The Houston Chronicle
Tornadoes Tear Through N. Texas, Killing 3
By MATT JOYCE Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
DALLAS — Tornadoes swept through two North Texas towns after dark, tearing apart brick houses and knocking out power in a path of destruction that left three dead and 10 injured, officials said Wednesday.
An elderly couple were found dead in a destroyed home in the tiny town of Westminster, while a teenager was found dead at a separate location, Collin County spokeswoman Lee Hornsby said.
Tornadoes struck late Tuesday near the towns of Anna and Westminster, about 40 miles north of Dallas, Hornsby said. Tornadoes were also reported in the Texas Panhandle town of Childress and in southeastern Oklahoma, but no injuries were reported.
"I have seen brick houses completely torn apart, a couple of these next to each other, bricks laying on top of a vehicle, another vehicle apparently rolled several times," Hornsby told WFAA-TV in Dallas.
Officials were going door-to-door to check for other casualties, said Jamie Nicolay of the county's homeland security and health care services department.
Ten people were taken to North Texas hospitals, but their conditions weren't available. The identities of the dead and other details about them weren't immediately released.
The storm destroyed at least six houses, Nicolay said, although full assessment of damage to the area was limited by darkness. Power was out to about 300 homes.
"I'm sure that there are numerous other ones that have less severe damage," she said.
Westminster, a town of about 420 residents, is 43 miles northeast of Dallas. Anna, with about 6,500 residents, is 5 miles west of Westminster.
Storm sirens sounded twice in Anna, Hornsby said, but no sirens went off in much smaller Westminster.
Another tornado in the Texas Panhandle town of Childress knocked down a wall at the local high school, and broken power lines sparked treetop fires, officials said. Gas lines were broken and downed trees blocked roads, but there were no reports of injuries.
Meanwhile, three tornadoes touched down in southeastern Oklahoma, along with baseball sized hail and street flooding, but no severe damage or injuries were immediately reported, officials said.
The National Weather Service received reports of a tornado near Olney in Coal County and two others near Stringtown.
About 6,000 customers were without power in southeastern Oklahoma and Oklahoma City before workers began restoring electricity.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3853438.html
Ariz. Posse to Round Up Illegal Immigrants
By AMANDA LEE MYERS Associated Press Writer
© 2006 The Associated Press
GILA BEND, Ariz. — Four Mexican men sit in the dirt with their wrists bound, shoulders hunched and eyes lowered to avoid the glare of the rising sun.
The immigrants had been on their way to build a dairy farm in this town about an hour southwest of Phoenix. But after a traffic stop for a faulty brake light, members of a sheriff's task force targeting human and drug smugglers found they were not U.S. citizens. Now they were bound for federal custody.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/3853330.html
Posse inflames the immigration debate
Arizona force of 300 volunteers aims to enforce smuggling law
By RANDAL C. ARCHIBOLD
New York Times
PHOENIX - To people who say round up more illegal immigrants, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona's Maricopa County has an answer — send out the posse.
The posse, a civilian force of 300 volunteers, many retired deputies, are to fan out over desert backcountry today, watching for smugglers and the people they guide into these parts.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3852681.html
Immigrant bill worries banks
Some fear being branded felons for serving clients
By BECKY YERAK
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO - Headquartered in the heart of Chicago's Little Village neighborhood since the late 1800s, Second Federal Savings isn't shy about marketing itself to immigrants.
On the home page of its Web site, a link directs undocumented immigrants to a program that can help them become homeowners.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3844981.html
Immigrants linked to tourism
Associated Press
ORLANDO, FLA. - U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez urged tourism industry leaders Monday to support legislation that eventually would offer citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants.
"This is probably the most important domestic issue of our time," Gutierrez said at the Travel Industry Association's annual convention.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3849654.html
Most in poll here see a hard road ahead for U.S.
But Houstonians interviewed at random express optimism about their personal life
By MIKE SNYDER and DALE LEZON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
More than two in three Houston-area residents believe the country is headed for harder times, the highest pessimism level in the 18 years that the Houston Area Survey has asked the question.
The darkening public mood about the nation's future reflected in the survey is based on answers to a question asked in each of the annual surveys since 1988: "When you look ahead to the next few years, do you tend to believe that the country is headed for better times or more difficult times?"
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3852736.html
A MAJOR BUSH TAX CUT MAY GO TO 2010
$69 billion deal extends the break for investors and blocks increase in another tax
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
New York Times
WASHINGTON - House and Senate Republicans reached agreement Tuesday on a $69 billion bill that would extend President Bush's tax cuts for investors for two more years and temporarily block a big jump in the alternative minimum tax.
The agreement, which has a good chance of passing both chambers later this week, would lock in one of Bush's signature tax cuts through 2010 and give Republicans a victory at a time when most of their other efforts have stalled.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3852734.html
FEMA's Brown discounted levee breach after Katrina hit
By HOPE YEN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- Hours after Hurricane Katrina hit, former FEMA director Michael Brown dismissed reports that floodwaters had breached New Orleans' levees, and he obsessed over media coverage of his agency, according to newly released e-mails.
The 928 pages of documents, obtained by the Center for Public Integrity watchdog group and released Tuesday, paint a picture of a Federal Emergency Management Agency keenly sensitive to public image following the Aug. 29, 2005, storm.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/3853367.html
Rumsfeld denies plot to plant general in CIA
Secretary calls Hayden 'seasoned professional'
By THOMAS E. RICKS
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the idea that he has been involved in a bureaucratic power play to boost the military's role in intelligence-gathering, and strongly supported Air Force Gen. Michael V. Hayden's nomination to be the next director of the CIA, describing him Tuesday as a seasoned professional.
"He did not come up through the operational chain in the Department of Defense, and at the last minute slide over into the intelligence business," Rumsfeld said of Hayden at a Pentagon news conference. "He's a person who's had assignment after assignment after assignment in the intelligence business, and clearly, that is what his career has been, and he's been very good at it."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/3852643.html
Gold bounds above $700
Dollar's softness, political tensions drive up price
By MADLEN READ
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Gold prices surged above $700 an ounce on Tuesday — a level not reached since 1980 — as funds bought into the market, driven by weakness in the dollar, political tension in the Middle East and overall upward momentum in the commodities markets.
These persistent factors have been pushing gold prices to multidecade records for months now. Gold has risen 40 percent since late November, when for the first time in two decades the most-active contract broke through $500 an ounce.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/3852821.html
The Times
Putin takes swipe at hungry America's 'Comrade Wolf'
By Philippe Naughton and agencies in Moscow
President Vladimir Putin took a swipe at the hungry 'wolf' of America today in a strident state-of-the-nation address in which he said that post-Soviet Russia should build up its economic and military might.
In his seventh annual address as president, Mr Putin also promised to tackle Russia's falling birthrate, saying that falling population levels were Russia's "most pressing problem".
But the main thrust of his speech was on the need to bolster security. Mr Putin said that Russia needed a strong military not only to guard against potential attackers but also to resist foreign political pressure.
His comments betray increased anger over what Kremlin leaders see as Western attempts to influence the affairs of Russia and its relationships with its former neighbours Soviet neighbours, such as Ukraine or Belarus.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2174122,00.html
Shia ringtone sparks scuffle in Iraqi parliament
By Sam Knight and agencies
The fragile state of the sectarian divide in Iraqi politics was exposed today when a fight broke out in parliament after a mobile phone ringtone played a Shia Muslim chant.
A procedural session of the Iraqi parliament was suspended as Shia and Sunni leaders stormed out to protest the ringtone and the subsequent scuffle, which erupted between the armed bodyguards of the Sunni speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani and the hardline Shia politician, Gufran al-Saidi.
The mobile phone belonged to Ms al-Saidi, who is a member of the Islamist movement led by the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. According to Ms al-Saidi, one of her guards was holding her phone when it rang, playing a Shia prayer.
Mr al-Mashhadani sent one of his guards -- because of the risk of assassination in Baghdad, all Iraqi politicians come to parliament accompanied by armed men -- to ask her to turn it off. But the phone rang again, at which point a fight broke out in the lobby of the parliament building, with guards from both sides and a veiled Ms al-Saidi joining in.
Ms al-Saidi led a walkout on to the steps of the parliament building, where she told waiting television crews: "I demand an urgent investigation". She was joined by the independent MP, Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni who leads the small Nation party, who said "those involved should be sued" and that bodyguards should be unarmed in parliament.
The incident will provide more fuel to Shia leaders who have already accused Mr al-Mashhadani, a Sunni who was appointed speaker last month to increase the representation of Sunnis in national politics, of being partisan and undiplomatic in his new role.
After 20 minutes, the protesting MPs were led back into the chamber by the outgoing Iraqi Prime Minister, Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Nouri al-Maliki, the incoming Prime Minister, said yesterday that he was on the verge of appointing a Cabinet, the last stage in the long and fraught process of creating a government of national unity.
Eighteen Iraqis were killed in scattered violence today. In the worst attack, gunmen opened fire on a bus full of employees travelling to a state-run electronics company in Baqouba, 55km (35 miles) northeast of Baghdad.
The gunmen stopped the bus, opened fire and threw a bomb on board, killing 11 people. The toll of yesterday's suicide attack in the northern city of Tal Afar rose today to 22 dead and 134 wounded, according to Iraqi authorities.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-2174046,00.html
The stamp collection that could cost thousands their life savings
From Graham Keeley in Barcelona
MORE than 350,000 private investors across Spain are believed to have fallen victim to an alleged pyramid-selling scam involving rare postage stamps.
Armed police raided the offices of two companies in four cities yesterday, arresting nine people and seizing documents, computers and other items, sequestering the buildings and throwing employees on to the streets.
As word spread of the raids, hundreds of investors — mainly pensioners — swarmed to the offices in the hope of retrieving their savings, but were kept at bay by police and security guards.
Investors are estimated to have handed more than £54 million to two related companies, Afinsa Bienes Tangibles, which is the world’s third-biggest collectibles company behind Sotheby’s and Christie’s, and Fórum Filatélico.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2173493,00.html
How 14-month-old leukaemia victim is suffering for Hamas
By Stephen Farrell
Doctors blame freeze on Western aid and Israeli blockade for drugs crisis in Gaza hospitals
MOHMIN ABU AMRA was admitted to Nasser Children’s Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip two weeks ago for urgent treatment for leukaemia. Instead, the 14-month-old boy found himself on the front line of a political war against Hamas.
Doctors say they do not have the drugs needed to save him because funds have been withheld by the West.
As the Quartet of international Middle East mediators gathered last night to discuss the freeze on Western aid to the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority, humanitarian organisations voiced concern that shortages of medicines were putting lives at risk.
Doctors say that patients such as Mohmin, or ten-year-old Fayda in an adjoining ward, and many others across Gaza and the West Bank have been caught up in a battle of wills between Hamas, which refuses to recognise Israel, and a world determined to turn the suicide-bombers-turned-politicians into pariahs.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2173390,00.html
Iran to be offered deal over nuclear programme
From James Bone in New York
MARGARET BECKETT, the new Foreign Secretary, agreed yesterday to prepare a package of incentives for Iran to curb its nuclear programme.
Facing continued opposition from Russia and China to Britain’s call for a UN resolution depriving Iran of the legal right to enrich uranium, Mrs Beckett has ordered the incentive package to be ready by Monday.
John Sawers, the Foreign Office political director, will work with his French and German counterparts to prepare a list of ideas, including access to civil nuclear technology, trade and perhaps even security guarantees. These will be discussed on the margins of the next EU general affairs council.
The three European political directors will then meet officials from China, Russia and the United States in London on May 19. Philippe Douste-Blazy, the French Foreign Minister, was pushing for security guarantees, presumably from the United States. But US officials appeared reluctant to rule out military action against Iran.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,13509-2173383,00.html
Briton faces extradition for 'biggest ever military hack'
By Lee Glendinning
A Briton who hacked into American defence networks and wiped out 300 PCs at a naval base faces trial in the US after being recommended for extradition by a British court.
Gary McKinnon, 40, of Wood Green, north London, whose attack was described by America as the biggest military hack of all time, said that he would contest the decision which must now be rubber-stamped by John Reid, the Home Secretary.
Mr McKinnon is alleged to have caused $700,000 (£370,000) worth of losses by hacking into the US computer systems over a period of a year. He insists that he never intended to harm US military capability and was merely researching UFOs.
Outside Bow Street Magistrates Court following publicaton of the decision today he vowed to fight on and claimed that if he was tried in Virginia he was "already hung, drawn and quartered."
He said: "[The hearing] went as expected and obviously the appeal process can now start. My intention was never to disrupt security, the fact that I logged on there and there were no passwords means that there was no security."
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-2174108,00.html
Rescued: now the recriminations begin
From Bernard Lagan in Sydney
MINERS and union leaders yesterday blamed managers eager to pounce on rising gold prices for a Tasmanian mine collapse that left two men trapped a kilometre below ground for 14 days.
Several miners from the Beaconsfield goldmine — including some who were involved in the dramatic rescue at dawn of Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 34 — said that mine managers had failed to leave enough of the deeper levels unexploited to provide support.
“There were simply not enough pillars left in the whole mine because of the value of the ore,” one miner told The Australian. If they found an ore body, they’d just take it out.”
The men were trapped by a rockfall at a depth of 925m (3,035ft). A third miner, Larry Knight, 44, was killed.
The managers of the mine have declined to respond to allegations of unsafe practices, pending an inquiry. Mr Russell attended the funeral of his colleague yesterday and last night joined hundreds of residents who had been celebrating the rescue all day in the pubs of Beaconsfield.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2173071,00.html
Why shouldn't women kill?
Magnus Linklater
The idea that female members of the Armed Forces should be protected from close combat is wrong
THERE IS ONLY ONE proper way to respond to the death of Flight Lieutenant Sarah-Jayne Mulvihill, the first British woman to be killed in action in Iraq. It is to salute her bravery, and those of the four male airmen, who died when their helicopter was brought down in Basra. She was briefing the newly arrived commander of the British helicopter fleet when the attack came. In a war with no front lines, she was a frontline combatant.
The convention that still bars women from serving alongside men in battle, both in the US and British forces, has become so frayed that it seems barely sustainable. They pilot helicopters and planes, they carry weapons, they face the threat of road-side bombs, they are as vulnerable to attack as their male colleagues, and when they are exposed to ambush, as Private Teresa Bradwell, of the US army, was in November 2003, they can fire back, protect a position and kill the enemy. Yet no male officer I spoke to yesterday felt inclined to change the rules. Their views were summed up in the words of that close observer of the military scene, Sir Max Hastings, who wrote: “War and its inescapable bloodshed (is) the business of the stronger sex.”
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,6-2173331,00.html
The Blair effect, and leaders-in-waiting
Sir, Labour is running at 30 per cent in the polls and the Conservatives 38 per cent (report, May 9). Nevertheless, the next government could well be a Labour one again, albeit with a wafer-thin majority.
In the last election Labour received only 35.3 per cent of the vote. A turnout of 61.3 per cent meant that those who voted Labour amounted to less than a quarter of the electorate.
Proportional representation might have mitigated this, but not blunted the key to Mr Blair’s success: his effective disenfranchisement of traditional Labour voters. So long as these abstain from voting because they cannot bring themselves to vote Conservative or Liberal Democrat, new Labour would always win.
That this strategy is slowly unravelling is evident from the recent local elections where voters have not bothered with protest votes and instead voted tactically, Conservative in most cases.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,59-2172867,00.html
Sports Calendar
http://sportscalendar.timesonline.co.uk/times/calendar
Miami Herald
Ex-con helps U.S. deliver satellite phones to FARC
BY GERARDO REYES AND STEVEN DUDLEY
COMBITA, Colombia - It sounds like a spy novel: Using a cooperating drug trafficker, U.S. officials put several supposedly untraceable satellite phones in the hands of Colombia's FARC guerrillas, then listened to their chatter.
But the sting of Latin America's most secretive insurgency -- accused of direct involvement in cocaine smuggling to the U.S. and European markets -- really did take place, several U.S. officials told The Miami Herald.
U.S. intercepts of FARC communications were mentioned in a March U.S. indictment of the FARC's seven top leaders and 43 other commanders on charges of running a $25 billion drug trafficking network responsible for 60 percent of the cocaine on U.S. streets.
Other U.S. indictments have implicated mid-level commanders and couriers. In all, at least 55 members of the 50-year-old, 17,000-fighter Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia are facing U.S. charges ranging from drug trafficking and extortion to kidnapping and terrorism.
It's not known whether the eavesdropping on the U.S.-provided satellite phones contributed to the indictments of the FARC members. But it is clear that the phones were delivered to top FARC leaders, including its top military commander, a notorious commander better known as Mono Jojoy.
COOPERATION
U.S. officials say the sting began when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents won the cooperation of Nelson Urrego, a Colombian communications specialist who allegedly helped coordinate cocaine shipments that totaled 10 to 15 tons per month for the North Valley Cartel.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14540951.htm
Regulators: FPL request is too high
FPL's request to recoup hurricane repair costs from its customers should be reduced, the staff of the Public Service Commission recommended.
BY JOHN DORSCHNER
Analysts for state utility regulators recommended Tuesday that the amount Florida Power & Light can bill customers to recoup hurricane costs be slashed by $562 million.
The reduction from FPL's request of $1.7 billion, if approved, would save the average customer about 50 cents a month for the next 12 years. Under FPL's request, the average customer would pay a $1.60 monthly surcharge.
While 50 cents may seem trivial at a time when fuel prices are sending electric bills soaring, consumer advocates believe the report is important because it signals a major shift in the way the state's utility regulators look at storm damages.
In making its recommendation, the staff of the Public Service Commission criticized the utility for bad pole maintenance, lack of tree-trimming and loose bolts in transmission towers.
In the 237-page document, the staff urged that FPL's request for a $650 million reserve fund to cover future storm repair costs be trimmed to $200 million. It also recommended that the PSC slash $98 million of FPL's request for 2005 hurricane costs, citing suspect accounting or poor maintenance by the utility.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14540947.htm
Cruise ship lines abandon Miami as a port of call
The only cruise ship now using Miami as a port of call will stop doing so after this evening, disappointing some local tourist attractions.
BY AMY MARTINEZ AND DOUGLAS HANKS III
C.W. GRIFFIN/THE MIAMI HERALD STAFF
Stacy Shaughnessy, Matt Tacktill,13, and John Shaughnessy,13, from Long Island enjoyed the scenery on South Beach after coming in on the Spirit.
When the Norwegian Spirit sets sail this evening for Great Stirrup Cay in the Bahamas, it will say bon voyage to Miami as a port of call -- the New York-based cruise ship no longer plans to visit Miami.
Royal Caribbean's Grandeur of the Seas will start calling on Miami in July during a series of nine-day itineraries from Baltimore, delivering 2,000-plus passengers to local tourist attractions.
But beyond that, Miami -- the world's cruise capital -- remains little more than a place where people begin and end their cruises. No ships call regularly on Port Everglades in Broward County, also a busy cruise departure point.
For all its glamour, South Florida has yet to catch on as a place were cruise lines pull up and encourage their passengers to spend a few hours at local tourist attractions. Those same attractions, which usually see lulls between the weekends, had come to enjoy Norwegian's Wednesday visits as a mid-week pick-up.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14539928.htm
Drug plan deadline assailed; low-income seniors get help
President Bush toured Florida on Tuesday as he faced mounting demands to extend the deadline for signing up for the new Medicare prescription drug benefit.
BY MONICA HATCHER
Less than a week before the Monday deadline for enrollment in the new Medicare drug benefit plan, the Bush administration said it will waive penalty fees for low-income seniors who sign up late.
The small concession came amid growing pressure to extend the deadline, which U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt has said he is not willing to do. In recent weeks, several reports have indicated seniors are still stumped when it comes to choosing a plan and don't have adequate resources to help them.
On Tuesday, President Bush visited Florida to promote the drug prescription plan and made a brief stop in Broward County at a conference on aging to press seniors and the disabled to sign up.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14540949.htm
GOP forges deal on investor tax cuts
ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - House Republican leaders are ready to move forward on tax breaks worth $70 billion over five years to investors and some middle-income families now that they've sorted out a disagreement among themselves.
The breakthrough Tuesday set up a vote in the House late Wednesday.
The Senate could clear the bill for President Bush's signature by week's end, achieving one of his top tax priorities and giving his GOP allies on Capitol Hill a victory in times of sagging poll numbers.
The bill offers a two-year extension of the reduced 15 percent tax rate for capital gains and dividends, currently set to expire at the end of 2008.
And it would keep 15 million families from being hit this year with the alternative minimum tax, which was designed to make sure the wealthy paid taxes but is ensnaring more middle-income families because it was not indexed for inflation.
"This is a responsible bill that protects families and small business owners from tax increases, while also providing investors with a bigger window of certainty - critical to continued economic growth," said Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
Critics, including many Democrats, have attacked the tax rate reductions on dividends and capital gains as being largely tilted to the wealthy. They say provisions should not be extended at a time of large budget deficits and massive spending for the war in Iraq.
The agreement capped weeks of talks among GOP lawmakers over how to go ahead on their party's tax agenda. They had to decide how best to deal with a rule that lets them advance up to $70 billion in cuts in a way that would prevent any filibuster from Senate Democrats.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/14539519.htm
Immigration reform: substance over politics
OUR OPINION: COMPREHENSIVE REMEDY NEEDED FOR A BROKEN SYSTEM
Last week's nationwide boycott and rallies took center stage in the immigration debate. But real action still awaits in the U.S. Senate. The outcome will depend on the goodwill of lawmakers who want to craft policy that benefits this nation, and not just create an issue with which to trump political rivals in November elections.
Political maneuvers over procedures stalled the compromise immigration bill last month. But the full Senate may resume discussions as soon as next Monday with an eye to voting on the bill before Memorial Day.
Draconian bill
Meantime, no one should forget why Congress and Americans nationwide are involved in this debate: Our current immigration system doesn't work. If it did, we wouldn't have 12 million undocumented immigrants living in our county, millions of others waiting years to immigrate legally and national-security concerns about who might slip through our borders.
Legislation that doesn't tackle all of these concerns won't solve the immigration problems and could, in fact, make matters worse. A good example of such misguided policy is the enforcement-only Sensenbrenner bill passed by the House last year. This Draconian bill provided inspiration for the recent pro-immigration protests and voter-registration drives that are gearing up nationwide.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/14540986.htm
New Zealand Herald
$13m revamp for eco-education
10.05.06
School students will learn about global warming, energy and pollution through a new $13 million injection into environmental education.
The money, said a pre-Budget announcement yesterday, will be used to train teachers, rewrite the curriculum and develop resources to boost learning about the environment.
The funding is part of a deal between Labour and the Greens, negotiated after last year's election.
Greens education spokeswoman Metiria Turei said it would help ensure children had the knowledge and skills to protect New Zealand's future
"We must face squarely the impacts of climate change, increasing energy demand, more expensive and less accessible oil, and polluted natural resources," she said.
A portion of the cash will be set aside to develop resources in Maori language and to appoint a national programme co-ordinator.
"Many kura (schools) I have visited want to develop a programme of education for sustainability, but say the support and reo resources are just not available.
"This money should help to deal with this barrier," Mrs Turei said.
The funding, which will progressively increase over the next four years, will be used in three areas.
* $7.4 million will build and support the national coordination of the existing Education for Sustainability programme and provide teacher training.
* $4.6 million will go to the Enviroschools Foundation for resource development.
* $800,000 will go to a Maori national coordination programme for total immersion and kaupapa Maori schools.
About $50,000 each year will be used to evaluate the programme.
"By teaching children and young people about the impacts of human behaviour on the natural environment and encouraging ideas and practical skills for sustainability, we are future-proofing our nation and protecting our environment and economy for many more generations to come," Mrs Turei said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381043
Cigarette packets could carry graphic images
4.00pm Wednesday May 10, 2006
By Rebecca Quillian
Grotesque images of gangrenous feet, rotting gums and teeth, and throat cancer on cigarette packets is an option the Government is considering in an effort to reduce smoking.
Associate Health Minister Damien O'Connor today launched a consultation document that proposes a series of warnings about the dangers of smoking, including the gruesome images on cigarette, cigar, cigarillos and loose tobacco packets.
"We signed up to the (World Health Organisation) framework on tobacco control and we locked ourselves into a process that lays out some good moves towards harm reduction and ultimately the reduction in smoking from tobacco," he said in Wellington today.
The size of the pictures - covering between 50 and 60 per cent of the packet - is debated in the consultation document and will now be discussed with the industry and the public.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10381144
"Review of Smoke Free Environments 1999"
http://www.moh.govt.nz/moh.nsf/pagesmh/4712/$File/smokefree-environments-regulations-1999-2006.pdf
Employers don't like Kiwisaver, but will live with it
4.00pm Wednesday May 10, 2006
A major employers group says it does not like the Government's flagship Kiwisaver legislation, but has "rolled over on it".
Employer and Manufacturers Association (Northern) chief executive Alasdair Thompson told MPs he did not think the workplace savings scheme would work, but "it was not worth dying in a ditch over".
The Kiwisaver Bill is being examined by a select committee and its first day of public hearings resulted in a mixture of mild criticism and warm support.
Mr Thompson said he did not believe Kiwisaver would increase net savings, it would not have high participation rates and would increase compliance costs.
He told MPs they should change the bill so employers did not have to nominate which savings scheme package an employee should belong to, as that was a matter for the employee or the Government to decide.
Mr Thompson also wanted employers to have fewer reporting responsibilities to Inland Revenue who would manage much of the scheme.
Union bosses were far more welcoming of the legislation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381140
Employers don't like Kiwisaver, but will live with it
4.00pm Wednesday May 10, 2006
A major employers group says it does not like the Government's flagship Kiwisaver legislation, but has "rolled over on it".
Employer and Manufacturers Association (Northern) chief executive Alasdair Thompson told MPs he did not think the workplace savings scheme would work, but "it was not worth dying in a ditch over".
The Kiwisaver Bill is being examined by a select committee and its first day of public hearings resulted in a mixture of mild criticism and warm support.
Mr Thompson said he did not believe Kiwisaver would increase net savings, it would not have high participation rates and would increase compliance costs.
He told MPs they should change the bill so employers did not have to nominate which savings scheme package an employee should belong to, as that was a matter for the employee or the Government to decide.
Mr Thompson also wanted employers to have fewer reporting responsibilities to Inland Revenue who would manage much of the scheme.
Union bosses were far more welcoming of the legislation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381140
Cash boost to tackle family violence
1.00pm Wednesday May 10, 2006
Family violence prevention services are getting an extra $9 million in the May 18 budget, the Government said today.
Spread over four years, it represents a 20 per cent increase in funding for the services.
Ruth Dyson, the minister responsible for Child, Youth and Family Services, said it was a response to increasing demands on organisations which provided crisis response to family violence.
It will go to non-government community service providers such as 24-hour crisis lines, counselling, social work support, safe-house accommodation, advocacy and information.
"Demand for family violence prevention services continues to increase, both through raised awareness of the problem and through increased referrals generated by government initiatives," Ms Dyson said.
"This budget announcement recognises the increased demand, and increases the funding into this sector for the first time in more than a decade."
Ms Dyson said there would also be an undertaking from key government departments and ministries such as police, health, education and social development to work with Child, Youth and Family Services to develop and implement solutions to address the sharp rise in notifications.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381120
Kiwis conceived in wild released in forest
1.00pm Wednesday May 10, 2006
Kiwis conceived in the wild were yesterday set free into the protected heart of a once mighty forest for the first time in a century.
About 40 people gathered to witness the historic release of the North Island brown kiwis. They were introduced to the pest-proofed forest surrounding the wildlife centre at Pukaha Mount Bruce in the Wairarapa.
The kiwis were all hand-reared since they were hatched in incubators late last year and another chick hatched in February will soon be released.
"It is very exciting to be releasing kiwi here for the first time in 100 years that were conceived in the wild" said Sally Thomas, National Wildlife Centre community relations programme manager.
"With the support of the community the kiwi have the opportunity to thrive and carry on to breed successfully."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381123
Anglicans shut down discussion on gays
2.00pm Wednesday May 10, 2006
Opposition by Maori and Pacific Island members has shut down debate on the role of gays in the church at the Anglican General Synod in Christchurch this week.
Anglican Church New Zealand spokesman Lloyd Ashton told the Press newspaper that none of the members representing the Maori and Pacific Island tikanga (cultural streams) at the synod were yet prepared to speak openly about the issue.
All groups had been asked to comment on an international report by a commission set up by the Archbishop of Canterbury that questioned the principles of the Anglican community and its diversity.
Many denominations are struggling with disputes over homosexuality, including gay priests and bishops and same-sex unions, which have caused schisms all over the world, often split along cultural lines.
In New Zealand, Maori and Pacific Island churches are generally more conservative.
However, a conference motion tabled by Tauranga vicar Edward Prebble, urges Anglicans to continue talks with the gay community on its needs within the church, while making no decisions about gays' future roles.
"There are some conservatives who would shut down debate and decide right now, but we have to keep talking and make sure both ends of the spectrum are listening," Mr Prebble told the newspaper.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381112
Second evacuation after acid spill
UPDATED 11.45am Wednesday May 10, 2006
Staff at transport company Mainfreight in Hamilton have been ordered out of buildings for the second time in two days.
Firefighters arrived about 7am today and the company buildings in the suburb of Te Rapa were evacuated.
By early morning six fire appliances were at the transport company, including two from Auckland -- a hazardous materials truck and the breathing apparatus tender.
A decontamination area had also been set up.
Firefighters were called back today when some of the nitric acid was found to have spread under a container. It began reacting and producing toxic fumes.
"Some of the spilled acid had gone under a container and it started reacting again this morning," Station Officer Bruce MacGregor said.
The hazardous materials truck holds special chemical suits to protect firefighters from toxic chemicals and fumes, Auckland Fire Service shift manager Paul Radden said.
It was unusual to send trucks from Auckland to Hamilton and they travelled to Hamilton with their lights and sirens on, he said.
Today's incident follows an evacuation late yesterday afternoon after a nitric acid spill.
Yesterday the poisonous and highly corrosive nitric acid leaked from a 200 litre drum as it was being unloaded.
That evacuation also closed part of Avalon Drive to traffic. Traffic was diverted down Foreman Road but police asked drivers to avoid the area completely.
Firefighters stayed at the scene for several hours last night but were called back early today.
Two firefighters were checked by ambulance staff last night as a precaution. They had applied sand and lime to neutralise the nitric acid.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381098
Brash accused of lying over Americans' election role
10.05.06
By Ruth Berry
The Government yesterday launched a new attack on Don Brash's credibility, claiming new evidence proved the National leader had "lied" about American involvement in his party's election campaign.
Dr Brash confirmed two Americans worked on the campaign, but rejected any claims he had lied.
The claim was based on a 2004 email he sent to key party strategists. It was released yesterday by Foreign Minister and NZ First leader Winston Peters.
Senior Labour MP Trevor Mallard said it proved Dr Brash misled the public in the lead-up to the election, when he rubbished Mr Mallard's claims that National's campaign was being financed and run by Americans.
Mr Mallard was then alluding to American billionaire Julian Robertson and others.
Dr Brash said then that while Mr Robertson was a friend, no Americans were running National strategy, and he called Mr Mallard's claims a "thundering lie".
But yesterday's email suggested Dr Brash contemplated seeking American help.
He described a lunch hosted by Mr Robertson in New York.
"Among those present were two guys who have been actively involved in various Republican campaigns and who have expressed a strong interest in helping with our campaign in NZ."
Mr Mallard quoted a line from Dr Brash last year saying: "There's no one that I have met who is an American involved in our campaign."
Dr Brash said two Americans had worked on National's campaign but he had not met them until election night, which was after he made that statement to Mr Mallard.
Dr Brash did not know if they were being paid, but later referred to the fact that the party had "employed them".
National's campaign manager, Steven Joyce, said the father and son team worked for a centre-right or Republican election campaign company and had been employed for about four to six weeks to mobilise volunteers.
- Additional reporting by Ainsley Thomson
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381061
Protester sues police over pepper spray
10.05.06
By Louisa Cleave
A man who was pepper-sprayed during a protest is suing police - who were criticised by a district court judge over the spraying - for $50,000.
Simon Oosterman yesterday filed the claim for damages, alleging he was assaulted and his rights were breached during the demonstration in Rotorua in January last year.
Charges against Mr Oosterman, a union campaigner, and two other protesters were dismissed when they appeared in the Rotorua District Court in September.
Judge James Weir, who forwarded his decision to the Office of the Commissioner, said the use of pepper spray on Mr Oosterman during the protest at the Forest Research Institute raised more questions than answers.
The judge said the police officer pepper-sprayed Mr Oosterman "because he was passively resisting, he was holding his arms out, turning and twisting and it was for that reason alone he pepper-sprayed him".
Police officers involved in the arrest had failed to exercise tact, tolerance and restraint, the judge said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381041
NZ miner shares survivors' joy, pain
10.05.06
By Jarrod Booker
Gary Haddow knew first-hand how the rescued Tasmanian miners would have been feeling yesterday.
Two months ago the West Coast miner was given another chance at life when he survived a coalmine accident which claimed the life of a colleague.
Mr Haddow was trapped 30m underground for seven hours by a rockfall in a coalmine near Greymouth that killed Robert McGowan.
Mr Haddow said he imagined the rescued miners would have mixed emotions.
"They have lost a work colleague and a workmate, as I have," he told the Herald.
"I can imagine how they are feeling now, how their families are. But then knowing their colleague's dead - that is a huge thing to feel - and the family that has lost a husband, partner, son."
Mr Haddow said it would be a "natural feeling" for the miners to be asking why their colleague had died when they had lived.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10381066
Beaconsfield Mine inquiry will start soon
10.05.06 2.30pm
The Tasmanian state government wants the inquiry into the Beaconsfield Mine accident to begin as soon as possible.
Premier Paul Lennon says there will be two investigations - one by the coroner and the other by workplace safety officials.
Mr Lennon says he will also talk to unions about mine safety so he can make sure the issues they want addressed are properly considered by government officials.
Meanwhile rescued miners Brant Webb and Todd Russell have been offered the chance to dispel memories of their gloomy 14-day incarceration with a sunny holiday on Norfolk Island.
Tourist groups on the South Pacific island have offered a free, eight-day second honeymoon to the pair and their wives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10381141
Australia, US agree on Hicks' Guantanamo transfer
10.05.06 2.30pm
CANBERRA - Australia has reached an agreement with the United States to allow one of its nationals detained at Guantanamo Bay to serve a possible jail sentence in his home country.
David Hicks, 30, accused of being an al Qaeda fighter, has been held in Guantanamo for four years after capture by US forces in Afghanistan in 2001.
He is due to face a US military commission on charges of aiding the enemy, attempted murder and conspiracy to commit war crimes.
"Should Mr Hicks ... be convicted, the arrangement would provide a means for Mr Hicks to apply to be transferred to serve any penal sentence in Australia in accordance with Australian and US law," Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said in a statement.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10381139
Queen of Jordan promotes peace via cartoon
10.05.06 1.20pm
NEW YORK - Benjamin Martin and Isam Aziz may never match the fame of Bart Simpson, but the creators of a cartoon called "Ben & Izzy" featuring the two characters have a greater aspiration - to promote world peace.
The cartoon, which is still in production and yet to find distribution, was presented to US media industry leaders at a gala dinner in New York yesterday by Queen Rania of Jordan.
"Whether we are Muslims, Christians or Jews ... whether we live in the Middle East or the Upper West Side (of New York) ... we all want our children to be able to make the most of their potential in a secure, peaceful and just world," Queen Rania said in a speech at the event.
Created by a Jordanian company with David Pritchard, a onetime producer of the hit US show "The Simpsons," the animated series "Ben & Izzy" is about two 11-year-old boys, one from America, one from Jordan, who go on time-traveling adventures with the help of a genie named Yasmine.
Neither boy is specifically identified with a religion.
The Queen said she hoped the cartoon would help promote understanding, making an oblique reference to the recent controversy over cartoons first published in Denmark that presented the Prophet Mohammad as a suicide bomber, sparking furious protests from Muslims around the world.
"In a year when we have seen cartoons used to fuel misunderstanding and division, I am delighted to see this new cartoon explicitly designed to bring people together," Queen Rania told an audience that included media executives, actors, models and journalists.
According to a plot summary for the cartoon, Benjamin Martin, or Ben, is a symbol for his country. "The boy is smart, goal-oriented, and an individual. On the negative side, he is a bit xenophobic, self-centered, needs-to-win overly competitive, brash, and a consumer," the summary said.
Isam Aziz, Izzy for short, has different qualities.
"The boy is worldlier in his outlook and enjoys traveling - he even knows several languages," the plot summary says. "On the downside, Izzy can be a little too serious, self-righteous, superior, and even devious."
Ben loves sports, while Izzy "is a whiz on the computer and loves to solve puzzles," although he plays soccer.
The New York Times said the budget for the project was $6 million and producers hope to have it ready to start broadcasting in early 2007.
"There is no magic pearl we can rub to make all the people in the world get along," Queen Rania said. "But projects like 'Ben and Izzy' go a long way to ensuring that the next generation grows up with a mind-set geared toward trust and tolerance."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10381130
Radical Jordanian cleric fights UK deportation bid
10.05.06 1.00pm
LONDON - A hardline Islamic cleric believed to have close links with al Qaeda in Britain launched a legal challenge on Tuesday against efforts to deport him to Jordan.
The case of Abu Qatada, a Jordanian national who came to Britain in 1993, is a key test of British efforts to allow deportations to countries accused of torture by securing special agreements that deportees will not be ill treated.
The memoranda of understanding are meant to circumvent European human rights legislation which forbids member states from deporting people to countries where they could be tortured.
Abu Qatada's lawyer argued on Tuesday that evidence against him may have been obtained abroad through torture. But the British government said he was undoubtedly dangerous.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10381124
Peace brokers agree on a way to get aid to Palestinians
10.05.06 1.00pm
UNITED NATIONS - The quartet of Middle East peace brokers have agreed on a way to channel aid to the Palestinians for a trial period to ease a financial squeeze on the new government following the election of Hamas.
The group of international mediators - the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations - issued a statement after a day of talks in which Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia warned of a civil war if the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority was left to collapse.
"The quartet expressed its willingness to endorse a temporary international mechanism that is limited in scope and duration, operates with full transparency and accountability," said the quartet statement.
The move came after the World Bank warned the Palestinian Authority could face a breakdown in law and order and basic services unless foreign donors step in to pay the salaries of about 165,000 civil servants.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10381126
Nigeria exposes 'illegal' drug trial
10.05.06
WASHINGTON - Nigerian medical experts have concluded Pfizer violated international law during a 1996 epidemic by testing an unapproved drug on children with brain infections, reports have said.
The Washington Post said the panel's study, completed five years ago but never released, found that Pfizer was never authorised by the Nigerian Government to give the unproven drug Trovan to nearly 100 children at a field hospital in Kano, where they were being treated for an often deadly strain of meningitis.
Pfizer's experiment was "an illegal trial of an unregistered drug", and violated Nigerian law, the international Declaration of Helsinki that governs ethical medical research and the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, the panel concluded.
Five children died after being treated with the experimental antibiotic and others contracted arthritis, although there is no evidence the drug played a part.
Six children died while taking a comparison drug, the Post said.
At the time, Doctors Without Borders was dispensing approved antibiotics at hospital, according to the Post.
Pfizer, the world's biggest drug company, told the Post it conducted the trial with the full knowledge of the Nigerian Government and consistent with Nigerian law. Local nurses explained the experiment to Nigerian parents and obtained their "verbal" consent, the company told the Post.
"Trovan unquestionably saved lives, and Pfizer strongly disagrees with any suggestion that the company conducted its study in an unethical manner," the Post quoted it as saying.
A US federal judge last November dismissed a lawsuit that accused Pfizer of not properly warning Nigerian families about the risk of its meningitis drug Trovan, then awaiting US Food and Drug Administration approval, during a clinical test. He said the case should be heard in a Nigerian court.
The lawsuit argued that some of the children in the trial died and others suffered brain damage because the drug makers did not explain to the Nigerian families that the antibiotic was experimental, that they could refuse the treatment for their children, or that other medicines were available.
Pfizer has denied the accusations.
The Nigerian Government report obtained by the Post said there were no records indicating that Pfizer told the children or their parents that they were part of an experiment.
The panel recommended that Pfizer be "sanctioned, apologise, and pay restitution".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10381018
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