Buenos Aires Herald
And where were we three years ago? Starting an illegal war in Iraq. And where are we today? Conducting an illegal war in Iraq with skyrocketing oil prices, insoluble debt and inflation.
Biggest Dow slide in 3 years
Investors sold shares in banks, industrial conglomerates and other rate-sensitive stocks. An index of bank stocks slid 1.8 percent, while shares of blue-chip Citigroup Inc. dropped 1.4 percent.
The blue-chip Dow dropped more than 200 points, the biggest slide since March 2003, and the Nasdaq had its longest losing streak in five years.
"Inflation, which is the principal focus of the Fed, is higher than Chairman Bernanke will feel comfortable with," said Hugh Johnson, chief investment officer at Johnson Illington Advisors.
The drop impacted Latin markets, with the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange dropping 3.45 percent. See Argentina
http://www.buenosairesherald.com/argentina/note.jsp?idContent=280855&hideIntro=true
52nd Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education
Students Remember Brown vs. Board Decision
Stephanie Wurtz
Members of the Little Rock 9 traveled to Topeka for the celebration.
The group worked in 1957 to put the court's decision into action.
Now they have a message for today's students.
"The 9 of us as a group felt that it was time for change," says Terrence Roberts, one of the Little Rock 9, "living under the conditions we lived under in Little Rock made no sense."
So at 15, Roberts did something.
He was one of the first black students to enroll in an all white school after the Brown vs. Board decision ruled that segregated schools were unconstitutional.
"They were the first public test of how the country was going to respond to Brown vs. Board," says Cheryl Brown Henderson of the Brown Foundation, that sponsored a banquet Wednesday honoring the Little Rock 9.
"So many Americans have that attitude: if it's too painful, I don't want to see it, be a part of it, know about it and what what we did may or may not have an impact," Roberts says.
That's why Roberts and Henderson want young people to remember and understand what the Brown vs. Board decision meant for America.
And understand that they have the power to make changes.
"It's time to wake up, to develop awareness," says Roberts, "each one of us has a responsibility to make a contribution to this society."
"This group is now in their 50s and 60s, but they were only teenagers when they took a stand," Henderson says, "I don't think our young people realize how much power they have."
To learn more about the Brown vs. Board decision, you can visit the Brown vs. Board Historic Site daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. for free.
You can also check brownvboard.org or call the Brown Foundation at (785) 235-3939
http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/2823066.html
Table 370.
Unemployment rate of persons 16 years old and over, by age, sex, race/ethnicity, and educational attainment: 2002, 2003, and 2004
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/dt05_370.asp
PDF - Microsoft Excel of the above statistics
http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d05/tables/xls/tabn370.xls
The Jakarta Post
RI bird flu deaths reach 30: WHO
Tb. Arie Rukmantara, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Five more bird flu deaths, including four from one North Sumatra family, were confirmed Wednesday, bringing the official death toll in the country to 30.
World Health Organization spokeswoman Sari P. Setiogi said the deaths in Karo regency, North Sumatra, were from a new cluster of H5N1, while the other death was in Surabaya, East Java.
"We're still waiting another test result of a bird flu case also found in North Sumatra," she said, referring to tests being carried out at the WHO-affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong on a 10-year-old boy who died.
The WHO reported the dead were a 19 and 17-year-old male, a 29-year-old female and an 18-month-old baby. A fifth person, a 25-year-old male, was infected but alive, AFP quoted the agency as saying.
Indonesia's 39 diagnosed H5N1 cases is the second highest in the world after Vietnam (42). It has been reported in poultry in 27 of the country's 33 provinces.
As well as the new cluster in Medan, five clusters have been found in Tangerang (two clusters), Jakarta, Lampung in southern Sumatra and Indramayu in West Java.
Some health experts worry the prevalence of the clusters will increase the possibility of the virus mutating into a more pathogenic form that could be easily transmitted between humans.
Although the Agriculture Ministry said it did not find evidence of H5N1 in local fowl in the Karo area, Sari said it was no indication the virus had spread through human-to-human contact.
"The good news is, in this case, that the virus did not infect others outside the seven patients," she said.
Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said a ministry team was trying to determine if there were other sources of infection, such as the use of chicken droppings as fertilizer.
"We'll try to investigate whether the source of the transmission came from fertilizers, pigs or other sources," she told Antara newswire.
Siti said she was shocked by news of the Karo outbreak, because the virus was not considered endemic in the area. She believed it was the H5N1 genotype and not a mutation.
"Based on our research and that of WHO, the type of the virus is still the same," she said.
A senior official of the newly formed National Commission on Bird Flu, Emil Agustiono, told The Jakarta Post the confirmation of the North Sumatra cluster showed the government needed to increase its efforts to curb the virus' spread.
"I urge the health and agriculture ministries, as well as WHO and the Food and Agriculture Organization, to work together to solve these problems," he said.
"At present, there's still a tendency for these agencies to work individually."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060518.@03&irec=6
Bird flu outbreak might 'burn itself out': Scientist
BOSTON, The U.S. (Bloomberg): The outbreak of lethal bird flu that has spread from Asia to Africa, the Middle East and Europe might "burn itself out" before becoming a human pandemic, the top U.S. infectious-disease researcher said Thursday.
While scientists fear the deadly H5N1 virus will mutate into a form that spreads easily among people, it's just as likely that the outbreak in birds will fade, said Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"It's entirely conceivable that this will just burn itself out and be a dead end," Fauci said in an interview. "It's just as likely to do that as evolve into something that's a serious problem."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060518110047&irec=6
Sacred rite goes on in Merapi's dangerous path
Tarko Sudiarno and Hyginus Hardoyo, The Jakarta Post, Sleman/Yogyakarta
Despite the threat of an eruption from smoldering Mt. Merapi, believers in its mystical powers are performing a ritual at a hallowed site on its slopes.
They are following in the venerable footsteps of Mbah Marijan, the volcano's spiritual guardian who has refused to leave the area.
At least nine people gathered at Sri Manganti, one of the sacred spots lying about three kilometers from the mount's crater, for three days of prayers that began Wednesday.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060518.@01&irec=0
U.S. assists Mt. Merapi emergency response
JAKARTA (JP): The U.S. government has provided an additional US$50,000 to support emergency efforts in response to increasing volcanic activity at Mt. Merapi. That brings its total aid to $100,000, the U.S. embassy in Jakarta said Thursday.
Last Saturday, the Indonesian Volcano Technology Development and Research Agency (BPPTK) raised the alert at Mt. Merapi to the highest level after the volcano released ominous clouds of ash, with a giant lava dome bulging over its slopes.
The current status requires residents living on the slopes of the volcano are to leave their houses for temporary shelters.Some 10,000 people have been evacuated, but many of them have returned home, saying they have to tend to their fields or take care of their livestock.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060518135720&irec=2
Refugees complain of prison-like conditions
MOUNT MERAPI, Central Java (AP): Thousands of villagers fed up with living in cramped camps have returned to their homes on the slopes of erupting Mount Merapi, ignoring warnings that the peakremains highly dangerous, an official said Thursday.
One camp that earlier this week held some 2,500 people was empty Thursday after a mass departure of refugees a day earlier, said Insan, an official at the shelter in a government building on the lower slopes of the mountain."They said it was like living in a prison," said Insan. "We tried to keep them entertained, but then rumors started spreading that their houses were being looted."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060518120807&irec=5
Protesters want charges against Soeharto reinstated
JAKARTA (Agencies): Protesters in Indonesia's capital demanded Thursday that prosecutors reinstate criminal charges against former president Soeharto, still hospitalized after colon surgery earlier this month.
Soeharto was ousted after 32 years in power in 1998 amid student protests and nationwide riots. In 2000, he was indicted on allegations of embezzling US$600 million, but has never been tried because his lawyers say he is too ill after suffering a series of strokes.
Thursday's protest in front of the State Palace was one of several anti-Soeharto gatherings since Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh announced nearly a week ago that charges against Soeharto were being dropped.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060518154557&irec=0
Why Soeharto's trial should continue
Agung Yudhawiranata, Jakarta
Attorney General Abdul Rahman Saleh has announced the termination of former president Soeharto's prosecution, citing his ill health over the past six years.
The decision to close the multimillion-dollar corruption case involving the former strongman deals the country's reform movement a major blow. This is because the People's Consultative Assembly ordered a just and fair legal process against Soeharto, his family, and his cronies in its 1998 decree on corruption, collusion and nepotism-free state administration.
The controversial move by the Attorney General capped systematic efforts to foil Soeharto's prosecution for alleged graft, stretching back to 2000 when the case was opened.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20060518.E02&irec=3
Regional chaos reflects frustration
Ridwan Max Sijabat, Jakarta
The current political standoff in Banyuwangi and the recent violence in Tuban are two separate and distinctive issues, both of which rocked East Java.
In the Banyuwangi case, local elite groups backed by ulema and their followers are trying to oust Regent Ratna Ani Lestari, claiming that her less than year-old administration is ineffective. In Tuban, supporters of a losing candidate in the regent election burned down the local election commission office and property belonging to Regent Haeny Relawati, who won reelection.
Despite the differences, both incidents were triggered by the same factor. The outrage in the two regencies reflected people's frustration toward what they perceive as injustice.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20060518.F01&irec=1
'USNS Mercy' starts 5-month Asian deployment
MANILA (AP): The U.S. Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy will return to Southeast Asia later this week on a five-month humanitarian mission, a year after treating victims of the 2004 tsunami, the U.S. Embassy in Manila said Thursday.
The white-hulled vessel, one of two American hospital ships, will first stop in the volatile southern Philippines, where U.S. troops are building schools and roads and training Filipino soldiers in counterterrorism in efforts to combat al-Qaida-linkedmilitants, the embassy said in a statement.
Other stops were expected to include Indonesia, Bangladesh and East Timor, where medical personnel will offer free treatment for civilians.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060518121536&irec=4
The Washington Post
China's Symbol, and Source, of Power
Three Gorges Dam Nears Completion, at High Human Cost
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A01
THREE GORGES DAM, China, May 17 -- After 13 years of breakneck construction that displaced more than a million villagers, China is about to pour the final concrete on an enormous dam across the mighty Yangtze River, seeking to tame the flood-prone waterway that has nurtured and tormented the Chinese people for 5,000 years.
Engineers, many of whom have spent their entire careers on the site, will gather on Saturday for a ceremony to mark their achievement: The dun-colored barrier at last has reached its full height of 606 feet and stretches 7,575 feet across the Yangtze's murky green waters in the Three Gorges area of central China's Hubei province, 600 miles southwest of Beijing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051702157.html
Saudi Warns Against Isolating Hamas
Envoy Says U.S. Will Release 16 Guantanamo Detainees
By Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A18
The Bush administration's policy of isolating the Hamas-led Palestinian government is based on a "twisted logic" that will end up only radicalizing the Palestinian population against a peaceful solution, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said yesterday.
Separately, Saud said the United States would release 16 Saudi citizens from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, this week and return them to Saudi Arabia for possible trial and incarceration. Only nine of the 136 Saudi detainees have been released since 2003, and these appear to be the first that will be subject to the Saudi justice system.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051702078.html
Ethics Panel Starts 3 Probes
Ney, Jefferson And Cunningham Cases End Hiatus
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A01
After 16 months of inactivity and partisan infighting, the House ethics committee launched investigations last night into bribery allegations against Reps. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio) and William Jefferson (D-La.) and a separate inquiry into the widening scandal surrounding former congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham (R-Calif.).
The committee said it would have ordered another investigation, into the overseas trips of former House majority leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), had the once-powerful lawmaker not announced that he will resign from the House on June 9.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051701779.html
Google's Goal: A Worldwide Web of Books
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page D01
It's odd to hear Vinton Cerf, regarded as one of the founding fathers of the Internet, to gush over ink-on-paper books.
The electronic pioneer and computer scientist, who now works as Google's chief Internet evangelist, is also a bibliophile who has a collection of about 10,000 hard-copy volumes lining shelves at his home in McLean.
These days, Cerf is busy promoting Google's plan to marry his two passions -- books and the Internet -- by digitizing millions of library books. He recently dropped by my office to explain the controversial plan and talk about its implications for book lovers.
As Cerf talked about his personal book collection and the limitations of having knowledge fixed on paper, he got me thinking about how reading will be transformed when static libraries join the more dynamic world of cross-referenced knowledge on the Web.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051702016.html
Anti-Incumbent Voters Sent Messages Tuesday
By Dan Balz and Chris Cillizza
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A03
Pennsylvania voters dumped two Republican leaders in the state Senate and scared a GOP member of Congress, while Oregon voters sent a warning they are unhappy with the Democratic governor.
Cumulatively, the results Tuesday were the latest signals of brewing unrest that could threaten incumbents of both parties in the November elections.
More than a dozen legislators in Pennsylvania lost their jobs in a revolt over a pay raise for lawmakers that was enacted and later repealed but which provoked outrage among the electorate.
In Oregon, Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D) won his primary election but claimed just 54 percent of the vote. He is one of several Democratic executives who face tough reelection contests in a year when Democrats are generally optimistic about their prospects in U.S. House and Senate races. Other embattled Democrats include Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051701901.html
Judge Killed in Attack On Turkish High Court
By Yesim Borg and Karl Vick
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A19
ISTANBUL, May 17 -- A gunman opened fire on judges in Turkey's highest administrative court on Wednesday, killing one and wounding four after shouting "God is great!" and "We are God's ambassadors!"
Police and witnesses said the attacker, who was arrested and being interrogated by anti-terrorist police, was a lawyer who was incensed over a ruling further restricting Islamic dress in Turkey. The shooting occurred at midmorning in the heart of Ankara, the capital of a republic founded 83 years ago on principles that regard Islam as a threat to democratic governance in a country that is 99 percent Muslim.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051701898.html
Judge Rejects Call to Release AT& T Papers
Justice Dept. Cites National Security; Privacy Group Says Documents Prove NSA Link
By Karen Gullo and Joel Rosenblatt
Bloomberg News
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page D05
A federal judge yesterday rejected a privacy group's request to release documents that it claims show AT&T Inc. helped the National Security Agency spy on Americans by providing access to customers' phone calls.
U.S. District Judge Vaughn R. Walker said at a hearing in San Francisco that the documents may contain AT&T trade secrets. The judge also ruled against an AT&T request to have the privacy group, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, return the documents to the company on the grounds that they were stolen.
The case has helped put AT&T, the largest U.S. telephone company, at the center of the controversy over the NSA domestic surveillance program. Even if the documents remain secret and the suit is thrown out, the case ties AT&T to a program that has troubled politicians and privacy groups, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051702165.html
Troop Cuts Uncertain, Rumsfeld Testifies
Pentagon Chief Hopeful About 2006 Reduction in Iraq but 'Can't Promise It'
By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 18, 2006; Page A03
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said he cannot guarantee that there will be substantial withdrawals of U.S. troops from Iraq this year, and warned instead that leaving that country precipitously could create a sanctuary for al-Qaeda and other terrorists.
Rumsfeld told a Senate panel yesterday that he still hopes a big troop cut will occur this year but added, "I can't promise it."
He also emphasized the possible negative consequences of a swift pullout. "For it to be turned over to extremists would be a terrible thing for that part of the world and for the free world and for free people everywhere," he said. There are about 133,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, down from a peak of about 160,000 earlier this year but near the average level for the last three years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/17/AR2006051701935.html
The New Zealand Herald
Average mum now over 30
1.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
The average age of women giving birth in New Zealand is now above 30.
Latest figures from Statistics New Zealand, for the year to March, show the average age of women giving birth is now between 30 and 34.
In 1996, the average was in the 25 to 29 age group.
The births of 28,590 girls and 29,850 boys were registered in the year.
Over the same period there were 27,430 deaths registered, of which 13,810 were females and 13,620 males, equating to approximately two births for every death.
The natural increase of the population - the excess of births over deaths - was 31,010.
According to the latest national population projections, natural increase is projected to decline in the future, reaching about zero in 2041. From 2042, deaths are expected to outnumber births by an increasing margin.
New Zealand's total fertility rate has been relatively stable over the last 20 years, averaging 2.0 births per woman.
This figure is below the level required by a population to replace itself in the long term without migration (2.1 births per woman).
The lowest ever infant mortality rate was also recorded.
The latest statistics showed the infant mortality rate -- deaths of children under one year per 1000 live births -- was 4.8 -- the lowest recorded in New Zealand in any year.
The mortality rate in 1996 was 6.5.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10382422
Legal Action against family tax credit given go ahead
1.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
The Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) has won its bid to take legal action against the Government's Working for Families package.
CPAG claimed Working for Families' In Work Payment and its predecessor, the Child Tax Credit, discriminated against 250,000 children whose families did not qualify for payments.
In a landmark case last year the Human Rights Tribunal ruled in favour of CPAG challenging the Working for Families package.
The Government appealed the decision in the High Court in Wellington, claiming the tribunal did not have jurisdiction to hear CPAG's case.
But in a reserved decision in the High Court today, Justice Ronald Young dismissed the challenge to the case going ahead.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10382423
Dipping economy will cause belt tightening, says Treasury
4.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
By Ian Llewellyn
People will be spending less in the coming year as they face up to falling house prices, high interest rates and increasing fuel costs, Treasury predicted today.
The Government's financial advisor said high personal spending in recent times on the back of a housing boom and cheap credit was coming to an end more sharply than it previously predicted.
Many households were now having to face higher mortgage costs as long term mortgages expired and had to be refinanced.
Treasury also estimated that the 24 per cent increase in fuel prices to March 2006 would add up to $700 million to households' annual fuel bill.
While some people would use their cars less, many would have to reduce their spending elsewhere, Treasury said.
Any further increases in oil costs would just bring further belt tightening.
Those hoping to lever more money out of their homes could also be out of luck with Treasury forecasting "average house prices declining 5 per cent in the year to mid 2007".
Treasury are optimistic that the downturn will be mild and short-lived with growth in personal investment beginning to recover in late 2007 as higher export incomes flow through, the labour market strengthens and interest rates fall.
Inflation is expected to stay above or around 3 per cent in the coming years, which means that any interest rate relief is unlikely until March 2007.
Tougher times for households in the months ahead will be reflected in a gloomier time for the general economy as well.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10382446
New FIJI PM on collision course with military
UPDATED 4.35pm Thursday May 18, 2006
SUVA - Fiji's indigenous prime minister won a one-seat majority in racially charged general elections today but is on a collision course with the military, which has warned him not to grant amnesty to leaders of a 2000 coup.
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said his indigenous SDL party had won 36 seats in the 71-seat parliament and also had the support of two independents.
"That should give us a comfortable working majority," Qarase told local radio before going to the president's office in the capital, Suva, to be sworn in for a new term.
Qarase has vowed to reintroduce a bill to grant amnesty to those involved in a 2000 coup, which toppled the South Pacific island nation's first ethnic Indian prime minister.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10382435
New FIJI PM on collision course with military
UPDATED 4.35pm Thursday May 18, 2006
SUVA - Fiji's indigenous prime minister won a one-seat majority in racially charged general elections today but is on a collision course with the military, which has warned him not to grant amnesty to leaders of a 2000 coup.
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase said his indigenous SDL party had won 36 seats in the 71-seat parliament and also had the support of two independents.
"That should give us a comfortable working majority," Qarase told local radio before going to the president's office in the capital, Suva, to be sworn in for a new term.
Qarase has vowed to reintroduce a bill to grant amnesty to those involved in a 2000 coup, which toppled the South Pacific island nation's first ethnic Indian prime minister.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10382435
Sao Paulo violence exposes Brazil's shortcomings
1.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
By Terry Wade
SAO PAULO - Deadly clashes in Sao Paulo between gangs and police in the past six days have exposed Brazil's deep social problems at time when Latin America's largest country is trying to assert itself as a global leader in business and politics.
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says Brazil deserves a permanent seat on the UN Security Council and is the natural leader in South America. Economic planners see massive Brazil competing toe-to-toe with emerging powers like China and India.
From crime that breeds in the wide gaps between rich and poor, to overcrowded prisons and police with itchy trigger fingers who often shoot to kill, the violence has highlighted the domestic political challenges Brazil must overcome to attract long-term foreign investment and cement a role as a stabilising force in the region.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382418
Brazil riot toll up to 133
5.20am Thursday May 18, 2006
Gang violence rocking Brazil's Sao Paulo state has claimed a total of 133 lives, authorities said.
The new toll came after police tallied 18 inmates killed in the prison rioting that ended yesterday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382349
Abbas, Hamas mount rival shows of force in Gaza
1.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the deployment of thousands of Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip today after the new Hamas government, in a challenge to his authority, posted its own armed contingent on the streets.
A senior Palestinian security official said the deployment, to be fully implemented by Friday, would be the largest since police fanned out ahead of last year's Israeli pullout from the impoverished coastal territory after 38 years of occupation.
Both Abbas and the Hamas interior minister said they sought to stem bloodshed by rival Gaza gunmen. But with the security forces' loyalties often divided between Hamas and Abbas' long-dominant Fatah faction, further violence remained possible.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382413
Suicide bomber kills 7 in Russia's south
5.35pm Wednesday May 17, 2006
MOSCOW - A suicide bomber killed seven people including a top Russian policeman today when he drove his car into a police convoy in the southern Russian region of Ingushetia, local media reported.
Russian news agencies reported that among the dead was Dzhabrail Kostoyev, deputy head of the Ingushetia interior ministry, two of his guards, and four civilians. It was not clear if the suicide bomber was included in the total.
Ingushetia, which borders Chechnya and is inhabited by people closely related to the Chechens, has in recent years been infected by the fighting that has plagued its neighbour since the end of the Soviet Union.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382303
Railway sued for wartime transport of Jews
1.00pm Wednesday May 17, 2006
TOULOUSE, France - A French politician and his sister sued France's state-run SNCF railway today for transporting their father and three relatives to a wartime transit camp that sent Jews off to Nazi concentration camps.
Alain Lipietz, a Greens European Parliament deputy, and his sister Helene accused the SNCF of organising the transport of French Jews to the Drancy transit camp near Paris and billing the wartime government for its services.
A lawyer for the railway argued the statute of limitations had run out for the deportation of Jews, which stopped with the end of the four-year German occupation in 1944, and that the SNCF had been run by the collaborationist Vichy government.
"The SNCF was quite autonomous when it came to earning money, so it has to assume its responsibility for its choices in how it treated the Jews," said Alain Lipietz.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382263
Bali bomb suspect accuses police of torture
12.20pm Wednesday May 17, 2006
One of the men accused of involvement in the suicide bombings at three Bali restaurants last October has accused Indonesian police of torturing him to extract admissions.
Mohamad Cholily's lawyer has asked Denpasar's District Court to disregard two statements included in police evidence.
In his statements to police, Mohamad Cholily says he was with Jemaah Islamiah's master bomb-maker, Azahari Husin, when he heard the news of the second Bali bombings.
Cholily told police that Azahari said "Allah Akbar, our project is successful" when the news came over the radio.
The police dossier also records Cholily saying he knew that Noordin Top's code phrase, "my mum's cosmetic box" actually referred to a bomb delivered by Cholily.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382239
Israeli troops kill 2 Palestinian militants
4.10pm Wednesday May 17, 2006
NABLUS, West Bank - Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinian militants during a raid in the occupied West Bank today, Palestinian security sources and medics said.
They said the two gunmen were killed during an exchange of gunfire with Israeli troops in the West Bank city of Nablus.
An Israeli military source said soldiers had identified hitting three gunmen inside a building in the city which a force had encircled trying to arrest a wanted militant inside.
It was not clear at this stage which group the gunmen belonged to.
On Sunday Israeli troops killed seven Palestinians including a leading Islamic Jihad militant in the bloodiest fighting in weeks in the occupied West Bank, an Israeli military official and Palestinian sources said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382292
Jack the Ripper 'may have been a woman'
1.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
By Kathy Marks
SYDNEY - The notorious serial killer who stalked London's East End, butchering prostitutes and terrorising the population, may not have been Jack the Ripper - but Jill.
An Australian scientist has used swabs from letters supposedly sent to police by the Ripper to build a partial DNA profile of the killer.
The results suggest that the person who murdered and mutilated at least five women from 1888 onwards may have been a woman.
Ian Findlay, a professor of molecular and forensic diagnostics, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) that he had developed a profiling technique that could extract DNA from a single cell or strand of hair up to 160 years old.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382412
Human-to-human bird flu infection feared
1.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
By Achmad Sukarsono and Diyan Jari
JAKARTA - The World Health Organisation confirmed six more human cases of bird flu infections in Indonesia today, including five members of a family whose case has triggered fears of human-to-human transmission.
"There are six confirmations. One from Surabaya and five from Medan. One from Medan is still alive," said Sari Setiogi, the WHO's Indonesia spokeswoman.
Separately, Indonesia's health ministry said a 12-year-old boy died of bird flu four days ago in Jakarta's eastern suburb of Bekasi, according to local tests.
Blood samples have been sent to a WHO-affiliated laboratory in Hong Kong for confirmation, ministry spokeswoman Lily Sulistyowati said. Local tests are not considered definitive.
An outbreak of H5N1 bird flu involving about seven members of a family at Medan in North Sumatra province has worried health agencies around the world but a Health Ministry official said today it was not a case of human-to-human transmission.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382425
Genetic study reveals surprises in human evolution
1.00pm Thursday May 18, 2006
LONDON - Humans' evolutionary split from their closest relatives, chimpanzees, may have been more complicated, taken longer and probably occurred more recently than previously thought, scientists said today.
After comparing the genomes, or genetic codes, of the two species they suggest the initial split took place no more than 6.3 million years ago and probably less than 5.4 million years ago.
The process of separation may have taken about 4 million years and there could have been some inter-breeding before the final break.
"The study gave unexpected results about how we separated from our closest relatives, the chimpanzees," said David Reich of the Broad Institute and Harvard Medical School's Department of Genetics in Massachusetts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382424
Miners in the money as mates fear for their Beaconsfield jobs
Thursday May 18, 2006
By Greg Ansley
The two Tasmanian miners trapped almost 1km below ground for 14 days yesterday appeared set to become millionaires as their rescuers feared for their jobs.
Todd Russell and Brant Webb have signed a deal reportedly worth up to A$2 million ($2.4 million) with the Nine network after a bidding war with rival Channel Seven.
But while further riches from book, film and American television rights also appeared likely, union negotiators could win no guarantee that the Beaconsfield gold mine would remain open.
The mine has been closed until investigations into its safety have been completed, but with the joint venture that operates it remaining in liquidation with debts of tens of millions of dollars, its future is in doubt.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382362
Blair says nuclear power back on agenda
1.00pm Wednesday May 17, 2006
By Katherine Baldwin and Jeremy Lovell
LONDON - Prime Minister Tony Blair provoked outrage today by saying the replacement of ageing nuclear power plants was back on the agenda due to global warming and rising reliance on imported energy.
Environmentalists said the remarks in a speech to business chiefs showed Blair had decided to back nuclear power even before the government's own energy review had been completed.
"These facts put the replacement of nuclear power stations, a big push on renewables and a step change on energy efficiency, engaging both business and consumers, back on the agenda with a vengeance," Blair told the Confederation of British Industry.
His remarks, in the middle of a wide-ranging speech covering globalisation, education, pensions and public sector reform, followed a private briefing by the energy minister on the progress of the review which is due to be concluded by July.
Nuclear power stations supply one-fifth of the nation's electricity.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382251
Children's inclusion 'is form of abuse'
Thursday May 18, 2006
LONDON - Thousands of children have had their lives damaged by the Government policy of inclusion which has left pupils with special needs and severe medical problems struggling in mainstream schools, a union warned.
Teachers are regularly forced to clean out tracheotomy tubes and change nappies because children with serious medical conditions have been placed in mainstream schools, the National Union of Teachers said.
Schools had to cope with pupils with severe mental health problems, including schizophrenia, self-harming and even attempted suicides and to try to support youngsters from the UK's most troubled homes, the study by Cambridge University academics said.
NUT general secretary Steve Sinnott said that forcing children with special needs to struggle in mainstream school was "a form of abuse". "Inclusion has failed many children," he said. "It can work but we have discovered some really structural problems with it. Children can be excluded by sitting in a classroom that is not meeting their needs."
Many schools often lacked the money to hire specialist staff and provide the facilities needed to cope with special needs students, the study found.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382309
Skies clear over New England after historic floods
1.15pm Wednesday May 17, 2006
By Jason Szep
BOSTON - The skies cleared over New England today after five days of torrential rain and the worst floods in 70 years, but hundreds of people crowded into makeshift shelters after mass evacuations from swamped homes.
"We've turned a corner here," said Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency spokesman Peter Judge. "The vast majority of rivers have crested. Now it's a matter of getting them down below flood stage over the next day or so."
Thousands of people were forced to flee their homes in Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine since Monday as rivers threatened to overflow their banks or broke through sand-bag barriers erected by National Guard troops and rescue workers.
By this morning, washed-out roads, badly damaged buildings and the danger of buckling damns had prevented many residents from returning home. The Red Cross said 372 people had moved into shelters in New Hampshire and 209 in Massachusetts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10382269
continued …
