The Rooster
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Rooster "Crowing"
"Okeydoke"
History
1298 Rindfleish-140 Jews of Heilbron Germany are murdered
1765 the Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, drew up a declaration of rights and liberties.
1781 British troops under Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Va at 2 PM., as the American Revolution neared its end.
1812 French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte began their retreat from Moscow.
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became 1st woman in US to receive medical degree
1853 1st flour mill in Hawaii begins operations
1856 James Kelly & Jack Smith fight bareknuckle for 6h15m in Melbourne
1859 Wilhelm Tempel discovers diffuse nebula around Pleid star Merope
1865 The first annual meeting of National Equal Rights League is held in Cleveland, OH.
1870 1st (4) blacks elected to House of Reps
1901 Santos-Dumont proves airship maneuverable by circling Eiffel Tower
1919 1st Distinguished Service Medal awarded to a woman
1933 Berlin Olympic Committee vote to introduce basketball in 1936
1936 HR Ekins of "NY World-Telegram" beats 2 other reporters in a race around the world on commercial flights, by 18« days
1936 Educator and college president Jonetta B. Cole, who will become the first woman to preside over Spelman College, is born in Jacksonville, FL.
1941 1st woman jockey in North America, Anna Lee Wiley in Mexico
1943 Theater Guild presentation of "Othello" opens at Shubert
1943 Yankee 2nd baseman Joe Gordon announces retirement (hates NY)
1943 Paul Robeson opens in "Othello" at the Shubert Theater in New York City.
1944 US forces land in Philipines
1944, the Navy announced that black women would be allowed into Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (the WAVES).
1950, United Nations forces entered the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
1951 Pres Harry S Truman formally ends state of war with Germany
1951, President Truman signed an act formally ending the state of war with Germany.
1959 Florence Henderson joins the Today Show panel
1960 France grants Mauritania independence
1960, the United States imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products.
1960 Martin Luther King Jr arrested in Atlanta sit-in
1960 The US imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba
1962 Evander Holyfield, heavyweight champion of the world who regained his title three times, is born in Atmore, AL
1963 Beatles record "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
1967 Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27' 4 3/4"
1967 Mariner 5 makes fly-by of Venus
1968 Golden Gate Bridge charges tolls only for southbound cars
1977, the supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
1977, the body of West German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, who had been kidnapped by left-wing extremists, was found in Mulhouse, France.
1983 Columbia moves to Orbiter Processing Facility
1986 USSR expells 5 US diplomats
1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value.
1987 "Black Monday"-Dow Jones down 508.32, 4« times previous record
1988 3 Americans win Nobel in physics; 3 W Germans win chemistry Nobel
1988 Britain bans broadcast interviews with IRA members
1988 Car bomb kills 7 Israelis, wounds 11 near Lebanon border
1988 Roxette releases "Roxette Look Sharp!" album
1988 S Afr anti-apartheid leader Sisulu wins $100,000 Human Rights prize
Missing in Action
1965 WORCHESTER JOHN B. BIG RAPIDS MI RADIO CONTACT LOST
1966 BURKE MICHAEL J. CHICAGO IL
1966 LEWANDOWSKI LEONARD J. JR. DES PLAINES IL
1966 MISHUK RICHARD E. ST PAUL MN
1970 WILSON PETER J. PULASKI NY "NICKNAME ""FAT ALBERT"" -- CNN/TIME/IMPACT 09/14/97"
Michael Moore Today
No Final Report Seen in Inquiry on C.I.A. Leak
By David Johnston and Richard W. Stevenson / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The special counsel in the C.I.A. leak case has told associates he has no plans to issue a final report about the results of the investigation, heightening the expectation that he intends to bring indictments, lawyers in the case and law enforcement officials said yesterday.
The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, is not expected to take any action in the case this week, government officials said. A spokesman for Mr. Fitzgerald, Randall Samborn, declined to comment.
A final report had long been considered an option for Mr. Fitzgerald if he decided not to accuse anyone of wrongdoing, although Justice Department officials have been dubious about his legal authority to issue such a report.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4568
Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak
By Thomas M. DeFrank / Daily News
WASHINGTON - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.
"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."
Bush has nevertheless remained doggedly loyal to Rove, who friends and even political adversaries acknowledge is the architect of the President's rise from baseball owner to leader of the free world.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4574
McClellan Responds/Doesn't Respond
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/006785.php
Prez Iraq team fought to squelch war critics
By James Gordon Meek and Kenneth R. Bazinet / Daily News
WASHINGTON - It was called the White House Iraq Group and its job was to make the case that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and biochemical weapons. So determined was the ring of top officials to win its argument that it morphed into a virtual hit squad that took aim at critics who questioned its claims, sources told the Daily News.
One of those critics was ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who debunked a key claim in a speech by President Bush that Iraq sought nuclear materials in Africa. His punishment was the media outing of his wife, CIA spy Valerie Plame, an affair that became a "side show" for the White House Iraq Group, the sources said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4576
Rove cancels three appearances before conservatives in the past week
By Nedra Pickler / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Juggling appearances before a grand jury and conservative admirers didn’t seem to make sense, so presidential adviser Karl Rove has canceled three such outings as he waits to hear whether he or anyone else will be indicted in the leak of a CIA officer’s identity.
Rove canceled plans to attend two Republican fund-raisers, the national party confirmed Tuesday. And he did not give his scheduled speech to the conservative Hudson Institute think tank on Oct. 11.
Republican National Committee spokesman Brian Jones said scheduling conflicts kept Rove from an RNC fund-raiser Monday night in Greenwich, Conn., and a Virginia Republican Party fund-raiser Saturday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4569
A Year Later, Goss's CIA Is Still in Turmoil
Congress to Ask Why Spy Unit Continues to Lose Personnel
By Dafna Linzer / Washington Post
When Porter J. Goss took over a failure-stained CIA last year, he promised to reshape the agency beginning with the area he knew best: its famed spy division.
Goss, himself a former covert operative who had chaired the House intelligence committee, focused on the officers in the field. He pledged status and resources for case officers, sending hundreds more to far-off assignments, undercover and on the front line of the battle against al Qaeda.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4578
'Fahrenheit 9/11' Interview Outtake of CIA Director Porter Goss: "I am not qualified."
Is this really the guy who should be running the CIA?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=128
Student ad triggers debate
Some say Warwick High sophomore's ad 'undercuts the military'
By Mike Dawson / Times Herald-Record
Warwick – If creating a buzz is rule No. 1 in advertising, then an anonymous Warwick Valley High School sophomore has a bright future.
Set on a backdrop of neat rows of tombstones, a full-page ad in October's The Survey, Warwick Valley High School's monthly student-run newspaper, reads:
You can't be all that you can be if you're dead. There are other ways to serve your country. There are other ways to get money for college. There are other ways to be all you can be.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4572
The New York Times
For Iraqis, Image of Ex-President Stirs Reverence and Hatred
By EDWARD WONG
Published: October 19, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 19 - From the very start of the trial, from the moment Saddam Hussein refused to tell the judge his name, Hiba Raad said she knew she was watching the same man who had ruled over Iraq for decades with muscular authority.
"He's a hero, he's a tough leader," Ms. Raad, 20, a student of education at Mustansiriya University, said as she reclined in black pants and a T-shirt on a sofa in her living room. "If he came back, I'm sure he'd provide us with security."
In her home in the hard-line Sunni Arab neighborhood of Adhamiya, Ms. Raad had just finished watching the opening session of the trial alongside her parents and sister, and they continued staring transfixed at the television, listening to the breathless commentary on an Arab network. The grandmother, Samira al-Bayati, shuffled into the room in her black robe, a burning cigarette in one hand.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/international/middleeast/19cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1129780800&en=376915cf62d6aa4c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Miers Hits Another Snag as Senators Fault Her Questionnaire
By DAVID STOUT
Published: October 19, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - The contentious nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court hit another snag this afternoon when both the Republican chairman and ranking Democrat of the Senate Judiciary Committee said her responses to senators' questions had thus far been unsatisfactory.
The Times's Richard W. Stevenson discusses the nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court. Plus video of the president and the nominee.
THE ANNOUNCEMENT
Transcripts: Bush Miers
The committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said Ms. Miers should redo a questionnaire prepared by a bipartisan Senate panel because her initial responses had been insufficient on "many, many of the items."
The ranking Democrat, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, agreed that Ms. Miers's effort on the questionnaire had been "inadequate," adding that some of his Senate colleagues had found her responses "ranged from incomplete to insulting."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/politics/politicsspecial1/19cnd-confirm.html?hp&ex=1129780800&en=2cd6f705e0403279&ei=5094&partner=homepage
New Storm Measures as Most Intense Ever for Atlantic Basin
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: October 19, 2005
Hurricane Wilma, which appeared headed toward Cancún, Mexico, and possibly the Gulf Coast of Florida by this weekend, intensified into the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean basin today, but forecasters said its path remained unpredictable.
Several forecasts have the Category 5 storm striking southwestern Florida sometime this weekend, but the hurricane is moving too slowly and too erratically to make a firm prediction, the director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, said.
"This is one of those cases when we have a tremendous amount of uncertainty," he said. "This is one of the more perplexing storms we've had to deal with this year."
Mr. Mayfield said that the center was having difficulty with its forecasts because of what he described as the "wobbly" nature of the hurricane.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/national/19cnd-storm.html?hp&ex=1129780800&en=c96af1b25f571528&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Temptation to Gamble Is Near for Troops Overseas
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Published: October 19, 2005
When Carrie Beth Walsh and her two toddlers landed at the airport in Seoul, South Korea, last year, there was no sign of her husband, an Army pilot who had been transferred there six weeks earlier.
Lisa Horn/Stars and Stripes
Slot machines, which attract $2 billion in betting at bases overseas, are a feature of the enlisted club at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Courtesy of the Walsh Family
Aaron W. Walsh with his former wife, Carrie Beth, and their children in September 2003; Mr. Walsh, discharged, has been living in Las Vegas.
He eventually showed up in a taxi, broke and unprepared for his family's arrival - no rental car for the drive to his base, no apartment, no credit cards in his wallet that were not already up against his loan limits. "He was making more than $60,000 a year," Ms. Walsh said. "But we were always broke."
She soon learned why. Her husband, Warrant Officer Aaron W. Walsh, had pumped more than $20,000 into the Army's own slot machines on bases in South Korea. Last month, his marriage and career shattered, Mr. Walsh, who is 33, resigned from the Army to avoid a court-martial on desertion charges stemming from his gambling habit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/business/19slots.html
M.T.A. to Offer Fare Discount Over Holidays
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: October 19, 2005
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday laid out a plan so unexpected that it left even the authority's most hardened critics dumbfounded: lowering subway and bus fares.
The fare reduction will, alas, be temporary. The authority intends to reduce the base fare by half - to $1 - on weekends between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day and throughout the last week of December, using part of an unforeseen surplus that could reach $928 million by the end of the year.
The discounts need the approval of the authority's board, a step that is expected.
Gene Russianoff, an advocate for subway riders since 1981, who was briefed on the plan yesterday, reacted with astonishment. "It's unprecedented," said Mr. Russianoff, the lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, part of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "I've never seen any holiday-related discounts for riders. I think it will encourage people to use transit during the holiday season at a time when gas prices are going through the roof. It's a smart way to reward customers."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/nyregion/19mta.html
Codey Announces Change to Aid Stem Cell Research
By TINA KELLEY
Published: October 19, 2005
PARAMUS, N.J., Oct. 18 - Continuing his effort to make New Jersey a leader in stem cell research, Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey announced on Tuesday the creation of what he called the nation's first statewide public bank for umbilical and placental blood to be used both by stem cell researchers and patients in need of transplants.
Blood from the placenta and umbilical cord contains stem cells, and researchers hope such cells can eventually play a role in curing diabetes, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, as well as in helping patients with strokes or spinal cord injuries.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/nyregion/19stem.html
Scientists Bridle at Lecture Plan for Dalai Lama
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: October 19, 2005
The Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet who is revered as a spiritual teacher, is at the center of a scientific controversy.
He has been an enthusiastic collaborator in research on whether the intense meditation practiced by Buddhist monks can train the brain to generate compassion and positive thoughts. Next month in Washington, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to speak about the research at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Mel Evans/Associated Press
The Dalai Lama has helped researchers study meditation.
But 544 brain researchers have signed a petition urging the society to cancel the lecture, because, according to the petition, "it will highlight a subject with largely unsubstantiated claims and compromised scientific rigor and objectivity."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/national/19meditate.html
continued …
"Okeydoke"
History
1298 Rindfleish-140 Jews of Heilbron Germany are murdered
1765 the Stamp Act Congress, meeting in New York, drew up a declaration of rights and liberties.
1781 British troops under Lord Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, Va at 2 PM., as the American Revolution neared its end.
1812 French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte began their retreat from Moscow.
1849 Elizabeth Blackwell became 1st woman in US to receive medical degree
1853 1st flour mill in Hawaii begins operations
1856 James Kelly & Jack Smith fight bareknuckle for 6h15m in Melbourne
1859 Wilhelm Tempel discovers diffuse nebula around Pleid star Merope
1865 The first annual meeting of National Equal Rights League is held in Cleveland, OH.
1870 1st (4) blacks elected to House of Reps
1901 Santos-Dumont proves airship maneuverable by circling Eiffel Tower
1919 1st Distinguished Service Medal awarded to a woman
1933 Berlin Olympic Committee vote to introduce basketball in 1936
1936 HR Ekins of "NY World-Telegram" beats 2 other reporters in a race around the world on commercial flights, by 18« days
1936 Educator and college president Jonetta B. Cole, who will become the first woman to preside over Spelman College, is born in Jacksonville, FL.
1941 1st woman jockey in North America, Anna Lee Wiley in Mexico
1943 Theater Guild presentation of "Othello" opens at Shubert
1943 Yankee 2nd baseman Joe Gordon announces retirement (hates NY)
1943 Paul Robeson opens in "Othello" at the Shubert Theater in New York City.
1944 US forces land in Philipines
1944, the Navy announced that black women would be allowed into Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (the WAVES).
1950, United Nations forces entered the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.
1951 Pres Harry S Truman formally ends state of war with Germany
1951, President Truman signed an act formally ending the state of war with Germany.
1959 Florence Henderson joins the Today Show panel
1960 France grants Mauritania independence
1960, the United States imposed an embargo on exports to Cuba covering all commodities except medical supplies and certain food products.
1960 Martin Luther King Jr arrested in Atlanta sit-in
1960 The US imposes an embargo on exports to Cuba
1962 Evander Holyfield, heavyweight champion of the world who regained his title three times, is born in Atmore, AL
1963 Beatles record "I Want to Hold Your Hand"
1967 Igor Ter-Ovanesyan of USSR, sets then long jump record at 27' 4 3/4"
1967 Mariner 5 makes fly-by of Venus
1968 Golden Gate Bridge charges tolls only for southbound cars
1977, the supersonic Concorde made its first landing in New York City.
1977, the body of West German industrialist Hanns Martin Schleyer, who had been kidnapped by left-wing extremists, was found in Mulhouse, France.
1983 Columbia moves to Orbiter Processing Facility
1986 USSR expells 5 US diplomats
1987, the stock market crashed as the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 508 points, or 22.6 percent in value.
1987 "Black Monday"-Dow Jones down 508.32, 4« times previous record
1988 3 Americans win Nobel in physics; 3 W Germans win chemistry Nobel
1988 Britain bans broadcast interviews with IRA members
1988 Car bomb kills 7 Israelis, wounds 11 near Lebanon border
1988 Roxette releases "Roxette Look Sharp!" album
1988 S Afr anti-apartheid leader Sisulu wins $100,000 Human Rights prize
Missing in Action
1965 WORCHESTER JOHN B. BIG RAPIDS MI RADIO CONTACT LOST
1966 BURKE MICHAEL J. CHICAGO IL
1966 LEWANDOWSKI LEONARD J. JR. DES PLAINES IL
1966 MISHUK RICHARD E. ST PAUL MN
1970 WILSON PETER J. PULASKI NY "NICKNAME ""FAT ALBERT"" -- CNN/TIME/IMPACT 09/14/97"
Michael Moore Today
No Final Report Seen in Inquiry on C.I.A. Leak
By David Johnston and Richard W. Stevenson / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The special counsel in the C.I.A. leak case has told associates he has no plans to issue a final report about the results of the investigation, heightening the expectation that he intends to bring indictments, lawyers in the case and law enforcement officials said yesterday.
The prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, is not expected to take any action in the case this week, government officials said. A spokesman for Mr. Fitzgerald, Randall Samborn, declined to comment.
A final report had long been considered an option for Mr. Fitzgerald if he decided not to accuse anyone of wrongdoing, although Justice Department officials have been dubious about his legal authority to issue such a report.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4568
Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak
By Thomas M. DeFrank / Daily News
WASHINGTON - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.
"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."
Bush has nevertheless remained doggedly loyal to Rove, who friends and even political adversaries acknowledge is the architect of the President's rise from baseball owner to leader of the free world.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4574
McClellan Responds/Doesn't Respond
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/006785.php
Prez Iraq team fought to squelch war critics
By James Gordon Meek and Kenneth R. Bazinet / Daily News
WASHINGTON - It was called the White House Iraq Group and its job was to make the case that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and biochemical weapons. So determined was the ring of top officials to win its argument that it morphed into a virtual hit squad that took aim at critics who questioned its claims, sources told the Daily News.
One of those critics was ex-Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who debunked a key claim in a speech by President Bush that Iraq sought nuclear materials in Africa. His punishment was the media outing of his wife, CIA spy Valerie Plame, an affair that became a "side show" for the White House Iraq Group, the sources said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4576
Rove cancels three appearances before conservatives in the past week
By Nedra Pickler / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Juggling appearances before a grand jury and conservative admirers didn’t seem to make sense, so presidential adviser Karl Rove has canceled three such outings as he waits to hear whether he or anyone else will be indicted in the leak of a CIA officer’s identity.
Rove canceled plans to attend two Republican fund-raisers, the national party confirmed Tuesday. And he did not give his scheduled speech to the conservative Hudson Institute think tank on Oct. 11.
Republican National Committee spokesman Brian Jones said scheduling conflicts kept Rove from an RNC fund-raiser Monday night in Greenwich, Conn., and a Virginia Republican Party fund-raiser Saturday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4569
A Year Later, Goss's CIA Is Still in Turmoil
Congress to Ask Why Spy Unit Continues to Lose Personnel
By Dafna Linzer / Washington Post
When Porter J. Goss took over a failure-stained CIA last year, he promised to reshape the agency beginning with the area he knew best: its famed spy division.
Goss, himself a former covert operative who had chaired the House intelligence committee, focused on the officers in the field. He pledged status and resources for case officers, sending hundreds more to far-off assignments, undercover and on the front line of the battle against al Qaeda.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4578
'Fahrenheit 9/11' Interview Outtake of CIA Director Porter Goss: "I am not qualified."
Is this really the guy who should be running the CIA?
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=128
Student ad triggers debate
Some say Warwick High sophomore's ad 'undercuts the military'
By Mike Dawson / Times Herald-Record
Warwick – If creating a buzz is rule No. 1 in advertising, then an anonymous Warwick Valley High School sophomore has a bright future.
Set on a backdrop of neat rows of tombstones, a full-page ad in October's The Survey, Warwick Valley High School's monthly student-run newspaper, reads:
You can't be all that you can be if you're dead. There are other ways to serve your country. There are other ways to get money for college. There are other ways to be all you can be.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4572
The New York Times
For Iraqis, Image of Ex-President Stirs Reverence and Hatred
By EDWARD WONG
Published: October 19, 2005
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 19 - From the very start of the trial, from the moment Saddam Hussein refused to tell the judge his name, Hiba Raad said she knew she was watching the same man who had ruled over Iraq for decades with muscular authority.
"He's a hero, he's a tough leader," Ms. Raad, 20, a student of education at Mustansiriya University, said as she reclined in black pants and a T-shirt on a sofa in her living room. "If he came back, I'm sure he'd provide us with security."
In her home in the hard-line Sunni Arab neighborhood of Adhamiya, Ms. Raad had just finished watching the opening session of the trial alongside her parents and sister, and they continued staring transfixed at the television, listening to the breathless commentary on an Arab network. The grandmother, Samira al-Bayati, shuffled into the room in her black robe, a burning cigarette in one hand.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/international/middleeast/19cnd-iraq.html?hp&ex=1129780800&en=376915cf62d6aa4c&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Miers Hits Another Snag as Senators Fault Her Questionnaire
By DAVID STOUT
Published: October 19, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 19 - The contentious nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court hit another snag this afternoon when both the Republican chairman and ranking Democrat of the Senate Judiciary Committee said her responses to senators' questions had thus far been unsatisfactory.
The Times's Richard W. Stevenson discusses the nomination of Harriet E. Miers to the Supreme Court. Plus video of the president and the nominee.
THE ANNOUNCEMENT
Transcripts: Bush Miers
The committee chairman, Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, said Ms. Miers should redo a questionnaire prepared by a bipartisan Senate panel because her initial responses had been insufficient on "many, many of the items."
The ranking Democrat, Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, agreed that Ms. Miers's effort on the questionnaire had been "inadequate," adding that some of his Senate colleagues had found her responses "ranged from incomplete to insulting."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/politics/politicsspecial1/19cnd-confirm.html?hp&ex=1129780800&en=2cd6f705e0403279&ei=5094&partner=homepage
New Storm Measures as Most Intense Ever for Atlantic Basin
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
Published: October 19, 2005
Hurricane Wilma, which appeared headed toward Cancún, Mexico, and possibly the Gulf Coast of Florida by this weekend, intensified into the most powerful storm ever recorded in the Atlantic Ocean basin today, but forecasters said its path remained unpredictable.
Several forecasts have the Category 5 storm striking southwestern Florida sometime this weekend, but the hurricane is moving too slowly and too erratically to make a firm prediction, the director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, said.
"This is one of those cases when we have a tremendous amount of uncertainty," he said. "This is one of the more perplexing storms we've had to deal with this year."
Mr. Mayfield said that the center was having difficulty with its forecasts because of what he described as the "wobbly" nature of the hurricane.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/national/19cnd-storm.html?hp&ex=1129780800&en=c96af1b25f571528&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Temptation to Gamble Is Near for Troops Overseas
By DIANA B. HENRIQUES
Published: October 19, 2005
When Carrie Beth Walsh and her two toddlers landed at the airport in Seoul, South Korea, last year, there was no sign of her husband, an Army pilot who had been transferred there six weeks earlier.
Lisa Horn/Stars and Stripes
Slot machines, which attract $2 billion in betting at bases overseas, are a feature of the enlisted club at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
Courtesy of the Walsh Family
Aaron W. Walsh with his former wife, Carrie Beth, and their children in September 2003; Mr. Walsh, discharged, has been living in Las Vegas.
He eventually showed up in a taxi, broke and unprepared for his family's arrival - no rental car for the drive to his base, no apartment, no credit cards in his wallet that were not already up against his loan limits. "He was making more than $60,000 a year," Ms. Walsh said. "But we were always broke."
She soon learned why. Her husband, Warrant Officer Aaron W. Walsh, had pumped more than $20,000 into the Army's own slot machines on bases in South Korea. Last month, his marriage and career shattered, Mr. Walsh, who is 33, resigned from the Army to avoid a court-martial on desertion charges stemming from his gambling habit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/business/19slots.html
M.T.A. to Offer Fare Discount Over Holidays
By SEWELL CHAN
Published: October 19, 2005
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday laid out a plan so unexpected that it left even the authority's most hardened critics dumbfounded: lowering subway and bus fares.
The fare reduction will, alas, be temporary. The authority intends to reduce the base fare by half - to $1 - on weekends between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day and throughout the last week of December, using part of an unforeseen surplus that could reach $928 million by the end of the year.
The discounts need the approval of the authority's board, a step that is expected.
Gene Russianoff, an advocate for subway riders since 1981, who was briefed on the plan yesterday, reacted with astonishment. "It's unprecedented," said Mr. Russianoff, the lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, part of the New York Public Interest Research Group. "I've never seen any holiday-related discounts for riders. I think it will encourage people to use transit during the holiday season at a time when gas prices are going through the roof. It's a smart way to reward customers."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/nyregion/19mta.html
Codey Announces Change to Aid Stem Cell Research
By TINA KELLEY
Published: October 19, 2005
PARAMUS, N.J., Oct. 18 - Continuing his effort to make New Jersey a leader in stem cell research, Acting Gov. Richard J. Codey announced on Tuesday the creation of what he called the nation's first statewide public bank for umbilical and placental blood to be used both by stem cell researchers and patients in need of transplants.
Blood from the placenta and umbilical cord contains stem cells, and researchers hope such cells can eventually play a role in curing diabetes, AIDS, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases, as well as in helping patients with strokes or spinal cord injuries.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/nyregion/19stem.html
Scientists Bridle at Lecture Plan for Dalai Lama
By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: October 19, 2005
The Dalai Lama, the exiled leader of Tibet who is revered as a spiritual teacher, is at the center of a scientific controversy.
He has been an enthusiastic collaborator in research on whether the intense meditation practiced by Buddhist monks can train the brain to generate compassion and positive thoughts. Next month in Washington, the Dalai Lama is scheduled to speak about the research at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.
Mel Evans/Associated Press
The Dalai Lama has helped researchers study meditation.
But 544 brain researchers have signed a petition urging the society to cancel the lecture, because, according to the petition, "it will highlight a subject with largely unsubstantiated claims and compromised scientific rigor and objectivity."
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/19/national/19meditate.html
continued …
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite 12 hour loop - click here
October 19, 2005. 2030 z.
Let's get started.
FIRST:: The storm surges will be gigantic and SUSTAINED. Get everyone away from the coasts of all the current areas in the Caribbean.
The water vapor satelllite shows the subtilties that are necessary to understand the dynamics of this storm.
NOTED :: There are minimally three heat concentrations of 'size.' The first in the Pacific. I don't know if The National Hurricane Center is still considering it a Tropical Depression 16E. It is minimally that in my opinion. Then there is 'eddy 1' called "Wilma" and of course that is the focus for those that are in government. We'll maintain that focus regardless of the meandering otherwise. The third heat concentration is the cluster of water vapor east of the Lesser Antilles.
The oscillation that I observed in the 'eye' of Wilma is due to the chronic movement of energy (heat energy) along the 'eddy' curve all the way to the Tropical Depression 16E. In other words I don't believe 'Wilma' is wavering. I think it is simply in response to moving ionized energy that is contributing to the increased size and velocity of the Pacific tropical depression 16E.
To move to the third component of this system, east of the Lesser Antilles, there is a developing vortex 'shunting' to that system putting less pull on a northeastern direction of 'Wilma.' Do you see it? It isn't easy to note but it is there and has been. Like I stated there are subtile issues here to make accuracy as good as it gets. This 'shunting' of vorticity to 'eddy 2' allows more dynamics to be shared with 'TD 16E' and 'Wilma.'
Now, the fourth 'symptom' of this systme is the 'vortex street' which is in oscillation over North America. It is running from the equator to the North Atlantic/Arctic Circle vortex. It is maintaining a CONSISTENT distance from coastal Gulf of Mexico. Why? What is impinging on that vortex street to PUSH it north? If noted the vortex flow of water vapor just north of TD16E disappears when it reaches the threshold of North American land masse where the consistent absence of water vapor continues. THAT same vortex moisture stream is again realized on the Atlantic side of the continent.
With the growing dynamics of TD16E and the 'shunting' of vortex pull to 'eddy 2' the dirction of 'Wilma' is into the Gulf and in my opinion given the fact I don't have fancy computer models IF THE IONIC PULL OF THE VORTEX CONTINUES TO WEAKEN onto Galveston, Texas.
I am probably dead wrong. I just don't think so at this point.
Girls, Inc.
Girls, Inc. is under attack by the Right Wing Extremist, American Famiy Association for receiving a financial award from Mattel, Inc. to celebrate their product "American Girl."
American Family Association has a good run when Bush came into office in 'sculpting' television programming during the 'family hours.' Since then they have sought to cause trouble in every venue possible just to keep their membership intact.
They are not fighting for protections against overt sexual expression during family hour that spans the interest of every American Family but they are targeting in bigotry young women who may have sexual identities that are lesbian. It doesn't get more bigoted than this when picking on children.
I encourage the membership of the American Family Association to re-examine the priorities of this organization and it's outdated usefulness.
"American Girl" by "Mattel, Inc" Custom Design (Click On)
"American Girl" has been around for a long time. They are high end market but every American Girl should have one sometime in their young years. The interesting aspect to this doll is that a parent and child can literally order a custom made doll that looks exactly like the young lady herself. They are beautiful dolls that span the range of races. "American Girl" is a product Mattel, Inc. can take pride in.
Fashion for "American Girl" Dolls (Click On)
American Girl Dolls are made by Mattel, Inc. They have wardrobes no different than the Barbie line of dolls do except these dolls are larger. They are very collectable.
"American Girl" Dolls are an American Heritiage Statement
This is "American Girl, Marisol" she is only available until December 20th and then she will be discontinued .
"American Girl" should be congratualted for contributing to "Girl, Inc."
The people who want to ridicule any attempt imaginary or real of supporting young women who are lesbian should be ashamed of themselves. At this age there is plenty of room for girls to enjoy life without worrying about sexuality. This is nonsense.
Morning Papers - continued
The Chicago Sun Times
No ticket? Join the crowd
October 19, 2005
BY DAVE NEWBART AND SHAMUS TOOMEY Staff Reporters
Richard C. Lindberg has written four books on White Sox history, had an article in this year's playoff program and will have one printed in the upcoming World Series program to be sold at U.S. Cellular Field.
Still, even he struck out Tuesday in his attempts to get to the World Series, after tickets to the public sold out in less time than it takes to walk a mile, about 18 minutes.
"That's life," he said, stressing he was not bitter and will watch the game at a Bridgeport bar if his dream of "many, many decades" does not come true.
Tens of thousands of other fans were left out as well. Some 130,000 people went online at noon to try for tickets. From 2,000 to 4,000 tickets were available for each of four games, although neither officials with the White Sox nor Major League Baseball would be more specific.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-nws-soxtix19.html
Call-it-a-career year for Ozzie?
October 19, 2005
BY CHRIS DE LUCA STAFF REPORTER
(image placeholder)
Four more wins, and Ozzie Guillen dissolves into a Venezuelan sunset.
Don't you believe it.
Guillen's threat -- it started in spring training and resurfaced at key points throughout the season -- is still out there. If the White Sox win the World Series, he just might leave them scrambling for a new manager.
Before the Sox clinched their World Series berth Sunday, Guillen revisited the topic of retiring at 41. He was reminded that chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is among the skeptics who believe Guillen is on the south side of serious when he threatens to walk away this winter.
''Well, Jerry is wrong,'' Guillen said. ''If we win this thing, and I get home and say, 'I did what I was supposed to do and I don't want to do it anymore,' then that's what I'll do.''
http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-ozzie19.html
Go-going back to 1959
October 19, 2005
BY CAROL SLEZAK Staff Reporter
Advertisement
Back then, Chicago was unified behind its World Series representative.
"It was fabulous,'' said Turk Lown, a relief pitcher for the 1959 White Sox. "You know the animosity between the Cub fans and Sox fans? Well, even the Cubs side of town went crazy when we won [the pennant]. It wasn't like the Cubs fans were mad at us. The whole city united.''
Baseball, our world, this city are different now. Baseball has gone from two leagues to divisional play and wild-card teams, from pitchers hitting to designated hitters, from rubber-armed starting pitchers to middle-relief specialists. The world has gone from the Cold War to the Iraq War. Chicago has gentrified and suburbanized, and Cubs and Sox fans have become more polarized.
Oh, yes, much has changed since 1959. But not the World Series. It remains the biggest show on earth.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-carol19.html
Gov's wife made nearly $39K in deals
October 19, 2005
BY DAVE MCKINNEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief
SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois first lady Patti Blagojevich made nearly $39,000 last year off real estate deals involving one of her husband's controversial fund-raisers, Antoin "Tony" Rezko.
That disclosure came Tuesday as the governor and his wife released their 2004 income tax returns showing Mrs. Blagojevich's real estate business earned the couple $154,930 -- nearly $4,300 more than her husband's salary as the state's chief executive.
Overall, the couple reported adjusted gross income of $375,063 and paid $87,810 in federal taxes and $13,148 in state taxes.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-blago19.html
Rice won't rule out U.S. troops in Iraq in 10 years
October 19, 2005
BY LIZ SIDOTI ASSOCIATED PRESS
(image placeholder)
WASHINGTON-- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday refused to rule out U.S. troops still being in Iraq in 10 years or the possibility that the United States could use military force against neighboring Syria and Iran.
Rice deferred to the decisions of President Bush and military commanders as Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pressed her for more specifics on the U.S. strategy in Iraq.
Asked specifically whether the United States would have troops in Iraq in five or 10 years, Rice said: "I think that even to try and speculate on how many years from now there will be a certain number of American forces is not appropriate."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/riceiraq19.html
Ex-Taliban official elected
October 19, 2005
BY AMIR SHAH
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign was elected to the Afghan parliament last month, officials said Tuesday as results from two provinces were finalized.
Elsewhere, U.S.-led coalition forces killed four police officers after mistaking them for militants during an operation in the southern province of Kandahar, provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said. The coalition said it could not confirm the shootings and was investigating.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/cst-nws-afghan19.html
Tree-trim request costs taxpayers $10K
October 19, 2005
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Nobody relishes the thought of parking a car and returning to find it covered with bird droppings. But only a few have the clout to do something about it.
Chicago firefighters assigned to Engine No. 89 apparently had it -- and used it.
They were so fed up with trees hanging over their firehouse parking lot, they made a pair of spring tree-trimming requests that resulted in the unauthorized removal of more than two dozen trees at an adjacent nature center. The trees had to be replaced -- at a cost of $10,000 to Chicago taxpayers.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-trees19.html
Globe and Mail
Hussein Trial Opens Under Veil of Secrecy
WASHINGTON -- Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad today, charged with crimes against humanity, almost two years after he was seized from an underground hiding place near his hometown of Tikrit. But the trial designed to expose to the world the horrors of his regime remains shrouded in secrecy.
With an insurgency still raging, the precise venue of the special Iraqi tribunal is not public. And four of the five judges have been kept anonymous because of security concerns.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051019/SADDAM19/TPInternational/Africa
Hussein pleads not guilty, trial adjourned for a month
Baghdad — Saddam Hussein pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and torture as his long-awaited trial began Wednesday, with the one-time dictator arguing about the legitimacy of the court and scuffling with guards.
The first session of the trial lasted about three hours, and the judge ordered an adjournment until Nov. 28.
Mr. Hussein and his seven co-defendants could face the death penalty if convicted for the 1982 massacre of nearly 150 Shiites in the town of Dujail. They are being tried in the former headquarters of Mr. Hussein's Baath party.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051019.wsaddam1019/BNStory/International/
Ontario Elementary Students gain on Standardized Tests
Ontario's Grade 3 and 6 students continued to gain on standardized tests for reading, writing and math skills, a new report said Wednesday.
But, math results for Grade 9 students remained largely unchanged form the year before, suggesting more work is needed "to help every student achieve the highest possible level of success," said Marguerite Jackson, chief executive officer of the province's Education Quality and Accountability Office.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051019.wtest1019/BNStory/National/
Liberals Widen the Gap in Poll
Ottawa — The federal Liberals are creeping into range of a majority government as the gap between them and the Conservatives widens to levels not seen since well before the revelations of the Gomery commission.
The results are found in a new poll that also shows a majority of Canadians believe the NDP should continue to prop up the government in the House of Commons.
Conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV News, the survey suggests Canadians crave stability in the federal realm and are calling on Jack Layton to back the Liberals to undertake the nation's business.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051019.wxpoll19/BNStory/National/
Canada Shut Out of Stem Cell Group
Canada is to be shut out from the work of a new international consortium of scientists that plans to clone human embryos for stem-cell research.
Scientists from South Korea, Britain and the United States are to announce in Seoul today the formation of a World Stem Cell Foundation. Its aim is to collect stem cells from cloned human embryos and sell them to researchers -- many of whom are banned from cloning in their own countries.
The project will rely on cells from patients in England, South Korea and California who agree to be cloned for research and on women willing to donate their eggs. Both are essential to the technique known as therapeutic cloning.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051019.wxstemcells19/BNStory/National/
WHAT IF THIS IS SOME KIND OF GERM WARFARE AND THERE IS NO PATTERN BECAUSE IT IS ARTIFICIALLY BEING SET LOOSE.
Spread of Avian Flu Baffles Scientists
The vast new geographical expansion of the dangerous H5N1 virus has avian influenza experts worried a bird version of the Stealth Bomber may be at play.
And they readily admit that finding the asymptomatic culprit or culprits from among thousands of species of birds may be a Herculean challenge.
“If this is a . . . virus that seems to have fixed itself in some species and we don't know which species it is — but maybe it's not showing any clinical sign in this particular species — how do we find this guy?” Michael Perdue, avian influenza expert with the World Health Organization, asks with evident anxiety in his voice.
The realization that some mystery migratory birds are actually spreading the Asian virus suggests future unwanted appearances in Europe cannot be ruled out.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051018.wpande1018/BNStory/International/
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Powerball: How to spend $340,000,000
By Natalie Pompilio
Inquirer Staff Writer
If you win tonight's $340 million Powerball jackpot - and that's a mighty big if - you'll probably take it as a lump sum. Most people do. That'll leave you $164.4 million, of which the feds will take 25 percent.
Leaving you with $123.3 million.
Chump change, pal.
You'll buy an island. Everyone's always saying, "I'll buy an island." No one knows why.
But say you pick up Sultan's Island in Indonesia's Riau archipelago, listed for sale this summer with Coldwell Banker Morrison's Private Islands. Price: $27.5 million, not including upkeep.
You'll need a jet. To get to the island. That's $10 million. And a pilot. A good one.
You'll throw yourself a party. Do it up. When the Sultan of Brunei turned 50 in 1996, he allegedly spent a mere $17 million on his bash, which included three serenades by Michael Jackson. And that was 10 years ago, and that Jackson guy is over. You can do better.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12940087.htm
Millionaire Corzine wins favor with personal touch
By Leonard N. Fleming
Inquirer Staff Writer
This is the second of two articles on the campaign styles of the two major-party candidates for New Jersey governor.
The eruption began the second they saw him. Cameras flashed. Cheers rang out. Every soul in the Spanish Manor restaurant in Newark on this recent weekday stood at admiring attention.
As if anyone needed the cue, a male voice belted into the microphone: "Sen. Corzine is here. Let's get excited!"
Jon S. Corzine, bespectacled and bearded in a suit slightly wrinkled from that day's grueling campaign schedule, dispensed high fives and bear hugs to the men and pecks on the cheeks to the women.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12938478.htm
A second chance at survival
A patient turns to an experimental gene drug being tested at Penn to try to stop a deadly cancer.
By Susan FitzGerald
Inquirer Staff Writer
Harvey Harris settled into the bed at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, ready to endure yet another round of tests to check the aggressive cancer growing in his chest.
He wasn't feeling optimistic.
By most counts, Harris should have been dead by now. He had mesothelioma, caused by a lifetime spent working around asbestos.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12912010.htm
Olympic-size enthusiasm
A poll finds wide support for a Phila. Games bid.
By Larry Eichel
Inquirer Staff Writer
An attempt to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to the Philadelphia area would start with broad support from residents throughout the region.
That's the conclusion of a poll taken on behalf of a volunteer committee now in the early stages of determining whether holding the Games here is feasible.
The poll - four questions included in a regular, syndicated, telephone survey of 1,000 households in 10 counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware - found that 83 percent of respondents backed bringing the games here while only 12 percent were opposed.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12938624.htm
American Girl Dolls
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Editorial Protest goes too far
The culture police are taking aim at an unlikely target: a popular doll coveted by pre-teens called "American Girl."
Until last week, American Girl was known primarily as one of those "gotta-have" dolls at Christmas. If dolls can be wholesome (perhaps that racy Barbie will demand equal time) American Girl dolls have been prized by parents and children alike as clean-living and patriotic.
But now some on the political right are threatening a boycott of this pricey toy over the manufacturer's financial support of a youth organization.
American Girl, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc., is donating proceeds from the sale of an "I Can" wristband to Girls Inc., a national nonprofit foundation, which provides educational programs for girls. This money will aid three specific programs run by Girls Inc. nationwide: developing girls' abilities in science and math, encouraging girls' leadership skills and promoting participation in team athletics.
Radical stuff.
But the American Family Association contends that Girls Inc. is "pro-lesbian" and objects to the group's support of abortion rights. The AFA, based in Mississippi, is urging people to write to the toy company and pressure its officials to discontinue their support of Girls Inc.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12938653.htm
Mail and Guardian
Northern Ireland 'can learn from South Africa'
Pretoria, South Africa
19 October 2005 04:13
Northern Ireland unionists who fear change will learn, like white South Africans did, that they stand to gain rather than lose, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday.
White South Africans, he said, had feared losing certain privileges in the post-apartheid era.
"But now, 11 years afterwards, they are all saying what we feared we are going to lose we didn't. We are happier, freer ... we have become richer... If we move this [peace] process in Ireland, indeed people who fear the future will discover that that future is a much better thing for everybody."
Mbeki was speaking to reporters after meeting Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in Pretoria.
Adams said people in his country want what South Africans have -- freedom, a rights-based society and the ability to live together in peace.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=254180&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
'Mugabe should just be banished'
Terry Leonard Johannesburg, South Africa
19 October 2005 04:29
A Zimbabwean archbishop said on Wednesday he fears 200 000 of his countrymen could die by early next year because of food shortages he blames on his government, and called for President Robert Mugabe's ouster.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, a frequent and outspoken critic of Mugabe, spoke at a news conference called to show a new film on Operation Murambatsvina, the widely condemned government urban-renewal campaign that critics charge has left tens of thousands of Zimbabweans trapped in a spiral of poverty, hunger and displacement.
"I think Mugabe should just be banished, like what happened to Charles Taylor. He should just be banished from Zimbabwe," said Ncube, referring to the former Liberian president forced into exile in Nigeria.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=254187&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
'Mugabe should just be banished'
Terry Leonard Johannesburg, South Africa
19 October 2005 04:29
A Zimbabwean archbishop said on Wednesday he fears 200 000 of his countrymen could die by early next year because of food shortages he blames on his government, and called for President Robert Mugabe's ouster.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, a frequent and outspoken critic of Mugabe, spoke at a news conference called to show a new film on Operation Murambatsvina, the widely condemned government urban-renewal campaign that critics charge has left tens of thousands of Zimbabweans trapped in a spiral of poverty, hunger and displacement.
"I think Mugabe should just be banished, like what happened to Charles Taylor. He should just be banished from Zimbabwe," said Ncube, referring to the former Liberian president forced into exile in Nigeria.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=254187&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Zimbabwe police force 'dangerously' underfunded
Harare, Zimbabwe(image placeholder)
19 October 2005 01:17
Zimbabwe's police chief says the authorities are "dangerously underfunding" the police force, which does not have enough money to pay decent wages or buy new uniforms, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri told a parliamentary committee in the capital Harare on Tuesday that as a result morale in the police force was low and law enforcers are tempted to take bribes, the private Daily Mirror reported.
"Over the years we have been saying the same things over and over again... that we are dangerously underfunding the organisation and this has not been taken seriously," Chihuri was reported as telling the committee.
"Now we have ordinance stores where we should be keeping materials, but they are empty," he said.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=254155
Guardian journalist believed kidnapped in Iraq
Mail & Guardian Online reporter and AFP London, United Kingdom
19 October 2005 04:53
A journalist working for the British newspaper The Guardian is missing, believed kidnapped, in Iraq, the daily said on Wednesday.
Rory Carroll, a 33-year-old Irishman, was on assignment in Baghdad when he disappeared, according to a statement from the newspaper, which said he could have been kidnapped.
As The Guardian's South Africa correspondent since 2002, Carroll was based at the Mail & Guardian newspaper offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, until last year.
"It is believed Mr Carroll may have been taken by a group of armed men," the newspaper said on its website.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=254189&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Same-sex relationships are African
Ruth Morgan: COMMENT
01 October 2005 10:00
South Africa is the only African country in which same-sex rights are constitutionally protected. Even so, homosexuals continue to be subjected to treatment that is sometimes nothing less than brutal. Lesbians, for example, are still raped by men who want to “teach them a lesson” and convert them into “real”, heterosexual women.
Many people hold the view that homosexuality is unnatural, perverse, a sin, or an import from the depraved Western culture.
The idea that homosexuality is “un-African” is often put forward by political leaders such as President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the former presidents of Kenya and Namibia. Most African leaders seem to be ignorant of the historical evidence that traces same- sexuality back to pre-colonial times. Before the arrival of the missionaries, there were a range of same-sex practices and relations that were fully accepted and institutionalised across many African cultures.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=253364&area=/the_teacher/teacher_features/
Global plan to protect film culture
19 October 2005 12:07
The United Nations's cultural agency, Unesco, is expected tomorrow to approve a convention that will allow countries to protect their cultures from globalisation, despite bitter opposition from the United States.
A Franco-Canadian initiative, which has won broad backing as a swipe at US "cultural imperialism", could mean that countries will be able to subsidise domestic film industries and restrict foreign music and content on their radio and television stations in the name of preserving and promoting cultural diversity.
A commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation late on Monday voted overwhelmingly in favour of the text and the body's general assembly, meeting in Paris, is expected to follow suit on Thursday.
The US, supported only by Israel, filed 27 amendments in an unsuccessful bid to water down the resolution, criticising it as "flawed", "ambiguous" and "protectionist".
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=254139
Germany's Merkel made into doll
Berlin, Germany
19 October 2005 05:20
She may not have a government to preside over yet, but incoming German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already been turned into a doll.
Dressed in a version of the blue trouser suit and pink T-shirt she wore on the tense election night of September 18, the baby-faced miniature Merkel is on sale for €189 (R1 480), its makers announced on Tuesday.
But with just 999 of the 46cm-high dolls being produced by the traditional German dollmaker Schildroet, buyers looking to commemorate the first woman chancellor in the country's history cannot afford to wait long.
The real-life Merkel completed the line-up of her power-sharing government on Monday and has entered negotiations to work out a policy programme.
The new government is not expected to be in place until mid-November.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=254192
Lunch with Rupert Murdoch -- for $25 000
Jerusalem, Israel
19 October 2005 05:24
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is looking to raise tens of thousands of dollars for an Israeli technology college by offering himself as a lunch date for diners who are prepared to pick up the hefty bill.
The Australian-born chairperson of News Corporation has posted an advert on the internet auction site eBay, inviting bids starting at $25 000 for lunch at the company's Manhattan headquarters.
"The winning bidder and four friends will have the unique opportunity to dine with their host, Mr Murdoch, and know that 100% of their winning bid will benefit the world-class academic institution, the Jerusalem College of Technology," said the posting on eBay.
The Jerusalem college has built up a reputation since it was founded in 1969 for its research work in such fields as electro-optics, medical technology, information technology, micro-electronics and bio-informatics.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=254194
Storm in a wine glass
Stephen Collinson Washington, United States
19 October 2005 06:14
Washington's power-broking elite is shaken and stirred, and revolt is brewing over the Dom Perignon and canapés at the latest threat to the United States capital's everyday life.
What can have so vexed the cocktail party set? A new al-Qaeda terror threat? Quagmire in Iraq? Or maybe the CIA-leak scandal swirling around the White House?
No, the salons of Georgetown are seething over fears the famous Washington dinner party, social playground of presidents, press barons and politics junkies, could be killed off by police zero tolerance on drink driving.
It started after midnight one evening last May, when police pulled over Debra Bolton, a 49-year-old single mother, who forgot to turn on her car headlights after a Georgetown soirée.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=254198
Be afraid -- be very afraid
14 October 2005 06:50
Outside the Durban Magistrate’s Court this week, South Africa got a very clear snapshot of what a Jacob Zuma presidency would be like. And it was not a spectacle that engenders confidence.
Arriving and departing in a shiny black Humvee, the African National Congress deputy president was at all times surrounded by a phalanx of bald-headed toughs and was escorted to and from court by a cavalcade of police cars, sirens blaring. They elbowed aside the bystanders, staring menacingly at all who dared come close to Brother Leader.
Zuma was the perfect pastiche of the populist rabble-rouser. Outside the courts, he drew comparisons between his court appearance this week and his experiences under apartheid -- a declaration not calculated to bolster public confidence in the judiciary. Addressing his supporters, he spoke of the institutions of South Africa’s democracy -- the National Prosecuting Authority and the courts -- as if they were an alien and illegitimate force.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=253640&area=/insight/insight__editorials/
continued …
No ticket? Join the crowd
October 19, 2005
BY DAVE NEWBART AND SHAMUS TOOMEY Staff Reporters
Richard C. Lindberg has written four books on White Sox history, had an article in this year's playoff program and will have one printed in the upcoming World Series program to be sold at U.S. Cellular Field.
Still, even he struck out Tuesday in his attempts to get to the World Series, after tickets to the public sold out in less time than it takes to walk a mile, about 18 minutes.
"That's life," he said, stressing he was not bitter and will watch the game at a Bridgeport bar if his dream of "many, many decades" does not come true.
Tens of thousands of other fans were left out as well. Some 130,000 people went online at noon to try for tickets. From 2,000 to 4,000 tickets were available for each of four games, although neither officials with the White Sox nor Major League Baseball would be more specific.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-nws-soxtix19.html
Call-it-a-career year for Ozzie?
October 19, 2005
BY CHRIS DE LUCA STAFF REPORTER
(image placeholder)
Four more wins, and Ozzie Guillen dissolves into a Venezuelan sunset.
Don't you believe it.
Guillen's threat -- it started in spring training and resurfaced at key points throughout the season -- is still out there. If the White Sox win the World Series, he just might leave them scrambling for a new manager.
Before the Sox clinched their World Series berth Sunday, Guillen revisited the topic of retiring at 41. He was reminded that chairman Jerry Reinsdorf is among the skeptics who believe Guillen is on the south side of serious when he threatens to walk away this winter.
''Well, Jerry is wrong,'' Guillen said. ''If we win this thing, and I get home and say, 'I did what I was supposed to do and I don't want to do it anymore,' then that's what I'll do.''
http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-ozzie19.html
Go-going back to 1959
October 19, 2005
BY CAROL SLEZAK Staff Reporter
Advertisement
Back then, Chicago was unified behind its World Series representative.
"It was fabulous,'' said Turk Lown, a relief pitcher for the 1959 White Sox. "You know the animosity between the Cub fans and Sox fans? Well, even the Cubs side of town went crazy when we won [the pennant]. It wasn't like the Cubs fans were mad at us. The whole city united.''
Baseball, our world, this city are different now. Baseball has gone from two leagues to divisional play and wild-card teams, from pitchers hitting to designated hitters, from rubber-armed starting pitchers to middle-relief specialists. The world has gone from the Cold War to the Iraq War. Chicago has gentrified and suburbanized, and Cubs and Sox fans have become more polarized.
Oh, yes, much has changed since 1959. But not the World Series. It remains the biggest show on earth.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/sox/cst-spt-carol19.html
Gov's wife made nearly $39K in deals
October 19, 2005
BY DAVE MCKINNEY Sun-Times Springfield Bureau Chief
SPRINGFIELD -- Illinois first lady Patti Blagojevich made nearly $39,000 last year off real estate deals involving one of her husband's controversial fund-raisers, Antoin "Tony" Rezko.
That disclosure came Tuesday as the governor and his wife released their 2004 income tax returns showing Mrs. Blagojevich's real estate business earned the couple $154,930 -- nearly $4,300 more than her husband's salary as the state's chief executive.
Overall, the couple reported adjusted gross income of $375,063 and paid $87,810 in federal taxes and $13,148 in state taxes.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-blago19.html
Rice won't rule out U.S. troops in Iraq in 10 years
October 19, 2005
BY LIZ SIDOTI ASSOCIATED PRESS
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WASHINGTON-- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday refused to rule out U.S. troops still being in Iraq in 10 years or the possibility that the United States could use military force against neighboring Syria and Iran.
Rice deferred to the decisions of President Bush and military commanders as Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pressed her for more specifics on the U.S. strategy in Iraq.
Asked specifically whether the United States would have troops in Iraq in five or 10 years, Rice said: "I think that even to try and speculate on how many years from now there will be a certain number of American forces is not appropriate."
http://www.suntimes.com/output/iraq/riceiraq19.html
Ex-Taliban official elected
October 19, 2005
BY AMIR SHAH
KABUL, Afghanistan -- A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign was elected to the Afghan parliament last month, officials said Tuesday as results from two provinces were finalized.
Elsewhere, U.S.-led coalition forces killed four police officers after mistaking them for militants during an operation in the southern province of Kandahar, provincial Gov. Asadullah Khalid said. The coalition said it could not confirm the shootings and was investigating.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/terror/cst-nws-afghan19.html
Tree-trim request costs taxpayers $10K
October 19, 2005
BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter
Nobody relishes the thought of parking a car and returning to find it covered with bird droppings. But only a few have the clout to do something about it.
Chicago firefighters assigned to Engine No. 89 apparently had it -- and used it.
They were so fed up with trees hanging over their firehouse parking lot, they made a pair of spring tree-trimming requests that resulted in the unauthorized removal of more than two dozen trees at an adjacent nature center. The trees had to be replaced -- at a cost of $10,000 to Chicago taxpayers.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-trees19.html
Globe and Mail
Hussein Trial Opens Under Veil of Secrecy
WASHINGTON -- Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein goes on trial in Baghdad today, charged with crimes against humanity, almost two years after he was seized from an underground hiding place near his hometown of Tikrit. But the trial designed to expose to the world the horrors of his regime remains shrouded in secrecy.
With an insurgency still raging, the precise venue of the special Iraqi tribunal is not public. And four of the five judges have been kept anonymous because of security concerns.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051019/SADDAM19/TPInternational/Africa
Hussein pleads not guilty, trial adjourned for a month
Baghdad — Saddam Hussein pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and torture as his long-awaited trial began Wednesday, with the one-time dictator arguing about the legitimacy of the court and scuffling with guards.
The first session of the trial lasted about three hours, and the judge ordered an adjournment until Nov. 28.
Mr. Hussein and his seven co-defendants could face the death penalty if convicted for the 1982 massacre of nearly 150 Shiites in the town of Dujail. They are being tried in the former headquarters of Mr. Hussein's Baath party.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051019.wsaddam1019/BNStory/International/
Ontario Elementary Students gain on Standardized Tests
Ontario's Grade 3 and 6 students continued to gain on standardized tests for reading, writing and math skills, a new report said Wednesday.
But, math results for Grade 9 students remained largely unchanged form the year before, suggesting more work is needed "to help every student achieve the highest possible level of success," said Marguerite Jackson, chief executive officer of the province's Education Quality and Accountability Office.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051019.wtest1019/BNStory/National/
Liberals Widen the Gap in Poll
Ottawa — The federal Liberals are creeping into range of a majority government as the gap between them and the Conservatives widens to levels not seen since well before the revelations of the Gomery commission.
The results are found in a new poll that also shows a majority of Canadians believe the NDP should continue to prop up the government in the House of Commons.
Conducted for The Globe and Mail and CTV News, the survey suggests Canadians crave stability in the federal realm and are calling on Jack Layton to back the Liberals to undertake the nation's business.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051019.wxpoll19/BNStory/National/
Canada Shut Out of Stem Cell Group
Canada is to be shut out from the work of a new international consortium of scientists that plans to clone human embryos for stem-cell research.
Scientists from South Korea, Britain and the United States are to announce in Seoul today the formation of a World Stem Cell Foundation. Its aim is to collect stem cells from cloned human embryos and sell them to researchers -- many of whom are banned from cloning in their own countries.
The project will rely on cells from patients in England, South Korea and California who agree to be cloned for research and on women willing to donate their eggs. Both are essential to the technique known as therapeutic cloning.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051019.wxstemcells19/BNStory/National/
WHAT IF THIS IS SOME KIND OF GERM WARFARE AND THERE IS NO PATTERN BECAUSE IT IS ARTIFICIALLY BEING SET LOOSE.
Spread of Avian Flu Baffles Scientists
The vast new geographical expansion of the dangerous H5N1 virus has avian influenza experts worried a bird version of the Stealth Bomber may be at play.
And they readily admit that finding the asymptomatic culprit or culprits from among thousands of species of birds may be a Herculean challenge.
“If this is a . . . virus that seems to have fixed itself in some species and we don't know which species it is — but maybe it's not showing any clinical sign in this particular species — how do we find this guy?” Michael Perdue, avian influenza expert with the World Health Organization, asks with evident anxiety in his voice.
The realization that some mystery migratory birds are actually spreading the Asian virus suggests future unwanted appearances in Europe cannot be ruled out.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20051018.wpande1018/BNStory/International/
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Powerball: How to spend $340,000,000
By Natalie Pompilio
Inquirer Staff Writer
If you win tonight's $340 million Powerball jackpot - and that's a mighty big if - you'll probably take it as a lump sum. Most people do. That'll leave you $164.4 million, of which the feds will take 25 percent.
Leaving you with $123.3 million.
Chump change, pal.
You'll buy an island. Everyone's always saying, "I'll buy an island." No one knows why.
But say you pick up Sultan's Island in Indonesia's Riau archipelago, listed for sale this summer with Coldwell Banker Morrison's Private Islands. Price: $27.5 million, not including upkeep.
You'll need a jet. To get to the island. That's $10 million. And a pilot. A good one.
You'll throw yourself a party. Do it up. When the Sultan of Brunei turned 50 in 1996, he allegedly spent a mere $17 million on his bash, which included three serenades by Michael Jackson. And that was 10 years ago, and that Jackson guy is over. You can do better.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12940087.htm
Millionaire Corzine wins favor with personal touch
By Leonard N. Fleming
Inquirer Staff Writer
This is the second of two articles on the campaign styles of the two major-party candidates for New Jersey governor.
The eruption began the second they saw him. Cameras flashed. Cheers rang out. Every soul in the Spanish Manor restaurant in Newark on this recent weekday stood at admiring attention.
As if anyone needed the cue, a male voice belted into the microphone: "Sen. Corzine is here. Let's get excited!"
Jon S. Corzine, bespectacled and bearded in a suit slightly wrinkled from that day's grueling campaign schedule, dispensed high fives and bear hugs to the men and pecks on the cheeks to the women.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12938478.htm
A second chance at survival
A patient turns to an experimental gene drug being tested at Penn to try to stop a deadly cancer.
By Susan FitzGerald
Inquirer Staff Writer
Harvey Harris settled into the bed at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, ready to endure yet another round of tests to check the aggressive cancer growing in his chest.
He wasn't feeling optimistic.
By most counts, Harris should have been dead by now. He had mesothelioma, caused by a lifetime spent working around asbestos.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12912010.htm
Olympic-size enthusiasm
A poll finds wide support for a Phila. Games bid.
By Larry Eichel
Inquirer Staff Writer
An attempt to bring the 2016 Summer Olympics to the Philadelphia area would start with broad support from residents throughout the region.
That's the conclusion of a poll taken on behalf of a volunteer committee now in the early stages of determining whether holding the Games here is feasible.
The poll - four questions included in a regular, syndicated, telephone survey of 1,000 households in 10 counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware - found that 83 percent of respondents backed bringing the games here while only 12 percent were opposed.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12938624.htm
American Girl Dolls
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Editorial Protest goes too far
The culture police are taking aim at an unlikely target: a popular doll coveted by pre-teens called "American Girl."
Until last week, American Girl was known primarily as one of those "gotta-have" dolls at Christmas. If dolls can be wholesome (perhaps that racy Barbie will demand equal time) American Girl dolls have been prized by parents and children alike as clean-living and patriotic.
But now some on the political right are threatening a boycott of this pricey toy over the manufacturer's financial support of a youth organization.
American Girl, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc., is donating proceeds from the sale of an "I Can" wristband to Girls Inc., a national nonprofit foundation, which provides educational programs for girls. This money will aid three specific programs run by Girls Inc. nationwide: developing girls' abilities in science and math, encouraging girls' leadership skills and promoting participation in team athletics.
Radical stuff.
But the American Family Association contends that Girls Inc. is "pro-lesbian" and objects to the group's support of abortion rights. The AFA, based in Mississippi, is urging people to write to the toy company and pressure its officials to discontinue their support of Girls Inc.
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/12938653.htm
Mail and Guardian
Northern Ireland 'can learn from South Africa'
Pretoria, South Africa
19 October 2005 04:13
Northern Ireland unionists who fear change will learn, like white South Africans did, that they stand to gain rather than lose, President Thabo Mbeki said on Wednesday.
White South Africans, he said, had feared losing certain privileges in the post-apartheid era.
"But now, 11 years afterwards, they are all saying what we feared we are going to lose we didn't. We are happier, freer ... we have become richer... If we move this [peace] process in Ireland, indeed people who fear the future will discover that that future is a much better thing for everybody."
Mbeki was speaking to reporters after meeting Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in Pretoria.
Adams said people in his country want what South Africans have -- freedom, a rights-based society and the ability to live together in peace.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=254180&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
'Mugabe should just be banished'
Terry Leonard Johannesburg, South Africa
19 October 2005 04:29
A Zimbabwean archbishop said on Wednesday he fears 200 000 of his countrymen could die by early next year because of food shortages he blames on his government, and called for President Robert Mugabe's ouster.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, a frequent and outspoken critic of Mugabe, spoke at a news conference called to show a new film on Operation Murambatsvina, the widely condemned government urban-renewal campaign that critics charge has left tens of thousands of Zimbabweans trapped in a spiral of poverty, hunger and displacement.
"I think Mugabe should just be banished, like what happened to Charles Taylor. He should just be banished from Zimbabwe," said Ncube, referring to the former Liberian president forced into exile in Nigeria.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=254187&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
'Mugabe should just be banished'
Terry Leonard Johannesburg, South Africa
19 October 2005 04:29
A Zimbabwean archbishop said on Wednesday he fears 200 000 of his countrymen could die by early next year because of food shortages he blames on his government, and called for President Robert Mugabe's ouster.
Roman Catholic Archbishop Pius Ncube, a frequent and outspoken critic of Mugabe, spoke at a news conference called to show a new film on Operation Murambatsvina, the widely condemned government urban-renewal campaign that critics charge has left tens of thousands of Zimbabweans trapped in a spiral of poverty, hunger and displacement.
"I think Mugabe should just be banished, like what happened to Charles Taylor. He should just be banished from Zimbabwe," said Ncube, referring to the former Liberian president forced into exile in Nigeria.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=254187&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Zimbabwe police force 'dangerously' underfunded
Harare, Zimbabwe(image placeholder)
19 October 2005 01:17
Zimbabwe's police chief says the authorities are "dangerously underfunding" the police force, which does not have enough money to pay decent wages or buy new uniforms, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri told a parliamentary committee in the capital Harare on Tuesday that as a result morale in the police force was low and law enforcers are tempted to take bribes, the private Daily Mirror reported.
"Over the years we have been saying the same things over and over again... that we are dangerously underfunding the organisation and this has not been taken seriously," Chihuri was reported as telling the committee.
"Now we have ordinance stores where we should be keeping materials, but they are empty," he said.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=254155
Guardian journalist believed kidnapped in Iraq
Mail & Guardian Online reporter and AFP London, United Kingdom
19 October 2005 04:53
A journalist working for the British newspaper The Guardian is missing, believed kidnapped, in Iraq, the daily said on Wednesday.
Rory Carroll, a 33-year-old Irishman, was on assignment in Baghdad when he disappeared, according to a statement from the newspaper, which said he could have been kidnapped.
As The Guardian's South Africa correspondent since 2002, Carroll was based at the Mail & Guardian newspaper offices in Johannesburg, South Africa, until last year.
"It is believed Mr Carroll may have been taken by a group of armed men," the newspaper said on its website.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=254189&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Same-sex relationships are African
Ruth Morgan: COMMENT
01 October 2005 10:00
South Africa is the only African country in which same-sex rights are constitutionally protected. Even so, homosexuals continue to be subjected to treatment that is sometimes nothing less than brutal. Lesbians, for example, are still raped by men who want to “teach them a lesson” and convert them into “real”, heterosexual women.
Many people hold the view that homosexuality is unnatural, perverse, a sin, or an import from the depraved Western culture.
The idea that homosexuality is “un-African” is often put forward by political leaders such as President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe and the former presidents of Kenya and Namibia. Most African leaders seem to be ignorant of the historical evidence that traces same- sexuality back to pre-colonial times. Before the arrival of the missionaries, there were a range of same-sex practices and relations that were fully accepted and institutionalised across many African cultures.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=253364&area=/the_teacher/teacher_features/
Global plan to protect film culture
19 October 2005 12:07
The United Nations's cultural agency, Unesco, is expected tomorrow to approve a convention that will allow countries to protect their cultures from globalisation, despite bitter opposition from the United States.
A Franco-Canadian initiative, which has won broad backing as a swipe at US "cultural imperialism", could mean that countries will be able to subsidise domestic film industries and restrict foreign music and content on their radio and television stations in the name of preserving and promoting cultural diversity.
A commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation late on Monday voted overwhelmingly in favour of the text and the body's general assembly, meeting in Paris, is expected to follow suit on Thursday.
The US, supported only by Israel, filed 27 amendments in an unsuccessful bid to water down the resolution, criticising it as "flawed", "ambiguous" and "protectionist".
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=254139
Germany's Merkel made into doll
Berlin, Germany
19 October 2005 05:20
She may not have a government to preside over yet, but incoming German Chancellor Angela Merkel has already been turned into a doll.
Dressed in a version of the blue trouser suit and pink T-shirt she wore on the tense election night of September 18, the baby-faced miniature Merkel is on sale for €189 (R1 480), its makers announced on Tuesday.
But with just 999 of the 46cm-high dolls being produced by the traditional German dollmaker Schildroet, buyers looking to commemorate the first woman chancellor in the country's history cannot afford to wait long.
The real-life Merkel completed the line-up of her power-sharing government on Monday and has entered negotiations to work out a policy programme.
The new government is not expected to be in place until mid-November.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=254192
Lunch with Rupert Murdoch -- for $25 000
Jerusalem, Israel
19 October 2005 05:24
Media mogul Rupert Murdoch is looking to raise tens of thousands of dollars for an Israeli technology college by offering himself as a lunch date for diners who are prepared to pick up the hefty bill.
The Australian-born chairperson of News Corporation has posted an advert on the internet auction site eBay, inviting bids starting at $25 000 for lunch at the company's Manhattan headquarters.
"The winning bidder and four friends will have the unique opportunity to dine with their host, Mr Murdoch, and know that 100% of their winning bid will benefit the world-class academic institution, the Jerusalem College of Technology," said the posting on eBay.
The Jerusalem college has built up a reputation since it was founded in 1969 for its research work in such fields as electro-optics, medical technology, information technology, micro-electronics and bio-informatics.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=254194
Storm in a wine glass
Stephen Collinson Washington, United States
19 October 2005 06:14
Washington's power-broking elite is shaken and stirred, and revolt is brewing over the Dom Perignon and canapés at the latest threat to the United States capital's everyday life.
What can have so vexed the cocktail party set? A new al-Qaeda terror threat? Quagmire in Iraq? Or maybe the CIA-leak scandal swirling around the White House?
No, the salons of Georgetown are seething over fears the famous Washington dinner party, social playground of presidents, press barons and politics junkies, could be killed off by police zero tolerance on drink driving.
It started after midnight one evening last May, when police pulled over Debra Bolton, a 49-year-old single mother, who forgot to turn on her car headlights after a Georgetown soirée.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=254198
Be afraid -- be very afraid
14 October 2005 06:50
Outside the Durban Magistrate’s Court this week, South Africa got a very clear snapshot of what a Jacob Zuma presidency would be like. And it was not a spectacle that engenders confidence.
Arriving and departing in a shiny black Humvee, the African National Congress deputy president was at all times surrounded by a phalanx of bald-headed toughs and was escorted to and from court by a cavalcade of police cars, sirens blaring. They elbowed aside the bystanders, staring menacingly at all who dared come close to Brother Leader.
Zuma was the perfect pastiche of the populist rabble-rouser. Outside the courts, he drew comparisons between his court appearance this week and his experiences under apartheid -- a declaration not calculated to bolster public confidence in the judiciary. Addressing his supporters, he spoke of the institutions of South Africa’s democracy -- the National Prosecuting Authority and the courts -- as if they were an alien and illegitimate force.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=253640&area=/insight/insight__editorials/
continued …
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