CNN Presents "Melting Point" -- It's worth watching.  

CNN Presents - "It's No Longer a Debate. It's Preservation of Life."

Melting Point

Tracking the Global Warming Debate

The confusing debate over climate change has given way to a new scientific consensus: The Earth is getting warmer. But for some, global warming is already changing their lives.
Sunday, March 27 Melting Point: Tracking the Global Warming Threat 8 p.m. EST,Monday March 28 at 2 A.M. Eastern Time; Saturday, April 2 Melting Point: Tracking the Global Warming Threat 6 a.m., 8 p.m., 11 p.m.

Morning Papers - It's Origins

Rooster "Cock-A-Doodle-Do"

"Okeydoke"

Journalism at Risk

Latin American Writers Demand Cuba Free Jailed Journalists
Over 100 reporters and editors join global denunciation of Castro regime
By Eric Green
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- More than 100 prominent writers, editors and reporters throughout Latin America and the Caribbean have joined the global community in demanding that Cuban dictator Fidel Castro immediately release 23 jailed journalists.
The demand, sent in a March 16 letter to Castro by 108 journalists in 19 countries throughout the Americas, said the two-year-long imprisonments of the journalists violate "the most basic norms of international law" and represent "an affront to human dignity.

http://usinfo.state.gov/wh/Archive/2005/Mar/17-573348.html

The International Herald Tribune

Stunted recovery in battered Falluja

http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/25/news/falluja.html

The Los Angeles Times

DeLay's Own Tragic Crossroads

Family of the lawmaker involved in the Schiavo case decided in '88 to let his comatose father die.

By Walter F. Roche Jr. and Sam Howe Verhovek, Times Staff Writers

CANYON LAKE, Texas — A family tragedy that unfolded in a Texas hospital during the fall of 1988 was a private ordeal — without judges, emergency sessions of Congress or the debate raging outside Terri Schiavo's Florida hospice.

The patient then was a 65-year-old drilling contractor, badly injured in a freak accident at his home. Among the family members keeping vigil at Brooke Army Medical Center was a grieving junior congressman — Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

More than 16 years ago, far from the political passions that have defined the Schiavo controversy, the DeLay family endured its own wrenching end-of-life crisis. The man in a coma, kept alive by intravenous lines and oxygen equipment, was DeLay's father, Charles Ray DeLay.

Then, freshly reelected to a third term in the House, the 41-year-old DeLay waited, all but helpless, for the verdict of doctors.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-delay27mar27,0,5710023.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Closing a Peephole Into Iran

A spy ring infiltrating militant and intelligence networks based in South America was shut down after Sept. 11, a former CIA official says.
WASHINGTON — In its scramble to marshal resources for gathering intelligence on Al Qaeda and Iraq, the CIA shut down a spy ring it was operating in South America that was providing a rare glimpse of the activities of Iranian militants and intelligence networks, according to a former agency official involved in the operation.

The program, which had taken five years to assemble, penetrated Iranian intelligence operations in South America and succeeded to the point that several of the CIA's informants were taken to Iran for religious training, the former official said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-irancia27mar27,0,929362.story?coll=la-home-headlines

State Is Joining Shift on Prisons
As new strategies take hold around the nation, the governor is turning the focus of California's penal system to helping parolees rejoin society.

By Jenifer Warren, Times Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO — By insisting that California make rehabilitation a focus of prison life, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is joining a national movement of political leaders who believe it is time for a new approach to incarceration.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-prisons27mar27,0,1870680.story?coll=la-home-headlines

Big-Bang Effect Widening Universe, Team Theorizes

'Dark matter' isn't necessary to explain the accelerating expansion, some physicists say.
A group of physicists is battling what it considers the cosmological equivalent of the boogeyman: an enormous dark force, which nobody has ever seen, driving galaxies apart.
Conventional wisdom holds that a theoretical "dark energy" makes up some 70% of the universe, and could be the determining factor in whether the universe is destroyed billions of years from now. But Italian and American cosmologists have another explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe: They say the expansion is an overlooked aftereffect of the Big Bang, which brought about the universe.
"No mysterious dark energy is required," said Antonio Riotto at Italy's National Nuclear Physics Institute in Padova.
Since the late 1990s, scientists have used dark energy to explain an apparent antigravity force pushing galaxies away from each other at an accelerating rate.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-darkenergy26mar26,0,3109167.story?coll=la-home-science

17-Year-Old Girl Dies of Avian Flu in Vietnam

The 48th bird virus fatality in Southeast Asia follows the death of a man in Cambodia. A spate of possible cases is also reported.
A 17-year-old girl in northern Vietnam has died of avian influenza, the 48th official bird flu fatality in Southeast Asia since outbreaks began 18 months ago, local authorities said Friday.

The girl's death followed an announcement a day earlier by Cambodian health officials that a 26-year-old man there had died of the disease, the country's second fatality.

http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-birdflu26mar26,0,839436.story?coll=la-home-science

The Moscow News

By Anna Arutunyan The Moscow News
It seems that Kyrgyzstan will not experience a Georgian- or Ukrainian-style revolution. Instead, this Central Asian state is mired in a territorial showdown between the northern capital of Bishkek and the south, which could turn to civil war
What began as an attempt to repeat the Ukrainian scenario of regime change in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan after the opposition declared its March 13 parliamentary elections invalid, has turned violent as clashes between protesters and the

http://english.mn.ru/english/

Civil War Feared in Kyrgyzstan

What began as an attempt to repeat the Ukrainian scenario of regime change in the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan after the opposition declared its March 13 parliamentary elections invalid, has turned violent as clashes between protesters and the authorities in the republic's southern cities escalated.

http://english.mn.ru/english/issue.php?2005-11-1

Putin, Yushchenko on the Road to Making Amends
By Anna Arutunyan The Moscow News

President Vladimir Putin met with Ukraine's Viktor Yushchenko on Saturday in Kiev amid projected tensions between the two leaders, whose relations are said to still be complex after the Russian president backed Yushchenko's rival, Viktor Yanukovich, during the election campaign.

Putin, who was returning from meetings with the leaders of France, Germany and Spain, lunched at Yushchenko's dacha and met with the controversial prime minister, Yulia Timoshenko, for talks on the Common Economic Space between the two former Soviet countries.

http://english.mn.ru/english/issue.php?2005-11-3

School Shooting Massacre Leaves 10 Dead in U.S.
By Robert Bridge The Moscow News

A high school student went on a killing spree on Monday at Minnesota's Red Lake Indian Reservation, killing his grandparents at their home before shooting dead seven people at his school.

Witnesses said the gunman, identified through sources by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune newspaper as Jeff Weise, 17, entered the school after shooting a security guard at the front door. Among the dead at Red Lake High School were a female teacher, identified as Neva Rogers, 62, and at least six students. More than ten other people were reported injured.

http://english.mn.ru/english/issue.php?2005-11-7

U.S. Financial Authorities Blamed for Dollar's Slump against
The dollar has been depreciating against the ruble. Financial experts estimate how this may affect average Russian consumers and the Russian economy

The dollar has been declining against the ruble for quite a while, and Russians are much more worried about the dollar's fate than the ruble's. To determine the causes and effects of the dollar slump, MN put the following questions to the financial experts:

http://english.mn.ru/english/issue.php?2005-11-2

Poison Attack: Secret Service Stock-in-Trade
By Igor Korolkov The Moscow News
A medieval method of eliminating opponents seems to be in vogue today. Taking out political and business undesirables by poisoning is a classic method of the special services. Analyzed below are some of the recent high-profile poisoning cases

Last September, Roman Tsepov, president of the Baltik-Eskort security company, died in St. Petersburg. The doctors were unable to establish the cause of his death, but they suppose that it was a case of poisoning. This view is shared by Petr Perumov, department head at Hospital #32 where Tsepov was treated.

http://english.mn.ru/english/issue.php?2005-11-19


The Moscow Times

Moscow's Kyrgyz Diaspora Rejoices
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer
Moscow's Kyrgyz diaspora rejoiced Thursday at the ouster of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev in Bishkek.

"This is a true triumph -- it's a real, popular revolution!" said Raimkul Attokurov, a leader of Kyrgyz Unity, a nongovernmental organization uniting Kyrgyz emigres in the city.

"The old regime is going. Now the main thing is to prevent bloodshed," he said by telephone.

http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/03/25/012.html

To many Russians, the phrase "contemporary Jewish culture" sounds like an oxymoron.
By Victor Sonkin
Published: March 25, 2005

To many Russians, Israel is a Holy Land where every stone is a biblical monument, Sholem Aleichem was the last Jewish writer of any importance and the phrase "modern Jewish culture" sounds like an oxymoron. This is precisely the attitude that Linor Goralik and Yury Sorochkin, the organizers of the Eshkol project, are trying to change.

In fact, contemporary Israeli culture boasts imaginative and profound writers, ultramodern rock groups with their own unique philosophy, nonconformist fashion designers, and artists coveted by galleries in New York and Paris. Now, thanks to both state and private support from both Israel and Russia, this wide variety of Israeli cultural life has become available in Moscow.

http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/03/25/105.html


USA Today

Crowds gather at Vatican in hopes pope may give Easter blessing
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pilgrims and tourists headed to St. Peter's Square on a cool, rainy day in hopes ailing Pope John Paul II would be strong enough to appear to the crowds and deliver an Easter Sunday blessing.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-27-pope-easter_x.htm

Panel cites 'information gap' on relieving menopause
By Rita Rubin, USA TODAY
BETHESDA, Md. — After listening to 1½ days' worth of presentations about treatments for hot flashes and other menopausal symptoms, an independent panel of scientists concluded Wednesday that there is insufficient evidence to wholeheartedly endorse any of them.

Risks vs. benefit has been a concern for menopausal symptom drugs.
Stephen Chernin, Getty Images

"We clearly have an enormous information gap for understanding the best treatments for women who are symptomatic," said Carol Mangione, who chaired a 12-member "state-of-the-science" panel convened by the National Institutes of Health.
The NIH-sponsored Women's Health Initiative, which compared postmenopausal hormones with placebo pills in more than 27,000 women, was designed primarily to see whether long-term therapy could protect women against cardiovascular disease. But women with moderate to severe menopause symptoms were discouraged from participating.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2005-03-23-menopause_x.htm

Durant, Westwood share soggy lead in TPC
PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Lee Westwood and Joe Durant would have gladly taken this situation at the start of the week — tied for the lead in The Players Championship after three days of golf's richest tournament.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/golf/pga/2005-03-26-tpc-2nd_x.htm

Taiwanese hold massive demonstration against China
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Taiwan's capital on Saturday to protest a new Chinese law that authorizes an attack on the island if it moves toward formal independence. But China warned against stirring "new tension" and vowed never to back down.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-26-taiwan-china_x.htm

Kyrgyz parliament scrambles to restore order, new vote set for June 26
BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan (AP) — Police and volunteers' efforts to restore order to Bishkek after the overthrow of Kyrgyzstan's president appeared to be making progress Sunday after an end to the nighttime mass disorder that had seized the Kyrgyz capital.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-26-kyrgyzstan_x.htm

Poll: 24% of west Germans want Berlin Wall back
BERLIN (AP) — Fifteen years after the Berlin Wall fell, 24% of west Germans surveyed said they wanted it back, according to a poll published Saturday.
Germany has poured some $2 trillion into rebuilding the former East Germany, after the collapse of its communist regime led to reunification in 1990. But the east still lags economically, however, and is often blamed for Germany's big budget deficits and lagging growth.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2005-03-26-wall-poll_x.htm

The Sydney Morning Herald

Faithful head to Vatican
March 27, 2005 - 5:49PM

Pilgrims and tourists headed to St Peter's Square on a cool, rainy day in the hope ailing Pope John Paul II would be strong enough to appear to the crowds and deliver an Easter Sunday blessing.
For the first time since his papacy began in 1978, the pontiff was skipping the mid-morning Easter Sunday Mass while he continues his convalescence following two recent hospitalisations for breathing crises. He designated Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican secretary of state, to take his place at the Mass, which traditionally draws huge crowds to the square.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Breaking-News/Faithful-head-to-Vatican/2005/03/27/1111862250456.html

Bono launches clothes with a conscience
Bono is now another type of frontman. U2's lead singer has turned his considerable business acumen to a collection of
jeans, T-shirts, chiffon dresses and blazers under the brand name Edun.
He's out there promoting it and he's wearing it, showing off his Edun jeans.
With the launch of Edun - nude spelt backwards - Bono joins scores of musicians with their own fashion labels, but there is a twist. His mission is to build a brand that produces desirable and wearable clothing and provides employment in the developing world.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Fashion/Bono-launches-clothes-with-a-conscience/2005/03/26/1111692684995.html

New Kyrgyz leadership seeks order in tense times
March 27, 2005

Kyrgyzstan's new leadership will seek to tighten its hold on the ex-Soviet Central Asian state gripped by lawlessness after the toppling of President Askar Akayev.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/New-Kyrgyz-leadership-seeks-order-in-tense-times/2005/03/26/1111692683947.html

Poland hit eight in busy night of World Cup action
March 27, 2005 - 6:35PM

Poland lit up a busy night of World Cup action with an 8-0 thrashing of Azerbaijan on Saturday as the European zone qualifying competition resumed with a bang after the winter break.

While the Poles scored eight to record their biggest win for 42 years, England, Croatia, Belgium and the Czech Republic all cracked in four goals on a day of 17 qualifiers.

Former world and European champions France, however, continued to struggle in front of goal as they were held 0-0 by Switzerland in Paris. A series of missed chances, notably by striker David Trezeguet, condemned France to a sixth successive home draw, four of them goalless.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/Football/Poland-hit-eight-in-busy-night-of-World-Cup-action/2005/03/27/1111862251779.html

China bans novel depiction of sex under Mao
By Jonathan Watts
March 27, 2005

Chinese censors have banned a steamy political satire in which an army officer's wife and her lover smash up images of Mao Zedong to take them to new heights of sexual ecstasy.
The novella, Serve The People, named after Mao's most famous slogan, has been rejected for publication and a magazine that had been serialising the contents has been removed from the shelves.
Although the book was written by Yan Lianke, one of China's most distinguished authors, propaganda ministry officials are reported to have been apoplectic when they first read the tale of sexual revolution in the People's Liberation Army.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/China-bans-novel-depiction-of-sex-under-Mao/2005/03/26/1111692683907.html

Car bomb rocks Beirut Christian district
March 27, 2005 - 12:06PM

East Beirut was rocked by a huge explosion today, the third blast in a Christian quarter in the past week, which a police officer said was caused by a car bomb.

"It was a car bomb explosion," an officer said at the scene.

An AFP photographer reported seeing a burned out car several metres from the site of the explosion outside a building in an industrial district near Dekouaneh.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Car-bomb-rocks-Beirut-Christian-district/2005/03/27/1111862241305.html

All Africa

National Conference: Women Set Agenda
This Day (Lagos)
March 25, 2005
Posted to the web March 25, 2005
Paul Ibe
Abuja
Adelegate representing South-east women, (Mrs) Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, has said issues like citizenship, good governance, social justice, equity, health, education and human rights will top the agenda of women at the ongoing National Political Reform Conference (NPRC).

http://allafrica.com/stories/200503250301.html

The Washington Post

Panel Ignored Evidence on Detainee
U.S. Military Intelligence, German Authorities Found No Ties to Terrorists
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A01

A military tribunal determined last fall that Murat Kurnaz, a German national seized in Pakistan in 2001, was a member of al Qaeda and an enemy combatant whom the government could detain indefinitely at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The three military officers on the panel, whose identities are kept secret, said in papers filed in federal court that they reached their conclusion based largely on classified evidence that was too sensitive to release to the public.

In fact, that evidence, recently declassified and obtained by The Washington Post, shows that U.S. military intelligence and German law enforcement authorities had largely concluded there was no information that linked Kurnaz to al Qaeda, any other terrorist organization or terrorist activities.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3868-2005Mar26.html

THIS IS NOTHING. All the issues she speaks to are already in the works in the countries she is willing to address. Nothing like setting up a 'done deal' for you agenda and call it a victory.

Rice Describes Plans To Spread Democracy

Elections in Egypt Among Priorities
By Glenn Kessler and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A01

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday set out ambitious goals for the Bush administration's push for greater democracy overseas over the next four years, including pressing for competitive presidential elections this year in Egypt and women's right to vote in Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1911-2005Mar25.html

For Bride, Dowry Is Deal Breaker
Defiant Indian Women Increasingly Fighting In-Laws' Demands
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A19

SAYIN, India -- She wore a sari of red silk. He wore a maroon business suit and a gold-and-white turban. In front of several hundred guests, they garlanded each other with roses and marigolds, then sealed their union by circling a fire of mango-tree wood seven times as a Hindu priest chanted prayers. All agreed it was a splendid wedding.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3944-2005Mar26.html

HERE AGAIN, a Marine is not a soldier?

Two U.S. Soldiers, Marine Killed in Iraq
121 Suspected Insurgents Captured in Raid
By EDWARD HARRIS
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 26, 2005; 9:41 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A car bomb struck a U.S. military patrol Saturday in the Iraqi capital, killing two U.S. soldiers and injuring two others, and a Marine died in action in a restive central province, the military said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2938-2005Mar26.html

Afghan Blast Kills Four U.S. Soldiers
By STEPHEN GRAHAM
The Associated Press
Saturday, March 26, 2005; 8:45 AM
KABUL, Afghanistan - Four U.S. soldiers died when their vehicle struck a land mine in central Afghanistan on Saturday, the military said. It was unclear whether the mine was freshly laid or a leftover from the country's long wars.
The soldiers were among a group of American and Afghan officials examining a potential site for a shooting range in Logar Province, 25 miles south of Kabul, when one of their three vehicles hit the mine, spokeswoman Lt. Cindy Moore said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2895-2005Mar26.html

THERE IS SOMETHING WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE.

Bush: U.S. to Sell F-16s to Pakistan
Reversal, Decried by India, Is Coupled With Fighter-Jet Promise to New Delhi
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A01
CRAWFORD, Tex., March 25 -- President Bush rewarded a key ally in the war on terrorism Friday by authorizing the sale of F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, a move that reversed 15 years of policy begun under his father and that India warned would destabilize the volatile region.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A800-2005Mar25.html

For Pakistani Rape Victim, Battle Carries On
In Interview, Mukhtar Mai Recounts Emotions, Attitudes of Villagers and Family
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A08
MEERWALA, Pakistan -- Mukhtar Mai wept for an hour, she said, when she learned on March 3 that the men convicted of raping her would walk free. But the worst moment came the next morning when she rode through her village in a taxi. "I could see the happiness in people's faces," she recalled, "as if they were making fun of me."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1907-2005Mar25.html

Pneumonia Vaccine Cuts Deaths in African Children
U.S. Maker Decides Not to Market Formula That Attacks Strains Common in Developing World
Associated Press
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A16
LONDON, March 25 -- New research has confirmed that an experimental pneumonia vaccine specially formulated for the developing world could save the lives of children in Africa.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2230-2005Mar25.html

NYC Math Guide Pulled for Errors
Associated Press
Saturday, March 26, 2005; Page A02
NEW YORK, March 25 -- City officials recalled preparation material for math tests that had been sent to teachers after discovering they were filled with math and spelling mistakes.
The materials were designed for math students in grades 3 through 7 and had been sent to math coaches and local school superintendents. The errors were found late Wednesday before the guide reached classrooms.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2242-2005Mar25.html

Fading Image Of the Black Ballplayer
As Game Returns to D.C., Many African Americans Have Tuned Out Baseball
By Barry Svrluga and Robert E. Pierre
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A01
In the old days, Frank Robinson said, inner-city kids would grab a stick and a ball and run to the nearest sandlot. They would play from dawn till dusk, pickup games with shoddy equipment, but who cared? Not them. Because in the old days, baseball was the sport of the city, whether it was Oakland, Calif., where Robinson grew up, or, say, Washington, D.C.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2948-2005Mar26.html

The Jakarta Post

Magnitude-6.0 quake strikes off Indonesia
HONG KONG (AP): A magnitude-6.0 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, the Hong Kong Observatory said Sunday.
The tremor, centered in the Banda Sea about 230 kilometers (143miles) southeast of Ambon, the capital of eastern Maluku province, was recorded in Hong Kong at 1547 GMT Saturday, the observatory said in a statement.
It wasn't immediately if the quake led to any casualties or damage.
A magnitude-5.9 quake hit near the tsunami-devastated city of Banda Aceh in Aceh province on Friday. (*)

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050327093721&irec=4

Australia warns Indonesia: Pollution suit against U.S. mining firm could undermine investment
CANBERRA(AP): Indonesian legal action against a U.S. mining company for alleged pollution could undermine foreign investment in the Southeast Asian country, a top official in neighboring Australia said Sunday.
Earlier this month, Indonesia's environment ministry said it was suing a subsidiary of Denver-based Newmont Mining Corp., seeking millions of dollars (euros) in compensation from the company for allegedly polluting a bay off Sulawesi Island with arsenic.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050327103110&irec=1

Indonesian president to visit Australia Wednesday
CANBERRA (AP):Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono will make his first visit to Australia as national leader this week for meetings expected to lay the foundation for a new security pact between the two neighbors.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050327100628&irec=2

Malaysia's AirAsia inks Airbus deal after AWAIR success
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia has inked a contract to buy 60 new Airbus aircraft, with an option to purchase another 40 A320 jets as part of its regional expansion, a report said Sunday.
With the order and option commitment, AirAsia in a statement to Bernama news agency said it had become the single largest customer for Airbus in the Asia-Pacific region.

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050327095337&irec=3

Australia denies it was slow to help woman jailed in Indonesia
SYDNEY(AFP): Attorney-General Philip Ruddock on Sunday deflected criticism the government had done little to help an Australian woman jailed in Indonesia on drugs charges, saying her lawyers were slow to act.
Schapelle Corby, 27, has been jailed on the resort island of Bali since last October after 4.1 kilograms (nine pounds) of marijuana was found in her luggage on arrival at Denpasar airport. She faces the death penalty if found guilty.
Her supporters have accused the Australian government of not doing enough to have her released, particularly in relation to a Victorian prisoner they wanted brought to Bali to give evidence in Corby's trial

http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillatestnews.asp?fileid=20050327110703&irec=0

The Chicago Tribune

Man shot dead in traffic dispute
By Ofelia Casillas
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 26, 2005, 3:19 PM CST
Two people were killed in separate shootings on the South Side and two others, including a 14-year-old boy, were injured in a third shooting incident early Saturday.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050326shot,1,2197060.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Shooter's family suspects Prozac
Teen's dosage increased during past year
By Monica Davey and Gardiner Harris
New York Times News Service
Published March 26, 2005
RED LAKE, Minn. -- In their sleepless search for answers, the family members of Jeff Weise, the teenager who killed nine people and then himself, say they are left wondering about the drugs Weise was prescribed for his depression.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/health/chi-0503260276mar26,1,1940679.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Fire empties Evanston hotel, closes restaurant
Published March 26, 2005
A multi-alarm fire in a residential hotel in downtown Evanston Friday morning sent dozens of people into the streets and closed the upscale restaurant Trio for the night.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0503260112mar26,1,1789884.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Sales Drop at Wendy's After Finger Found
By ANDY RESNIK
Associated Press Writer
Published March 26, 2005, 4:18 PM CST
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Sales have dropped sharply at Wendy's fast food restaurants in the area of northern California where a woman claimed she found part of a finger in a bowl of chili, but analysts say the company's long-term prognosis should not be affected.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-wendys-finger,1,4034724.story?coll=chi-news-hed

Easter Bunny Gets Pummeled by Boy at Mall
By Associated Press
Published March 26, 2005, 11:59 AM CST
BAY CITY, Mich. -- The Easter Bunny is hopping mad. Bryan Johnson, who portrays the furry character at the Bay City Mall, says he was pummeled in an unprovoked attack on the job. Police say the attacker was a 12-year-old boy who sat on Johnson's lap the day before the March 18 incident.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-easter-bunny-attacked,1,7437119.story?coll=chi-news-hed

The India Times

'America lost India on March 25'

IANS
[ SUNDAY, MARCH 27, 2005 11:46:40 AM ]
NEW YORK: The Bush administration's decision to sell F-16 jets to Pakistan amounts to "rejecting India at the altar" of a new relationship and was "strategically a bad move", former Senator Larry Pressler has said.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1063092.cms

Stick to cricket on visit, India advises Mush

PTI
[ THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2005 07:07:19 PM ]

Responding to questions raised in Parliament, Minister of State for External Affairs Rao Inderjit Singh said Musharraf will come to India to watch cricket and if he talked to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, it will be about cricket and nothing else.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1061580.cms

Three Indian techies crack Google code jam

BANGALORE: Three Indians, including one based in Singapore, are among the top five winners of a contest organised by Google, the world's largest search engine.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1062903.cms

Indian tips for Pak call centre

MUMBAI: In one of the few business initiatives of its kind, a mid-size Indian technology company has entered into a pact with a Pakistani software firm to set up a call centre in Pakistan.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1062911.cms

Visa denial hurt national pride?

The denial of a US visa to Gujarat CM Narendra Modi raises a question of diplomatic courtesy, a question of how one should deal with constitutional functionaries and elected representatives of the people. After the unfortunate riots in Gujarat in 2002, elections were held and Modi was re-elected as the chief minister in a democratic manner. It's the voters who decided who would be elected.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1062980.cms

Indian buys plot on moon for $140
HYDERABAD: An entrepreneur here seems to be over the moon for having bought a five-acre lunar plot and has the legal deed to endorse the claim though how he plans to live there is still a mystery.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1063089.cms

Bus route 'PoK-marked' by security concerns

SRINAGAR: The first Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus will get a VIP flag-off amid much fanfare, but security concerns still continue to dictate its course.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1061979.cms

The Boston Globe

On centennial, Sinn Fein weighs cost of IRA violence
By Kevin Cullen and Charles M. Sennott, Globe Staff March 27, 2005
DUBLIN -- For half of Sinn Fein's 100 years, Miceal de Faoite has been a loyal member, dedicated to the party's goal of an independent, united Ireland.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/03/27/on_centennial_sinn_fein_weighs_cost_of_ira_violence/

Big Dig now faces property complaints
By Andrea Estes, Globe Staff March 27, 2005
The Big Dig has left a 2½-mile trail of cracked walls, shifting foundations, and flooded basements through the heart of the city, from North Station to the South End, property owners there say.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/03/27/big_dig_now_faces_property_complaints/

US arms Coast Guard terror units
Helicopters are tested on Cape Cod
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff March 27, 2005
COAST GUARD AIR STATION CAPE COD -- The United States is dramatically expanding its seacoast defenses by arming Coast Guard helicopters with machine guns, training security teams to rappel onto a hostile ship and take control of it through force, and deploying sensors, satellites, and surveillance cameras that feed new high-tech harbor command centers.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/03/27/us_arms_coast_guard_terror_units/

FBI slip sends CD back to ex-translator
Disc had led to worker's arrest
By Michael Levenson, Globe Correspondent March 27, 2005
The FBI acknowledged yesterday that it accidentally handed back a compact disc containing classified information to a former translator for the military who served 17 months in jail for illegally removing the disc from the US base in Guantanamo Bay.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2005/03/27/fbi_slip_sends_cd_back_to_ex_translator/

Fractured Iraq sees a Sunni call to arms
By Thanassis Cambanis, Globe Staff March 27, 2005
BAGHDAD -- For the first time, Sunni Muslim sheiks are publicly exhorting followers to strike with force against ethnic Kurds and Shi'ites, an escalation in rhetoric that could exacerbate the communal violence that already is shaking Iraq's ethnic communities.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2005/03/27/fractured_iraq_sees_a_sunni_call_to_arms/

Man arrested after violent stand off with police
March 26, 2005
DANBURY, N.H. -- A Danbury man is due to be arraigned in Franklin District Court on Monday after a violent stand off with state police.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2005/03/26/man_arrested_after_violent_stand_off_with_police/

Six Rhode Islanders dead in plane crash
March 26, 2005
BELLEFONTE, Pa. -- A small plane carrying two Rhode Island families to a college lacrosse games crashed Saturday afternoon, killing all six people on board, authorities said.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2005/03/26/six_rhode_islanders_killed_in_pennsylvania_plane_crash/

U.S. Sticking to Bush Assurances to Sharon - Rice
March 27, 2005
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday Washington was sticking to its support for Israel's intention to retain large West Bank settlement blocs in a final peace deal with the Palestinians.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/03/27/us_sticking_to_bush_assurances_to_sharon___rice/

Reservation life grinds down Indian youths
By Deborah Hastings, AP National Writer March 27, 2005
RED LAKE, Minn. -- The obituary in the small town paper was heartbreaking: Chase Albert "Beka" Lussier, born Dec. 23, 1989, died March 21 at Red Lake High School. A freshman who played basketball and loved computer games. Six paragraphs down, beside the photograph of a chubby-cheeked, smiling boy, came this sentence: "He spent his time juggling life between his family and his son."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/03/27/reservation_life_grinds_down_indian_youths/

Hundreds mourn at school shooting funerals
By Amy Forliti, Associated Press Writer March 27, 2005
RED LAKE, Minn. -- With the bang of a drum and a high-pitched wail, the first funerals began for victims of a teenager's shooting rampage on the Red Lake Indian Reservation where 10 people died.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/03/27/hundreds_mourn_at_school_shooting_funerals/

Report: India weighs buying U.S. warplanes
March 27, 2005
NEW DELHI -- India is considering buying American F-16 fighter jets for its air force, a news report said Sunday, just days after New Delhi protested a U.S. decision to sell the same aircraft to India's neighboring archrival, Pakistan.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/03/27/report_india_weighs_buying_us_warplanes/

U. of Fla. to replace uranium in reactor
March 26, 2005
GAINESVILLE, Fla. -- Weapons-grade uranium used as fuel in a research reactor at the University of Florida will be replaced with a safer alternative, officials said.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/03/26/u_of_fla_to_replace_uranium_in_reactor/

French Muslims Reopen Headscarf, Holiday Debate
By Tom Heneghan March 27, 2005
LE BOURGET, France (Reuters) - France's largest Muslim organization has urged the state to rethink its ban on Islamic headscarves in schools and to recognize Islamic holy days, reopening a debate most French thought was closed.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/03/27/french_muslims_reopen_headscarf_holiday_debate/

Social Engineering

GOP exploitation backfiring
By Harold Meyerson
WASHINGTON – For Tom DeLay, Terri Schiavo came along just in the nick of time. “One thing that God brought to us is Terri Schiavo, to help elevate the visibility of what is going on in America,” DeLay told a group of Christian conservatives last Friday.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/editorial/11228553.htm

Motherland's Stepford Wives

26.03.05
by Andrew Osborn

The young woman in a headscarf glares fiercely out from the billboard, her finger to her lips. Below, her message to passers-by is stark and somewhat menacing: "Swearing isn't our style."
Welcome to Belgorod, a medium-sized Russian town 650km south of Moscow, where austere Soviet values are still, miraculously, intact. As the nightclubs, restaurants and shopping malls of the capital embrace Western hedonism with gusto, Belgorod is trying to recreate a strictly ordered world which most Russians have forgotten existed.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10117124

Michael Moore Today

NRA:
Arm the Educators

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

NRA Leader Advocates Guns for Teachers
By Arthur H. Rotstein / Associated Press
PHOENIX - All options should be considered to prevent rampages like the Minnesota school shooting that took 10 lives — including making guns available to teachers, a top National Rifle Association leader said Friday.
"I'm not saying that that means every teacher should have a gun or not, but what I am saying is we need to look at all the options at what will truly protect the students," the NRA's first vice president, Sandra S. Froman, told The Associated Press.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1972

Court Rules Fire Department Must Release 9/11 Tapes to 'N.Y. Times'
Published: March 24, 2005 7:00 PM ET
NEW YORK New York City's Fire Department must release audiotapes and transcripts of interviews conducted with firefighters who responded to the 2001 terrorist attacks, but it can withhold portions that could cause serious pain or embarrassment, the state's highest court ruled Thursday.

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000855306

Price Increases by Companies Start to Stick

In recent years, most companies were forced to absorb the higher costs of basic expenses like employee health care, raw materials and energy, focusing instead on squeezing more efficiencies from their workers and machines.
But now, from airlines to manufacturers of advanced plastics, many businesses are overcoming their fears of losing customers and are starting to pass on cost increases.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/24/business/24inflation.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1111711544-bX4r4WPrTTCkzKafIlIj5g

Lured employers now tax Medicaid
Employees of companies given incentives to create jobs are relying heavily on health care for the poor. The biggest: Wal-Mart.

By SYDNEY P. FREEDBERG and CONNIE HUMBURG, Times Staff Writer
Published March 25, 2005
Wal-Mart Corp., which is getting millions of dollars in state incentives to create jobs in Florida, has more employees and family members enrolled in Medicaid than any company in the state.

http://www.stpetersburgtimes.com/2005/03/25/State/Lured_employers_now_t.shtml

MUST READ MAILBAG
Gloria writes (held over):
As a recipient of Social Security (acquired disability) and Medicaid (because my Rx's cost more than my Social Security check), I hear volumes about pro and anti-cuts. Why don't I hear about a primary problem... Rx companies gouging us or no choices for healthcare coverage?

I hear about us going to Canada or not, drugs that kill despite advertising efforts, and the rising costs of healthcare. I don't get it. We are giving the insurance and big drug companies a free ride on the backs of those who have the least lobbying power. Why? I don't think that most people understand that people with disabilites live on an income comparable to many third world countries and far below Mexico's considering the cost-of-living factor. I know. I lived and worked in Mexico as an international business consultant before I lost everything.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php

Hundreds Attend Minn. Victims' Funerals
By Amy Forliti and Joshua Freed / Associated Press
RED LAKE, Minn. - With the bang of a drum and a high-pitched wail, the first funerals began Saturday for victims of the shootings on the Red Lake Indian Reservation in which 10 people died.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1978

Security entourage holds clues in hunt for bin Laden
In an interview, Lt. Gen. Safdar Hussain, a top Pakistani commander, talks of the hunt on Pakistan's northwestern border.
By Owais Tohid / Christian Science Monitor
PESHAWAR, PAKISTAN - After three years of poking around caves, raiding compounds, and getting the slip from motorbike mullahs, the intelligence communities chasing Osama bin Laden finally seem to know what they're on the lookout for.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=1975

The New York Times

Cause of Mystery Ills Splits Indonesian Fishing Village
UYAT BAY BEACH, Indonesia - This is a simple village where the fishermen's families live on the sea in wooden shacks lighted by oil lamps and most everyone knows one another. But the people are divided by more than just the sandy track that passes for Main Street.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/international/asia/27indo.html?hp

New Details on F.B.I. Aid for Saudis After 9/11
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: March 27, 2005

WASHINGTON, March 26 - The episode has been retold so many times in the last three and a half years that it has become the stuff of political legend: in the frenzied days after Sept. 11, 2001, when some flights were still grounded, dozens of well-connected Saudis, including relatives of Osama bin Laden, managed to leave the United States on specially chartered flights.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/politics/27exodus.html

U.S. Is Examining Plan to Bolster Detainee Rights
By TIM GOLDEN
Published: March 27, 2005

The Defense Department is considering substantial changes to the military tribunals that the Bush administration established to prosecute foreign terror suspects at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, military and administration officials say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/politics/27detain.html?hp&ex=1111899600&en=f363e59197d6ef2a&ei=5094&partner=homepage

Pakistani Cited in Transfer of High-Tech Gear
By JENNY NORDBERG
Published: March 27, 2005

A Pakistani businessman with close ties to the country's military has been barred from doing business with American companies because federal investigators found that he had improperly bought high-tech components here that could be used in nuclear weapons.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/international/asia/27nuke.html

Charter Schools Alter Map of Public Education in Dayton
By SAM DILLON
Published: March 27, 2005

Tamra Jones, a sixth grader at Horizon Science Academy in Dayton, observes a project that measures the growth rate of plants.

DAYTON, Ohio - For decades, conservatives have dreamed of an America in which public schools would lose their monopoly on government education financing and face the harsh reality of market competition. Here in Dayton, their dream has come true with a vengeance.

Forty charter schools have opened in Dayton, and nine more have received preliminary approval for next fall. That would give this city of 166,000 people about as many charter schools as are in New Jersey, which has a population 50 times larger.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/education/27charter.html

THE INSURGENTS

Movement in the Pews Tries to Jolt Ohio
By JAMES DAO
Published: March 27, 2005

COLUMBUS, Ohio - Christian conservative leaders from scores of Ohio's fastest growing churches are mounting a campaign to win control of local government posts and Republican organizations, starting with the 2006 governor's race.
In a manifesto that is being circulated among church leaders and on the Internet, the group, which is called the Ohio Restoration Project, is planning to mobilize 2,000 evangelical, Baptist, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic leaders in a network of so-called Patriot Pastors to register half a million new voters, enlist activists, train candidates and endorse conservative causes in the next year.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/politics/27OHIO.html

The Crow of the Early Bird

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/fashion/27SLEEP.html

THERE was a time when to project an image of industriousness and responsibility, all a person had to do was wake at the crack of dawn. But in a culture obsessed with status—in which every conceivable personal detail stands as a marker of one's ambition or lack thereof—waking at dawn means simply running with the pack. To really get ahead in the world, to obtain the sacred stuff of C.E.O.'s and overachievers, one must get up before the other guy, when the roosters themselves are still deep in REM sleep. And of course since so few people are awake at such an ungodly hour, the early risers of the world take special pains to let everyone else know of their impressive circadian discipline.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/fashion/27SLEEP.html

NASA has money to give away?????

NASA Will Offer Cash Prizes for Technological Innovations
By WARREN E. LEARY
Published: March 27, 2005

WASHINGTON, March 26 - In an effort to stimulate fresh thinking, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration has announced that it will offer cash prizes for innovative technology that can be applied to space exploration.
The competitions, open to large and small companies, colleges, technology groups and individuals, are seen as ways to promote innovation by letting contestants pose any solution that works to solve a problem, an agency official said Friday.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/27/politics/27prize.html

The Cheney Observer

The Insurgent of all Insurgents

Evansville site of gas search
Texas firm to drill for coal methane
Associated Press
EVANSVILLE – A Texas energy company is preparing to drill test wells in southwest Indiana in hopes of extracting natural gas from the region’s coal beds.
Natural gas is typically extracted from sandstone and limestone, but a recent spike in natural gas prices has made less productive sources of the gas more attractive for development, company officials said.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/11238179.htm


Occidental Petroleum initiated with "outperform"

http://www.newratings.com/analyst_news/article_747742.html

Halliburton agrees to forgo new contracts in Iran
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Saturday, March 26, 2005
NEW YORK: U.S. oil services giant Halliburton agreed to forgo any new business in Iran, according to a New York city pension fund official who has been pressing for the move as a shareholder in the company. New York City Comptroller William Thompson said that the company agreed to the move in response to a shareholder resolution submitted by three of the city's pension funds.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=13761

Cultural Barbarism: Halliburton Destroys Babylon
The devastating and wanton damage inflicted on the ancient city of Babylon by US-led military forces gives another meaning to the term collateral damage
The sterile term “collateral damage” justifiably brings to mind the human tragedy of war. But the devastating and wanton damage inflicted on the ancient city of Babylon by US-led military forces gives another meaning to the term. In this case, we are witnessing violence against one of the world’s greatest cultural treasures. Babylon’s destruction, according to The Guardian, “must rank as one of the most reckless acts of cultural vandalism in recent memory.” When Camp Babylon was established by US-led international forces in April 2003, leading archeologists and international experts on ancient civilizations warned of potential peril and damage. It was “tantamount to establishing a military camp around the Great Pyramid in Egypt or around Stonehenge in Britain,” according to a damning report issued in January by the British Museum.

http://www.gnn.tv/headlines/1633/Cultural_Barbarism_Halliburton_Destroys_Babylon

The Darkness Has Come
by John Tully

Last year the oily and corrupt House leader Congressman Tom Delay personally used the Department Of Homeland Security to track down and locate members of the Texas State Legislature who had fled to Oklahoma after Mr. Delay tried to redistrict his home state into illogical shapes that were straight off of a sushi plate.
This week Mr. Delay subpoenaed a brain-dead woman to Capitol Hill to score political capital from the religious and rigid right and distract from his vast legal problems including the illegal use of campaign funds and his current successful attempt to literally change the House's ethics rules, written in secret. Texas, of course, is where they execute retarded people and adolescents.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0325-32.htm

Nuclear Cleanup Team for Hanford's River Corridor Chosen
WASHINGTON, DC, March 25, 2005 (ENS) – A new contract has been awarded for cleanup and remediation of radioactive contamination along the Columbia River Corridor on the Hanford Nuclear Reservation in southeastern Washington. The contract calls for cleaning up and taking down hundreds of obsolete facilities, remediating nuclear waste sites and burial grounds and placing deactivated plutonium production reactors into stable condition at the Department of Energy (DOE) facility.

http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/mar2005/2005-03-25-091.asp

Cleanup of waste tanks complete
By FRANK MUNGER, munger@knews.com
March 25, 2005

OAK RIDGE - The government's cleanup team has stabilized the last of 42 underground nuclear-waste tanks at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, completing a major project that began seven years ago.

The last part of the tank project was completed more than a year ahead of schedule at a cost of about $5 million, roughly half the originally projected amount.

In a statement, Steve McCracken, the Department of Energy's cleanup manager, said, "Not only was this project completed under budget and ahead of schedule, but it was also done safely."

Dennis Hill, a spokesman for Bechtel Jacobs Co., DOE's environmental manager, said the final two tanks - known as T-1 and T-2 - were filled with grout and rendered nonthreatening to the environment.

The large stainless-steel tanks, which are 10 feet in diameter, will be left in place, Hill said.

The T-1 and T-2 tanks were part of an underground waste system that received radioactive liquids from the High Flux Isotope Reactor and other nuclear facilities at ORNL.

Before the tanks could be grouted, about 3,300 gallons of low-level radioactive sludge had to be removed from the two tanks. The sludge was transported to a nearby waste-treatment facility owned and operated by Foster Wheeler Environmental. Ultimately, those wastes will be treated and sent to an underground repository in New Mexico.

AEA Technology did the tank grouting under a subcontract to Bechtel Jacobs.

Over the seven-year project, contractors removed more than 100,000 gallons of radioactive sludge from 42 waste tanks at ORNL.
The tank program was a major part of DOE's accelerated cleanup program in Oak Ridge and an important milestone in Bechtel Jacobs' contract with the federal agency.

Senior writer Frank Munger may be reached at 865-342-6329.

http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_3649100,00.html

Gov. Bush Cancels Appearance at Good Friday Service for Fear of Facing Schiavo Supporters
To: National Desk
Contact: Rev. Patrick Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition, 202-547-1735, 540-538-4741 cell
TALLAHASSEE, Fl., March 25 /Christian Wire Service/ -- Governor Jeb Bush was scheduled to attend and participate in an outdoor Good Friday service at 12:30 pm, at Florida State University. According to event organizers, the Governor canceled at the last minute.

As part of this event Jeb Bush would have publicly read from a printed program that includes the following text entitled the Fifth Station of the Cross; "Lord Jesus, sometimes I don't want to do what is right or to help someone in need, but you want me to respond positively to the needs of others in my life. Help me to say 'yes' and be willing to give heroic assistance to all who are in need."

"It is clear that Governor Bush canceled his scheduled participation in this Stations of the Cross service out of fear and guilt of seeing supporters of Terri Schiavo pleading for her life. Our prayer for Governor Bush is the same prayer he would have prayed publicly on this Good Friday, had he kept his scheduled appointment.

http://www.earnedmedia.org/cdc0325.htm

China to construct world's longest under water oil pipeline
[China News] Beijing, Mar. 25 : China has started laying a 2.3 kilometer-long oil pipeline beneath the Yangtze River, which will be the world's longest under a river.
The planned oil pipeline will travel beneath the Yangtze River in Jiujiang, east China's Jiangxi Province, reports The News.
The pipeline section will be the world's longest underneath a river and it will travel about 60 meters below the riverbed.
Building the Yizheng-Changling crude oil pipeline will reduce the cost of oil transportation.(ANI)

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=9034

China starts work on cross-border oil pipeline to Kazakhstan
[China News] Beijing, Mar 25 : China has started construction on the 240-kilometre-long cross-border oil pipeline to Kazakhstan.

http://www.newkerala.com/news-daily/news/features.php?action=fullnews&id=90363

Convoy Unprepared for Last, Fatal Run
A series of missteps sent a group of Americans into a gantlet of fiery slaughter in Iraq.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-convoy26mar26,0,5900936.story?coll=la-home-headlines

War ina Babylon: US Cultural Genocide in Iraq
William Bowles, I‘n’I
March 26, 2005
Following are three articles that illustrate the real nature of the so-called civilised world’s attitude toward the developing world: the story of the destruction of Babylon, a site identified as one of the birthplaces of civilisation (but obviously not the Western version).

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m10686&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Bechtel finds more defects in Boston’s ‘Big Dig’ tunnel
Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the lead design firm for Boston’s $14.6 billion “Big Dig” highway project, said that inspections of the project’s Interstate 93 tunnel revealed three more flawed panels, and that repairs will begin within a few weeks.

http://www.pbn.com/contentmgr/showdetails.php/id/113987

Bush's Back-and-Forth Reflects Rift in Party
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 27, 2005; Page A06
WACO, Tex., March 26 -- He flew halfway across the country in a vain effort to save her life, but in the week since, President Bush has retreated back to his ranch and remained largely out of sight as the nation wrestled with the great moral issues surrounding the fate of Terri Schiavo.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A3797-2005Mar26.html

THE BUZZ
2008 handoff?
Vice President Dick Cheney is being urged by some key conservatives to reconsider his refusal to run for president in 2008. TV host Lawrence Kudlow, The Weekly Standard's Fred Barnes and Policy Review's Tod Lindberg have all written columns this month pining for a reversal by Cheney. They say his foreign policy credentials make him the most qualified heir to President Bush's push for Middle East democratization.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/11233978.htm

U.S. Weighs Changes in Handling Terror Suspects: NYT
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The Defense Department is considering major changes to the military tribunals that the Bush administration established to prosecute foreign terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, The New York Times reported in Sunday editions.
Citing military and administration officials, the newspaper said the proposed changes were detailed in a more than 200-page draft manual for the tribunals that has been circulating among Pentagon lawyers.

However, there are reservations about effecting the changes because of the opposition of Vice President Dick Cheney, the newspaper said.

...opposition of Vice President Dick Cheney, the newspaper said.

...opposition of Vice President Dick Cheney…

...opposition of Vice President Dick Cheney...

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=domesticNews&storyID=8006893

The Sun Sentinal

High costs cast doubt on elevated rail project
$1.2 billion tag may sink people-mover
By Scott Wyman
Staff writer
Posted March 27 2005
A one-way trip on the automated shuttle that county officials hope will eventually link Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to Port Everglades could be more expensive than a day at the Miami zoo or a cruise on the Jungle Queen.
No more than five miles long, the system of elevated trains would cost $1.2 billion to build and almost $20 million a year to run. The estimates detailed in a recent consultants' report to county commissioners would require Broward to tack one-way fees of $17.85 onto the tickets of cruise passengers who use the airport or find another way to fill a $1 billion shortfall in funding.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cairport27mar27,0,6351646.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Boca Raton, Ocean Ridge beaches reopen after sewage spill
By Ushma Patel
Sun-Sentinel
Posted March 26 2005, 7:11 PM EST
Beaches in Boca Raton and Ocean Ridge were reopened late Saturday afternoon after tests showed the water to be safe. They had been closed since Friday morning, when 250,000 gallons of sewage spilled into the Intracoastal Waterway at Delray Beach.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-sewagespill0326,0,6206760.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Weak dollar helps fuel foreigners' purchase of U.S. property
By Mike Schneider
The Associated Press
Posted March 26 2005, 3:37 PM EST
ORLANDO, Fla. -- So many television programs about purchasing real estate in the United States are now on Irish television that they've eclipsed Ana McColgan's beloved celebrity-chef shows.
The trans-Atlantic real estate rush, though, may be rubbing off. McColgan too is in the hunt for a three-bedroom home in the metro Orlando area.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-realestateforeigners0326,0,830513.story?coll=sfla-home-headlines

Arizona State Running Back Held in Slaying
MEL REISNER
AP Sports Writer
Posted March 26 2005, 8:20 PM EST
TEMPE, Ariz. -- Arizona State running back Loren Wade was arrested Saturday on suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting death of a former ASU football player.
Police said Brandon Falkner, 25, of Tempe was shot in the head about 2:30 a.m. Saturday as he sat in his car outside Club CBNC, a Scottsdale nightspot.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/ats-ap_top13mar26,0,6243465.story?coll=sns-newsnation-headlines

Anarchist Bookfair Marks Decade of Dissent
By JUSTIN M. NORTON
Associated Press Writer
Posted March 26 2005, 4:41 PM EST

and find out how to get one week extra!
Click here or call 1-877-READ-SUN.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Ten years after it started, the Bay Area Anarchist Bookfair has become a popular rallying point for the far left, thanks to shared enemies like the Bush Administration and the Patriot Act.
What originally was a few radicals getting together to talk politics has become the focus of an entire weekend of dissident cultural events, from punk rock concerts to soccer games.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/features/lifestyle/ats-ap_entertainment12mar26,0,6116010.story?coll=sfla-entertainment-headlines

The Fort Wayne Journal Gazette

Grissom spacesuit locked in bad orbit
Frank Gray
Forty years ago, Gus Grissom took the old silver spacesuit that he wore into space aboard the Liberty Bell in 1961 and took it home.
By some accounts, NASA had planned to destroy the outdated suit and Grissom had simply salvaged it and taken it home to hang in his closehttp://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/local/11218856.htm

Student’s death 3rd in a year for school
Homestead offers grief counseling
By Kenya Woodard and Craig Rimlinger
The Journal Gazette
The halls of Homestead High School were dark and somber Friday afternoon, a scene that matched the cloud of grief that settled over the school a day after the death of sophomore Zachary Gentry.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/11238086.htm

Jackson, boy’s prints shown
Expert shows jury sex mag’s evidence
Associated Press
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The prosecution in Michael Jackson’s child molestation trial showed jurors Friday its most controversial piece of evidence – a sexually explicit magazine containing three fingerprints from Jackson’s accuser and one from the pop star himself.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/11238098.htm

Lebanon rejects U.N. report in Hariri’s slaying
Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon – Lebanon’s pro-Syrian leaders Friday rejected a sharply critical U.N. report blaming Damascus for stoking tensions that might have led to the assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, but they grudgingly accepted a U.N. investigation into the slaying.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/11238105.htm

Belarusian president quashes protesters’ takeover attempt
Associated Press
MINSK, Belarus – Belarusian demonstrators tried to rally outside the office of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko on Friday to demand his ouster in a self-declared attempt to emulate a popular uprising in Kyrgyzstan, but they were beaten back by riot police swinging clubs.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/11238102.htm

Worker arrested in bomb threat
Phone system upgrade IDs Bendix employee
By Rebecca S. Green
The Journal Gazette
A 40-year-old Marion man was arrested Thursday evening and charged with phoning in a bomb threat to his Huntington employer.
John Niccum Jr. of the 1800 block of West 10th Street in Marion was charged with false informing, a Class D felony. He was released Friday from the Huntington County Jail on $7,000 bond.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/11238172.htm

Chinese families say teenage girls buried alive
Say factory closed underage workers’ coffins prematurely
By Edward Cody
Washington Post
BEIXINZHUANG, China – A nightmare has descended on this poor farming village, filling its muddy lanes and brick homes with dread.

http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/11238180.htm

The New Zealand Herald

Innocent man killed as hysteria takes hold

26.03.05
by Ian Herbert

Paul Cooper was never short of friends in the area of Manchester where he grew up. He was known for his devotion to his dog, Blue, an interest in cookery and an optimistic outlook, despite a motorcycle crash that meant he used a walking stick.
But a positive contribution to community life counts for little when a neighbourhood starts feeding on fears of crime and takes the law into its own hands.
A murder investigation was under way this week after a gang of men near Cooper's home at Heywood wrongly convinced themselves he was a paedophile and beat him to death at his flat.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10117121

Kyrgyz leaders appear to survive challenge to power

27.03.05 12.20pm

BISHKEK - Kyrgyzstan's new leaders appeared on Sunday to have survived an initial challenge to their power from a disaffected ex-police chief but the situation in the Central Asian state remained clouded by uncertainty.
A day of turmoil and confusion, including talk of civil war and assassination, may deepen concern among authoritarian leaders in neighbouring Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The region, rich in oil and gas deposits, is viewed with keen interest by both Moscow and Washington.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10117316

After defeats Schiavo parents tell supporters to go home

27.03.05 4.00pm

PINELLAS PARK, Fla. - Terri Schiavo's parents suffered more court defeats this weekend, leaving them with dwindling hopes as their brain-damaged daughter passed her eighth day without food and edged toward death.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10117327

Batting for the South Pacific
26.03.05
by Janet McAllister

An Aussie diplomat. Surely that's a contradiction in terms? Greg Urwin would hasten to correct you: for a start, although he spent more than 30 years in Australia's foreign service, he is now the Pacific Forum's Secretary-General and is emphatically no longer Canberra's man.

Second, he would dismiss the jibe as he has always got irritated by the tendency of New Zealand and Australia to snipe at one another.
So we won't be mentioning the cricket, then. Urwin's eyes crinkle up as he bursts into chuckles.

"Your choice, not mine. I'm a cricket nut!" He has proudly passed the mania on to his stepsons - all three were in the Samoan cricket team for the latest Pacific Games.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10117114

Kerri Woodham: Public battle for life or death robs Terri of her dignity
27.03.05

I wonder how many Terri Schiavos there are in this country. The tug of love over this severely brain-damaged Florida woman has made headlines around the world, as her parents fight in vain to have her feeding tube reinserted and her husband fights for her right to die.

… He's been offered millions of dollars by Christian businessmen to keep her alive. Apparently there's $10 million with his name on it if he drops his legal action.

So it can't be about any money he'll collect on Terri's death. He'd be able to divorce her to marry his current partner. No court in the land would blame him for seeking a divorce so he hardly requires Terri's death to marry again.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=466&ObjectID=10117263

The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is :

Scott Base

Cloudy

-19.0°

Updated Sunday 27 Mar 8:59PM

The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:

37 °F / 3 °C
Overcast

Humidity:
87%

Dew Point:
34 °F / 1 °C

Wind:
Calm

Pressure:
29.12 in / 986 hPa (Rising)


Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16

Clouds (AGL):
Mostly Cloudy 3000 ft / 914 m
Overcast 3600 ft / 1097 m

end