When politics 'toys' with the nation's business someone always gets hurt.
Friday, November 25, 2005
Morning Papers - continued ...
The Guardian
Sea level rise doubles in 150 years
· Increase blamed on fossil fuel use since 19th century
· Cut in greenhouse gases futile, researchers say
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian
Global warming is doubling the rate of sea level rise around the world, but attempts to stop it by cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions are likely to be futile, leading researchers will warn today.
The oceans will rise nearly half a metre by the end of the century, forcing coastlines back by hundreds of metres, the researchers claim. Scientists believe the acceleration is caused mainly by the surge in greenhouse gas emissions produced by the development of industry and introduction of fossil fuel burning.
Today's warning comes from US researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey who analysed cores drilled from different sites along the eastern seaboard. By drilling down 500 metres through layers of different sediments and using chemical dating techniques, the scientists were able to work out where beaches and dry land were over the past 100m years.
The analysis showed that during the past 5,000 years, sea levels rose at a rate of around 1mm each year, caused largely by the residual melting of icesheets from the previous ice age. But in the past 150 years, data from tide gauges and satellites show sea levels are rising at 2mm a year.
"The main thing that has happened since the 19th century and the beginning of the modern observation has been the widespread increase in fossil fuel use and more greenhouse gases," said Professor Kenneth Miller, who led the study. "We can say the increase we're seeing is much higher than we've seen in the immediate past and it is due to humans."
The rising tide is expected to make oceans 40cm higher by 2100. "This is going to cause more beach erosion. Beaches are going to move back and houses will be destroyed," he said. Rising sea levels will also add to the destructive power of storm surges triggered by hurricanes such as Katrina which battered New Orleans and surrounding areas this year.
The research, published in the US journal Science, comes a week before the countries that embraced the Kyoto protocol meet for the first time in Montreal to discuss future agreements for cutting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions further. While Britain has adopted the protocol, the government has suggested that voluntary targets rather than the mandatory cuts demanded by Kyoto could be a more practical way to trim greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Prof Miller, there is little chance of slowing the rising tide caused by global warming. "There's not much one can do about sea level rise. It's clear that even if we strictly obeyed the Kyoto accord, it's still going to continue to warm. Personally, I don't think we're going to affect CO2 emissions enough to make a difference, no matter what we do. The Bush administration should stop asking whether temperatures are globally rising and admit the scientific fact that they are, but then turn the question around politically and say: 'We can't really do anything about this on any kind of cost basis at all'," he said.
In two further studies, also published in Science, a team of German researchers put figures on the extent to which the climate is warming compared with any time during the past 650,000 years. They report that levels of the most ubiquitous greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, are rising 200 times faster than could be caused by any natural process. Carbon dioxide levels are now 380 parts per million, some 27% higher and methane levels 130% higher than at any time over the period they analysed.
The researchers measured levels of greenhouse gases locked into a core of ice drilled from Antarctica. At more than 3km long, the ice core holds pockets of air that were in the earth's atmosphere from nearly 1m years ago until the present day.
The cores are the best record left on the planet of the earth's environmental history. By analysing the gases locked up in 10cm chunks of ice, the researchers can reconstruct the gases that made up the atmosphere at any time from present day until before the four previous ice ages.
"If you really want to make a case for global warming, you just have to look at the past 1,000 years, because the current increase in carbon dioxide stands out dramatically," said lead author Dr Thomas Stocker at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Ed Brook, a climate scientist at Oregon State University said the rise in greenhouse gases ... was a stark indication of the influence industry was having on the environment. "The levels of primary greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are up dramatically since the industrial revolution, at a speed and magnitude that the earth has not seen in hundreds of thousands of years. There is now no question this is due to human influence."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1650444,00.html
100 tonnes of pollutants spilled into Chinese river
Staff and agencies
Friday November 25, 2005
A local resident fills a teapot from a public tap in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China. Photograph: Greg Baker/AP
Around 100 tonnes of pollutants flowed into the Songhua river in the chemical spill that forced a Chinese city to cut off water supplies to almost four million people, it was reported today.
The reports came as another industrial accident brought fears of a new pollution crisis hundreds of miles away.
Chinese media said the Songhua spill, caused by an explosion at a chemical factory in the city of Jilin on November 13, resulted in an 80km (50 mile) stretch of benzene flowing down the river to the north-eastern city of Harbin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1650786,00.html
London transport chief quits after row
Hugh Muir
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian
Bob Kiley, the capital's transport commissioner, has quit after a power struggle with Ken Livingstone over the stewardship of the body responsible for the London's roads, buses and tubes.
The American, instrumental in the mayor's congestion charge scheme and bus network expansion, stood down after a clash over a member of staff that he wanted removed but whom the mayor wanted to keep. "It got to the stage of either he goes or I go," a source close to the mayor told the Guardian. "The mayor's answer was not what Kiley expected."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,2763,1650614,00.html
BBC governors overturn ruling on Arafat report
Tara Conlan
Friday November 25, 2005
The BBC's governors have overturned a ruling that cleared a From Our Own Correspondent reporter over an emotional dispatch on the departure of Yasser Arafat from his Ramallah home.
Hundreds of listeners complained to the corporation about the Radio 4 broadcast in October 2004, in which BBC correspondent Barbara Plett admitted to crying as an ill Arafat was airlifted to hospital.
The BBC head of editorial complaints originally ruled that the report did not breach the corporation's impartiality guidelines.
However, one of the complainants appealed to the board of governors. And today the governors' programme complaints committee ruled that the Radio 4 show had in fact broken the rules.
The committee rejected some elements of the complaint, which accused the report of being "a tearful eulogy" and a "flagrant violation" of the impartiality guidelines.
But the committee also "concluded that one element of the item - the reference to the reporter starting to cry - did breach the requirements of due impartiality as the complainant had suggested".
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1650855,00.html
Britain tops EU league for cocaine abuse
· UK closing in on levels seen in American cities
· Deaths involving drug double in three years
Alan Travis in Brussels
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian
Britain is now top of the European "league table" for cocaine abuse and is fast approaching levels seen in America, according to the EU's drug agency. Nearly 12% of all young adults under the age of 35 in Britain have tried the drug at least once.
But the arrival of cocaine as the "stimulant drug of choice" for many young Europeans is bringing in its wake a growing death toll and health problems as it spreads from middle class dinner tables to the backstreets of council estates.
In Britain the latest figures show that drug deaths involving cocaine have risen from 85 in 2000 to 171 in 2003.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/story/0,8150,1650615,00.html
History
Queen star dies after Aids statement
Paul Myers
Monday November 25, 1991
The Guardian
Freddie Mercury, rock's showman incarnate, died last night, 24 hours after he confirmed that he was suffering from Aids.
Mercury, lead singer with the band Queen, had become a recluse at his home in Kensington, west London, over the past two years, fuelling speculation that he was suffering from the disease. He was 45.
A brief statement by his publicist, Roxy Meades, said: "Freddie Mercury died peacefully at his home. His death was the result of bronchio-pneumonia, brought on by Aids."
Mercury was born Frederick Bulsara in Zanzibar, the son of a government accountant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/fromthearchive/story/0,12269,1650611,00.html
The Seattle Times
Volcano erupts, threatens villagers in Bogotá, Colombia
DIARIO LA REPUBLICA / AP
Sixteen people were killed when a passenger bus, traveling through a mountainous area 60 miles east of Lima, Peru, plunged into the Rimac River on Thursday. Another 16 passengers survived the crash.
A volcano erupted Thursday in southwestern Colombia, spewing smoke and ash and raising fears for the safety of nearby villagers, officials said.
Police and emergency officials were on high alert after the 14,110-foot Galeras volcano became active at dawn and dumped ash on Pasto, 12 miles away.
A 1993 eruption killed nine people, including five scientists who had descended into the crater to sample gases at the moment it blew.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002645357_wdig25.h
Defense hawk Dicks says he now sees war as a mistake
By Alicia Mundy
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — It was after 11 p.m. on Friday when Rep. Norm Dicks finally left the Capitol, fresh from the heated House debate on the Iraq war. He was demoralized and angry.
Sometime during the rancorous, seven-hour floor fight over whether to immediately withdraw U.S. troops, one Texas Republican compared those who question America's military strategy in Iraq to the hippies and "peaceniks" who protested the Vietnam War and "did terrible things to troop morale."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002645321_normdicks25m.html
Schwarzenegger mulls clemency for Williams
By DAVID KRAVETS
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that he would consider granting clemency to Crips co-founder and convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams.
After a private hearing with Williams' lawyers at his Sacramento office, Schwarzenegger said he would meet again on Dec. 8 with the lawyers, Los Angeles County prosecutors and others involved.
As governor, he has the authority to commute a death sentence to life without parole. He is not legally obligated to hold a public or private hearing.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/headlines/D8E3R6I87.html
Yakima Valley wineries worry about rockslides
The Associated Press
YAKIMA — Yakima Valley wineries are worried that a rockslide that's backing up traffic on Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass could slow business over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Every year, wineries hold a three-day Thanksgiving in Wine Country event that draws hundreds of Puget Sound-area travelers. But state transportation officials have urged drivers to avoid the state's main east-west artery through the Cascades this year due to rockslides and continued cleanup.
Paul Portteus, owner of Portteus Vineyards in Zillah, Yakima County, estimates about 80 percent of his 1,500 to 2,000 visitors during last year's event journeyed from west of the mountains.
He worries that would-be buyers won't make this year's trip because of warnings from the Department of Transportation, which he calls "scare tactics."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002645304_wineries25.html
Hanford Reach elk-management options weighed
By SHANNON DININNY
The Associated Press
HANFORD REACH NATIONAL MONUMENT, Wash. — To folks driving by, the massive elk roaming freely across south-central Washington's rugged, federal land are a delightful sight.
To hunters, they are an enticing target. For Bud Hamilton, a wheat farmer whose property abuts the Hanford Reach, the large stands of elk pose a bust to his crop.
"They come out at night, eat my fields or trample my crops, and go back to the federal land in the morning," Hamilton said. "What am I supposed to do?"
Managing the rapidly growing herd has been a problem for state and federal wildlife managers for years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering new options in an elk-management plan for public comment, including hunting on federal property that hasn't been opened to the public in decades.
Former President Clinton created the Hanford Reach National Monument by proclamation five years ago. The monument stretches along a free-flowing leg of the Columbia River renowned for salmon runs, bird habitat and rare plant life on its banks.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002645303_elk25m.html
Canada pledges more than $4 billion to aid its aboriginal peoples
By The Associated Press
KELOWNA, British Columbia – Canada on today pledged $4.3 billion in a landmark deal with native Indian and northern Inuit communities to help lift them from the poverty and disease that has plagued their neglected reserves for more than a century.
The agreement commits federal funding over the next decade for widespread improvements in housing, health care, education and economic development for the nearly 1 million aboriginal peoples of the North American nation, namely Indian tribes known as First Nations and Inuits, the aboriginal Canadians of the northeastern and Arctic territories.
Prime Minister Paul Martin and the premiers of Canada's 13 provinces and territories announced the agreement after a two-day summit with five native organizations.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002646806_webcanada25.html
Ancient air bubbles yield greenhouse-gas concerns
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any point during the past 650,000 years, says a major new study that let scientists peer back in time at "greenhouse gases" that can help fuel global warming.
By analyzing tiny air bubbles preserved in Antarctic ice for millennia, a team of European researchers highlights how people are dramatically influencing the buildup of these gases.
The remarkable research promises to spur "dramatically improved understanding" of climate change, said geosciences specialist Edward Brook of Oregon State University.
The study, by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica, is published today in the journal Science.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002645356_greenhouse25.html
African poor to get further U.S. food aid
By The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The United States has thrown a lifeline to six southern African countries, donating food aid valued at $45 million, the U.N. food agency said Thursday.
The 94,000-ton donation brings the U.S. government's total food contribution for the year to $150 million, the World Food Program (WFP) said.
The latest U.S. donation includes beans, peas, lentils, maize meal, corn-soya blend, sorghum, millet, vegetable oil and bulgur wheat, expected to start arriving in the region in January. The food will be distributed across Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
WFP is struggling to feed nearly 10 million people in the region, hit by the fourth straight year of drought and some of the world's highest HIV infection rates.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002645329_food25.html
Feds arrest Ohio imam, begin deportation
By Joe Milicia
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND – Federal authorities arrested an Islamic religious leader today as they began the process of deporting him for lying about ties to terrorist groups.
Imam Fawaz Damra, the spiritual leader of Ohio's largest mosque, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to three groups that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.
That conviction was upheld in March, clearing the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.
Damra, 44, was arrested early today without incident, the immigration office said.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002646599_webimam25.html
Achieving energy freedom for the people of Washington
By Hans Dunshee and Jeff Morris
WOULD you rather buy fuel grown by local farmers — or oil pumped from Saudi Arabia? We can have clean, renewable sources of fuel that aren't affected by whatever happens in Louisiana or Iraq. This is a bold vision. But if we take strong action, the people and businesses of Washington state can enjoy energy freedom.
Our economy is based on cheap oil. Yet, even Big Oil admits the world is running out of oil, with millions more people in developing countries trading their bicycles for cars. The era of cheap oil is over.
Watch out for quick fixes from politicians saying just drill for more oil in our parks, pass some tax breaks or build a refinery in Hoquiam — whether the people in Hoquiam like it or not. More of the same won't get the job done.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002644973_dunsheemorris25.html
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Mike is honored, delivers keynote at the first annual Paul Wellstone Memorial Dinner:
http://www.real.com/player/posttrial.html?src=rpinprod_trig_toolbar
Sorry, George, I'm In the Majority ...from Michael Moore
11/19/05
Dear Mr. Bush:
I would like to extend my hand and invite you to join us, the mainstream American majority. We, the people -- that's the majority of the people -- share these majority opinions:
1. Going to war was a mistake -- a big mistake. (link)
2. You and your administration misled us into this war. (link)
3. We want the war ended and our troops brought home. (link)
4. We don't trust you. (link)
Now, I know this is a bitter pill to swallow. Iraq was going to be your great legacy. Now, it's just your legacy. It didn't have to end up this way.
This week, when Republicans and conservative Democrats started jumping ship, you lashed out at them. You thought the most damning thing you could say to them was that they were "endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party." I mean, is that the best you can do to persuade them to stick with you -- compare them to me? You gotta come up with a better villain. For heaven's sakes, you had a hundred-plus million other Americans who think the same way I do -- and you could have picked on any one of them!
But hey, why not cut out the name-calling and the smearing and just do the obvious thing: Come join the majority! Be one of us, your fellow Americans! Is it really that hard? Is there really any other choice? George, take a walk on the wild side!
Your loyal representative from the majority,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=188
Multinationals, not Iraqis, to reap oil fortune: report
LONDON (AFP) - Up to 113 billion dollars (96.6 billion euros) in Iraqi oil revenues are going to multinational oil companies under long-term contracts, and not to the Iraqi people, a social and environmental group alleged.
The group known as Platform said that oil multinationals would be paid between 74 billion pounds (43 billion dollars) and 194 billion pounds (113 billion dollars) with rates of return of between 42.0 percent and 162.0 percent under proposed production-sharing agreements, or PSAs.
"The form of contracts being promoted is the most expensive and undemocratic option available," Platform researcher Greg Muttitt said Tuesday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4994
Bush, protesters, have dueling Thanksgivings
CRAWFORD, United States (AFP) - While US President George W. Bush enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal at his Texas ranch, protesters against the war in Iraq held a rival feast down the road at their makeshift camp.
The dueling meals came as high-profile anti-war figure Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq, was expected to return here late in the day and sign copies of her new book on Friday.
The president telephoned 10 people serving overseas in the US armed forces before dining on roasted free range turkey with gravy and whipped sweet potatoes, as well as pecan pie and pumpkin pie, according to the White House.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4999
Rice Optimistic on U.S. Troop Draw Down
Associated Preferences
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States will probably not need to maintain its current troop levels in Iraq "very much longer," though she declined to provide a precise timetable for reduction in U.S. forces.
Rice appeared to set the stage for such a reduction, saying the Iraqi forces are doing a better job of holding their own against insurgents.
"I do not think that American forces need to be there in the numbers that they are now because — for very much longer — because Iraqis are stepping up," Rice told Fox News in an interview Tuesday. "This is not just a matter of training numbers of Iraqi forces, but actually seeing them hold territory."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4992
Obama Calls on Bush To Admit Iraq Errors
'Limited' Troop Reduction Urged
By Peter Slevin / Washington Post
CHICAGO, Nov. 22 -- Sen. Barack Obama said President Bush should admit mistakes in waging the Iraq war and reduce the number of troops stationed there in the next year. But the Illinois Democrat, a longtime opponent of the war, said U.S. forces remain "part of a solution" in the bitterly divided country and should not be withdrawn immediately.
Without citing specific numbers, Obama called for a "limited drawdown" of U.S. troops that would push the fragile Iraqi government to take more responsibility while deploying enough American soldiers to prevent the country from "exploding into civil war or ethnic cleansing or a haven for terrorism."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4987
Thermostat wars: As natural gas prices rise, homeowners see how low they can go
By Anya Sostek / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Within every thermostat, there are fine lines separating comfortable from tolerable from downright unpleasant.
But in the face of sky-high natural gas prices, some homeowners are pushing the boundaries of "How low can you go?"
How about 58 degrees?
"When you move around, it's not so bad," said Ray Berquist of Oklahoma, Westmoreland County, who keeps his house at a brisk 58 degrees during the day in an effort to control energy costs.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4988
Hunger kills 6 mln children a year: UN
ROME (Reuters) - The United Nations' food and farming body on Tuesday renewed its plea for more effort to improve agriculture in poor countries to ease hunger and malnutrition which kill nearly 6 million children a year.
In its annual report, "The State of Food Insecurity in the World", the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the world was way behind on hunger reduction goals for 2015 set at political summits over the last 10 years.
"If each of the developing regions continues to reduce hunger at the current pace, only South America and the Caribbean will reach the Millennium Development Goal target of cutting the proportion of hungry people by half," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf in the foreword to the report.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4977
Fox News Won't Show Ad Opposing Alito
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Fox News is refusing to air an ad critical of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, citing its lawyers' contention that the spot is factually incorrect.
A spokesman for the groups sponsoring the ad said the network's decision reflects the political right's effort to shield President Bush's choice for the high court.
The ad says that as an appellate court judge, Alito has "ruled to make it easier for corporations to discriminate ... even voted to approve strip search of a 10-year-old girl." Referring to a document Alito wrote in 1985 while seeking a job in the Reagan administration, it quotes him as saying that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4978
Iraqi Factions Call for Timetable for U.S. Withdrawal
By Hassan M. Fattah / New York Times
CAIRO, Nov. 21 - For the first time, Iraq's political factions collectively called today for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces, in a moment of consensus that comes as the Bush administration battles pressure at home to commit to a pullout schedule.
The announcement, made at the conclusion of a reconciliation conference here backed by the Arab League, was a public reaching out by Shiites, who now dominate Iraq's government, to Sunni Arabs on the eve of parliamentary elections that have been put on shaky ground by weeks of sectarian violence.
About 100 Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, many of whom will run in the election in December, signed a closing memorandum on today that "demands a withdrawal of foreign troops on a specified timetable, together with an immediate national program for rebuilding the security forces," the statement said. "The Iraqi people are looking forward to the day when foreign forces will leave Iraq, when its armed and security forces will be rebuilt and when they can enjoy peace and stability and an end to terrorism."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4968
My Open Letter to George
...a message from Cindy Sheehan
George,
My family is spending our 2nd Thanksgiving without Casey thanks to you and your lies. I am spending the day crying on a plane on my way to come to Crawford to again ask you for a meeting.
I had been to Crawford for three weeks in the summer and to DC several times asking for a meeting with you and now I am returning to our vacation home to once again try and meet with you. I don't know why you like Crawford so much, but I love it because of the Camp Casey Peace Community that arose during August this year when you wouldn't meet with me. When I arrived back here at the Peace House I felt a sense of coming home and belonging to something that is far greater than any of us: a community that is filled with love, acceptance and peace. Is this what you feel when you return frequently to Crawford? Also, the beautiful Texas sunset stirred memories of our days at Camp Casey when we would close our activities each day with ex-Marine, Jeff Key playing taps among the crosses that honored our fallen. August was a miraculous time.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=549
continued …
Sea level rise doubles in 150 years
· Increase blamed on fossil fuel use since 19th century
· Cut in greenhouse gases futile, researchers say
Ian Sample, science correspondent
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian
Global warming is doubling the rate of sea level rise around the world, but attempts to stop it by cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions are likely to be futile, leading researchers will warn today.
The oceans will rise nearly half a metre by the end of the century, forcing coastlines back by hundreds of metres, the researchers claim. Scientists believe the acceleration is caused mainly by the surge in greenhouse gas emissions produced by the development of industry and introduction of fossil fuel burning.
Today's warning comes from US researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey who analysed cores drilled from different sites along the eastern seaboard. By drilling down 500 metres through layers of different sediments and using chemical dating techniques, the scientists were able to work out where beaches and dry land were over the past 100m years.
The analysis showed that during the past 5,000 years, sea levels rose at a rate of around 1mm each year, caused largely by the residual melting of icesheets from the previous ice age. But in the past 150 years, data from tide gauges and satellites show sea levels are rising at 2mm a year.
"The main thing that has happened since the 19th century and the beginning of the modern observation has been the widespread increase in fossil fuel use and more greenhouse gases," said Professor Kenneth Miller, who led the study. "We can say the increase we're seeing is much higher than we've seen in the immediate past and it is due to humans."
The rising tide is expected to make oceans 40cm higher by 2100. "This is going to cause more beach erosion. Beaches are going to move back and houses will be destroyed," he said. Rising sea levels will also add to the destructive power of storm surges triggered by hurricanes such as Katrina which battered New Orleans and surrounding areas this year.
The research, published in the US journal Science, comes a week before the countries that embraced the Kyoto protocol meet for the first time in Montreal to discuss future agreements for cutting carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions further. While Britain has adopted the protocol, the government has suggested that voluntary targets rather than the mandatory cuts demanded by Kyoto could be a more practical way to trim greenhouse gas emissions.
According to Prof Miller, there is little chance of slowing the rising tide caused by global warming. "There's not much one can do about sea level rise. It's clear that even if we strictly obeyed the Kyoto accord, it's still going to continue to warm. Personally, I don't think we're going to affect CO2 emissions enough to make a difference, no matter what we do. The Bush administration should stop asking whether temperatures are globally rising and admit the scientific fact that they are, but then turn the question around politically and say: 'We can't really do anything about this on any kind of cost basis at all'," he said.
In two further studies, also published in Science, a team of German researchers put figures on the extent to which the climate is warming compared with any time during the past 650,000 years. They report that levels of the most ubiquitous greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, are rising 200 times faster than could be caused by any natural process. Carbon dioxide levels are now 380 parts per million, some 27% higher and methane levels 130% higher than at any time over the period they analysed.
The researchers measured levels of greenhouse gases locked into a core of ice drilled from Antarctica. At more than 3km long, the ice core holds pockets of air that were in the earth's atmosphere from nearly 1m years ago until the present day.
The cores are the best record left on the planet of the earth's environmental history. By analysing the gases locked up in 10cm chunks of ice, the researchers can reconstruct the gases that made up the atmosphere at any time from present day until before the four previous ice ages.
"If you really want to make a case for global warming, you just have to look at the past 1,000 years, because the current increase in carbon dioxide stands out dramatically," said lead author Dr Thomas Stocker at the Physics Institute of the University of Bern, Switzerland.
Ed Brook, a climate scientist at Oregon State University said the rise in greenhouse gases ... was a stark indication of the influence industry was having on the environment. "The levels of primary greenhouse gases such as methane, carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide are up dramatically since the industrial revolution, at a speed and magnitude that the earth has not seen in hundreds of thousands of years. There is now no question this is due to human influence."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,3605,1650444,00.html
100 tonnes of pollutants spilled into Chinese river
Staff and agencies
Friday November 25, 2005
A local resident fills a teapot from a public tap in Harbin, Heilongjiang province, China. Photograph: Greg Baker/AP
Around 100 tonnes of pollutants flowed into the Songhua river in the chemical spill that forced a Chinese city to cut off water supplies to almost four million people, it was reported today.
The reports came as another industrial accident brought fears of a new pollution crisis hundreds of miles away.
Chinese media said the Songhua spill, caused by an explosion at a chemical factory in the city of Jilin on November 13, resulted in an 80km (50 mile) stretch of benzene flowing down the river to the north-eastern city of Harbin.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/china/story/0,7369,1650786,00.html
London transport chief quits after row
Hugh Muir
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian
Bob Kiley, the capital's transport commissioner, has quit after a power struggle with Ken Livingstone over the stewardship of the body responsible for the London's roads, buses and tubes.
The American, instrumental in the mayor's congestion charge scheme and bus network expansion, stood down after a clash over a member of staff that he wanted removed but whom the mayor wanted to keep. "It got to the stage of either he goes or I go," a source close to the mayor told the Guardian. "The mayor's answer was not what Kiley expected."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/transport/Story/0,2763,1650614,00.html
BBC governors overturn ruling on Arafat report
Tara Conlan
Friday November 25, 2005
The BBC's governors have overturned a ruling that cleared a From Our Own Correspondent reporter over an emotional dispatch on the departure of Yasser Arafat from his Ramallah home.
Hundreds of listeners complained to the corporation about the Radio 4 broadcast in October 2004, in which BBC correspondent Barbara Plett admitted to crying as an ill Arafat was airlifted to hospital.
The BBC head of editorial complaints originally ruled that the report did not breach the corporation's impartiality guidelines.
However, one of the complainants appealed to the board of governors. And today the governors' programme complaints committee ruled that the Radio 4 show had in fact broken the rules.
The committee rejected some elements of the complaint, which accused the report of being "a tearful eulogy" and a "flagrant violation" of the impartiality guidelines.
But the committee also "concluded that one element of the item - the reference to the reporter starting to cry - did breach the requirements of due impartiality as the complainant had suggested".
http://media.guardian.co.uk/site/story/0,14173,1650855,00.html
Britain tops EU league for cocaine abuse
· UK closing in on levels seen in American cities
· Deaths involving drug double in three years
Alan Travis in Brussels
Friday November 25, 2005
The Guardian
Britain is now top of the European "league table" for cocaine abuse and is fast approaching levels seen in America, according to the EU's drug agency. Nearly 12% of all young adults under the age of 35 in Britain have tried the drug at least once.
But the arrival of cocaine as the "stimulant drug of choice" for many young Europeans is bringing in its wake a growing death toll and health problems as it spreads from middle class dinner tables to the backstreets of council estates.
In Britain the latest figures show that drug deaths involving cocaine have risen from 85 in 2000 to 171 in 2003.
http://society.guardian.co.uk/drugsandalcohol/story/0,8150,1650615,00.html
History
Queen star dies after Aids statement
Paul Myers
Monday November 25, 1991
The Guardian
Freddie Mercury, rock's showman incarnate, died last night, 24 hours after he confirmed that he was suffering from Aids.
Mercury, lead singer with the band Queen, had become a recluse at his home in Kensington, west London, over the past two years, fuelling speculation that he was suffering from the disease. He was 45.
A brief statement by his publicist, Roxy Meades, said: "Freddie Mercury died peacefully at his home. His death was the result of bronchio-pneumonia, brought on by Aids."
Mercury was born Frederick Bulsara in Zanzibar, the son of a government accountant.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/fromthearchive/story/0,12269,1650611,00.html
The Seattle Times
Volcano erupts, threatens villagers in Bogotá, Colombia
DIARIO LA REPUBLICA / AP
Sixteen people were killed when a passenger bus, traveling through a mountainous area 60 miles east of Lima, Peru, plunged into the Rimac River on Thursday. Another 16 passengers survived the crash.
A volcano erupted Thursday in southwestern Colombia, spewing smoke and ash and raising fears for the safety of nearby villagers, officials said.
Police and emergency officials were on high alert after the 14,110-foot Galeras volcano became active at dawn and dumped ash on Pasto, 12 miles away.
A 1993 eruption killed nine people, including five scientists who had descended into the crater to sample gases at the moment it blew.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002645357_wdig25.h
Defense hawk Dicks says he now sees war as a mistake
By Alicia Mundy
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — It was after 11 p.m. on Friday when Rep. Norm Dicks finally left the Capitol, fresh from the heated House debate on the Iraq war. He was demoralized and angry.
Sometime during the rancorous, seven-hour floor fight over whether to immediately withdraw U.S. troops, one Texas Republican compared those who question America's military strategy in Iraq to the hippies and "peaceniks" who protested the Vietnam War and "did terrible things to troop morale."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002645321_normdicks25m.html
Schwarzenegger mulls clemency for Williams
By DAVID KRAVETS
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday that he would consider granting clemency to Crips co-founder and convicted murderer Stanley Tookie Williams.
After a private hearing with Williams' lawyers at his Sacramento office, Schwarzenegger said he would meet again on Dec. 8 with the lawyers, Los Angeles County prosecutors and others involved.
As governor, he has the authority to commute a death sentence to life without parole. He is not legally obligated to hold a public or private hearing.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/APWires/headlines/D8E3R6I87.html
Yakima Valley wineries worry about rockslides
The Associated Press
YAKIMA — Yakima Valley wineries are worried that a rockslide that's backing up traffic on Interstate 90 at Snoqualmie Pass could slow business over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Every year, wineries hold a three-day Thanksgiving in Wine Country event that draws hundreds of Puget Sound-area travelers. But state transportation officials have urged drivers to avoid the state's main east-west artery through the Cascades this year due to rockslides and continued cleanup.
Paul Portteus, owner of Portteus Vineyards in Zillah, Yakima County, estimates about 80 percent of his 1,500 to 2,000 visitors during last year's event journeyed from west of the mountains.
He worries that would-be buyers won't make this year's trip because of warnings from the Department of Transportation, which he calls "scare tactics."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002645304_wineries25.html
Hanford Reach elk-management options weighed
By SHANNON DININNY
The Associated Press
HANFORD REACH NATIONAL MONUMENT, Wash. — To folks driving by, the massive elk roaming freely across south-central Washington's rugged, federal land are a delightful sight.
To hunters, they are an enticing target. For Bud Hamilton, a wheat farmer whose property abuts the Hanford Reach, the large stands of elk pose a bust to his crop.
"They come out at night, eat my fields or trample my crops, and go back to the federal land in the morning," Hamilton said. "What am I supposed to do?"
Managing the rapidly growing herd has been a problem for state and federal wildlife managers for years. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is offering new options in an elk-management plan for public comment, including hunting on federal property that hasn't been opened to the public in decades.
Former President Clinton created the Hanford Reach National Monument by proclamation five years ago. The monument stretches along a free-flowing leg of the Columbia River renowned for salmon runs, bird habitat and rare plant life on its banks.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002645303_elk25m.html
Canada pledges more than $4 billion to aid its aboriginal peoples
By The Associated Press
KELOWNA, British Columbia – Canada on today pledged $4.3 billion in a landmark deal with native Indian and northern Inuit communities to help lift them from the poverty and disease that has plagued their neglected reserves for more than a century.
The agreement commits federal funding over the next decade for widespread improvements in housing, health care, education and economic development for the nearly 1 million aboriginal peoples of the North American nation, namely Indian tribes known as First Nations and Inuits, the aboriginal Canadians of the northeastern and Arctic territories.
Prime Minister Paul Martin and the premiers of Canada's 13 provinces and territories announced the agreement after a two-day summit with five native organizations.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002646806_webcanada25.html
Ancient air bubbles yield greenhouse-gas concerns
By LAURAN NEERGAARD
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any point during the past 650,000 years, says a major new study that let scientists peer back in time at "greenhouse gases" that can help fuel global warming.
By analyzing tiny air bubbles preserved in Antarctic ice for millennia, a team of European researchers highlights how people are dramatically influencing the buildup of these gases.
The remarkable research promises to spur "dramatically improved understanding" of climate change, said geosciences specialist Edward Brook of Oregon State University.
The study, by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica, is published today in the journal Science.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002645356_greenhouse25.html
African poor to get further U.S. food aid
By The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The United States has thrown a lifeline to six southern African countries, donating food aid valued at $45 million, the U.N. food agency said Thursday.
The 94,000-ton donation brings the U.S. government's total food contribution for the year to $150 million, the World Food Program (WFP) said.
The latest U.S. donation includes beans, peas, lentils, maize meal, corn-soya blend, sorghum, millet, vegetable oil and bulgur wheat, expected to start arriving in the region in January. The food will be distributed across Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
WFP is struggling to feed nearly 10 million people in the region, hit by the fourth straight year of drought and some of the world's highest HIV infection rates.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002645329_food25.html
Feds arrest Ohio imam, begin deportation
By Joe Milicia
The Associated Press
CLEVELAND – Federal authorities arrested an Islamic religious leader today as they began the process of deporting him for lying about ties to terrorist groups.
Imam Fawaz Damra, the spiritual leader of Ohio's largest mosque, was convicted in June 2004 of concealing ties to three groups that the U.S. government classifies as terrorist organizations when he applied for U.S. citizenship in 1994.
That conviction was upheld in March, clearing the way for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to begin deportation proceedings.
Damra, 44, was arrested early today without incident, the immigration office said.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002646599_webimam25.html
Achieving energy freedom for the people of Washington
By Hans Dunshee and Jeff Morris
WOULD you rather buy fuel grown by local farmers — or oil pumped from Saudi Arabia? We can have clean, renewable sources of fuel that aren't affected by whatever happens in Louisiana or Iraq. This is a bold vision. But if we take strong action, the people and businesses of Washington state can enjoy energy freedom.
Our economy is based on cheap oil. Yet, even Big Oil admits the world is running out of oil, with millions more people in developing countries trading their bicycles for cars. The era of cheap oil is over.
Watch out for quick fixes from politicians saying just drill for more oil in our parks, pass some tax breaks or build a refinery in Hoquiam — whether the people in Hoquiam like it or not. More of the same won't get the job done.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/opinion/2002644973_dunsheemorris25.html
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
Mike is honored, delivers keynote at the first annual Paul Wellstone Memorial Dinner:
http://www.real.com/player/posttrial.html?src=rpinprod_trig_toolbar
Sorry, George, I'm In the Majority ...from Michael Moore
11/19/05
Dear Mr. Bush:
I would like to extend my hand and invite you to join us, the mainstream American majority. We, the people -- that's the majority of the people -- share these majority opinions:
1. Going to war was a mistake -- a big mistake. (link)
2. You and your administration misled us into this war. (link)
3. We want the war ended and our troops brought home. (link)
4. We don't trust you. (link)
Now, I know this is a bitter pill to swallow. Iraq was going to be your great legacy. Now, it's just your legacy. It didn't have to end up this way.
This week, when Republicans and conservative Democrats started jumping ship, you lashed out at them. You thought the most damning thing you could say to them was that they were "endorsing the policy positions of Michael Moore and the extreme liberal wing of the Democratic party." I mean, is that the best you can do to persuade them to stick with you -- compare them to me? You gotta come up with a better villain. For heaven's sakes, you had a hundred-plus million other Americans who think the same way I do -- and you could have picked on any one of them!
But hey, why not cut out the name-calling and the smearing and just do the obvious thing: Come join the majority! Be one of us, your fellow Americans! Is it really that hard? Is there really any other choice? George, take a walk on the wild side!
Your loyal representative from the majority,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?id=188
Multinationals, not Iraqis, to reap oil fortune: report
LONDON (AFP) - Up to 113 billion dollars (96.6 billion euros) in Iraqi oil revenues are going to multinational oil companies under long-term contracts, and not to the Iraqi people, a social and environmental group alleged.
The group known as Platform said that oil multinationals would be paid between 74 billion pounds (43 billion dollars) and 194 billion pounds (113 billion dollars) with rates of return of between 42.0 percent and 162.0 percent under proposed production-sharing agreements, or PSAs.
"The form of contracts being promoted is the most expensive and undemocratic option available," Platform researcher Greg Muttitt said Tuesday.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4994
Bush, protesters, have dueling Thanksgivings
CRAWFORD, United States (AFP) - While US President George W. Bush enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving meal at his Texas ranch, protesters against the war in Iraq held a rival feast down the road at their makeshift camp.
The dueling meals came as high-profile anti-war figure Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a US soldier killed in Iraq, was expected to return here late in the day and sign copies of her new book on Friday.
The president telephoned 10 people serving overseas in the US armed forces before dining on roasted free range turkey with gravy and whipped sweet potatoes, as well as pecan pie and pumpkin pie, according to the White House.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4999
Rice Optimistic on U.S. Troop Draw Down
Associated Preferences
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States will probably not need to maintain its current troop levels in Iraq "very much longer," though she declined to provide a precise timetable for reduction in U.S. forces.
Rice appeared to set the stage for such a reduction, saying the Iraqi forces are doing a better job of holding their own against insurgents.
"I do not think that American forces need to be there in the numbers that they are now because — for very much longer — because Iraqis are stepping up," Rice told Fox News in an interview Tuesday. "This is not just a matter of training numbers of Iraqi forces, but actually seeing them hold territory."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4992
Obama Calls on Bush To Admit Iraq Errors
'Limited' Troop Reduction Urged
By Peter Slevin / Washington Post
CHICAGO, Nov. 22 -- Sen. Barack Obama said President Bush should admit mistakes in waging the Iraq war and reduce the number of troops stationed there in the next year. But the Illinois Democrat, a longtime opponent of the war, said U.S. forces remain "part of a solution" in the bitterly divided country and should not be withdrawn immediately.
Without citing specific numbers, Obama called for a "limited drawdown" of U.S. troops that would push the fragile Iraqi government to take more responsibility while deploying enough American soldiers to prevent the country from "exploding into civil war or ethnic cleansing or a haven for terrorism."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4987
Thermostat wars: As natural gas prices rise, homeowners see how low they can go
By Anya Sostek / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Within every thermostat, there are fine lines separating comfortable from tolerable from downright unpleasant.
But in the face of sky-high natural gas prices, some homeowners are pushing the boundaries of "How low can you go?"
How about 58 degrees?
"When you move around, it's not so bad," said Ray Berquist of Oklahoma, Westmoreland County, who keeps his house at a brisk 58 degrees during the day in an effort to control energy costs.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4988
Hunger kills 6 mln children a year: UN
ROME (Reuters) - The United Nations' food and farming body on Tuesday renewed its plea for more effort to improve agriculture in poor countries to ease hunger and malnutrition which kill nearly 6 million children a year.
In its annual report, "The State of Food Insecurity in the World", the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said the world was way behind on hunger reduction goals for 2015 set at political summits over the last 10 years.
"If each of the developing regions continues to reduce hunger at the current pace, only South America and the Caribbean will reach the Millennium Development Goal target of cutting the proportion of hungry people by half," said FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf in the foreword to the report.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4977
Fox News Won't Show Ad Opposing Alito
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Fox News is refusing to air an ad critical of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito, citing its lawyers' contention that the spot is factually incorrect.
A spokesman for the groups sponsoring the ad said the network's decision reflects the political right's effort to shield President Bush's choice for the high court.
The ad says that as an appellate court judge, Alito has "ruled to make it easier for corporations to discriminate ... even voted to approve strip search of a 10-year-old girl." Referring to a document Alito wrote in 1985 while seeking a job in the Reagan administration, it quotes him as saying that "the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4978
Iraqi Factions Call for Timetable for U.S. Withdrawal
By Hassan M. Fattah / New York Times
CAIRO, Nov. 21 - For the first time, Iraq's political factions collectively called today for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces, in a moment of consensus that comes as the Bush administration battles pressure at home to commit to a pullout schedule.
The announcement, made at the conclusion of a reconciliation conference here backed by the Arab League, was a public reaching out by Shiites, who now dominate Iraq's government, to Sunni Arabs on the eve of parliamentary elections that have been put on shaky ground by weeks of sectarian violence.
About 100 Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish leaders, many of whom will run in the election in December, signed a closing memorandum on today that "demands a withdrawal of foreign troops on a specified timetable, together with an immediate national program for rebuilding the security forces," the statement said. "The Iraqi people are looking forward to the day when foreign forces will leave Iraq, when its armed and security forces will be rebuilt and when they can enjoy peace and stability and an end to terrorism."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4968
My Open Letter to George
...a message from Cindy Sheehan
George,
My family is spending our 2nd Thanksgiving without Casey thanks to you and your lies. I am spending the day crying on a plane on my way to come to Crawford to again ask you for a meeting.
I had been to Crawford for three weeks in the summer and to DC several times asking for a meeting with you and now I am returning to our vacation home to once again try and meet with you. I don't know why you like Crawford so much, but I love it because of the Camp Casey Peace Community that arose during August this year when you wouldn't meet with me. When I arrived back here at the Peace House I felt a sense of coming home and belonging to something that is far greater than any of us: a community that is filled with love, acceptance and peace. Is this what you feel when you return frequently to Crawford? Also, the beautiful Texas sunset stirred memories of our days at Camp Casey when we would close our activities each day with ex-Marine, Jeff Key playing taps among the crosses that honored our fallen. August was a miraculous time.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=549
continued …
Tropospheric Saturation of Carbon Dixoide
November 15, 2005. 2127 gmt.
Western Hemisphere Satellite.
The day after the Ecuador volcano erupted a vortex appeared over the area because of the concentration of carbon dioxide coming out of the volcano. Within days a 'heat transfer system' appeared over the Andes due to the increased heat resulting from the CO2 emissions of the volcano. That 'heat transfer system' reached it's effects to Antarctica.
Under any other conditions besides complete CO2 saturation of the troposphere this assault for heat relief would not occur. This is to exhibit how tenuous the 'weather patterns' are in result to the volitility of the dense carbon dioxide provided by "Human Induced Global Warming."
When Mount St. Helens erupted on May 18, 1980 there were no vortices produced in the troposphere and the greatest threat to the immeidate area including weather changes was from ash and not the emission of CO2.
Anthropogenic (Human Emission) Carbon Dioxide is minimally 150 times higher than valcanic emissions. (Click On)
November 19, 2005. Volcan Cotopaxi, South Quito, Ecuador.
Above 'Click on' page compliments of Univeristy of North Dakota.
Q & A: Ice cores and climate science
Llulissat Glacier of Greenland.
Ancient air bubbles shed light on greenhouse gases
WASHINGTON (AP) — There is more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere today than at any point during the last 650,000 years, says a major new study that let scientists peer back in time at "greenhouse gases" that can help fuel global warming.
The Global Warming/Climate Change Issues of today were all predictable. 'Click On Here'
CAUTION :: THIS IS NOT 'BUSH/CHENEY' SCIENCE.
IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE THE TRUTH DO NOT ENTER.
This is the third edition of these equations. The information to calculate the impact of fossil fuels in relation to carbon dioxide levels has been around for as long as the "Baby Boomers" protested Vietnam and took over Administrative Offices !
Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
Conversion Tables
Contents taken from Glossary: Carbon Dioxide and Climate, 1990.
ORNL/CDIAC-39
Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Third Edition. Edited by: Fred O'Hara Jr.
Table 6. Factors and Units for Calculating Annual CO2 Emissions Using Global Fuel Production Data
Formula: CO2i = (Pi)(FOi)(Ci) with all masses in metric tons (103 kg).
Source: Marland, G. and R. M. Rotty. 1983. Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil Fuels: A Procedure for Estimation and Results for 1950-1981, DOE/NBB-0036, TR003, U. S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.
From Coal Production
CO2s = CO2 emissions in 106 tons C
Ps = Annual production in 106 tons coal equivalent (± approx. 11.2%)
FOs = Effective fraction oxidized in year of production = 0.982 ± 2%
Cs = Carbon content in tons C per ton coal equivalent = 0.746 ± 2%
(The 0.746 value includes a heating value adjustment to recognize
that the carbon content, developed on a higher heating value basis,
must be increased when used with UN production data based on
"net" or lower heating values.)
From Natural Gas Production
CO2g = CO2 emissions in 106 tons C
Pg = Annual production in thousands of 1012 joules (± approx. 10%)
FOg = Effective fraction oxidized in year of production = 0.98 ± 1%
Cg = Carbon content in 106 tons C per thousand 1012 joules = 0.0137 ± 2%
From Natural Gas Flaring
CO2f = CO2 emissions in 106 tons C
Pf = Annual gas flaring in 109 cubic meters (± approx. 20%)
FOf = Effective fraction oxidized in year of flaring = 1.00 ± 1%
Cf = Carbon content in tons C per thousand cubic meters = 0.525 ± 3%
From Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids Production
CO2l = CO2 emissions in 106 tons C
Pl = Annual production in 106 tons (± approx. 8%)
FOl = Effective fraction oxidized in year of production = 0.918 ± 3%
Cl = Carbon content in tons C per ton crude oil = 0.85 ± 1%
IF YOU CANNOT HANDLE THE TRUTH DO NOT ENTER.
This is the third edition of these equations. The information to calculate the impact of fossil fuels in relation to carbon dioxide levels has been around for as long as the "Baby Boomers" protested Vietnam and took over Administrative Offices !
Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
Conversion Tables
Contents taken from Glossary: Carbon Dioxide and Climate, 1990.
ORNL/CDIAC-39
Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center
Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
Third Edition. Edited by: Fred O'Hara Jr.
Table 6. Factors and Units for Calculating Annual CO2 Emissions Using Global Fuel Production Data
Formula: CO2i = (Pi)(FOi)(Ci) with all masses in metric tons (103 kg).
Source: Marland, G. and R. M. Rotty. 1983. Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Fossil Fuels: A Procedure for Estimation and Results for 1950-1981, DOE/NBB-0036, TR003, U. S. Department of Energy, Washington, D.C.
From Coal Production
CO2s = CO2 emissions in 106 tons C
Ps = Annual production in 106 tons coal equivalent (± approx. 11.2%)
FOs = Effective fraction oxidized in year of production = 0.982 ± 2%
Cs = Carbon content in tons C per ton coal equivalent = 0.746 ± 2%
(The 0.746 value includes a heating value adjustment to recognize
that the carbon content, developed on a higher heating value basis,
must be increased when used with UN production data based on
"net" or lower heating values.)
From Natural Gas Production
CO2g = CO2 emissions in 106 tons C
Pg = Annual production in thousands of 1012 joules (± approx. 10%)
FOg = Effective fraction oxidized in year of production = 0.98 ± 1%
Cg = Carbon content in 106 tons C per thousand 1012 joules = 0.0137 ± 2%
From Natural Gas Flaring
CO2f = CO2 emissions in 106 tons C
Pf = Annual gas flaring in 109 cubic meters (± approx. 20%)
FOf = Effective fraction oxidized in year of flaring = 1.00 ± 1%
Cf = Carbon content in tons C per thousand cubic meters = 0.525 ± 3%
From Crude Oil and Natural Gas Liquids Production
CO2l = CO2 emissions in 106 tons C
Pl = Annual production in 106 tons (± approx. 8%)
FOl = Effective fraction oxidized in year of production = 0.918 ± 3%
Cl = Carbon content in tons C per ton crude oil = 0.85 ± 1%
Human Induced Global Warming from January 1990 to December 2002 (Ignore the statement "The web page you are looking for cannot be found." See below.)
NAVIGATION TO ANIMATION ::
l. 'Click on' the small, black letter designate "Home" and not the large grey bar.
2. Left column, under "Research Groups," click on "Carbon Cycle Gases."
3. 'Click on' in left column "IADV"
4. Do not follow directions on screen.
5. 'Click On' designate #3 "TIME SERIES" changing to "Latitude Distribution (Multiple sites)"
6. Then move to designate #6 and 'Click on' the aquamarine color bar "Submit"
7. The graph cited here will be on that page. Choose 'frame speed' and 'Click on' blue-grey bar "Play."
8. Observe !
The Rise in Greenhouse Gases - Ignore the statement "The web page you are looking for cannot be found." See below.
Rise in Greenhouse Gases
NAVIGATION TO Citation Above ::
l. 'Click on' the small, black letter designate "Home" and not the large grey bar.
2. Left column, under "Research Groups," click on "Carbon Cycle Gases."
3. 'Click on' in left column "Observatory Measurements"
Morning Papers - concluding
The Chicago Tribune
Gases highest in 650,000 years
By Usha Lee McFarling
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published November 25, 2005
A nearly 2-mile-long core of ice--the oldest frozen sample ever drilled from the underbelly of Antarctica--shows that levels of two greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, have not been as high as they are today for 650,000 years.
The research, published Friday in the journal Science, describes the content of the greenhouse gases within the core and shows that carbon dioxide levels today are 27 percent higher than they have been in the last 650,000 years and levels of methane, an even more powerful greenhouse gas, are 130 percent higher, said Thomas Stocker, a climate researcher at the University of Bern and senior member of the European ice-coring team that wrote two papers based on the core.
The work provides more evidence that human activity since the Industrial Revolution dramatically has altered the planet's climate system, scientists said.
"This is saying, `Yeah, we had it right.' We can pound on the table harder and say, `This is real,'" said Richard Alley, a Penn State University geophysicist and ice core expert not involved with the analysis.
Previous records, from an ice core drilled at the Russian Antarctic station Vostok, extended back 440,000 years.
Ice cores are plugs drilled from glaciers and ice sheets. They are composed of tens of thousands of layers of fallen snow and air bubbles that become compressed over time. The chemistry of the ice reveals what temperatures were in the distant past, while bubbles within the ice are minuscule time capsules that capture samples of air and greenhouse gases as they existed hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The ice core was drilled by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica from a high plateau in East Antarctica called Dome C that rises about 2 miles above sea level.
The last time carbon dioxide levels were as high as or higher than today was probably tens of millions of years ago, Alley said. Over millions of years, carbon dioxide levels shift because of slow geological processes, such as weathering of rocks, swallowing of crust into subduction zones and the release of gases from volcanoes. But these processes are much slower and more gradual than the current rapid increase of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, Alley said.
Scientists are enthusiastic about the ice core because it includes about eight full glacial cycles. The Vostok sample had four. The Vostok sample also showed that warm interglacial periods lasted about 10,000 years. Because the current temperate interglacial period has lasted about 12,000 years, many scientists speculated the planet was overdue for an ice age.
But the new core shows that the interglacial period of 440,000 years ago, when Earth's position relative to the sun was very similar to what it is today, lasted nearly 30,000 years and was not ended by natural decreases in carbon dioxide, Stocker said. The work suggests that the next ice age is about 15,000 years away.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511250123nov25,1,5984206.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Patriot Act deal blocked
Left, right coalition holds up extension
By Jill Zuckman
Washington Bureau
Published November 19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A near-agreement to extend the controversial USA Patriot Act was blocked Friday by an odd-bedfellows coalition of liberals and conservatives who protested that it did too little to protect Americans' civil liberties.
The act, which gives law-enforcement officials wide power to use wiretaps and to search people in the United States, was Congress' main response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But critics have complained about the powers it gives police to invade the privacy of citizens. Among other things, the act allows officials to examine library records and to search homes without residents knowing it.
The concerns resulted in an unusual coalition of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House. The lawmakers were sufficiently upset at the latest proposed revisions in the act that on Friday leaders agreed to drop immediate consideration of it, partly to avoid a threatened filibuster in the Senate over the weekend.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511190278nov19,1,4865736.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Ashcroft turns into hired gun
Justice Department drops case against company he counseled
By Andrew Zajac
Washington Bureau
Published November 19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Less than a month after Oracle Corp. hired former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's lobbying firm, the Justice Department notified Oracle that an antitrust inquiry into its proposed $5.8 billion acquisition of a rival database software firm had been dropped.
The decision, announced Tuesday by the department, was no doubt welcome news for Ashcroft's budding lobbying and consulting career that began last May, just three months after he ended a tumultuous tenure as the nation's top law-enforcement officer.
The Justice Department said the case was decided on its merits.
As attorney general at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Ashcroft oversaw a sharp increase of domestic surveillance in the name of national security. Critics on both the left and right said some of his policies damaged civil liberties.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511190256nov19,1,3161796.story
Ex-FEMA chief to launch disaster preparedness firm
Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published November 25, 2005
DENVER, COLORADO -- Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.
"If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses--because that goes straight to the bottom line--then I hope I can help the country in some way," Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.
Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511250126nov25,1,7229619.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Stormier pattern: 1"+ thundery rains late Sunday, then snow next week
Published November 25, 2005
Chicagoans shiver Friday in readings more typical of January than November. Overnight readings have been the coldest here since Jan. 28's low of 2(degrees). Friday, which is the busiest shopping day of the year, will feature highs so cold, readings at such levels occur this early in a cold season only once every 10 years on average. But, the thermal pendulum is about to swing the other way. An active atmospheric pattern is taking hold across North America, threatening a parade of storm systems across the Lower 48. The collapse of a high pressure ridge aloft is allowing Pacific storms access to U.S. airspace. The first of the coming series sends a warm front north across the area Friday night. Light overrunning snowfall with the front begins this afternoon, then gradually shifts north overnight. South winds behind it boost temperatures 20 degrees with highs approaching 60(degrees) by Sunday afternoon. Big rains--some with thunder--develop later that night. Rain totals could reach 1-2". And while flurries or snow showers linger Tuesday, a second storm system's approach later next week could introduce more general snowfall Thursday and Friday.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511250093nov25,1,671195.column?coll=chi-news-hed
Vigil keeps light on missing woman
Aurora drug counselor was last seen Oct. 30
By James Kimberly
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 19, 2005
In the stillness of a nearly vacant building at the College of DuPage, 23 women clasped hands Friday evening and prayed for the safe return of an Aurora woman whose mysterious disappearance three weeks ago continues to vex Aurora police.
Marilyn Bethell, 47, recently graduated from the school and began working as a state-licensed substance abuse counselor. She was last seen Oct. 30 at the SHARE program in Hoffman Estates, where she was a counselor.
Some of those who gathered Friday had known Bethell for years, others had only recently met her. They came, they said, to make sure their missing friend was remembered.
"I think she will stay in our hearts forever," said Linda Tkachenko of Addison.
Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said the investigation into Bethell's disappearance continues. There were no developments to report as of Friday, Ferrelli said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511190132nov19,1,81371.story?coll=chi-news-hed
2nd grand jury to get evidence in leak probe
By Cam Simpson
Washington Bureau
Published November 19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- For the first time since he secured the indictment of a senior White House official three weeks ago in the CIA leak case, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday he would present evidence to a new federal grand jury.
Fitzgerald's latest statement set off a new round of speculation in Washington about whether he would seek charges against any other Bush administration officials, even though he had previously suggested he would "keep a grand jury available" for the case.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511190249nov19,1,3882694.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Grizzly bears around Yellowstone could lose status as endangered species
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press Writer
Published November 15, 2005, 11:40 AM CST
WASHINGTON -- Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park should be removed from the endangered species list after 30 years of federal protection, the Department of Interior said Tuesday.
The number of grizzlies in the Yellowstone area has grown at a rate of 4 to 7 percent per year since the bear was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said. Federal wildlife officials estimate that more than 600 grizzly bears now live in the region, which includes parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-051115grizzly,1,3968874.story?coll=chi-homepagetravel-hed
Iran has warhead papers, EU says
By George Jahn
Associated Press
Published November 25, 2005
VIENNA -- The European Union accused Iran on Thursday of having documents that show how to make nuclear warheads and joined the United States in warning Tehran it faced referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Iran suggested it was considering a compromise to reduce tensions.
Britain, in a statement on behalf of the 25-nation EU, offered new negotiations meant to lessen concerns over Iran's insistence that it be in full control of uranium enrichment, a possible pathway to nuclear arms.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511250142nov25,1,6508495.story?coll=chi-news-hed
The Calgary Herald
Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan after armoured vehicle rolls over
Stephen Thorne
Canadian Press
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Private Braun Scott Woodfield of Victoria, B.C., was killed in Afghanistan Thursday. (Department of National Defence
OTTAWA (CP) - A Canadian soldier has been killed and four others injured when their armoured vehicle rolled over in southern Afghanistan.
No explosive devices nor enemy action were involved in the accident, which occurred during a routine patrol Thursday on the main highway 45 kilometres northeast of Kandahar, said the deputy chief of defence staff, Lt-Gen. Marc Dumais. The dead soldier was identified as 24-year-old Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield, who was born in Victoria and raised in Eastern Passage, N.S.
In Kelowna, B.C., Prime Minister Paul Martin called it a "sombre day," saying he was deeply saddened by what he called a tragic accident.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=c6b255d9-37e8-4894-8529-5e36f04e94f8
Abandoned baby's rescuer wonders where she is now
'Mary' turns 18; city man hoping for reunion
Gwendolyn Richards
Calgary Herald
Friday, November 25, 2005
CREDIT: Dean Bicknell, Calgary Herald
Blaine MacLean holds up a note of thanks he received from Mary's adoptive parents in 1988. He hasn't heard of her since.
That afternoon replays like a movie in Blaine MacLean's mind. The icy, biting cold, the quiet whimper and the chance encounter with a tiny baby whose life he saved.
Now, 18 years later, MacLean is hoping for a reunion with the girl who became known to everyone in Calgary as Mary.
"I'd like to meet her, be part of her life," he said.
Baby Mary, the infant who captured city's hearts when she was found abandoned in a northeast parking lot, will turn 18 today.
She can vote in the next federal election, and take her first legal sip of alcohol.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=65a72f59-ef00-4515-8ab1-c6eb6904c2da
Alberta news roundup: Nov. 24
Broadcast News
Thursday, November 24, 2005
An Edmonton man has been charged with having sex and making child pornography with a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet.
Thirty-year-old Quentin Noel Tarry is facing six charges.
An Edmonton judge has refused to grant bail.
RCMP say the girl met the man through an on-line dating service and told him she was 19.
The two had a couple of dates before the man learned the girl's real age, but kept the relationship going anyway.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=4000258f-68d0-4094-a054-d835663c84f4
Bird flu throughout Indonesian capital; spreads through Vietnam's poultry
Chris Brummitt
Canadian Press
Friday, November 25, 2005
A government official throws a bird cage into fire during a poultry culling at the neighborhood where it has been confirmed that a teenage girl died of bird flu earlier this month, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Bird flu has been detected throughout the Indonesian capital, while hard-hit Vietnam reported another outbreak as farmers there struggle to sell poultry, officials said Friday.
"It is very serious," said Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono. "Based on our research, the virus has spread all over the city" of Jakarta. The findings were announced after random samples were gathered from backyard farms throughout the sprawling capital. Authorities on Friday also destroyed 400 fowl in a residential area of Jakarta near the home of a young girl who died from the disease.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=2811c2fc-e3d6-4e09-a82b-625dd965aa9c
NHL hit by doping claims
Head of watchdog agency says drugs widespread
Jim Kernaghan, with a file from Kerry Williamson, Calgary Herald
The Canadian Press
Friday, November 25, 2005
Dick Pound, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, says he suspects as many as one-third of the National Hockey League's 700 players may take some form of performance-enhancing substance.
"I spoke with (NHL commissioner) Gary (Bettman) and he said: 'We don't have the problem in hockey,' " Pound said Thursday in an interview after speaking at the University of Western Ontario's law school.
"I told him he does. You wouldn't be far wrong if you said a third (of hockey players are gaining some pharmaceutical assistance)."
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=affd67fe-eea1-4c8e-9326-3faeca917b6f
Satellite radio hits Canada
Calgary Herald
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Canada's first satellite radio service -- boasting commercial-free music, news and even hockey -- was launched Tuesday.
We want to know what you think. Would you be willing to pay $13 a month for ad-free satellite radio? Give us your thoughts in our canada.com Soundoff! below.
XM Canada's service includes eight Canadian channels and 72 foreign offerings. The radios needed to receive the signals, costing from $100 to $400, go on sale next week.
"This is a historic day for consumer choice, for music lovers, hockey fans and for all Canadians," said XM Canada CEO Stephen Tapp.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/soundoff/story.html?id=20c645e8-d494-4f77-9861-d89cf17c3099
Police ordered to write more tickets
Council seeks extra $1M a year in fine revenue
Colette Derworiz and Emma Poole
Calgary Herald
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Calgary's top cop said he's not interested in turning the force into a money-maker, despite calls from city council to increase fine and other revenues within the service's budget.
Chief Jack Beaton said it's unlikely the service will be able to meet council's $3-million revenue expectation next year -- more than $1 million more than what was projected.
Aldermen approved the change in a 9-6 vote as they tried to find ways to cut millions from its 2006-08 budget, which calls for a 5.4 per cent tax increase next year.
Beaton was disappointed with council's expectation of the police service as a revenue generator.
"We don't want to write tickets for the sake of writing tickets," Beaton said late Monday. "We do traffic enforcement for one reason -- safety."
The police budget for 2006 is $187 million, with nearly $2.1 million in projected revenues. The amendment would add an extra $1 million next year.
Ald. Bob Hawkesworth, who proposed the change, said it will be a good incentive for drivers to obey the rules of the road.
"These are expenses people can avoid by driving within the speed limit," he said, noting it would bring additional revenues to one of the city's biggest departments while reducing property taxes.
Hawkesworth said it's a wise move if it makes the streets safer.
But Ald. Craig Burrows, who sits on the Calgary Police Commission, said it would be difficult for police to generate $1 million in extra revenue.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/soundoff/story.html?id=0d58b5a1-2d80-42c7-b5a1-9efdd4e077e2
The Miami Herald
Make South Florida evacuation a priority
OUR OPINION: PLANNING TODAY CAN AVERT TOMORROW'S STORM DISASTERS
Florida's Department of Community Affairs failed to live up to its responsibility when it approved Homestead's plans to build 2,600 more homes smack in the evacuation path of the Florida Keys and South Miami-Dade County, despite serious objections by regional planners. Overbuilding at the southern tip of Florida spells disaster for residents who may have to flee from a killer hurricane via inadequate roads.
North on clogged roads
The Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush should intervene to protect residents and prevent a calamity. Florida also must adjust its growth management to take into account a predicted decades-long cycle of active hurricane seasons. Evacuation concerns are not a technicality that the DCA can brush aside. Before getting the go-ahead for major development, Homestead and other areas must resolve questions about the impact of new buildings and more people on hurricane evacuation.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13253007.htm
Margate trailers ready, waiting
Aztec Estates is the latest FEMA travel-trailer community to sprout up in Broward County after Hurricane Wilma. Yet many trailers still lack occupants.
BY NATALIE P. McNEAL
nmcneal@herald.com
Margate's Aztec Estates is a winding mobile home community with cul-de-sacs and interesting street names such as Cortez and Sundial.
Nowadays, this community is also home to new neighbors: Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, brought in to house victims of Hurricane Wilma.
For about a week and a half, residents have made note of the new travel trailers in their community.
''We welcome them,'' said Bissoon Maharaj, 45, a nine-year resident of Aztec. ``We are lucky to have a place to stay after the storm. We can't turn them away.''
Along Aztec's circular streets, the small stark white trailers stand out among the park's double-wide trailers.
The FEMA trailers are new, but built to house three people. And most of them are empty.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13252333.htm
Rainy weekend ahead as Gamma edges closer
By MARTIN MERZER
mmerzer@herald.com
Thousands of hurricane-weary South Floridians living under blue tarps or in other damaged structures faced a new threat this weekend: Heavy rain and gusty wind from Tropical Storm Gamma.
Forecasters said the storm -- much weaker than Hurricane Wilma, which rampaged through the region less than four weeks ago -- could follow a similar trail on Monday.
Uncertain predictions carried the center of Gamma across the western tip of Cuba and had it brushing the Florida Keys and the rest of South Florida as it raced into the Atlantic.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13207287.htm
A bittersweet $60.9 million
A judge has awarded a Hialeah couple $60.9 million for a Navy hospital's negligence during their son's birth.
BY NIKKI WALLER AND NOAKI SCHWARTZ
nwaller@herald.com
A federal judge this week awarded $60.9 million to a Hialeah couple whose son suffered severe brain damage when he was born in a Jacksonville Navy hospital two years ago.
The award is believed to be the largest ever under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows private citizens to sue the federal government for the negligent conduct of government employees.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13253002.htm
Tut exhibit fails to face facts, some scholars say
The much-anticipated King Tutankhamun exhibit has provoked discussion about the historical portrayals of ancient Egyptians.
BY DARRAN SIMON
dsimon@herald.com
The new King Tut exhibit coming to Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art next month revisits an old discussion that has burned for decades: What did ancient Egyptians look like?
The exhibit, which runs Dec. 15 to April 23, features computer-generated re-creations of Tut that some activists say portray the young king with white features.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13253025.htm
Government blinks in 'dirty bomber' case
OUR OPINION: ADMINISTRATION SHOULD DISCLAIM 'ENEMY COMBATANT' THEORY
Announcing the indictment of alleged ''dirty bomber'' José Padilla, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dismissed questions about the civil-liberties implications of this troubling case. The president was authorized to detain the alleged ''dirty bomber'' as an enemy combatant, Mr. Gonzales declared, hence justifying Mr. Padilla's three-year-long incarceration without being charged. ''I'll leave it at that,'' he added. That's not good enough.
Legal system at work
Americans need to know whether the administration still claims the right to arrest U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, place them in military custody and strip them of virtually all their civil liberties. That's what happened to Mr. Padilla, once portrayed as so evil that it was necessary to resort to the ''enemy combatant'' designation to keep him locked up. But this week, just days before the theory could be tested before the Supreme Court, the administration blinked. Apparently, the legal system that has served this country well for more than 200 years can, after all, accommodate the likes of José Padilla.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13253005.htm
The Moscow Times
Putin Backs Turkey as Energy Hub
By Christian Lowe and Ercan Ersoy
Reuters
Sergei Zhukov / Itar-Tass
Putin, left, inspecting the Turkish-Russian gas pipeline with Erdogan and Berlusconi in Samsun, Turkey, on Thursday.
SAMSUN, Turkey -- The leaders of Russia, Turkey and Italy pledged on Thursday to boost oil and gas cooperation and bring Europe greater energy security after inaugurating a natural gas pipeline under the Black Sea.
The inauguration of the Blue Stream line also capped a big improvement in economic ties between Russia and NATO member Turkey as they set aside historic rivalries in favor of trade.
President Vladimir Putin raised the possibility of a second pipeline carrying Russian natural gas and oil to Turkey, while Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said his country aimed to become a key energy hub for Europe and the Middle East.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/18/042.html
Putin Stands By Tough NGO Bill
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer
Alexei Panov / Itar-Tass
Putin meeting with Pamfilova at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence on Thursday.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday responded to worries of a looming crackdown on nongovernmental organizations by insisting that foreign funding of any political activity in Russia must come under state control.
But Putin, making his first public remarks about a contentious NGO bill that the State Duma approved in a first reading Wednesday, also stressed that the legislation must not damage civil society.
The bill in its current version would, among other things, require NGOs to reregister with the Justice Ministry and empower authorities to check that NGOs do not use foreign grants to finance political activities. Foreign NGOs have warned that the bill would shut them down.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/25/001.html
A Parliament Built for Kadyrov
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer
Artur Magomadov / AP
A woman fixing an election poster for Khozh-Akhmed Khaladov, a candidate from Grozny, to a wall on Thursday.
The new Chechen parliament, which will be elected Sunday, looks likely to be packed with allies of powerful Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, and their main mandate promises to be to prepare the way for a Kadyrov presidency.
Other local clans and interest groups can expect to be shut out from making any major decisions in the parliament, and ordinary Chechens probably should not count on lawmakers to protect their interests.
"The lawmakers will not be allowed to lobby for any interests but Kadyrov's," said Alexander Cherkasov, a representative of Memorial, the respected human rights organization that has been sharply critical of both Kadyrov and the elections.
"With or without the parliament, Chechnya will still be ruled by the man who wields the biggest gun," he added, referring to Kadyrov.
Eight national parties are running in the elections, and many hastily set up their Chechen branches within the past two months with the backing of Chechen officials. Kadyrov loyalists have taken key posts in many of those branches. In addition, most of the top spots on the parties' electoral lists -- including those of United Russia -- are occupied by regional officials.
A ninth party, the liberal Republican Party, also applied but was rejected over a technicality. Its candidates are running in single-mandate districts.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/25/002.html
Gypsy Romance
The Bolshoi revives "Carmen Suite," the ballet that was almost too sensuous for the Soviet authorities at its 1967 debut.
By Raymond Stults
Published: November 25, 2005
As part of its celebrations honoring the 80th birthday of ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, the Bolshoi Theater last Friday revived "Carmen Suite," a ballet that Plisetskaya danced at the Bolshoi some 130 times following its 1967 premiere and one of her greatest triumphs. To accompany "Carmen Suite," the theater introduced a brand-new work called "The Card Game," choreographed by Bolshoi ballet artistic director Alexei Ratmansky to music of Igor Stravinsky.
The sexually charged "Carmen Suite" barely made it to the stage in the officially puritanical Soviet Union of the Brezhnev era. But thanks to her iron will and enormous prestige, Plisetskaya managed to overcome -- or at least circumvent -- opposition from the country's cultural authorities. The choreography, much of it reflecting the native dances of Spain, was created by Cuban master Alberto Alonso. Music and decor were a family affair, the former a score by Plisetskaya's husband, Rodion Shchedrin, loosely based on Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen," the latter devised by her artist cousin, Boris Messerer.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/157814/
Global Eye
First Light
By Chris Floyd
Published: November 25, 2005
Last week, America's troubled sleep was shattered by a trumpet blast of truth sounding deep in Washington's corridors of power, where the rule of the Lie has held sway for so long. This intrusion of reality into the bloodstained fantasyland of the Bush Regime comes late in the day for the moribund Republic -- perhaps too late -- but it has struck a mighty blow against the Lie's adherents, driving them into spasms of hysterical panic, like rats exposed suddenly to the light.
The unlikely instigator of this historic upheaval was U.S. Representative John Murtha, the 73-year-old conservative Democrat and war hawk, one of many "opposition" leaders who once strongly backed President George W. Bush's murderous folly in Iraq. Murtha, a Vietnam vet, has been a stalwart of the military-industrial complex for decades, supporting U.S. wars around the world and showering legislative largess on the weapons industry -- which has obligingly kicked back lobbying contracts to his kin and friends, The Los Angeles Times reports.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/25/120.html
continued ...
Gases highest in 650,000 years
By Usha Lee McFarling
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published November 25, 2005
A nearly 2-mile-long core of ice--the oldest frozen sample ever drilled from the underbelly of Antarctica--shows that levels of two greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane, have not been as high as they are today for 650,000 years.
The research, published Friday in the journal Science, describes the content of the greenhouse gases within the core and shows that carbon dioxide levels today are 27 percent higher than they have been in the last 650,000 years and levels of methane, an even more powerful greenhouse gas, are 130 percent higher, said Thomas Stocker, a climate researcher at the University of Bern and senior member of the European ice-coring team that wrote two papers based on the core.
The work provides more evidence that human activity since the Industrial Revolution dramatically has altered the planet's climate system, scientists said.
"This is saying, `Yeah, we had it right.' We can pound on the table harder and say, `This is real,'" said Richard Alley, a Penn State University geophysicist and ice core expert not involved with the analysis.
Previous records, from an ice core drilled at the Russian Antarctic station Vostok, extended back 440,000 years.
Ice cores are plugs drilled from glaciers and ice sheets. They are composed of tens of thousands of layers of fallen snow and air bubbles that become compressed over time. The chemistry of the ice reveals what temperatures were in the distant past, while bubbles within the ice are minuscule time capsules that capture samples of air and greenhouse gases as they existed hundreds of thousands of years ago.
The ice core was drilled by the European Project for Ice Coring in Antarctica from a high plateau in East Antarctica called Dome C that rises about 2 miles above sea level.
The last time carbon dioxide levels were as high as or higher than today was probably tens of millions of years ago, Alley said. Over millions of years, carbon dioxide levels shift because of slow geological processes, such as weathering of rocks, swallowing of crust into subduction zones and the release of gases from volcanoes. But these processes are much slower and more gradual than the current rapid increase of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere from the burning of fossil fuels, Alley said.
Scientists are enthusiastic about the ice core because it includes about eight full glacial cycles. The Vostok sample had four. The Vostok sample also showed that warm interglacial periods lasted about 10,000 years. Because the current temperate interglacial period has lasted about 12,000 years, many scientists speculated the planet was overdue for an ice age.
But the new core shows that the interglacial period of 440,000 years ago, when Earth's position relative to the sun was very similar to what it is today, lasted nearly 30,000 years and was not ended by natural decreases in carbon dioxide, Stocker said. The work suggests that the next ice age is about 15,000 years away.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511250123nov25,1,5984206.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Patriot Act deal blocked
Left, right coalition holds up extension
By Jill Zuckman
Washington Bureau
Published November 19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- A near-agreement to extend the controversial USA Patriot Act was blocked Friday by an odd-bedfellows coalition of liberals and conservatives who protested that it did too little to protect Americans' civil liberties.
The act, which gives law-enforcement officials wide power to use wiretaps and to search people in the United States, was Congress' main response to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But critics have complained about the powers it gives police to invade the privacy of citizens. Among other things, the act allows officials to examine library records and to search homes without residents knowing it.
The concerns resulted in an unusual coalition of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate and House. The lawmakers were sufficiently upset at the latest proposed revisions in the act that on Friday leaders agreed to drop immediate consideration of it, partly to avoid a threatened filibuster in the Senate over the weekend.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511190278nov19,1,4865736.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Ashcroft turns into hired gun
Justice Department drops case against company he counseled
By Andrew Zajac
Washington Bureau
Published November 19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Less than a month after Oracle Corp. hired former Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft's lobbying firm, the Justice Department notified Oracle that an antitrust inquiry into its proposed $5.8 billion acquisition of a rival database software firm had been dropped.
The decision, announced Tuesday by the department, was no doubt welcome news for Ashcroft's budding lobbying and consulting career that began last May, just three months after he ended a tumultuous tenure as the nation's top law-enforcement officer.
The Justice Department said the case was decided on its merits.
As attorney general at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Ashcroft oversaw a sharp increase of domestic surveillance in the name of national security. Critics on both the left and right said some of his policies damaged civil liberties.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511190256nov19,1,3161796.story
Ex-FEMA chief to launch disaster preparedness firm
Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published November 25, 2005
DENVER, COLORADO -- Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, heavily criticized for his agency's slow response to Hurricane Katrina, is starting a disaster preparedness consulting firm to help clients avoid the sort of errors that cost him his job.
"If I can help people focus on preparedness, how to be better prepared in their homes and better prepared in their businesses--because that goes straight to the bottom line--then I hope I can help the country in some way," Brown told the Rocky Mountain News for its Thursday editions.
Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511250126nov25,1,7229619.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Stormier pattern: 1"+ thundery rains late Sunday, then snow next week
Published November 25, 2005
Chicagoans shiver Friday in readings more typical of January than November. Overnight readings have been the coldest here since Jan. 28's low of 2(degrees). Friday, which is the busiest shopping day of the year, will feature highs so cold, readings at such levels occur this early in a cold season only once every 10 years on average. But, the thermal pendulum is about to swing the other way. An active atmospheric pattern is taking hold across North America, threatening a parade of storm systems across the Lower 48. The collapse of a high pressure ridge aloft is allowing Pacific storms access to U.S. airspace. The first of the coming series sends a warm front north across the area Friday night. Light overrunning snowfall with the front begins this afternoon, then gradually shifts north overnight. South winds behind it boost temperatures 20 degrees with highs approaching 60(degrees) by Sunday afternoon. Big rains--some with thunder--develop later that night. Rain totals could reach 1-2". And while flurries or snow showers linger Tuesday, a second storm system's approach later next week could introduce more general snowfall Thursday and Friday.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511250093nov25,1,671195.column?coll=chi-news-hed
Vigil keeps light on missing woman
Aurora drug counselor was last seen Oct. 30
By James Kimberly
Tribune staff reporter
Published November 19, 2005
In the stillness of a nearly vacant building at the College of DuPage, 23 women clasped hands Friday evening and prayed for the safe return of an Aurora woman whose mysterious disappearance three weeks ago continues to vex Aurora police.
Marilyn Bethell, 47, recently graduated from the school and began working as a state-licensed substance abuse counselor. She was last seen Oct. 30 at the SHARE program in Hoffman Estates, where she was a counselor.
Some of those who gathered Friday had known Bethell for years, others had only recently met her. They came, they said, to make sure their missing friend was remembered.
"I think she will stay in our hearts forever," said Linda Tkachenko of Addison.
Aurora police spokesman Dan Ferrelli said the investigation into Bethell's disappearance continues. There were no developments to report as of Friday, Ferrelli said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511190132nov19,1,81371.story?coll=chi-news-hed
2nd grand jury to get evidence in leak probe
By Cam Simpson
Washington Bureau
Published November 19, 2005
WASHINGTON -- For the first time since he secured the indictment of a senior White House official three weeks ago in the CIA leak case, special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald said Friday he would present evidence to a new federal grand jury.
Fitzgerald's latest statement set off a new round of speculation in Washington about whether he would seek charges against any other Bush administration officials, even though he had previously suggested he would "keep a grand jury available" for the case.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0511190249nov19,1,3882694.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Grizzly bears around Yellowstone could lose status as endangered species
By MARY CLARE JALONICK
Associated Press Writer
Published November 15, 2005, 11:40 AM CST
WASHINGTON -- Grizzly bears in and around Yellowstone National Park should be removed from the endangered species list after 30 years of federal protection, the Department of Interior said Tuesday.
The number of grizzlies in the Yellowstone area has grown at a rate of 4 to 7 percent per year since the bear was listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1975, Interior Secretary Gale Norton said. Federal wildlife officials estimate that more than 600 grizzly bears now live in the region, which includes parts of Wyoming, Montana and Idaho.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-051115grizzly,1,3968874.story?coll=chi-homepagetravel-hed
Iran has warhead papers, EU says
By George Jahn
Associated Press
Published November 25, 2005
VIENNA -- The European Union accused Iran on Thursday of having documents that show how to make nuclear warheads and joined the United States in warning Tehran it faced referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Iran suggested it was considering a compromise to reduce tensions.
Britain, in a statement on behalf of the 25-nation EU, offered new negotiations meant to lessen concerns over Iran's insistence that it be in full control of uranium enrichment, a possible pathway to nuclear arms.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0511250142nov25,1,6508495.story?coll=chi-news-hed
The Calgary Herald
Canadian soldier killed in Afghanistan after armoured vehicle rolls over
Stephen Thorne
Canadian Press
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Private Braun Scott Woodfield of Victoria, B.C., was killed in Afghanistan Thursday. (Department of National Defence
OTTAWA (CP) - A Canadian soldier has been killed and four others injured when their armoured vehicle rolled over in southern Afghanistan.
No explosive devices nor enemy action were involved in the accident, which occurred during a routine patrol Thursday on the main highway 45 kilometres northeast of Kandahar, said the deputy chief of defence staff, Lt-Gen. Marc Dumais. The dead soldier was identified as 24-year-old Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield, who was born in Victoria and raised in Eastern Passage, N.S.
In Kelowna, B.C., Prime Minister Paul Martin called it a "sombre day," saying he was deeply saddened by what he called a tragic accident.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=c6b255d9-37e8-4894-8529-5e36f04e94f8
Abandoned baby's rescuer wonders where she is now
'Mary' turns 18; city man hoping for reunion
Gwendolyn Richards
Calgary Herald
Friday, November 25, 2005
CREDIT: Dean Bicknell, Calgary Herald
Blaine MacLean holds up a note of thanks he received from Mary's adoptive parents in 1988. He hasn't heard of her since.
That afternoon replays like a movie in Blaine MacLean's mind. The icy, biting cold, the quiet whimper and the chance encounter with a tiny baby whose life he saved.
Now, 18 years later, MacLean is hoping for a reunion with the girl who became known to everyone in Calgary as Mary.
"I'd like to meet her, be part of her life," he said.
Baby Mary, the infant who captured city's hearts when she was found abandoned in a northeast parking lot, will turn 18 today.
She can vote in the next federal election, and take her first legal sip of alcohol.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/city/story.html?id=65a72f59-ef00-4515-8ab1-c6eb6904c2da
Alberta news roundup: Nov. 24
Broadcast News
Thursday, November 24, 2005
An Edmonton man has been charged with having sex and making child pornography with a 13-year-old girl he met on the Internet.
Thirty-year-old Quentin Noel Tarry is facing six charges.
An Edmonton judge has refused to grant bail.
RCMP say the girl met the man through an on-line dating service and told him she was 19.
The two had a couple of dates before the man learned the girl's real age, but kept the relationship going anyway.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=4000258f-68d0-4094-a054-d835663c84f4
Bird flu throughout Indonesian capital; spreads through Vietnam's poultry
Chris Brummitt
Canadian Press
Friday, November 25, 2005
A government official throws a bird cage into fire during a poultry culling at the neighborhood where it has been confirmed that a teenage girl died of bird flu earlier this month, in Jakarta, Indonesia, on Friday. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - Bird flu has been detected throughout the Indonesian capital, while hard-hit Vietnam reported another outbreak as farmers there struggle to sell poultry, officials said Friday.
"It is very serious," said Indonesian Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono. "Based on our research, the virus has spread all over the city" of Jakarta. The findings were announced after random samples were gathered from backyard farms throughout the sprawling capital. Authorities on Friday also destroyed 400 fowl in a residential area of Jakarta near the home of a young girl who died from the disease.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=2811c2fc-e3d6-4e09-a82b-625dd965aa9c
NHL hit by doping claims
Head of watchdog agency says drugs widespread
Jim Kernaghan, with a file from Kerry Williamson, Calgary Herald
The Canadian Press
Friday, November 25, 2005
Dick Pound, president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, says he suspects as many as one-third of the National Hockey League's 700 players may take some form of performance-enhancing substance.
"I spoke with (NHL commissioner) Gary (Bettman) and he said: 'We don't have the problem in hockey,' " Pound said Thursday in an interview after speaking at the University of Western Ontario's law school.
"I told him he does. You wouldn't be far wrong if you said a third (of hockey players are gaining some pharmaceutical assistance)."
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/news/story.html?id=affd67fe-eea1-4c8e-9326-3faeca917b6f
Satellite radio hits Canada
Calgary Herald
Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Canada's first satellite radio service -- boasting commercial-free music, news and even hockey -- was launched Tuesday.
We want to know what you think. Would you be willing to pay $13 a month for ad-free satellite radio? Give us your thoughts in our canada.com Soundoff! below.
XM Canada's service includes eight Canadian channels and 72 foreign offerings. The radios needed to receive the signals, costing from $100 to $400, go on sale next week.
"This is a historic day for consumer choice, for music lovers, hockey fans and for all Canadians," said XM Canada CEO Stephen Tapp.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/soundoff/story.html?id=20c645e8-d494-4f77-9861-d89cf17c3099
Police ordered to write more tickets
Council seeks extra $1M a year in fine revenue
Colette Derworiz and Emma Poole
Calgary Herald
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
Calgary's top cop said he's not interested in turning the force into a money-maker, despite calls from city council to increase fine and other revenues within the service's budget.
Chief Jack Beaton said it's unlikely the service will be able to meet council's $3-million revenue expectation next year -- more than $1 million more than what was projected.
Aldermen approved the change in a 9-6 vote as they tried to find ways to cut millions from its 2006-08 budget, which calls for a 5.4 per cent tax increase next year.
Beaton was disappointed with council's expectation of the police service as a revenue generator.
"We don't want to write tickets for the sake of writing tickets," Beaton said late Monday. "We do traffic enforcement for one reason -- safety."
The police budget for 2006 is $187 million, with nearly $2.1 million in projected revenues. The amendment would add an extra $1 million next year.
Ald. Bob Hawkesworth, who proposed the change, said it will be a good incentive for drivers to obey the rules of the road.
"These are expenses people can avoid by driving within the speed limit," he said, noting it would bring additional revenues to one of the city's biggest departments while reducing property taxes.
Hawkesworth said it's a wise move if it makes the streets safer.
But Ald. Craig Burrows, who sits on the Calgary Police Commission, said it would be difficult for police to generate $1 million in extra revenue.
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/soundoff/story.html?id=0d58b5a1-2d80-42c7-b5a1-9efdd4e077e2
The Miami Herald
Make South Florida evacuation a priority
OUR OPINION: PLANNING TODAY CAN AVERT TOMORROW'S STORM DISASTERS
Florida's Department of Community Affairs failed to live up to its responsibility when it approved Homestead's plans to build 2,600 more homes smack in the evacuation path of the Florida Keys and South Miami-Dade County, despite serious objections by regional planners. Overbuilding at the southern tip of Florida spells disaster for residents who may have to flee from a killer hurricane via inadequate roads.
North on clogged roads
The Legislature and Gov. Jeb Bush should intervene to protect residents and prevent a calamity. Florida also must adjust its growth management to take into account a predicted decades-long cycle of active hurricane seasons. Evacuation concerns are not a technicality that the DCA can brush aside. Before getting the go-ahead for major development, Homestead and other areas must resolve questions about the impact of new buildings and more people on hurricane evacuation.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13253007.htm
Margate trailers ready, waiting
Aztec Estates is the latest FEMA travel-trailer community to sprout up in Broward County after Hurricane Wilma. Yet many trailers still lack occupants.
BY NATALIE P. McNEAL
nmcneal@herald.com
Margate's Aztec Estates is a winding mobile home community with cul-de-sacs and interesting street names such as Cortez and Sundial.
Nowadays, this community is also home to new neighbors: Federal Emergency Management Agency trailers, brought in to house victims of Hurricane Wilma.
For about a week and a half, residents have made note of the new travel trailers in their community.
''We welcome them,'' said Bissoon Maharaj, 45, a nine-year resident of Aztec. ``We are lucky to have a place to stay after the storm. We can't turn them away.''
Along Aztec's circular streets, the small stark white trailers stand out among the park's double-wide trailers.
The FEMA trailers are new, but built to house three people. And most of them are empty.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13252333.htm
Rainy weekend ahead as Gamma edges closer
By MARTIN MERZER
mmerzer@herald.com
Thousands of hurricane-weary South Floridians living under blue tarps or in other damaged structures faced a new threat this weekend: Heavy rain and gusty wind from Tropical Storm Gamma.
Forecasters said the storm -- much weaker than Hurricane Wilma, which rampaged through the region less than four weeks ago -- could follow a similar trail on Monday.
Uncertain predictions carried the center of Gamma across the western tip of Cuba and had it brushing the Florida Keys and the rest of South Florida as it raced into the Atlantic.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13207287.htm
A bittersweet $60.9 million
A judge has awarded a Hialeah couple $60.9 million for a Navy hospital's negligence during their son's birth.
BY NIKKI WALLER AND NOAKI SCHWARTZ
nwaller@herald.com
A federal judge this week awarded $60.9 million to a Hialeah couple whose son suffered severe brain damage when he was born in a Jacksonville Navy hospital two years ago.
The award is believed to be the largest ever under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which allows private citizens to sue the federal government for the negligent conduct of government employees.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13253002.htm
Tut exhibit fails to face facts, some scholars say
The much-anticipated King Tutankhamun exhibit has provoked discussion about the historical portrayals of ancient Egyptians.
BY DARRAN SIMON
dsimon@herald.com
The new King Tut exhibit coming to Fort Lauderdale's Museum of Art next month revisits an old discussion that has burned for decades: What did ancient Egyptians look like?
The exhibit, which runs Dec. 15 to April 23, features computer-generated re-creations of Tut that some activists say portray the young king with white features.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13253025.htm
Government blinks in 'dirty bomber' case
OUR OPINION: ADMINISTRATION SHOULD DISCLAIM 'ENEMY COMBATANT' THEORY
Announcing the indictment of alleged ''dirty bomber'' José Padilla, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales dismissed questions about the civil-liberties implications of this troubling case. The president was authorized to detain the alleged ''dirty bomber'' as an enemy combatant, Mr. Gonzales declared, hence justifying Mr. Padilla's three-year-long incarceration without being charged. ''I'll leave it at that,'' he added. That's not good enough.
Legal system at work
Americans need to know whether the administration still claims the right to arrest U.S. citizens on U.S. soil, place them in military custody and strip them of virtually all their civil liberties. That's what happened to Mr. Padilla, once portrayed as so evil that it was necessary to resort to the ''enemy combatant'' designation to keep him locked up. But this week, just days before the theory could be tested before the Supreme Court, the administration blinked. Apparently, the legal system that has served this country well for more than 200 years can, after all, accommodate the likes of José Padilla.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/13253005.htm
The Moscow Times
Putin Backs Turkey as Energy Hub
By Christian Lowe and Ercan Ersoy
Reuters
Sergei Zhukov / Itar-Tass
Putin, left, inspecting the Turkish-Russian gas pipeline with Erdogan and Berlusconi in Samsun, Turkey, on Thursday.
SAMSUN, Turkey -- The leaders of Russia, Turkey and Italy pledged on Thursday to boost oil and gas cooperation and bring Europe greater energy security after inaugurating a natural gas pipeline under the Black Sea.
The inauguration of the Blue Stream line also capped a big improvement in economic ties between Russia and NATO member Turkey as they set aside historic rivalries in favor of trade.
President Vladimir Putin raised the possibility of a second pipeline carrying Russian natural gas and oil to Turkey, while Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said his country aimed to become a key energy hub for Europe and the Middle East.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/18/042.html
Putin Stands By Tough NGO Bill
By Anatoly Medetsky
Staff Writer
Alexei Panov / Itar-Tass
Putin meeting with Pamfilova at his Novo-Ogaryovo residence on Thursday.
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday responded to worries of a looming crackdown on nongovernmental organizations by insisting that foreign funding of any political activity in Russia must come under state control.
But Putin, making his first public remarks about a contentious NGO bill that the State Duma approved in a first reading Wednesday, also stressed that the legislation must not damage civil society.
The bill in its current version would, among other things, require NGOs to reregister with the Justice Ministry and empower authorities to check that NGOs do not use foreign grants to finance political activities. Foreign NGOs have warned that the bill would shut them down.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/25/001.html
A Parliament Built for Kadyrov
By Nabi Abdullaev
Staff Writer
Artur Magomadov / AP
A woman fixing an election poster for Khozh-Akhmed Khaladov, a candidate from Grozny, to a wall on Thursday.
The new Chechen parliament, which will be elected Sunday, looks likely to be packed with allies of powerful Chechen First Deputy Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, and their main mandate promises to be to prepare the way for a Kadyrov presidency.
Other local clans and interest groups can expect to be shut out from making any major decisions in the parliament, and ordinary Chechens probably should not count on lawmakers to protect their interests.
"The lawmakers will not be allowed to lobby for any interests but Kadyrov's," said Alexander Cherkasov, a representative of Memorial, the respected human rights organization that has been sharply critical of both Kadyrov and the elections.
"With or without the parliament, Chechnya will still be ruled by the man who wields the biggest gun," he added, referring to Kadyrov.
Eight national parties are running in the elections, and many hastily set up their Chechen branches within the past two months with the backing of Chechen officials. Kadyrov loyalists have taken key posts in many of those branches. In addition, most of the top spots on the parties' electoral lists -- including those of United Russia -- are occupied by regional officials.
A ninth party, the liberal Republican Party, also applied but was rejected over a technicality. Its candidates are running in single-mandate districts.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/25/002.html
Gypsy Romance
The Bolshoi revives "Carmen Suite," the ballet that was almost too sensuous for the Soviet authorities at its 1967 debut.
By Raymond Stults
Published: November 25, 2005
As part of its celebrations honoring the 80th birthday of ballerina Maya Plisetskaya, the Bolshoi Theater last Friday revived "Carmen Suite," a ballet that Plisetskaya danced at the Bolshoi some 130 times following its 1967 premiere and one of her greatest triumphs. To accompany "Carmen Suite," the theater introduced a brand-new work called "The Card Game," choreographed by Bolshoi ballet artistic director Alexei Ratmansky to music of Igor Stravinsky.
The sexually charged "Carmen Suite" barely made it to the stage in the officially puritanical Soviet Union of the Brezhnev era. But thanks to her iron will and enormous prestige, Plisetskaya managed to overcome -- or at least circumvent -- opposition from the country's cultural authorities. The choreography, much of it reflecting the native dances of Spain, was created by Cuban master Alberto Alonso. Music and decor were a family affair, the former a score by Plisetskaya's husband, Rodion Shchedrin, loosely based on Georges Bizet's opera "Carmen," the latter devised by her artist cousin, Boris Messerer.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/story/157814/
Global Eye
First Light
By Chris Floyd
Published: November 25, 2005
Last week, America's troubled sleep was shattered by a trumpet blast of truth sounding deep in Washington's corridors of power, where the rule of the Lie has held sway for so long. This intrusion of reality into the bloodstained fantasyland of the Bush Regime comes late in the day for the moribund Republic -- perhaps too late -- but it has struck a mighty blow against the Lie's adherents, driving them into spasms of hysterical panic, like rats exposed suddenly to the light.
The unlikely instigator of this historic upheaval was U.S. Representative John Murtha, the 73-year-old conservative Democrat and war hawk, one of many "opposition" leaders who once strongly backed President George W. Bush's murderous folly in Iraq. Murtha, a Vietnam vet, has been a stalwart of the military-industrial complex for decades, supporting U.S. wars around the world and showering legislative largess on the weapons industry -- which has obligingly kicked back lobbying contracts to his kin and friends, The Los Angeles Times reports.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/25/120.html
continued ...
The North American Nebula and Pelican Nebula (click on)
November 19. 2005
The Pelican Nebula (can you see it?) is the celestial next door neighbor to the North American Nebula. Together, they make up a 6 trillion mile expanse of Hydrogen-alpha star forming nebula in our own Milky Way Galaxy. This area of the sky is faintly visible under very dark skies in the constellation cygnus, next to the very bright summer star Deneb. This photo is a composite of 9 15 minute exposures through a lumicon hydrogen alpha filter. Using the red channel exclusively and then converted to greyscale. Canon 20d with internal noise reduction on, ISO 800.
Morning Papers - continued
San Francisco Chronicle
'DIRTY BOMB' CASE SIDESTEPPED OVER TORTURE ISSUES
White House balked at having 2 al Qaeda detainees questioned at Padilla terror trial
Douglas Jehl, Eric Lichtblau, New York Times
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Washington -- The Bush administration decided to charge Jose Padilla with crimes unrelated to alleged plots to explode a "dirty bomb" and destroy apartment buildings because it was unwilling to allow testimony from two senior members of al Qaeda who had been subjected to harsh questioning, current and former government officials said Wednesday.
The al Qaeda members were the main sources linking Padilla to a plot to bomb targets in the United States, the officials said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/24/MNGUSFTMJU1.DTL
Craigslist founder planning Net-based news venture
Dan Fost, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Craig Newmark, the San Francisco engineer who created the popular Craigslist Internet site, is getting involved in the news game.
Newmark, whose free Web site listings have wreaked havoc with the newspaper business model over the past few years, acknowledged Wednesday that he is working with other people on a new media venture involving "technologies that promise to help people find the most trusted versions of the more important stories."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BUG2NFT6GR1.DTL
Hacker to try to attack state voting machines
John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005
A computer hacker will be trying to break into one of California's electronic voting machines next week, with the full cooperation of the secretary of state.
Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, will be trying to demonstrate that voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems are vulnerable to attacks by computer hackers seeking to manipulate the results of an election.
"This is part of our security mission,'' said Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office. "We want to make sure that every vote is counted and registered correctly.''
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/25/VOTING.TMP
Port chief rebukes Mills for tactics on piers project
Erstwhile ally raps developer for departing from positive PR and taking on supervisors
The developer behind a politically troubled proposal for a recreation, shopping and office complex on San Francisco's Embarcadero is now coming under fire from a key City Hall ally.
Port of San Francisco Executive Director Monique Moyer sent a letter to the project developer, Mills Corp., blasting the company for taking on foes in an aggressive media campaign before a key Board of Supervisors vote, and for not sticking to a mutually agreed upon strategy of trying to build support by talking up the project's potential benefits.
She also criticized Mills, a Virginia-based builder and operator of shopping malls, for preparing to bypass the supervisors altogether with a ballot measure next year that would seek voter approval of the development plan for Piers 27-31.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/23/BAGHPFSUTL1.DTL
U.S. Nears 1,000th Execution Since 1977
By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
(11-24) 19:12 PST New York (AP) --
"Let's do it." With those last words, convicted killer Gary Gilmore ushered in the modern era of capital punishment in the United States, an age of busy death chambers that will likely see its 1,000th execution in the coming days.
After a 10-year moratorium, Gilmore in 1977 became the first person to be executed following a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that validated state laws to reform the capital punishment system. Since then, 997 prisoners have been executed, and next week, the 998th, 999th and 1,000th are scheduled to die.
Robin Lovitt, 41, will likely be the one to earn that macabre distinction next Wednesday, Nov. 30. He was convicted of fatally stabbing a man with scissors during a 1998 pool hall robbery in Virginia.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/24/national/a134606S37.DTL
Southern California airports have worst runway safety records
By IAN GREGOR, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
(11-24) 10:20 PST Los Angeles (AP) --
Los Angeles International Airport and two others nearby have the worst runway safety records among the nation's busiest airports in recent years, a review of federal aviation data shows.
Federal officials are most concerned by the situation at bustling LAX, where commercial jets have come perilously close to crashing at least twice since 1999, the first year of data reviewed by The Associated Press.
The problem persists because, despite millions spent to reduce violations known as runway incursions, LAX's airfield has built-in flaws: It's too tightly packed and arriving aircraft must cross runways used for takeoffs.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/24/state/n102041S83.DTL
Slayings push death toll over last year's total
2 men shot in S.F.'s Western Addition -- 90 killings in 2005
Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Two men were shot to death Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco's Western Addition, just yards away from an elementary school where children were playing.
The Turk Street killings raised the city's homicide toll to 90 this year, two more than last year -- sparking outrage among city residents.
"There is an epidemic in this city," said San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who represents the area where Wednesday's shootings occurred and went to the Pitts Plaza public housing development as police processed the crime scene. "We're just two blocks from Northern (police) Station."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGR9FTH8544.DTL
Slayings push death toll over last year's total
2 men shot in S.F.'s Western Addition -- 90 killings in 2005
Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Two men were shot to death Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco's Western Addition, just yards away from an elementary school where children were playing.
The Turk Street killings raised the city's homicide toll to 90 this year, two more than last year -- sparking outrage among city residents.
"There is an epidemic in this city," said San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who represents the area where Wednesday's shootings occurred and went to the Pitts Plaza public housing development as police processed the crime scene. "We're just two blocks from Northern (police) Station."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGR9FTH8544.DTL
A lifelong Republican's long winter
Joan Ryan
Thursday, November 24, 2005
As those who follow this column know, my father and I inhabit opposite ends of the political spectrum. I have found my geographic and ideological home in the liberal Bay Area. He is a lifelong Republican who loved Spiro Agnew and was not among the early waves of supporters for civil rights and women's rights (he came around).
He is one of those hardscrabble men from the Irish parishes of the Bronx who served in Korea, supported a wife and six children on his own sweat, never got a handout and never sought one. To him, Democrats were the ivory-tower elites who took increasing chunks of his paycheck to support the lazy and the irresponsible.
I… He regrets changing his mind about voting for him, he said.
"The guy's stupid," he said. "Such a disappointment. The worst administration I've ever seen. He just sounds confused. He doesn't sound like he knows what the hell he's doing."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGBNFTM7H1.DTL
George W. Bush Gives Me Hope
The astonishing collapse of the Bumbling One surely means healthy change is imminent, right?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, November 18, 2005
Here's the good news: It really can't get much worse.
We cannot afford any more wars. The environment has been sold to the bone. The national spirit has been beaten like an Alaskan baby seal and the GOP has worked our last nerve, passed through the karmic blood-brain barrier, reached saturation to the point where even moderate Repubs and gobs of intelligent Christians are finally saying, Oh my God, what have we done, and how did it all go so wrong, and how much Prozac and wine and praying to a very disappointed Jesus will it take to fix it?
Which is why I'm here to tell you hope abounds. In fact, George W. Bush gives me hope. He gives me hope because he has led the country into a zone where the only way to go -- morally, spiritually, economically -- is up. Is out. He gives me hope because after it has all appeared so bleak and ugly and lost for so many years, it would now appear that all laws of karmic and poetic and moral justice still hold true. And how reassuring is that?
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/
MISJUDGING THE JIHAD
Briefing Osama on all the war's wins and losses
Brian Michael Jenkins, Gregory F. Treverton
Sunday, November 13, 2005
We see the televised briefings in Washington, but what about the briefings on the other side of on the campaign against terror, perhaps in the mountains of Pakistan?
An aide briefing Osama bin Laden on the al Qaeda balance sheet today would have to admit to plenty of bad news:
"Our training camps in Afghanistan have been dismantled, and thousands of our brothers have been arrested worldwide, including some talented planners who are hard to replace; meanwhile, our cash flow has been squeezed," the aide could say. "The infidels occupy Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, the Emirates, Qatar and Oman, and they threaten Syria. We have been forced to decentralize our operations. We must beware of fragmentation and loss of unity. We face martyrdom."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/13/INGUPFLGKH1.DTL
The Jordan Times
Iraqi Sunni leader, sons killed in their beds
Khadim Sarhid Hemaiyem's nephew cries Wednesday near the coffin of his uncle during his funeral (AP photo by Hadi Mizban)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms shot dead an ageing Sunni tribal leader and three of his sons in their beds on Wednesday, relatives said, in the latest attack to highlight Iraq's deep sectarian rifts ahead of a December poll.
A defence ministry official denied Iraqi troops carried out the pre-dawn slayings in the Hurriya district of Baghdad and said the killers instead must have been terrorists in disguise.
"Iraqi army uniforms litter the streets and any terrorist can kill and tarnish our image, killing two birds with one stone," the official said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news1.htm
US edges toward prospect of troop drawdown
By Peter Mackler
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON — Under growing pressure in Iraq and at home, the United States is edging steadily toward the prospect of a drawdown of US troops from the country while resisting a fixed timetable.
The administration of President George W. Bush is facing not only a growing chorus of politicians here clamouring for an exit strategy, but grumblings among its Iraqi allies as well.
So the timing may have been no accident when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went on CNN and Fox television Tuesday to venture that a reduction in force levels might be possible "fairly soon." She said that as Iraqi security forces were trained to face an insurgency raging 31 months after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the number of outside troops "is clearly going to come down."
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news2.htm
Errant hang glider prompts new Israeli-Hizbollah fighting
An Israeli soldier on Wednesday arrests a slightly injured schoolboy, who took part in a demonstration against the closure of a route to his school in the West Bank town of Hebron (AFP photo by Hazem Bader)
BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli hang glider inadvertantly floated into south Lebanon Wednesday, sparking renewed clashes between Hizbollah and Israeli troops as the fighters tried to grab him and the soldiers covered his dash back across the border.
The brief hostilities reflected the increased volatility in the area, two days after the worst crossborder clashes in years — violence that has been fuelled by tensions on another front: The disputes between Lebanon and Syria.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news3.htm
Warning on Jazeera bombing report
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has warned media organizations they are breaking the law if they publish details of a leaked document said to show U.S. President George W. Bush wanted to bomb Arabic television station Al Jazeera.
The government's top lawyer warned editors in a note after the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Tuesday that a secret British government memo said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of bombing the broadcaster in April last year.
Several British newspapers reported the attorney general's note on Wednesday and repeated the Mirror's allegations, which the White House said were "so outlandish" they did not merit a response. Blair's office declined to comment.
Al Jazeera, which has repeatedly denied U.S. accusations it sides with insurgents in Iraq, called on Britain and the United States to state quickly whether the report was accurate.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4991
Al Jazeera urges probe into Bush bomb plot report
British government threatens to prosecute newspapers if they reveal further details
DOHA (AFP) — The Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera urged the White House and Downing Street on Tuesday to challenge a British newspaper report that US President George W. Bush had planned to bomb the Qatar-based station.
“We sincerely urge both the White House and Downing Street to challenge the Daily Mirror report,” the Qatar-based network said in a statement.
The British tabloid, citing a Downing Street memo marked “Top Secret,” reported Tuesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station.
“Before making any conclusions, Al Jazeera needs to be absolutely sure regarding the authenticity of the memo and would hope for a confirmation from Downing Street as soon as possible,” it said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news5.htm
Iran referral to Security Council seen unlikely
VIENNA (AFP) — The UN nuclear watchdog is expected to hold off Thursday on hauling Iran before the UN Security Council as the United States and Europe want to give Russia time to get Tehran to agree to a compromise on its atomic programme.
Iran on Wednesday voiced optimism about Thursday's meeting in Vienna of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki vowed to continue standing up to pressure from the West to abandon sensitive nuclear technology and said he considered "the circumstances of the next IAEA meeting to be more constructive and positive than the previous one."
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news7.htm
UN report highlights upsurge in Darfur killings, rape
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — A monthly UN report on the situation in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region spotlighted an upsurge in killings of civilians, including children, and rape of women during the month of October.
The report by UN chief Kofi Annan, which was unveiled here this week, said that despite government pledges to launch joint military and police patrols on highways to improve security, "lawlessness and banditry have reached dangerous levels."
It said the upsurge in violence against civilians seriously affected children, with several killed or abducted in the region.
The violence also hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid and reduced initially improved prospects for the return of internally displaced people in some areas.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news8.htm
Getting out of Iraq
By Norman Solomon
This week began with the New York Times noting that “all of Washington is consumed with debate over the direction of the war in Iraq”. The debate — long overdue — is a serious blow to the war makers in Washington, but the US war effort will go on for years more unless the anti-war movement in the United States gains sufficient momentum to stop it.
A cliché goes that war is too important to be left to the generals. But a more relevant assessment is that peace is too vital to be left to pundits and members of Congress — people who have overwhelmingly dismissed the option of swiftly withdrawing US troops from Iraq.
On Nov. 17, a high-profile military booster in the US Congress suddenly shattered the conventional wisdom that immediate withdrawal is unthinkable. “The American public is way ahead of us,” Rep. John Murtha said in a statement concluding with capitalised words that shook the nation's capitalised political elites: “Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the US cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME.”
Murtha's statement has broken a spell. But the white magic of the US' militarism remains a massive obstacle to bringing home the US troops who should never have been sent to Iraq in the first place.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion3.htm
'Trapped in the dark with no exit sign'
Michael Jansen
George W. Bush is a lame duck with more than three years to serve in his second term. Although he adopted policies which have contributed to his destruction, this did not become apparent in the US itself until the disaster produced by his mishandling of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina at the end of August.
Hurricane Katrina exposed all the faults of the Bush administration: Bush's inability to empathise with folks in trouble, his constant repetition of empty phrases which resolve nothing, his appointment of cronies to jobs they cannot perform, and his dependence on favoured US firms which are not only corrupt but inefficient.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion2.htm
Stop coddling Belarus
By Aldis Kuskis
Lenin once said that capitalists were so cynical that they would sell the Soviets the rope with which they would hang them. Lenin and communism have passed away, but that cynical indifference to suffering when profits are involved remains.
Belarus provides a glaring example. The European Parliament has consistently denounced Belarus as Europe's last dictatorship, yet EU member governments continue business as usual with Aleksander Lukashenka, the country's wayward and near lunatic despot.
This is especially true when there is a chance to save or make money. For example, for more than a decade, Germany's police forces, customs service, and even the Bundeswehr have been ordering uniforms from a state-owned factory in the city of Dzherzinsky, named after the father of the Red Terror and founder of the Soviet KGB, Feliks Dzherzinsky. Similar examples of such indifferent cynicism abound.
This absurd situation must change. It is the duty of all members of EU national parliaments to reject this affront to their democratic dignity. Only democratic parliaments should sit as equals in Europe's democratic forums. The goal is not to ensure Europe's democratic purity, but to change the nature of Belarus' government. For that to happen, Europe's democratic voice must be heard within Belarus.
That won't be easy. Of the 1,500 different media outlets in Belarus today, only a dozen or so retain any form of independence. Even that small number is likely to diminish, as Lukashenka keeps up political, financial, and legal pressure on them. Indeed, Belarus' last independent daily newspaper recently went out of business.
The European Commission has allocated two million euros to establish an independent radio station for Belarus, which must operate outside of the country because of Lukashenka. Working with the Belarussian association of journalists, this independent media outlet will broadcast from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and perhaps Ukraine.
This meagre effort, however, is an insufficient response by Europe's democracies to the full panoply of Lukashenka's dictatorship: his docile courts, brutal jails, and corrupt police. Are a few hours of radio broadcasting really all Europe and the democratic West can muster? If so, Lukashenka must be laughing aloud.
Parliamentarians across Europe and the West must join their voice together in a well-defined, united and ringing declaration that forces Western leaders to apply real pressure to Europe's last dictator. Such pressure brought results a year ago, with the success of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Nothing less than a united position against the despot of Belarus is necessary if Lukashenka — and his Russian backers — are to be forced to change their ways.
The writer, a member of the European Parliament from Latvia, is vice-chairman of its Delegation for Relations with Belarus. ©Project Syndicate, 2005. www.project-syndicate.org
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion4.htm
Polish Dailies Black Out Front Pages Over Belarus
The Associated Press
Boris holding Gazeta Wyborcza.
WARSAW -- Poland's two leading newspapers blacked out large sections of their front pages Wednesday in an eye-catching protest against media repression in neighboring Belarus.
The main pages of Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita looked as if a censor had taken a black marker to them, with most text and photographs crossed out. The two papers were joining a protest led by Amnesty International.
At the bottom of both front pages, the human rights group wrote: "This is what freedom of speech looks like in Belarus." The papers then printed their front page in full on page three, and carried commentaries and reports of humans rights abuses in Belarus.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/24/015.html
World Bank advises Belarus to liberalise trade
11.23.2005, 08:10 AM
MINSK (AFX) - World Bank experts said the Belarus government should review its trade legislation, which it says is characterised by extensive non-tariff barriers, in order to liberalise trade, BelaPAN news wire reported.
In its new economic memorandum on Belarus, the World Bank said there are a large number of restrictions on trade in Belarus which are limiting the import of consumer goods.
The report also said that while Belarus has made considerable progress in its WTO membership bid, the country has not yet signed a single market access agreement.
The government should reduce its subsidisation of agriculture and industry, including exporters, the report said. 'In addition, much more progress is needed in liberalising and de-monopolising a number of sectors such as financial services and telecommunications', the World Bank said.
cz/cmr
http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/afx/2005/11/23/afx2351599.html
The Arizona Republic
So whose memory is the shortest?
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
I find the two back-to-back letters to the editor on Monday ("Iraq war a just effort," defending the president, and "Democrats have short memories," criticizing the Democrats about their reversal on their vote for war in Iraq) quite ironic and revealing.
In the first, the writer says President Bush "oversold WMDs and undersold the need for culture change." In my memory, those who start wars and invade countries for culture change have usually been labeled demagogues and imperialists, not admirable leaders.
In the second, I seem to remember that most Democrats voted to give the president the authority to use war in order to give him a serious threat to force Iraq's leader to comply with U.N. and U.S. demands to cooperate. However, rather than threaten, we immediately went to war.
Indeed, who has the short (and selective) memories? - Stephen Sapareto, Mesa
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets243.html
Government destroying rail service
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
I'm reading the Sunday Viewpoints section and lo and behold, I see a column by Jon Talton pertaining to Amtrak ("Running Amtrak off the track"). I could not believe my eyes. Amtrak? Why would a Phoenix paper write about Amtrak?
It is a crying shame what the powers of both political parties are doing. They wish to dismember our rail system.
There is no cheaper way of shipping than by rail, unless you use barges. All European countries depend on rail systems for goods and passenger service, too.
I remember when the cities were sold a bill to eliminate trolley lines and switch to buses. They are still kicking themselves for losing control of the right of way in many cities and towns.
Jon Talton's columns are always informative. He's far ahead of the present thinking. - Seymour Pollock, Surprise
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets245.html
18-year-old mayor is a source of inspiration
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
What an inspiration!
I was glad, impressed and inspired by the article, "Michigan 18-year-old elected town mayor" (Republic, Nov. 13).
It's hard to believe that an 18-year-old boy will become mayor of a town. I wish I had that confidence when I was 18 and in high school.
The only obstacles are the ones you allow to get in your way.
- Yara Lopez, Tucson
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets241.html
Mining-land change may alter West
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
In a late-night vote overshadowed by sexier sound bites about war and taxes, the U.S. House rewrote parts of a 133-year-old mining law, stoking a decades-old battle over who should control vast open spaces across the West.
The stakes are high: billions of dollars in mining revenues, $2.4 billion a year in Arizona alone, and millions of acres of public land spread out among forests and rangelands or nestled next to national parks and monuments.
The House measure would allow mining companies or other private interests to buy the land and develop it, even if there was nothing there to mine. It could open impoverished areas to economic investment but close scenic spots to recreational users and strip those spots of environmental protection.
Backers of the rewrite say it's an attempt to modernize outdated laws and protect the economic health of rural mining communities, which have suffered with the ebb and flow of ore prices. They insist the bill includes strong protection for sensitive lands and enough mining-related requirements to fend off speculators. It also creates a richer revenue source, they say, raising the purchase price of a mining claim from as little as $2.50 an acre to at least $1,000 an acre.
But even at that price, the result is a near-giveaway of public lands, opponents say, who paint a darker picture, one rife with abuse of already weak laws. They say the proposed changes are not so much about mining as about opening valuable land to developers, who would build ski resorts, housing developments and shopping centers on the back doorsteps of "special places" like the Grand Canyon.
One environmental group produced an illustration depicting a sprawling subdivision on the Canyon's North Rim, a community they named "Pombotown," after Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., the committee chairman who ushered the bill to the House floor last weekend.
The revisions were tacked on to a huge deficit-reduction package that survived by two votes, but the changes were not included in the Senate version. Both sides are girding for a final fight when negotiators try to reconcile differences after the Thanksgiving recess.
"People in Arizona should be very concerned about it," said Don Steuter, who watches mining issues for Arizona's Sierra Club chapter. "There has been so much abuse in the past with these laws. There's a long history of it, and they're pointing us even more in that direction. It could turn into a fire sale."
Industry still lucrative
The bill has put Arizona's conservationists at odds with one of the state's oldest industries, which is still among its most lucrative. Arizona regularly leads the nation in copper production and ranks among the top five states in silver, gemstones, sand and gravel, and other metals and minerals. In 2003, the state's mineral production topped $2.4 billion; the copper industry alone produced $2.7 billion in direct and indirect economic impacts.
The Environmental Working Group estimates that there are nearly 642,000 acres of existing mining claims on public lands in Arizona, with nearly a third of the land in Yavapai, Pinal and Mohave counties. Thousands of those claims are inside a national forest, park or wilderness area or within five miles of one.
What worries many conservationists is that, with the change, mining companies could not only buy the land but develop it without the public environmental impact studies required under existing laws. The changes could also derail land exchanges that returned some value to the public, Steuter said.
The bill's author, Rep. Jim Gibbons, said that's not his intent. Gibbons, R-Nev., said the measure was written to promote economic development in the rural West, largely by privatizing the land where mining claims are filed.
Under his proposal, a mining company could skip some of the costliest environmental studies required before digging into public lands. And once the ore was exhausted, they could leave behind for local communities the roads, power lines and other infrastructure they now must erase.
"Without this measure, the jobs and infrastructure of these communities can literally disappear when a mine closes," he said.
His bill lifts an 11-year moratorium on mining claim patents, the term for the purchase of land where ore is found, and gives companies more leeway in staking their claims, adding economic development as an allowed use. Companies would also face less-stringent standards on what constitutes a mining operation. Simple "mineral development work" would validate a claim under the Gibbons measure.
The National Mining Association and other lobbying groups endorsed the rewrite. Association President Kraig Naasz said the measure would "give mining communities greater opportunities for sustained economic growth and help attract investments." If the mining companies can't purchase the public land outright, "these critical assets must be removed."
Parks threatened?
Even some opponents concede the idea doesn't sound nefarious, but they say the consequences of the bill are buried in language that has confounded experts on both sides.
For example, in one section the measure specifically bars the sale of lands within national parks, wildlife refuges, national conservation areas or wilderness areas. In another section, that ban is apparently modified with the phrase "subject to valid existing rights."
Environmental groups say that would let a company dust off an old mining claim inside a park or a monument, buy the land and develop it, a charge Gibbons dismisses as a scare tactic.
Other proposals that look good on the surface are similarly flawed, foes say. The bill's supporters trumpet the increase in price to purchase a mining claim from as low as $2.50 an acre, a rate that survived from 1872, to $1,000 an acre or the appraised market value, whichever is higher.
The problem, according to several groups, is that appraisals on mining claims are usually low, sometimes as low as $100 to $200 an acre, in part because of the typically rugged location and in part because the value of any minerals is not included. As a result, a claim would rarely cost more than $1,000 an acre.
Open space at issue
Equally troubling to the conservation groups is the loss of open space. The law would let mining companies buy not only parcels with mining claims but land adjacent to such claims or operations. Backers say that provision would promote better management, but opponents say it unfairly locks up too much land.
"This is a loss for Arizonans," said Tucson resident Mary Kidwell, who has fought mining proposals in the Empire-Fagan Valley area southeast of Tucson. "We could soon find 'private property' signs blocking the trailhead of favorite hunting grounds or picnic spots."
Conservation groups say that at the very least, Gibbons and Pombo should have introduced the bill separately, instead of attaching it to such a wide-ranging and politically sensitive measure. Some groups suspect the mining rewrites fell victim to other deals and they fear it could survive talks with the Senate in the same way.
But Gibbons said he held several hearings on the proposal and has hidden nothing.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124landsale.html
Kolbe won't run in 2006
Billy House and Pat Flannery
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Rep. Jim Kolbe, dean of Arizona's eight U.S. House members, a leading centrist voice on issues such as Social Security reform and immigration and a strong backer of free trade, announced Wednesday that he will not run for re-election in 2006.
Kolbe said he is confident he could win a 12th two-year term in Congress but, "at some point, you have to say it's time to hang up the spurs."
"I'm 63, not getting any younger, and I always wanted to teach and do some other things," said Kolbe, who has not ruled out doing consulting work in Washington. "I'm very comfortable with this announcement."…
… Mood in Washington
Kolbe, who is the only openly homosexual House Republican, said he considered retiring two years ago but had been talked into finishing his current term as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, which ends at the close of next year. But the idea of losing the chairmanship of the panel that decides such things as the amount of foreign assistance to other nations was a key factor in his decision, he said.
He also said in a telephone conference call from Arizona with reporters that another factor was "the mood" in Washington now, a level of divisiveness that he described as not being seen "in a long time."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124kolbe-retire.html
Assaults on border agents double in '05
Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Assaults on U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors averaged about one a day in the past year, and the number of attacks there more than doubled compared with the previous year.
Nationwide, the number of assaults nearly doubled, with attacks on agents based in Arizona making up more than half the incidents.
From Oct. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, the Border Patrol registered 687 assaults on its agents, up from 349 during the same period along the Southwest and Canadian borders. All but one of the attacks occurred on the Southwest border, officials said. In Tucson and Yuma, there were 365 assaults during the past fiscal year, up from 179 the year before.
The increase reflects the growing influence of organized criminal syndicates in border trafficking, officials said, and the higher profits involved in smuggling migrants across the border for as much as $2,000 per trip.
"Smuggling organizations have now shifted resources to areas that are very rural and isolated, and with that the prices that the smugglers are charging the aliens now rivals drug smuggling," said Border Patrol spokesman Mario Villarreal, based in Washington. "It's a big business."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124assaults.html
Toyota to boost U.S. output by 100,000 to dethrone GM
Hans Greimel
Associated Press
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. is quickening its quest to unseat ailing General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker with reported plans to start manufacturing up to 100,000 Toyota vehicles at a Subaru factory in Indiana.
Word of Toyota's ramped-up production schedule comes just days after GM said it will close 12 plants and cut 30,000 jobs by 2008 in a move that will slash the number of vehicles it is able to build in North America by about 1 million a year.
The combined developments could help Toyota surpass GM in worldwide production.
Toyota expects to produce 8.1 million vehicles this year, while GM expects 9 million, according to Greg Gardner of Harbour Consulting, a manufacturing consulting firm.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1124toyota24.html
Rock Burglar on long hiatus
But residents urged to take care over holidays
Michael Ferraresi
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
NORTHEAST VALLEY - Twelve years and 337 burglaries later the most notorious thief in the Northeast Valley - the Rock Burglar - is still eluding police.
Despite the 12-year hunt, police are not sure how or when the Rock Burglar is casing luxury homes, or when the unidentified burglar or burglars will strike again.
The Rock Burglar's erratic patterns have long stumped investigators, who have tried to anticipate the window-smashing heists that have netted the culprit more than $10 million, mostly in stolen jewelry and cash.
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Scottsdale police Detective Sgt. Eric Rasmussen said the Rock Burglar is no more active during the holidays than any other time, though homeowners leaving town for Thanksgiving or Christmas are urged to take extra precautions to safeguard their properties.
The Rock Burglar primarily targets residents of affluent neighborhoods in Paradise Valley, Scottsdale and Carefree for expensive jewelry.
"If you meet those criteria, you should be a little more alert coming home at night," said Rasmussen, who oversees Scottsdale's burglary unit.
"If you hear glass break in your neighborhood you might think about calling police to take a look," he said.
Since January 2003, the Rock Burglar has hit 41 homes in Scottsdale, as many as 10 near Carefree, and two in Paradise Valley, police said.
The most recent incident in Scottsdale was March 12, on 124th Street south of Shea Boulevard.
Paradise Valley was hit the hardest by the Rock Burglar from 1993 to 2002, but investigators said the suspect's focus has seemingly shifted to Scottsdale.
The Rock Burglar has struck every month of the year, and does not seem to follow any specific patterns.
Investigators describe the suspect as organized, dedicated and meticulous about the robberies.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/1124sr-burglars24Z8.html
continued …
'DIRTY BOMB' CASE SIDESTEPPED OVER TORTURE ISSUES
White House balked at having 2 al Qaeda detainees questioned at Padilla terror trial
Douglas Jehl, Eric Lichtblau, New York Times
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Washington -- The Bush administration decided to charge Jose Padilla with crimes unrelated to alleged plots to explode a "dirty bomb" and destroy apartment buildings because it was unwilling to allow testimony from two senior members of al Qaeda who had been subjected to harsh questioning, current and former government officials said Wednesday.
The al Qaeda members were the main sources linking Padilla to a plot to bomb targets in the United States, the officials said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2005/11/24/MNGUSFTMJU1.DTL
Craigslist founder planning Net-based news venture
Dan Fost, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Craig Newmark, the San Francisco engineer who created the popular Craigslist Internet site, is getting involved in the news game.
Newmark, whose free Web site listings have wreaked havoc with the newspaper business model over the past few years, acknowledged Wednesday that he is working with other people on a new media venture involving "technologies that promise to help people find the most trusted versions of the more important stories."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BUG2NFT6GR1.DTL
Hacker to try to attack state voting machines
John Wildermuth, Chronicle Political Writer
Friday, November 25, 2005
A computer hacker will be trying to break into one of California's electronic voting machines next week, with the full cooperation of the secretary of state.
Harri Hursti, a computer security expert from Finland, will be trying to demonstrate that voting machines made by Diebold Election Systems are vulnerable to attacks by computer hackers seeking to manipulate the results of an election.
"This is part of our security mission,'' said Nghia Nguyen Demovic, a spokeswoman for the secretary of state's office. "We want to make sure that every vote is counted and registered correctly.''
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/25/VOTING.TMP
Port chief rebukes Mills for tactics on piers project
Erstwhile ally raps developer for departing from positive PR and taking on supervisors
The developer behind a politically troubled proposal for a recreation, shopping and office complex on San Francisco's Embarcadero is now coming under fire from a key City Hall ally.
Port of San Francisco Executive Director Monique Moyer sent a letter to the project developer, Mills Corp., blasting the company for taking on foes in an aggressive media campaign before a key Board of Supervisors vote, and for not sticking to a mutually agreed upon strategy of trying to build support by talking up the project's potential benefits.
She also criticized Mills, a Virginia-based builder and operator of shopping malls, for preparing to bypass the supervisors altogether with a ballot measure next year that would seek voter approval of the development plan for Piers 27-31.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/23/BAGHPFSUTL1.DTL
U.S. Nears 1,000th Execution Since 1977
By BRADLEY BROOKS, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
(11-24) 19:12 PST New York (AP) --
"Let's do it." With those last words, convicted killer Gary Gilmore ushered in the modern era of capital punishment in the United States, an age of busy death chambers that will likely see its 1,000th execution in the coming days.
After a 10-year moratorium, Gilmore in 1977 became the first person to be executed following a 1976 U.S. Supreme Court decision that validated state laws to reform the capital punishment system. Since then, 997 prisoners have been executed, and next week, the 998th, 999th and 1,000th are scheduled to die.
Robin Lovitt, 41, will likely be the one to earn that macabre distinction next Wednesday, Nov. 30. He was convicted of fatally stabbing a man with scissors during a 1998 pool hall robbery in Virginia.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/24/national/a134606S37.DTL
Southern California airports have worst runway safety records
By IAN GREGOR, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
(11-24) 10:20 PST Los Angeles (AP) --
Los Angeles International Airport and two others nearby have the worst runway safety records among the nation's busiest airports in recent years, a review of federal aviation data shows.
Federal officials are most concerned by the situation at bustling LAX, where commercial jets have come perilously close to crashing at least twice since 1999, the first year of data reviewed by The Associated Press.
The problem persists because, despite millions spent to reduce violations known as runway incursions, LAX's airfield has built-in flaws: It's too tightly packed and arriving aircraft must cross runways used for takeoffs.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/11/24/state/n102041S83.DTL
Slayings push death toll over last year's total
2 men shot in S.F.'s Western Addition -- 90 killings in 2005
Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Two men were shot to death Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco's Western Addition, just yards away from an elementary school where children were playing.
The Turk Street killings raised the city's homicide toll to 90 this year, two more than last year -- sparking outrage among city residents.
"There is an epidemic in this city," said San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who represents the area where Wednesday's shootings occurred and went to the Pitts Plaza public housing development as police processed the crime scene. "We're just two blocks from Northern (police) Station."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGR9FTH8544.DTL
Slayings push death toll over last year's total
2 men shot in S.F.'s Western Addition -- 90 killings in 2005
Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 24, 2005
Two men were shot to death Wednesday afternoon in San Francisco's Western Addition, just yards away from an elementary school where children were playing.
The Turk Street killings raised the city's homicide toll to 90 this year, two more than last year -- sparking outrage among city residents.
"There is an epidemic in this city," said San Francisco Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, who represents the area where Wednesday's shootings occurred and went to the Pitts Plaza public housing development as police processed the crime scene. "We're just two blocks from Northern (police) Station."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGR9FTH8544.DTL
A lifelong Republican's long winter
Joan Ryan
Thursday, November 24, 2005
As those who follow this column know, my father and I inhabit opposite ends of the political spectrum. I have found my geographic and ideological home in the liberal Bay Area. He is a lifelong Republican who loved Spiro Agnew and was not among the early waves of supporters for civil rights and women's rights (he came around).
He is one of those hardscrabble men from the Irish parishes of the Bronx who served in Korea, supported a wife and six children on his own sweat, never got a handout and never sought one. To him, Democrats were the ivory-tower elites who took increasing chunks of his paycheck to support the lazy and the irresponsible.
I… He regrets changing his mind about voting for him, he said.
"The guy's stupid," he said. "Such a disappointment. The worst administration I've ever seen. He just sounds confused. He doesn't sound like he knows what the hell he's doing."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/24/BAGBNFTM7H1.DTL
George W. Bush Gives Me Hope
The astonishing collapse of the Bumbling One surely means healthy change is imminent, right?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Friday, November 18, 2005
Here's the good news: It really can't get much worse.
We cannot afford any more wars. The environment has been sold to the bone. The national spirit has been beaten like an Alaskan baby seal and the GOP has worked our last nerve, passed through the karmic blood-brain barrier, reached saturation to the point where even moderate Repubs and gobs of intelligent Christians are finally saying, Oh my God, what have we done, and how did it all go so wrong, and how much Prozac and wine and praying to a very disappointed Jesus will it take to fix it?
Which is why I'm here to tell you hope abounds. In fact, George W. Bush gives me hope. He gives me hope because he has led the country into a zone where the only way to go -- morally, spiritually, economically -- is up. Is out. He gives me hope because after it has all appeared so bleak and ugly and lost for so many years, it would now appear that all laws of karmic and poetic and moral justice still hold true. And how reassuring is that?
http://www.sfgate.com/columnists/morford/
MISJUDGING THE JIHAD
Briefing Osama on all the war's wins and losses
Brian Michael Jenkins, Gregory F. Treverton
Sunday, November 13, 2005
We see the televised briefings in Washington, but what about the briefings on the other side of on the campaign against terror, perhaps in the mountains of Pakistan?
An aide briefing Osama bin Laden on the al Qaeda balance sheet today would have to admit to plenty of bad news:
"Our training camps in Afghanistan have been dismantled, and thousands of our brothers have been arrested worldwide, including some talented planners who are hard to replace; meanwhile, our cash flow has been squeezed," the aide could say. "The infidels occupy Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Bahrain, the Emirates, Qatar and Oman, and they threaten Syria. We have been forced to decentralize our operations. We must beware of fragmentation and loss of unity. We face martyrdom."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/11/13/INGUPFLGKH1.DTL
The Jordan Times
Iraqi Sunni leader, sons killed in their beds
Khadim Sarhid Hemaiyem's nephew cries Wednesday near the coffin of his uncle during his funeral (AP photo by Hadi Mizban)
BAGHDAD (Reuters) — Gunmen in Iraqi army uniforms shot dead an ageing Sunni tribal leader and three of his sons in their beds on Wednesday, relatives said, in the latest attack to highlight Iraq's deep sectarian rifts ahead of a December poll.
A defence ministry official denied Iraqi troops carried out the pre-dawn slayings in the Hurriya district of Baghdad and said the killers instead must have been terrorists in disguise.
"Iraqi army uniforms litter the streets and any terrorist can kill and tarnish our image, killing two birds with one stone," the official said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news1.htm
US edges toward prospect of troop drawdown
By Peter Mackler
Agence France-Presse
WASHINGTON — Under growing pressure in Iraq and at home, the United States is edging steadily toward the prospect of a drawdown of US troops from the country while resisting a fixed timetable.
The administration of President George W. Bush is facing not only a growing chorus of politicians here clamouring for an exit strategy, but grumblings among its Iraqi allies as well.
So the timing may have been no accident when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice went on CNN and Fox television Tuesday to venture that a reduction in force levels might be possible "fairly soon." She said that as Iraqi security forces were trained to face an insurgency raging 31 months after the ouster of Saddam Hussein, the number of outside troops "is clearly going to come down."
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news2.htm
Errant hang glider prompts new Israeli-Hizbollah fighting
An Israeli soldier on Wednesday arrests a slightly injured schoolboy, who took part in a demonstration against the closure of a route to his school in the West Bank town of Hebron (AFP photo by Hazem Bader)
BEIRUT (AP) — An Israeli hang glider inadvertantly floated into south Lebanon Wednesday, sparking renewed clashes between Hizbollah and Israeli troops as the fighters tried to grab him and the soldiers covered his dash back across the border.
The brief hostilities reflected the increased volatility in the area, two days after the worst crossborder clashes in years — violence that has been fuelled by tensions on another front: The disputes between Lebanon and Syria.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news3.htm
Warning on Jazeera bombing report
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain has warned media organizations they are breaking the law if they publish details of a leaked document said to show U.S. President George W. Bush wanted to bomb Arabic television station Al Jazeera.
The government's top lawyer warned editors in a note after the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Tuesday that a secret British government memo said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of bombing the broadcaster in April last year.
Several British newspapers reported the attorney general's note on Wednesday and repeated the Mirror's allegations, which the White House said were "so outlandish" they did not merit a response. Blair's office declined to comment.
Al Jazeera, which has repeatedly denied U.S. accusations it sides with insurgents in Iraq, called on Britain and the United States to state quickly whether the report was accurate.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4991
Al Jazeera urges probe into Bush bomb plot report
British government threatens to prosecute newspapers if they reveal further details
DOHA (AFP) — The Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera urged the White House and Downing Street on Tuesday to challenge a British newspaper report that US President George W. Bush had planned to bomb the Qatar-based station.
“We sincerely urge both the White House and Downing Street to challenge the Daily Mirror report,” the Qatar-based network said in a statement.
The British tabloid, citing a Downing Street memo marked “Top Secret,” reported Tuesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station.
“Before making any conclusions, Al Jazeera needs to be absolutely sure regarding the authenticity of the memo and would hope for a confirmation from Downing Street as soon as possible,” it said.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news5.htm
Iran referral to Security Council seen unlikely
VIENNA (AFP) — The UN nuclear watchdog is expected to hold off Thursday on hauling Iran before the UN Security Council as the United States and Europe want to give Russia time to get Tehran to agree to a compromise on its atomic programme.
Iran on Wednesday voiced optimism about Thursday's meeting in Vienna of the watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki vowed to continue standing up to pressure from the West to abandon sensitive nuclear technology and said he considered "the circumstances of the next IAEA meeting to be more constructive and positive than the previous one."
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news7.htm
UN report highlights upsurge in Darfur killings, rape
UNITED NATIONS (AFP) — A monthly UN report on the situation in Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region spotlighted an upsurge in killings of civilians, including children, and rape of women during the month of October.
The report by UN chief Kofi Annan, which was unveiled here this week, said that despite government pledges to launch joint military and police patrols on highways to improve security, "lawlessness and banditry have reached dangerous levels."
It said the upsurge in violence against civilians seriously affected children, with several killed or abducted in the region.
The violence also hampered the delivery of humanitarian aid and reduced initially improved prospects for the return of internally displaced people in some areas.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/news/news8.htm
Getting out of Iraq
By Norman Solomon
This week began with the New York Times noting that “all of Washington is consumed with debate over the direction of the war in Iraq”. The debate — long overdue — is a serious blow to the war makers in Washington, but the US war effort will go on for years more unless the anti-war movement in the United States gains sufficient momentum to stop it.
A cliché goes that war is too important to be left to the generals. But a more relevant assessment is that peace is too vital to be left to pundits and members of Congress — people who have overwhelmingly dismissed the option of swiftly withdrawing US troops from Iraq.
On Nov. 17, a high-profile military booster in the US Congress suddenly shattered the conventional wisdom that immediate withdrawal is unthinkable. “The American public is way ahead of us,” Rep. John Murtha said in a statement concluding with capitalised words that shook the nation's capitalised political elites: “Our military has done everything that has been asked of them, the US cannot accomplish anything further in Iraq militarily. IT IS TIME TO BRING THEM HOME.”
Murtha's statement has broken a spell. But the white magic of the US' militarism remains a massive obstacle to bringing home the US troops who should never have been sent to Iraq in the first place.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion3.htm
'Trapped in the dark with no exit sign'
Michael Jansen
George W. Bush is a lame duck with more than three years to serve in his second term. Although he adopted policies which have contributed to his destruction, this did not become apparent in the US itself until the disaster produced by his mishandling of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina at the end of August.
Hurricane Katrina exposed all the faults of the Bush administration: Bush's inability to empathise with folks in trouble, his constant repetition of empty phrases which resolve nothing, his appointment of cronies to jobs they cannot perform, and his dependence on favoured US firms which are not only corrupt but inefficient.
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion2.htm
Stop coddling Belarus
By Aldis Kuskis
Lenin once said that capitalists were so cynical that they would sell the Soviets the rope with which they would hang them. Lenin and communism have passed away, but that cynical indifference to suffering when profits are involved remains.
Belarus provides a glaring example. The European Parliament has consistently denounced Belarus as Europe's last dictatorship, yet EU member governments continue business as usual with Aleksander Lukashenka, the country's wayward and near lunatic despot.
This is especially true when there is a chance to save or make money. For example, for more than a decade, Germany's police forces, customs service, and even the Bundeswehr have been ordering uniforms from a state-owned factory in the city of Dzherzinsky, named after the father of the Red Terror and founder of the Soviet KGB, Feliks Dzherzinsky. Similar examples of such indifferent cynicism abound.
This absurd situation must change. It is the duty of all members of EU national parliaments to reject this affront to their democratic dignity. Only democratic parliaments should sit as equals in Europe's democratic forums. The goal is not to ensure Europe's democratic purity, but to change the nature of Belarus' government. For that to happen, Europe's democratic voice must be heard within Belarus.
That won't be easy. Of the 1,500 different media outlets in Belarus today, only a dozen or so retain any form of independence. Even that small number is likely to diminish, as Lukashenka keeps up political, financial, and legal pressure on them. Indeed, Belarus' last independent daily newspaper recently went out of business.
The European Commission has allocated two million euros to establish an independent radio station for Belarus, which must operate outside of the country because of Lukashenka. Working with the Belarussian association of journalists, this independent media outlet will broadcast from Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and perhaps Ukraine.
This meagre effort, however, is an insufficient response by Europe's democracies to the full panoply of Lukashenka's dictatorship: his docile courts, brutal jails, and corrupt police. Are a few hours of radio broadcasting really all Europe and the democratic West can muster? If so, Lukashenka must be laughing aloud.
Parliamentarians across Europe and the West must join their voice together in a well-defined, united and ringing declaration that forces Western leaders to apply real pressure to Europe's last dictator. Such pressure brought results a year ago, with the success of the Orange Revolution in Ukraine. Nothing less than a united position against the despot of Belarus is necessary if Lukashenka — and his Russian backers — are to be forced to change their ways.
The writer, a member of the European Parliament from Latvia, is vice-chairman of its Delegation for Relations with Belarus. ©Project Syndicate, 2005. www.project-syndicate.org
http://www.jordantimes.com/thu/opinion/opinion4.htm
Polish Dailies Black Out Front Pages Over Belarus
The Associated Press
Boris holding Gazeta Wyborcza.
WARSAW -- Poland's two leading newspapers blacked out large sections of their front pages Wednesday in an eye-catching protest against media repression in neighboring Belarus.
The main pages of Gazeta Wyborcza and Rzeczpospolita looked as if a censor had taken a black marker to them, with most text and photographs crossed out. The two papers were joining a protest led by Amnesty International.
At the bottom of both front pages, the human rights group wrote: "This is what freedom of speech looks like in Belarus." The papers then printed their front page in full on page three, and carried commentaries and reports of humans rights abuses in Belarus.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/11/24/015.html
World Bank advises Belarus to liberalise trade
11.23.2005, 08:10 AM
MINSK (AFX) - World Bank experts said the Belarus government should review its trade legislation, which it says is characterised by extensive non-tariff barriers, in order to liberalise trade, BelaPAN news wire reported.
In its new economic memorandum on Belarus, the World Bank said there are a large number of restrictions on trade in Belarus which are limiting the import of consumer goods.
The report also said that while Belarus has made considerable progress in its WTO membership bid, the country has not yet signed a single market access agreement.
The government should reduce its subsidisation of agriculture and industry, including exporters, the report said. 'In addition, much more progress is needed in liberalising and de-monopolising a number of sectors such as financial services and telecommunications', the World Bank said.
cz/cmr
http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/afx/2005/11/23/afx2351599.html
The Arizona Republic
So whose memory is the shortest?
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
I find the two back-to-back letters to the editor on Monday ("Iraq war a just effort," defending the president, and "Democrats have short memories," criticizing the Democrats about their reversal on their vote for war in Iraq) quite ironic and revealing.
In the first, the writer says President Bush "oversold WMDs and undersold the need for culture change." In my memory, those who start wars and invade countries for culture change have usually been labeled demagogues and imperialists, not admirable leaders.
In the second, I seem to remember that most Democrats voted to give the president the authority to use war in order to give him a serious threat to force Iraq's leader to comply with U.N. and U.S. demands to cooperate. However, rather than threaten, we immediately went to war.
Indeed, who has the short (and selective) memories? - Stephen Sapareto, Mesa
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets243.html
Government destroying rail service
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
I'm reading the Sunday Viewpoints section and lo and behold, I see a column by Jon Talton pertaining to Amtrak ("Running Amtrak off the track"). I could not believe my eyes. Amtrak? Why would a Phoenix paper write about Amtrak?
It is a crying shame what the powers of both political parties are doing. They wish to dismember our rail system.
There is no cheaper way of shipping than by rail, unless you use barges. All European countries depend on rail systems for goods and passenger service, too.
I remember when the cities were sold a bill to eliminate trolley lines and switch to buses. They are still kicking themselves for losing control of the right of way in many cities and towns.
Jon Talton's columns are always informative. He's far ahead of the present thinking. - Seymour Pollock, Surprise
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets245.html
18-year-old mayor is a source of inspiration
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
What an inspiration!
I was glad, impressed and inspired by the article, "Michigan 18-year-old elected town mayor" (Republic, Nov. 13).
It's hard to believe that an 18-year-old boy will become mayor of a town. I wish I had that confidence when I was 18 and in high school.
The only obstacles are the ones you allow to get in your way.
- Yara Lopez, Tucson
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/1124thurlets241.html
Mining-land change may alter West
Shaun McKinnon
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
In a late-night vote overshadowed by sexier sound bites about war and taxes, the U.S. House rewrote parts of a 133-year-old mining law, stoking a decades-old battle over who should control vast open spaces across the West.
The stakes are high: billions of dollars in mining revenues, $2.4 billion a year in Arizona alone, and millions of acres of public land spread out among forests and rangelands or nestled next to national parks and monuments.
The House measure would allow mining companies or other private interests to buy the land and develop it, even if there was nothing there to mine. It could open impoverished areas to economic investment but close scenic spots to recreational users and strip those spots of environmental protection.
Backers of the rewrite say it's an attempt to modernize outdated laws and protect the economic health of rural mining communities, which have suffered with the ebb and flow of ore prices. They insist the bill includes strong protection for sensitive lands and enough mining-related requirements to fend off speculators. It also creates a richer revenue source, they say, raising the purchase price of a mining claim from as little as $2.50 an acre to at least $1,000 an acre.
But even at that price, the result is a near-giveaway of public lands, opponents say, who paint a darker picture, one rife with abuse of already weak laws. They say the proposed changes are not so much about mining as about opening valuable land to developers, who would build ski resorts, housing developments and shopping centers on the back doorsteps of "special places" like the Grand Canyon.
One environmental group produced an illustration depicting a sprawling subdivision on the Canyon's North Rim, a community they named "Pombotown," after Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., the committee chairman who ushered the bill to the House floor last weekend.
The revisions were tacked on to a huge deficit-reduction package that survived by two votes, but the changes were not included in the Senate version. Both sides are girding for a final fight when negotiators try to reconcile differences after the Thanksgiving recess.
"People in Arizona should be very concerned about it," said Don Steuter, who watches mining issues for Arizona's Sierra Club chapter. "There has been so much abuse in the past with these laws. There's a long history of it, and they're pointing us even more in that direction. It could turn into a fire sale."
Industry still lucrative
The bill has put Arizona's conservationists at odds with one of the state's oldest industries, which is still among its most lucrative. Arizona regularly leads the nation in copper production and ranks among the top five states in silver, gemstones, sand and gravel, and other metals and minerals. In 2003, the state's mineral production topped $2.4 billion; the copper industry alone produced $2.7 billion in direct and indirect economic impacts.
The Environmental Working Group estimates that there are nearly 642,000 acres of existing mining claims on public lands in Arizona, with nearly a third of the land in Yavapai, Pinal and Mohave counties. Thousands of those claims are inside a national forest, park or wilderness area or within five miles of one.
What worries many conservationists is that, with the change, mining companies could not only buy the land but develop it without the public environmental impact studies required under existing laws. The changes could also derail land exchanges that returned some value to the public, Steuter said.
The bill's author, Rep. Jim Gibbons, said that's not his intent. Gibbons, R-Nev., said the measure was written to promote economic development in the rural West, largely by privatizing the land where mining claims are filed.
Under his proposal, a mining company could skip some of the costliest environmental studies required before digging into public lands. And once the ore was exhausted, they could leave behind for local communities the roads, power lines and other infrastructure they now must erase.
"Without this measure, the jobs and infrastructure of these communities can literally disappear when a mine closes," he said.
His bill lifts an 11-year moratorium on mining claim patents, the term for the purchase of land where ore is found, and gives companies more leeway in staking their claims, adding economic development as an allowed use. Companies would also face less-stringent standards on what constitutes a mining operation. Simple "mineral development work" would validate a claim under the Gibbons measure.
The National Mining Association and other lobbying groups endorsed the rewrite. Association President Kraig Naasz said the measure would "give mining communities greater opportunities for sustained economic growth and help attract investments." If the mining companies can't purchase the public land outright, "these critical assets must be removed."
Parks threatened?
Even some opponents concede the idea doesn't sound nefarious, but they say the consequences of the bill are buried in language that has confounded experts on both sides.
For example, in one section the measure specifically bars the sale of lands within national parks, wildlife refuges, national conservation areas or wilderness areas. In another section, that ban is apparently modified with the phrase "subject to valid existing rights."
Environmental groups say that would let a company dust off an old mining claim inside a park or a monument, buy the land and develop it, a charge Gibbons dismisses as a scare tactic.
Other proposals that look good on the surface are similarly flawed, foes say. The bill's supporters trumpet the increase in price to purchase a mining claim from as low as $2.50 an acre, a rate that survived from 1872, to $1,000 an acre or the appraised market value, whichever is higher.
The problem, according to several groups, is that appraisals on mining claims are usually low, sometimes as low as $100 to $200 an acre, in part because of the typically rugged location and in part because the value of any minerals is not included. As a result, a claim would rarely cost more than $1,000 an acre.
Open space at issue
Equally troubling to the conservation groups is the loss of open space. The law would let mining companies buy not only parcels with mining claims but land adjacent to such claims or operations. Backers say that provision would promote better management, but opponents say it unfairly locks up too much land.
"This is a loss for Arizonans," said Tucson resident Mary Kidwell, who has fought mining proposals in the Empire-Fagan Valley area southeast of Tucson. "We could soon find 'private property' signs blocking the trailhead of favorite hunting grounds or picnic spots."
Conservation groups say that at the very least, Gibbons and Pombo should have introduced the bill separately, instead of attaching it to such a wide-ranging and politically sensitive measure. Some groups suspect the mining rewrites fell victim to other deals and they fear it could survive talks with the Senate in the same way.
But Gibbons said he held several hearings on the proposal and has hidden nothing.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124landsale.html
Kolbe won't run in 2006
Billy House and Pat Flannery
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Rep. Jim Kolbe, dean of Arizona's eight U.S. House members, a leading centrist voice on issues such as Social Security reform and immigration and a strong backer of free trade, announced Wednesday that he will not run for re-election in 2006.
Kolbe said he is confident he could win a 12th two-year term in Congress but, "at some point, you have to say it's time to hang up the spurs."
"I'm 63, not getting any younger, and I always wanted to teach and do some other things," said Kolbe, who has not ruled out doing consulting work in Washington. "I'm very comfortable with this announcement."…
… Mood in Washington
Kolbe, who is the only openly homosexual House Republican, said he considered retiring two years ago but had been talked into finishing his current term as chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations, which ends at the close of next year. But the idea of losing the chairmanship of the panel that decides such things as the amount of foreign assistance to other nations was a key factor in his decision, he said.
He also said in a telephone conference call from Arizona with reporters that another factor was "the mood" in Washington now, a level of divisiveness that he described as not being seen "in a long time."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124kolbe-retire.html
Assaults on border agents double in '05
Mike Madden
Republic Washington Bureau
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Assaults on U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Tucson and Yuma sectors averaged about one a day in the past year, and the number of attacks there more than doubled compared with the previous year.
Nationwide, the number of assaults nearly doubled, with attacks on agents based in Arizona making up more than half the incidents.
From Oct. 1, 2004, to Sept. 30, the Border Patrol registered 687 assaults on its agents, up from 349 during the same period along the Southwest and Canadian borders. All but one of the attacks occurred on the Southwest border, officials said. In Tucson and Yuma, there were 365 assaults during the past fiscal year, up from 179 the year before.
The increase reflects the growing influence of organized criminal syndicates in border trafficking, officials said, and the higher profits involved in smuggling migrants across the border for as much as $2,000 per trip.
"Smuggling organizations have now shifted resources to areas that are very rural and isolated, and with that the prices that the smugglers are charging the aliens now rivals drug smuggling," said Border Patrol spokesman Mario Villarreal, based in Washington. "It's a big business."
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1124assaults.html
Toyota to boost U.S. output by 100,000 to dethrone GM
Hans Greimel
Associated Press
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
TOKYO - Toyota Motor Corp. is quickening its quest to unseat ailing General Motors Corp. as the world's biggest automaker with reported plans to start manufacturing up to 100,000 Toyota vehicles at a Subaru factory in Indiana.
Word of Toyota's ramped-up production schedule comes just days after GM said it will close 12 plants and cut 30,000 jobs by 2008 in a move that will slash the number of vehicles it is able to build in North America by about 1 million a year.
The combined developments could help Toyota surpass GM in worldwide production.
Toyota expects to produce 8.1 million vehicles this year, while GM expects 9 million, according to Greg Gardner of Harbour Consulting, a manufacturing consulting firm.
http://www.azcentral.com/business/articles/1124toyota24.html
Rock Burglar on long hiatus
But residents urged to take care over holidays
Michael Ferraresi
The Arizona Republic
Nov. 24, 2005 12:00 AM
NORTHEAST VALLEY - Twelve years and 337 burglaries later the most notorious thief in the Northeast Valley - the Rock Burglar - is still eluding police.
Despite the 12-year hunt, police are not sure how or when the Rock Burglar is casing luxury homes, or when the unidentified burglar or burglars will strike again.
The Rock Burglar's erratic patterns have long stumped investigators, who have tried to anticipate the window-smashing heists that have netted the culprit more than $10 million, mostly in stolen jewelry and cash.
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Scottsdale police Detective Sgt. Eric Rasmussen said the Rock Burglar is no more active during the holidays than any other time, though homeowners leaving town for Thanksgiving or Christmas are urged to take extra precautions to safeguard their properties.
The Rock Burglar primarily targets residents of affluent neighborhoods in Paradise Valley, Scottsdale and Carefree for expensive jewelry.
"If you meet those criteria, you should be a little more alert coming home at night," said Rasmussen, who oversees Scottsdale's burglary unit.
"If you hear glass break in your neighborhood you might think about calling police to take a look," he said.
Since January 2003, the Rock Burglar has hit 41 homes in Scottsdale, as many as 10 near Carefree, and two in Paradise Valley, police said.
The most recent incident in Scottsdale was March 12, on 124th Street south of Shea Boulevard.
Paradise Valley was hit the hardest by the Rock Burglar from 1993 to 2002, but investigators said the suspect's focus has seemingly shifted to Scottsdale.
The Rock Burglar has struck every month of the year, and does not seem to follow any specific patterns.
Investigators describe the suspect as organized, dedicated and meticulous about the robberies.
http://www.azcentral.com/community/scottsdale/articles/1124sr-burglars24Z8.html
continued …
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