Wednesday, February 16, 2005
The Radioactive Bush Morality
February 16, 2005
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Bush's Sex Scandal
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
I'm sorry to report a sex scandal in the heart of the Bush administration. Worse, it doesn't involve private behavior, but public conduct.
You see, for all the carnage in President Bush's budget, one program is being showered with additional cash - almost three times as much as it got in 2001. It's "abstinence only" sex education, and the best research suggests that it will cost far more lives than the Clinton administration's much more notorious sex scandal.
Mr. Bush means well. But "abstinence only" is a misnomer that in practice is an assault on sex education itself. There's a good deal of evidence that the result will not be more young rosy-cheeked virgins - it will be more pregnancies, abortions, gonorrhea and deaths from AIDS.
Look, I'm all for abstinence education. I support the booming abstinence industry as it peddles panties and boxers decorated with stop signs (at www.abstinence.net), and "Pet Your Dog, Not Your Date" T-shirts.
Abstinence education is great because it helps counteract the peer pressure that often leaves teenagers with broken hearts - and broken health.
For that reason, almost all sex-ed classes in America already encourage abstinence. But abstinence-only education isn't primarily about promoting abstinence - it's about blindly refusing to teach contraception.
To get federal funds, for example, abstinence-only programs are typically barred by law from discussing condoms or other forms of contraception - except to describe how they can fail. So kids in these programs go all through high school without learning anything but abstinence, even though more than 60 percent of American teenagers have sex before age 18.
In the old days, social conservatives simply fought any mention of sex. In 1906, The Ladies' Home Journal published articles about venereal disease - and 75,000 readers canceled their subscriptions. Congress banned the mailing of family planning information, and Margaret Sanger was jailed in 1916 for selling a birth control pamphlet to an undercover policewoman.
But silence about sex only nurtured venereal diseases (one New York doctor, probably exaggerating, claimed in 1904 that 60 percent of American men had syphilis or gonorrhea), so sex education gradually gained ground. Then social conservatives had a brilliant idea: instead of fighting sex ed directly, they campaigned for abstinence-only programs that eviscerated any discussion of contraception.
That shrewd approach succeeded. In 1988, a survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that only 2 percent of sex-ed teachers used an abstinence-only approach. Now, the institute says, a quarter of them do.
Other developed countries focus much more on contraception. The upshot is that while teenagers in the U.S. have about as much sexual activity as teenagers in Canada or Europe, Americans girls are four times as likely as German girls to become pregnant, almost five times as likely as French girls to have a baby, and more than seven times as likely as Dutch girls to have an abortion. Young Americans are five times as likely to have H.I.V. as young Germans, and teenagers' gonorrhea rate is 70 times higher in the U.S. than in the Netherlands or France.
Some studies have claimed that abstinence-only programs work, but researchers criticize the studies for being riddled with flaws. A National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy task force examined the issue and concluded: "There do not currently exist any abstinence-only programs with strong evidence that they either delay sex or reduce teen pregnancy."
Worse, there's some evidence that abstinence-only programs lead to increases in unprotected sex.
Perhaps the most careful study of the issue involved 12,000 young people. It found that those taking virginity pledges had sex 18 months later, on average, than those who had not taken the pledge. But even 88 percent of the pledgers had sex before marriage.
More troubling, the pledgers were much less likely to use contraception when they did have sex - only 40 percent of the males used condoms, compared with 59 percent of those who did not take the pledge.
In contrast, there's plenty of evidence that abstinence-plus programs - which encourage abstinence but also teach contraception - delay sex and increase the use of contraception. So, at a time when we're cutting school and health programs, why should we pour additional tax money into abstinence-only initiatives, which are likely to lead to more pregnancies, more abortions and more kids with AIDS? Now, that's a scandal.
E-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com
OP-ED COLUMNIST
Bush's Sex Scandal
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
I'm sorry to report a sex scandal in the heart of the Bush administration. Worse, it doesn't involve private behavior, but public conduct.
You see, for all the carnage in President Bush's budget, one program is being showered with additional cash - almost three times as much as it got in 2001. It's "abstinence only" sex education, and the best research suggests that it will cost far more lives than the Clinton administration's much more notorious sex scandal.
Mr. Bush means well. But "abstinence only" is a misnomer that in practice is an assault on sex education itself. There's a good deal of evidence that the result will not be more young rosy-cheeked virgins - it will be more pregnancies, abortions, gonorrhea and deaths from AIDS.
Look, I'm all for abstinence education. I support the booming abstinence industry as it peddles panties and boxers decorated with stop signs (at www.abstinence.net), and "Pet Your Dog, Not Your Date" T-shirts.
Abstinence education is great because it helps counteract the peer pressure that often leaves teenagers with broken hearts - and broken health.
For that reason, almost all sex-ed classes in America already encourage abstinence. But abstinence-only education isn't primarily about promoting abstinence - it's about blindly refusing to teach contraception.
To get federal funds, for example, abstinence-only programs are typically barred by law from discussing condoms or other forms of contraception - except to describe how they can fail. So kids in these programs go all through high school without learning anything but abstinence, even though more than 60 percent of American teenagers have sex before age 18.
In the old days, social conservatives simply fought any mention of sex. In 1906, The Ladies' Home Journal published articles about venereal disease - and 75,000 readers canceled their subscriptions. Congress banned the mailing of family planning information, and Margaret Sanger was jailed in 1916 for selling a birth control pamphlet to an undercover policewoman.
But silence about sex only nurtured venereal diseases (one New York doctor, probably exaggerating, claimed in 1904 that 60 percent of American men had syphilis or gonorrhea), so sex education gradually gained ground. Then social conservatives had a brilliant idea: instead of fighting sex ed directly, they campaigned for abstinence-only programs that eviscerated any discussion of contraception.
That shrewd approach succeeded. In 1988, a survey by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that only 2 percent of sex-ed teachers used an abstinence-only approach. Now, the institute says, a quarter of them do.
Other developed countries focus much more on contraception. The upshot is that while teenagers in the U.S. have about as much sexual activity as teenagers in Canada or Europe, Americans girls are four times as likely as German girls to become pregnant, almost five times as likely as French girls to have a baby, and more than seven times as likely as Dutch girls to have an abortion. Young Americans are five times as likely to have H.I.V. as young Germans, and teenagers' gonorrhea rate is 70 times higher in the U.S. than in the Netherlands or France.
Some studies have claimed that abstinence-only programs work, but researchers criticize the studies for being riddled with flaws. A National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy task force examined the issue and concluded: "There do not currently exist any abstinence-only programs with strong evidence that they either delay sex or reduce teen pregnancy."
Worse, there's some evidence that abstinence-only programs lead to increases in unprotected sex.
Perhaps the most careful study of the issue involved 12,000 young people. It found that those taking virginity pledges had sex 18 months later, on average, than those who had not taken the pledge. But even 88 percent of the pledgers had sex before marriage.
More troubling, the pledgers were much less likely to use contraception when they did have sex - only 40 percent of the males used condoms, compared with 59 percent of those who did not take the pledge.
In contrast, there's plenty of evidence that abstinence-plus programs - which encourage abstinence but also teach contraception - delay sex and increase the use of contraception. So, at a time when we're cutting school and health programs, why should we pour additional tax money into abstinence-only initiatives, which are likely to lead to more pregnancies, more abortions and more kids with AIDS? Now, that's a scandal.
E-mail: nicholas@nytimes.com
I believe in love. I believe in happiness. I believe in a generation that can have it all and handle all their potential.
Choice.
Handle it well.
Have at 'em, Nicholas.
Our young people's lives are at stake. I get tired of all this stupidity.
You ever pay attention to the priorities the Evangelicals have when it comes to morality?
I mean really pay attention. Have you?
Nicholas when you met your wife did you take your time? Get to know each other. Make no mistakes. Did you charm each other into every intimacy of each other? Drank so much of the essence of each, you knew it was the two of you that belonged together.
That wonderful 'knowing' that a couple shares.
Then there is the mutual respect for the differences you share because you can't imagine a life without tolerance for each other 'in that way.'
Respect for each other that is so abiding it elevates the two of you to a pinnacle of success in all aspects of life including the choice of parenting or NOT. The choice of career or NOT. The choice of a 'way of life' - 'quality of life' - 'foreverness' - 'an unsinkable relationship that doesn't bruise easily.'
Those qualities of relationship takes sophistication, dedication, character including playfulness, sharing, intimacy, nudity, sensuality, sexuality and melding into a couple, not just two people in a relationship.
There are a lot of shallow relationships that call themselves 'moral' because they happen to make it to the alter or the justice of the peace on the way to bed.
To ACHIEVE a relationship that sustains requires one to first commit oneself to thyself. That means 'drinking up life' and 'knowing yourself'' while preparing for times to be shared with another and a family if that is where the goals lie.
Unwanted pregnancy is no way to live while regretting that others seem to be a 'stronger moral' people that somehow made it through collge/university/trade school when 'weakness' of character dictated marriage and children instead, only to serve a morality that oppresses and controls.
GO GET 'EM, Mr. Kristof.
Handle it well.
Have at 'em, Nicholas.
Our young people's lives are at stake. I get tired of all this stupidity.
You ever pay attention to the priorities the Evangelicals have when it comes to morality?
I mean really pay attention. Have you?
Nicholas when you met your wife did you take your time? Get to know each other. Make no mistakes. Did you charm each other into every intimacy of each other? Drank so much of the essence of each, you knew it was the two of you that belonged together.
That wonderful 'knowing' that a couple shares.
Then there is the mutual respect for the differences you share because you can't imagine a life without tolerance for each other 'in that way.'
Respect for each other that is so abiding it elevates the two of you to a pinnacle of success in all aspects of life including the choice of parenting or NOT. The choice of career or NOT. The choice of a 'way of life' - 'quality of life' - 'foreverness' - 'an unsinkable relationship that doesn't bruise easily.'
Those qualities of relationship takes sophistication, dedication, character including playfulness, sharing, intimacy, nudity, sensuality, sexuality and melding into a couple, not just two people in a relationship.
There are a lot of shallow relationships that call themselves 'moral' because they happen to make it to the alter or the justice of the peace on the way to bed.
To ACHIEVE a relationship that sustains requires one to first commit oneself to thyself. That means 'drinking up life' and 'knowing yourself'' while preparing for times to be shared with another and a family if that is where the goals lie.
Unwanted pregnancy is no way to live while regretting that others seem to be a 'stronger moral' people that somehow made it through collge/university/trade school when 'weakness' of character dictated marriage and children instead, only to serve a morality that oppresses and controls.
GO GET 'EM, Mr. Kristof.
What is the difference between George Tenent and Porter Goss? THEIR FACE !
This is something new?
This is not new.
Every nation outside the USA has plans and designs on this country. The USA with Cheney/Bush in the Executive Branch is at great danger. More danger than ever before in it's history. Every nation other than perhaps Britian absolutely hates this country. Cheney/Bush has destroyed the USA reputation. Cheney/Bush has dissolved any and all 'trust' other countries had of the USA. Even the United Nations doesn't have a friend anymore and I am confident they feel it profoundly. For that I apologize to the United Nations and Kofi Annan. I don't what to say. I believe this country will never be the same and will never be the great and benevolent leader it once was. The government of the USA isn't even benevolent to it's citizens anymore.
THIS IS JUST MORE 'Politics of Fear'
"In other key points, the intelligence chiefs said that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, considered the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, hoped to use Iraq as a base to launch attacks on Western countries and "apostate" Arab nations;
This is simply playing into Bush's Dream for Iraq to maintain an occupation past the reasons to stay to secure Cheney's Halliburton profits.. Al Qaeda is everywhere in The Middle East, with the exception of Israel. Hopefully. The point is Iraq has issues and Iraq has to solve those issues. The people of Iraq need to take control of their country and they know best how to do that with nations that want to see The Middle East anchored solidly in stability. The USA has already over stayed it's welcome. Heck, we never belonged in Iraq. We still don't.
Al Qaeda has a leader.
Where is he? Iraq?
No.
So where is Osama bin Landen?
... said that North Korea seemed unlikely ever to give up its nuclear weapons,
So, this is new?
... but also was unlikely to attack the South,
No, clue. If they use nukes on South Korea the Footprint will come back onto North Korea. Besides the people of North Korea have family in South Korea. I don't believe Kim is all that cold blooded about South Korea. The USA? Yes. South Korea? No.
Besides Kim is not stupid enough to use nuclear weapons except for defense. He wouldn't survive a retaliation strike. This will hold true unless the USA screws up it's relationship with China who is also not interested in a nuclear engagement.
...and expressed concern about China's growing militarization and about its "more assertive policies" toward Taiwan.
The USA has a One China Policy. End of that discussion.
And Yeah there is plenty of 'fire power' in China. Bush really screwed up after 9/11. He gave Pakistan vast amounts of wealth for the use of Pakistani Air Space. Pakistan turned right around to China and bought arms to use against India. China in turn built 100 nukes. 100 new nuclear warheads. They are aimed at the USA. This is not new. It was all over the media three years ago, after 9/11. I never heard Bush threaten China. China openly stated what they were doing. They were not afraid to flex their 'Heavy Metal Muscle.' It just goes to show that Bush is a 'CHICKEN.' Not even a Rooster. He won't dare say 'Boo' to China. This all happened a year after the China Spy Plane Incident. Remember that? Bush wants The Middle East regardless the chaos or death. He wants the oil. Cheney goes to bed at night praying to God and George to give him The Caspian Sea.
... fixing some of the serious shortcomings highlighted by the pre-Sept. 11 and Iraq war intelligence failures.
This would be a very good idea.
Senators questioned the chiefs intensely on why the White House has yet to appoint a new director of national intelligence.
Good question. Possibly because Porter Goss has already been primed by the George Walker Bush Pump to furhter terrorize the people of the USA to fall at the Bush Superpower Feet to protect them at any cost. To enable the Oil Agenda that Cheney. No. I don't get tired of 'telling the truth.'
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, called it "unacceptable" that a national director had not yet been appointed.
Agreed. The problem is that a new Director wasn't a Bush idea. It was a 'reach' for him to find Porter Goss. I am sure Cheney/Bush can't find anyone else to tow the line of hatred and bigoty he has in mind for The Middle East as exhibited by the 'foot dragging' to settle the issues of Palestine and Israel. The Middle East nations themselves have taken on the challenge and have prevailed. I only wish this was the reality decades ago.
Also as exhibited in the Hate Mongering with Syria rather than working with the nations of the area, especially the friend of the USA, Jordan, who was at the funeral today and has clear ideas about the stability of Lebanon.
Cheney/Bush only look for 'Yes Men' or 'Yes Women' as the case may be.
All you have to do is look to who the Attorney General is: The Torture King.
This is a president and vice president? No. This is not either a president or vice president. These are displaced business men who came to office promising a God Nation so they could change the laws that have inhibited their profits in the past regardless the impact on the people of this USA. They are ruthless, cruel and immoral people.
...The Congress, he said, had made an "extraordinary effort" to expedite the legislation that created the position, lest the fight against terrorism continue to be "hampered by bureaucratic infighting and by budgetary tugs of war."
That sounds like Senator Rockefeller actually expects Bush to be concerned about the well being of the people of the USA. It is nice to know at least one Senator cares about us as he projects his values into those he seeks answers. But, there isn't anything this Executive Branch cares to do that will actually uphold the best interest of the people of this country. It's obvious, isn't it? Where are the tax increases to bring the debt to within reason?
Bush doesn't care about anyone except his sponsoring cronies.
Get over it !
THIS IS NOTHIN' NEW !! Stop feeling 'Blue' for the country we used to have, it doesn't exist anymore.
This is not new.
Every nation outside the USA has plans and designs on this country. The USA with Cheney/Bush in the Executive Branch is at great danger. More danger than ever before in it's history. Every nation other than perhaps Britian absolutely hates this country. Cheney/Bush has destroyed the USA reputation. Cheney/Bush has dissolved any and all 'trust' other countries had of the USA. Even the United Nations doesn't have a friend anymore and I am confident they feel it profoundly. For that I apologize to the United Nations and Kofi Annan. I don't what to say. I believe this country will never be the same and will never be the great and benevolent leader it once was. The government of the USA isn't even benevolent to it's citizens anymore.
THIS IS JUST MORE 'Politics of Fear'
"In other key points, the intelligence chiefs said that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, considered the most-wanted terrorist in Iraq, hoped to use Iraq as a base to launch attacks on Western countries and "apostate" Arab nations;
This is simply playing into Bush's Dream for Iraq to maintain an occupation past the reasons to stay to secure Cheney's Halliburton profits.. Al Qaeda is everywhere in The Middle East, with the exception of Israel. Hopefully. The point is Iraq has issues and Iraq has to solve those issues. The people of Iraq need to take control of their country and they know best how to do that with nations that want to see The Middle East anchored solidly in stability. The USA has already over stayed it's welcome. Heck, we never belonged in Iraq. We still don't.
Al Qaeda has a leader.
Where is he? Iraq?
No.
So where is Osama bin Landen?
... said that North Korea seemed unlikely ever to give up its nuclear weapons,
So, this is new?
... but also was unlikely to attack the South,
No, clue. If they use nukes on South Korea the Footprint will come back onto North Korea. Besides the people of North Korea have family in South Korea. I don't believe Kim is all that cold blooded about South Korea. The USA? Yes. South Korea? No.
Besides Kim is not stupid enough to use nuclear weapons except for defense. He wouldn't survive a retaliation strike. This will hold true unless the USA screws up it's relationship with China who is also not interested in a nuclear engagement.
...and expressed concern about China's growing militarization and about its "more assertive policies" toward Taiwan.
The USA has a One China Policy. End of that discussion.
And Yeah there is plenty of 'fire power' in China. Bush really screwed up after 9/11. He gave Pakistan vast amounts of wealth for the use of Pakistani Air Space. Pakistan turned right around to China and bought arms to use against India. China in turn built 100 nukes. 100 new nuclear warheads. They are aimed at the USA. This is not new. It was all over the media three years ago, after 9/11. I never heard Bush threaten China. China openly stated what they were doing. They were not afraid to flex their 'Heavy Metal Muscle.' It just goes to show that Bush is a 'CHICKEN.' Not even a Rooster. He won't dare say 'Boo' to China. This all happened a year after the China Spy Plane Incident. Remember that? Bush wants The Middle East regardless the chaos or death. He wants the oil. Cheney goes to bed at night praying to God and George to give him The Caspian Sea.
... fixing some of the serious shortcomings highlighted by the pre-Sept. 11 and Iraq war intelligence failures.
This would be a very good idea.
Senators questioned the chiefs intensely on why the White House has yet to appoint a new director of national intelligence.
Good question. Possibly because Porter Goss has already been primed by the George Walker Bush Pump to furhter terrorize the people of the USA to fall at the Bush Superpower Feet to protect them at any cost. To enable the Oil Agenda that Cheney. No. I don't get tired of 'telling the truth.'
Senator John D. Rockefeller IV, Democrat of West Virginia, called it "unacceptable" that a national director had not yet been appointed.
Agreed. The problem is that a new Director wasn't a Bush idea. It was a 'reach' for him to find Porter Goss. I am sure Cheney/Bush can't find anyone else to tow the line of hatred and bigoty he has in mind for The Middle East as exhibited by the 'foot dragging' to settle the issues of Palestine and Israel. The Middle East nations themselves have taken on the challenge and have prevailed. I only wish this was the reality decades ago.
Also as exhibited in the Hate Mongering with Syria rather than working with the nations of the area, especially the friend of the USA, Jordan, who was at the funeral today and has clear ideas about the stability of Lebanon.
Cheney/Bush only look for 'Yes Men' or 'Yes Women' as the case may be.
All you have to do is look to who the Attorney General is: The Torture King.
This is a president and vice president? No. This is not either a president or vice president. These are displaced business men who came to office promising a God Nation so they could change the laws that have inhibited their profits in the past regardless the impact on the people of this USA. They are ruthless, cruel and immoral people.
...The Congress, he said, had made an "extraordinary effort" to expedite the legislation that created the position, lest the fight against terrorism continue to be "hampered by bureaucratic infighting and by budgetary tugs of war."
That sounds like Senator Rockefeller actually expects Bush to be concerned about the well being of the people of the USA. It is nice to know at least one Senator cares about us as he projects his values into those he seeks answers. But, there isn't anything this Executive Branch cares to do that will actually uphold the best interest of the people of this country. It's obvious, isn't it? Where are the tax increases to bring the debt to within reason?
Bush doesn't care about anyone except his sponsoring cronies.
Get over it !
THIS IS NOTHIN' NEW !! Stop feeling 'Blue' for the country we used to have, it doesn't exist anymore.
Back in the Day when The People of the USA could still trust the media.
In less than 24 hours George Tenent had in his hands the identity of 19 men who committed the worst attack on the USA either civilian or military on USA soil.
George Tenent not only knew the identities of those men but he knew their backgrounds and the fact they received their terrorist training in Afghanistan.
If George Tenent knew in less than 24 hours who these men were, he also knew there were pending attacks. It wasn't George Tenent that was/is the issue. The problem is George Walker Bush.
George Tenent knew of the pending attacks as did Senator Diane Feinstein when she received the memos from the FBI.
George Walker Bush and Richard Cheney CHOSE not to act on the information provided to them by George Tenent.
George Tenent not only knew the identities of those men but he knew their backgrounds and the fact they received their terrorist training in Afghanistan.
If George Tenent knew in less than 24 hours who these men were, he also knew there were pending attacks. It wasn't George Tenent that was/is the issue. The problem is George Walker Bush.
George Tenent knew of the pending attacks as did Senator Diane Feinstein when she received the memos from the FBI.
George Walker Bush and Richard Cheney CHOSE not to act on the information provided to them by George Tenent.
The Greenpeace Climate Lawsuit
For the Rainbow Warrior in all of us. From Greenpeace: People around the world are celebrating today as the Kyoto Protocol becomes international law. Kyoto is the international treaty, signed by 141 nations that limits global warming pollution around the world. Kyoto: New Dawn for the Climate - Notably, the largest worldwide polluter, the United States, is not part of the treaty. In 2001, President Bush reneged on his campaign promise to address global warming and withdrew the United States from the Protocol. However, states and regions around the country refused to let Bush block efforts to protect the climate, and have moved ahead with strong action to curb global warming. From limiting global warming pollution to mandating a certain amount of energy needs come from renewable sources like wind and solar - states are moving past the president's inaction. Last week, Senators McCain and Lieberman introduced legislation that would limit pollution across the country.
At the same time, Americans are demanding those responsible for global warming pollution be held accountable for their actions. Greenpeace has currently teamed up with Friends of the Earth, and the cities of Boulder, Colorado and Oakland, California to demand two government banks stop financing overseas projects that lead to global warming.
At the same time, Americans are demanding those responsible for global warming pollution be held accountable for their actions. Greenpeace has currently teamed up with Friends of the Earth, and the cities of Boulder, Colorado and Oakland, California to demand two government banks stop financing overseas projects that lead to global warming.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Kyoto Protocol
Share your Kyoto news
On 16 February 2005 the Kyoto Protocol will enter into force. To mark this date, some Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, as well as institutions and organizations, are planning events and other activities. In order to assist those who are interested, the UNFCCC secretariat is compiling a list of known events/activities that can be published on the secretariat's web site .
Feeling the Heat
The average temperature of the earth's surface has risen by 0.6 degrees C since the late 1800s. It is expected to increase by another 1.4 to 5.8 degrees C by the year 2100 -- a rapid and profound change. Even if the minimum predicted increase takes place, it will be larger than any century-long trend in the last 10,000 years.
The principal reason for the mounting thermometer is a century and a half of industrialization: the burning of ever-greater quantities of oil, gasoline, and coal, the cutting of forests, and certain farming methods.
These activities have increased the amount of "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Such gases occur naturally and are critical for life on earth; they keep some of the sun's warmth from reflecting back into space, and without them the world would be a cold and barren place. But in augmented and increasing quantities, these gases are pushing the global temperature to artificially high levels and altering the climate. The 1990s appear to have been the warmest decade of the last Millennium, and 1998 the warmest year.
Pete Hodgson: Climate change is coming, ready or not
16.02.05
Today the Kyoto Protocol comes into force and a new era in tackling climate change quietly gets under way. New Zealand is one of 141 nations to have ratified the protocol so far. All developed nations have ratified, except the United States, Australia and Monaco.
These days the scientific consensus is almost total - climate change is coming ready or not. The sceptics are receding, just like the Arctic ice-sheet. But there is still uncertainty about the precise degree of climate change and its particular effect on different parts of the world.
We know what the changes will be in general - higher temperatures, more floods, more storm surges, more hurricanes, more droughts, rising sea levels. But how much more?
The first of these changes, higher temperatures, illustrates the point. Over the past 100 years world temperatures rose by 0.6deg. Almost all the record years for high temperatures have been in the past decade or so. But the forecast for the next 100 years is a rise of 1.4 to 5.8deg.
So things are getting hotter, but precisely by how much is unclear. At 1.4deg, it is about a twofold increase; at 5.8deg, it is nearly tenfold.
Climate change is a global problem and can, therefore, be tackled only if many nations club together. No one country can, by itself, make a useful difference. The Kyoto Protocol is the instrument by which such an international response can be mounted.
For a century or more New Zealanders have joined international efforts to combat threats - wars, drift netting, ozone depletion, terrorism. So it is with climate change. We seek to do our bit.
New Zealanders also sense that climate change directly challenges our own environment and way of life. Storms seem to be more common as the effects of climate change start to bite. In general, people are inclined to the view that the weather is unusual or different.
Our economy is more dependent on a reliable, equable climate than any other Western nation because agriculture is such a large part of it.
For New Zealanders, avoiding the worst effects of climate change is, therefore, a significant economic advantage. We have a strong economic self-interest in blunting its extremes.
The Kyoto Protocol will drive significant technology shifts in the years ahead. Progressively, New Zealand businesses will act to avoid the prices on greenhouse gases. Or they will capitalise on them by developing products or technologies that increase efficiency, or avoid greenhouse-gas production altogether, then sell those technologies into a newly receptive world market.
New Zealanders have a proven capacity to innovate, to invent our own solutions and to rapidly adopt technologies developed by others. The Government has a programme of incentives to assist those technology shifts, and about $150 million worth of carbon credits are available in the economy today.
Other businesses and individuals are looking to earn units through the establishment of permanent forests. These not only soak up carbon dioxide but also improve soil and water conservation and biodiversity.
The protocol is designed to hasten the transfer of modern technologies to the developing world, too. There is a unique opportunity for our business because only ratifying countries' firms can benefit from such transfer. Australian businesses are, therefore, looking our way to partner in such projects.
A new wave of technology is also enabling individuals to continue to drive motor vehicles and to maintain comfortable homes at the same time as reducing emissions. These technologies include hybrid cars, super-efficient diesels and, later, ethanol-blended petrol and biodiesels. A parallel range of technologies, such as solar hot-water systems and more energy efficient appliances, are available to help us to maintain comfortable homes at the same time as cutting emissions.
So opportunities abound.
The damage from climate change has already made its mark, be it tornadoes in Florida, typhoons in the Philippines or Japan, the many thousands of deaths from France's heatwave or the flooding of Bangladesh.
Last year's storms and floods caused significant damage to many parts of New Zealand. Climate forecasts tell us we can expect more severe and frequent weather events.
Adaptation is about ensuring stopbanks and storm drains are adequate to deal with any increased incidence in flooding such as that in the Manawatu and Bay of Plenty last year. We must ensure also that our electricity infrastructure can better stand up to high winds after towers carrying power to the main link between the South and North Islands were blown down in January last year.
Many farmers are also starting to prepare for increased rainfall in some areas, such as the West Coast, and less rain and higher temperatures in other areas, such as Canterbury and Hawkes Bay.
That, too, will require innovation. But we have always been at the forefront of innovation. There is every reason to be confident that businesses and individuals alike will rise to the challenge of doing their bit to tackle climate change as part of the global effort.
In doing so we will be able to create a more efficient economy, better able to look after the environment and to protect our unique way of life for generations to come.
Pete Hodgson is the Minister of the Environment
continued...
Share your Kyoto news
On 16 February 2005 the Kyoto Protocol will enter into force. To mark this date, some Parties to the Kyoto Protocol, as well as institutions and organizations, are planning events and other activities. In order to assist those who are interested, the UNFCCC secretariat is compiling a list of known events/activities that can be published on the secretariat's web site .
Feeling the Heat
The average temperature of the earth's surface has risen by 0.6 degrees C since the late 1800s. It is expected to increase by another 1.4 to 5.8 degrees C by the year 2100 -- a rapid and profound change. Even if the minimum predicted increase takes place, it will be larger than any century-long trend in the last 10,000 years.
The principal reason for the mounting thermometer is a century and a half of industrialization: the burning of ever-greater quantities of oil, gasoline, and coal, the cutting of forests, and certain farming methods.
These activities have increased the amount of "greenhouse gases" in the atmosphere, especially carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide. Such gases occur naturally and are critical for life on earth; they keep some of the sun's warmth from reflecting back into space, and without them the world would be a cold and barren place. But in augmented and increasing quantities, these gases are pushing the global temperature to artificially high levels and altering the climate. The 1990s appear to have been the warmest decade of the last Millennium, and 1998 the warmest year.
Pete Hodgson: Climate change is coming, ready or not
16.02.05
Today the Kyoto Protocol comes into force and a new era in tackling climate change quietly gets under way. New Zealand is one of 141 nations to have ratified the protocol so far. All developed nations have ratified, except the United States, Australia and Monaco.
These days the scientific consensus is almost total - climate change is coming ready or not. The sceptics are receding, just like the Arctic ice-sheet. But there is still uncertainty about the precise degree of climate change and its particular effect on different parts of the world.
We know what the changes will be in general - higher temperatures, more floods, more storm surges, more hurricanes, more droughts, rising sea levels. But how much more?
The first of these changes, higher temperatures, illustrates the point. Over the past 100 years world temperatures rose by 0.6deg. Almost all the record years for high temperatures have been in the past decade or so. But the forecast for the next 100 years is a rise of 1.4 to 5.8deg.
So things are getting hotter, but precisely by how much is unclear. At 1.4deg, it is about a twofold increase; at 5.8deg, it is nearly tenfold.
Climate change is a global problem and can, therefore, be tackled only if many nations club together. No one country can, by itself, make a useful difference. The Kyoto Protocol is the instrument by which such an international response can be mounted.
For a century or more New Zealanders have joined international efforts to combat threats - wars, drift netting, ozone depletion, terrorism. So it is with climate change. We seek to do our bit.
New Zealanders also sense that climate change directly challenges our own environment and way of life. Storms seem to be more common as the effects of climate change start to bite. In general, people are inclined to the view that the weather is unusual or different.
Our economy is more dependent on a reliable, equable climate than any other Western nation because agriculture is such a large part of it.
For New Zealanders, avoiding the worst effects of climate change is, therefore, a significant economic advantage. We have a strong economic self-interest in blunting its extremes.
The Kyoto Protocol will drive significant technology shifts in the years ahead. Progressively, New Zealand businesses will act to avoid the prices on greenhouse gases. Or they will capitalise on them by developing products or technologies that increase efficiency, or avoid greenhouse-gas production altogether, then sell those technologies into a newly receptive world market.
New Zealanders have a proven capacity to innovate, to invent our own solutions and to rapidly adopt technologies developed by others. The Government has a programme of incentives to assist those technology shifts, and about $150 million worth of carbon credits are available in the economy today.
Other businesses and individuals are looking to earn units through the establishment of permanent forests. These not only soak up carbon dioxide but also improve soil and water conservation and biodiversity.
The protocol is designed to hasten the transfer of modern technologies to the developing world, too. There is a unique opportunity for our business because only ratifying countries' firms can benefit from such transfer. Australian businesses are, therefore, looking our way to partner in such projects.
A new wave of technology is also enabling individuals to continue to drive motor vehicles and to maintain comfortable homes at the same time as reducing emissions. These technologies include hybrid cars, super-efficient diesels and, later, ethanol-blended petrol and biodiesels. A parallel range of technologies, such as solar hot-water systems and more energy efficient appliances, are available to help us to maintain comfortable homes at the same time as cutting emissions.
So opportunities abound.
The damage from climate change has already made its mark, be it tornadoes in Florida, typhoons in the Philippines or Japan, the many thousands of deaths from France's heatwave or the flooding of Bangladesh.
Last year's storms and floods caused significant damage to many parts of New Zealand. Climate forecasts tell us we can expect more severe and frequent weather events.
Adaptation is about ensuring stopbanks and storm drains are adequate to deal with any increased incidence in flooding such as that in the Manawatu and Bay of Plenty last year. We must ensure also that our electricity infrastructure can better stand up to high winds after towers carrying power to the main link between the South and North Islands were blown down in January last year.
Many farmers are also starting to prepare for increased rainfall in some areas, such as the West Coast, and less rain and higher temperatures in other areas, such as Canterbury and Hawkes Bay.
That, too, will require innovation. But we have always been at the forefront of innovation. There is every reason to be confident that businesses and individuals alike will rise to the challenge of doing their bit to tackle climate change as part of the global effort.
In doing so we will be able to create a more efficient economy, better able to look after the environment and to protect our unique way of life for generations to come.
Pete Hodgson is the Minister of the Environment
continued...
Morning Papers
Morning Papers
February 15 and 16 2005
Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Oakey-Dokey"
History…
1857, Gallaudet University opens in Washington D.C. Founded by Amos Kendall, it was formerly called Columbia School for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind.
1868, Formerly known as the Jolly Gorks, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) is founded in New York, donating aid to children with disabilities and scholarships to deserving students
1898 Katharine Cornell, American actor, who is considered one of the great ladies of the American stage. She was born in Berlin of American parents. She appeared with great success in London in 1910 in a dramatization of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In 1921, after several years of playing in stock and touring companies, she made her Broadway debut in Nice People, won acclaim for her role in A Bill of Divorcement, and married the theatrical producer and director Guthrie McClintic, who directed most of the plays in which she acted after 1925. Among the plays in which Cornell had leading roles were Candida (1925), The Green Hat (1927), and The Letter (1928). Beginning in 1931 she appeared under her own management in a number of plays, including The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1931), Romeo and Juliet (1933), Saint Joan (1936), and The Three Sisters (1943). During World War II she toured overseas camps of the American armed forces in The Barretts of Wimpole Street. She later appeared in New York City in Antony and Cleopatra (1947), The Constant Wife (1951), The Dark Is Light Enough (1955), and Dear Liar (1960). Cornell retired in 1961 after her husband's death.
1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt.
1930, Nylon is developed by the Du Pont labs primarily from the research of American chemist Wallace Hume Carothers.
1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
1968, the nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala.
1994, at least 217 people were killed when a powerful earthquake shook Indonesia's Sumatra island.
1998, a China Airlines Airbus trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board and six people on the ground.
Missing in Action
1968 VOLLMER VALENTINE BERNARD CLINTONVILLE WI 08/74 REMAINS RECOVERED
1969 MOORE JERRY L. CLEVELAND NC
1969 WOGAN WILLIAM M. GLEN OAKS NY
1971 HOSKINS CHARLES L. SHAWNEE MISSION KS
1971 PATTILLO RALPH N. HARTSELLE AL
1972 GALATI RALPH W. CHESTER PA 03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 LEE ALBERT EUGENE GALLIPOLIS OH
1972 SCHWERTFEGER WILLIAM R. ENID OK 03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
Filmmaker Michael Moore May Get Hometown Recognition
Feb 12, 2005, 12:24 PM
Local fans of Michael Moore may finally give him some hometown recognition. Some residents in the city of Davison have a mission is to add the line "home of Michael Moore" to city limit signs.
On Monday, residents will ask the City Council to move ahead in honoring the controversial movie director, but some in the city object to Moore's criticisms of big business and President Bush.
http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=2937916
World: Worries Grow Over Danger Of Flu Pandemic
By Don Hill
International public-health officials say the world is overdue for an influenza pandemic -- a worldwide epidemic -- that could kill millions of people. The UN's World Health Organization has been sounding the alarm for more than a year. The authoritative science journal "Nature" reports in its latest issue that the conditions to trigger a devastating pandemic are already in place now in Vietnam. But, says "Nature," governments are underestimating the danger, and research to deal with the threat is dangerously underfunded.
Prague, 12 January 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The nations of the world began planning this week to spend millions of dollars on a global tsunami warning system to minimize future death and destruction like that caused by last month's disaster in South Asia, which killed more than 150,000 people.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/01/bb820e2b-11a1-4b83-a099-604093523d88.html
The Boston Globe
Outreach for dropouts
February 13, 2005
EVERY YEAR, new members join the country's lost tribe of teenagers: the young people who drop out of high school. Because they are not in school, they are not helped by President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind program, giving a tragic irony to that name.
The size of the tribe: In October 2001, 3.8 million 16- to 24-year-olds nationwide had not completed and were not enrolled in high school -- 10.7 percent of the age group.
The problem explodes in cities. The projected four-year dropout rate for Boston's class of 2006 is 27 percent, according to the state Department of Education. In Springfield it's 29 percent. In Lawrence it's 35 percent.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/02/13/outreach_for_dropouts/>
SJC rejects school-funding challenge
Declines to order hike in spending for poor districts
By Scott S. Greenberger and Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff February 16, 2005
The state's highest court ruled yesterday against families seeking a major increase in state funding for school districts in poor communities, voting 5-2 that, after spending about $30 billion on public education over the past decade, the governor and Legislature ''are embracing and acting on their constitutional duty to educate all public school students."
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/02/16/sjc_rejects_school_funding_challenge/
Kennedy rips Romney over stem cell policy
Governor eyes an alternate plan
By Rick Klein and Gareth Cook, Globe Staff February 16, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy yesterday blasted Governor Mitt Romney's proposal to ban the cloning of embryos for stem cell research, saying the governor's approach would rob Massachusetts of the benefits of one of the most promising areas of scientific research.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/16/kennedy_rips_romney_over_stem_cell_policy/
Shanley gets 12 to 15 years
Defrocked priest's accuser hailed as hero
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff February 16, 2005
CAMBRIDGE -- Defrocked priest Paul R. Shanley was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison yesterday before a roomful of alleged clergy sexual abuse victims, who declared the conclusion to his criminal trial a step toward collective justice.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/02/16/shanley_gets_12_to_15_years/
Border bid may imperil wind farm
By David Abel and Beth Daley, Globe Staff February 16, 2005
In a move that could give Governor Mitt Romney more power over the proposed Cape Cod wind farm, state and federal officials appear to have come up with a unique plan: Move the coastline.
Pasted from <http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/02/16/border_bid_may_imperil_wind_farm/>
Rainforest activists hope slaying spurs action
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times February 16, 2005
RIO DE JANEIRO -- As mourners laid her bullet-riddled body to rest yesterday, environmentalists and colleagues of slain missionary Dorothy Stang seesawed between fragile optimism and angry skepticism over a question they had hoped never to consider.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/02/16/rainforest_activists_hope_slaying_spurs_action/
Iran's nuclear threat is deemphasized
UN official notes lack of evidence
By Dafna Linzer and Glenn Kessler, Washington Post February 16, 2005
VIENNA -- The director of the UN agency responsible for investigating Iran's nuclear program said yesterday that there have been no new discoveries in the last six months to substantiate claims that the Islamic state is secretly working toward a nuclear bomb.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/02/16/irans_nuclear_threat_is_deemphasized/
Anti gay bias hits home
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist February 16, 2005
ALAN KEYES owns one of the most frothing mouths of the Republican Party, which is really saying a lot on some moral issues. Mention homosexuality and you can barely see his face for the white of his foam. He should consult Dick Cheney for a chill pill.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/02/16/anti_gay_bias_hits_home/
Michael Moore Today
Big Bush Donor Was Promised Ambassadorship
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
HOW DID THE BULLDOG GET IN THE PRESS CORPS?
Man trying to live long enough to witness immortality. (Meaning: millions of blood cell-sized robots--nanobots--will keep us forever young by swarming through the body, repairing bones, muscles, arteries and brain cells.)
Serendipitously, the robot soldier is also coming.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php
Jailing of Reporters in C.I.A. Leak Case Is Upheld by Judges
By Adam Liptak / New York Times
Two reporters who have refused to name their sources to a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. officer should be jailed for contempt, a unanimous three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington ruled yesterday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1438
Did US Military Kill Journalists in Iraq
What is needed is an independent investigation by a team of reporters to determine if the U.S. military targeted journalists in Iraq.
By Danny Schechter
When Dan Rather was caught in a crossfire after the expose of a dodgy document used in a TV report, there was an undercurrent of sympathy based on the widespread feeling that the questioning of President's Bush’s military service was basically true.
Sadly, it didn't seem to matter.
The story flamed out along with much of Rather’s reputation.
No media outlets had the guts to pursue it.
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1019
Alienated Allies, Frustrated Soldiers and Angry Military Families
Rumsfeld to Face a Wary Congress
By Liz Sidoti / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in his second consecutive tour of duty, has to sell a half-trillion dollar military budget to a skeptical Congress and answer repeated calls to bring the troops home from Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1429
The Australian
LIKE I SAID IN A RESPONSE TO a Safire Editorial…
Oil-for-food was money for jam
New York correspondent David Nason
February 14, 2005
IN an Armenian community newsletter circulated in New York in 2002, Benon Sevan, the career diplomat accused of presiding over massive corruption in the UN's now defunct oil-for-food program in Iraq, complained that he operated in the world's toughest neighourhoods. "I have no choice but to deal with the people involved," he said at the time.
In the end that may be the only defence left to the 68-year-old Sevan who, on all the currently available evidence, stands guilty of allowing the biggest aid program in UN history to descend into a cesspit of patronage, bribes and kickbacks - a disaster that provided Saddam Hussein with a secret, illegal income stream worth possibly billions of dollars.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12236505%5E2703,00.html
I THINK 'ABOVE' THIS IS AN EXCELLENT DEFENSE. Dealing with corruption isn't as easy as turning people in unless you want to fail at your goal as well as being a possible target of violence or death.
Only $70 Oil, Subsidies Will Spur Renewables
Mail this story to a friend Printer friendly version
UK: February 14, 2005
LONDON - Biofuels and wind power are the best bets for alternative energy sources as oil and natural gas prices rise even though the economics of green fuels are still far from viable, analysts say.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29505/story.htm
The Times - London
Dean takes lead in diehard sequel
From Tim Reid in Washington
Democrat centrists are uneasy as rejected candidate becomes party’s head
"I am who I am": Howard Dean is the perfect leader for the Democrats, says Newt Gingrich, if they have a death wish (ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES)
HOWARD DEAN, whose high-flying presidential bid imploded last year with his infamous “Iowa scream”, vowed yesterday to transform the Democrats’ electoral fortunes “from the grass roots up” after winning the post of party chairman.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1483397,00.html
The Seattle Post Intelligencer
Neo-Nazi, associate nabbed in Seattle
Federal agents lead effort; suspects face weapons charges
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Neo-Nazi Keith Gilbert had just left his home in Seattle's Roosevelt neighborhood to walk his German shepherd Blondie early yesterday morning when federal agents, including the FBI SWAT team, made their move.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212249_fedarrests16.html
Few new openings at universities
Despite increased demand, enrollment won't grow at UW, WSU
By KYLE ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
OLYMPIA -- Despite more applicants and a growing demand for higher education, state budget woes mean Washington's flagship universities aren't likely to admit any more students than last year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212248_olyedu16.html
Lesbian seeks right to see child
A court considers what makes a person a parent when two women battle over visitation
By TRACY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
OLYMPIA -- Mian Carvin has only recently been allowed to see the 9-year-old girl she considers her daughter, taking her on the rides at the Seattle Center during one of her brief visits.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212251_visitation16.html
Gates ups the ante on security
An early release for new browser version, and a free offer
By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
SAN FRANCISCO -- Bill Gates yesterday showed new plans to combat the security problems plaguing Microsoft's software, escalating the company's competition with a surging rival and putting it at odds with a key sector of the software industry.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/212193_rsagates16.html
Where is the money coming from? BUSH CRONY MONEY ?
Mall of America's $1B plan may add casino
By PATRICK CONDON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- The owners of the Mall of America have proposed adding a casino as part of a $1 billion expansion, although it faces long odds right out of the gate.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Mall%20of%20America%20Expansion
Pakistan, India agree on cross-Kashmir bus
By SADAQAT JAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan and India agreed to start a historic bus service between the capitals of divided Kashmir, the first direct land-link between the two sides of the Himalayan province that has been at the heart of decades of disagreement and bloodshed.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20India>
Bush's top economic adviser leaving post
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's top economic adviser is leaving his post, the White House announced Wednesday.
N. Gregory Mankiw, the chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, submitted his letter of resignation.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=Bush%27s%20Economic%20Adviser>
Prairie dogs bane to ranchers existence
By CHET BROKAW
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Rancher Jerry Heinrichs looks at a prairie dog hole and the destruction of the grass around it in one of his pastures, Jan. 24, 2005, at his ranch near Interior, S.D. Heinrichs says that because of the long-running drought across the West, his cattle had to compete with prairie dogs for the grass. And the prairie dogs won. (AP Photo/Doug Dreyer)
INTERIOR, S.D. -- Jerry Heinrichs says that because of the long-running drought across the West, his cattle had to compete with prairie dogs for the grass. And the prairie dogs won.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1501&slug=Prairie%20Dogs>
Ex-GOP candidate Bauer to pay FEC fine
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer's campaign has agreed to pay a $31,000 fine to settle a campaign finance case.
Among problems cited in a Federal Election Commission audit of Bauer's 2000 presidential campaign fund, auditors found that the campaign and a political action committee founded by Bauer, the Campaign for Working Families, had swapped mailing lists of unequal value, resulting in an illegal contribution to Bauer's campaign by the PAC.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apelection_story.asp?category=1130&slug=Bauer%20Fine>
Kenyan authorities seize ten primates
By RODRIQUE NGOWI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenyan officials have seized six baby chimpanzees and four guenons as they were about to be smuggled onto a plane, crammed in a small crate, a conservation official said Tuesday.
The primates were discovered after security officials became suspicious about unusual noises coming from the crate, which was supposed to contain dogs, said Edward Indakwa, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apafrica_story.asp?category=1105&slug=Kenya%20Primates%20Seized>
Coffee may help prevent liver cancer
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
The Coffee Grinder in the Westminster (Md.) Shopping Center offers over 50 varieties of coffee beans as seen in this July 21, 2004 file photo, in Westminster, Md. Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer. (AP Photo/The Carroll County Times, Chris Ammann)
WASHINGTON -- Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Coffee%20Cancer
Coffee may help prevent liver cancer
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
The Coffee Grinder in the Westminster (Md.) Shopping Center offers over 50 varieties of coffee beans as seen in this July 21, 2004 file photo, in Westminster, Md. Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer. (AP Photo/The Carroll County Times, Chris Ammann)
WASHINGTON -- Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Coffee%20Cancer
Drug shootouts kill 12 in northern Mexico
By MARK STEVENSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MEXICO CITY -- The bodies of 12 men killed by hitmen believed linked to drug gangs were found Tuesday in the northern state of Sinaloa, in what appears to be one of the deadliest one-day tolls in violent drug battles in recent years.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/aplatin_story.asp?category=1102&slug=Mexico%20Drug%20Shootings
Haaretz
Jordanian ambassador to Israel to return Sunday
By The Associated Press
AMMAN - Jordan said Wednesday that it is returning its ambassador to Israel on post Sunday, setting the stage for a normalizing of diplomatic relations between Amman and Tel Aviv after a four-year break.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/541037.html
Sticky porridge of sex and art
By Sami Michael
Ziffer has has produced a masterpiece and a heart-rending human document, kneading the stuff of his literary self with consummate skill
"Aliyato hashamayma shel haorekh hasifruti" ("The Literary Editor's Progress") by Benny Ziffer, Ov Books, 297 pages, NIS 74
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/539071.html
Blair asks London mayor to apologize for anti-Semitic remarks
By The Associated Press
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair urged London Mayor Ken Livingstone on Wednesday to apologize for making an offensive remark to a Jewish journalist that compared him to a Nazi concentration camp guard.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/541132.html
The demographic key
By Uzi Arad
There are those who justify the disengagement plan with demographic reasoning: It is necessary to make sure Israel remains a Jewish democratic state. But in effect there is nothing in the disengagement plan that has anything to do with demography. On the other hand, there is a direct connection between the demographic issue and the territorial exchange plan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/540753.html
Cheney Observer
Neil Bush turns 50 among his friends
By SHELBY HODGE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Host extraordinaire Jaime Camil, the Mexican magnate with homes the world over, rolled out the red carpet at his Villa Antonio in Acapulco last weekend for a nonstop birthday celebration in honor of Neil Bush's 50th.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/features/3034118
Senate's new makeup might help judicial nominees
By Neil A. Lewis
The New York Times
WASHINGTON - When the battle over judicial nominations resumes in the next few weeks, President Bush may have a good chance of winning confirmation for some of his previously blocked candidates, Democrats and Republicans said last week.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/10889292.htm
IF THE INFRASTRUCTURE is being rebuilt by the private sector as introduced by Cheney then where exactly did the $20 billion go?
Gas firm raises cash for Iraq venture
By Stephen Foley
14 February 2005
A little company with a new contract to produce gas in southern Iraq is planning to raise £25m with a flotation on AIM.
Gulfsands Petroleum has signed a deal with the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad, in consultation with the US government, which will allow it to collect gas that is a by-product of oil wells in Misan, one of the poorest provinces in Iraq. The gas is currently flared off.
Gulfsands says the project, which will help generate electricity, will be the first large infrastructure project undertaken by private international investment since the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=610895
PPL to drill 7 wells by the end of this year
Sunday February 13, 2005 (1400 PST)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) plans to drill seven exploration and appraisal oil wells in this year.
Sources told Online here on Sunday that the company would drill seven exploration and appraisal oil wells in NWFP and Punjab.
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=93823>
Pakistan, Qatar to take decision on gas line this week
ISLAMABAD Feb 13 : Pakistan and Qatar will take a definite decision about the $ 2.7 billion Gulf South Asia (GUSA) gas pipeline project next week as Pakistan plans to push ahead with the construction work of one of the three gas supply projects this year, official sources said.
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Feb05/13/02.htm
New offer could revive Nigg yard
JENNIFER HILL
AMERICAN defence contractor Halliburton has hoisted a "for sale" sign above its controversial offshore facility in the north of Scotland, it emerged yesterday.
Its UK subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), confirmed it had put the site at Nigg in the Highlands up for sale and had already received an undisclosed offer from a consortium of local property developers, backed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Highland Council.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=168742005
Promised super-carriers are still lurking just over the fiscal horizon
By George Trefgarne
(Filed: 14/02/2005)
As a hopelessly patriotic sort of person, I have a fantasy of one day being on holiday in the south of France and looking up from, say, a biography of Nelson, to see an aircraft carrier appear on the horizon. Only instead of it being an American one, it will be British. No doubt the captain will come ashore in a smart launch and, if I were to be lucky, he might invite me aboard for a sundowner. All would be well in the world, and I would sleep soundly, dreaming of past glories at the Nile and Trafalgar.
… These will be the largest warships ever built in Britain, with four acres of flight deck apiece. In fact, they are so big that no single yard can build them and they will be constructed in bits, by a consortium of companies, before being put together by a "physical integrator", otherwise known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of US vice- president Dick Cheney's alma mater, Halliburton. The Navy is salivating at the prospect of having some smart new toys to play with. The current military vogue is "expeditionary warfare",
http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/02/14/do1402.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/02/14/ixopinion.html>
The Working Force of Halliburton
Motivating factors for working in Iraq
The reasons are varied. But all, surely, are aware of the pay premium that comes with working in a war zone.
Workers at the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root in Houston can receive $80,000 to $100,000 a year, with the first $80,000 tax-free if they're out of the country for 330 days.
http://www.nynewsday.com/business/ny-bzcovbox13,0,4176987.story?coll=nyc-business-headlines
India and China battle over Russian oil
By Malcolm Moore (Filed: 14/02/2005)
India is fighting China in the battle for Russian oil by angling for a supply deal and a stake in Yuganskneftegaz, the oil unit that was seized from Yukos and is now owned by Rosneft, the state oil company.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/02/14/cnoil14.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/02/14/ixcity.html
Frist Says Bush's Social Security Proposal Has `Long Way to Go'
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Republican Bill Frist said President George W. Bush still has ``a long way to go,'' to win public backing for his proposal to revamp the Social Security program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ay5PBE.RHEus&refer=top_world_news>
Port officials concerned on Bush budget
By GARRY MITCHELL
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MOBILE, Ala. -- President Bush's proposed federal budget has alarmed port officials concerned over being pitted against other transit groups competing for $600 million in Homeland Security grants.
The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) said Bush's budget would shift the security grants into a sweeping new program that combines the security infrastructure needs of seaports with those of trains, trucks, buses and other public transit.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Ports%20Budget
Bush needs strategic partnership with Europe
By Philip H. Gordon and Ronald D. Asmus
Published: February 13 2005 20:07 Last updated: February 13 2005 20:07
As President George W. Bush prepares to travel to Europe next week, many commentators are asking what his administration could bring to the table to help revitalise the transatlantic relationship. We believe the president should build on the good feeling generated by Condoleezza Rice, his secretary of state, during her tour of the continent last week and make it clear that America is comfortable with European integration. While in Europe, Mr Bush should launch a strategic partnership with the European Union to complement the Nato alliance.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d3817cf8-7df5-11d9-ac22-00000e2511c8.html
Nicholas Kristof: Bush bites his tongue
06:15 PM CST on Monday, February 14, 2005
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF / The New York Times
There are two words the Bush administration doesn't want you to think about: North Korea.
That's because the most dangerous failure of U.S. policy these days is in North Korea. President Bush has been startlingly passive as North Korea has begun churning out nuclear weapons like hot cakes.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/balance/stories/021505dnedikristof.4cd8.html
Summary Box: Bush's latest request for wars pushes total past $300 billion
By Associated Press, 2/14/2005 19:23
ADVERTISEMENT
REQUEST FOR MONEY: President Bush asked Congress on Monday to provide $81.9 billion more for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for other U.S. efforts overseas, pushing the total price tag for the conflicts and anti-terror fight past $300 billion.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/045/wash/Summary_Box_Bush_s_latest_requ:.shtml
Bush seeks Patriot Act renewal
Tuesday 15 February 2005, 3:31 Makka Time, 0:31 GMT
The Patriot Act and its supporters expect the law to be renewed
President George Bush is pressing the US Congress to renew the anti-terrorism law, dubbed the Patriot Act.
Speaking at a Justice Department ceremony on Monday, Bush said the Patriot Act had been "vital to our success in tracking terrorists and disrupting their plans" and he urged lawmakers to renew elements of the law that will expire at the end of this year
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C5B60A7D-064D-4D4E-BB39-89C789C1080B.htm
Bush Nominates Crawford for FDA
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — President Bush today nominated Lester M. Crawford to head the Food and Drug Administration, despite drug safety problems on Crawford's watch as the acting director that have undermined the agency's reputation and credibility.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-021405fda_lat,0,3464449.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Florida Marks 1945 U.S.-Saudi Meeting
KEN THOMAS
Associated Press
MIAMI - Pledging friendship and goodwill, descendants of President Franklin Roosevelt and the king of Saudi Arabia joined a group of veterans Monday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Roosevelt's groundbreaking meeting with King Abdulaziz that opened U.S.-Saudi relations.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10899709.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Whistleblowers Detail Corruption and Fraud at Halliburton during Senate Hearing
9 comment(s).
Senator Byron Dorgan convened a hearing to shed light on the recent revelations of contractor corruption in Iraq. Democratic Senators were fired up about the blatant fraud and theft from the American taxpayers. And since Bush’s new budget cuts education again, it is truly a theft from our children. No Republicans attended the hearing.
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=5312
A recipe for better relations in Iraq
By G. Jefferson Price III
Special to the Baltimore Sun
Barely noticed in the commotion surrounding President Bush's State of the Union speech last week was a story prominently displayed in one of the president's favorite newspapers, The Wall Street Journal.
While Bush was preparing to proclaim the wonders of a "free" Iraq, the story revealed there's no free lunch in Iraq. Specifically, the Journal reported, Kellogg, Brown & Root, the unit of Dick Cheney's alma mater, Halliburton, that has the contract to feed, house and bathe U.S. troops in Iraq, has come in with a $10 billion estimate for the coming year.
Ten billion dollars is a lot of money.
It works out to about $67,000 a year per man and woman in the military being served by KBR, assuming we keep 150,000 troops in Iraq, which we won't. Put another way, it's $182.64 a day.
Ten billion dollars also is at least $4 billion more than the Pentagon has budgeted for the services provided by KBR. The gap could be as much as $7.4 billion.
The Journal story appeared about the same time as an audit of Iraqi reconstruction funds found that nearly $9 billion was distributed with "less than adequate controls" by the former Coalition Provisional Authority headed by L. Paul Bremer III.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/10884739.htm?1c
Saboteurs target oil pipeline in northern Iraq; police killed in Baghdad
08:48 PM EST Feb 15
CHRIS TOMLINSON
BAGHDAD (CP) - Roadside bombs killed a U.S. soldier and three Iraqi National Guard troops Monday and officials said insurgents blew up an oil pipeline near Kirkuk and killed two senior police officers in Baghdad. Political leaders, meanwhile, sized up their positions in a new government.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050214/w021478.html
Pentagon to offer bonuses to special ops
BY CRAIG GORDON
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is falling short on efforts to keep elite special forces units at full strength and now is fighting back dollar by dollar, offering up to $150,000 bonuses to commandos to keep high-paying private security firms from cherry-picking the teams.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usspec13,0,3082814.story?coll=ny-nation-big-pix
Two petroleum exploration licences granted to OGDCL in Pakistan
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk
ISLAMABAD: The Government of Pakistan on Friday granted two Petroleum exploration licences to Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) over Block number 2971-3 (Multan South) and 3071-3 (Multan North), covering an area of 2480.78 sq kms and 2498.97 sq kms respectively.
The licences and the petroleum concession agreements were signed by Ahmad Waqar, Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources, G. A. Sabri, Director General Petroleum Concessions and Mohammad Raziuddin, Managing Director, OGDCL.
http://pakistantimes.net/2005/02/12/business1.htm
$3.2b Gulf-South Asia Pipeline project: Qatar minister arrives Tuesday, will discuss gas pipeline
* Pakistan asked to play middleman in Qatar-India gas deal
By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: Abdullah bin Hamad, Qatar’s second deputy prime minister and energy minister, will arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday to discuss the $3.2 billion Gulf-South Asia Pipeline (GUSA) project.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_13-2-2005_pg7_38
China finds more oil reserves
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-02-13 09:03
Thanks to intensified exploration efforts, China's three major oil companies found more oil and natural gas reserves in 2004.
According to People's Daily, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) found 520 million tons of new oil reserves and 243.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves in six regions in 2004.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/13/content_416275.htm
Proposed Medicaid cuts draw fire
By CHELSI MOY - IR State Bureau - 02/12/05
HELENA — Montana's poor, elderly and disabled may have their health care "safety net'' pulled out from under them if President Bush's proposed $60 billion cut to the federal Medicaid budget is passed by Congress, said a panel of Montana's top health care leaders Friday.
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/02/12/top/a01021205_01.txt
Jeb, Marvin & Neil - 3 Profiteering Bush Brothers
January 28, 2005
By: Evelyn Pringle
Independent Media TV
Its time to take a closer look at First Brothers, Jeb, Neil, and Marvin Bush, and see how much they stand to benefit from W's presidency and his perpetual war on the world.
First, there's brother Marvin. He's the quietest member of the Bush clan. Marvin is co-founder and partner in Winston Partners, a private investment firm. In turn, Winston Partners is part of a larger firm called the Chatterjee Group.
http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=10336&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported
Typical reaction of Neocons. THEY just don't get it. The fact Carlyle is doing exceptionally well under Bush is exactly THE POINT to the documentary Fahrenheit 9.11. We would not expect anything less of a Bush Crony. If they were doing poorly it would sincerely astound me. "Helloooo"
Fahrenheit 9/11 had no effect, says Carlyle chief
Nils Pratley
Tuesday February 15, 2005
The Carlyle Group, the American private equity firm whose former Saudi links were highlighted by film-maker Michael Moore, yesterday reported its "best ever" year and said it returned $5.3bn (£2.8bn) to its investors in 2004.
The performance underlined the sheer size of Carlyle. The group withdrew either partially or completely from 71 investments and made 107 new investments. It raised $7.8bn for investment and the amount of cash it returned was more than twice the level of 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1414723,00.html
$100M nuclear waste capping project to be complete in 2006
(AP) - A six-year, $100 million project to cap nuclear waste landfills - the largest effort of its kind in Oak Ridge history - is running ahead of schedule and due for completion by mid-2006, federal contractors say.
The work is being done on about 130 acres in the Melton Valley, where waste from Oak Ridge National Laboratory was buried from 1943 to 1986.
Workers are constructing landfill caps with layers of clay, rock and synthetic materials, covered by grass to prevent erosion. Ventilation pipes are installed to prevent a buildup of methane or other gases in the underground waste zones.
The idea is to divert rainwater from the old landfills, stemming a decades-old problem in which water flushed radioactive contaminants into nearby creeks and ultimately to the Clinch River and downstream reservoirs.
Work began in 2000 and was originally scheduled to continue until 2012, but that schedule has been compressed under the U.S. Department of Energy's accelerated cleanup plan.
DOE officials said they expect the capping project to eliminate at least 90 percent of the radioactive leakage.
Charlie Johnson, who's managing the Melton Valley project for Bechtel Jacobs Co., the U.S. Department of Energy's environmental manager in Oak Ridge, said preliminary sampling results have been encouraging. He said there was a decline in radioactivity in a nearby stream after workers completed the caps on Solid Waste Storage Area No. 4.
"We would probably not go on record as saying anything like that (until more results are available), but we're seeing that things are going the way we're expecting it," he said. "We're optimistic."
Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight Committee, which reviews cleanup activities for local governments, said the project's success won't be known for many years.
"It looks like they've done the analysis well. The main thing is to isolate (the radioactive materials) for the next 300 years," Gawarecki said.
Most of the radioactivity associated with the wastes buried in the ground should be decayed by then, she said.
Gawarecki said capping the leaking landfills at ORNL was really the only option, because excavating the vast site and relocating the buried wastes would be almost impossible to do and prohibitively expensive.
Even though $100 million is a lot of money, capping was probably one of the cheaper options, she said.
At one point, the Oak Ridge dump site was designated a regional depository by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and radioactive waste was brought there from more than 100 nuclear facilities in the Eastern United States.
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/122704/new_20041227010.shtml
The Gulf News
Massive Beirut car bomb kills ex-premier Hariri
Reuters
Beirut: A massive car bomb killed Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, on Beirut's waterfront today, witnesses and security sources said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=151991
Scientists to throw light on Bedouin way of life
Staff Report
Abu Dhabi: In an effort to throw light on the Bedouin way of life, a conference has been scheduled by the end of this month.
More than 200 scientists and researchers are expected to participate in the conference.
The five-day conference - Bedouin Society in the UAE: the Reliability of Documents and the Logic of Narration - will focus on the desert life and Bedouin heritage.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/NationNF.asp?ArticleID=152187
Tens of thousands join Hariri's funeral procession
Reuters
Beirut: Tens of thousands of Lebanese turned the funeral today of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri into an outpouring of public wrath against Syria, blamed by opposition leaders for the bomb that killed him.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152311
Al Jaafari and Chalabi vie for Iraq premiership
AP
Baghdad: The contest for Iraq's next prime minister narrowed yesterday after Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi stood down from consideration, making it a two-man Shiite race, party spokesmen said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152192
Kyoto Protocol finally enters into force
Reuters
Singapore: After years of delays, a world plan to fight global warming went into force today, feted by its backers as a lifeline for the planet but rejected as an economic straitjacket by the United States and Australia.
The 141-nation Kyoto Protocol formally took effect at 0500 GMT and a ceremony in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto, where the pact was signed in 1997, is set for later in the day.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=152304
Israel plans new West Bank colony
Reuters
Occupied Jerusalem: Israel has plans to build a new colony in the West Bank that could take in settlers uprooted from Gaza, officials said yesterday, drawing protests from Palestinians who fear losing land for a state they seek.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152215
The straw that would break the camel's back
By Manik Mehta, Special to Gulf News
Many Europeans hoped that provocative rhetoric coming from Washington about spreading democracy and freedom to the "dark corners of the world", was intended for domestic audiences.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152173
The death of love
By Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief
It certainly was not Valentine's Day! This was my plaintive cry on Monday evening because hatred and not love prevailed on that day. Apologies to our readers who saw the front page. It had blood, torn limbs and smoke, instead of red hearts.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152174
The New Zealand Herald
Pacific Islands prepare for the worst from cyclones
Map of the pacific showing the paths of two cyclones which could cross paths over three island nations. Picture / Reuters
16.02.05 1.00pm
Two powerful cyclones bore down on three South Pacific island nations today, knocking down trees and power lines and forcing widespread evacuations.
Weakening Cyclone Nancy was causing damage in the southern Cook Islands while Cyclone Olaf continued to pose a critically dangerous situation for Samoa and American Samoa, the Australian-Pacific Centre for Emergency and Disaster Information (APCEDI) said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10111313
Magnitude 5.4 earthquake jolts Tokyo
16.02.05 9.30am
TOKYO - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 jolted Tokyo on Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10011301
THERE WAS A young man convicted of murdering his grandparents after taking Zoloft. If this young girl has been taking an anit-depressant like Zoloft she will be about the same age of the young man when he killed his grandparents.
Zoloft defence fails: teen killer gets 30 years jail
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Zoloft-defence-fails-teen-killer-gets-30-years-jail/2005/02/16/1108500159342.html
Missouri girl, 12, kills sister, 9, over hamburger
16.02.05 1.00pm
ST LOUIS - A 12-year-old girl has been charged with murder after she told police she strangled her 9-year-old sister in a fight over a hamburger, officials said on Tuesday.
The St. Louis Medical Examiner's office said it ruled the death of the younger girl a homicide weeks after her body was found in her home on December 22.
Authorities were unable to determine how she died until the 12-year-old said she killed her younger sister in a spat over a hamburger,
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10111303
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Cloudy
-3.0°
Updated Wednesday 16 Feb 9:59PM
MORE LATER IF I CAN.
February 15 and 16 2005
Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"
"Oakey-Dokey"
History…
1857, Gallaudet University opens in Washington D.C. Founded by Amos Kendall, it was formerly called Columbia School for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind.
1868, Formerly known as the Jolly Gorks, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE) is founded in New York, donating aid to children with disabilities and scholarships to deserving students
1898 Katharine Cornell, American actor, who is considered one of the great ladies of the American stage. She was born in Berlin of American parents. She appeared with great success in London in 1910 in a dramatization of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In 1921, after several years of playing in stock and touring companies, she made her Broadway debut in Nice People, won acclaim for her role in A Bill of Divorcement, and married the theatrical producer and director Guthrie McClintic, who directed most of the plays in which she acted after 1925. Among the plays in which Cornell had leading roles were Candida (1925), The Green Hat (1927), and The Letter (1928). Beginning in 1931 she appeared under her own management in a number of plays, including The Barretts of Wimpole Street (1931), Romeo and Juliet (1933), Saint Joan (1936), and The Three Sisters (1943). During World War II she toured overseas camps of the American armed forces in The Barretts of Wimpole Street. She later appeared in New York City in Antony and Cleopatra (1947), The Constant Wife (1951), The Dark Is Light Enough (1955), and Dear Liar (1960). Cornell retired in 1961 after her husband's death.
1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt.
1930, Nylon is developed by the Du Pont labs primarily from the research of American chemist Wallace Hume Carothers.
1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista.
1968, the nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated in Haleyville, Ala.
1994, at least 217 people were killed when a powerful earthquake shook Indonesia's Sumatra island.
1998, a China Airlines Airbus trying to land in fog near Taipei, Taiwan, crashed, killing all 196 people on board and six people on the ground.
Missing in Action
1968 VOLLMER VALENTINE BERNARD CLINTONVILLE WI 08/74 REMAINS RECOVERED
1969 MOORE JERRY L. CLEVELAND NC
1969 WOGAN WILLIAM M. GLEN OAKS NY
1971 HOSKINS CHARLES L. SHAWNEE MISSION KS
1971 PATTILLO RALPH N. HARTSELLE AL
1972 GALATI RALPH W. CHESTER PA 03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE IN 98
1972 LEE ALBERT EUGENE GALLIPOLIS OH
1972 SCHWERTFEGER WILLIAM R. ENID OK 03/28/73 RELEASED BY DRV ALIVE AND WELL 98
Filmmaker Michael Moore May Get Hometown Recognition
Feb 12, 2005, 12:24 PM
Local fans of Michael Moore may finally give him some hometown recognition. Some residents in the city of Davison have a mission is to add the line "home of Michael Moore" to city limit signs.
On Monday, residents will ask the City Council to move ahead in honoring the controversial movie director, but some in the city object to Moore's criticisms of big business and President Bush.
http://www.wlns.com/Global/story.asp?S=2937916
World: Worries Grow Over Danger Of Flu Pandemic
By Don Hill
International public-health officials say the world is overdue for an influenza pandemic -- a worldwide epidemic -- that could kill millions of people. The UN's World Health Organization has been sounding the alarm for more than a year. The authoritative science journal "Nature" reports in its latest issue that the conditions to trigger a devastating pandemic are already in place now in Vietnam. But, says "Nature," governments are underestimating the danger, and research to deal with the threat is dangerously underfunded.
Prague, 12 January 2005 (RFE/RL) -- The nations of the world began planning this week to spend millions of dollars on a global tsunami warning system to minimize future death and destruction like that caused by last month's disaster in South Asia, which killed more than 150,000 people.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/01/bb820e2b-11a1-4b83-a099-604093523d88.html
The Boston Globe
Outreach for dropouts
February 13, 2005
EVERY YEAR, new members join the country's lost tribe of teenagers: the young people who drop out of high school. Because they are not in school, they are not helped by President Bush's signature No Child Left Behind program, giving a tragic irony to that name.
The size of the tribe: In October 2001, 3.8 million 16- to 24-year-olds nationwide had not completed and were not enrolled in high school -- 10.7 percent of the age group.
The problem explodes in cities. The projected four-year dropout rate for Boston's class of 2006 is 27 percent, according to the state Department of Education. In Springfield it's 29 percent. In Lawrence it's 35 percent.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/02/13/outreach_for_dropouts/>
SJC rejects school-funding challenge
Declines to order hike in spending for poor districts
By Scott S. Greenberger and Maria Sacchetti, Globe Staff February 16, 2005
The state's highest court ruled yesterday against families seeking a major increase in state funding for school districts in poor communities, voting 5-2 that, after spending about $30 billion on public education over the past decade, the governor and Legislature ''are embracing and acting on their constitutional duty to educate all public school students."
http://www.boston.com/news/education/k_12/articles/2005/02/16/sjc_rejects_school_funding_challenge/
Kennedy rips Romney over stem cell policy
Governor eyes an alternate plan
By Rick Klein and Gareth Cook, Globe Staff February 16, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Senator Edward M. Kennedy yesterday blasted Governor Mitt Romney's proposal to ban the cloning of embryos for stem cell research, saying the governor's approach would rob Massachusetts of the benefits of one of the most promising areas of scientific research.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/02/16/kennedy_rips_romney_over_stem_cell_policy/
Shanley gets 12 to 15 years
Defrocked priest's accuser hailed as hero
By Joanna Weiss, Globe Staff February 16, 2005
CAMBRIDGE -- Defrocked priest Paul R. Shanley was sentenced to 12 to 15 years in prison yesterday before a roomful of alleged clergy sexual abuse victims, who declared the conclusion to his criminal trial a step toward collective justice.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/02/16/shanley_gets_12_to_15_years/
Border bid may imperil wind farm
By David Abel and Beth Daley, Globe Staff February 16, 2005
In a move that could give Governor Mitt Romney more power over the proposed Cape Cod wind farm, state and federal officials appear to have come up with a unique plan: Move the coastline.
Pasted from <http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/02/16/border_bid_may_imperil_wind_farm/>
Rainforest activists hope slaying spurs action
By Henry Chu, Los Angeles Times February 16, 2005
RIO DE JANEIRO -- As mourners laid her bullet-riddled body to rest yesterday, environmentalists and colleagues of slain missionary Dorothy Stang seesawed between fragile optimism and angry skepticism over a question they had hoped never to consider.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/02/16/rainforest_activists_hope_slaying_spurs_action/
Iran's nuclear threat is deemphasized
UN official notes lack of evidence
By Dafna Linzer and Glenn Kessler, Washington Post February 16, 2005
VIENNA -- The director of the UN agency responsible for investigating Iran's nuclear program said yesterday that there have been no new discoveries in the last six months to substantiate claims that the Islamic state is secretly working toward a nuclear bomb.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/02/16/irans_nuclear_threat_is_deemphasized/
Anti gay bias hits home
By Derrick Z. Jackson, Globe Columnist February 16, 2005
ALAN KEYES owns one of the most frothing mouths of the Republican Party, which is really saying a lot on some moral issues. Mention homosexuality and you can barely see his face for the white of his foam. He should consult Dick Cheney for a chill pill.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2005/02/16/anti_gay_bias_hits_home/
Michael Moore Today
Big Bush Donor Was Promised Ambassadorship
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
HOW DID THE BULLDOG GET IN THE PRESS CORPS?
Man trying to live long enough to witness immortality. (Meaning: millions of blood cell-sized robots--nanobots--will keep us forever young by swarming through the body, repairing bones, muscles, arteries and brain cells.)
Serendipitously, the robot soldier is also coming.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php
Jailing of Reporters in C.I.A. Leak Case Is Upheld by Judges
By Adam Liptak / New York Times
Two reporters who have refused to name their sources to a grand jury investigating the disclosure of the identity of a covert C.I.A. officer should be jailed for contempt, a unanimous three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Washington ruled yesterday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1438
Did US Military Kill Journalists in Iraq
What is needed is an independent investigation by a team of reporters to determine if the U.S. military targeted journalists in Iraq.
By Danny Schechter
When Dan Rather was caught in a crossfire after the expose of a dodgy document used in a TV report, there was an undercurrent of sympathy based on the widespread feeling that the questioning of President's Bush’s military service was basically true.
Sadly, it didn't seem to matter.
The story flamed out along with much of Rather’s reputation.
No media outlets had the guts to pursue it.
http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1019
Alienated Allies, Frustrated Soldiers and Angry Military Families
Rumsfeld to Face a Wary Congress
By Liz Sidoti / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, in his second consecutive tour of duty, has to sell a half-trillion dollar military budget to a skeptical Congress and answer repeated calls to bring the troops home from Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1429
The Australian
LIKE I SAID IN A RESPONSE TO a Safire Editorial…
Oil-for-food was money for jam
New York correspondent David Nason
February 14, 2005
IN an Armenian community newsletter circulated in New York in 2002, Benon Sevan, the career diplomat accused of presiding over massive corruption in the UN's now defunct oil-for-food program in Iraq, complained that he operated in the world's toughest neighourhoods. "I have no choice but to deal with the people involved," he said at the time.
In the end that may be the only defence left to the 68-year-old Sevan who, on all the currently available evidence, stands guilty of allowing the biggest aid program in UN history to descend into a cesspit of patronage, bribes and kickbacks - a disaster that provided Saddam Hussein with a secret, illegal income stream worth possibly billions of dollars.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12236505%5E2703,00.html
I THINK 'ABOVE' THIS IS AN EXCELLENT DEFENSE. Dealing with corruption isn't as easy as turning people in unless you want to fail at your goal as well as being a possible target of violence or death.
Only $70 Oil, Subsidies Will Spur Renewables
Mail this story to a friend Printer friendly version
UK: February 14, 2005
LONDON - Biofuels and wind power are the best bets for alternative energy sources as oil and natural gas prices rise even though the economics of green fuels are still far from viable, analysts say.
http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/29505/story.htm
The Times - London
Dean takes lead in diehard sequel
From Tim Reid in Washington
Democrat centrists are uneasy as rejected candidate becomes party’s head
"I am who I am": Howard Dean is the perfect leader for the Democrats, says Newt Gingrich, if they have a death wish (ALEX WONG / GETTY IMAGES)
HOWARD DEAN, whose high-flying presidential bid imploded last year with his infamous “Iowa scream”, vowed yesterday to transform the Democrats’ electoral fortunes “from the grass roots up” after winning the post of party chairman.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1483397,00.html
The Seattle Post Intelligencer
Neo-Nazi, associate nabbed in Seattle
Federal agents lead effort; suspects face weapons charges
By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Neo-Nazi Keith Gilbert had just left his home in Seattle's Roosevelt neighborhood to walk his German shepherd Blondie early yesterday morning when federal agents, including the FBI SWAT team, made their move.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212249_fedarrests16.html
Few new openings at universities
Despite increased demand, enrollment won't grow at UW, WSU
By KYLE ARNOLD
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
OLYMPIA -- Despite more applicants and a growing demand for higher education, state budget woes mean Washington's flagship universities aren't likely to admit any more students than last year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212248_olyedu16.html
Lesbian seeks right to see child
A court considers what makes a person a parent when two women battle over visitation
By TRACY JOHNSON
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
OLYMPIA -- Mian Carvin has only recently been allowed to see the 9-year-old girl she considers her daughter, taking her on the rides at the Seattle Center during one of her brief visits.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/212251_visitation16.html
Gates ups the ante on security
An early release for new browser version, and a free offer
By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
SAN FRANCISCO -- Bill Gates yesterday showed new plans to combat the security problems plaguing Microsoft's software, escalating the company's competition with a surging rival and putting it at odds with a key sector of the software industry.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/212193_rsagates16.html
Where is the money coming from? BUSH CRONY MONEY ?
Mall of America's $1B plan may add casino
By PATRICK CONDON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BLOOMINGTON, Minn. -- The owners of the Mall of America have proposed adding a casino as part of a $1 billion expansion, although it faces long odds right out of the gate.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Mall%20of%20America%20Expansion
Pakistan, India agree on cross-Kashmir bus
By SADAQAT JAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistan and India agreed to start a historic bus service between the capitals of divided Kashmir, the first direct land-link between the two sides of the Himalayan province that has been at the heart of decades of disagreement and bloodshed.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20India>
Bush's top economic adviser leaving post
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- President Bush's top economic adviser is leaving his post, the White House announced Wednesday.
N. Gregory Mankiw, the chairman of the president's Council of Economic Advisers, submitted his letter of resignation.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=Bush%27s%20Economic%20Adviser>
Prairie dogs bane to ranchers existence
By CHET BROKAW
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Rancher Jerry Heinrichs looks at a prairie dog hole and the destruction of the grass around it in one of his pastures, Jan. 24, 2005, at his ranch near Interior, S.D. Heinrichs says that because of the long-running drought across the West, his cattle had to compete with prairie dogs for the grass. And the prairie dogs won. (AP Photo/Doug Dreyer)
INTERIOR, S.D. -- Jerry Heinrichs says that because of the long-running drought across the West, his cattle had to compete with prairie dogs for the grass. And the prairie dogs won.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1501&slug=Prairie%20Dogs>
Ex-GOP candidate Bauer to pay FEC fine
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Former Republican presidential candidate Gary Bauer's campaign has agreed to pay a $31,000 fine to settle a campaign finance case.
Among problems cited in a Federal Election Commission audit of Bauer's 2000 presidential campaign fund, auditors found that the campaign and a political action committee founded by Bauer, the Campaign for Working Families, had swapped mailing lists of unequal value, resulting in an illegal contribution to Bauer's campaign by the PAC.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apelection_story.asp?category=1130&slug=Bauer%20Fine>
Kenyan authorities seize ten primates
By RODRIQUE NGOWI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenyan officials have seized six baby chimpanzees and four guenons as they were about to be smuggled onto a plane, crammed in a small crate, a conservation official said Tuesday.
The primates were discovered after security officials became suspicious about unusual noises coming from the crate, which was supposed to contain dogs, said Edward Indakwa, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service.
Pasted from <http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apafrica_story.asp?category=1105&slug=Kenya%20Primates%20Seized>
Coffee may help prevent liver cancer
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
The Coffee Grinder in the Westminster (Md.) Shopping Center offers over 50 varieties of coffee beans as seen in this July 21, 2004 file photo, in Westminster, Md. Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer. (AP Photo/The Carroll County Times, Chris Ammann)
WASHINGTON -- Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Coffee%20Cancer
Coffee may help prevent liver cancer
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
The Coffee Grinder in the Westminster (Md.) Shopping Center offers over 50 varieties of coffee beans as seen in this July 21, 2004 file photo, in Westminster, Md. Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer. (AP Photo/The Carroll County Times, Chris Ammann)
WASHINGTON -- Researchers in Japan have discovered some eye-opening news about coffee: It may help prevent the most common type of liver cancer.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Coffee%20Cancer
Drug shootouts kill 12 in northern Mexico
By MARK STEVENSON
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MEXICO CITY -- The bodies of 12 men killed by hitmen believed linked to drug gangs were found Tuesday in the northern state of Sinaloa, in what appears to be one of the deadliest one-day tolls in violent drug battles in recent years.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/aplatin_story.asp?category=1102&slug=Mexico%20Drug%20Shootings
Haaretz
Jordanian ambassador to Israel to return Sunday
By The Associated Press
AMMAN - Jordan said Wednesday that it is returning its ambassador to Israel on post Sunday, setting the stage for a normalizing of diplomatic relations between Amman and Tel Aviv after a four-year break.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/541037.html
Sticky porridge of sex and art
By Sami Michael
Ziffer has has produced a masterpiece and a heart-rending human document, kneading the stuff of his literary self with consummate skill
"Aliyato hashamayma shel haorekh hasifruti" ("The Literary Editor's Progress") by Benny Ziffer, Ov Books, 297 pages, NIS 74
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/539071.html
Blair asks London mayor to apologize for anti-Semitic remarks
By The Associated Press
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair urged London Mayor Ken Livingstone on Wednesday to apologize for making an offensive remark to a Jewish journalist that compared him to a Nazi concentration camp guard.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/541132.html
The demographic key
By Uzi Arad
There are those who justify the disengagement plan with demographic reasoning: It is necessary to make sure Israel remains a Jewish democratic state. But in effect there is nothing in the disengagement plan that has anything to do with demography. On the other hand, there is a direct connection between the demographic issue and the territorial exchange plan.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/540753.html
Cheney Observer
Neil Bush turns 50 among his friends
By SHELBY HODGE
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
Host extraordinaire Jaime Camil, the Mexican magnate with homes the world over, rolled out the red carpet at his Villa Antonio in Acapulco last weekend for a nonstop birthday celebration in honor of Neil Bush's 50th.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/features/3034118
Senate's new makeup might help judicial nominees
By Neil A. Lewis
The New York Times
WASHINGTON - When the battle over judicial nominations resumes in the next few weeks, President Bush may have a good chance of winning confirmation for some of his previously blocked candidates, Democrats and Republicans said last week.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/10889292.htm
IF THE INFRASTRUCTURE is being rebuilt by the private sector as introduced by Cheney then where exactly did the $20 billion go?
Gas firm raises cash for Iraq venture
By Stephen Foley
14 February 2005
A little company with a new contract to produce gas in southern Iraq is planning to raise £25m with a flotation on AIM.
Gulfsands Petroleum has signed a deal with the Ministry of Oil in Baghdad, in consultation with the US government, which will allow it to collect gas that is a by-product of oil wells in Misan, one of the poorest provinces in Iraq. The gas is currently flared off.
Gulfsands says the project, which will help generate electricity, will be the first large infrastructure project undertaken by private international investment since the toppling of Saddam Hussein.
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=610895
PPL to drill 7 wells by the end of this year
Sunday February 13, 2005 (1400 PST)
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Petroleum Limited (PPL) plans to drill seven exploration and appraisal oil wells in this year.
Sources told Online here on Sunday that the company would drill seven exploration and appraisal oil wells in NWFP and Punjab.
http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=93823>
Pakistan, Qatar to take decision on gas line this week
ISLAMABAD Feb 13 : Pakistan and Qatar will take a definite decision about the $ 2.7 billion Gulf South Asia (GUSA) gas pipeline project next week as Pakistan plans to push ahead with the construction work of one of the three gas supply projects this year, official sources said.
http://www.pakistanlink.com/Headlines/Feb05/13/02.htm
New offer could revive Nigg yard
JENNIFER HILL
AMERICAN defence contractor Halliburton has hoisted a "for sale" sign above its controversial offshore facility in the north of Scotland, it emerged yesterday.
Its UK subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), confirmed it had put the site at Nigg in the Highlands up for sale and had already received an undisclosed offer from a consortium of local property developers, backed by Highlands and Islands Enterprise and Highland Council.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=168742005
Promised super-carriers are still lurking just over the fiscal horizon
By George Trefgarne
(Filed: 14/02/2005)
As a hopelessly patriotic sort of person, I have a fantasy of one day being on holiday in the south of France and looking up from, say, a biography of Nelson, to see an aircraft carrier appear on the horizon. Only instead of it being an American one, it will be British. No doubt the captain will come ashore in a smart launch and, if I were to be lucky, he might invite me aboard for a sundowner. All would be well in the world, and I would sleep soundly, dreaming of past glories at the Nile and Trafalgar.
… These will be the largest warships ever built in Britain, with four acres of flight deck apiece. In fact, they are so big that no single yard can build them and they will be constructed in bits, by a consortium of companies, before being put together by a "physical integrator", otherwise known as Kellogg, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of US vice- president Dick Cheney's alma mater, Halliburton. The Navy is salivating at the prospect of having some smart new toys to play with. The current military vogue is "expeditionary warfare",
http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/02/14/do1402.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/02/14/ixopinion.html>
The Working Force of Halliburton
Motivating factors for working in Iraq
The reasons are varied. But all, surely, are aware of the pay premium that comes with working in a war zone.
Workers at the Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root in Houston can receive $80,000 to $100,000 a year, with the first $80,000 tax-free if they're out of the country for 330 days.
http://www.nynewsday.com/business/ny-bzcovbox13,0,4176987.story?coll=nyc-business-headlines
India and China battle over Russian oil
By Malcolm Moore (Filed: 14/02/2005)
India is fighting China in the battle for Russian oil by angling for a supply deal and a stake in Yuganskneftegaz, the oil unit that was seized from Yukos and is now owned by Rosneft, the state oil company.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/main.jhtml?xml=/money/2005/02/14/cnoil14.xml&menuId=242&sSheet=/money/2005/02/14/ixcity.html
Frist Says Bush's Social Security Proposal Has `Long Way to Go'
Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Majority Leader Republican Bill Frist said President George W. Bush still has ``a long way to go,'' to win public backing for his proposal to revamp the Social Security program.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ay5PBE.RHEus&refer=top_world_news>
Port officials concerned on Bush budget
By GARRY MITCHELL
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
MOBILE, Ala. -- President Bush's proposed federal budget has alarmed port officials concerned over being pitted against other transit groups competing for $600 million in Homeland Security grants.
The American Association of Port Authorities (AAPA) said Bush's budget would shift the security grants into a sweeping new program that combines the security infrastructure needs of seaports with those of trains, trucks, buses and other public transit.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=Ports%20Budget
Bush needs strategic partnership with Europe
By Philip H. Gordon and Ronald D. Asmus
Published: February 13 2005 20:07 Last updated: February 13 2005 20:07
As President George W. Bush prepares to travel to Europe next week, many commentators are asking what his administration could bring to the table to help revitalise the transatlantic relationship. We believe the president should build on the good feeling generated by Condoleezza Rice, his secretary of state, during her tour of the continent last week and make it clear that America is comfortable with European integration. While in Europe, Mr Bush should launch a strategic partnership with the European Union to complement the Nato alliance.
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d3817cf8-7df5-11d9-ac22-00000e2511c8.html
Nicholas Kristof: Bush bites his tongue
06:15 PM CST on Monday, February 14, 2005
By NICHOLAS KRISTOF / The New York Times
There are two words the Bush administration doesn't want you to think about: North Korea.
That's because the most dangerous failure of U.S. policy these days is in North Korea. President Bush has been startlingly passive as North Korea has begun churning out nuclear weapons like hot cakes.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/opinion/balance/stories/021505dnedikristof.4cd8.html
Summary Box: Bush's latest request for wars pushes total past $300 billion
By Associated Press, 2/14/2005 19:23
ADVERTISEMENT
REQUEST FOR MONEY: President Bush asked Congress on Monday to provide $81.9 billion more for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and for other U.S. efforts overseas, pushing the total price tag for the conflicts and anti-terror fight past $300 billion.
http://www.boston.com/dailynews/045/wash/Summary_Box_Bush_s_latest_requ:.shtml
Bush seeks Patriot Act renewal
Tuesday 15 February 2005, 3:31 Makka Time, 0:31 GMT
The Patriot Act and its supporters expect the law to be renewed
President George Bush is pressing the US Congress to renew the anti-terrorism law, dubbed the Patriot Act.
Speaking at a Justice Department ceremony on Monday, Bush said the Patriot Act had been "vital to our success in tracking terrorists and disrupting their plans" and he urged lawmakers to renew elements of the law that will expire at the end of this year
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C5B60A7D-064D-4D4E-BB39-89C789C1080B.htm
Bush Nominates Crawford for FDA
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — President Bush today nominated Lester M. Crawford to head the Food and Drug Administration, despite drug safety problems on Crawford's watch as the acting director that have undermined the agency's reputation and credibility.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-021405fda_lat,0,3464449.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Florida Marks 1945 U.S.-Saudi Meeting
KEN THOMAS
Associated Press
MIAMI - Pledging friendship and goodwill, descendants of President Franklin Roosevelt and the king of Saudi Arabia joined a group of veterans Monday to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Roosevelt's groundbreaking meeting with King Abdulaziz that opened U.S.-Saudi relations.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/world/10899709.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
Whistleblowers Detail Corruption and Fraud at Halliburton during Senate Hearing
9 comment(s).
Senator Byron Dorgan convened a hearing to shed light on the recent revelations of contractor corruption in Iraq. Democratic Senators were fired up about the blatant fraud and theft from the American taxpayers. And since Bush’s new budget cuts education again, it is truly a theft from our children. No Republicans attended the hearing.
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=5312
A recipe for better relations in Iraq
By G. Jefferson Price III
Special to the Baltimore Sun
Barely noticed in the commotion surrounding President Bush's State of the Union speech last week was a story prominently displayed in one of the president's favorite newspapers, The Wall Street Journal.
While Bush was preparing to proclaim the wonders of a "free" Iraq, the story revealed there's no free lunch in Iraq. Specifically, the Journal reported, Kellogg, Brown & Root, the unit of Dick Cheney's alma mater, Halliburton, that has the contract to feed, house and bathe U.S. troops in Iraq, has come in with a $10 billion estimate for the coming year.
Ten billion dollars is a lot of money.
It works out to about $67,000 a year per man and woman in the military being served by KBR, assuming we keep 150,000 troops in Iraq, which we won't. Put another way, it's $182.64 a day.
Ten billion dollars also is at least $4 billion more than the Pentagon has budgeted for the services provided by KBR. The gap could be as much as $7.4 billion.
The Journal story appeared about the same time as an audit of Iraqi reconstruction funds found that nearly $9 billion was distributed with "less than adequate controls" by the former Coalition Provisional Authority headed by L. Paul Bremer III.
http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/10884739.htm?1c
Saboteurs target oil pipeline in northern Iraq; police killed in Baghdad
08:48 PM EST Feb 15
CHRIS TOMLINSON
BAGHDAD (CP) - Roadside bombs killed a U.S. soldier and three Iraqi National Guard troops Monday and officials said insurgents blew up an oil pipeline near Kirkuk and killed two senior police officers in Baghdad. Political leaders, meanwhile, sized up their positions in a new government.
http://www.cbc.ca/cp/world/050214/w021478.html
Pentagon to offer bonuses to special ops
BY CRAIG GORDON
WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon is falling short on efforts to keep elite special forces units at full strength and now is fighting back dollar by dollar, offering up to $150,000 bonuses to commandos to keep high-paying private security firms from cherry-picking the teams.
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-usspec13,0,3082814.story?coll=ny-nation-big-pix
Two petroleum exploration licences granted to OGDCL in Pakistan
Pakistan Times Business & Commerce Desk
ISLAMABAD: The Government of Pakistan on Friday granted two Petroleum exploration licences to Oil and Gas Development Company Limited (OGDCL) over Block number 2971-3 (Multan South) and 3071-3 (Multan North), covering an area of 2480.78 sq kms and 2498.97 sq kms respectively.
The licences and the petroleum concession agreements were signed by Ahmad Waqar, Secretary Petroleum and Natural Resources, G. A. Sabri, Director General Petroleum Concessions and Mohammad Raziuddin, Managing Director, OGDCL.
http://pakistantimes.net/2005/02/12/business1.htm
$3.2b Gulf-South Asia Pipeline project: Qatar minister arrives Tuesday, will discuss gas pipeline
* Pakistan asked to play middleman in Qatar-India gas deal
By Khalid Mustafa
ISLAMABAD: Abdullah bin Hamad, Qatar’s second deputy prime minister and energy minister, will arrive in Pakistan on Tuesday to discuss the $3.2 billion Gulf-South Asia Pipeline (GUSA) project.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_13-2-2005_pg7_38
China finds more oil reserves
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-02-13 09:03
Thanks to intensified exploration efforts, China's three major oil companies found more oil and natural gas reserves in 2004.
According to People's Daily, China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) found 520 million tons of new oil reserves and 243.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas reserves in six regions in 2004.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-02/13/content_416275.htm
Proposed Medicaid cuts draw fire
By CHELSI MOY - IR State Bureau - 02/12/05
HELENA — Montana's poor, elderly and disabled may have their health care "safety net'' pulled out from under them if President Bush's proposed $60 billion cut to the federal Medicaid budget is passed by Congress, said a panel of Montana's top health care leaders Friday.
http://www.helenair.com/articles/2005/02/12/top/a01021205_01.txt
Jeb, Marvin & Neil - 3 Profiteering Bush Brothers
January 28, 2005
By: Evelyn Pringle
Independent Media TV
Its time to take a closer look at First Brothers, Jeb, Neil, and Marvin Bush, and see how much they stand to benefit from W's presidency and his perpetual war on the world.
First, there's brother Marvin. He's the quietest member of the Bush clan. Marvin is co-founder and partner in Winston Partners, a private investment firm. In turn, Winston Partners is part of a larger firm called the Chatterjee Group.
http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=10336&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported
Typical reaction of Neocons. THEY just don't get it. The fact Carlyle is doing exceptionally well under Bush is exactly THE POINT to the documentary Fahrenheit 9.11. We would not expect anything less of a Bush Crony. If they were doing poorly it would sincerely astound me. "Helloooo"
Fahrenheit 9/11 had no effect, says Carlyle chief
Nils Pratley
Tuesday February 15, 2005
The Carlyle Group, the American private equity firm whose former Saudi links were highlighted by film-maker Michael Moore, yesterday reported its "best ever" year and said it returned $5.3bn (£2.8bn) to its investors in 2004.
The performance underlined the sheer size of Carlyle. The group withdrew either partially or completely from 71 investments and made 107 new investments. It raised $7.8bn for investment and the amount of cash it returned was more than twice the level of 2003.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,3604,1414723,00.html
$100M nuclear waste capping project to be complete in 2006
(AP) - A six-year, $100 million project to cap nuclear waste landfills - the largest effort of its kind in Oak Ridge history - is running ahead of schedule and due for completion by mid-2006, federal contractors say.
The work is being done on about 130 acres in the Melton Valley, where waste from Oak Ridge National Laboratory was buried from 1943 to 1986.
Workers are constructing landfill caps with layers of clay, rock and synthetic materials, covered by grass to prevent erosion. Ventilation pipes are installed to prevent a buildup of methane or other gases in the underground waste zones.
The idea is to divert rainwater from the old landfills, stemming a decades-old problem in which water flushed radioactive contaminants into nearby creeks and ultimately to the Clinch River and downstream reservoirs.
Work began in 2000 and was originally scheduled to continue until 2012, but that schedule has been compressed under the U.S. Department of Energy's accelerated cleanup plan.
DOE officials said they expect the capping project to eliminate at least 90 percent of the radioactive leakage.
Charlie Johnson, who's managing the Melton Valley project for Bechtel Jacobs Co., the U.S. Department of Energy's environmental manager in Oak Ridge, said preliminary sampling results have been encouraging. He said there was a decline in radioactivity in a nearby stream after workers completed the caps on Solid Waste Storage Area No. 4.
"We would probably not go on record as saying anything like that (until more results are available), but we're seeing that things are going the way we're expecting it," he said. "We're optimistic."
Susan Gawarecki, executive director of the Local Oversight Committee, which reviews cleanup activities for local governments, said the project's success won't be known for many years.
"It looks like they've done the analysis well. The main thing is to isolate (the radioactive materials) for the next 300 years," Gawarecki said.
Most of the radioactivity associated with the wastes buried in the ground should be decayed by then, she said.
Gawarecki said capping the leaking landfills at ORNL was really the only option, because excavating the vast site and relocating the buried wastes would be almost impossible to do and prohibitively expensive.
Even though $100 million is a lot of money, capping was probably one of the cheaper options, she said.
At one point, the Oak Ridge dump site was designated a regional depository by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, and radioactive waste was brought there from more than 100 nuclear facilities in the Eastern United States.
http://www.oakridger.com/stories/122704/new_20041227010.shtml
The Gulf News
Massive Beirut car bomb kills ex-premier Hariri
Reuters
Beirut: A massive car bomb killed Lebanon's former prime minister, Rafik Hariri, on Beirut's waterfront today, witnesses and security sources said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=151991
Scientists to throw light on Bedouin way of life
Staff Report
Abu Dhabi: In an effort to throw light on the Bedouin way of life, a conference has been scheduled by the end of this month.
More than 200 scientists and researchers are expected to participate in the conference.
The five-day conference - Bedouin Society in the UAE: the Reliability of Documents and the Logic of Narration - will focus on the desert life and Bedouin heritage.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/NationNF.asp?ArticleID=152187
Tens of thousands join Hariri's funeral procession
Reuters
Beirut: Tens of thousands of Lebanese turned the funeral today of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri into an outpouring of public wrath against Syria, blamed by opposition leaders for the bomb that killed him.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152311
Al Jaafari and Chalabi vie for Iraq premiership
AP
Baghdad: The contest for Iraq's next prime minister narrowed yesterday after Finance Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi stood down from consideration, making it a two-man Shiite race, party spokesmen said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152192
Kyoto Protocol finally enters into force
Reuters
Singapore: After years of delays, a world plan to fight global warming went into force today, feted by its backers as a lifeline for the planet but rejected as an economic straitjacket by the United States and Australia.
The 141-nation Kyoto Protocol formally took effect at 0500 GMT and a ceremony in the ancient Japanese city of Kyoto, where the pact was signed in 1997, is set for later in the day.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/WorldNF.asp?ArticleID=152304
Israel plans new West Bank colony
Reuters
Occupied Jerusalem: Israel has plans to build a new colony in the West Bank that could take in settlers uprooted from Gaza, officials said yesterday, drawing protests from Palestinians who fear losing land for a state they seek.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152215
The straw that would break the camel's back
By Manik Mehta, Special to Gulf News
Many Europeans hoped that provocative rhetoric coming from Washington about spreading democracy and freedom to the "dark corners of the world", was intended for domestic audiences.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152173
The death of love
By Abdul Hamid Ahmad, Editor-in-Chief
It certainly was not Valentine's Day! This was my plaintive cry on Monday evening because hatred and not love prevailed on that day. Apologies to our readers who saw the front page. It had blood, torn limbs and smoke, instead of red hearts.
http://www.gulfnews.com/Articles/RegionNF.asp?ArticleID=152174
The New Zealand Herald
Pacific Islands prepare for the worst from cyclones
Map of the pacific showing the paths of two cyclones which could cross paths over three island nations. Picture / Reuters
16.02.05 1.00pm
Two powerful cyclones bore down on three South Pacific island nations today, knocking down trees and power lines and forcing widespread evacuations.
Weakening Cyclone Nancy was causing damage in the southern Cook Islands while Cyclone Olaf continued to pose a critically dangerous situation for Samoa and American Samoa, the Australian-Pacific Centre for Emergency and Disaster Information (APCEDI) said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10111313
Magnitude 5.4 earthquake jolts Tokyo
16.02.05 9.30am
TOKYO - An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 5.4 jolted Tokyo on Wednesday, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10011301
THERE WAS A young man convicted of murdering his grandparents after taking Zoloft. If this young girl has been taking an anit-depressant like Zoloft she will be about the same age of the young man when he killed his grandparents.
Zoloft defence fails: teen killer gets 30 years jail
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Zoloft-defence-fails-teen-killer-gets-30-years-jail/2005/02/16/1108500159342.html
Missouri girl, 12, kills sister, 9, over hamburger
16.02.05 1.00pm
ST LOUIS - A 12-year-old girl has been charged with murder after she told police she strangled her 9-year-old sister in a fight over a hamburger, officials said on Tuesday.
The St. Louis Medical Examiner's office said it ruled the death of the younger girl a homicide weeks after her body was found in her home on December 22.
Authorities were unable to determine how she died until the 12-year-old said she killed her younger sister in a spat over a hamburger,
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10111303
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