Los Angeles Times
IAEA Likely to OK Iran Resolution
The U.N. atomic agency report to the Security Council would give Tehran a month to provide information on its nuclear program.
By Alissa J. Rubin and John Daniszewski, Times Staff Writers
VIENNA — European and U.S. diplomats expressed confidence Thursday that they would win the votes necessary to report concerns about Iran's nuclear research program to the United Nations Security Council.
With the support of oncereluctant Russia and China, there was little doubt that the International Atomic Energy Agency's board of governors would approve the resolution. All countries with veto power on the Security Council — the U.S., Britain, France, Russia and China — now support the measure.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iran3feb03,1,2450441.story?coll=la-headlines-world&ctrack=1&cset=true
Dutch Hesitations Create Hitch in Afghan Mission
The U.S. seeks a bigger NATO presence to lessen its combat burden. Some in Holland worry about dangers to troops.
By Paul Richter, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — When NATO voted in December to shoulder a larger and far riskier assignment in Afghanistan, an alliance born in the Cold War seemed suddenly to be entering a new and ambitious stage. But the resistance of the usually steadfast Dutch has thrown the mission into doubt, as well as the broader, long-term plans of the Bush administration to rely more heavily on its traditional partners in military operations around the world.
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which now has 9,000 troops patrolling generally safer parts of Afghanistan, agreed to take on the larger part of the burden from U.S. forces and to send troops into the nation's south, where Taliban fighters have been stepping up insurgent operations.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usdutch2feb02,0,7386414.story?coll=la-home-world
Officials Closemouthed on Eavesdropping
Testifying to a Senate panel, intelligence chiefs say the NSA program has helped disrupt plots.
By Greg Miller, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — The nation's top intelligence officials resisted pressure to provide more details about a controversial domestic eavesdropping program during congressional testimony Thursday, but said without elaborating that the operation had enabled authorities to disrupt potential terrorist plots.
National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte and other senior officials declined to respond to questions about the surveillance program, refusing to say in a public session how many Americans had been targeted or how many e-mails and phone calls had been intercepted.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel3feb03,0,1746825.story?coll=la-home-nation
Not the Majority Leader They Expected
John A. Boehner defeats front-runner Roy Blunt as the party seeks to show a strong commitment to ethics reform.
By Mary Curtius and Richard Simon, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — In choosing Rep. John A. Boehner of Ohio as the new House majority leader Thursday, Republicans sought to put a new face on a party reeling from scandals and worried about maintaining its congressional majority.
In an upset, Boehner won a tense closed-door vote that went to a second ballot.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-leader3feb03,0,2948324.story?coll=la-home-nation
Shooting Shocks Deputy's Friends
Ivory John Webb, the San Bernardino County lawman who fired on a senior airman Sunday night in Chino, is known as level-headed.
By Lance Pugmire, Times Staff Writer
Friends and family of the San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy who opened fire on an Air Force security officer in a video-recorded shooting described the deputy Thursday as level-headed and "by-the-book."
Deputy Ivory John Webb, a standout football player at Carson High School who also played for the University of Iowa, entered law enforcement in the long shadow of his father, a respected former police chief in Compton.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-highspeed3feb03,0,487550.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Greatest of Teese
Burlesque queen and fetishist has become fashion's "It" girl.
By Booth Moore, Times Staff Writer
It's Friday afternoon in the picket-fence suburb of Chatsworth. The sun is low as an iron gate parts to reveal a steep driveway leading to a classic, low-slung ranch house.
The front door opens and there is Dita Von Teese — a porcelain doll, not a raven hair out of place. Her scarlet fingernails are filed into pointy talons, her lipstick and beauty mark perfect.
http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/cl-et-fashion3feb03,0,1624895.story?coll=la-homepage-calendar-widget
Sirius Shock: Pirates Hit Howard Stern Show
By Dawn C. Chmielewski, Times Staff Writer
Sirius Satellite Radio Inc., which liberated radio shock jock Howard Stern from the federal decency standards that he felt had shackled him, is finding that freedom's just another word for $500 million to lose.
Since Jan. 9, when Stern debuted on Sirius, pirated versions of the shows have been made available for free via several online file-sharing networks just hours after Stern signs off. The New York-based broadcaster signed Stern to a five-year, half-billion-dollar contract in 2004.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-fi-free2feb02,0,7066536.story?track=hpmostemailedlink
'It's Like You’re Climbing Everest'
By Erika Hayasaki
Eleven boys thought they’d leave high school as they entered it — together — on graduation day.
They were wrong.
http://www.latimes.com/news/education/la-me-dropouts-series,0,7942897.special
Anger Over Cartoons of Muhammad Escalates
By Sebastian Rotella, Times Staff Writer
PARIS — Protests erupted in the Muslim world and militants issued threats against Europeans on Thursday in response to the publication in Western media of controversial caricatures of the prophet Muhammad.
Debate over the drawings, which were first published in September by a Danish newspaper, is being seen as a collision between freedom of expression and religious sensitivities in European nations, where Muslim populations have struggled to fit in.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-muhammad3feb03,0,4651147.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Hussein Half Brother Named in Torture
With most defendants absent, two women tell court Barzan Ibrahim Hasan abused them.
By Richard Boudreaux, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD — As Saddam Hussein and other key defendants boycotted their trial, two women testified Wednesday that the former dictator's intelligence chief had supervised and taken part in torture sessions where they were stripped naked, given electric shocks, hung from the ceiling and beaten.
The accounts were the most chilling so far in court proceedings in which the defendants' tirades have often overshadowed the victims of their alleged crimes. It was the most damaging testimony yet against Barzan Ibrahim Hasan, who is Hussein's half brother, in the courtroom drama that began in October.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-saddam2feb02,0,6343524.story?coll=la-home-world
Don't gouge Exxon
IT'S NOT NECESSARILY TRUE that Exxon Mobil is richer than God, but in 2005 the company accomplished something nearly as impressive: It made more money than Wal-Mart.
Exxon's earnings announcement Monday makes it the most profitable company in U.S. history and the biggest company in the country by sales. And Exxon isn't alone in capitalizing on soaring crude oil prices — most of its brethren among the world's oil giants are reporting record profits as well. You'd expect oil executives to be flipping their Stetsons over their good fortune; instead, they're nervously dialing their lobbyists and taking out ads explaining that they're really not making all that much money after all.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-oil01feb01,0,1768293.story?coll=la-home-oped
How not to help Hamas
PALESTINIANS RECEIVE MORE international aid, per capita, than any people in the world. The upset victory by Hamas in the Palestinian elections offers a rare opportunity, for the United States and for the international community, to rethink what that aid could realistically accomplish — and under what conditions humanitarian aid could be provided to Palestinians without the risk that it would be siphoned to Hamas.
President Bush is right to threaten to cut off U.S. aid to a Palestinian government controlled by Hamas. U.S. law and common decency preclude taxpayer money from going to a terrorist group that has vowed to annihilate Israel. (Most of the $1.7 billion in U.S. aid after the 1993 Oslo agreement didn't go to the government, but the Palestinian Authority had been slated to get $150 million from the U.S. this year.)
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-hamas31jan31,0,822387.story?coll=la-news-comment-editorials
Postal Killer's Rampage Began With Ex-Neighbor's Slaying
By Steve Chawkins and Michael Muskal, Times Staff Writers
GOLETA, Calif. -- When Eddie Blomfield was unable to contact his girlfriend, he dashed to her condominium, opened the door and saw that his worst fears were real.
Beverly Graham was motionless on the floor. Blomfield reached down to touch her leg. "It was ice cold," the salesman said this morning as he and relatives mourned Graham, believed to be the first person shot by a former postal worker who went on a killing spree Monday night.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-020106postal_lat,0,5232565.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Airman's Shooting Sparks FBI Inquiry
By Lance Pugmire and Matt Lait, Times Staff Writers
Responding to a dramatic videotape of a police shooting, federal officials opened an investigation Tuesday into the conduct of a San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy who opened fire on a man who appeared to be following the deputy's order to get off the ground.
A grainy videotape of the shooting in Chino was broadcast repeatedly on television Tuesday. The quality of the tape is poor, and it is difficult to clearly hear all the exchanges between the deputy and 21-year-old Elio Carrion during the seconds before the shooting.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-highspeed1feb01,0,7570035.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Testimony Asserts Enron Earnings Reports Were Manipulated
By Thomas S. Mulligan and Jesus Sanchez, Times Staff Writers
Enron Corp. was under tremendous pressure to satisfy Wall Street's financial targets and, on at least two occasions, the company changed its quarterly earnings reports to match or exceed those expectations, the company's investor relations chief said today as the first witness in the corporate corruption case.
Former Enron investors relations chief and government witness Mark E. Koenig described how the defendants, former Chairman Kenneth L. Lay and Chief Executive Jeffrey K. Skilling, were aware of altering financial results — even by a penny or two a share — to please analysts and investors. Failure to meet those results would likely trigger a sell-off of Enron shares.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-020106enron_lat,0,2497196.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews
LAPD Chief Overruled on Teen's Death
By Richard Winton and Rong-Gong Lin II, Times Staff Writers
The Los Angeles Police Commission on Tuesday rejected the recommendation of Police Chief William J. Bratton and ruled that the officer who fatally shot a 13-year-old after a brief chase violated department rules and should face discipline.
The decision marks the first major test of a panel that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa appointed last summer to provide tougher oversight of the Los Angeles Police Department. Many of the previous civilian commissions have been criticized as a rubber stamp for the chief.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-lapd1feb01,0,4801279.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews
She Built a Legacy by Preserving One
The wife of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was influential in the civil rights movement and carried it on with dignity and fortitude.
By Elaine Woo, Times Staff Writer
Coretta Scott King, the dignified and determined widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who assumed her murdered husband's burden as chief symbol of the civil rights movement and fiercely guarded his legacy — often in ways that drew pointed criticism — has died. She was 78.
King, who had heart problems and had suffered a major stroke in August, died at 1 a.m. Tuesday at Santa Monica Health Institute, an alternative medicine center in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, said Lorena Blanco of the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana. Doctors at the clinic told Associated Press that King was fighting advanced ovarian cancer when she arrived there Thursday. She died of respiratory failure.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-king1feb01,0,4046052.story?coll=la-homepage-calendar-widget
United Finally Flies Out of Bankruptcy
From Associated Press
CHICAGO — United Airlines finally left bankruptcy today, a leaner and more cost-efficient carrier after a painful restructuring that began in 2002 and lasted a record 1,150 days.
The nation's No. 2 airline announced it had filed its exit documents in U.S. Bankruptcy Court this afternoon, officially ending the longest and costliest bankruptcy of any airline.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-020106united_wr,0,329922.story?coll=la-home-business
Major Market Indexes Slip After Fed Decision
But nearly all are positive for the month, historically a good sign for the entire year. Treasury bond yields barely budge.
By Tom Petruno, Times Staff Writer
Wall Street ended Tuesday close to where it began: still confident that the Federal Reserve is nearly done tightening credit.
Confidence in market darling Google, however, took a hit after the Internet giant reported weaker-than-expected earnings after regular trading ended.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-markets1feb01,0,5010655.story?coll=la-home-business
Stay out of the water? No way
Some surfers are so devoted to their sport that they ignore sewage-related beach closures, but the risks of infection are real.
By Hugo MartÃn, Times Staff Writer
In Southern California, surfing can be a contact sport.
Paddle out of almost any beach and there's a chance you'll come in contact with a sewage spill, big-city runoff, a red tide or, sometimes, floating cattle.
http://www.latimes.com/features/health/la-he-surf30jan30,0,6678989.story?coll=la-home-health
Beer and present danger
The president's State of the Union address might go down a little easier if you mix it with a few drinks.
By Heather Havrilesky, HEATHER HAVRILESKY is a television critic for Salon.com.
DESPITE THE HYPE, tonight's State of the Union address is certain to disappoint. Sure, President Bush will do his best to work us into a frenzy, as he did in his most recent televised address, with his talk of a vast cabal of brutal forces afoot, "unconstrained by conscience," opposed to "our deepest values," determined to view the world as a "giant battlefield."
But even as he spoke of this very exciting giant battlefield, the president just sat there at his desk, staring blankly into the TelePrompTer. Is that any way to build suspense? Why weren't there flames shooting into the sky on either side of his head? Why didn't the camera crew get some extreme close-ups with a shaky, hand-held camera? Did Karl Rove forget to cue the nerve-jangling, clock-ticking sound from "24"?
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-havrilesky31jan31,0,1625008.story?track=hpmostemailedlink
Hot off the global griddle
Arepas, clayudas and cornmeal pancakes -- you'll flip over their amazing textures and flavors.
By Barbara Hansen and Susan LaTempa, Times Staff Writers
GRIDDLE cakes are elemental. Like porridge and roasted meat, they're ancient preparations, seemingly slapped together at the fireside for as long as humans have gathered around that fire to eat. But in cooking, elemental never means unchanging. Corn griddle cakes, for example, simple folk food in dozens of cultures, come in many guises. Venezuelan or Columbia arepas. Oaxacan clayudas. Indonesian bregedel jagung. All-American cornmeal pancakes.
They may be basic, but they can have amazing flavor and texture, whatever the country of origin.
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-corncakes1feb01,0,529059.story?coll=la-home-food
Done right, it'll wow 'em
The latest batch of Bloody Marys has lemon, heat and lots of style.
By Leslee Komaiko, Special to The Times
THERE'S nothing like a great Bloody Mary. Tangy and spicy, earthy and rich, refreshing yet deeply satisfying, there's a reason the drink endures as a classic.
It seems simple enough — just a blend of tomato juice, horseradish, Tabasco, Worcestershire sauce and vodka, garnished with a celery stick — but it's actually a tricky drink to make well.
http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-bloodymary1feb01,0,2718255.story?coll=la-home-food
New Zealand Herald
Bid to tag shark fails
02.02.06 1.00pm
Scientists last night issued a fresh warning about a great white shark seen cruising Taranaki's coastline after attempts to tag it with a satellite tracker failed.
Marine scientist Clinton Duffy and former New Plymouth marine biologist Demian Chapman attempted to tag the shark with pop-off satellite tags to monitor its movements.
It would have enabled them to learn more about the species, the Taranaki Daily News reported today.
But their five-hour mission, which finished at 10pm, failed to lure the shark.
However, during the mission Mr Duffy did see a great white at least 4m long dive out of the water near Seal Rock, off Port Taranaki.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10366486
NZ soldiers destroy opium in Afghanistan
02.02.06 10.00am
New Zealand soldiers working on the reconstruction of war-torn Afghanistan have destroyed nearly two tonnes of opium.
The troops are part of the New Zealand Defence Force Provincial Reconstruction Team (NZPRT) in the Bamyan province.
The 1746kg of opium resin was seized by the Afghan national drugs police from caves near Bamyan before it could be smuggled across the Afghan border and processed into heroin, said the defence force.
Its destruction was supervised by New Zealand police superintendent Tom Ireland, who is based in Bamyan with the NZPRT as mentor to the local police chief.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10366478
Ship missing with more than 1300 aboard
04.02.06 12.40am
CAIRO - Coastal stations have lost contact with a ferry carrying some 1310 mainly Egyptian passengers from the Saudi port of Jeddah to Safaga on Egypt's Red Sea coast, security sources said on Friday.
The ferry should have reached Safaga at 2am local but did not arrive, they said.
They named the ferry as the 6650-ton Al Salam 89, which is owned by the Egyptian company el-Salam Maritime Transport. According to the company's website, the vessel can carry about 1400 passengers.
Most of the passengers are Egyptians working in Saudi Arabia, rather than pilgrims returning from the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, the sources said.
A sister ship, Al Salam 95, sank in the Red Sea in October after a collision with a Cypriot commercial vessel. In that case almost all of the passengers were rescued.
A search and rescue plane spotted a lifeboat with passengers near where the Egyptian ferry disappeared, an Egyptian health ministry official said from the Red Sea port of Safaga.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10366828
'Nothing wrong with plane' before crash landing
03.02.06 1.00pm
By Ian Stuart
A former air force aircraft that crash landed at Ohakea today on its way to the Wellington rugby sevens tournament had no faults, pilot Paul Jones says.
He said the former air force Devon, made a heavy landing at the Ohakea air force base as it came in to land.
It had been forced down by the weather on a flight to Wellington, where the nine passengers intended to go to the rugby tournament.
Mr Jones, 44, one of the syndicate members who owned the aircraft, told NZPA that no one was hurt and the aircraft would be repaired.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10366689
Earthquake sirens sound in Napier again
03.02.06 12.00pm
Large crowds attended today's 75th anniversary service commemorating the 1931 earthquake with Prime Minister Helen Clark speaking at the Napier event.
About 300 people who survived the disaster were expected to be among the gatherings in both Napier and Hastings.
People were taking up their seats on the grassed area in front of the Sound Shell from 9.15 and by 9.45 there were already about 300 people assembled. Many were dressed in the '30s styles.
The service got under way at 10.30am after a concert by the Napier Tech Band, and at the conclusion of speeches from Mayor Barbara Arnott and the Prime Minister, the Veronica Bell, which had been set up on the Sound Shell stage, was rung to mark the moment, at 10.46am, the quake struck.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10366666
US dentists sue to stop NZ-trained workers
03.02.06 1.00pm
By Kent Atkinson
The American Dental Association (ADA) has filed a lawsuit in Anchorage, Alaska, to stop New Zealand-trained dental workers treating Inuit and Indians in remote villages in the state.
In a lawsuit filed in the state's Superior Court, the association said the dental aides trained at Otago University's dental school were performing extractions, surgeries and other irreversible procedures, allegedly in violation of state licensing laws.
Much of the work has been done in rural villages, where there are no dentists and where the rate of tooth decay is two-and-a-half times that of the rest of the nation. Among those being treated are Athabascan and Tsimshian Indians and Inupiat and Yupik Eskimos.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10366670
Doctor queries brothel ethics
03.02.06
A Far North doctor's decision to turn his former clinic into a brothel could breach the Hippocratic oath, a medical professional says.
GP Neil Benson is planning his new brothel venture at Coopers Beach where he closed his clinic last April.
Whangarei GP David Atkinson questions whether Dr Benson is breaching the oath, which is taken by physicians to observe medical ethics and "abstain from every voluntary act of mischief and corruption".
"What is legal is not always of the highest propriety in principle when you're caring for people who are suffering from all types of abuse in life, especially sexual abuse."
He said many prostitutes had been victims of sexual abuse and their "suffering could be exploited".
Dr Benson disagreed.
"Alcohol creates social issues but does that mean a doctor can't own shares in a brewery or a tavern? Of course not," he said. "I don't think running a brothel the way I propose to is something not to be proud of."
His decision has the backing of the Prostitutes Collective national co-ordinator Catherine Healy.
"Somebody who has had experience in what we would perceive as a compassionate environment is a good thing," she said.
"It's a good sign sex workers are not being considered pariahs not worthy of having places to work from that are safe."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10366570
Chavez expels US military official accused of spying
03.02.06 1.00pm
CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has expelled a US Embassy military attache after authorities accused him of espionage for trying to persuade Venezuelan officers to hand over state secrets.
The expulsion worsens already rocky relations between the United States and the world's No. 5 oil exporter, as Chavez aggressively promotes his socialist revolution to counter US influence in South America.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10366685
UN calls for standards in new 45-nation human rights body
03.02.06 1.00pm
UNITED NATIONS - Proposals for a long-awaited UN Human Rights Council call for 45 members and beefed up standards for any nation wanting a seat on the new body, according to a draft resolution circulated today.
World leaders agreed at a UN summit in September to create a new body to replace the 53-member Geneva-based Human Rights Commission, known for giving seats to countries such as Sudan and Zimbabwe and blocking criticism of rights abusers.
The aim of the 191-member General Assembly is to approve the document by February 15 so that the new council, which will also sit in Geneva, is ready to take over from the commission that is to have its final session, beginning in mid-March.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10366686
Anonymous end for Katrina victims
03.02.06 7.20am
No names will adorn their headstones, no family will be here to mourn their passing. They are anonymous victims of Hurricane Katrina.
A man and woman whose identities remain a nagging mystery were to be buried next to each other today in a city-owned cemetery. Nobody came forward to claim the bodies, which were found in different places about a week after the August 29 hurricane. Fingerprints, dental records and DNA tests failed to yield any results.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10366605
Peru and Yale University dispute status of Inca treasures
03.02.06 1.00pm
By Rupert Cornwell
WASHINGTON - Yale University is embroiled in an escalating dispute with Peru over the return of treasures from the world famous Incan site of Machu Picchu, currently on display at the Ivy League University as part of its permanent collection.
Over the years there have been fitful attempts to find a solution to the contested ownership.
It now threatens to come to a head later this year, with the departure from office of Alejandro Toledo, Peru's first indigenous President, who has pledged his best efforts to recover the treasures before he steps down in July.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10366660
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