Boston Globe
Islamic anger widens at Mohammed cartoons
Europeans face protests, threats
By Colin Nickerson, Globe Staff February 3, 2006
BERLIN -- An extraordinary row over newspaper cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed intensified yesterday, with street demonstrations from North Africa to Pakistan to Indonesia, threats of violence against Europeans in the Middle East, and diplomatic protests by Muslim nations.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/02/03/islamic_anger_widens_at_mohammed_cartoons_1138959659/
In my opinion, this could easily 'front' for a bio-weapons lab. I don't like it.
Biosafety lab in South End gets final OK
The federal government gave final approval yesterday to Boston University's plan to build a high-security research laboratory in the South End, where scientists will work with some of the world's deadliest viruses and bacteria.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/
BU may start construction this month
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff February 3, 2006
The federal government gave final approval yesterday to Boston University's plan to build a high-security research laboratory in the South End, where scientists hunting for vaccines and drugs will work with some of the world's deadliest viruses and bacteria, such as Ebola, anthrax, and plague.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/03/biosafety_lab_in_south_end_gets_final_ok/
Regulators debate cutting fishing days at sea to rebuild stocks
By Clarke Canfield, Associated Press Writer February 1, 2006
PORTLAND, Maine --New England fishery regulators debated proposed regulations Wednesday that would cut fishermen's days-at-sea allotments by as much as 40 percent in an effort to help fish populations recover.
The New England Fishery Management Council was discussing seven alternatives late Wednesday that included reducing how many days fishermen can fish, changing the way days-at-sea are counted and other measures. The plan aims to rebuild declining populations of cod, yellowtail and winter flounder, and white hake in New England waters.
The meeting was expected to last into the night.
Regulators and fishermen said none of the alternatives were appealing and all would cause economic distress and induce safety problems with no guarantees that they would meet their objective.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/02/01/regulators_debate_cutting_fishing_days_at_sea_to_rebuild_stocks/
Plea in nightclub fire case spells uncertain future for co-defendants
By Eric Tucker, Associated Press Writer February 1, 2006
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --The announcement that a former tour manager for a rock band would plead guilty in a nightclub fire that killed 100 people prompts the crucial question of what the deal means for the two other men charged in the deadly 2003 blaze.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/02/01/plea_in_nightclub_fire_case_spells_uncertain_future_for_co_defendants/
Boston to host 2006 WNBA draft
February 1, 2006
BOSTON --The WNBA will hold its annual draft in Boston this year, marking the first time in the league's 10-year history the event will be held outside New Jersey.
The draft will be held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center on April 5, the day after the women's college basketball championship game is play at Boston's TD Banknorth Garden.
In addition, coaches and general managers will evaluate the skills of about 40 top college seniors at the league's annual pre-draft camp April 3 at Emmanuel College in the city's Fenway section.
"With our pre-draft camp in town and with our draft taking place less than 24 hours after an NCAA national champion is crowned, Boston will be the Mecca of women's basketball during the first week of April," WNBA president Donna Orender said Wednesday.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/01/boston_to_host_2006_wnba_draft_pre_draft_camp/
U.S. aims for nuclear workers' safety
By Nancy Zuckerbrod, Associated Press Writer February 1, 2006
WASHINGTON --The Energy Department, for the first time, plans to start fining contractors who violate basic safety rules at the nation's nuclear weapons plants.
Currently the government can fine contractors if they expose workers to radiation hazards but cannot fine them for exposing employees to toxic chemicals or other industrial hazards.
A new rule to be published by the government next week seeks to resolve that inconsistency.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/02/01/us_aims_for_nuclear_workers_safety/
Gas traces found on school milk cartons
January 31, 2006
COLUMBIA, S.C. --Traces of gasoline and a chemical used in moth balls have been found on milk cartons in two Barnwell County schools, health officials say.
The odor was so strong that officials don't think any students drank the milk from the contaminated cartons, Department of Health and Environmental Control spokesman Thom Berry said.
"It was so strong and so distinct -- nobody wanted to drink it," Berry said.
The milk was noticed the first week of January at Barnwell Primary and Barnwell Elementary schools. Administrators contacted law enforcement and health department officials, and other districts stopped serving milk for a day, including Lexington 1.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/01/31/gas_traces_found_on_school_milk_cartons/
Sony scraps four-legged robot pet Aibo
TOKYO --The world's first mass-marketed robot, Sony's Aibo, recognizes its owners' faces and is programmed for sympathy, like a canine companion. Its eyes light up in red to show anger, green to convey happiness. It even learns its own name.
Aibo owners tend to be fiercely loyal, too. The robots have even been hacked by tinkerers seeking to add their own modifications. But none of that prevented Sony Corp. from announcing last week that it was scrapping the four-legged robot pet as part of the company's bid to reverse flagging fortunes and cut costs.
Like so many things Sony has made over the years, the Aibo is a niche product. And since Sony is pulling the plug on robot production as part of a major restructuring, so goes the Aibo.
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2006/02/01/sony_scraps_four_legged_robot_pet_aibo/
Operator of bus in Rita blast charged
MCALLEN, Texas --A tour company has been charged with conspiracy and other crimes in the deaths of 23 nursing home residents whose bus caught fire and exploded as they were trying to flee Hurricane Rita.
In an indictment unsealed Wednesday, Global Limo, Inc., and owner James H. Maples are accused of conspiring to falsify driver time records and failing to inspect the company's bus fleet to make sure the buses were safe.
Maples, 65, was arrested Wednesday at his McAllen home. He was scheduled to appear before a U.S. magistrate Wednesday afternoon.
The bus caught fire Sept. 23 on a freeway near Dallas as it was evacuating residents of Brighton Gardens nursing home from Houston as Hurricane Rita churned in the Gulf of Mexico. The driver and some passengers escaped, but others were trapped when oxygen tanks on board fed the flames and exploded.
Those killed accounted for nearly a quarter of the roughly 100 people whose deaths were attributed to the hurricane.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/01/operator_of_bus_in_rita_blast_charged/
Women sue Wal-Mart over emergency contraception
Three women from the Boston area today sued Wal-Mart for failing to stock and dispense an emergency contraception pill called Plan B.
Sam Perkins, an attorney representing the women, said Wal-Mart violated regulations of the Board of Registration in Pharmacy by not stocking the drug. His suit, filed under the state's Consumer Protection Act, demands Wal-Mart dispense Plan B and pay attorney fees.
Wal-Mart officials say they know of no Massachusetts regulation or law requiring a pharmacy to stock every drug, but the retailer said it would stock Plan B if directed to do so by the state pharmacy board or Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly. Wal-Mart says it doesn't stock emergency contraception at any of its pharmacies nationally for "business reasons."
http://www.boston.com/business/ticker/
Study: Compact Cars, SUVs Have Highest Fatality Rates
WASHINGTON — People love compact cars as gas prices soar, but there's a sobering cost: The U.S. government says they have the highest fatality rate.
Compacts had a fatality rate of 17.76 per 100,000 vehicles in 2004, followed by compact pickup trucks with 16.87 and subcompact vehicles with 16.85, according to a report Monday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Large vans had the lowest rate, 9.34, while pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles had rates of about 15 deaths.
http://www.cars.com/go/news/Story.jsp?section=news&subject=recent&story=013106storyaAP&aff=boston
Punching horse may land man in deep doodoo
February 1, 2006
OROVILLE, Calif. --A 24-year-old man could be shoveling horse manure as part of his punishment for punching a police horse.
Butte County Superior Court Judge Stephen Benson sentenced Robert William Huff, of Chico, to 20 hours of community service and 24 hours in jail after he pleaded no contest Tuesday to a charge of assaulting a police horse.
The horse, named "Bailey," was helping police control fraternity party crowds last Labor Day when Huff allegedly backhanded it in the face. Huff's attorney, William Short, said the horse had stepped on Huff's foot and was he was trying to get it off.
"There was never any malicious intent," Short said.
District attorney Mike Ramsey said he hopes Huff's probation will be spent "shoveling horse manure at the Chico police mounted unit's training grounds."
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/02/01/police_horse_may_end_up_getting_last_laugh/
BBC
'Many dead' as Egypt ferry sinks
The al-Salam Boccaccio '98 had a capacity of more than 1,400. Photo: Yvan Perchoc
Many people are feared to have died after an Egyptian ferry carrying about 1,400 people sank in the Red Sea.
Fourteen bodies and 100 survivors have been pulled from the water, as rescue boats battled poor weather to scour the area before darkness fell.
The al-Salam Boccaccio '98 sank about 80km (50 miles) off Egypt during an overnight trip from Duba, Saudi Arabia.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4678368.stm
Shipping disasters timeline
The BBC News website looks at the world's major peacetime shipping disasters over the past 20 years.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4678192.stm
Rocket attack on Israeli kibbutz
A Palestinian homemade rocket has hit a house on a kibbutz in southern Israel injuring at least three people, among them a child, Israeli sources say.
Kibbutz Karamiah is about 9km (6 miles) north of the Gaza Strip border.
Meanwhile Israeli forces clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas in a disputed area where the borders of Israel, Lebanon and Syria meet.
Reports said that Hezbollah had attacked an Israeli army position in the area, known as the Shebaa Farms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4678258.stm
Trial date set in CIA leak case
A US judge has set a trial date of next January for a top White House aide who faces charges relating to the leaking of a CIA agent's identity to the press.
Jury selection for the trial of Lewis Libby starts on 8 January 2007, pushing the case back beyond crucial mid-term elections in November.
The delay stems from the defence lawyer's engagement in another trial.
Valerie Plame's identity was leaked in 2003. Her husband, a former diplomat had criticised the US Iraq war policy.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4678724.stm
Muhammad cartoon row intensifies
Some of the cartoons depict the Prophet Muhammad as a terrorist
Newspapers across Europe have reprinted caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad to show support for a Danish paper whose cartoons have sparked Muslim outrage.
Seven publications in France, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Spain all carried some of the drawings.
Their release in Denmark has led to protests in Arab nations, diplomatic sanctions and death threats.
Islamic tradition bans depictions of the Prophet, but media watchdogs defend press freedom to publish the images.
Reporters Without Borders said the reaction in the Arab world "betrays a lack of understanding" of press freedom as "an essential accomplishment of democracy."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4670370.stm
'Scant help' for tsunami victims
Aid agencies have accused governments in five countries hit by the Asian tsunami of failing to provide housing, relief or work to all the victims.
The UN-backed report said coastal dwellers were being discouraged or even stopped from returning to their land.
The authors visited 50,000 people in towns and villages in India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, the Maldives and Thailand.
The report, by Action Aid and two other charities, was released at the UN headquarters in New York.
The horrifying images from the tsunami provoked a massive international response with money pouring in from governments and individuals alike.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4671884.stm
Enron chiefs 'involved in fraud'
Enron's former chairman Ken Lay says he knew nothing of the fraud
The chairman and chief executive of the collapsed energy firm Enron were highly involved with the company, the first prosecution witness has told a court.
Enron's founder and chairman Ken Lay and chief executive Jeffrey Skilling are on trial for massive fraud.
The two men deny the charges and claim they knew nothing of the company's problems and debts of $40bn (£23bn).
However, former head of investor relations Mark Koenig implicated men as he testified for the prosecution.
The firm's sudden collapse in 2001 was the biggest corporate scandal in recent US history.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4671920.stm
Key Iran nuclear decision delayed
The UN's nuclear watchdog has put off until Saturday a meeting on whether to report Iran to the UN Security Council.
Diplomats believe the motion to report Tehran over its nuclear activities - which the EU and US say still leaves room for diplomacy - will be passed.
No reason has been given for the delay. Russia has reportedly decided to back the move if the threat of sanctions is withheld for at least another month.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4676136.stm
Key nations' stances on Iran
The UN's nuclear regulator, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is holding an emergency meeting on 2 February to discuss Iran's nuclear programme.
At a meeting in London on 30 January, the five permanent members of the Security Council - the US, Russia, China, Britain and France - agreed that the IAEA should report to the council its decisions on steps required of Iran under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
But they agreed that the Security Council itself should wait until March and a further IAEA report on Iran before deciding whether to "reinforce the authority of the IAEA process" - that is, whether to become actively involved. The IAEA agreed in principle last September that the issues fell within the council's authority.
Iran argues that it is now in compliance and should be allowed to make its own fuel under IAEA inspection as permitted under the NPT. It says it has no intention of making nuclear weapons.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4662676.stm
Iran row hits Belgian spy chief
Iran is under huge pressure to halt its nuclear research
The head of Belgium's state security service has resigned amid allegations that his department failed to disclose nuclear technology transfers to Iran.
Koen Dassen stepped down after it emerged that warnings from the CIA about such transfers had gone unheeded.
A Belgian firm, Epsi, allegedly sold Iran an isostatic press, which can strengthen nuclear weapons components.
An international embargo bans nuclear technology transfers to Iran, which denies plans to build an atomic bomb.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4666852.stm
Iran moves to ease oil concerns
Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh says oil exports remain separate
Iran has moved to reassure the West that it does not plan to reduce its oil exports if the UN introduces sanctions against its nuclear ambitions.
Its oil minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said the issues were entirely separate.
Speaking ahead of a meeting of the oil producers' cartel Opec, he said "from our point of view there's no link between the two".
Global oil prices have risen in recent weeks due to growing international concern about Iran's nuclear plans.
Mixed oil prices
The permanent members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council have agreed that the nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), must report back on Iran's position.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4664590.stm
Kenyan 'graft' minister resigns
David Mwiraria was accused of warning off investigations into Anglo Leasing
Kenyan Finance Minister David Mwiraria has resigned after being linked to a corruption scandal that has shaken the Kenyan government.
The multimillion dollar "Anglo Leasing" corruption scam involved contracts for a company that existed in name only.
Mr Mwiraria, who is one of President Mwai Kibaki's key allies, has said the allegations against him are false.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4670120.stm
Colombian paramilitaries disarm
The fighters handed over their weapons in the presence of officials
More than 20,000 paramilitaries have now laid down their arms in Colombia following the latest disarmament drive under the peace process, officials say.
Over 2,500 fighters of the Central Bolivar Bloc surrendered their weapons at a ceremony in the town of Santa Rosa, north of Bogota.
The government believes this faction controlled a coca production area.
Under the peace process, those who have committed crimes and agree to disarm face reduced prison terms.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4671256.stm
Infertility link in iceman's DNA
Oetzi, the prehistoric man frozen in a glacier for 5,300 years, could have been infertile, a new study suggests.
Genetic research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, also confirms that his roots probably lie in Central Europe.
Oetzi's body was found in the melting ice of the Schnalstal glacier in the Italian Alps in 1991.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4674866.stm
Magazine quiz: Salt
For a complete archive of past quizzes, including the Curriculum tests and our weekly news quiz 7 days 7 questions, visit the Magazine index and scroll down the page.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4669650.stm
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