two aging founders of Colombia's once-dominant Cali drug cartel have offered U.S. prosecutors a deal to keep them and their succcessor behind bars for 10 years if other relatives can be spared, the respected Colombian magazine Semana reported Sunday.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-kingpin09,0,3509487.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines
The Los Angeles Times
Snow Strands Hundreds In Big Bear As Storm Pelts California
January 6, 2005
Weather Forecast
Times Headlines
From Associated Press
Deep snow stranded as many as 200 vehicles Saturday in the San Bernardino Mountains as the latest in a series of storms struck California, and more heavy snow shut down a pair of highways in the Sierra Nevada.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rain9jan09,0,7942443.story?coll=la-home-headlines
First Wave of Storm Drenches Southland
By Eric Malnic and Seema Mehta, Times Staff Writers
The Pacific Ocean storm that lashed Southern California with rain and snow Friday was expected to intensify tonight and Sunday, posing an increasing threat of floods and mudslides.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-rain8jan08,1,167781.story?coll=la-home-headlines
L.A. Limits Height of Retaining Walls
The City Council votes to cap hillside barriers at 12 feet. Owners of canyon lots say the ordinance will make it hard to develop their properties.
By Bob Pool and Jessica Garrison
Times Staff Writers
January 8, 2005
Los Angeles officials on Friday banned tall retaining walls that dot the city's canyon communities from Woodland Hills to Mount Washington, with critics calling the massive bulkheads "the hillside strangler."
City Council members said the oversized concrete walls that loom over neighboring homes are wrecking the rustic feel of the city's canyons and hillsides.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wall8jan08,1,6874560,print.story?coll=la-headlines-california
UN to Feed 2 Million Tsunami Vicitims Daily
WHO reports no major disease outbreaks in refugee camps as toll rises above 150,000.
From Associated Press
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Two weeks after a tsunami slammed into coastlines around the Indian Ocean, thousands of bodies were still being pulled out of the mud in remote villages, as the official death toll from the catastrophe rose above 150,000.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-010805tsunami-wr,0,5736450.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Preacher Pleads Not Guilty in 1964 Slayings
Edgar Ray Killen, now 79, is the only person ever to be charged with murder in the killing of three young civil rights workers in Mississippi
By Ellen Barry, Times Staff Writer
PHILADELPHIA, Miss. — Edgar Ray Killen wears bifocals now. His neck is loose and ropy, and he is bald except for a fuzz at the back of his skull. At 79, he is freckled with age, and leans in because he has trouble hearing.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-civilrights8jan08,0,4613244.story?coll=la-home-nation
The War Against Rumsfeld
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Rich Lowry, David Rivkin is a Washington attorney who served in various legal and policy positions in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Rich Lowry is the editor of National Review.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-rivkin7jan07,0,1759538.story
Chips off the old block
Santa Monica preservationists rally as more vintage residences face the wrecking ball.
By Darrell Satzman, Special to The Times
Rick SORDINI looked about as relaxed as someone who is likely to be evicted soon can look.
http://www.latimes.com/classified/realestate/news/la-re-bungalows9jan09,0,2879404.story?coll=la-home-realestate
Yellowstone prowl
When the temperature plummets and snow blankets the landscape, humans retreat and wildlife emerges in this northern U.S. park. It's the best time to see the reserve's inhabitants in their element.
By Rosemary McClure, Times Staff Writer
We were searching for villains. Legendary bad guys that huff and puff and blow houses down. Evildoers who frighten boys named Peter and girls named Little Red Riding Hood. Fiends in sheep's clothing.
http://www.latimes.com/travel/la-tr-yellowstone9jan09,0,3114785.story?coll=la-home-travel
The State, Columbia, South Carolina
Lingering chlorine prolongs evacuation
Thousands wait for workers to clean up deadly chemicals
By RICK BRUNDRETT
Staff Writer
AIKEN — Thousands of Graniteville residents faced being kept from their mill town homes for a third day — and possibly longer — as authorities worked around-the-clock to remove toxic chlorine after Thursday’s railroad crash.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10595811.htm
Tracks in Columbia worry residents
Miles of railroad tracks go through heavily populated areas of city
By SAMMY FRETWELL
Staff Writer
Not long after learning of Thursday’s tragic train wreck in Graniteville, Bob Amundson wondered about the toxic chemicals that trains carry past his Columbia neighborhood every day.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10595770.htm
Railroad offering help to residents
Big companies plan how to react to crises, experts say
By BEN WERNER
Staff Writer
Working from an assistance center inside Aiken’s First Presbyterian Church, Norfolk Southern Corp. officials are providing financial assistance to displaced residents and trying to answer health questions.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10595804.htm
Leak hit firefighters where they live
Several volunteers seriously hurt as train crash site was no more than 400 feet from fire station
By RODDIE BURRIS
Staff Writer
AIKEN — Some volunteer firefighters nearly gave their lives answering the call of a fire alarm in Thursday’s train crash.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10595809.htm
Expert offers alternate crash causes
Vandalism, faulty switch possible in deadly train wreck
By SAMMY FRETWELL
Staff Writer
Railroad consultant Robert Halstead examined the switching mechanism on the spur at the Avondale Mills site weeks before Thursday’s train crash in Graniteville. He offered additional possible reasons Friday for the tragic wreck: vandalism or a faulty switching mechanism.
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/10595795.htm
THE VICTIMS
Read about the eight men on page A5:
Steven Bagby, 38
Tony DeLoach, NA
John Laird, 24
Fred “Rusty” Ruyston III, 41
Christopher Seeling, 28
Willie Shealey, 43
Allen Frazier, 58
Joseph Stone, NA
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/10595667.htm
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Ruling favors rails-to-trails plan over Sammamish homeowners
By GORDY HOLT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The East Lake Sammamish rails-to-trails project appears headed back to the rail bed it started on six years ago and not onto the rails-to-trails-to-curbside detour some lakeside homeowners envision.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/207100_sammamish08.html
Asia quake impacts Va. well-water levels
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
RICHMOND, Va. -- The South Asian earthquake that spawned deadly tsunami waves also shifted water levels by at least 3 feet in a geologically sensitive Virginia well some 9,600 miles away from the epicenter, researchers say.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=BRF%20Tsunami%20Well%20Water
Experts weigh economic harm from tsunami
By WILLIAM FOREMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Passengers, wearing surgical masks to protect themselves from severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, move through an almost empty departure hall, in this April 12, 2003 file photo at Hong Kong's Chek Lap Kok international airport. Two of nature's most powerful forces, a monster earthquake and a massive tsunami, teamed up in southern Asia to cause death, human misery and destruction on a scale rarely seen before. But when the total economic damage is tallied up, many analysts and economists say that harm done to the region's economies won't even begin to come close to the financial havoc caused by the mysterious little virus that triggered the global SARS outbreak in 2003. (AP Photo/Anat Givon, File)
HONG KONG -- Two of nature's most powerful forces - a monster earthquake and a massive tsunami - teamed up in southern Asia to cause death, human misery and destruction on a scale rarely seen before.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Asia%20Tsunami%20vs%2E%20SARS
Deaths reported after quakes, tsunamis
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
At least 150,627 people are reported dead in southern Asia and eastern Africa, most killed by massive tsunamis that smashed coastlines following an earthquake on Dec. 26.
Death tolls by country:
- Indonesia: 104,055
- Sri Lanka: 30,718
- India: 10,012
- Thailand: 5,291
- Somalia: 298
- Myanmar: 90
- Maldives: 82
- Malaysia: 68
- Tanzania: 10
- Bangladesh: 2
- Kenya: 1
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Tsunami%20Deaths%20by%20Country
Tsunami damages endangered sea turtles
By RUNGRAWEE C. PINYORAT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PHUKET, Thailand -- Endangered sea turtles were also casualties of the tsunami, with the monster waves possibly hastening their extinction, a marine expert said Saturday.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1501&slug=Tsunami%20Endangered%20Turtles
AP poll: 3 in 10 in U.S. gave tsunami aid
By WILL LESTER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Three in 10 Americans say they have donated to the victims of the South Asia tsunami, an Associated Press poll found. The total of private donation is rapidly approaching the $350 million pledged by the government as private citizens made many of their donations online.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Tsunami%20Donations%20Poll
U.S. Marines begin tsunami relief
By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka -- Lt. Col. Edmund Bowen is a seasoned Marine who has served in the Persian Gulf and Somalia. But he now finds himself playing the role of peacetime aid worker in Sri Lanka's tsunami-ravaged regions.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Tsunami%20US%20Marines
Sri Lanka tells Annan not to visit rebels
By SHIMALI SENANAYAKE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HAMBANTOTA, Sri Lanka -- Sri Lanka on Saturday asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan not to visit disaster-stricken areas controlled by the Tamil Tiger rebels, forcing the United Nations into a political situation it had hoped to avoid.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Tsunami%20Annan
Indonesia tries to curb child trafficking
By ALI KOTARUMALOS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
JAKARTA, Indonesia -- Indonesia said Saturday it was monitoring its borders to prevent child traffickers from smuggling young victims of the tsunami out of the country, and it will set up centers inside refugee camps to care for children and reunite them with their families.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Tsunami%20Child%20Trafficking
Skirmishes raise security fears in Sumatra
By CHRIS BRUMMITT
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- Indonesia's military has stepped up patrols for separatist rebels in tsunami-stricken northern Sumatra island after isolated skirmishes in recent days raised fears the conflict could hamper the relief effort.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Tsunami%20Security
Shots heard near Indonesia's U.N. building
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia -- Suspected rebels fired shots early Sunday at the home of a top police official near the United Nations' relief headquarters in the tsunami-ravaged Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, officials said. No casualties were reported.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Tsunami%20Indonesia%20Gunfire
11 killed in Pakistan sectarian violence
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- A Shiite Muslim cleric was ambushed Saturday as he drove through the once serene Himalayan tourist destination of Gilgit, setting off a rampage of sectarian violence and arson that left at least 11 people dead, including a family of six that was burned alive in its home.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Sectarian%20Violence
Michael Moore Today
At the People's Choice Awards, "The country belongs to all of us…."
January 9th, 2005 8:09 pm
Troops Kill 8 Iraqis After Convoy Bombed
By Bassem Mroue / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.S. troops opened fire near a checkpoint after their convoy was hit by a roadside bomb, and a hospital official said Sunday at least eight people were killed in the second mistaken American attack in two days to have deadly results.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=898
Letter From Election Chief In Ohio Sought Illegal Funds
Associated Press
COLUMBUS, Ohio, Jan. 8 -- The state's chief elections officer, accused of mishandling the presidential vote in November, sent a fundraising letter for his 2006 gubernatorial campaign that was accompanied by a request for illegal contributions.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=897
U.S., Owner Dispute House Bombing Deaths
By Nick Wadhams / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The United States military said it dropped a 500-pound bomb on the wrong house outside the northern city of Mosul on Saturday, killing five people. The man who owned the house said the bomb killed 14 people, and an Associated Press photographer said seven of them were children.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=895
‘The Salvador Option’; The Pentagon may put Special-Forces-led assassination or kidnapping teams in Iraq
By Michael Hirsh and John Barry / Newsweek
Jan. 8 - What to do about the deepening quagmire of Iraq? The Pentagon’s latest approach is being called "the Salvador option"—and the fact that it is being discussed at all is a measure of just how worried Donald Rumsfeld really is. "What everyone agrees is that we can’t just go on as we are," one senior military officer told NEWSWEEK. "We have to find a way to take the offensive against the insurgents. Right now, we are playing defense. And we are losing." Last November’s operation in Fallujah, most analysts agree, succeeded less in breaking "the back" of the insurgency—as Marine Gen. John Sattler optimistically declared at the time—than in spreading it out.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=896
end for today
