The Gulf News
Iran vows to fund Hamas government
Agencies
Tehran: Iran pledged to provide financial assistance to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority following threats by Western nations to halt aid to a Hamas-controlled government.
"We will definitely help this (Palestinian) government financially in order to resist America's cruelty to this country," Iranian National Security Council chief Ali Larijani said on Wednesday after a meeting with the Hamas political leader Khaled Mashal, who is touring regional countries in search of financial support.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iran/10020678.html
Early release unlikely for Guantanamo detainee
By Habib Toumi, Bureau Chief
Manama: The country's most famous detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Juma Al Dossari, will be held for at least another year in the US-run detention facility, his lawyer told Gulf News yesterday.
"Detainees have received written decisions from the Administrative Review Boards (ARB) and Juma was told that he would be held at Guantanamo for at least another year," Joshua Bryan-Colangelo, a trial attorney and an associate with Dorsey & Whitney LLP in New York, said.
The board assesses whether detainees are "continuing threats" to the United States and should be held or released.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10020447.html
UN role in internal politics ruled out
Manama: The interior minister played down an attempt by radical activists in Bahrain to involve the UN in their rejection of the 2002 constitution.
"The UN and other international organisations help outline and coordinate policies between states and respect the domestic policies of all countries, including the sovereignty to draft their constitutions and laws and to amend them according to a well-defined constitutional and legal process. These organisations do not interfere in the exercise by sovereign countries of their legislative, executive and judiciary rights," Shaikh Rashid said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Bahrain/10020450.html
Editor defends paper's action
Agencies
Muslim uses 1933 blasphemy law against editor
A Norwegian Muslim has reported a newspaper editor who published cartoons of the Prophet to the police for violating a blasphemy law last used in 1933 against a poet who called Christians cannibals.
In January a Norwegian Christian paper published the drawings, which originated in Denmark. That sparked attacks on Norwegian interests in the Middle East and Asia.
"I have been reported to the police for blasphemy. We will have to see what happens as this law has not been used since 1933," Verbjoern Selbekk, editor of newspaper Magazinet, told Reuters by telephone from Spain, where he was on holiday.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/General/10020600.html
OIC asks EU to legislate to protect Islam
By Shahid Hussain, Correspondent
Islamabad: Citing the jailing of a British historian in Austria for denying the Holocaust, the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu here on Tuesday urged Europe to legislate similar safeguards against maligning Islam in the name of freedom of expression.
"We need the same protection from European law," the chief of the 57-nation Islamic body said while talking to reporters following a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz.
Right-wing historian David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison by an Austrian court on Monday on charges he had denied extermination of six millions Jews by the Nazis during World War II.
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Pakistan/10020552.html
Tehran spurns Russian demand for freeze on nuclear enrichment
Reuters
Moscow: Iran showed few signs yesterday that it was ready to strike a deal with Russia that could allay fears it wants nuclear arms and avert possible UN sanctions.
Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin, quoted by Itar-Tass news agency, said Moscow had again stressed that Iran must restore the enrichment moratorium.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran would press ahead with its nuclear work with or without the Russian plan.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iran/10020641.html
Blast destroys prominent Shiite shrine in Iraq
Agencies
Baghdad: An explosion destroyed a sacred Shiite shrine in the Iraqi town of Samarra north of Baghdad on Wednesday, the US military said.
There were no reports of casualties and the military said the cause of the explosion was being investigated.
"Gunmen entered the shrine at dawn and planted bombs and blew it up," Abdullah Al Jubaara, deputy governor of Salaheddine Province which includes Samarra, told reporters.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10020675.html
The Grand Ayatollah called for protests. Not retaliation? Protests. Interesting. And the Cleric that seeks him as a mentor is al Sadr. I see. And Cleric al Sadr has been successful in putting to gether a military/militia to protect protesting Shi'ites. I doubt sincerely the USA military will send troops to enforce crowd control although they should. Hm. Interesting. Cleric al Sadr has great merit.
Al Sistani call for protests
Agencies
Baghdad: Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani, called on Wednesday for protests over the blast that destroyed a Shiite shrine in the town of Samarra.
A statement from his office said Sistani also called for seven days of mourning over the destruction of the shrine, where two revered Shiite imams are buried.
Prime Minister Ebrahim Al Jaafari declared three days of mourning after the blast which he described as an attack on all Muslims.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Iraq/10020677.html
Top Christian leader presses for Lahoud resignation
Reuters
Beirut: Lebanon's top Maronite Christian cleric yesterday joined calls for the removal of pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, who had previously refused to resign.
An anti-Syrian bloc that dominates government and parliament launched a campaign last week to oust Lahoud by March 14 to complete Lebanon's emergence from Syria's shadow.
Maronite Cardinal Nasrallah Sfeir appeared to throw his considerable influence behind the effort, delivering his most scathing attack against Lahoud to date.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10020647.html
Annan to address meeting
Reuters
United Nations: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan made a last-minute decision to address a meeting in Qatar on Sunday in an effort to calm violence triggered by the publication of the cartoons, his spokesman said on Monday.
Annan intends to speak at a session in Doha of the UN-backed Alliance of Civilisations and address issues raised by the cartoons and ways to combat extremism, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Qatar/10020598.html
Riyadh to name first woman diplomat
By Mariam Al Hakeem Correspondent
Riyadh: A Saudi woman could well become the country's first 'ambassador-at-large', said the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
A Saudi diplomatic source told Gulf News that efforts are on to appoint at least five Saudi women in higher posts in the ministry. "The concerned ministerial committee is engaged in shortlisting well-qualified women academics in this regard. Names of those appointed for the posts will be announced within a few weeks," he said.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Saudi_Arabia/10020569.html
$1.56m allotted for geo-hazard mapping plan
By Barbara Mae Dacanay, Bureau Chief
Manila: President Gloria Arroyo allotted P80 million ($1.56 million) for a comprehensive geo-hazard mapping equipment that will help local government units ban settlers from staying in identified landslide prone areas nationwide.
She ordered the budget department to release the funds immediately.
Arroyo said she did not want a repeat of the massive landslide that destroyed a mountain and buried a whole village in Ginsahugon on Friday. A minor landslide occurred in Zamboanga del Sur in the southern Philippines on Sunday.
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Philippines/10020472.html
Saudi tabloid closed for printing cartoons
Agencies
Riyadh: A Saudi newspaper was shut down on Monday following the printing of some of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) as part of a campaign for more action against Denmark, where the drawings first appeared.
The tabloid Shams (Sun) aimed at a youth audience in the Kingdom had printed the cartoons three weeks ago alongside an interview with Saudi cleric Salman Al Awdah who sought to widen a boycott of Denmark and other countries where the offending cartoons were printed.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Saudi_Arabia/10020422.html
New report blames Syria
Agencies
United Nations: UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis' latest report cited evidence further implicating top Syrian officers in the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri.
The 25-page report was released to UN council members and to the public on Monday, the same day that anti-Syrian lawmaker Gibran Tueni was killed by a car bomb.
The latest report said that another witness had approached the commission in October, submitting a "comprehensive and coherent statement" regarding the assassination plans.
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10004605.html
Martina too strong for Mirza
By Alaric Gomes, Staff Reporter
Dubai: Former World No.1 Martina Hingis handed India's Sania Mirza a lesson in tennis with a sound 6-3, 7-5 win to advance to the second round of the Dubai Duty Free Women's Open last night.
Played before a packed centre court at the Dubai Tennis Stadium, Hingis was in complete control as she completed her domination on her comeback trail in one hour and 27 minutes.
http://www.gulfnews.com/sport/Tennis/10020495.html
GCC club championships to have foreign presence
By Yasir Abbasher, Staff Reporter
Abu Dhabi: As expected, the Chairmen of the GCC Olympic Committee approved the participation of foreign players in the GCC clubs championships from April 1.
One foreign player will take part in the GCC club championships for basketball, volleyball and handball from this season.
The mechanism and rules of these professionals are left to be decided by the GCC Organising Committee for each sport.
The UAE is the only GCC country where professional foreign players do not take part in its domestic competitions of the three sports while they take part in football only.
http://www.gulfnews.com/sport/General/10020610.html
Australia to send 200 more troops to Afghanistan
Agencies
Canberra: Australia will almost double its troop numbers in Afghanistan by sending a 200-member security and reconstruction team to the country's volatile south, Prime Minister John Howard said on Tuesday.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) troops will be deployed from late July and work alongside Dutch soldiers as part of a NATO force preparing to expand peacekeeping and reconstruction operations.
http://www.gulfnews.com/world/Afghanistan/10020423.html
The Boston Globe
Utilities official warns record number of homes face shutoffs
February 22, 2006
PROVIDENCE, R.I. --A record number of families could lose their gas and electricity when a state ban on shutoffs expires April 15, according to James Lanni, associate administrator for operations at the Division of Public Utilities.
When the ban expired last year, the number of shutoffs reached a nine-year high, Lanni told the state Emergency Management Agency this week. This year, even more households could lose power and heat, he said.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/rhode_island/articles/2006/02/22/utilities_official_warns_record_number_of_homes_face_shutoffs/
Scientists focus on tiny ice worms
February 21, 2006
PARADISE, Wash. --A tiny worm that lives in glaciers and snowfields is drawing attention for what it could reveal about life on other planets.
The ice worm inhabits glacial regions in the coastal ranges of Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. The odd creature easily moves through ice, is liveliest near the freezing point of water and dissolves into a goo when warmed.
There's been increased interest in ice worms and other animals whose glacial habitat could disappear within the next 50 years due to global warming.
http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/02/21/scientists_focus_on_tiny_ice_worms/
Could Tony Blair be having an effect already? Musharraf does not want an invasion. If he doesn't come up with people who seek to kill Londoners he just might have one !
Pakistan gets intel in Taliban hunt
By Munir Ahmad, Associated Press Writer February 22, 2006
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan --Pakistan was hunting for more than 100 Taliban fugitives whose names were on a list provided by Afghan President Hamid Karzai, officials said Wednesday.
Karzai gave the list to Pakistan last week during a visit, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao told The Associated Press. "We did receive information about these suspects, and we will capture them, if they are here," he said.
Sherpao declined to say how many names were on the list or provide other details about the fugitives, believed to be hiding in Pakistani cities or in rugged tribal regions near Afghanistan.
But a security official told the AP that between 100 and 150 suspects, mostly Taliban remnants, were listed and authorities have begun searching for them. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
After returning home from a trip to Pakistan last week, Karzai denied that he gave Pakistan a list of 150 names. But he said he gave the Pakistanis documents with details about suspects and their whereabouts.
"We are hopeful that measures should be taken from both sides -- from their side and from our side," he told reporters.
Afghan officials have said that Taliban chief Mullah Omar and his associates are hiding near the Pakistan-Afghan border, a claim Pakistan has said lacks evidence.
Pakistan, once a Taliban supporter, is now a key U.S. ally in the war on terror. It has deployed thousands of troops along the Afghan border and says it has done everything it can to flush out remnants of the Taliban regime and al-Qaida.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/02/22/pakistan_gets_intel_in_taliban_hunt/
Highlights from NBC's Olympic coverage
By David Bauder, AP Television Writer February 22, 2006
Smart announcers know that keeping quiet can often be the wisest choice. Figure skating play-by-play man Tom Hammond is the chief reason NBC's unusual four-person broadcast team has worked. Hammond skillfully sets a stage with morsels of information and stands back to let the powerful analyst lineup of Sandra Bezic, Dick Button and Scott Hamilton do its job.
LOWLIGHT: That said, Hammond figured into NBC's oddest moment. The network opened Tuesday's broadcast with a routine by Turkish figure skater Tugba Karademir. She's not a medal contender, but NBC liked the compelling story of how her family gave up virtually everything to advance her career. Then, after a commercial, NBC dropped Karademir, failing to show her scores or tell whether she qualified for Thursday's program. For the record, she did.
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/02/22/highlights_from_nbcs_olympic_coverage_1140608954/
Harvard's brief era
February 22, 2006
DRENCHED IN controversy over his disputes with some members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Harvard University president Lawrence H. Summers resigned yesterday. He will step down at the end of the academic year, closing the book on a contentious phase of Harvard's history.
Summers was a tornado. At his best he tried to shake up Harvard, to make it a better home for undergraduates and academic excellence. He wanted students to be scienti fically literate. He pushed campus growth into Allston, and laid plans to make Harvard the leading center of stem cell research. And he wanted to break down the old boundaries that still separate Harvard's many schools.
"My sense of urgency has stemmed from my conviction that Harvard has a special ability to make a real difference in a world desperately in need of wisdom of all kinds," Summers wrote in his resignation letter.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/02/22/harvards_brief_era/
Protect upstream waters
February 22, 2006
THE ROBERTS court can demonstrate its respect for Supreme Court precedents by finding two Michigan developers' intrusions on wetlands in violation of the Clean Water Act and by rejecting a partial-birth abortion ban that includes no exemption for the health of the woman. Yesterday, the court heard arguments on the wetlands cases and agreed to hear an appeal on the abortion law, which three lower courts have found in violation of previous Supreme Court rulings.
At issue in the Michigan cases is whether Congress in the 1972 Clean Water Act meant to protect just ''navigable waters" and abutting streams and wetlands, or the upstream wetlands that feed into them as well. Congressional reports from 1972 make it clear that Congress wanted the law to have the broadest sweep. The Supreme Court reflected that view in 1985 when it ruled unanimously to give the government authority over wetlands in a case similar to the ones before it now. A federal appeals court has ruled against both Michigan developers.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/02/22/protect_upstream_waters/
No-pain energy plan
February 22, 2006
PRESIDENT BUSH has been visiting Michigan, Wisconsin, and Colorado this week to extol the benefits of alternative energy sources. His emphasis on independence from foreign oil is welcome, but the rhetoric should not obscure the reality that his comparatively small programs will do little to accomplish his goal.
Bush says he wants to raise spending on researching new technologies for clean energy by 22 percent. An analysis of his 2007 budget by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington paints a different picture. Work on geothermal energy would be eliminated, weatherization assistance programs would be cut, and the total budget request, at $1.76 billion, would barely exceed the appropriation for the current year.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/02/22/no_pain_energy_plan/
Eradicating slavery in Sudan
By John Eibner February 22, 2006
FOR 20 YEARS, Abuk Ater was a slave in northern Sudan. She was a young, childless, married woman when she was captured and enslaved by a member of an Arab militia backed by Sudan's government. Her master, Mohammed El Nur, raped her, called her ''slave," and forced her to convert to Islam. He renamed her ''Howah."
This month, Abuk, her four children, and 162 other slaves were repatriated to southern Sudan by the government's showcase Committee for the Eradication of the Abduction of Women and Children. Government officials loaded Abuk and the others like cattle into open-topped, seatless trucks for a three-day journey in 100-degree-plus heat. Despite the bleak prospect of having nothing to eat but leaves, Abuk is relieved to be free, living with her own people, in her own land.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/02/22/eradicating_slavery_in_sudan/
Miners' families threaten to rush pit
By Olga R. Rodriguez, Associated Press Writer February 22, 2006
SAN JUAN DE SABINAS, Mexico --Family members desperate for word on the 65 coal miners trapped underground in Mexico threatened to rush past soldiers guarding the pit, as rescue workers scratched away at walls of debris in their increasingly hopeless attempt to reach them.
Almost three days after a gas explosion filled tunnels with fallen rock, wood and metal, rescuers have found no sign of the workers -- either dead or alive -- in the Pasta de Conchos mine, about 85 miles southwest of Eagle Pass, Texas.
But officials late Tuesday did not rule out the possibility, however slim, of finding survivors. Coahuila state Civil Protection Director Arturo Vilchis said officials "can't speculate on the condition of the miners."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2006/02/22/miners_families_threaten_to_rush_pit/
Simmons calls on U.S. Navy to back Taiwan submarine sales
By Peter Enav, Associated Press Writer February 22, 2006
TAIPEI, Taiwan --A Connecticut congressman whose district includes a major submarine manufacturer, said Wednesday the U.S. Navy should do more to support President George W. Bush's plan to sell eight diesel submarines to Taiwan.
Connecticut Republican Rob Simmons, speaking on a visit to Taipei, told an American business group the vessels, included in a $16 billion U.S. arms package, are crucial to the self-governing island's ability to defend itself against a possible attack by rival China.
Simmons said China is investing heavily in its own submarine fleet with a view toward using it against Taiwan, from which it split amid civil war in 1949.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/02/22/simmons_calls_on_us_navy_to_back_taiwan_submarine_sales/
Three planes avoid runway crash in L.A.
February 22, 2006
LOS ANGELES --Two planes came within a few hundred feet of each other last week when a controller at Los Angeles International Airport mistakenly cleared three planes for the same runway, officials said.
"It was pretty close," said Les Dorr, a Federal Aviation Administration spokesman, said. "We'll be looking to find out what all happened, and how we can prevent it in the future."
Friday's episode began when the controller directed a departing Skywest turboprop to taxi onto the same runway on which he had cleared a Southwest Airlines jet to land. He also told an Air Canada jet that it could cross the same runway on its way to the terminals.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/22/three_planes_avoid_runway_crash_in_la/
Calif. execution postponed indefinitely
By Lisa Leff, Associated Press Writer February 22, 2006
SAN QUENTIN, Calif. --A convicted killer's execution was postponed for the second time in less than a day amid continuing concerns over the constitutionality of the state's lethal injection policy.
An hour before Michael Morales was to be strapped to a gurney in the death chamber at San Quentin Prison, officials called off the execution, saying they could not comply with a judge's recent order to have a medical provider administer the fatal dose of barbiturate.
"We were not able to find a licensed professional that was willing to inject medication intravenously, ending the life of a human being," San Quentin spokesman Vernell Crittendon said Tuesday evening.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/22/calif_execution_postponed_indefinitely/
Disputes over medical research growing
By Lauran Neergaard, AP Medical Writer February 22, 2006
WASHINGTON --Dr. Aubrey Blumsohn was stunned: Research results were submitted to a scientific meeting under his name -- yet the British bone specialist insists he not only hadn't written or reviewed the report, he wasn't sure it was accurate.
The incident turned into a public feud when Blumsohn charged that the U.S. drug company paying for the study rebuffed his attempts to personally analyze the data.
It's the latest in a string of controversies about pharmaceutical industry control of medical research, from hidden antidepressant risks to the undercounting of heart attacks in a critical study of the painkiller Vioxx.
http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/aging/articles/2006/02/22/disputes_over_medical_research_growing/
Co. unsure how bird's head got in beans
February 20, 2006
EATON, Ind. --The manager of an Indiana canning plant said Monday that he did not know how it could have produced a can of pinto beans with a bird's head inside as claimed by an Illinois woman.
Chicago-based La Preferida Inc. announced a voluntary recall on Friday of a limited number of its cans as it investigated how the head ended up in the 15-ounce can.
David Morrow, general manager of Eaton-based Meridian Foods, said he was eager for answers about the discovery last week by a DeKalb, Ill., woman who reported buying the can at a grocery store in nearby Aurora, Ill.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/02/20/co_unsure_how_birds_head_got_in_beans/
Boston archbishop is named a cardinal
New appointment will be solemnized at ceremony next month
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff February 22, 2006
Pope Benedict XVI today announced in Rome that Boston Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley will be made a cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church in a ceremony at the Vatican late next month.
O'Malley is among 15 new cardinals included in the first set of appointments by Benedict of so- called "princes of the church." The new cardinals -- who will receive the red hats, or birettas, that signal the rank at a ceremony in Rome March 24 -- will help oversee the Vatican's bureaucracy through service on oversight committees, and ultimately many of them could have a vote in the selection of Benedict's successor.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/22/boston_archbishop_is_named_a_cardinal
Pope names new cardinals, including Hong Kong, Krakow and Boston
February 22, 2006
VATICAN CITY --Pope Benedict XVI named 15 new cardinals on Wednesday, including prelates from Hong Kong, Boston and Krakow, Poland, adding his first installment to the elite group of churchmen who will elect his successor.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/02/22/pope_names_new_cardinals_including_hong_kong_krakow_and_boston/
Former stripper not typical evangelical
February 20, 2006
RIVERSIDE, Calif. --Heather Veitch is not your typical evangelical Christian.
The 31-year-old married mother of two visits one strip club a month, paying for lap dances so she can talk to the strippers about God.
The Web site for the ministry she formed with two other women -- JC's Girls Girls Girls -- features glamour shots of the three that were taken by a porn film director.
The three attend porn conventions, where they pass out Bibles wrapped in T-shirts that read Holy Hottie.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/02/20/former_stripper_not_typical_evangelical/
Old faces bring new life to 'General Hospital'
By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff February 22, 2006
Except for cable's breaking-news helicopter coverage of car chases, daytime soap operas are about as ephemeral as TV gets.
No disrespect, of course; in an earlier life, more than one employer questioned my ''late lunch" policy. What I mean by ''ephemeral" is that soaps such as ''General Hospital" air for hours and hours each weekday, the TV equivalent of a running faucet. But they usually air only once. While most series have a significant afterlife in repeats and on DVD, the soaps go directly down the electronic drain, their torrid moments forever robbed of eternity.
http://www.boston.com/ae/tv/articles/2006/02/22/old_faces_bring_new_life_to_general_hospital/
Family gives seven kids presidential names
February 21, 2006
LUBBOCK, Texas --If someone were to ask Richard and Regina Scheppler's children to name seven of the country's presidents, they wouldn't have any problem. They'd just have to think of their siblings.
The Schepplers' children all have presidential names. There's Tyler, Grant, McKinley, Kennedy, Harrison, Madison and Regan -- although Regan's name is spelled differently than Ronald Reagan and wasn't intended as a reference to the 40th president.
"We named the first one Regan because her name meant princess; Regina's was queen; and Richard means king," Richard Scheppler said in a story in Monday's Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
http://www.boston.com/news/odd/articles/2006/02/21/family_gives_seven_kids_presidential_names/
Fireman who spoke after being in coma dies
By Carolyn Thompson, Associated Press Writer February 22, 2006
BUFFALO, N.Y. --A brain-injured firefighter who suddenly spoke after nearly a decade in a stupor, giving hope to families of countless other patients, died Tuesday. He was 44.
Donald Herbert was injured in December 1995, when the roof of a burning home collapsed on him. Deprived of oxygen for several minutes, he ended up blind, was largely mute and showed little awareness of his surroundings for years.
But on April 30, 2005, he shocked his family with a 14-hour talking jag. Since then, he spoke only sporadically, his progress hampered by a fall out of bed that caused bleeding on his brain, his doctor said.
Herbert was hospitalized again on Sunday with an infection.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/02/22/fireman_who_spoke_after_being_in_coma_dies/
The New Zealand Herald
Disease threatens Philippine mudslide survivors
22.02.06 1.00pm
GUINSAUGON, Philippines - Concerns rose today for the welfare of survivors from a deadly Philippine landslide as chickenpox and other infectious diseases broke out in packed evacuation centres.
"The health concern is more within the evacuation centres," Health Secretary Francisco Duque said on television, adding that, so far, medics had diagnosed nine cases of chickenpox, three cases of measles and three cases of sore eyes.
"The stench of recovered bodies could be a cause of concern."
Friday's landslide, triggered by five times the region's normal rainfall over two weeks, obliterated Guinsaugon, a farming village of about 1800 people which stood about 675km southeast of Manila.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369537
Peters causes diplomatic flurry, will take message to US
22.02.06 1.00pm
Foreign Minister Winston Peters says he hopes to visit the United States later this year to press his case for greater recognition for New Zealand.
Mr Peters caused a minor diplomatic flurry yesterday by suggesting the US undervalues New Zealand's work in the Pacific and Britain isn't pulling its weight in the region.
Today, Mr Peters said that his unscripted comments were intended to underline New Zealand's role in the Pacific and the international arena to those who may not have noticed.
"All I was saying was that in the time we meet this year in the United States in Washington, I intend to remind them of the many growing and complex things that we are involved in that they may not be valuing to the extent that they should," Mr Peters said on National Radio this morning.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10369551
NZer detained over Polish roof collapse
22.02.06 11.15am
A New Zealand man is being questioned in Poland today over the collapse of a crowded exhibition hall in the south of the country last month in which 65 people died.
Bruce Robinson, managing director of Expomedia, the London-based parent company of International Katowice Fairs (MTK) which owned the building, was picked up in Warsaw yesterday and taken to Katowice for questioning by a prosecutor.
Two other members of the management team have been detained with him.
The snow-laden corrugated iron roof of the vast exhibition hall in the southern industrial town of Chorzow caved in on January 28 when about 200 people were inside attending one of Europe's biggest racing pigeon shows.
The death toll made the collapse Poland's worst building accident.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10369541
Bush pushes wind, solar power, cutback on oil use
22.02.06 11.20am
GOLDEN, Colo - President George W Bush called today for tapping renewable energy sources like wind and solar power to contend with surging energy costs but environmental groups questioned his commitment to easing US oil dependence.
Bush also told employees at a key laboratory for renewable energy research that he regretted "mixed signals" that had led the Colorado facility to announce job cuts earlier this month because of budget cuts.
He visited the National Renewable Energy Laboratory a day after his administration rushed the transfer of US$5 million ($7.7 million) to the lab to enable it to restore the jobs and resolve what could have been an embarrassing situation.
Democrats had cited the job cuts as a sign of lack of real commitment by the government to energy independence initiatives that Bush, a former oil company executive, announced with great fanfare in his State of the Union speech on January 31.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369518
Austria appeals for longer jail term for Irving
22.02.06 1.00pm
VIENNA - Austria's state prosecutor filed an appeal today to lengthen the three-year jail term given to British historian David Irving for denying the Holocaust during a 1989 lecture tour in the country.
Irving had already appealed for a reduction in the sentence in his Vienna criminal court trial yesterday, arguing that he had changed his mind after further research in the past 15 years and now acknowledged that Nazi Germany killed millions of Jews.
Walter Geyer, spokesman for the state prosecutor's office, said it had lodged an appeal to have the sentence increased. The prosecutor had argued that Irving had only pretended to moderate his views to try to escape a jail term.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369520
Jail term for Holocaust denial 'going too far', says PM
21.02.06 4.00pm
The sentencing of British historian David Irving for denying the Holocaust showed how seriously Austria regarded that time in its history, but most people would have thought a jail term was going too far, Prime Minister Helen Clark said today.
Irving was sentenced to three years in prison on Monday by an Austrian court which convicted him of denying the Holocaust -- a crime in Austria.
Irving had pleaded guilty and insisted he had had a change of heart, now acknowledging the Nazis' World War 2 slaughter of six million Jews.
Before the verdict, Irving conceded he had erred in contending there were no gas chambers at the Auschwitz concentration camp.
He had faced up to 10 years behind bars.
The Prime Minister today said the verdict showed how seriously the Holocaust was taken in Austrian law.
"Austria has a tragic past in terms of the fact that that country was tied up with Nazism in the 1930s and '40s.
"I think most people would feel that being jailed for the offence was probably going too far but nonetheless it does underline how seriously Austria deals with that part of its history."
Irving ran up against New Zealand's immigration law when he tried to come here in 2004.
He was barred from boarding a flight from Los Angeles to Auckland after a passenger processing system alerted the airline Irving was not welcome in New Zealand.
He was not automatically entitled to a visa because he had been deported from Canada some years earlier.
Irving then lodged an application at the New Zealand High Commission in London for a special permit to enter the country but that was also refused.
Questioned today about Irving's sentencing being another example of the free speech argument that has reared its head in the Prophet Muhammad and Bloody Mary cartoon controversies, Helen Clark said that was a question for each country and its laws to judge.
New Zealand permitted freedom of speech.
Mr Irving was not able to come here because he was struck out under immigration law.
"But nonetheless he did go to Austria, he presumably knew what the law was and he's run up against that country's laws."
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10369411
Eichmann papers convinced Irving Holocaust happened
21.02.06 1.00pm
VIENNA - British historian David Irving pleaded guilty today to charges of denying the Holocaust 17 years ago, but told an Austrian court that the personal files of Nazi mastermind Adolf Eichmann had changed his views.
The 68-year-old Irving faces up to 10 years in jail in Austria in a case based on remarks he made in a 1989 interview and in speeches when he visited Austria, where denying the Nazi genocide on Jews is a crime.
"I'm not a holocaust denier. Obviously, I've changed my views," Irving, a historian who has published many books on the history of Nazi Germany and World War Two, told reporters on his way into the Vienna courtroom.
Asked by the presiding judge Peter Liebetreu whether he had denied in speeches in 1989 that Nazi Germany had killed millions of Jews, Irving said he had until he had seen the personal files of Adolf Eichmann, the chief organiser of the Holocaust.
"I said that then based on my knowledge at the time, but by 1991 when I came across the Eichmann papers, I wasn't saying that anymore and I wouldn't say that now," Irving said.
"The Nazis did murder millions of Jews," said Irving, who answered the court in fluent German.
Irving's answers failed to impress state prosecutor Michael Klackl, who called Irving in his opening statement a falsifier of history who was dressed up as a martyr by right-wing extremists.
"The David Irving I heard today in the court was not the David Irving I got to know in preparing for this trial," Klackl told Reuters after the court adjourned for lunch.
"The court will have to decide whether Irving has made an honest confession or is merely engaged in tactics (to reduce his sentence)," he said.
The historian was detained in November on an arrest warrant issued in 1989. He faces between one and 10 years in jail, and prosecutor Klackl said Irving's confession could persuade the court to go for a less drastic penalty.
Irving's lawyer Elmar Kresbach asked the court for leniency because Irving had changed his views and was no threat to Austria's democracy.
However, the prosecutor said Irving remained an icon for neo-Nazis and revisionist historians worldwide.
A court of eight lay jurors and three judges is expected to give its verdict on Monday.
Irving was arrested when he was on his way to address Austrian radical right-wing student fraternity Olympia, and has attended meetings of Holocaust denying historians even after the time of his professed insight into the Holocaust's truth.
A British High Court ruling in 2000 rejected Irving's libel suit against an American professor and her publishers, declaring Irving "an active Holocaust denier ... anti-Semitic and racist".
The Viennese court will hear the reporter who interviewed Irving back in 1989 on Monday as its sole witness, and the prosecutor said he expected it to issue its verdict later today.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369376
Tension over torture, death of Jewish man in Paris
22.02.06
PARIS - Tempers are reaching boiling point in the French Jewish community after the torture and murder of a young Jewish man by a suburban gang calling itself "the barbarians".
Police say the gang kidnapped Ilan Halimi, 23 - using a beautiful, young, blonde woman as bait - to extort money from his family. The victim's family and many other Parisian Jews are convinced the crime was, at least partially, racially motivated.
A Parisian MP, Claude Goasguen, said yesterday that the city could face "extremely serious intra-community violence" unless the authorities abandoned their "persistent silence on the real motives for this murder". At the weekend, a mainly peaceful protest was marred by violent actions by radical young Jewish men.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369439
Church outrage as cartoon to air tonight
22.02.06
By Errol Kiong and Martin Johnston
A row between Catholics and media firm CanWest has escalated with the controversial "Bloody Mary" episode of South Park screening on television tonight, weeks ahead of schedule.
The Catholic Church says the move is "provocative and inflammatory".
At least one advertiser has pulled its advertising from CanWest's radio stations. The move by CanWest to screen the episode seven weeks early follows an open letter from seven bishops on Sunday urging Catholics to boycott TV3's news and advertisers should the company go ahead with the screening on its sister channel, C4.
The church's communications director, Lyndsay Freer, said she was handed a press release at 5pm yesterday announcing the decision to run the episode today, and was asked to comment for the 6pm news.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10369513
Danish PM sees cartoon row calmer, rejects inquiry
22.02.06 1.00pm
COPENHAGEN - Denmark's prime minister said today the row over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad was calming down after weeks of violent protest, while he rejected opposition calls for an inquiry into his handling of the crisis.
"It is my impression that the development during the last few days has gone in the direction of more subdued demonstrations and statements in large parts of the Muslim world," said Prime Minister Anders Fog Rasmussen.
But the centre-right leader said at a weekly news conference that, while calmer, the crisis was far from over. More than 50 people have been killed and hundreds injured in protests around the world, with Nigeria as the latest focus of violence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369539
Aristide hopes to return to Haiti 'soon'
22.02.06 1.20pm
JOHANNESBURG - Former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide said today he was discussing with officials in Haiti the possibility of returning to the Caribbean country "as soon as possible".
"I do believe I will be back as soon as possible," Aristide said in an interview with SABC television in South Africa, where he fled into exile following a 2004 uprising against his rule.
The comments marked the first by Aristide following this month's Haitian elections which were won by his one-time protege Rene Preval.
Aristide said he was talking with both his South African host President Thabo Mbeki and others about his return, with the intention of preventing any possible political trouble.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369552
Pressure on Iran as hopes fade of deal with Russia
22.02.06
MOSCOW - Iran faced growing international pressure over its nuclear plans on yesterday as hopes faded of striking a deal with Russia that would ease Western suspicions that it is trying to build an atomic bomb.
Russian and Iranian negotiators discussed for two days a Moscow proposal to enrich uranium for Iran, seen as one of a dwindling number of diplomatic options for defusing the nuclear row before Western governments seek UN sanctions.
Both sides said more talks would take place in Tehran.
Interfax news agency reported the Iranian delegation was about to leave Moscow but had no word on any progress. A top Iranian official in Tehran earlier ruled out a return to a moratorium on uranium enrichment, which Russia had demanded.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369502
Nation begins to question Mao's cultural atrocity
22.02.06
By Clifford Noonan
BEIJING - The frightened figure in the picture is a Chinese opera star. His hair is grasped tightly in a Red Guard's fist and he is being denounced during the Cultural Revolution, the ideological frenzy which destroyed millions of lives in China between 1966 and 1976.
The image is one of hundreds of engravings on cold grey tablets that make up the exhibits in China's first Cultural Revolution museum, near Shantou in the Guangdong district.
"There is Chinese proverb which says you should use history as a mirror," Peng Qian, a former Deputy Mayor of Shantou, said. Peng, persecuted during the revolution, was the driving force in setting the museum up.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369489
Mutations in virus more deadly for birds
22.02.06 7.20am
Mutations in the H5N1 bird flu virus are making it more deadly in chickens and more resistant in the environment but without yet increasing the threat to humans, the World Health Organisation said.
The changes, which all viruses undergo, have affected patterns of transmission amongst domestic poultry and wild birds, with ducks, for example, able to pass the virus on without getting ill.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369499
Bird flu spreads, thousands tested in India
22.02.06 1.00pm
BRUSSELS - The H5N1 strain of bird flu was confirmed in Hungary and Croatia today as the deadly virus spread around the globe, while EU officials considered measures to vaccinate millions of birds in France and the Netherlands.
In India, where officials are scrambling to contain a major outbreak in poultry, hundreds of people turned up for screening at medical camps in areas where bird flu has been reported.
At least 15 nations have reported outbreaks in birds this month, an indication that the virus, which has killed more than 90 people, is spreading faster.
Migratory birds are thought to be at least one way the disease is being carried and more than 30 countries have now reported cases since 2003, seven of them recording human infections.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10369540
Middle-aged men winners in the bedroom
22.02.06
By Arifa Akbar
The cliche of the average man entering middle age is one in which he spends his weekends in leather trousers mounting a Harley-Davidson as a substitute for a libido in fast decline.
But the reality is quite the opposite.
Men in their 50s are more satisfied with their love lives than those who are one or two decades younger, despite their decline in sexual performance, a medical study has found.
According to research conducted by experts at the University of Oslo, the University of Bergen and Harvard Medical School, middle-aged men had similar levels of contentment to those who are physiologically in their sexual prime, aged between 20 and 29.
The average 50-year-old achieves sexual contentment despite increased problems with sexual functions such as attaining, and sustaining, an erection.
Researchers in the US and Norway interviewed 1185 men aged from 20 to 79.
"Our results show that although men experience more problems and less sexual function as they get older, it doesn't necessarily follow that they are less satisfied with their sex lives as a result," said Professor Sophie Fossa, who helped conduct the research. The findings were published in BJU International, the British Journal of Urology.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=314&objectid=10369440
continued...
