The Rooster
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Morning Papers - It's Origns
The local authorities in Wilmington have been battling "Ophelia" all day to keep the electric turned on. They have been doing really well. The down times are intermittent and short.
Rooster "Crowing"
"Okeydoke"
History
1321 Dante Alighieri, Italian poet, prose writer, moral philosopher, and political theorist, author of La Divina commedia (The Divine Comedy), dies in Ravenna, Italy, at the age of 56.
1789 James P. Beckwourth, Indian Chief, army scout, and wagon train leader, is born.
1752 Britain shifts from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, which has been in use through much of Europe since 1582. The change requires the calendar to make a one-time leap from September 2 to September 14.
1814 Inspired by the defense of Baltimore's Fort McHenry during a British attack in the War of 1812, lawyer Francis Scott Key writes the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner."
1921 Constance Baker Motley, first Black woman appointed federal judge, is born and raised in New Haven, CT. She will be elected Manhattan Borough president, the highest elective office had by a Black woman in a major city
1939 After many years of experimentation, Russian-born aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky flies his first successful helicopter, the VS-300.
1940 Congress passes the Selective Service Act which allows Blacks to be drafted and receive equal training for military service.
1940 Founded in 1939, North Carolina College Law School opens with seven students as North Carolina's second Black law school.
1982 Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly American film actor Grace Kelly, dies of injuries she received in an automobile accident the previous day.
Missing in Action
1965 TAYLOR NEIL BROOKS RANGELEY ME
1966 STODDARD CLARENCE W. JR CORPUS CHRISTI TX "CACCF/ATLANTA,IDAHO"
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Judge: School pledge is unconstitutional
By DAVID KRAVETS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge declared the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional Wednesday in a case brought by the same atheist whose previous battle against the words "under God" was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on procedural grounds.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Pledge%20of%20Allegiance
Pa. screening schoolchildren for obesity
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- As they wait for their children's first report cards to come home this year, elementary-school parents across Pennsylvania also can expect to get a separate report on a key indicator of their children's health.
For the first time, the state Health Department is requiring school nurses to compute students' body-mass index - or height-to-weight ratio - during annual growth screenings of children in kindergarten through fourth grade.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=FIT%20Weighing%20Schoolchildren
Trial under way in second Vioxx case
By JOHN CURRAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- A product liability case blaming a man's heart attack on the painkiller Vioxx started Wednesday, with his lawyer telling jurors the drug's maker put profits over safety. Manufacturer Merck & Co. asserted there were other causes for the heart attack.
Chris Seeger, lead attorney for 60-year-old Idaho postal worker Frederick "Mike" Humeston, said Humeston was a healthy, active Vietnam veteran who enjoyed hiking when he was stricken two months after his doctor prescribed Vioxx to relieve pain from a war injury.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Vioxx%20Litigation
Gates on Apple, Google -- and Microsoft's future
By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
LOS ANGELES -- Microsoft Corp. is grappling with "a lot of smart competitors," including Google and Apple, who are ahead of the Redmond company in some key markets, Bill Gates acknowledges.
But the Microsoft chairman on Tuesday said his company remains the overall industry leader, and he compared the current rivalries to legendary ones with Lotus, Novell and WordPerfect -- situations in which the Redmond company ultimately overcame steep odds to prevail.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/240541_gates14ww.html
WWII soldier's last letter makes it home
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
POOLE, Neb. -- It took more than 60 years, but the final letter of a soldier killed in World War II finally made it home.
Gary Mathis bought a box of old newspapers at a yard sale in Kansas, and discovered the letter inside a newspaper from 1915. The letter's envelope has military post office markings dated March 6, 1944.
It was addressed to W.J. Krotz of nearby Poole, about 120 miles west of Lincoln.
Mathis placed an announcement and picture of the letter in the Ravenna News, hoping someone might know the family.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Soldier%27s%20Last%20Letter
Militants kill Afghans carrying voter IDs
By DANIEL COONEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SHOMALI PLAINS, Afghanistan -- Militants killed seven Afghans carrying voter ID cards, while hundreds of rockets and other weapons were found Wednesday buried in the desert near Kabul, raising fears of attacks on the capital with landmark elections just days away.
NATO-led peacekeepers discovered the weapons in two caches hidden in a stony gully on the Shomali Plains, about 18 miles north of Kabul.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Afghanistan
Afghan elections gives refugees hope
By STEVE GUTTERMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Up a dank stairway lit only by a shaft of sunlight poking through a hole in the roof is the single room where Mohammad Khan has lived with his wife and eight children since they returned from Pakistan nearly four years ago.
The conditions are depressing. But Khan and other denizens of the foul-smelling ruins of a communist-era Russian cultural center see a faint hope for a way out of their limbo as Afghanistan prepares for its first legislative elections after a quarter-century of war.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Afghan%20Returned%20Refugees
U.S. said to maintain role in Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BERLIN -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pledged Wednesday that U.S. military forces "will continue to play a strong role" in Afghanistan even after NATO allies expand their peacekeeping operation across the country next year.
At the conclusion of a two-day NATO meeting, Rumsfeld took reporters' questions about the American presence there but stoutly avoided getting into any specifics about force levels.
"U.S. forces will of course continue to play a strong role," he said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=NATO%20Rumsfeld
Gunmen kill Shiite Muslim in Pakistan
By NASEER KAKAR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
QUETTA, Pakistan -- Gunmen on a motorcycle murdered a minority Shiite Muslim in this southwestern city Wednesday before fleeing, violence that police said was apparently part of a wave of sectarian killings blamed on Sunni militants.
The slain man, Ijaz Hussain, an employee at Pakistan Railways, was going to work when assailants opened fire on him, said Pervez Zahoor of Quetta police.
"It seems to be an act of religious terrorism, but we are still investigating," he told The Associated Press. Sectarian killings are common in many parts of Pakistan, often attributed to outlawed Sunni extremist groups.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Sectarian%20Violence
Pakistan questions suspects on al-Qaida
By MUNIR AHMAD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani counterterrorism experts are questioning 21 suspects captured at an al-Qaida hide-out for clues about remnants of the terror network and the Taliban, an intelligence official said Wednesday.
The suspects - who intelligence official said include Afghans - were captured this week during the biggest-ever military operation in North Waziristan, a strategic tribal region in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Militant%20Hunt
Radioactive waste on track to be moved
By JENNIFER TALHELM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Almost 12 million tons of radioactive waste will be moved from the banks of the Colorado River, the source of drinking water for more than 25 million people across the West, the government said Wednesday,
Energy Department officials on Wednesday cleared the way for a plan that was announced this year.
The 94-foot high pile of uranium mining waste is near Moab, Utah, and 750 feet from the river. The department now will work on the specifics of moving the waste to a site at Crescent Junction, more than 30 miles northwest.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1155&slug=Radioactive%20Waste
House GOP derails Democratic inquiries
By LIZ SIDOTI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans derailed Democratic attempts on Wednesday to force the Bush administration to surrender documents on prewar intelligence and the disclosure of the identity of a CIA operative.
Democrats have introduced several "resolutions of inquiry" to compel President Bush and members of his Cabinet to release all information relating to communications with British officials before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the Valerie Plame case.
The White House has taken heat since the disclosure this year of the "Downing Street memos," British documents that suggest the Bush administration had made up its mind by 2002 to invade Iraq. Administration officials also have been interviewed by a special prosecutor in his quest to determine who leaked Plame's covert identity to reporters.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1153&slug=Congress%20Inquiries
Senate kills bid for Katrina commission
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., call for creation of an independent commission to investigate the response to Hurricane Katrinia during a news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.
The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel - which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus - failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1155&slug=Katrina%20Washington>
Jews, Muslims to seek tribunals in Canada
By BETH DUFF-BROWN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TORONTO -- Jews and Muslims in Ontario pledged Wednesday to fight for faith-based tribunals to settle family disputes after its premier stunned their communities by announcing he would ban all religious arbitration in Canada's largest province.
Ontario appeared well on its way to becoming the first Western jurisdiction to allow the use of Sharia, an ancient set of Islamic rules, to settle some Muslim family disputes.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apcanada_story.asp?category=1101&slug=Canada%20Sharia%20Dispute
The News from Israel is getting bizarre. It's about the Palestinians and Gaza and the violence. These articles at least deal with issues I can relate to. Whoever thought the Palestinians would be so savage after moving into Gaza.
Jerusalem Post
Vast amounts of arms cross into Gaza
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH AND JPOST STAFF
"We know that in the past two days vast amounts of ammunition, weapons and fugitives entered Gaza. We fear that some of the weapons will make their way to the West Bank", a senior security official told the Jerusalem Post.
While Israel has no imminent plans to take action, the security establishment is monitoring the situation at the southern border very closely, the official said. "Right now we are biding our time, the coming days will tell," he said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126578009090>
After gunfire, Abbas doesn't show up
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday issued a stiff warning to various armed militias responsible for the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in PA-ruled territories.
Abbas, who was unable to attend a rally on Wednesday to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip because of the presence of scores of militiamen, said the PA was running out of patience in the wake of increased chaos.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126664381688>
Israelis, Palestinians to meet in European camp
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
STRASBOURG, France
A youth camp organized by the Council of Europe next week will bring together Israelis and Palestinians, as well as ethnic Albanians and Serbs from Kosovo.
About 40 people age 16 to 20 will participate in the camp near the city of Freiburg on the German-French border Sept. 18-24.
The participants come from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the West Bank, as well as the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, which is divided between a Serb-dominated north and an ethnic Albanian south.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126664380367
'Mandela's rabbi' to be buried in Jerusalem today
By SAM SER AND AP
South Africa's former chief rabbi Cyril Harris has died in the South African coastal resort of Hermanus, near Cape Town, of cancer, just days short of his 69th birthday. Harris's body was flown to Israel on Wednesday and was to be buried on Jerusalem's Har Hamenuhot on Thursday morning.
Harris, who became a close friend of former South African president Nelson Mandela, was credited with aiding the reconciliation process in South Africa during the transition from apartheid to a free democracy.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126664382321
Rattling the Cage: Being Bibi - in the Sharon era
By LARRY DERFNER
What's happened to Binyamin Netanyahu? He used to be considered the most brilliant politician Israel had ever seen, a magician, the guy who couldn't be beaten. Now?
He's become the biggest blunderer in Israeli politics. He's not just a loser, he's a spectacular one.
All he's going to do for the next year is get beaten – by Ariel Sharon. It's understood now that his surprise resignation as finance minister a month ago, followed by his challenge to Sharon for chairmanship of Likud and leadership of the country, was a colossal mistake.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126664382013
All Africa
Building Human Capacity Key to Africa's Future, Says AAI President
allAfrica.com
INTERVIEW
September 14, 2005
Posted to the web September 14, 2005
New York
Since its founding in 1953, the Africa-America Institute (formerly the African-American Institute) has developed and administered programs to educate and train Africans and to promote dialogue and understanding between the United States and Africa. In this first of a two-part discussion, AAI's president, Mora McLean, talked to AllAfrica's Tami Hultman about her organization's purpose, its past and its future.
AAI is now the oldest Africa-oriented private institution in the United States. We both know that perpetuating Africa-related work is a constant struggle. Why have you survived for more than half a century?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509140428.html
High Oil Prices Hit Poorest Hardest
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
September 14, 2005
Posted to the web September 14, 2005
Lagos
As thousands of angry Nigerians took to the streets on Thursday to protest against 30 percent hikes in fuel price, across West Africa some of the world's poorest also were feeling the pinch, struggling to cope with the record-breaking cost of crude and its knock-on effect on basic goods.
Chanting slogans and waving banners, noisy protestors poured onto the grounds of the Lagos Governor's office denouncing fuel hikes decided 26 August by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509140585.html
Sudan: Darfur Risks Descending Into Anarchy - Observers
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
September 14, 2005
Posted to the web September 14, 2005
Nairobi
Darfur risks sliding into a perpetual state of lawlessness even as the Sudanese government and the main rebel groups in the war-torn region discuss the possibility of peacefully resolving the conflict there, observers have warned.
Banditry and continuous attacks by armed groups on humanitarian workers, Arab nomads and villages in Darfur have increased significantly over the past weeks and threaten to destabilise the fragile ceasefire in the volatile western Sudanese region.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509140011.html
Sudan: Darfur Risks Descending Into Anarchy - Observers
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
September 14, 2005
Posted to the web September 14, 2005
Nairobi
Darfur risks sliding into a perpetual state of lawlessness even as the Sudanese government and the main rebel groups in the war-torn region discuss the possibility of peacefully resolving the conflict there, observers have warned.
Banditry and continuous attacks by armed groups on humanitarian workers, Arab nomads and villages in Darfur have increased significantly over the past weeks and threaten to destabilise the fragile ceasefire in the volatile western Sudanese region.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509140011.html
Africa Can Move Faster on MDGs, Says Report
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)
PRESS RELEASE
September 13, 2005
Posted to the web September 13, 2005
A new report on the Millennium Development Goals published by the Economic Commission for Africa says that despite widespread pessimism, some African countries are on course to meet key Goals and that with the right policies, many more could meet the target date of 2015.
The report says countries such as Ghana, Botswana, Uganda and Burkina Faso are likely to achieve Goal One of halving poverty by the deadline. Many more countries remain far behind, but the report argues that their governments can be successful at reducing extreme poverty if they use the MDGs as a tool in shaping their development policies.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509130687.html
continued …
Rooster "Crowing"
"Okeydoke"
History
1321 Dante Alighieri, Italian poet, prose writer, moral philosopher, and political theorist, author of La Divina commedia (The Divine Comedy), dies in Ravenna, Italy, at the age of 56.
1789 James P. Beckwourth, Indian Chief, army scout, and wagon train leader, is born.
1752 Britain shifts from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, which has been in use through much of Europe since 1582. The change requires the calendar to make a one-time leap from September 2 to September 14.
1814 Inspired by the defense of Baltimore's Fort McHenry during a British attack in the War of 1812, lawyer Francis Scott Key writes the lyrics to "The Star-Spangled Banner."
1921 Constance Baker Motley, first Black woman appointed federal judge, is born and raised in New Haven, CT. She will be elected Manhattan Borough president, the highest elective office had by a Black woman in a major city
1939 After many years of experimentation, Russian-born aircraft designer Igor Sikorsky flies his first successful helicopter, the VS-300.
1940 Congress passes the Selective Service Act which allows Blacks to be drafted and receive equal training for military service.
1940 Founded in 1939, North Carolina College Law School opens with seven students as North Carolina's second Black law school.
1982 Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly American film actor Grace Kelly, dies of injuries she received in an automobile accident the previous day.
Missing in Action
1965 TAYLOR NEIL BROOKS RANGELEY ME
1966 STODDARD CLARENCE W. JR CORPUS CHRISTI TX "CACCF/ATLANTA,IDAHO"
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Judge: School pledge is unconstitutional
By DAVID KRAVETS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge declared the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools unconstitutional Wednesday in a case brought by the same atheist whose previous battle against the words "under God" was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court on procedural grounds.
U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton ruled that the pledge's reference to one nation "under God" violates school children's right to be "free from a coercive requirement to affirm God."
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Pledge%20of%20Allegiance
Pa. screening schoolchildren for obesity
By MARTHA RAFFAELE
ASSOCIATED PRESS
HARRISBURG, Pa. -- As they wait for their children's first report cards to come home this year, elementary-school parents across Pennsylvania also can expect to get a separate report on a key indicator of their children's health.
For the first time, the state Health Department is requiring school nurses to compute students' body-mass index - or height-to-weight ratio - during annual growth screenings of children in kindergarten through fourth grade.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=FIT%20Weighing%20Schoolchildren
Trial under way in second Vioxx case
By JOHN CURRAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. -- A product liability case blaming a man's heart attack on the painkiller Vioxx started Wednesday, with his lawyer telling jurors the drug's maker put profits over safety. Manufacturer Merck & Co. asserted there were other causes for the heart attack.
Chris Seeger, lead attorney for 60-year-old Idaho postal worker Frederick "Mike" Humeston, said Humeston was a healthy, active Vietnam veteran who enjoyed hiking when he was stricken two months after his doctor prescribed Vioxx to relieve pain from a war injury.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apscience_story.asp?category=1500&slug=Vioxx%20Litigation
Gates on Apple, Google -- and Microsoft's future
By TODD BISHOP
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
LOS ANGELES -- Microsoft Corp. is grappling with "a lot of smart competitors," including Google and Apple, who are ahead of the Redmond company in some key markets, Bill Gates acknowledges.
But the Microsoft chairman on Tuesday said his company remains the overall industry leader, and he compared the current rivalries to legendary ones with Lotus, Novell and WordPerfect -- situations in which the Redmond company ultimately overcame steep odds to prevail.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/240541_gates14ww.html
WWII soldier's last letter makes it home
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
POOLE, Neb. -- It took more than 60 years, but the final letter of a soldier killed in World War II finally made it home.
Gary Mathis bought a box of old newspapers at a yard sale in Kansas, and discovered the letter inside a newspaper from 1915. The letter's envelope has military post office markings dated March 6, 1944.
It was addressed to W.J. Krotz of nearby Poole, about 120 miles west of Lincoln.
Mathis placed an announcement and picture of the letter in the Ravenna News, hoping someone might know the family.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Soldier%27s%20Last%20Letter
Militants kill Afghans carrying voter IDs
By DANIEL COONEY
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
SHOMALI PLAINS, Afghanistan -- Militants killed seven Afghans carrying voter ID cards, while hundreds of rockets and other weapons were found Wednesday buried in the desert near Kabul, raising fears of attacks on the capital with landmark elections just days away.
NATO-led peacekeepers discovered the weapons in two caches hidden in a stony gully on the Shomali Plains, about 18 miles north of Kabul.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Afghanistan
Afghan elections gives refugees hope
By STEVE GUTTERMAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
KABUL, Afghanistan -- Up a dank stairway lit only by a shaft of sunlight poking through a hole in the roof is the single room where Mohammad Khan has lived with his wife and eight children since they returned from Pakistan nearly four years ago.
The conditions are depressing. But Khan and other denizens of the foul-smelling ruins of a communist-era Russian cultural center see a faint hope for a way out of their limbo as Afghanistan prepares for its first legislative elections after a quarter-century of war.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Afghan%20Returned%20Refugees
U.S. said to maintain role in Afghanistan
By LOLITA C. BALDOR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
BERLIN -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld pledged Wednesday that U.S. military forces "will continue to play a strong role" in Afghanistan even after NATO allies expand their peacekeeping operation across the country next year.
At the conclusion of a two-day NATO meeting, Rumsfeld took reporters' questions about the American presence there but stoutly avoided getting into any specifics about force levels.
"U.S. forces will of course continue to play a strong role," he said.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=NATO%20Rumsfeld
Gunmen kill Shiite Muslim in Pakistan
By NASEER KAKAR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
QUETTA, Pakistan -- Gunmen on a motorcycle murdered a minority Shiite Muslim in this southwestern city Wednesday before fleeing, violence that police said was apparently part of a wave of sectarian killings blamed on Sunni militants.
The slain man, Ijaz Hussain, an employee at Pakistan Railways, was going to work when assailants opened fire on him, said Pervez Zahoor of Quetta police.
"It seems to be an act of religious terrorism, but we are still investigating," he told The Associated Press. Sectarian killings are common in many parts of Pakistan, often attributed to outlawed Sunni extremist groups.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Sectarian%20Violence
Pakistan questions suspects on al-Qaida
By MUNIR AHMAD
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan -- Pakistani counterterrorism experts are questioning 21 suspects captured at an al-Qaida hide-out for clues about remnants of the terror network and the Taliban, an intelligence official said Wednesday.
The suspects - who intelligence official said include Afghans - were captured this week during the biggest-ever military operation in North Waziristan, a strategic tribal region in North West Frontier Province bordering Afghanistan.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Pakistan%20Militant%20Hunt
Radioactive waste on track to be moved
By JENNIFER TALHELM
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Almost 12 million tons of radioactive waste will be moved from the banks of the Colorado River, the source of drinking water for more than 25 million people across the West, the government said Wednesday,
Energy Department officials on Wednesday cleared the way for a plan that was announced this year.
The 94-foot high pile of uranium mining waste is near Moab, Utah, and 750 feet from the river. The department now will work on the specifics of moving the waste to a site at Crescent Junction, more than 30 miles northwest.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1155&slug=Radioactive%20Waste
House GOP derails Democratic inquiries
By LIZ SIDOTI
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans derailed Democratic attempts on Wednesday to force the Bush administration to surrender documents on prewar intelligence and the disclosure of the identity of a CIA operative.
Democrats have introduced several "resolutions of inquiry" to compel President Bush and members of his Cabinet to release all information relating to communications with British officials before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and the Valerie Plame case.
The White House has taken heat since the disclosure this year of the "Downing Street memos," British documents that suggest the Bush administration had made up its mind by 2002 to invade Iraq. Administration officials also have been interviewed by a special prosecutor in his quest to determine who leaked Plame's covert identity to reporters.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1153&slug=Congress%20Inquiries
Senate kills bid for Katrina commission
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., call for creation of an independent commission to investigate the response to Hurricane Katrinia during a news conference on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Sept. 14, 2005. (AP Photo/Dennis Cook)
WASHINGTON -- Senate Republicans on Wednesday scuttled an attempt by Sen. Hillary Clinton to establish an independent, bipartisan panel patterned after the 9/11 Commission to investigate what went wrong with federal, state and local governments' response to Hurricane Katrina.
The New York Democrat's bid to establish the panel - which would have also made recommendations on how to improve the government's disaster response apparatus - failed to win the two-thirds majority needed to overcome procedural hurdles. Clinton got only 44 votes, all from Democrats and independent Sen. Jim Jeffords of Vermont. Fifty-four Republicans all voted no.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apwashington_story.asp?category=1155&slug=Katrina%20Washington>
Jews, Muslims to seek tribunals in Canada
By BETH DUFF-BROWN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
TORONTO -- Jews and Muslims in Ontario pledged Wednesday to fight for faith-based tribunals to settle family disputes after its premier stunned their communities by announcing he would ban all religious arbitration in Canada's largest province.
Ontario appeared well on its way to becoming the first Western jurisdiction to allow the use of Sharia, an ancient set of Islamic rules, to settle some Muslim family disputes.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apcanada_story.asp?category=1101&slug=Canada%20Sharia%20Dispute
The News from Israel is getting bizarre. It's about the Palestinians and Gaza and the violence. These articles at least deal with issues I can relate to. Whoever thought the Palestinians would be so savage after moving into Gaza.
Jerusalem Post
Vast amounts of arms cross into Gaza
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH AND JPOST STAFF
"We know that in the past two days vast amounts of ammunition, weapons and fugitives entered Gaza. We fear that some of the weapons will make their way to the West Bank", a senior security official told the Jerusalem Post.
While Israel has no imminent plans to take action, the security establishment is monitoring the situation at the southern border very closely, the official said. "Right now we are biding our time, the coming days will tell," he said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126578009090>
After gunfire, Abbas doesn't show up
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday issued a stiff warning to various armed militias responsible for the growing state of anarchy and lawlessness in PA-ruled territories.
Abbas, who was unable to attend a rally on Wednesday to celebrate the Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip because of the presence of scores of militiamen, said the PA was running out of patience in the wake of increased chaos.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126664381688>
Israelis, Palestinians to meet in European camp
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
STRASBOURG, France
A youth camp organized by the Council of Europe next week will bring together Israelis and Palestinians, as well as ethnic Albanians and Serbs from Kosovo.
About 40 people age 16 to 20 will participate in the camp near the city of Freiburg on the German-French border Sept. 18-24.
The participants come from Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and the West Bank, as well as the town of Kosovska Mitrovica, which is divided between a Serb-dominated north and an ethnic Albanian south.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126664380367
'Mandela's rabbi' to be buried in Jerusalem today
By SAM SER AND AP
South Africa's former chief rabbi Cyril Harris has died in the South African coastal resort of Hermanus, near Cape Town, of cancer, just days short of his 69th birthday. Harris's body was flown to Israel on Wednesday and was to be buried on Jerusalem's Har Hamenuhot on Thursday morning.
Harris, who became a close friend of former South African president Nelson Mandela, was credited with aiding the reconciliation process in South Africa during the transition from apartheid to a free democracy.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126664382321
Rattling the Cage: Being Bibi - in the Sharon era
By LARRY DERFNER
What's happened to Binyamin Netanyahu? He used to be considered the most brilliant politician Israel had ever seen, a magician, the guy who couldn't be beaten. Now?
He's become the biggest blunderer in Israeli politics. He's not just a loser, he's a spectacular one.
All he's going to do for the next year is get beaten – by Ariel Sharon. It's understood now that his surprise resignation as finance minister a month ago, followed by his challenge to Sharon for chairmanship of Likud and leadership of the country, was a colossal mistake.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1126664382013
All Africa
Building Human Capacity Key to Africa's Future, Says AAI President
allAfrica.com
INTERVIEW
September 14, 2005
Posted to the web September 14, 2005
New York
Since its founding in 1953, the Africa-America Institute (formerly the African-American Institute) has developed and administered programs to educate and train Africans and to promote dialogue and understanding between the United States and Africa. In this first of a two-part discussion, AAI's president, Mora McLean, talked to AllAfrica's Tami Hultman about her organization's purpose, its past and its future.
AAI is now the oldest Africa-oriented private institution in the United States. We both know that perpetuating Africa-related work is a constant struggle. Why have you survived for more than half a century?
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509140428.html
High Oil Prices Hit Poorest Hardest
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
September 14, 2005
Posted to the web September 14, 2005
Lagos
As thousands of angry Nigerians took to the streets on Thursday to protest against 30 percent hikes in fuel price, across West Africa some of the world's poorest also were feeling the pinch, struggling to cope with the record-breaking cost of crude and its knock-on effect on basic goods.
Chanting slogans and waving banners, noisy protestors poured onto the grounds of the Lagos Governor's office denouncing fuel hikes decided 26 August by President Olusegun Obasanjo's government.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509140585.html
Sudan: Darfur Risks Descending Into Anarchy - Observers
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
September 14, 2005
Posted to the web September 14, 2005
Nairobi
Darfur risks sliding into a perpetual state of lawlessness even as the Sudanese government and the main rebel groups in the war-torn region discuss the possibility of peacefully resolving the conflict there, observers have warned.
Banditry and continuous attacks by armed groups on humanitarian workers, Arab nomads and villages in Darfur have increased significantly over the past weeks and threaten to destabilise the fragile ceasefire in the volatile western Sudanese region.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509140011.html
Sudan: Darfur Risks Descending Into Anarchy - Observers
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
September 14, 2005
Posted to the web September 14, 2005
Nairobi
Darfur risks sliding into a perpetual state of lawlessness even as the Sudanese government and the main rebel groups in the war-torn region discuss the possibility of peacefully resolving the conflict there, observers have warned.
Banditry and continuous attacks by armed groups on humanitarian workers, Arab nomads and villages in Darfur have increased significantly over the past weeks and threaten to destabilise the fragile ceasefire in the volatile western Sudanese region.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509140011.html
Africa Can Move Faster on MDGs, Says Report
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (Addis Ababa)
PRESS RELEASE
September 13, 2005
Posted to the web September 13, 2005
A new report on the Millennium Development Goals published by the Economic Commission for Africa says that despite widespread pessimism, some African countries are on course to meet key Goals and that with the right policies, many more could meet the target date of 2015.
The report says countries such as Ghana, Botswana, Uganda and Burkina Faso are likely to achieve Goal One of halving poverty by the deadline. Many more countries remain far behind, but the report argues that their governments can be successful at reducing extreme poverty if they use the MDGs as a tool in shaping their development policies.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200509130687.html
continued …
Morning Paper - continued ...
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
We've Raised a Half-Million Dollars and Sent over 50 Tons of Food and Water
Friends,
Last week I closed my New York production office and sent my staff down to New Orleans to set up our own relief effort. I asked all of you to help me by sending food, materials and cash to the emergency relief center we helped set up on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain with the Veterans for Peace. We did this when the government was doing nothing and the Red Cross was still trying to get it together. Every day, every minute was critical. People were dying, poor people, black people, left like so much trash in the street. I wanted to find a way to get aid in there immediately.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=186
"We're not counting on the government to take care of us anymore"
Following Hurricane Katrina evacuees out of New Orleans
By David Enders / MotherJones.com
COVINGTON, LA — Around 60 Hurricane Katrina refugees are staying in the cafeteria of Pine View Middle School. Covington has suffered heavy wind damage from the storm but not as much flooding as other areas. Since September 2, members of Veterans for Peace, an anti-war group that had been on its way to Washington, DC, for protests later this month, have been delivering donated relief supplies to the area.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=15
Iraq slams U.S. detentions, immunity for troops
By Mariam Karouny and Alastair Macdonald / Reuters
Speaking to Reuters, Justice Minister Abdul Hussein Shandal also criticised U.S. detentions of Iraqi journalists and said the media, contrary to U.S. policy in Iraq, must have special legal protection to report on all sides in the conflict.
"No citizen should be arrested without a court order," he said this week, complaining that U.S. suggestions that his ministry has an equal say on detentions were misleading.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4088
Times changing for US since Bush's Iraq war speech
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - When George W. Bush addresses the United Nations on Wednesday he will not be the same US president who took the podium here three years ago to herald war with Iraq.
With his popularity plunging, his Iraq policies under fire and doubts raised about his leadership after Hurricane Katrina, Bush will likely cut a much less feisty figure before a world body he once disdained.
Then, with American blood still boiling a year after the September 11 terror attacks and a successful war in Afghanistan under his belt, Bush threw down the gauntlet to the United Nations to follow him into Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4083
As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'
By Cecilia M. Vega / San Francisco Chronicle
NEW ORLEANS - A long caravan of white vans led by an Army humvee rolled Monday through New Orleans' Bywater district, a poor, mostly black neighborhood, northeast of the French Quarter.
Recovery team members wearing white protective suits and black boots stopped at houses with spray painted markings on the doors designating there were dead bodies inside.
Outside one house on Kentucky Street, a member of the Army 82nd Airborne Division summoned a reporter and photographer standing nearby and told them that if they took pictures or wrote a story about the body recovery process, he would take away their press credentials and kick them out of the state.
"No photos. No stories," said the man, wearing camouflage fatigues and a red beret.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4087
U.S. troop cutback in Afghanistan mulled - report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan could be cut by up to a fifth, or about 4,000 troops, next spring under a proposal being reviewed by the Pentagon, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
If adopted, it would be the biggest withdrawal since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001, the Times said, citing unnamed Pentagon and military officials.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in Berlin for a NATO meeting, declined to comment on the article but said the United States would continue to have "a strong role" in the country. A Pentagon spokesman said Rumsfeld had seen no such proposal.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4084
North Tour 'Swan Song'
September 13th, 2005
Sherry Glover's granddaughter, Dakota, in Crawford, TX
As I walked in that hot Crawford ditch August 6th, I sensed the cartilage rip in my left knee. By the time we reached Detroit I couldn't bear my weight on it. I had to leave the tour and return home. I'll need surgical repair of tear, scheduled for next week. I envisage myself temporarily 'in the stands' for a short time, and remain anxious to get back 'on the court'!
Secondly, my son in law, currently stationed just south of the Syrian-Iraq border checked in last week to say it would be a few weeks before he could call home again. Now I understand why. The media reports some sort of insurgent movement into Iraq along that border. Communication shuts down when a soldier is killed until the family is officially notified by the DoD so I owe my daughter the support she needs right now, and hopefully it will be only a matter of time until we hear from him again. Meanwhile, Dakota, my only grandchild doesn't know her father's face.
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/article.php?id=168
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/
The Washington Times
Ophelia Soaks N.C. Coast, Knocks Out Power
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; 12:05 PM
NAGS HEAD, N.C. -- Hurricane Ophelia picked up strength as it closed in on North Carolina on Wednesday, soaking the region with a half-foot of rain, washing away a barrier island street and causing power outages.
The storm had sustained wind of 80 mph Wednesday morning, up from 75 mph a few hours earlier, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings were shifted northward, covering the entire North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/14/AR2005091400254.html
Indictments Added in GOP Fundraising Case
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; Page A17
A Texas grand jury added new indictments yesterday to criminal charges against U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's top political fundraiser and the executive director of a Texas political action committee that DeLay organized to orchestrate a Republican takeover of the Texas House in 2002.
The grand jury alleged that James W. Ellis, who has raised money for DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee (ARMPAC) as well as for an offshoot known as Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), illegally contributed $190,000 in corporate funds to the Republican National Committee within 60 days of the 2002 state election.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301724.html
Aid for Katrina Victims Spurned
"I hope people don't play politics," said President Bush in the hurricane's aftermath. But that message didn't get through at the State Department, which is playing politics by continuing to ignore Cuba's offer to send 34 tons of aid and the services of 1,586 doctors.
On the face of it, the State Department’s inaction is puzzling. Cuban doctors have much experience in helping the victims of tropical storms. In 1998, Cuba sent 2,000 doctors to Central America to help the victims of Hurricane Mitch, a storm far more devastating than Katrina. Cuba’s assistance was just part of a massive international outpouring, led by the United States, which sent more than $1 billion in aid. There is also a need for Spanish-speaking doctors in the Gulf Coast region. Americans obsessed by Katrina's racial angle have largely overlooked the fact that up to 40,000 Honduran immigrants, most of them poor, lived in Katrina’s path.
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/
Telecommuting Interest Soars
Pump Prices Spur Workers To Abandon Long Drives
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; Page B01
When gas prices sped past $3 a gallon in the days after Hurricane Katrina, Sherrie Bell hit upon a quick way to avoid the pinch at the pump.
She decided to stop going to work.
Paralegal Sherrie Bell works at a federally funded telecommuting center 15 miles from her home in Southern Maryland.
Or at least stop working downtown. In a memo Thursday to her boss, Bell, a paralegal at the U.S. Education Department, requested permission to work two days a week from a federally funded telecommuting center 15 miles from her home in Southern Maryland.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301973.html
The Times-Picayune
Nagin foresees early return to parts of city
Optimistic mayor sets Monday as possible date
'I'm tired of hearing these helicopters. I want to hear some jazz,' Nagin says
By Steve Ritea, Gordon Russell and James Varney
Staff writers
Unflooded portions of New Orleans may be opened to residents, perhaps as early as Monday, Mayor Ray Nagin said in an upbeat and wide-ranging news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The possibility of repopulating areas of the city so quickly marked a stunning turnaround from earlier predictions that New Orleans could remain uninhabitable for months. Nagin said the final decision on the date would hinge on pending results of federal tests measuring the toxicity of the city's air and water, but he said initial reports are turning out much better than expected.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Fall elections in Jefferson, N.O. postponed
Makeup dates still unknown, state says
By Mark Waller
East Jefferson bureau
Hurricane Katrina has forced an indefinite postponement of the fall elections in Orleans and Jefferson parishes, the Louisiana secretary of state's office said Tuesday.
Oct. 15 was the primary date for special elections for School Board, Kenner City Council and the state's 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in Jefferson Parish, and runoffs were set for Nov. 12 if necessary. Three New Orleans neighborhoods had Nov. 12 referendums planned on fees or taxes to finance security patrols and other local improvements.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Bush takes responsibility for Katrina response failures
9/13/2005, 3:17 p.m. CT
By TOM RAUM
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush for the first time took responsibility Tuesday for federal government mistakes in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and suggested the calamity raised broader questions about the government's ability to handle both natural disasters and terror attacks.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1126621440119642.xml&storylist=hurricane
Computer brings Katrina's powerful surge to life
Simulation to help La. prepare for next storm
Model may not yield answer on floodwall breaches
By John McQuaid
Staff writer
The first detailed computer model of Hurricane Katrina's storm surge shows a gargantuan, 15-foot dome of water forming in the Gulf of Mexico. Propelled westward by 140-mph winds, the surge slams into levees east of New Orleans and pours over them, flooding eastern New Orleans, the city's Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.
The model later shows water flooding the rest of New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain through levee breaches. Meanwhile, Katrina's giant wave continues its relentless northeast course, pushing a 30-foot wave toward Mississippi, over the Biloxi-Gulfport area.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Sun Herald
Beauvoir deemed
structually sound
LISA M. KRIEGER
SUN HERALD
(image placeholder)
Despite massive storm damage, the historic Beauvoir House is structurally sound and can be restored, with time and money, according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
"Plans are already under way,'' said Richard Cawthon, chief architectural historian for the department. "Architectural specialists have examined the home and found it preservable.''
The beachfront retirement home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and the only national historic landmark in Harrison County, the Beauvoir house has lived through the Civil War, attempted arson and 21 other hurricanes during its 150-year life.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12636015.htm
Parties boil over possible wooing
Democrats accuse GOP of putting insurers over affected residents
By GEOFF PENDER
SUN HERALD
(image placeholder)
JACKSON - The air of post-Katrina bipartisanship evaporated Tuesday, with the state Democratic Party accusing GOP lawmakers of being in bed with insurance companies and those legislators accusing the party of trying to make political hay from a gut-wrenching disaster.
Democratic Party spokesman Sam Hall on Tuesday fired off a broadsides about Monday's joint session of the House and Senate Insurance committees. He said GOP lawmakers "turned their efforts to helping the insurance industry make more money" and neglected to address the Katrina insurance issues affecting South Mississippians. Hall's press release was headlined: "GOP Legislators Lead Love-Fest for Insurance Industry During Meeting."
But GOP committee members said Monday that they were getting their regular business out of the way, in a meeting planned before Katrina, so they could focus on Katrina on Tuesday, which they did in a lengthy hearing.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12640257.htm
BILOXI Water, sewer back online in most of regio
By MARIE McCULLOUGH
SUN HERALD
(image placeholder)
BILOXI - Let the showering resume. And boil-water alerts have been lifted in some communities. But you may still need to hold off on the flushing, and be cautious about drinking the water until your community is cleared by the Mississippi Department of Health.
Scores of water workers from Florida, along with power workers from many states, helped local crews get the systems working, at least in a stopgap fashion.
Water pressure is low in some places because of leaky pipes. And numerous wastewater lift stations - where sewage is pumped through pipes that go uphill - are temporarily operating with diesel-fueled bypass pumps.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12638407.htm
The Advocate
THAT IS THE VERY SPOT ON THE PIER AT WRIGHTVILLE BEACH WHERE IS WAS YESTERDAY MORNING.
Ophelia soaks N.C. coast, knocks out power
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
Associated Press Writer
NAGS HEAD, N.C. (AP) -- Hurricane Ophelia picked up strength as it closed in on North Carolina on Wednesday, soaking the region with a half-foot of rain, washing away a barrier island street and causing power outages.
The storm had sustained wind of 80 mph Wednesday morning, up from 75 mph a few hours earlier, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings were shifted northward, covering the entire North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
One side of Ophelia's eyewall - the circle of strongest wind surrounding the eye - was expected to move along North Carolina's southeast coast late Wednesday, the hurricane center said.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HURRICANE_OPHELIA?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-12-42-00
Bus system works to ease crowding
Ridership up; CATS expands routes, services
By SCOTT DYER
sdyer@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
Advocate staff photo by Arthur D. Lauck
Capital Area Transit System riders get on and off one of the 50 route buses at the Florida Street bus station Tuesday. The number of riders and the time required to complete a route have increased since Hurricane Katrina sent thousands of displaced victims to Baton Rouge.
With the help of 50 buses salvaged by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, the Capital Area Transit System is looking to help ease crowding on local buses caused by evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.
CATS General Manager Dwight Brashear said bus ridership in the Baton Rouge area has exploded since the storm, largely because of use by displaced people from the New Orleans area.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/091405/new_bussystem001.shtml
Senate panel opens Katrina response probe
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Post-9/11 changes to improve the government response to catastrophic disasters failed their first major test in Hurricane Katrina's wake, the Republican chairwoman of a Senate committee said Wednesday as the panel opened an investigation.
Despite billions of dollars to boost disaster preparedness at all levels of government, the response to Katrina was plagued by confusion, communication failures and widespread lack of coordination, said Senate Homeland Security Committee chair Susan Collins, R-Maine.
"At this point, we would have expected a sharp, crisp response to this terrible tragedy," Collins said. "Instead, we witnessed what appeared to be a sluggish initial response."
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_WASHINGTON?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-10-56-09
Russell Crowe seeks reduction in charge
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Russell Crowe's lawyers are working to win a reduction of the assault charge filed against him after he allegedly hurled a phone at a New York hotel staffer, an Australian magazine reported Wednesday.
The 41-year-old Oscar-winning actor, born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, was charged with felony assault after he was accused of throwing a malfunctioning telephone at hotel concierge Nestor Estrada in June.
If convicted, Crowe could lose his right to work in the United States and could face up to seven years in prison.
In an interview published by The Bulletin magazine, Crowe said his lawyers are working to have the felony charge reduced to a less serious misdemeanor.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PEOPLE_RUSSELL_CROWE?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-10-23-46
Truck spills load of $800,000 in quarters
HAMMONDVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- A truck carrying tons of quarters caught fire Tuesday and spilled most of them on a highway, where workers used heavy equipment, shovels and buckets to scoop up the singed coins.
The driver said the truck carried 39,000 pounds of new Kansas quarters, part of the U.S. Mint's state coin series, that were worth some $800,000, said Police Chief Michael Putnam.
The rear of the armored truck bound for Birmingham from the Philadelphia mint caught fire in the pre-dawn hours on Interstate 59 in northeast Alabama, Putnam said.
"It's kind of a surprise when you pull up on a fire call at 2:30 in the morning on the interstate and there are armed guards around the fire," he said.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Q/QUARTERS_FIRE?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-09-22-17
Explosions in Iraq kill 152, injure 542
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
(image placeholder)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- More than a dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital in rapid succession Wednesday, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a series of attacks that began with a suicide car bombing that targeted laborers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility.
The death toll at hands of insurgents in the capital Wednesday far exceeds the carnage inflicted in any one day since the war began.
Al-Qaida in Iraq linked the attacks to the recent killing of about 200 militants from the city of Tal Afar by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Before dawn Wednesday, 17 men were killed by insurgents in the village of Taji north of Baghdad, which pushed the death toll in all violence in and around the capital to 169.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-12-34-31
continued …
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
We've Raised a Half-Million Dollars and Sent over 50 Tons of Food and Water
Friends,
Last week I closed my New York production office and sent my staff down to New Orleans to set up our own relief effort. I asked all of you to help me by sending food, materials and cash to the emergency relief center we helped set up on the shores of Lake Pontchartrain with the Veterans for Peace. We did this when the government was doing nothing and the Red Cross was still trying to get it together. Every day, every minute was critical. People were dying, poor people, black people, left like so much trash in the street. I wanted to find a way to get aid in there immediately.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=186
"We're not counting on the government to take care of us anymore"
Following Hurricane Katrina evacuees out of New Orleans
By David Enders / MotherJones.com
COVINGTON, LA — Around 60 Hurricane Katrina refugees are staying in the cafeteria of Pine View Middle School. Covington has suffered heavy wind damage from the storm but not as much flooding as other areas. Since September 2, members of Veterans for Peace, an anti-war group that had been on its way to Washington, DC, for protests later this month, have been delivering donated relief supplies to the area.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/covington.php?id=15
Iraq slams U.S. detentions, immunity for troops
By Mariam Karouny and Alastair Macdonald / Reuters
Speaking to Reuters, Justice Minister Abdul Hussein Shandal also criticised U.S. detentions of Iraqi journalists and said the media, contrary to U.S. policy in Iraq, must have special legal protection to report on all sides in the conflict.
"No citizen should be arrested without a court order," he said this week, complaining that U.S. suggestions that his ministry has an equal say on detentions were misleading.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4088
Times changing for US since Bush's Iraq war speech
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - When George W. Bush addresses the United Nations on Wednesday he will not be the same US president who took the podium here three years ago to herald war with Iraq.
With his popularity plunging, his Iraq policies under fire and doubts raised about his leadership after Hurricane Katrina, Bush will likely cut a much less feisty figure before a world body he once disdained.
Then, with American blood still boiling a year after the September 11 terror attacks and a successful war in Afghanistan under his belt, Bush threw down the gauntlet to the United Nations to follow him into Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4083
As bodies recovered, reporters are told 'no photos, no stories'
By Cecilia M. Vega / San Francisco Chronicle
NEW ORLEANS - A long caravan of white vans led by an Army humvee rolled Monday through New Orleans' Bywater district, a poor, mostly black neighborhood, northeast of the French Quarter.
Recovery team members wearing white protective suits and black boots stopped at houses with spray painted markings on the doors designating there were dead bodies inside.
Outside one house on Kentucky Street, a member of the Army 82nd Airborne Division summoned a reporter and photographer standing nearby and told them that if they took pictures or wrote a story about the body recovery process, he would take away their press credentials and kick them out of the state.
"No photos. No stories," said the man, wearing camouflage fatigues and a red beret.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4087
U.S. troop cutback in Afghanistan mulled - report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. troop levels in Afghanistan could be cut by up to a fifth, or about 4,000 troops, next spring under a proposal being reviewed by the Pentagon, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
If adopted, it would be the biggest withdrawal since U.S.-led forces overthrew the Taliban in late 2001, the Times said, citing unnamed Pentagon and military officials.
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, in Berlin for a NATO meeting, declined to comment on the article but said the United States would continue to have "a strong role" in the country. A Pentagon spokesman said Rumsfeld had seen no such proposal.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4084
North Tour 'Swan Song'
September 13th, 2005
Sherry Glover's granddaughter, Dakota, in Crawford, TX
As I walked in that hot Crawford ditch August 6th, I sensed the cartilage rip in my left knee. By the time we reached Detroit I couldn't bear my weight on it. I had to leave the tour and return home. I'll need surgical repair of tear, scheduled for next week. I envisage myself temporarily 'in the stands' for a short time, and remain anxious to get back 'on the court'!
Secondly, my son in law, currently stationed just south of the Syrian-Iraq border checked in last week to say it would be a few weeks before he could call home again. Now I understand why. The media reports some sort of insurgent movement into Iraq along that border. Communication shuts down when a soldier is killed until the family is officially notified by the DoD so I owe my daughter the support she needs right now, and hopefully it will be only a matter of time until we hear from him again. Meanwhile, Dakota, my only grandchild doesn't know her father's face.
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/article.php?id=168
http://www.bringthemhomenowtour.org/
The Washington Times
Ophelia Soaks N.C. Coast, Knocks Out Power
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
The Associated Press
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; 12:05 PM
NAGS HEAD, N.C. -- Hurricane Ophelia picked up strength as it closed in on North Carolina on Wednesday, soaking the region with a half-foot of rain, washing away a barrier island street and causing power outages.
The storm had sustained wind of 80 mph Wednesday morning, up from 75 mph a few hours earlier, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings were shifted northward, covering the entire North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/14/AR2005091400254.html
Indictments Added in GOP Fundraising Case
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; Page A17
A Texas grand jury added new indictments yesterday to criminal charges against U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's top political fundraiser and the executive director of a Texas political action committee that DeLay organized to orchestrate a Republican takeover of the Texas House in 2002.
The grand jury alleged that James W. Ellis, who has raised money for DeLay's Americans for a Republican Majority political action committee (ARMPAC) as well as for an offshoot known as Texans for a Republican Majority (TRMPAC), illegally contributed $190,000 in corporate funds to the Republican National Committee within 60 days of the 2002 state election.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301724.html
Aid for Katrina Victims Spurned
"I hope people don't play politics," said President Bush in the hurricane's aftermath. But that message didn't get through at the State Department, which is playing politics by continuing to ignore Cuba's offer to send 34 tons of aid and the services of 1,586 doctors.
On the face of it, the State Department’s inaction is puzzling. Cuban doctors have much experience in helping the victims of tropical storms. In 1998, Cuba sent 2,000 doctors to Central America to help the victims of Hurricane Mitch, a storm far more devastating than Katrina. Cuba’s assistance was just part of a massive international outpouring, led by the United States, which sent more than $1 billion in aid. There is also a need for Spanish-speaking doctors in the Gulf Coast region. Americans obsessed by Katrina's racial angle have largely overlooked the fact that up to 40,000 Honduran immigrants, most of them poor, lived in Katrina’s path.
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/
Telecommuting Interest Soars
Pump Prices Spur Workers To Abandon Long Drives
By Amit R. Paley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 14, 2005; Page B01
When gas prices sped past $3 a gallon in the days after Hurricane Katrina, Sherrie Bell hit upon a quick way to avoid the pinch at the pump.
She decided to stop going to work.
Paralegal Sherrie Bell works at a federally funded telecommuting center 15 miles from her home in Southern Maryland.
Or at least stop working downtown. In a memo Thursday to her boss, Bell, a paralegal at the U.S. Education Department, requested permission to work two days a week from a federally funded telecommuting center 15 miles from her home in Southern Maryland.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/13/AR2005091301973.html
The Times-Picayune
Nagin foresees early return to parts of city
Optimistic mayor sets Monday as possible date
'I'm tired of hearing these helicopters. I want to hear some jazz,' Nagin says
By Steve Ritea, Gordon Russell and James Varney
Staff writers
Unflooded portions of New Orleans may be opened to residents, perhaps as early as Monday, Mayor Ray Nagin said in an upbeat and wide-ranging news conference Tuesday afternoon.
The possibility of repopulating areas of the city so quickly marked a stunning turnaround from earlier predictions that New Orleans could remain uninhabitable for months. Nagin said the final decision on the date would hinge on pending results of federal tests measuring the toxicity of the city's air and water, but he said initial reports are turning out much better than expected.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Fall elections in Jefferson, N.O. postponed
Makeup dates still unknown, state says
By Mark Waller
East Jefferson bureau
Hurricane Katrina has forced an indefinite postponement of the fall elections in Orleans and Jefferson parishes, the Louisiana secretary of state's office said Tuesday.
Oct. 15 was the primary date for special elections for School Board, Kenner City Council and the state's 5th Circuit Court of Appeal in Jefferson Parish, and runoffs were set for Nov. 12 if necessary. Three New Orleans neighborhoods had Nov. 12 referendums planned on fees or taxes to finance security patrols and other local improvements.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Bush takes responsibility for Katrina response failures
9/13/2005, 3:17 p.m. CT
By TOM RAUM
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush for the first time took responsibility Tuesday for federal government mistakes in dealing with Hurricane Katrina and suggested the calamity raised broader questions about the government's ability to handle both natural disasters and terror attacks.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/weather/index.ssf?/base/news-19/1126621440119642.xml&storylist=hurricane
Computer brings Katrina's powerful surge to life
Simulation to help La. prepare for next storm
Model may not yield answer on floodwall breaches
By John McQuaid
Staff writer
The first detailed computer model of Hurricane Katrina's storm surge shows a gargantuan, 15-foot dome of water forming in the Gulf of Mexico. Propelled westward by 140-mph winds, the surge slams into levees east of New Orleans and pours over them, flooding eastern New Orleans, the city's Lower 9th Ward and St. Bernard Parish.
The model later shows water flooding the rest of New Orleans from Lake Pontchartrain through levee breaches. Meanwhile, Katrina's giant wave continues its relentless northeast course, pushing a 30-foot wave toward Mississippi, over the Biloxi-Gulfport area.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09_14.html
Sun Herald
Beauvoir deemed
structually sound
LISA M. KRIEGER
SUN HERALD
(image placeholder)
Despite massive storm damage, the historic Beauvoir House is structurally sound and can be restored, with time and money, according to the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.
"Plans are already under way,'' said Richard Cawthon, chief architectural historian for the department. "Architectural specialists have examined the home and found it preservable.''
The beachfront retirement home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, and the only national historic landmark in Harrison County, the Beauvoir house has lived through the Civil War, attempted arson and 21 other hurricanes during its 150-year life.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12636015.htm
Parties boil over possible wooing
Democrats accuse GOP of putting insurers over affected residents
By GEOFF PENDER
SUN HERALD
(image placeholder)
JACKSON - The air of post-Katrina bipartisanship evaporated Tuesday, with the state Democratic Party accusing GOP lawmakers of being in bed with insurance companies and those legislators accusing the party of trying to make political hay from a gut-wrenching disaster.
Democratic Party spokesman Sam Hall on Tuesday fired off a broadsides about Monday's joint session of the House and Senate Insurance committees. He said GOP lawmakers "turned their efforts to helping the insurance industry make more money" and neglected to address the Katrina insurance issues affecting South Mississippians. Hall's press release was headlined: "GOP Legislators Lead Love-Fest for Insurance Industry During Meeting."
But GOP committee members said Monday that they were getting their regular business out of the way, in a meeting planned before Katrina, so they could focus on Katrina on Tuesday, which they did in a lengthy hearing.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12640257.htm
BILOXI Water, sewer back online in most of regio
By MARIE McCULLOUGH
SUN HERALD
(image placeholder)
BILOXI - Let the showering resume. And boil-water alerts have been lifted in some communities. But you may still need to hold off on the flushing, and be cautious about drinking the water until your community is cleared by the Mississippi Department of Health.
Scores of water workers from Florida, along with power workers from many states, helped local crews get the systems working, at least in a stopgap fashion.
Water pressure is low in some places because of leaky pipes. And numerous wastewater lift stations - where sewage is pumped through pipes that go uphill - are temporarily operating with diesel-fueled bypass pumps.
http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/12638407.htm
The Advocate
THAT IS THE VERY SPOT ON THE PIER AT WRIGHTVILLE BEACH WHERE IS WAS YESTERDAY MORNING.
Ophelia soaks N.C. coast, knocks out power
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
Associated Press Writer
NAGS HEAD, N.C. (AP) -- Hurricane Ophelia picked up strength as it closed in on North Carolina on Wednesday, soaking the region with a half-foot of rain, washing away a barrier island street and causing power outages.
The storm had sustained wind of 80 mph Wednesday morning, up from 75 mph a few hours earlier, the National Hurricane Center said. Hurricane warnings were shifted northward, covering the entire North Carolina coast from the South Carolina line to Virginia, where a tropical storm warning covered the mouth of Chesapeake Bay.
One side of Ophelia's eyewall - the circle of strongest wind surrounding the eye - was expected to move along North Carolina's southeast coast late Wednesday, the hurricane center said.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/H/HURRICANE_OPHELIA?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-12-42-00
Bus system works to ease crowding
Ridership up; CATS expands routes, services
By SCOTT DYER
sdyer@theadvocate.com
Advocate staff writer
Advocate staff photo by Arthur D. Lauck
Capital Area Transit System riders get on and off one of the 50 route buses at the Florida Street bus station Tuesday. The number of riders and the time required to complete a route have increased since Hurricane Katrina sent thousands of displaced victims to Baton Rouge.
With the help of 50 buses salvaged by the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority, the Capital Area Transit System is looking to help ease crowding on local buses caused by evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.
CATS General Manager Dwight Brashear said bus ridership in the Baton Rouge area has exploded since the storm, largely because of use by displaced people from the New Orleans area.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/091405/new_bussystem001.shtml
Senate panel opens Katrina response probe
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Post-9/11 changes to improve the government response to catastrophic disasters failed their first major test in Hurricane Katrina's wake, the Republican chairwoman of a Senate committee said Wednesday as the panel opened an investigation.
Despite billions of dollars to boost disaster preparedness at all levels of government, the response to Katrina was plagued by confusion, communication failures and widespread lack of coordination, said Senate Homeland Security Committee chair Susan Collins, R-Maine.
"At this point, we would have expected a sharp, crisp response to this terrible tragedy," Collins said. "Instead, we witnessed what appeared to be a sluggish initial response."
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_WASHINGTON?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-10-56-09
Russell Crowe seeks reduction in charge
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Russell Crowe's lawyers are working to win a reduction of the assault charge filed against him after he allegedly hurled a phone at a New York hotel staffer, an Australian magazine reported Wednesday.
The 41-year-old Oscar-winning actor, born in New Zealand and raised in Australia, was charged with felony assault after he was accused of throwing a malfunctioning telephone at hotel concierge Nestor Estrada in June.
If convicted, Crowe could lose his right to work in the United States and could face up to seven years in prison.
In an interview published by The Bulletin magazine, Crowe said his lawyers are working to have the felony charge reduced to a less serious misdemeanor.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/P/PEOPLE_RUSSELL_CROWE?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-10-23-46
Truck spills load of $800,000 in quarters
HAMMONDVILLE, Ala. (AP) -- A truck carrying tons of quarters caught fire Tuesday and spilled most of them on a highway, where workers used heavy equipment, shovels and buckets to scoop up the singed coins.
The driver said the truck carried 39,000 pounds of new Kansas quarters, part of the U.S. Mint's state coin series, that were worth some $800,000, said Police Chief Michael Putnam.
The rear of the armored truck bound for Birmingham from the Philadelphia mint caught fire in the pre-dawn hours on Interstate 59 in northeast Alabama, Putnam said.
"It's kind of a surprise when you pull up on a fire call at 2:30 in the morning on the interstate and there are armed guards around the fire," he said.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Q/QUARTERS_FIRE?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-09-22-17
Explosions in Iraq kill 152, injure 542
By SLOBODAN LEKIC
Associated Press Writer
(image placeholder)
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- More than a dozen explosions ripped through the Iraqi capital in rapid succession Wednesday, killing at least 152 people and wounding 542 in a series of attacks that began with a suicide car bombing that targeted laborers assembled to find work for the day. Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility.
The death toll at hands of insurgents in the capital Wednesday far exceeds the carnage inflicted in any one day since the war began.
Al-Qaida in Iraq linked the attacks to the recent killing of about 200 militants from the city of Tal Afar by U.S. and Iraqi forces.
Before dawn Wednesday, 17 men were killed by insurgents in the village of Taji north of Baghdad, which pushed the death toll in all violence in and around the capital to 169.
http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAQ?SITE=LABAT&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-09-14-12-34-31
continued …
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite 12 hour loop - click here
September 14, 2005.
"Ophelia" is coming into line with a heat (energy) source directly off the equator on the Pacific side of North America.
It has a new status coming long before it comes into land over Wilmington. If the bridges to the beach open I'll head out there but yesterday there was significant beach erosion with a lot of blowing sand.
The millibars are dropping, currently the lowest it has been at 976.
The heat source is to the right corner of this satellite.
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite 12 hour loop - click here
September 14, 2005.
"Ophelia" is picking up velocity from the approaching vortex peripheral flow.
The Atlantic Vortex is better defined.
Morning Papers - continued ...
Sydney Morning Herald
Bird flu could kill more than terror attack: Abbott
September 14, 2005 - 1:05AM
A bird flu pandemic in Australia could be more deadly for the nation than almost any sort of terrorist attack, Health Minister Tony Abbott has warned.
He painted the worst-case scenario of thousands of possible deaths in Australia if there was a pandemic as Indonesia claimed its fourth likely victim from the bird flu.
And Indonesia's health minister has warned there could be further outbreaks to come.
Bird flu, which arrived in Asia in late 2003, has so far killed nearly 60 people in the region.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/bird-flu-could-kill-more-than-terror-attack-abbott/2005/09/14/1126377322469.html
Torah removed from flooded synagogue
September 14, 2005 - 10:20AM
Rabbi Isaac Leider from the Jewish Zaka volunteers carries a Torah scroll out of the flooded synagogue of Beit Israel in New Orleans.
Photo: AFP
American volunteers with an Israeli charity have rescued seven Torah scrolls from a New Orleans synagogue flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
However, many of them were wet and it was uncertain whether they could be salvaged.
Four soldiers from a California unit brought Rabbi Isaac Leider and another volunteer to the gate of Beth Israel Synagogue by boat, then accompanied them inside through waist-high water to salvage the seven boxed scrolls.
One of them is from Europe and more than 250 years old, said Orthodox Rabbi Leider, wearing a vest marked "Zaka".
The two boats then made their way from the synagogue, near a canal that overflowed during the August 29 storm, through polluted waters and thick debris to dry land.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/torah-removed-from-flooded-synagogue/2005/09/14/1126377346344.html
Rice defends Bush's race record
By Steven Weisman in New York
September 14, 2005
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has defended George Bush's record on racial issues, saying that the hurricane that disproportionately struck poor blacks in New Orleans "gives us an opportunity" to rectify historic injustices she experienced as an African-American growing up in the South.
"When [New Orleans] is rebuilt, it should be rebuilt in a different way than it was at the time that this happened," Dr Rice told The New York Times, adding that maybe now there could be an effort to "deal with the problem of persistent poverty".
Asked what she told foreign leaders wondering about racial discrimination and poverty in the US as the Bush Administration promoted democracy around the world she said it would be difficult to see "the kind of diversity that you see in America's cabinet, in America's foreign service, in America's business community, in America's journalistic community", anywhere else.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rice-defends-bushs-race-record/2005/09/13/1126377316451.html
Dancers paid bare minimum
By Sharon Verghis
September 14, 2005
Hot issue ... dancers, such as those of Chunky Move, want more money for performing nude.
It's not often unions have to negotiate a nudity bonus. But for ballet, it's one of the hot issues on their industrial agenda.
For the record, dancers covered by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's dance award receive a so-called nudity bonus of $15.60 per performance - a 10 cent increase from 2003, and a far cry from Linda Evangelista's famous vow that she would not get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day. That was with clothes on.
The Russian National Ballet's venture into bare flesh in its controversial version of Romeo and Juliet, opening in Sydney on Friday at the Theatre Royal, has sparked discussion about the increasing use of nudity in dance, and the rate dancers are paid to disrobe on stage.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/dancers-paid-bare-minimum/2005/09/13/1126377311917.html
Musharraf offers to fence in Taliban
September 14, 2005
Falling in line … General Musharraf.
Photo: AFP
New York: The Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, has offered to build a fence between Pakistan and Afghanistan to stop the movement of Taliban militants between the two countries.
General Musharraf made the offer on Monday during talks in New York with the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, said after the 75-minute meeting.
"Pakistan is prepared to raise a fence so that we can put an end to these allegations," Mr Kasuri told reporters, without specifying exactly where and when a fence could be erected, how long it would be, or who would pay for it.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/musharraf-offers-to-fence-in-taliban/2005/09/13/1126377316418.html
Conservatives warm to story of cold love
By Jonathan Miller
September 14, 2005
Emperor penguins … just birds, or an affirmation of monogamy and child-rearing?
On a conservative website a pro-lifer said the movie "verified the beauty of life and the rightness of protecting it".
At a conference for young Republicans, the editor of the conservative magazine National Review urged participants to see the movie because it promoted monogamy.
The movie is March of the Penguins, and of all the responses it has evoked perhaps the most surprising is its conservative appeal.
Conservatives are hardly its only audience; the film is the second-highest grossing documentary of all time, behind Fahrenheit 9/11.
But some have seen its stirring depiction of the mating ordeals of emperor penguins as an anthem to socially conservative values.
March of the Penguins, the film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/conservatives-warm-to-story-of-cold-love/2005/09/13/1126377316445.html
Wilmington Star News
Bracing for the storm
Wrightsville Beach watches for erosion
Flooding remained a concern Tuesday in Wrightsville Beach as Ophelia’s wind-whipped presence began to be felt. Officials kept a close eye on the situation as high tide came and went about 3:30 p.m.
Some flooding is anticipated on the north end of the island, including Conch Lane and Scotch Bonnet. Officials said other areas of concern include Channel Drive and South Channel Drive.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/50913013
Ophelia slowly slugs toward shore
Southeastern North Carolina is settling in for a long night as a slow-moving Hurricane Ophelia grinds toward landfall Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.
Ophelia is nearly stationary with strong rainbands just off the North Carolina coast.
Coastal emergency management officials remain concerned that the biggest threat from the storm may be its slow movement, which could subject Southeastern North Carolina to hours of heavy winds and rain.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/50913029
State mobilizes for storm response
Slow-moving storm frustrates recovery plans
By Mark Schreiner
Raleigh Bureau Chief
KEN BLEVINS / STAR-NEWS
Ophelia update
This is a 5:30 p.m. update from the New Hanover County Emergency Public Information Center:
Shelter population: Dorothy B. Johnson 82; Eaton Elementary 6
Access to UNCW is limited to emergency vehicles only on Randall Drive.
Approximately 12 inches of water on Canal Drive at Carolina Beach.
Minimal hurricane force winds are expected to brush the immediate coast beginning approximately 5 a.m. Wednesday
City of Wilmington reports at least two traffic signals are out.
Minor street flooding is reported in Wilmington.
Minor street flooding in the Castle Hayne/NorthChase area
Rainfall amounts of 6-10 inches is possible, with as much of 15 inches in some areas.
Residents are reminded to continue monitoring the progress of the storm.
By Mark Schreiner
Raleigh Bureau Chief
State and federal rescue and recovery teams are ready, Gov. Mike Easley said, but clean-up from Ophelia isn’t expected to start before Friday.
The slow-moving storm, whose high winds and rain are expected to reach Southeastern North Carolina by Wednesday, is expected to frustrate recovery efforts by battering the coast for more than two days.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/50913002
Closings, evacuations and cancellations
RELATED ITEMS:
State readies for Ophelia
If you would like to add closing or evacuation information to this list, please e-mail Merton Vance, online news coordinator, at merton.vance@starnewsonline.com
STORM INFORMATION
People seeking storm-related information can contact the New Hanover County Emergency Public Information Center (910) 341-4304 for storm-related information. A Hispanic translator is available at (910)341-4007.
The Brunswick County Emergency Operations Center is operating on a 24-hour schedule, and can be reached at 253-7453.
Most high-rise bridges along the coast will close when winds reach around 40 mph. Most emergency vehicles stop crossing them at 35 mph.
All emergency responses are generally stopped at 50 mph.
The Wrightsville Beach drawbridge is locked into place, closing it to boat traffic, when winds reach 35 mph.
CLOSINGS
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?&Dato=20050913&Kategori=WORK&Lopenr=50912021&Ref=AR
N.C. town takes pride in wetlands sewage plant
By JIM SPARKS
Winston-Salem Journal
In a large swath of bottomland beside Town Fork Creek, a serpentine-shaped pond filled with fluorescent green duckweed sparkles in the sunlight as it slowly feeds water into large troughs of cattails.
The soft patter of sprayed water falling is punctuated by the sound of geese honking as they take off from the plant-filled lagoons. Deer commonly visit at dusk and dawn.
The air smells a little funky, but no more than what one would expect in a marsh. The place feels like a wildlife refuge.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050914/APN/509140504&cachetime=5
Court: Eric Rudolph defense cost taxpayers $4 million
By JAY REEVES
Associated Press Writer
Legal fees to defend Eric Rudolph in a deadly Alabama abortion clinic blast and the Atlanta Olympics bombing cost taxpayers more than $4 million before he agreed to plead guilty in a deal that spared his life, court documents show.
One of Rudolph's attorneys said Tuesday the bill would have been far higher had the case gone to trial.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/APN/509130878&cachetime=5
One Dead As Storms Blast Parts of Wis.
By The Associated Press
Thunderstorms packing powerful winds swept through parts of Wisconsin Tuesday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes, damaging buildings, and downing trees and power lines.
A downed wire killed a 57-year-old man in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, police Lt. Gerald Witkowski said.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050914/APA/509140509&cachetime=5
Wachovia to buy finance company
Associated Press
CHARLOTTE - The financial services company Wachovia Corp. on Monday said it agreed to acquire Westcorp, an automobile finance company based in Irvine, Calif., for $3.42 billion, creating the nation’s ninth-largest auto loan originator.
Wachovia also agreed to pay another $490 million for the 16 percent stake that Westcorp doesn’t already own in WFS Financial Inc., boosting the combined value of the transactions of $3.9 billion. The company said the deal for Westcorp is expected to boost earnings in the second year and produce an internal rate of return of more than 15 percent, above Wachovia’s acquisition criteria.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/209130354
TOM BLACKBURN
Good Catholics can disagree
The court and Congress are competent to deal with the legalities of abortion, not its morality.
Most Americans think Catholics are not permitted to think for themselves. Sociologist Andrew Greeley turned up that datum in his research on the persistence of anti-Catholicism in America and reports it in the Sept. 9 issue of Commonweal in a preview of his next book.
In other Catholic news this week, Judge John G. Roberts Jr. will become the fourth Catholic on the United States Supreme Court if he is confirmed by the Senate. The other three are Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/209130345
Exhibit Looks at Egyptian Medical Practice
By DEEPTI HAJELA
Associated Press Writer
No epidurals, needles or vaccinations here. To protect a pregnant woman in ancient Egypt, the seal on a magic jar containing a strip of papyrus could have been pressed on her skin. For the good health of a baby, a wand inscribed with the image of a goddess might be used to draw a protective circle around the spot where the child lay.
Invoking the gods and goddesses was as much a part of health care in those times as using the therapeutic properties of honey and pomegranate, according to the curator of a new exhibition that looks at the artifacts connected to healing and medicine. "The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt" opened Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and runs through Jan. 15.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/APE/509130965
How many tropical storms or hurricanes have you weathered?
None - 0.0%
1-2 - 7.1%
3-4 - 21.4%
5 or more - 71.4 %
Number of votes cast: 14
*StarNewsOnline polls are posted for entertainment only. Results are not scientific.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/miniquery?FromSave=1&Kategori=frontpage&W=287&H=70&BGColor=%23ffffff
How growth affects life in our region.
http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=local06
New Zealand Herald
Hispanic celebrities bring aid to hurricane victims
14.09.05
Singer Gloria Estefan, actors Jimmy Smits and Andy Garcia, and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval will lead a contingent of Hispanic-American entertainers bringing aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The visit will include delivery of a planeload of supplies and toys to shelters, and will stress the importance of blood donorship.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/6/story.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10345377
Asians in NZ subjected to racism, study finds
14.09.05 1.00pm
Many Asians living in New Zealand are subjected to some form of racism, a new study has found.
The Asia New Zealand Foundation report, Engaging Asian Communities in New Zealand, revealed the most common form of racism was verbal abuse and rude gestures, often by teenagers or children.
Overt racism included damage to cars identifiable as Asian-owned, having bottles or stones thrown at them, and being mocked for poor pronunciation.
Asia New Zealand's research director, Dr Rebecca Foley, said the main purpose of the research was to look at ways that engagement between various Asian communities and other communities happened -- "or does not happen, as the case may be".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10345507
I take responsibility, says Bush
14.09.05 1.00pm
By Kieran Murray
NEW ORLEANS - President George W. Bush has for the first time taken responsibility for federal government failures in handling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.
"I want to know what went right and what went wrong.
"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm? That's a very important question and it's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on so we can better respond," he said.
Federal emergency response (FEMA) head Michael Brown, a political ally of Bush with little hands-on experience, resigned yesterday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345516
Fine weather predicted for voters
14.09.05 3.00pm
While the election may be too close to call, MetService seems confident it will be fine on polling day.
Its outlook for Saturday is a dry trip to the polling booth.
However, in the days leading up to the election showery or wet conditions were expected for most western areas.
Clearing skies were likely on Saturday morning over the whole country, MetService spokesman Bob McDavitt said.
"It looks as though this fine spell will be at its best for voters during Saturday afternoon," he said.
Rain was forecast to spread onto the northwest of the North Island from Saturday evening, he said.
Heavy rain is likely on Sunday in many North Island districts and also possibly in Nelson and Marlborough.
Auckland political scientist Jack Vowles has previously said there was no statistical evidence to support the argument the weather affected voter turnout.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=%1E%FB%F8%C5%28%B6%BCD
PlayStation 2 problems
14.09.05 6.00am
Sony is recalling 3.5 million faulty power adaptors for its PlayStation 2 video game console - including some which were sold in New Zealand - because they could overheat and injure users.
The Japanese company said 40 cases of overheating had been reported in North America.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10345469
Jakarta court sentences embassy bomber to death
14.09.05 1.00pm
By Dean Yates
JAKARTA - An Indonesian court sentenced to death the main militant on trial over last year's suicide car bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, which the chief judge said was financed by Osama bin Laden.
Rois, also known as Iwan Dharmawan, told reporters he was innocent of an attack that killed 10 Indonesians but said he still welcomed the death sentence and would die a martyr.
Prosecutors had accused Rois of working with the accused masterminds of the attack, Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top, who are both fugitives and said by police to be senior members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345518
UN scales down ambitious overhaul plans for summit
14.09.05
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS - Ready or not here they come -- some 150 world leaders were set to approve a somewhat emasculated UN document at the summit on global security, human rights, extreme poverty, and UN management.
Last-ditch crisis talks continued through the night with ambitious goals falling by the wayside in an effort to complete the draft by Tuesday as heads of state and government arrived for the three-day summit that starts on Wednesday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345452
US and Britain criticised for touting Iraq weapons at arms fair
14.09.05
By Terry Kirby
British and United States arms firms have been slammed for marketing weapons used in Iraq at Europe's biggest arms fair.
A massive police presence is expected at the Defence Systems and Equipment International Exhibition in London, following confrontations between officers and campaigners at the last fair two years ago.
Opponents have accused weapons companies of "revelling" in the opportunity to sell equipment "battle-tested" in Iraq to those countries.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345446
Fujimori planning return to Peru
14.09.05 1.20pm
LIMA, Peru - Peru's disgraced former president, Alberto Fujimori, has picked up a new passport at Peru's consulate in Tokyo -- the latest move in his strategy to return and seek reelection, his spokesman said.
Fujimori fled to Tokyo in 2000 at the height of a government corruption scandal and has been living in self-imposed exile, protected from criminal charges of human rights abuses and corruption by his dual citizenship.
"It's clear this is another step by Fujimori on his comeback path," spokesman Carlos Raffo told Reuters in Lima. Fujimori was issued a new Peruvian identity card in July.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345522
Detainees given barbecue after maggot complaints
14.09.05 8.20am
Detainees at Baxter Immigration Centre are to be given two barbecue feasts a week as a result of a review.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said changes would be made to the centre's menu to allow detainees to have a say after a range of complaints.
The Australian reported that the independent food review followed continued complaints, including reports of maggot-infested meat.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345443
continued …
Bird flu could kill more than terror attack: Abbott
September 14, 2005 - 1:05AM
A bird flu pandemic in Australia could be more deadly for the nation than almost any sort of terrorist attack, Health Minister Tony Abbott has warned.
He painted the worst-case scenario of thousands of possible deaths in Australia if there was a pandemic as Indonesia claimed its fourth likely victim from the bird flu.
And Indonesia's health minister has warned there could be further outbreaks to come.
Bird flu, which arrived in Asia in late 2003, has so far killed nearly 60 people in the region.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/health/bird-flu-could-kill-more-than-terror-attack-abbott/2005/09/14/1126377322469.html
Torah removed from flooded synagogue
September 14, 2005 - 10:20AM
Rabbi Isaac Leider from the Jewish Zaka volunteers carries a Torah scroll out of the flooded synagogue of Beit Israel in New Orleans.
Photo: AFP
American volunteers with an Israeli charity have rescued seven Torah scrolls from a New Orleans synagogue flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
However, many of them were wet and it was uncertain whether they could be salvaged.
Four soldiers from a California unit brought Rabbi Isaac Leider and another volunteer to the gate of Beth Israel Synagogue by boat, then accompanied them inside through waist-high water to salvage the seven boxed scrolls.
One of them is from Europe and more than 250 years old, said Orthodox Rabbi Leider, wearing a vest marked "Zaka".
The two boats then made their way from the synagogue, near a canal that overflowed during the August 29 storm, through polluted waters and thick debris to dry land.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/torah-removed-from-flooded-synagogue/2005/09/14/1126377346344.html
Rice defends Bush's race record
By Steven Weisman in New York
September 14, 2005
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has defended George Bush's record on racial issues, saying that the hurricane that disproportionately struck poor blacks in New Orleans "gives us an opportunity" to rectify historic injustices she experienced as an African-American growing up in the South.
"When [New Orleans] is rebuilt, it should be rebuilt in a different way than it was at the time that this happened," Dr Rice told The New York Times, adding that maybe now there could be an effort to "deal with the problem of persistent poverty".
Asked what she told foreign leaders wondering about racial discrimination and poverty in the US as the Bush Administration promoted democracy around the world she said it would be difficult to see "the kind of diversity that you see in America's cabinet, in America's foreign service, in America's business community, in America's journalistic community", anywhere else.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rice-defends-bushs-race-record/2005/09/13/1126377316451.html
Dancers paid bare minimum
By Sharon Verghis
September 14, 2005
Hot issue ... dancers, such as those of Chunky Move, want more money for performing nude.
It's not often unions have to negotiate a nudity bonus. But for ballet, it's one of the hot issues on their industrial agenda.
For the record, dancers covered by the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's dance award receive a so-called nudity bonus of $15.60 per performance - a 10 cent increase from 2003, and a far cry from Linda Evangelista's famous vow that she would not get out of bed for less than $10,000 a day. That was with clothes on.
The Russian National Ballet's venture into bare flesh in its controversial version of Romeo and Juliet, opening in Sydney on Friday at the Theatre Royal, has sparked discussion about the increasing use of nudity in dance, and the rate dancers are paid to disrobe on stage.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/arts/dancers-paid-bare-minimum/2005/09/13/1126377311917.html
Musharraf offers to fence in Taliban
September 14, 2005
Falling in line … General Musharraf.
Photo: AFP
New York: The Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf, has offered to build a fence between Pakistan and Afghanistan to stop the movement of Taliban militants between the two countries.
General Musharraf made the offer on Monday during talks in New York with the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, the Pakistani Foreign Minister, Khursheed Mehmood Kasuri, said after the 75-minute meeting.
"Pakistan is prepared to raise a fence so that we can put an end to these allegations," Mr Kasuri told reporters, without specifying exactly where and when a fence could be erected, how long it would be, or who would pay for it.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/musharraf-offers-to-fence-in-taliban/2005/09/13/1126377316418.html
Conservatives warm to story of cold love
By Jonathan Miller
September 14, 2005
Emperor penguins … just birds, or an affirmation of monogamy and child-rearing?
On a conservative website a pro-lifer said the movie "verified the beauty of life and the rightness of protecting it".
At a conference for young Republicans, the editor of the conservative magazine National Review urged participants to see the movie because it promoted monogamy.
The movie is March of the Penguins, and of all the responses it has evoked perhaps the most surprising is its conservative appeal.
Conservatives are hardly its only audience; the film is the second-highest grossing documentary of all time, behind Fahrenheit 9/11.
But some have seen its stirring depiction of the mating ordeals of emperor penguins as an anthem to socially conservative values.
March of the Penguins, the film critic and radio host Michael Medved said in an interview, is "the motion picture this summer that most passionately affirms traditional norms like monogamy, sacrifice and child rearing."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/conservatives-warm-to-story-of-cold-love/2005/09/13/1126377316445.html
Wilmington Star News
Bracing for the storm
Wrightsville Beach watches for erosion
Flooding remained a concern Tuesday in Wrightsville Beach as Ophelia’s wind-whipped presence began to be felt. Officials kept a close eye on the situation as high tide came and went about 3:30 p.m.
Some flooding is anticipated on the north end of the island, including Conch Lane and Scotch Bonnet. Officials said other areas of concern include Channel Drive and South Channel Drive.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/50913013
Ophelia slowly slugs toward shore
Southeastern North Carolina is settling in for a long night as a slow-moving Hurricane Ophelia grinds toward landfall Tuesday night and early Wednesday morning.
Ophelia is nearly stationary with strong rainbands just off the North Carolina coast.
Coastal emergency management officials remain concerned that the biggest threat from the storm may be its slow movement, which could subject Southeastern North Carolina to hours of heavy winds and rain.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/50913029
State mobilizes for storm response
Slow-moving storm frustrates recovery plans
By Mark Schreiner
Raleigh Bureau Chief
KEN BLEVINS / STAR-NEWS
Ophelia update
This is a 5:30 p.m. update from the New Hanover County Emergency Public Information Center:
Shelter population: Dorothy B. Johnson 82; Eaton Elementary 6
Access to UNCW is limited to emergency vehicles only on Randall Drive.
Approximately 12 inches of water on Canal Drive at Carolina Beach.
Minimal hurricane force winds are expected to brush the immediate coast beginning approximately 5 a.m. Wednesday
City of Wilmington reports at least two traffic signals are out.
Minor street flooding is reported in Wilmington.
Minor street flooding in the Castle Hayne/NorthChase area
Rainfall amounts of 6-10 inches is possible, with as much of 15 inches in some areas.
Residents are reminded to continue monitoring the progress of the storm.
By Mark Schreiner
Raleigh Bureau Chief
State and federal rescue and recovery teams are ready, Gov. Mike Easley said, but clean-up from Ophelia isn’t expected to start before Friday.
The slow-moving storm, whose high winds and rain are expected to reach Southeastern North Carolina by Wednesday, is expected to frustrate recovery efforts by battering the coast for more than two days.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/50913002
Closings, evacuations and cancellations
RELATED ITEMS:
State readies for Ophelia
If you would like to add closing or evacuation information to this list, please e-mail Merton Vance, online news coordinator, at merton.vance@starnewsonline.com
STORM INFORMATION
People seeking storm-related information can contact the New Hanover County Emergency Public Information Center (910) 341-4304 for storm-related information. A Hispanic translator is available at (910)341-4007.
The Brunswick County Emergency Operations Center is operating on a 24-hour schedule, and can be reached at 253-7453.
Most high-rise bridges along the coast will close when winds reach around 40 mph. Most emergency vehicles stop crossing them at 35 mph.
All emergency responses are generally stopped at 50 mph.
The Wrightsville Beach drawbridge is locked into place, closing it to boat traffic, when winds reach 35 mph.
CLOSINGS
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?&Dato=20050913&Kategori=WORK&Lopenr=50912021&Ref=AR
N.C. town takes pride in wetlands sewage plant
By JIM SPARKS
Winston-Salem Journal
In a large swath of bottomland beside Town Fork Creek, a serpentine-shaped pond filled with fluorescent green duckweed sparkles in the sunlight as it slowly feeds water into large troughs of cattails.
The soft patter of sprayed water falling is punctuated by the sound of geese honking as they take off from the plant-filled lagoons. Deer commonly visit at dusk and dawn.
The air smells a little funky, but no more than what one would expect in a marsh. The place feels like a wildlife refuge.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050914/APN/509140504&cachetime=5
Court: Eric Rudolph defense cost taxpayers $4 million
By JAY REEVES
Associated Press Writer
Legal fees to defend Eric Rudolph in a deadly Alabama abortion clinic blast and the Atlanta Olympics bombing cost taxpayers more than $4 million before he agreed to plead guilty in a deal that spared his life, court documents show.
One of Rudolph's attorneys said Tuesday the bill would have been far higher had the case gone to trial.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/APN/509130878&cachetime=5
One Dead As Storms Blast Parts of Wis.
By The Associated Press
Thunderstorms packing powerful winds swept through parts of Wisconsin Tuesday, knocking out power to tens of thousands of homes, damaging buildings, and downing trees and power lines.
A downed wire killed a 57-year-old man in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, police Lt. Gerald Witkowski said.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050914/APA/509140509&cachetime=5
Wachovia to buy finance company
Associated Press
CHARLOTTE - The financial services company Wachovia Corp. on Monday said it agreed to acquire Westcorp, an automobile finance company based in Irvine, Calif., for $3.42 billion, creating the nation’s ninth-largest auto loan originator.
Wachovia also agreed to pay another $490 million for the 16 percent stake that Westcorp doesn’t already own in WFS Financial Inc., boosting the combined value of the transactions of $3.9 billion. The company said the deal for Westcorp is expected to boost earnings in the second year and produce an internal rate of return of more than 15 percent, above Wachovia’s acquisition criteria.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/209130354
TOM BLACKBURN
Good Catholics can disagree
The court and Congress are competent to deal with the legalities of abortion, not its morality.
Most Americans think Catholics are not permitted to think for themselves. Sociologist Andrew Greeley turned up that datum in his research on the persistence of anti-Catholicism in America and reports it in the Sept. 9 issue of Commonweal in a preview of his next book.
In other Catholic news this week, Judge John G. Roberts Jr. will become the fourth Catholic on the United States Supreme Court if he is confirmed by the Senate. The other three are Justices Anthony Kennedy, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/NEWS/209130345
Exhibit Looks at Egyptian Medical Practice
By DEEPTI HAJELA
Associated Press Writer
No epidurals, needles or vaccinations here. To protect a pregnant woman in ancient Egypt, the seal on a magic jar containing a strip of papyrus could have been pressed on her skin. For the good health of a baby, a wand inscribed with the image of a goddess might be used to draw a protective circle around the spot where the child lay.
Invoking the gods and goddesses was as much a part of health care in those times as using the therapeutic properties of honey and pomegranate, according to the curator of a new exhibition that looks at the artifacts connected to healing and medicine. "The Art of Medicine in Ancient Egypt" opened Tuesday at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and runs through Jan. 15.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050913/APE/509130965
How many tropical storms or hurricanes have you weathered?
None - 0.0%
1-2 - 7.1%
3-4 - 21.4%
5 or more - 71.4 %
Number of votes cast: 14
*StarNewsOnline polls are posted for entertainment only. Results are not scientific.
http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/miniquery?FromSave=1&Kategori=frontpage&W=287&H=70&BGColor=%23ffffff
How growth affects life in our region.
http://www.starnewsonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=local06
New Zealand Herald
Hispanic celebrities bring aid to hurricane victims
14.09.05
Singer Gloria Estefan, actors Jimmy Smits and Andy Garcia, and trumpeter Arturo Sandoval will lead a contingent of Hispanic-American entertainers bringing aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina in Louisiana and Mississippi.
The visit will include delivery of a planeload of supplies and toys to shelters, and will stress the importance of blood donorship.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/6/story.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10345377
Asians in NZ subjected to racism, study finds
14.09.05 1.00pm
Many Asians living in New Zealand are subjected to some form of racism, a new study has found.
The Asia New Zealand Foundation report, Engaging Asian Communities in New Zealand, revealed the most common form of racism was verbal abuse and rude gestures, often by teenagers or children.
Overt racism included damage to cars identifiable as Asian-owned, having bottles or stones thrown at them, and being mocked for poor pronunciation.
Asia New Zealand's research director, Dr Rebecca Foley, said the main purpose of the research was to look at ways that engagement between various Asian communities and other communities happened -- "or does not happen, as the case may be".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10345507
I take responsibility, says Bush
14.09.05 1.00pm
By Kieran Murray
NEW ORLEANS - President George W. Bush has for the first time taken responsibility for federal government failures in handling the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government, and to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said.
"I want to know what went right and what went wrong.
"Are we capable of dealing with a severe attack or another severe storm? That's a very important question and it's in our national interest that we find out exactly what went on so we can better respond," he said.
Federal emergency response (FEMA) head Michael Brown, a political ally of Bush with little hands-on experience, resigned yesterday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345516
Fine weather predicted for voters
14.09.05 3.00pm
While the election may be too close to call, MetService seems confident it will be fine on polling day.
Its outlook for Saturday is a dry trip to the polling booth.
However, in the days leading up to the election showery or wet conditions were expected for most western areas.
Clearing skies were likely on Saturday morning over the whole country, MetService spokesman Bob McDavitt said.
"It looks as though this fine spell will be at its best for voters during Saturday afternoon," he said.
Rain was forecast to spread onto the northwest of the North Island from Saturday evening, he said.
Heavy rain is likely on Sunday in many North Island districts and also possibly in Nelson and Marlborough.
Auckland political scientist Jack Vowles has previously said there was no statistical evidence to support the argument the weather affected voter turnout.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=%1E%FB%F8%C5%28%B6%BCD
PlayStation 2 problems
14.09.05 6.00am
Sony is recalling 3.5 million faulty power adaptors for its PlayStation 2 video game console - including some which were sold in New Zealand - because they could overheat and injure users.
The Japanese company said 40 cases of overheating had been reported in North America.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10345469
Jakarta court sentences embassy bomber to death
14.09.05 1.00pm
By Dean Yates
JAKARTA - An Indonesian court sentenced to death the main militant on trial over last year's suicide car bombing outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, which the chief judge said was financed by Osama bin Laden.
Rois, also known as Iwan Dharmawan, told reporters he was innocent of an attack that killed 10 Indonesians but said he still welcomed the death sentence and would die a martyr.
Prosecutors had accused Rois of working with the accused masterminds of the attack, Malaysians Azahari bin Husin and Noordin M. Top, who are both fugitives and said by police to be senior members of the al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiah network.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345518
UN scales down ambitious overhaul plans for summit
14.09.05
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS - Ready or not here they come -- some 150 world leaders were set to approve a somewhat emasculated UN document at the summit on global security, human rights, extreme poverty, and UN management.
Last-ditch crisis talks continued through the night with ambitious goals falling by the wayside in an effort to complete the draft by Tuesday as heads of state and government arrived for the three-day summit that starts on Wednesday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345452
US and Britain criticised for touting Iraq weapons at arms fair
14.09.05
By Terry Kirby
British and United States arms firms have been slammed for marketing weapons used in Iraq at Europe's biggest arms fair.
A massive police presence is expected at the Defence Systems and Equipment International Exhibition in London, following confrontations between officers and campaigners at the last fair two years ago.
Opponents have accused weapons companies of "revelling" in the opportunity to sell equipment "battle-tested" in Iraq to those countries.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345446
Fujimori planning return to Peru
14.09.05 1.20pm
LIMA, Peru - Peru's disgraced former president, Alberto Fujimori, has picked up a new passport at Peru's consulate in Tokyo -- the latest move in his strategy to return and seek reelection, his spokesman said.
Fujimori fled to Tokyo in 2000 at the height of a government corruption scandal and has been living in self-imposed exile, protected from criminal charges of human rights abuses and corruption by his dual citizenship.
"It's clear this is another step by Fujimori on his comeback path," spokesman Carlos Raffo told Reuters in Lima. Fujimori was issued a new Peruvian identity card in July.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345522
Detainees given barbecue after maggot complaints
14.09.05 8.20am
Detainees at Baxter Immigration Centre are to be given two barbecue feasts a week as a result of a review.
Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone said changes would be made to the centre's menu to allow detainees to have a say after a range of complaints.
The Australian reported that the independent food review followed continued complaints, including reports of maggot-infested meat.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345443
continued …
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