Friday, May 06, 2005
A Smattering of This and a Bit of That
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
IEDs in NYC;
Blasts in front of building that houses the British Consulate in New York City shattered windows but did not cause significant damage or any injuries
Blasts at UK Consulate in NYC
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two "improvised explosive devices" made from "novelty-type grenades" have exploded in front of the building that houses the British Consulate in New York City, police and officials said.
The early Thursday morning blasts shattered windows but did not cause significant damage or any injuries, the New York Police Department said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2514
Joint Local-Federal Terrorism Task Force Joins Investigation
NYC Building Housing U.K. Consulate Damaged in Blast
May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Two replica grenades exploded early today outside an office building housing the British consulate in New York, shattering windows while causing no injuries, authorities said.
Police had no suspects and didn't know the motive for the 3:35 a.m. attack, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference at the site in midtown Manhattan this morning. Police are looking at surveillance-camera video for clues, he said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2515
A White House Adrift
Gas prices, Social Security, Tom DeLay. What else can go wrong for Bush?
By Holly Bailey and Richard Wolffe / Newsweek
May 9 issue - George Voinovich is not your typical Bush loyalist. A self-styled deficit hawk, the former Cleveland mayor and Ohio governor is so frugal that he once fished a penny out of a urinal in the Statehouse. To the White House, his independent spirit should have come as no surprise: he split with his party over the estate tax in 2000 and he opposed the size of Bush's tax cuts three years later. Yet when it came to the prickly question of John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador, the president's team assumed Voinovich would fall into line.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2519
Military at Risk, Congress Warned
By Mark Mazzetti / Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — Strains imposed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it far more difficult for the U.S. military to beat back any future act of aggression, launch a preemptive strike or intervene to prevent conflict in another part of the world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a classified analysis sent to Congress on Monday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2476
U.S. Seen As Unaccountable in Iraqi Civilian Deaths
By Alan Elsner / Reuters
WASHINGTON, May 3 - Iraqi civilians who have suffered from U.S. military operations face steep obstacles in obtaining compensation for the deaths of their loved ones or material damage, human rights analysts say.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2477
Families of dead soldiers to sue Blair
By Kate Holton / Reuters
LONDON - The families of soldiers who died in Iraq will launch a bid on Tuesday to take Prime Minister Tony Blair to court over his "deception" in going to war.
Two days before the election, the families will deliver a letter to Downing Street outlining the legal case they will bring against the Prime Minister.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2491
The This and That
Vet becomes crusader for victims of soldier rape
By M.L. LYKE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The Army vet listens and lets fly. She has zero tolerance for tales of soldier rape. "In the military, they'll tell you, 'Lady, you can't get compensation for having sex,' " said Susan Avila-Smith, the Puget Sound area's outspoken advocate for sexually assaulted veterans.
Her client Donna Jean Patee nods from her wheelchair, her service dog asleep at her feet. "It happened to me," said the former Navy petty officer, who filed a rape claim in 1993. Patee said she was on waterfront watch in San Diego in the 1960s when five sailors gang-raped her.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/219613_crusader11.html
Parents angry over Seattle schools plan that ends open enrollment
By DEBORAH BACH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Just over a month ago, Lynne Stern Feiges got the news she'd been waiting for: Her daughter would be able to attend kindergarten next year at a Queen Anne school Feiges hand-picked.
John Hay Elementary is a trek from Feiges' home in Greenwood, but she thought its focus on advanced learning was a good fit for her daughter. So she notified the private school where her daughter attends preschool and canceled her registration for next year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/222581_schools03.html
Academics, left-wing activists hold protest in Ariel college
By Lilly Galili and Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondents
A group of some 60 Tel-Aviv university academics and left-wing activists Wednesday morning held protest in front of the Judea and Samaria College of Ariel in the West Bank against a government decision to confer university status to the college.
The protestors spoke to students, who expressed their surprise with the demonstration saying they thought Ariel was seen in the Israeli consensus as being part of Israel in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572361.html
Netanyahu: Don't depend on Egypt on Gaza border
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to a Knesset panel's warnings against deploying Egyptian troops on the Philadelphi route on the Gaza-Egypt border, said Wednesday that he "wouldn't depend" on Egypt for security on the volatile frontier strip.
In a rare move, the Knesset subcommittee that supervises covert services decided Tuesday night to warn the ministers in the political-security cabinet against approving a plan to have 750 Egyptian soldiers stationed on the Philadelphi route.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572287.html
Newsview: U.S.-Russia Friendship Tested
By DONNA CASSATA
Associated Press Writer
May 5, 2005, 3:00 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's uneven record on reform and President Bush's campaign to spread democracy are sorely testing the wary friendship that grew between Russia and the United States out of the hostility of the Cold War.
From the U.S. perspective, Putin has been backsliding on democratic reforms and cracking down on businesses, the media and political institutions. Bush's actions in Iraq, in former Soviet satellites and beyond have raised red flags in Moscow -- in some quarters, nostalgia for the days of the hammer and sickle.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-russia-frayed-ties,0,4407494.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
TOPOL-M MOBILE COMPLEX TO ENTER ON COMBAT DUTY IN 2006
VLASIKHA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The first mobile complex Topol-M will enter on combat duty of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) in 2006, the RVSN commander said. According to Nikolai Solovtsov, the silo-based Topol-M missile complexes are now in service in the Russian troops. "The RVSN retains the possibility to have both stationary and mobile Topol-M units in combat service," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39904513.html
RUSSIAN PROSECUTOR-GENERAL SUGGESTS MONITORING FUTURE OF CHILDREN ADOPTED BY FOREIGNERS
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov suggested that the Russian Government should sign international agreements with those countries whose citizens adopt Russian children, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said Wednesday.
The purpose of the proposed agreements is to control the status of the adopted children and to prevent acts of violence against them.
http://en.rian.ru/society/20050504/39861737.html
VENEZUELA TO CHOOSE BETWEEN RUSSIAN WARPLANES
MOSCOW, May 3. (RIA Novosti) - It seems that Russia's Mikoyan-Gurevich and Sukhoi corporations will compete against each other in Venezuela. The country's Defense Ministry is considering purchasing Su-27 fighter-bombers and Su-25 ground-attack jets even though it has not completed talks on buying MiG-29-SMT air-superiority fighters, a leading business daily, Vedomosti, writes.
A delegation of Venezuela's Defense Ministry saw Sukhoi aircraft at a defense technology exhibition for Latin America that ended in Rio de Janeiro on April 29. Venezuela could buy Su-25s for its navy and Su-27 for its air force. In all, two squadrons, comprising 10 to 12 Su-25s and Su-27s, might be purchased.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050503/39788813.html
IGOR IVANOV: GEORGIA, KYRGYZSTAN AND UKRAINE REVOLUTIONS HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH DEMOCRACY
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - The coups in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine are under study in Russia for learning the lessons taught, Russian Security Council secretary Igor Ivanov said in the interview to the journal Strategiya Rossii (Russia's Strategy).
In his opinion, "a change of power by undemocratic methods" has taken place in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
"When they speak of 'velvet' revolutions, victory of democracy in these countries - all this makes me skeptical", Igor Ivanov stressed, calling all the three "unconstitutional change of power".
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050504/39886033.html
RUSSIAN AIR FORCE COMMANDER PROMISES AIR SECURITY ON MAY 9
ZARYA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhailov has promised to provide air security on May 9.
"All security measures will be reliable. Today we held exercises involving all means needed for Russia's air security," he said.
The commander denied the information that antiaircraft guns would be placed on some skyscrapers in Moscow. I did not give such orders, Mikhailov noted.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936358.html
ONE IN EVERY TEN SOVIET JEWS FOUGHT AT THE FRONT
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Marianna Belenkaya). On May 9, 1945, the world will mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism.
To quote from one of the most famous Russian songs about the war, "We need victory, victory for all, whatever the cost." No one has ever worked out which of the ethnic groups of the Soviet Union made the biggest contribution to the defeat of Germany. Everyone suffered, and everyone shared the victory. But regrettably, the situation in the country after the war was such that the heroism of many soldiers and officers and many facts about the war went unmentioned. This is why generations that did not experience the war often have a distorted view of it.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39936041.html
Russia will bar this extradition and rightfully so, this man has huge amounts of information the USA will trade for his freedom.
WHAT THE RUSSIAN PAPERS SAY
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)
Gazeta/Vedomosti
America Demands Nuclear Expert's Extradition
Yevgeny Adamov, a former nuclear energy minister of Russia, has been arrested in Switzerland at the request of the United States. American officials are insisting that he be extradited to the U.S. to face charges that he embezzled $9 million from the U.S. Energy Department. Adamov's lawyer, Timofei Gridnev said the arrest took place in a Bern court where his client had come to answer some financial questions. Two dailies, Gazeta and Vedomosti, pick up the theme.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39888564.html
RUSSIAN EX-MINISTER LOATH TO GO TO AMERICAN DOCK
GENEVA, May 4 (RIA Novosti, Ekaterina Andrianova) - Evgeni Adamov, recent Russia's Nuclear Energy Minister, has refused to undergo a simplified extradition procedure, says Folko Galli of Switzerland's Federal Department of Justice.
Mr. Adamov, 65, currently in Swiss detention, was questioned today, and flatly refused to be extradited to the USA on swindling and money laundering suspicions. Now, Switzerland intends to demand from the United States a formal extradition application. The procedure usually takes forty days, and is occasionally prolonged to sixty, Mr. Galli said to Novosti.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050504/39885556.html
I didn't know Russia was as much of a nuclear threat as Iran. Hm?
NO US INSPECTIONS DUE AT RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The US inspections of Russian nuclear facilities have not been and are not coming under consideration, said a high-level Defense Ministry official.
Colonel-General Igor Valynkin is the head of the 12th department of the Defense Ministry in charge of nuclear transportation and storage.
Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov, the commander of the Strategic Missile Force (SMF), earlier told reporters that Russia would not let other countries to SMF facilities.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936216.html
BORODIN CLAIMS FORMER MINISTER ARRESTED FOR POLITICAL REASONS
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Pavel Borodin, the state secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus said at a news conference in Moscow today that Yevgeny Adamov, a former Russian minister of nuclear energy, had been arrested for political reasons.
Borodin himself was arrested in New York's Kennedy international airport in January 2001 at the request of Swiss prosecutors who suspected him of laundering $25 million. He was subsequently handed over to Swiss authorities and later released on bail. Eventually he voluntarily testified to Swiss investigators, and the case against him was closed in March 2001.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39917629.html
RUSSIAN OIL EXPORTS TO CHINA FACE PROBLEMS
MOSCOW. (Marina Pustilnik, RIA Novosti commentator.) Russian oil companies' plans to export record levels of oil to China may have to be seriously rethought, as terminals in western Siberia will struggle to cope with the Russian-Chinese contracts.
Indeed, plans to increase the capacity of oil loading terminals are still being only discussed, so it seems the situation is likely to remain up in the air for some time to come.
Under the agreements signed by President Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, on October 14, 2004, China should receive from Russia at least 10 million tons of oil by rail this year.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39917582.html
Opinion & analysis
U.S. IN CASPIAN REGION AND RUSSIA'S POSITION
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Pyotr Goncharov). Iran has offered support for a Russian initiative on the Caspian Sea states alone establishing a joint rapid reaction force in the region.
"These Caspian states should come to terms on the establishment of a rapid reaction force," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
Russia's initiative initially envisaged more than efforts to combat international terrorist attacks against the region and to avert other common threats. It was also designed to prevent countries from outside the region, above all the U.S., from becoming involved in the affairs of the region, which the U.S. has included in the zone of its interests. This fully met Iran's interests. Will Russia and Iran be able toprevent an American presence in the Caspian region?
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050504/39817504.html
THE "OCCUPATION" OF BALTIC COUNTRIES AND THE PRAGMATIC U.S.
MOSCOW (Alexei Makarkin, for RIA Novosti) - U.S. President George Bush wrote in a letter to his Latvian colleague, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, that the end of World War II signified the beginning of the occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Prior to that, Gunther Verheugen, the deputy chairman of the European Commission, had called on Russia to admit that it had illegally occupied the three Baltic republics, if it wanted to maintain neighborly relations with the European Union.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39890538.html
KYOTO PROTOCOL: RUSSIA WILL HAVE TO 'COUNT' ALL ITS TREE ROOTS
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsina). A "Kyoto working group" has been set up by the Forestry Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The working group has been tasked with drafting an action plan to develop the system to monitor sinks, emissions and the absorption of greenhouse gases in the forests. It is also to provide the regulatory-legal framework for these activities. The working group is made up of Forestry Agency employees, scientists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39887785.html
RUSSIA WILL HELP BRAZIL TO RECONSTRUCT A LAUNCH SITE
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) Roscosmos experts will provide assistance to Brazil in reconstruction of a launch site at Alcantara space center, says Roscosmos press release obtained by RIA Novosti on Thursday.
According to the document, during the visit of Roscosmos delegation to Brazil, deputy director of the Russian Federal Space Agency Viktor Remishevsky conducted talks with president of the Brazilian Space Agency Sergio Gaudenzi.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050505/39937073.html
MIDEASTERN QUARTET TO DISCUSS ISRAEL'S WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA STRIP IN MOSCOW
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow meetings of the Mideastern quartet will focus on normal conditions of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and some West Bank settlements, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti.
The quartet involving Russia, the UN, the European Union and the United States will meet in Moscow on May 9.
"The withdrawal of troops and settlements should be final and coordinated with Palestinians. It should lead to the total cessation of the occupation of the above-mentioned territories," Yakovenko noted.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050505/39937032.html
LATVIAN FOREIGN MINISTER READY TO SIGN BORDER TREATY IN MOSCOW
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks is ready to come to Moscow on May 10 to sign a treaty officially demarcating the Russian-Latvian borders if both parties are willing to do so, Latvian Ambassador to Moscow Andris Teikmanis told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
"This question is important for Latvia," Teikmanis said. "Political circles are interested in finalizing the border-settlement process."
The chances of concluding the treaty on May 10 are "50-50," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936931.html
SIEMENS TO BUILD HIGH-SPEED TRAIN FACTORY IN RUSSIA
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - In two years to come the German company Siemens will build in Russia a factory manufacturing high-speed trains, president of the company OAO Russian Railways Gennadi Fadeev has said.
"The modern factory, to be built with also Russian capital, will help arranging the manufacture of units for railway trains according to the European standards", the Russian Railways press service quotes Fadeev as telling the conference there.
As reported earlier, high-speed trains will be made at the Moscow Locomotive Repair Factory.
Fadeev recalled that last April the Russian Railways and Siemens signed the contract on the manufacture of high-speed trains in Russia. "The contract targets the maximal socio-economic effect for our country", Fadeev said.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20050505/39937092.html
Destroy it all
Gush Katif settlers who want to destroy their homes prior to their eviction should be entitled to do so. No government official has the moral or legal right to tell them what to do with their private property, the splendid homes or flourishing greenhouses they have owned for 30 years.
The technocrats engaged in the uprooting of thousands of Jews will immediately be outraged and cry out that the settlers must do with their property what the government decides, since the government is awarding them compensation in the form of alternative accommodation and land for agriculture.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull%26cid=1115259514981
Suspected mole posts bail
The FBI arrested a Defense Department analyst Wednesday on charges that he illegally passed classified information about potential Iranian-backed attacks against US forces in Iraq to employees of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group.
Larry Franklin, 58, turned himself in, FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said. He made a brief appearance in a suburban US District Court and was released on $100,000 bond under the condition he surrender his firearms and passport.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115173227516
Russian security forces say they foiled major terrorist attack
Russian security forces said they foiled a major terrorist attack Thursday, discovering a truck-bomb and a cache of poisons days before dozens of dignitaries arrive in Moscow for celebrations marking the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
The find is likely to stoke fears that other terror attacks could be in the works as the world turns its attention to Russia and Monday's ceremonies marking the end of World War II. Russian authorities almost immediately blamed the planned attacks on militants, including some with reputed ties to al-Qaida.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259521825&p=1078113566627
Israel to set up five chemical plants in eastern India
An Israeli defense firm has won a $140 million contract to build five plants to produce explosives in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, The Asian Age newspaper reported Thursday .
Israeli Military Industries beat bids from European and US companies to secure the deal, the third major defense contract that Tel Aviv and New Delhi have signed in recent weeks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259517998&p=1078113566627
Initial results give Fatah edge over Hamas in polls
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah movement led in Palestinian municipal elections on Thursday despite a strong showing by Hamas Islamic militants, preliminary results showed.
But the militant Islamic group disputed the figures and said it was not ready to concede defeat.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572883.html
Poll: Fatah scores election day victory
According to a poll carried out by the Halil Shkaki polling institute, the Fatah party has won the second phase of Palestinian Authority local elections, Army Radio reported.
Polling numbers had Fatah winning half of the 14 municipalities and village councils surveyed in the poll, including a large victory in Rafiah, located in Gaza, as well as other large municipalities in the West Bank.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259522142&p=1078397702269
British lecturers call special meeting to reconsider boycott
By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent
The Association of University Teachers (AUT) in the United Kingdom has decided to call a special meeting to reconsider its boycott of two Israeli universities. The AUT decided two weeks ago to boycott Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities for what it saw as supporting the occupation and repressing academic freedom.
The decision to reconsider the boycott comes in the wake of letters of protest from AUT members who requested that the decision be reversed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572999.html
Hundreds rally in TA against IDF killing of 2 Palestinian teens
By Tamar Traubman, Yoav Stern and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service
Hundreds of left-win protesters demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening against the Israel Defense Forces' killing Wednesday of two Palestinian youths in the West Bank.
The two teenagers were shot dead near the village of Beit Likia, west of Ramallah, during a protest against the construction of the separation fence in the area.
Thursday's protest started opposite the Defense Ministry's Kirya compound in Tel Aviv and from there demonstrators walked to Likud Party headquarters on King George Street. Some 200-300 people attended the rally.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572451.html
U.S. blacklists charity as front for Islamic Jihad
By Reuters
WASHINGTON - The United States on Wednesday froze the assets of a charity it called a front for the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and said it was seeking safe channels for donations to Palestinians in need.
"This afternoon we designated the Elehssan Society, including all of its branches, as a charitable front for the brutal terrorist group the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Enforcement Stuart Levey said.
"Elehssan masquerades as a charity while actually helping to finance PIJ's acts of terror against the Israeli people and other innocents," he told a congressional hearing. Elehssan operates in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572531.html
MI chief: Israel is not facing existential nuclear threat today
By Haaretz Service
Director of Military Intelligence Major General Aharon Ze'evi said Thursday that Israel is not subject to any imminent nuclear threat, and that he believed the Palestinian Authority is gradually reining in militants.
"There is cuurently no existential nuclear threat on Israel, but there are several Muslim states, at the forefront Iran, which are trying to achieve nuclear capability," Ze'evi told Israel Radio.
"We will have to learn to live with such a threat should it appear. This is a substantial and complex menace due to Israel's geography and size," he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572812.html
Ireland Joins International Marine Research Program
April 27, 2005
Ireland's Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, today visited the JOIDES Resolution, one of the largest research vessels in the world, to announce Ireland's participation in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
IODP is an international marine research drilling program that advances scientific understanding of the Earth by monitoring, sampling, and monitoring sub-seafloor environments. IODP scientists explore the deep biosphere, environmental change and solid earth cycles.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104099&org=olpa&from=news
Dereliction of Duty Regarding Iraq
In the months that have passed since Iraq's much-hyped democratic elections, one word keeps creeping into my mind as I assess the tragic events unfolding in Mesopotamia today: Vietnam.
The American press and punditry, intimidated and compensated into slavishly reporting on Iraq solely along lines that will not overly alienate them from the powers that be inside the administration of George W Bush, have long ago foregone drawing comparisons between the ongoing conflict in Iraq and the one America lost in Southeast Asia some three decades in the past.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B8AE8165-C87C-41A9-A2C8-D23EA944F6CC.htm
The Cheney Observer
Landmark Legislation
Portable Toilet Bill Goes to Gov. Bush
Porta potties would be regulated by the Department of Health under a bill passed unanimously Monday by the House and sent to Gov. Jeb Bush.
The measure (SB 626), which had earlier passed the Senate, creates administrative penalties and fines for failing to comply with state rules regarding where the waste from portable restrooms can be dumped.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/NEWS/505030398/1004
Sudden Discord between Bush and Sharon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report from Washington
December 17, 2004, 11:41 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon was warned many a time to beware of placing all his major policy eggs in the George W. Bush basket. But from the time he first took office more than three years ago, he never wavered from his bond with the US president. Their friendship was often cited as one of Sharon’s prime assets. And until last week, the Bush administration stood behind the prime minister and heartily endorsed his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in stages ending in September 2005.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=952
Bin Laden Urges Fighters to Strike Oil Facilities
Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:04 PM
DUBAI (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden has urged militants to concentrate their attacks on Iraqi and Gulf oil facilities, saying it was the most powerful weapon against America, said a transcript of a tape played on the Internet.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7127224
SEC wants Baker Hughes oil-for-food info
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had asked the oil services firm for information on its business in Iraq under the U.N. oil-for-food program, becoming the latest company to disclose an SEC request in an investigation.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=SEC%20Oil%20for%20Food
Governors ask Bush not to cut Medicaid
By ALAN FRAM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The nation's governors on Wednesday urged President Bush not to shift additional Medicaid costs to the states in his effort to reduce the federal deficit.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=Bush%20Medicaid
A daily look at U.S. Iraq military deaths
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
As of Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004, at least 1,321 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,021 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include three military civilians.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Iraq%20US%20Deaths
Saudi activist surprised at U.N. sanctions
By ROBERT BARR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LONDON -- A prominent Saudi dissident said Wednesday that authorities had not contacted him about a move in the United Nations to impose international sanctions against him.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Britain%20Saudi%20Activist
Weapons-grade uranium returned to Russia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- About 13 pounds of highly enriched uranium was returned to Russia from a research facility in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, the Energy Department announced. The transfer was part of an international program to better secure material that terrorists could use in a nuclear weapon.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Uranium%20Returned
Houston company buying Patina Oil & Gas for $3.4B
Associated Press
DENVER - A Texas-based company is buying Denver's Patina Oil & Gas for $3.4 billion in stock and cash, the latest in a series of deals this year involving natural gas companies with holdings in the energy rich Rockies.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/10440889.htm
Tunnel vision
MADRID-based Ferrovial confirmed yesterday that it is talking to struggling engineering firm Jarvis about buying its stake in TubeLines, the London Underground contractor.
Ferrovial already holds a 33 per cent stake through its British arm, Amey. Jarvis and US engineering giant Bechtel hold the other two thirds. Any deal is expected to fetch about £100 million.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1459022004
end
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
IEDs in NYC;
Blasts in front of building that houses the British Consulate in New York City shattered windows but did not cause significant damage or any injuries
Blasts at UK Consulate in NYC
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two "improvised explosive devices" made from "novelty-type grenades" have exploded in front of the building that houses the British Consulate in New York City, police and officials said.
The early Thursday morning blasts shattered windows but did not cause significant damage or any injuries, the New York Police Department said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2514
Joint Local-Federal Terrorism Task Force Joins Investigation
NYC Building Housing U.K. Consulate Damaged in Blast
May 5 (Bloomberg) -- Two replica grenades exploded early today outside an office building housing the British consulate in New York, shattering windows while causing no injuries, authorities said.
Police had no suspects and didn't know the motive for the 3:35 a.m. attack, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said at a news conference at the site in midtown Manhattan this morning. Police are looking at surveillance-camera video for clues, he said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2515
A White House Adrift
Gas prices, Social Security, Tom DeLay. What else can go wrong for Bush?
By Holly Bailey and Richard Wolffe / Newsweek
May 9 issue - George Voinovich is not your typical Bush loyalist. A self-styled deficit hawk, the former Cleveland mayor and Ohio governor is so frugal that he once fished a penny out of a urinal in the Statehouse. To the White House, his independent spirit should have come as no surprise: he split with his party over the estate tax in 2000 and he opposed the size of Bush's tax cuts three years later. Yet when it came to the prickly question of John Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador, the president's team assumed Voinovich would fall into line.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2519
Military at Risk, Congress Warned
By Mark Mazzetti / Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON — Strains imposed by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have made it far more difficult for the U.S. military to beat back any future act of aggression, launch a preemptive strike or intervene to prevent conflict in another part of the world, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a classified analysis sent to Congress on Monday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2476
U.S. Seen As Unaccountable in Iraqi Civilian Deaths
By Alan Elsner / Reuters
WASHINGTON, May 3 - Iraqi civilians who have suffered from U.S. military operations face steep obstacles in obtaining compensation for the deaths of their loved ones or material damage, human rights analysts say.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2477
Families of dead soldiers to sue Blair
By Kate Holton / Reuters
LONDON - The families of soldiers who died in Iraq will launch a bid on Tuesday to take Prime Minister Tony Blair to court over his "deception" in going to war.
Two days before the election, the families will deliver a letter to Downing Street outlining the legal case they will bring against the Prime Minister.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=2491
The This and That
Vet becomes crusader for victims of soldier rape
By M.L. LYKE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
The Army vet listens and lets fly. She has zero tolerance for tales of soldier rape. "In the military, they'll tell you, 'Lady, you can't get compensation for having sex,' " said Susan Avila-Smith, the Puget Sound area's outspoken advocate for sexually assaulted veterans.
Her client Donna Jean Patee nods from her wheelchair, her service dog asleep at her feet. "It happened to me," said the former Navy petty officer, who filed a rape claim in 1993. Patee said she was on waterfront watch in San Diego in the 1960s when five sailors gang-raped her.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/219613_crusader11.html
Parents angry over Seattle schools plan that ends open enrollment
By DEBORAH BACH
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
Just over a month ago, Lynne Stern Feiges got the news she'd been waiting for: Her daughter would be able to attend kindergarten next year at a Queen Anne school Feiges hand-picked.
John Hay Elementary is a trek from Feiges' home in Greenwood, but she thought its focus on advanced learning was a good fit for her daughter. So she notified the private school where her daughter attends preschool and canceled her registration for next year.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/222581_schools03.html
Academics, left-wing activists hold protest in Ariel college
By Lilly Galili and Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondents
A group of some 60 Tel-Aviv university academics and left-wing activists Wednesday morning held protest in front of the Judea and Samaria College of Ariel in the West Bank against a government decision to confer university status to the college.
The protestors spoke to students, who expressed their surprise with the demonstration saying they thought Ariel was seen in the Israeli consensus as being part of Israel in any future peace agreement with the Palestinians.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572361.html
Netanyahu: Don't depend on Egypt on Gaza border
By Gideon Alon, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service
Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to a Knesset panel's warnings against deploying Egyptian troops on the Philadelphi route on the Gaza-Egypt border, said Wednesday that he "wouldn't depend" on Egypt for security on the volatile frontier strip.
In a rare move, the Knesset subcommittee that supervises covert services decided Tuesday night to warn the ministers in the political-security cabinet against approving a plan to have 750 Egyptian soldiers stationed on the Philadelphi route.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572287.html
Newsview: U.S.-Russia Friendship Tested
By DONNA CASSATA
Associated Press Writer
May 5, 2005, 3:00 PM EDT
WASHINGTON -- Russian President Vladimir Putin's uneven record on reform and President Bush's campaign to spread democracy are sorely testing the wary friendship that grew between Russia and the United States out of the hostility of the Cold War.
From the U.S. perspective, Putin has been backsliding on democratic reforms and cracking down on businesses, the media and political institutions. Bush's actions in Iraq, in former Soviet satellites and beyond have raised red flags in Moscow -- in some quarters, nostalgia for the days of the hammer and sickle.
http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-us-russia-frayed-ties,0,4407494.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines
TOPOL-M MOBILE COMPLEX TO ENTER ON COMBAT DUTY IN 2006
VLASIKHA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The first mobile complex Topol-M will enter on combat duty of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) in 2006, the RVSN commander said. According to Nikolai Solovtsov, the silo-based Topol-M missile complexes are now in service in the Russian troops. "The RVSN retains the possibility to have both stationary and mobile Topol-M units in combat service," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39904513.html
RUSSIAN PROSECUTOR-GENERAL SUGGESTS MONITORING FUTURE OF CHILDREN ADOPTED BY FOREIGNERS
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prosecutor-General Vladimir Ustinov suggested that the Russian Government should sign international agreements with those countries whose citizens adopt Russian children, the Russian Prosecutor-General's Office said Wednesday.
The purpose of the proposed agreements is to control the status of the adopted children and to prevent acts of violence against them.
http://en.rian.ru/society/20050504/39861737.html
VENEZUELA TO CHOOSE BETWEEN RUSSIAN WARPLANES
MOSCOW, May 3. (RIA Novosti) - It seems that Russia's Mikoyan-Gurevich and Sukhoi corporations will compete against each other in Venezuela. The country's Defense Ministry is considering purchasing Su-27 fighter-bombers and Su-25 ground-attack jets even though it has not completed talks on buying MiG-29-SMT air-superiority fighters, a leading business daily, Vedomosti, writes.
A delegation of Venezuela's Defense Ministry saw Sukhoi aircraft at a defense technology exhibition for Latin America that ended in Rio de Janeiro on April 29. Venezuela could buy Su-25s for its navy and Su-27 for its air force. In all, two squadrons, comprising 10 to 12 Su-25s and Su-27s, might be purchased.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050503/39788813.html
IGOR IVANOV: GEORGIA, KYRGYZSTAN AND UKRAINE REVOLUTIONS HAVE NOTHING IN COMMON WITH DEMOCRACY
MOSCOW, May 4 (RIA Novosti) - The coups in Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine are under study in Russia for learning the lessons taught, Russian Security Council secretary Igor Ivanov said in the interview to the journal Strategiya Rossii (Russia's Strategy).
In his opinion, "a change of power by undemocratic methods" has taken place in Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan.
"When they speak of 'velvet' revolutions, victory of democracy in these countries - all this makes me skeptical", Igor Ivanov stressed, calling all the three "unconstitutional change of power".
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050504/39886033.html
RUSSIAN AIR FORCE COMMANDER PROMISES AIR SECURITY ON MAY 9
ZARYA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Air Force Commander-in-Chief Vladimir Mikhailov has promised to provide air security on May 9.
"All security measures will be reliable. Today we held exercises involving all means needed for Russia's air security," he said.
The commander denied the information that antiaircraft guns would be placed on some skyscrapers in Moscow. I did not give such orders, Mikhailov noted.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936358.html
ONE IN EVERY TEN SOVIET JEWS FOUGHT AT THE FRONT
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Marianna Belenkaya). On May 9, 1945, the world will mark the 60th anniversary of the defeat of Nazism.
To quote from one of the most famous Russian songs about the war, "We need victory, victory for all, whatever the cost." No one has ever worked out which of the ethnic groups of the Soviet Union made the biggest contribution to the defeat of Germany. Everyone suffered, and everyone shared the victory. But regrettably, the situation in the country after the war was such that the heroism of many soldiers and officers and many facts about the war went unmentioned. This is why generations that did not experience the war often have a distorted view of it.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39936041.html
Russia will bar this extradition and rightfully so, this man has huge amounts of information the USA will trade for his freedom.
WHAT THE RUSSIAN PAPERS SAY
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti)
Gazeta/Vedomosti
America Demands Nuclear Expert's Extradition
Yevgeny Adamov, a former nuclear energy minister of Russia, has been arrested in Switzerland at the request of the United States. American officials are insisting that he be extradited to the U.S. to face charges that he embezzled $9 million from the U.S. Energy Department. Adamov's lawyer, Timofei Gridnev said the arrest took place in a Bern court where his client had come to answer some financial questions. Two dailies, Gazeta and Vedomosti, pick up the theme.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39888564.html
RUSSIAN EX-MINISTER LOATH TO GO TO AMERICAN DOCK
GENEVA, May 4 (RIA Novosti, Ekaterina Andrianova) - Evgeni Adamov, recent Russia's Nuclear Energy Minister, has refused to undergo a simplified extradition procedure, says Folko Galli of Switzerland's Federal Department of Justice.
Mr. Adamov, 65, currently in Swiss detention, was questioned today, and flatly refused to be extradited to the USA on swindling and money laundering suspicions. Now, Switzerland intends to demand from the United States a formal extradition application. The procedure usually takes forty days, and is occasionally prolonged to sixty, Mr. Galli said to Novosti.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050504/39885556.html
I didn't know Russia was as much of a nuclear threat as Iran. Hm?
NO US INSPECTIONS DUE AT RUSSIAN NUCLEAR FACILITIES
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The US inspections of Russian nuclear facilities have not been and are not coming under consideration, said a high-level Defense Ministry official.
Colonel-General Igor Valynkin is the head of the 12th department of the Defense Ministry in charge of nuclear transportation and storage.
Colonel-General Nikolai Solovtsov, the commander of the Strategic Missile Force (SMF), earlier told reporters that Russia would not let other countries to SMF facilities.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936216.html
BORODIN CLAIMS FORMER MINISTER ARRESTED FOR POLITICAL REASONS
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Pavel Borodin, the state secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus said at a news conference in Moscow today that Yevgeny Adamov, a former Russian minister of nuclear energy, had been arrested for political reasons.
Borodin himself was arrested in New York's Kennedy international airport in January 2001 at the request of Swiss prosecutors who suspected him of laundering $25 million. He was subsequently handed over to Swiss authorities and later released on bail. Eventually he voluntarily testified to Swiss investigators, and the case against him was closed in March 2001.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39917629.html
RUSSIAN OIL EXPORTS TO CHINA FACE PROBLEMS
MOSCOW. (Marina Pustilnik, RIA Novosti commentator.) Russian oil companies' plans to export record levels of oil to China may have to be seriously rethought, as terminals in western Siberia will struggle to cope with the Russian-Chinese contracts.
Indeed, plans to increase the capacity of oil loading terminals are still being only discussed, so it seems the situation is likely to remain up in the air for some time to come.
Under the agreements signed by President Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao, on October 14, 2004, China should receive from Russia at least 10 million tons of oil by rail this year.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39917582.html
Opinion & analysis
U.S. IN CASPIAN REGION AND RUSSIA'S POSITION
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Pyotr Goncharov). Iran has offered support for a Russian initiative on the Caspian Sea states alone establishing a joint rapid reaction force in the region.
"These Caspian states should come to terms on the establishment of a rapid reaction force," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.
Russia's initiative initially envisaged more than efforts to combat international terrorist attacks against the region and to avert other common threats. It was also designed to prevent countries from outside the region, above all the U.S., from becoming involved in the affairs of the region, which the U.S. has included in the zone of its interests. This fully met Iran's interests. Will Russia and Iran be able toprevent an American presence in the Caspian region?
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050504/39817504.html
THE "OCCUPATION" OF BALTIC COUNTRIES AND THE PRAGMATIC U.S.
MOSCOW (Alexei Makarkin, for RIA Novosti) - U.S. President George Bush wrote in a letter to his Latvian colleague, Vaira Vike-Freiberga, that the end of World War II signified the beginning of the occupation of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Prior to that, Gunther Verheugen, the deputy chairman of the European Commission, had called on Russia to admit that it had illegally occupied the three Baltic republics, if it wanted to maintain neighborly relations with the European Union.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39890538.html
KYOTO PROTOCOL: RUSSIA WILL HAVE TO 'COUNT' ALL ITS TREE ROOTS
MOSCOW, (RIA Novosti commentator Tatyana Sinitsina). A "Kyoto working group" has been set up by the Forestry Agency under the Ministry of Natural Resources.
The working group has been tasked with drafting an action plan to develop the system to monitor sinks, emissions and the absorption of greenhouse gases in the forests. It is also to provide the regulatory-legal framework for these activities. The working group is made up of Forestry Agency employees, scientists, and representatives of non-governmental organizations.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20050505/39887785.html
RUSSIA WILL HELP BRAZIL TO RECONSTRUCT A LAUNCH SITE
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) Roscosmos experts will provide assistance to Brazil in reconstruction of a launch site at Alcantara space center, says Roscosmos press release obtained by RIA Novosti on Thursday.
According to the document, during the visit of Roscosmos delegation to Brazil, deputy director of the Russian Federal Space Agency Viktor Remishevsky conducted talks with president of the Brazilian Space Agency Sergio Gaudenzi.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050505/39937073.html
MIDEASTERN QUARTET TO DISCUSS ISRAEL'S WITHDRAWAL FROM GAZA STRIP IN MOSCOW
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Moscow meetings of the Mideastern quartet will focus on normal conditions of Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and some West Bank settlements, official spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry Alexander Yakovenko told RIA Novosti.
The quartet involving Russia, the UN, the European Union and the United States will meet in Moscow on May 9.
"The withdrawal of troops and settlements should be final and coordinated with Palestinians. It should lead to the total cessation of the occupation of the above-mentioned territories," Yakovenko noted.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20050505/39937032.html
LATVIAN FOREIGN MINISTER READY TO SIGN BORDER TREATY IN MOSCOW
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks is ready to come to Moscow on May 10 to sign a treaty officially demarcating the Russian-Latvian borders if both parties are willing to do so, Latvian Ambassador to Moscow Andris Teikmanis told RIA Novosti on Thursday.
"This question is important for Latvia," Teikmanis said. "Political circles are interested in finalizing the border-settlement process."
The chances of concluding the treaty on May 10 are "50-50," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20050505/39936931.html
SIEMENS TO BUILD HIGH-SPEED TRAIN FACTORY IN RUSSIA
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - In two years to come the German company Siemens will build in Russia a factory manufacturing high-speed trains, president of the company OAO Russian Railways Gennadi Fadeev has said.
"The modern factory, to be built with also Russian capital, will help arranging the manufacture of units for railway trains according to the European standards", the Russian Railways press service quotes Fadeev as telling the conference there.
As reported earlier, high-speed trains will be made at the Moscow Locomotive Repair Factory.
Fadeev recalled that last April the Russian Railways and Siemens signed the contract on the manufacture of high-speed trains in Russia. "The contract targets the maximal socio-economic effect for our country", Fadeev said.
http://en.rian.ru/business/20050505/39937092.html
Destroy it all
Gush Katif settlers who want to destroy their homes prior to their eviction should be entitled to do so. No government official has the moral or legal right to tell them what to do with their private property, the splendid homes or flourishing greenhouses they have owned for 30 years.
The technocrats engaged in the uprooting of thousands of Jews will immediately be outraged and cry out that the settlers must do with their property what the government decides, since the government is awarding them compensation in the form of alternative accommodation and land for agriculture.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull%26cid=1115259514981
Suspected mole posts bail
The FBI arrested a Defense Department analyst Wednesday on charges that he illegally passed classified information about potential Iranian-backed attacks against US forces in Iraq to employees of AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby group.
Larry Franklin, 58, turned himself in, FBI spokeswoman Debra Weierman said. He made a brief appearance in a suburban US District Court and was released on $100,000 bond under the condition he surrender his firearms and passport.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115173227516
Russian security forces say they foiled major terrorist attack
Russian security forces said they foiled a major terrorist attack Thursday, discovering a truck-bomb and a cache of poisons days before dozens of dignitaries arrive in Moscow for celebrations marking the Allied victory over Nazi Germany.
The find is likely to stoke fears that other terror attacks could be in the works as the world turns its attention to Russia and Monday's ceremonies marking the end of World War II. Russian authorities almost immediately blamed the planned attacks on militants, including some with reputed ties to al-Qaida.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259521825&p=1078113566627
Israel to set up five chemical plants in eastern India
An Israeli defense firm has won a $140 million contract to build five plants to produce explosives in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, The Asian Age newspaper reported Thursday .
Israeli Military Industries beat bids from European and US companies to secure the deal, the third major defense contract that Tel Aviv and New Delhi have signed in recent weeks.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259517998&p=1078113566627
Initial results give Fatah edge over Hamas in polls
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent and Reuters
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's ruling Fatah movement led in Palestinian municipal elections on Thursday despite a strong showing by Hamas Islamic militants, preliminary results showed.
But the militant Islamic group disputed the figures and said it was not ready to concede defeat.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572883.html
Poll: Fatah scores election day victory
According to a poll carried out by the Halil Shkaki polling institute, the Fatah party has won the second phase of Palestinian Authority local elections, Army Radio reported.
Polling numbers had Fatah winning half of the 14 municipalities and village councils surveyed in the poll, including a large victory in Rafiah, located in Gaza, as well as other large municipalities in the West Bank.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1115259522142&p=1078397702269
British lecturers call special meeting to reconsider boycott
By Tamara Traubman, Haaretz Correspondent
The Association of University Teachers (AUT) in the United Kingdom has decided to call a special meeting to reconsider its boycott of two Israeli universities. The AUT decided two weeks ago to boycott Bar-Ilan and Haifa universities for what it saw as supporting the occupation and repressing academic freedom.
The decision to reconsider the boycott comes in the wake of letters of protest from AUT members who requested that the decision be reversed.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572999.html
Hundreds rally in TA against IDF killing of 2 Palestinian teens
By Tamar Traubman, Yoav Stern and Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service
Hundreds of left-win protesters demonstrated in Tel Aviv on Thursday evening against the Israel Defense Forces' killing Wednesday of two Palestinian youths in the West Bank.
The two teenagers were shot dead near the village of Beit Likia, west of Ramallah, during a protest against the construction of the separation fence in the area.
Thursday's protest started opposite the Defense Ministry's Kirya compound in Tel Aviv and from there demonstrators walked to Likud Party headquarters on King George Street. Some 200-300 people attended the rally.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572451.html
U.S. blacklists charity as front for Islamic Jihad
By Reuters
WASHINGTON - The United States on Wednesday froze the assets of a charity it called a front for the militant Palestinian Islamic Jihad group and said it was seeking safe channels for donations to Palestinians in need.
"This afternoon we designated the Elehssan Society, including all of its branches, as a charitable front for the brutal terrorist group the Palestinian Islamic Jihad," U.S. Treasury Undersecretary for Enforcement Stuart Levey said.
"Elehssan masquerades as a charity while actually helping to finance PIJ's acts of terror against the Israeli people and other innocents," he told a congressional hearing. Elehssan operates in the West Bank, Gaza and Lebanon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572531.html
MI chief: Israel is not facing existential nuclear threat today
By Haaretz Service
Director of Military Intelligence Major General Aharon Ze'evi said Thursday that Israel is not subject to any imminent nuclear threat, and that he believed the Palestinian Authority is gradually reining in militants.
"There is cuurently no existential nuclear threat on Israel, but there are several Muslim states, at the forefront Iran, which are trying to achieve nuclear capability," Ze'evi told Israel Radio.
"We will have to learn to live with such a threat should it appear. This is a substantial and complex menace due to Israel's geography and size," he said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/572812.html
Ireland Joins International Marine Research Program
April 27, 2005
Ireland's Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, today visited the JOIDES Resolution, one of the largest research vessels in the world, to announce Ireland's participation in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP).
IODP is an international marine research drilling program that advances scientific understanding of the Earth by monitoring, sampling, and monitoring sub-seafloor environments. IODP scientists explore the deep biosphere, environmental change and solid earth cycles.
http://www.nsf.gov/news/news_summ.jsp?cntn_id=104099&org=olpa&from=news
Dereliction of Duty Regarding Iraq
In the months that have passed since Iraq's much-hyped democratic elections, one word keeps creeping into my mind as I assess the tragic events unfolding in Mesopotamia today: Vietnam.
The American press and punditry, intimidated and compensated into slavishly reporting on Iraq solely along lines that will not overly alienate them from the powers that be inside the administration of George W Bush, have long ago foregone drawing comparisons between the ongoing conflict in Iraq and the one America lost in Southeast Asia some three decades in the past.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B8AE8165-C87C-41A9-A2C8-D23EA944F6CC.htm
The Cheney Observer
Landmark Legislation
Portable Toilet Bill Goes to Gov. Bush
Porta potties would be regulated by the Department of Health under a bill passed unanimously Monday by the House and sent to Gov. Jeb Bush.
The measure (SB 626), which had earlier passed the Senate, creates administrative penalties and fines for failing to comply with state rules regarding where the waste from portable restrooms can be dumped.
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050503/NEWS/505030398/1004
Sudden Discord between Bush and Sharon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report from Washington
December 17, 2004, 11:41 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israel’s prime minister Ariel Sharon was warned many a time to beware of placing all his major policy eggs in the George W. Bush basket. But from the time he first took office more than three years ago, he never wavered from his bond with the US president. Their friendship was often cited as one of Sharon’s prime assets. And until last week, the Bush administration stood behind the prime minister and heartily endorsed his plan to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank in stages ending in September 2005.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=952
Bin Laden Urges Fighters to Strike Oil Facilities
Fri Dec 17, 2004 12:04 PM
DUBAI (Reuters) - Osama bin Laden has urged militants to concentrate their attacks on Iraqi and Gulf oil facilities, saying it was the most powerful weapon against America, said a transcript of a tape played on the Internet.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=7127224
SEC wants Baker Hughes oil-for-food info
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- Baker Hughes Inc. said Friday that the Securities and Exchange Commission had asked the oil services firm for information on its business in Iraq under the U.N. oil-for-food program, becoming the latest company to disclose an SEC request in an investigation.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/apbiz_story.asp?category=1310&slug=SEC%20Oil%20for%20Food
Governors ask Bush not to cut Medicaid
By ALAN FRAM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- The nation's governors on Wednesday urged President Bush not to shift additional Medicaid costs to the states in his effort to reduce the federal deficit.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1151&slug=Bush%20Medicaid
A daily look at U.S. Iraq military deaths
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
As of Wednesday, Dec. 22, 2004, at least 1,321 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. At least 1,021 died as a result of hostile action, the Defense Department said. The figures include three military civilians.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apmideast_story.asp?category=1107&slug=Iraq%20US%20Deaths
Saudi activist surprised at U.N. sanctions
By ROBERT BARR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LONDON -- A prominent Saudi dissident said Wednesday that authorities had not contacted him about a move in the United Nations to impose international sanctions against him.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Britain%20Saudi%20Activist
Weapons-grade uranium returned to Russia
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON -- About 13 pounds of highly enriched uranium was returned to Russia from a research facility in the Czech Republic on Wednesday, the Energy Department announced. The transfer was part of an international program to better secure material that terrorists could use in a nuclear weapon.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Uranium%20Returned
Houston company buying Patina Oil & Gas for $3.4B
Associated Press
DENVER - A Texas-based company is buying Denver's Patina Oil & Gas for $3.4 billion in stock and cash, the latest in a series of deals this year involving natural gas companies with holdings in the energy rich Rockies.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/business/national/10440889.htm
Tunnel vision
MADRID-based Ferrovial confirmed yesterday that it is talking to struggling engineering firm Jarvis about buying its stake in TubeLines, the London Underground contractor.
Ferrovial already holds a 33 per cent stake through its British arm, Amey. Jarvis and US engineering giant Bechtel hold the other two thirds. Any deal is expected to fetch about £100 million.
http://business.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1459022004
end
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