June 22, 2006
El Paso, Illinois
The storms involving The Great Lakes can be sudden and violent. The 'boundary' between two fronts is grossly obvious in this picture. The pressure system underneath is virtually pushing the one above it.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Morning Papers
The New York Times
Israelis Batter Gaza and Seize Hamas Officials
By IAN FISHER and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: June 29, 2006
GAZA, Thursday, June 29 — Israel stepped up its confrontation on Wednesday with Palestinian militants over the capture of an Israeli soldier, battering northern Gazan towns with artillery and sending warplanes over the house of the Syrian president, who is influential with the Palestinian leader believed to have ordered the kidnapping.
Palestinian firefighters tried to douse the flames at one of six burning transformers at Gaza's main power station, bombed Wednesday by Israel.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Thursday, Israeli forces detained 8 ministers of the 24-member Hamas-led cabinet and 20 lawmakers, including Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer and Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti, security officials said.
The crisis seemed to be tipping toward escalation as Israeli tanks hunkered down inside southern Gaza at the airport on Wednesday after warplanes had knocked out half of Gaza's electricity and pounded sonic booms over houses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/world/middleeast/29mideast.html?hp&ex=1151640000&en=587bf9b6cf7811d3&ei=5094&partner=homepage
How to Cool a Planet (Maybe)
In the past few decades, a handful of scientists have come up with big, futuristic ways to fight global warming: Build sunshades in orbit to cool the planet. Tinker with clouds to make them reflect more sunlight back into space. Trick oceans into soaking up more heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
Articles in this series are examining the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy efficient, environmentally benign future.
Their proposals were relegated to the fringes of climate science. Few journals would publish them. Few government agencies would pay for feasibility studies. Environmentalists and mainstream scientists said the focus should be on reducing greenhouse gases and preventing global warming in the first place.
But now, in a major reversal, some of the world's most prominent scientists say the proposals deserve a serious look because of growing concerns about global warming.
Worried about a potential planetary crisis, these leaders are calling on governments and scientific groups to study exotic ways to reduce global warming, seeing them as possible fallback positions if the planet eventually needs a dose of emergency cooling.
"We should treat these ideas like any other research and get into the mind-set of taking them seriously," said Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/science/earth/27cool.html?8dpc
Mid-Atlantic States Reel Under Deluge; 10 Dead
By ALAN FEUER
Published: June 29, 2006
A network of swollen rivers, heavy from days of steady rain, spilled across their banks yesterday, threatening to inundate towns and cities from Virginia to Vermont and causing thousands of evacuations along the banks of the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Two hundred thousand residents threatened by the rising Susquehanna were ordered to leave the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., area, directed by radio broadcasts to high schools, police stations and firehouses for shelter. Thousands more were evacuated from their homes in the region. At G.A.R. High School in Wilkes-Barre last night, more than 250 people, mostly elderly or infirm, were camped out on cots and on the floor. In the auditorium a platoon of the elderly nodded off in stiff fold-down seats.
Earlier in the week, Washington suffered the worst two days of rain in its history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/nyregion/29flood.html?hp&ex=1151640000&en=bf3a8fcd8de344bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
BP Named in Inquiry on Pricing
By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: June 29, 2006
Federal regulators charged yesterday that BP manipulated the price of propane two years ago by cornering the market through its dominant position, pushing up heating costs for millions of households at the peak of winter demand.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission charges that at least six current and former employees at a unit of BP North America squeezed the propane market in February 2004, according to a civil complaint filed in federal court. They sought to make at least $20 million in profits, it said.
Also, the Justice Department said yesterday that one trader named in the lawsuit pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in a parallel criminal case. The plea is part of a continuing investigation by the F.B.I.
"BP cornered the market on physical propane," said Gregory G. Mocek, the director of the enforcement division of the trading commission, a federal regulator that oversees commodity markets. "They used their financial power to drive up prices."
BP has denied any wrongdoing and has indicated it will fight the charges in court, according to a spokesman, Ronnie Chappell. The company said it had cooperated with federal regulators and would assist the Justice Department in its investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/business/29propane.html?hp&ex=1151640000&en=8ed0d0dffad1dad2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Women Vote and Run in Kuwaiti Poll for First Time
By REUTERS
Published: June 29, 2006
Filed at 6:46 a.m. ET
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaitis voted for a new parliament on Thursday with women running and casting ballots for the first time in a national poll in the Gulf Arab state.
``I don't know how to describe my feelings, I am so happy, it's a beautiful day as women practice their right,'' female candidate Hind al-Shaikh said. ``I hope a woman makes it.''
Parliament passed a law in May 2005 giving women the right to vote and stand in elections for the 50-seat National Assembly of the oil-producing country.
Officials said about 250 candidates are standing, including 28 women determined to make headway despite daunting odds of beating seasoned male opponents, many of whom are former parliamentarians seeking re-election.
Men and women braved the scorching summer heat in the desert state, voting in separate stations across the conservative state as Islamists, who reject female suffrage, had demanded.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-kuwait-election.html?hp&ex=1151640000&en=a8b8c24aeebd5285&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Where Central Park Spreads Its Green Carpet
Many years ago, while living in a 20th-floor apartment on East 79th Street, I would go out on our small terrace, look left and get a glimpse of a sliver of treetops. So the idea that I could have a magic-carpet view of The Park as I drank my coffee every morning was reason enough to propel me to 110 Central Park South, the new co-op (with condo bylaws) that's smack across from the southern tip of the park.
(I had also experienced the park from a similar vantage point when I went to a dentist years ago whose office was just down the street on a stretch of Central Park South known then as Valley of the Drills.)
Situated between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue, 110 Central Park South is a 1920's building with a neo-Renaissance palazzo exterior, designed by James Edwin Ruthwin Carpenter, an architect known for such luxury residential projects as 810, 907 and 1115 Fifth Avenue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/realestate/25window.html
Report Calls for Reform in British Prisons
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 29, 2006
Filed at 8:18 a.m. ET
LONDON (AP) -- An independent inquiry into the killing of a Muslim prisoner by his racist cellmate called Thursday for urgent action to correct overcrowding, understaffing and institutionalized racism in British prisons.
The report by High Court Judge Brian Keith cited 186 failings which contributed to the slaying in 2000 of first-time offender Zahid Mubarek, 19, by his cellmate, Robert Stewart.
''It should have occurred to officers that there was a possibility Stewart was a racist and that he shouldn't share a cell with (a South) Asian prisoner serving his first sentence,'' Keith said at a news conference.
''At the heart of it all was a catastrophic breakdown of communications, not just between prisons but within prisons themselves.''
Keith found ''a bewildering catalog of shortcomings, both individual and systemic'' at Feltham Young Offenders Institution, where Mubarek was held.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Britain-Prison-Killing.html
Push for New Tactics as War on Malaria Falters
The roly-poly boy came down with his fourth bout of malaria on March 16, the same day the nets were handed out at the makeshift camp where he lived in northern Uganda. "It was because of poverty that we could not afford one," his mother, Jackeline Ato, recalled recently, seated in rags beneath a mango tree.
The morning after his fever spiked, she took him to a clinic, but it did not have the medicines that might have saved him. He died four days later, crying, "Mommy, Mommy," before losing consciousness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/world/africa/28malaria.html
Business Joins African Effort to Cut Malaria
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Published: June 29, 2006
BELULUANE, Mozambique — With malaria spread across southern Mozambique, executives at the international mining company Billiton expected some workers to call in sick as it began building a massive new aluminum smelter amid the cornfields here.
FIGHTING AN OLD SCOURGE
What they did not expect was that nearly one in three employees would fall ill — 6,600 cases in just two years. And they certainly did not expect 13 deaths, not after the company had built a medical clinic, doused the construction site with pesticides and handed out bed nets to thwart malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
"You can imagine, it was a huge disaster," said Carlos Mesquita, the general manager. "We could not deal with that level of absenteeism, and we would have had more fatalities. If we didn't treat malaria we could not operate."
But confining measures to the plant, executives realized, would not protect their 1,100 employees, or their $1.3 billion investment, so long as malaria raged all around it, including in the capital, Maputo, just 10 miles up the highway.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/world/africa/29malaria.html
On Red Square, a Czarist Ritual Revived
By SOPHIA KISHOVSKY
Published: June 29, 2006
Just before 2 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month from April to October, a dozen saber-bearing cavalry officers of the Kremlin Regiment, in tall hats and czarist military uniforms adorned with gold buttons, yellow tassels and epaulets, mount their horses and gallop through the Spassky Gates, past the impossibly colorful onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.
Their destination: the center of Red Square, near the podium where Communist Party bosses once stood and where thousands of tourists from around the world have gathered.
The Presidential Orchestra's marching band, dressed in white and playing grand imperial marches, and infantry officers with saber rifles follow close behind the mounted officers. Taking their positions in the middle of the square, they launch into half an hour's worth of elaborate formations, graceful pirouettes and breathtaking saber tosses.
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/travel/29webletter.html
Judge Urges State Control of Legal Aid for the Poor
By DANNY HAKIM
Published: June 29, 2006
ALBANY, June 28 — Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye of New York said Wednesday that the state must take over administration of legal services to the poor, citing a crisis in the way county governments and New York City are providing legal aid in criminal cases.
Judge Kaye's call came in response to a judicial commission report saying local governments were falling well short of constitutional requirements in providing legal representation to the poor, and recommended that a permanent state commission be created to take over the responsibility. Twenty-eight other states have already taken similar steps.
A state takeover would require legislative approval, and the Legislature has a long history of ignoring reforms proposed by Judge Kaye and the judiciary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/nyregion/29indigent.html
Evolution's Lonely Battle in a Georgia Classroom
By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: June 28, 2006
DAHLONEGA, Ga.
The Evolution Debate
Go to Complete Coverage »
OCCASIONALLY, an educational battle will dominate national headlines. More commonly, the battling goes on locally, behind closed doors, handled so discreetly that even a teacher working a few classrooms away might not know. This was the case for Pat New, 62, a respected, veteran middle school science teacher, who, a year ago, quietly stood up for her right to teach evolution in this rural northern Georgia community, and prevailed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/education/28education.html
In Texas, Fighting to Keep Brahms on Air
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: June 26, 2006
KILGORE, Tex., June 24 — In this landscape of oil derricks and Rangerettes — a renowned drill team dressed in smiles and miniskirts — a tiny radio station sends out a lifeline to classical music lovers in East Texas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/arts/music/26radio.html
The Toronto Star
Dodge knew of U.S. request
Bank chief aware of American request in 2002
Critics fear Canadian bank records given to C.I.A.
Jun. 29, 2006. 06:00 AM
TARA PERKINS, MADHAVI ACHARYA-TOM YEW, SUSAN DELACOURT AND TONDA MACCHARLES
STAFF REPORTERS
Bank of Canada governor David Dodge knew in 2002 that the U.S. government wanted data from an international banking organization for use in its war on terror.
Dodge declined yesterday to comment on the U.S. program, in which information on international financial transactions — including Canadian data — was given to the Americans.
Like other central bankers around the world, Dodge does not appear to have raised any red flags in the past four years.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151531412964&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Khadr's life behind bars
Briton befriended teen in Guantanamo
Says Toronto detainee often wept in cell
Jun. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD
STAFF REPORTER
Omar Khadr is a 19-year-old accused of murder and terrorism, held in segregation in Guantanamo Bay and the one detainee the Pentagon has clearly signalled it never wants released.
Ask Rhuhel Ahmed about the Toronto teenager, though, and he says he can't imagine that the weeping, injured boy he saw is the same detainee the United States considers a terrorist.
"You had a child who didn't have a clue what was going on. If I was put in that situation at 16 in prison, not even a prison but the worst place in the world, to be there and treated the same way as everyone else regardless of his age? I don't know how a 16-year-old can cope with that."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151531412778&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Israeli forces seize Hamas officials
Deputy PM among 25 held
Body of Jewish settler recovered
Jun. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
GAZA CITY—The Mideast kidnapping crisis deepened early today as Israeli armoured columns readied to open a second front inside the northern Gaza Strip, renewing artillery fire and tightening a military chokehold amid reports that a third Israeli had been abducted by Palestinian militants.
Early today, Israeli troops found a body they suspect is that of an 18-year-old settler kidnapped on Sunday. Israeli security sources said the army had told the family of Eliyahu Asheri they believe it was his body they recovered outside the West Bank city of Ramallah. They said he was shot in the head, apparently soon after he was abducted.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151531412879&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Israel plans 'broad' strike
Demands return of soldier abducted by Hamas militants
Jun. 26, 2006. 11:39 AM
AMY TEIBEL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM - Israel massed troops Monday along the Gaza Strip border in preparation for what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said would be a "broad and ongoing" operation against Palestinian militants following the capture of an Israeli soldier.
Olmert issued the threat as Israeli and Palestinian officials worked diplomatic channels to gain the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, a dual French-Israeli citizen seized in a cross-border raid Sunday.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151319010742&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Bush blasts papers for revealing terror spying
Jun. 26, 2006. 12:10 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — President George W. Bush on Monday condemned as "disgraceful" the disclosure by the news media of an anti-terrorism program that taps into an immense international database of confidential financial records.
"For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America," Bush said.
"The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," he said, adding that it "makes it harder to win this war on terror."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1151319011739&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News
Queen joins 2,000 minor subjects for tea
Jun. 26, 2006. 09:08 AM
LONDON (AP) — Bob the Builder, J.K. Rowling and 2,000 children took tea with the Queen to celebrate the monarch's 80th birthday.
The grounds of Buckingham Palace were transformed for the day into a series of settings from children's classics, including Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood, Mr. McGregor's Garden from Peter Rabbit, and Thomas the Tank Engine's railway.
Models were dressed as favourite literary characters — including Paddington Bear, Postman Pat and supernanny Mary Poppins.
"The day's been really special, I've got to see J.K. Rowling and the Queen and I've taken loads of photos," said Karlie Williams, 12, from Ebbw Vale, Wales.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1151319010377&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News
Iraq blasts kill more than 35
Jun. 26, 2006. 04:12 PM
STEVEN R. HURST AND QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Powerful bombs tore through markets in two cities Monday evening, killing at least 35 people and wounding 86, police reported.
As the violence continued, a key Shiite legislator told The Associated Press said seven minor Sunni Arab insurgent groups had contacted the government to declare their readiness to join efforts at national reconciliation.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151319012117&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Chaplin's hat, cane sold for $140,000
Jun. 26, 2006. 08:38 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Charlie Chaplin hat-and-cane set has sold for nearly $140,000 US at auction, according to a spokeswoman for Bonhams & Butterfields.
The $139,250 bid broke a record for the most ever paid for a Chaplin hat-and-cane set, of which there are several, said Bonhams spokeswoman Janelle Grigsby.
She would not say who purchased the items on Sunday.
The bowler hat was stamped with manufacturer's details inside the hatband; the cane was 81 centimetres long and made of bamboo, according to a statement from the auction house.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151319010356&call_pageid=968332188492
Modern-day pirates find cargo gold
Thieves cashing in on booming trucking industry
Stoves, windows among GTA loot found in Jamaica
Jun. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
SAN GREWAL
STAFF REPORTER
Industrial stoves, shampoo, diapers and custom built vinyl windows were some of the stolen cargo from the GTA recently recovered from a Jamaican shipping yard by York Region police.
Cargo theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in areas such as Brampton and Mississauga, where the trucking transportation industry is booming, attracting modern-day pirates to the valuable cargos constantly moving around the GTA.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151273413245&call_pageid=968332188492
Battle lines drawn over illegal guns
UN bid to control flow of small arms
Ottawa accused of giving mixed signals
Jun. 26, 2006. 07:20 AM
OLIVIA WARD
FEATURE WRITER
In Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers are under daily attack from illegally traded weapons.
In Ontario, two suspects in an alleged terror plot are also convicted gun smugglers.
In Toronto, more than 50 people were killed in shootings last year and gun battles have raged in the heart of the city.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151273413319&call_pageid=968332188492
If you wear your phone, you need to call for help
Jun. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
LINWOOD BARCLAY
I've a question about these tiny new phones you're starting to see more and more people wearing, the kind that hang right on your ear, all the time, even when you're not talking to somebody.
I don't want to know how much they cost. I'm not particularly interested in whether they make your ear sore. And I couldn't care less about whether the quality is as good as a regular cellphone.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151273413050&call_pageid=968332188492
Civil rights, security discussion urged
Canadians need to take serious look at issues, Iacobucci says
Retired Supreme Court justice stresses need for dialogue
Jun. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD
STAFF REPORTER
For 13 years, Frank Iacobucci helped Canada deal with issues of sovereignty, civil rights and security from his seat on the country's highest court.
He was there in 2001 when hijacked planes changed the way North America regarded terrorism and was among the Supreme Court justices who ruled on the new laws Canada later introduced to deal with that threat.
Now retired from the court and in private practice, Iacobucci, the chairman of Torstar Corp., is among those urging Canadians to start taking issues of security and civil rights more seriously.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151273413126&call_pageid=968332188492
Canada's Afghanistan mission under fire
Soldiers dying for U.S. drug policy: European report
PM, military brass lash out at claims from think-tank
Jun. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
CAROLINE MALLAN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
LONDON—The Canadian government is in denial over the true perception of its troop deployment to Afghanistan's troubled Kandahar province, says the head of a European drug policy think-tank.
Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of the Brussels-based Senlis Council, said he was taken aback by the virulent reaction to the group's report, which said Canadian soldiers and Afghan civilians are paying with their lives because of failing U.S. policies that focus on eradication of the poppy crop
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151531412775&call_pageid=968332188492
FBI breaks up movie piracy ring: official
Jun. 28, 2006. 02:48 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — FBI agents carried out early morning raids Wednesday and broke up two international movie-piracy rings that siphoned millions of dollars from the motion picture industry over the last year, a federal law enforcement official said. Hordes of agents rounded up more than a dozen members of the two large-scale rings in raids throughout the New York City area, the official said. Recording equipment was also seized. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because announcement of the arrests had not been made. Details were to be unveiled at FBI headquarters later Wednesday. A second federal official said one of the movies the suspects were conspiring to profit from was Superman Returns, the highly anticipated film being released this week. Movie piracy has become a huge problem for the film industry with the advent of high-speed Internet access. The Motion Picture Association of America claims the U.S. movie industry loses more than $3 billion annually in potential global revenue because of physical piracy, or bogus copies of videos and DVDs of its films. Videotaped copies of films in theaters often are digitized or burned off DVDs and then distributed on file-sharing networks.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151490012865&call_pageid=968332188492
Pregnant Spears poses nude
Jun. 29, 2006. 07:37 AM
NEW YORK (AP) — Pregnant pop princess Britney Spears is baring nearly all on the cover of Harper's Bazaar magazine.
The singer of ... Baby, One More Time posed in the buff for the cover of the August issue; there's also a photo spread inside. On the cover, Spears, who is sitting, cups her breasts with her hands and crosses her legs while showing her protruding belly and smiling for the camera of lensman Alexi Lubomirski.
"Nothing to wear?" a cover headline asks. "487 Best new ideas inside."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151577545582&call_pageid=968332188492
A player in nation's birth
Jun. 29, 2006. 07:59 AM
ADAM MAYERS
TORONTOSTAR
When Christine Macdonald died in 1909, the news of her passing was a footnote in the Toronto Star, a three-paragraph treatment at the bottom of page 17, dwarfed by an ad extolling the virtues of Calvert's Carbolic tooth powder.
The paper noted that her husband was Sandfield Macdonald, Ontario's first premier. There were a few details about the funeral and that was it.
But if the final record of Christine Macdonald's life was small and thin, her 89 years were full of the tumultuous life and times of Canada and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century. She was a witness and participant in the great events of the time — the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction, Canadian Confederation and the creation of the province of Ontario.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1151490012701&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News
The Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor,
I support The Times' decision to print the banking surveillance article. I am a retired military officer who served his country for 30 years. In all that time, I never questioned my supreme duty to support, defend and bear true allegiance to the Constitution. Though most public officials do not take such an oath, their actions and sense of duty and responsibility should be guided by it. You are right. All too often history proves that demagogues hide behind the mantras of national security and national interests. When public officials fail in their duty and responsibility to our Constitution, then the press must act, and thank God it has the courage to do so. I applaud your decision.
PAUL LABONTE
Tustin
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-le-wednesday28.2jun28,1,916668.story
Secret U.S. Program Tracks Global Bank Transfers
The Treasury Dept. program, begun after the Sept. 11 attacks, attempts to monitor terrorist financing but raises privacy concerns.
By Josh Meyer and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers
12:06 PM PDT, June 23, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government, without the knowledge of many banks and their customers, has engaged for years in a secret effort to track terrorist financing by accessing a vast database of confidential information on transfers of money between banks worldwide.
The program, run by the Treasury Department, is considered a potent weapon in the war on terrorism because of its ability to clandestinely monitor financial transactions and map terrorist webs.
It is part of an arsenal of aggressive measures the government has adopted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that yield new intelligence, but also circumvent traditional safeguards against abuse and raise concerns about intrusions on privacy.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-swift23jun23,1,357838.story
Ex-SEC Attorney Testifies on Probe
From the Associated Press
June 29, 2006
A former government attorney told Congress on Wednesday that he was fired last summer after he tried to subpoena a prominent Wall Street executive to testify in an insider-trading probe of a major hedge fund.
Gary Aguirre, who led the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation of Pequot Capital Management Inc., said he was told by his supervisors that it would be difficult to obtain the subpoenas because the executive had "very powerful political connections."
The SEC was investigating whether the hedge fund had received a tip from an individual about an upcoming merger.
"By mid-June, growing evidence pointed to one person, the former CEO of a large investment bank," Aguirre said in written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Under questioning by committee members, he identified the executive as John Mack, who is the chairman and chief executive of Morgan Stanley Inc.
Morgan Stanley said Aguirre had provided no evidence to support his allegation against Mack, a major fundraiser for President Bush's campaigns. At the time in question, Mack was CEO of Credit Suisse First Boston.
The panel is looking into problems involving the hedge fund industry, which commands trillions of dollars in assets.
No charges have been brought against Pequot, a hedge fund with some $6.5 billion in assets that is overseen by Arthur Samberg, a well-known money manager and philanthropist. Pequot has denied that there was any improper activity by the fund. The SEC investigation of the fund and Aguirre's accusations were first reported Friday by the New York Times.
SEC officials have denied Aguirre's allegation of political influence.
Also Wednesday, top U.S. House Democrats said they planned to introduce legislation to revive a government effort to regulate hedge funds that was blocked last week by a court.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he would unveil a bill today to give the SEC "clear authority to require registration and monitoring" of hedge fund advisors. A federal appeals court last week threw out an SEC rule narrowly adopted in late 2004 that required most U.S. hedge fund advisors to register with the investor protection agency and open their books for occasional inspections.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wrap29.1jun29,1,4678249.story
'Big Brother' Bush and connecting the data dots
The Total Information Awareness program was killed in 2003, but its spawn present bigger threats to privacy.
By Jonathan Turley, JONATHAN TURLEY is a law professor at George Washington University.
June 24, 2006
THE DISCLOSURE this week of a secret databank operation tracking international financial transactions has caused renewed concerns about civil liberties in the United States. But this program is just the latest in a series of secret surveillance programs, databanks and domestic operations justified as part of the war on terror.
Disclosed individually over the course of the last year, they have become almost routine. Yet, when considered collectively, they present a far more troubling picture, and one that should be vaguely familiar.
Civil liberty-minded citizens may recall the president's plan to create the Total Information Awareness program, a massive databank with the ability to follow citizens in real time by their check-card purchases, bank transactions, medical bills and other electronic means. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, was assigned this task, but after its work was made public, Congress put a stop to it in September 2003 as a danger to privacy and civil liberties.
However, when Congress disbanded the Total Information Awareness program, it did not prohibit further research on such databanks, or even the use of individual databanks.
And, according to a recent study by the National Journal, the Bush administration used that loophole to break the program into smaller parts, transferring some parts to the National Security Agency, classifying the work and renaming parts of it as the Research Development and Experimental Collaboration program.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-turley24jun24,1,3332362.story
Why we ran the bank story
The Times editor on the paper's decision to expose U.S. money monitoring.
By Dean Baquet, DEAN BAQUET is the editor of the Los Angeles Times.
June 27, 2006
MANY READERS have been sharply critical of our decision to publish an article Friday on the U.S. Treasury Department's program to secretly monitor worldwide money transfers in an effort to track terrorist financing.
They have sent me sincere and powerful expressions of their disappointment in our newspaper, and they deserve an equally thoughtful and honest response.
The decision to publish this article was not one we took lightly. We considered very seriously the government's assertion that these disclosures could cause difficulties for counterterrorism programs. And we weighed that assertion against the fact that there is an intense and ongoing public debate about whether surveillance programs like these pose a serious threat to civil liberties.
We sometimes withhold information when we believe that reporting it would threaten a life. In this case, we believed, based on our talks with many people in the government and on our own reporting, that the information on the Treasury Department's program did not pose that threat. Nor did the government give us any strong evidence that the information would thwart true terrorism inquiries. In fact, a close read of the article shows that some in the government believe that the program is ineffective in fighting terrorism.
In the end, we felt that the legitimate public interest in this program outweighed the potential cost to counterterrorism efforts.
Some readers have seen our decision to publish this story as an attack on the Bush administration and an attempt to undermine the war on terror.
We are not out to get the president. This newspaper has done much hard-hitting reporting on terrorism, from around the world, often at substantial risk to our reporters. We have exposed terrorist cells and led the way in exposing the work of terrorists. We devoted a reporter to covering Al Qaeda's role in world terrorism in the months before 9/11. I know, because I made the assignment.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-baquet27jun27,1,2079077.story
20% of U.S. Transplant Centers Are Found to Be Substandard
Medicare allows 20% of the 236 programs in the U.S. to stay in business despite performing too few operations or having low survival rates.
By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writers
June 29, 2006
About a fifth of federally funded transplant programs fail to meet the government's minimum standards for patient survival or perform too few operations to ensure competency, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has allowed 48 heart, liver and lung transplant centers to continue operating despite sometimes glaring and repeated lapses, the newspaper's review found. There are 236 approved centers nationwide.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-transplant29jun29,0,2730832.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Economic Jitters an Albatross for Bush
By Doyle McManus, Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2006
WASHINGTON — All year long, in speeches and briefings and visits to factories and shops, President Bush and his aides have tried to convince Americans that the economy is in good shape — and that the president deserves some credit for that.
That effort is not making much headway, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
Americans are closely divided on whether the economy is in good shape, with 50% saying it is doing well and 47% saying it is doing badly, the poll found. In January, when Bush launched his campaign to spread good news, the national mood was slightly better: In a Times Poll that month, 55% said the economy was doing well.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-econpoll29jun29,0,5298422.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Tented Homes Luring a Criminal Kind of Pest
By Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2006
What kind of insect would take advantage of someone whose house is being fumigated?
A lowlife worm, says Janice Dawson, whose Carson home was looted while it was shrouded in a tent erected by an extermination company.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's detectives are investigating the burglary, which occurred when intruders peeled back the tarp covering the house and pried open a rear door. Several rooms were ransacked, and photographic gear, video game equipment, jewelry and other items were taken.
At the time, the two-story dwelling was pumped full of Vikane, a gas that kills termites and other pests but is potentially lethal to humans as well.
"The exterminators wouldn't even let the sheriff go in," said Dawson, a Los Angeles Times office manager. "They said it was too dangerous."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tent29jun29,0,6966337.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Fall Ballot Is a $46-Billion Question
Five bond measures and four tax-hike efforts contribute to the record tally. The issues are expected to complicate political alliances.
By Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2006
SACRAMENTO — Already cranky about tax increases and big-ticket bonds, California voters now face a November ballot that would break records in government spending.
Never before has so much taxpayer money been at stake in a California election: a total of $46 billion in five bond measures and four tax increases.
Voters will face a fusillade of messages over who should carry the burden of public programs. Private groups, not elected officials, say the four tax increase measures. Each asks a specific entity— property owners, cigarette smokers, corporations and oil producers — to pay for projects designed to benefit the public at large.
Tobacco companies are expected to spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat a $2.60-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes. Oil companies so far have given $10 million to defeat a tax on drilling. Big business is planning a fierce and expensive fight against an initiative limiting their political contributions and, thus, influence.
Set to be finalized today, the November ballot requires some complicated political footwork. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will lead conflicting campaigns — arguing against tax increases favored by his Democratic challenger even as he asks voters to approve more than $37 billion in multiple bonds to fund the biggest government building project in four decades.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ballot29jun29,0,1175019.story?coll=la-home-local
Iran on Agenda for Industrial Democracies
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
1:22 AM PDT, June 29, 2006
MOSCOW -- Iran's disputed nuclear program was on the agenda as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and foreign ministers from the world's largest industrial democracies met in run-up to Russia's debut as host to leaders of the Group of Eight nations next month.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator and the European Union's foreign policy chief plan to meet on July 5 to discuss a package of incentives from key global powers to try to persuade Iran to roll back its uranium enrichment program, a U.N. official said on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made.
An announcement of the meeting between the EU's Javier Solana and Iran's Ali Larijani was expected at Thursday's meeting in Moscow.
The Larijani-Solana meeting would be the first since the EU official presented the incentive package to the Iranian negotiator in Tehran on June 6. Larijani said then that the proposals contained "positive steps" but talks were needed to clear up ambiguities.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top13jun29,0,2017015.story
William Shurcliff, 97; Outspoken Physicist on Manhattan Project
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2006
William A. Shurcliff, a physicist on the Manhattan Project who subsequently became a leading opponent of supersonic transport and President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, died June 20 at his home in Cambridge, Mass.
Shurcliff, who spent the latter part of his career designing and promoting solar energy systems, was 97 and died from complications of pneumonia, according to his granddaughter Elizabeth Shurcliff.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-shurcliff29jun29,0,4920092.story?coll=la-home-obituaries
Rivers in Pa. Head Higher
Hundreds of thousands evacuate their homes as Wilkes-Barre keeps a wary eye on its levees. At least 12 have been killed across the Northeast.
By Heather Gehlert and Ellen Barry, Times Staff Writers
June 29, 2006
SCRANTON, Pa. — As the Susquehanna River rose Wednesday night, 200,000 people were ordered to leave their homes near Wilkes-Barre in anticipation of cresting waters that threatened to top the city's levees this morning and pour into residential neighborhoods.
The evacuation came after another day of torrential rain in the Northeast that left at least 12 people dead. Houses were lifted from their foundations, bridges washed away and terrified residents awaited rescue on their rooftops.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-flood29jun29,0,7933668.story?coll=la-home-headlines
200,000 Ordered to Evacuate Due to Floods
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer
4:00 AM PDT, June 29, 2006
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- Officials worried about pressure on the town's levees ordered up to 200,000 people to evacuate the Wilkes-Barre area after the Susquehanna River was swelled by a record-breaking deluge that has killed at least 12 people in the Northeast.
Besides those evacuees, at least another 11,000 people were ordered to leave their homes in New Jersey, Maryland and New York as rivers and streams surged over their banks, washed out roads and bridges and cut off villages in some of the worst flooding in the region in decades. In the Binghamton, N.Y., area, an entire house floated down the Susquehanna.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top10jun29,0,837364.story
Recipe of the Day
Arugula, Mozzarella, Tomato on Focaccia Recipe
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001987arugula_mozzarella_tomato_on_focaccia.php
"You don't have enough sandwiches on your blog," my father declared a few days ago. "Wadaya mean I don't have enough sandwiches? I've got plenty of sandwiches," said I. Dad proceeded to rattle off a list of sandwiches he likes that he couldn't find on the site, ending with, "and you don't even have the arugula focaccia sandwich!" as if given how much arugula we grow around here the very omission was a sin of the highest order.
continued ...
Israelis Batter Gaza and Seize Hamas Officials
By IAN FISHER and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: June 29, 2006
GAZA, Thursday, June 29 — Israel stepped up its confrontation on Wednesday with Palestinian militants over the capture of an Israeli soldier, battering northern Gazan towns with artillery and sending warplanes over the house of the Syrian president, who is influential with the Palestinian leader believed to have ordered the kidnapping.
Palestinian firefighters tried to douse the flames at one of six burning transformers at Gaza's main power station, bombed Wednesday by Israel.
In the West Bank city of Ramallah early on Thursday, Israeli forces detained 8 ministers of the 24-member Hamas-led cabinet and 20 lawmakers, including Deputy Prime Minister Nasser Shaer and Labor Minister Mohammed Barghouti, security officials said.
The crisis seemed to be tipping toward escalation as Israeli tanks hunkered down inside southern Gaza at the airport on Wednesday after warplanes had knocked out half of Gaza's electricity and pounded sonic booms over houses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/world/middleeast/29mideast.html?hp&ex=1151640000&en=587bf9b6cf7811d3&ei=5094&partner=homepage
How to Cool a Planet (Maybe)
In the past few decades, a handful of scientists have come up with big, futuristic ways to fight global warming: Build sunshades in orbit to cool the planet. Tinker with clouds to make them reflect more sunlight back into space. Trick oceans into soaking up more heat-trapping greenhouse gases.
Articles in this series are examining the ways in which the world is, and is not, moving toward a more energy efficient, environmentally benign future.
Their proposals were relegated to the fringes of climate science. Few journals would publish them. Few government agencies would pay for feasibility studies. Environmentalists and mainstream scientists said the focus should be on reducing greenhouse gases and preventing global warming in the first place.
But now, in a major reversal, some of the world's most prominent scientists say the proposals deserve a serious look because of growing concerns about global warming.
Worried about a potential planetary crisis, these leaders are calling on governments and scientific groups to study exotic ways to reduce global warming, seeing them as possible fallback positions if the planet eventually needs a dose of emergency cooling.
"We should treat these ideas like any other research and get into the mind-set of taking them seriously," said Ralph J. Cicerone, president of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/27/science/earth/27cool.html?8dpc
Mid-Atlantic States Reel Under Deluge; 10 Dead
By ALAN FEUER
Published: June 29, 2006
A network of swollen rivers, heavy from days of steady rain, spilled across their banks yesterday, threatening to inundate towns and cities from Virginia to Vermont and causing thousands of evacuations along the banks of the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania.
Two hundred thousand residents threatened by the rising Susquehanna were ordered to leave the Wilkes-Barre, Pa., area, directed by radio broadcasts to high schools, police stations and firehouses for shelter. Thousands more were evacuated from their homes in the region. At G.A.R. High School in Wilkes-Barre last night, more than 250 people, mostly elderly or infirm, were camped out on cots and on the floor. In the auditorium a platoon of the elderly nodded off in stiff fold-down seats.
Earlier in the week, Washington suffered the worst two days of rain in its history.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/nyregion/29flood.html?hp&ex=1151640000&en=bf3a8fcd8de344bc&ei=5094&partner=homepage
BP Named in Inquiry on Pricing
By JAD MOUAWAD
Published: June 29, 2006
Federal regulators charged yesterday that BP manipulated the price of propane two years ago by cornering the market through its dominant position, pushing up heating costs for millions of households at the peak of winter demand.
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission charges that at least six current and former employees at a unit of BP North America squeezed the propane market in February 2004, according to a civil complaint filed in federal court. They sought to make at least $20 million in profits, it said.
Also, the Justice Department said yesterday that one trader named in the lawsuit pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in a parallel criminal case. The plea is part of a continuing investigation by the F.B.I.
"BP cornered the market on physical propane," said Gregory G. Mocek, the director of the enforcement division of the trading commission, a federal regulator that oversees commodity markets. "They used their financial power to drive up prices."
BP has denied any wrongdoing and has indicated it will fight the charges in court, according to a spokesman, Ronnie Chappell. The company said it had cooperated with federal regulators and would assist the Justice Department in its investigation.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/business/29propane.html?hp&ex=1151640000&en=8ed0d0dffad1dad2&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Women Vote and Run in Kuwaiti Poll for First Time
By REUTERS
Published: June 29, 2006
Filed at 6:46 a.m. ET
KUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaitis voted for a new parliament on Thursday with women running and casting ballots for the first time in a national poll in the Gulf Arab state.
``I don't know how to describe my feelings, I am so happy, it's a beautiful day as women practice their right,'' female candidate Hind al-Shaikh said. ``I hope a woman makes it.''
Parliament passed a law in May 2005 giving women the right to vote and stand in elections for the 50-seat National Assembly of the oil-producing country.
Officials said about 250 candidates are standing, including 28 women determined to make headway despite daunting odds of beating seasoned male opponents, many of whom are former parliamentarians seeking re-election.
Men and women braved the scorching summer heat in the desert state, voting in separate stations across the conservative state as Islamists, who reject female suffrage, had demanded.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-kuwait-election.html?hp&ex=1151640000&en=a8b8c24aeebd5285&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Where Central Park Spreads Its Green Carpet
Many years ago, while living in a 20th-floor apartment on East 79th Street, I would go out on our small terrace, look left and get a glimpse of a sliver of treetops. So the idea that I could have a magic-carpet view of The Park as I drank my coffee every morning was reason enough to propel me to 110 Central Park South, the new co-op (with condo bylaws) that's smack across from the southern tip of the park.
(I had also experienced the park from a similar vantage point when I went to a dentist years ago whose office was just down the street on a stretch of Central Park South known then as Valley of the Drills.)
Situated between the Avenue of the Americas and Seventh Avenue, 110 Central Park South is a 1920's building with a neo-Renaissance palazzo exterior, designed by James Edwin Ruthwin Carpenter, an architect known for such luxury residential projects as 810, 907 and 1115 Fifth Avenue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/25/realestate/25window.html
Report Calls for Reform in British Prisons
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 29, 2006
Filed at 8:18 a.m. ET
LONDON (AP) -- An independent inquiry into the killing of a Muslim prisoner by his racist cellmate called Thursday for urgent action to correct overcrowding, understaffing and institutionalized racism in British prisons.
The report by High Court Judge Brian Keith cited 186 failings which contributed to the slaying in 2000 of first-time offender Zahid Mubarek, 19, by his cellmate, Robert Stewart.
''It should have occurred to officers that there was a possibility Stewart was a racist and that he shouldn't share a cell with (a South) Asian prisoner serving his first sentence,'' Keith said at a news conference.
''At the heart of it all was a catastrophic breakdown of communications, not just between prisons but within prisons themselves.''
Keith found ''a bewildering catalog of shortcomings, both individual and systemic'' at Feltham Young Offenders Institution, where Mubarek was held.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Britain-Prison-Killing.html
Push for New Tactics as War on Malaria Falters
The roly-poly boy came down with his fourth bout of malaria on March 16, the same day the nets were handed out at the makeshift camp where he lived in northern Uganda. "It was because of poverty that we could not afford one," his mother, Jackeline Ato, recalled recently, seated in rags beneath a mango tree.
The morning after his fever spiked, she took him to a clinic, but it did not have the medicines that might have saved him. He died four days later, crying, "Mommy, Mommy," before losing consciousness.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/world/africa/28malaria.html
Business Joins African Effort to Cut Malaria
By SHARON LaFRANIERE
Published: June 29, 2006
BELULUANE, Mozambique — With malaria spread across southern Mozambique, executives at the international mining company Billiton expected some workers to call in sick as it began building a massive new aluminum smelter amid the cornfields here.
FIGHTING AN OLD SCOURGE
What they did not expect was that nearly one in three employees would fall ill — 6,600 cases in just two years. And they certainly did not expect 13 deaths, not after the company had built a medical clinic, doused the construction site with pesticides and handed out bed nets to thwart malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
"You can imagine, it was a huge disaster," said Carlos Mesquita, the general manager. "We could not deal with that level of absenteeism, and we would have had more fatalities. If we didn't treat malaria we could not operate."
But confining measures to the plant, executives realized, would not protect their 1,100 employees, or their $1.3 billion investment, so long as malaria raged all around it, including in the capital, Maputo, just 10 miles up the highway.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/world/africa/29malaria.html
On Red Square, a Czarist Ritual Revived
By SOPHIA KISHOVSKY
Published: June 29, 2006
Just before 2 p.m. on the last Saturday of each month from April to October, a dozen saber-bearing cavalry officers of the Kremlin Regiment, in tall hats and czarist military uniforms adorned with gold buttons, yellow tassels and epaulets, mount their horses and gallop through the Spassky Gates, past the impossibly colorful onion domes of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow.
Their destination: the center of Red Square, near the podium where Communist Party bosses once stood and where thousands of tourists from around the world have gathered.
The Presidential Orchestra's marching band, dressed in white and playing grand imperial marches, and infantry officers with saber rifles follow close behind the mounted officers. Taking their positions in the middle of the square, they launch into half an hour's worth of elaborate formations, graceful pirouettes and breathtaking saber tosses.
http://travel2.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/travel/29webletter.html
Judge Urges State Control of Legal Aid for the Poor
By DANNY HAKIM
Published: June 29, 2006
ALBANY, June 28 — Chief Judge Judith S. Kaye of New York said Wednesday that the state must take over administration of legal services to the poor, citing a crisis in the way county governments and New York City are providing legal aid in criminal cases.
Judge Kaye's call came in response to a judicial commission report saying local governments were falling well short of constitutional requirements in providing legal representation to the poor, and recommended that a permanent state commission be created to take over the responsibility. Twenty-eight other states have already taken similar steps.
A state takeover would require legislative approval, and the Legislature has a long history of ignoring reforms proposed by Judge Kaye and the judiciary.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/29/nyregion/29indigent.html
Evolution's Lonely Battle in a Georgia Classroom
By MICHAEL WINERIP
Published: June 28, 2006
DAHLONEGA, Ga.
The Evolution Debate
Go to Complete Coverage »
OCCASIONALLY, an educational battle will dominate national headlines. More commonly, the battling goes on locally, behind closed doors, handled so discreetly that even a teacher working a few classrooms away might not know. This was the case for Pat New, 62, a respected, veteran middle school science teacher, who, a year ago, quietly stood up for her right to teach evolution in this rural northern Georgia community, and prevailed.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/28/education/28education.html
In Texas, Fighting to Keep Brahms on Air
By DANIEL J. WAKIN
Published: June 26, 2006
KILGORE, Tex., June 24 — In this landscape of oil derricks and Rangerettes — a renowned drill team dressed in smiles and miniskirts — a tiny radio station sends out a lifeline to classical music lovers in East Texas.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/26/arts/music/26radio.html
The Toronto Star
Dodge knew of U.S. request
Bank chief aware of American request in 2002
Critics fear Canadian bank records given to C.I.A.
Jun. 29, 2006. 06:00 AM
TARA PERKINS, MADHAVI ACHARYA-TOM YEW, SUSAN DELACOURT AND TONDA MACCHARLES
STAFF REPORTERS
Bank of Canada governor David Dodge knew in 2002 that the U.S. government wanted data from an international banking organization for use in its war on terror.
Dodge declined yesterday to comment on the U.S. program, in which information on international financial transactions — including Canadian data — was given to the Americans.
Like other central bankers around the world, Dodge does not appear to have raised any red flags in the past four years.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151531412964&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Khadr's life behind bars
Briton befriended teen in Guantanamo
Says Toronto detainee often wept in cell
Jun. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD
STAFF REPORTER
Omar Khadr is a 19-year-old accused of murder and terrorism, held in segregation in Guantanamo Bay and the one detainee the Pentagon has clearly signalled it never wants released.
Ask Rhuhel Ahmed about the Toronto teenager, though, and he says he can't imagine that the weeping, injured boy he saw is the same detainee the United States considers a terrorist.
"You had a child who didn't have a clue what was going on. If I was put in that situation at 16 in prison, not even a prison but the worst place in the world, to be there and treated the same way as everyone else regardless of his age? I don't know how a 16-year-old can cope with that."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151531412778&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Israeli forces seize Hamas officials
Deputy PM among 25 held
Body of Jewish settler recovered
Jun. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU
GAZA CITY—The Mideast kidnapping crisis deepened early today as Israeli armoured columns readied to open a second front inside the northern Gaza Strip, renewing artillery fire and tightening a military chokehold amid reports that a third Israeli had been abducted by Palestinian militants.
Early today, Israeli troops found a body they suspect is that of an 18-year-old settler kidnapped on Sunday. Israeli security sources said the army had told the family of Eliyahu Asheri they believe it was his body they recovered outside the West Bank city of Ramallah. They said he was shot in the head, apparently soon after he was abducted.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151531412879&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Israel plans 'broad' strike
Demands return of soldier abducted by Hamas militants
Jun. 26, 2006. 11:39 AM
AMY TEIBEL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM - Israel massed troops Monday along the Gaza Strip border in preparation for what Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said would be a "broad and ongoing" operation against Palestinian militants following the capture of an Israeli soldier.
Olmert issued the threat as Israeli and Palestinian officials worked diplomatic channels to gain the release of Cpl. Gilad Shalit, a dual French-Israeli citizen seized in a cross-border raid Sunday.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151319010742&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154
Bush blasts papers for revealing terror spying
Jun. 26, 2006. 12:10 PM
WASHINGTON (AP) — President George W. Bush on Monday condemned as "disgraceful" the disclosure by the news media of an anti-terrorism program that taps into an immense international database of confidential financial records.
"For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America," Bush said.
"The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," he said, adding that it "makes it harder to win this war on terror."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1151319011739&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News
Queen joins 2,000 minor subjects for tea
Jun. 26, 2006. 09:08 AM
LONDON (AP) — Bob the Builder, J.K. Rowling and 2,000 children took tea with the Queen to celebrate the monarch's 80th birthday.
The grounds of Buckingham Palace were transformed for the day into a series of settings from children's classics, including Winnie the Pooh's Hundred Acre Wood, Mr. McGregor's Garden from Peter Rabbit, and Thomas the Tank Engine's railway.
Models were dressed as favourite literary characters — including Paddington Bear, Postman Pat and supernanny Mary Poppins.
"The day's been really special, I've got to see J.K. Rowling and the Queen and I've taken loads of photos," said Karlie Williams, 12, from Ebbw Vale, Wales.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1151319010377&col=968705899037&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News
Iraq blasts kill more than 35
Jun. 26, 2006. 04:12 PM
STEVEN R. HURST AND QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Powerful bombs tore through markets in two cities Monday evening, killing at least 35 people and wounding 86, police reported.
As the violence continued, a key Shiite legislator told The Associated Press said seven minor Sunni Arab insurgent groups had contacted the government to declare their readiness to join efforts at national reconciliation.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151319012117&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Chaplin's hat, cane sold for $140,000
Jun. 26, 2006. 08:38 AM
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Charlie Chaplin hat-and-cane set has sold for nearly $140,000 US at auction, according to a spokeswoman for Bonhams & Butterfields.
The $139,250 bid broke a record for the most ever paid for a Chaplin hat-and-cane set, of which there are several, said Bonhams spokeswoman Janelle Grigsby.
She would not say who purchased the items on Sunday.
The bowler hat was stamped with manufacturer's details inside the hatband; the cane was 81 centimetres long and made of bamboo, according to a statement from the auction house.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151319010356&call_pageid=968332188492
Modern-day pirates find cargo gold
Thieves cashing in on booming trucking industry
Stoves, windows among GTA loot found in Jamaica
Jun. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
SAN GREWAL
STAFF REPORTER
Industrial stoves, shampoo, diapers and custom built vinyl windows were some of the stolen cargo from the GTA recently recovered from a Jamaican shipping yard by York Region police.
Cargo theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in areas such as Brampton and Mississauga, where the trucking transportation industry is booming, attracting modern-day pirates to the valuable cargos constantly moving around the GTA.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151273413245&call_pageid=968332188492
Battle lines drawn over illegal guns
UN bid to control flow of small arms
Ottawa accused of giving mixed signals
Jun. 26, 2006. 07:20 AM
OLIVIA WARD
FEATURE WRITER
In Afghanistan, Canadian soldiers are under daily attack from illegally traded weapons.
In Ontario, two suspects in an alleged terror plot are also convicted gun smugglers.
In Toronto, more than 50 people were killed in shootings last year and gun battles have raged in the heart of the city.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151273413319&call_pageid=968332188492
If you wear your phone, you need to call for help
Jun. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
LINWOOD BARCLAY
I've a question about these tiny new phones you're starting to see more and more people wearing, the kind that hang right on your ear, all the time, even when you're not talking to somebody.
I don't want to know how much they cost. I'm not particularly interested in whether they make your ear sore. And I couldn't care less about whether the quality is as good as a regular cellphone.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151273413050&call_pageid=968332188492
Civil rights, security discussion urged
Canadians need to take serious look at issues, Iacobucci says
Retired Supreme Court justice stresses need for dialogue
Jun. 26, 2006. 01:00 AM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD
STAFF REPORTER
For 13 years, Frank Iacobucci helped Canada deal with issues of sovereignty, civil rights and security from his seat on the country's highest court.
He was there in 2001 when hijacked planes changed the way North America regarded terrorism and was among the Supreme Court justices who ruled on the new laws Canada later introduced to deal with that threat.
Now retired from the court and in private practice, Iacobucci, the chairman of Torstar Corp., is among those urging Canadians to start taking issues of security and civil rights more seriously.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151273413126&call_pageid=968332188492
Canada's Afghanistan mission under fire
Soldiers dying for U.S. drug policy: European report
PM, military brass lash out at claims from think-tank
Jun. 29, 2006. 01:00 AM
CAROLINE MALLAN
SPECIAL TO THE STAR
LONDON—The Canadian government is in denial over the true perception of its troop deployment to Afghanistan's troubled Kandahar province, says the head of a European drug policy think-tank.
Emmanuel Reinert, executive director of the Brussels-based Senlis Council, said he was taken aback by the virulent reaction to the group's report, which said Canadian soldiers and Afghan civilians are paying with their lives because of failing U.S. policies that focus on eradication of the poppy crop
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151531412775&call_pageid=968332188492
FBI breaks up movie piracy ring: official
Jun. 28, 2006. 02:48 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — FBI agents carried out early morning raids Wednesday and broke up two international movie-piracy rings that siphoned millions of dollars from the motion picture industry over the last year, a federal law enforcement official said. Hordes of agents rounded up more than a dozen members of the two large-scale rings in raids throughout the New York City area, the official said. Recording equipment was also seized. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because announcement of the arrests had not been made. Details were to be unveiled at FBI headquarters later Wednesday. A second federal official said one of the movies the suspects were conspiring to profit from was Superman Returns, the highly anticipated film being released this week. Movie piracy has become a huge problem for the film industry with the advent of high-speed Internet access. The Motion Picture Association of America claims the U.S. movie industry loses more than $3 billion annually in potential global revenue because of physical piracy, or bogus copies of videos and DVDs of its films. Videotaped copies of films in theaters often are digitized or burned off DVDs and then distributed on file-sharing networks.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151490012865&call_pageid=968332188492
Pregnant Spears poses nude
Jun. 29, 2006. 07:37 AM
NEW YORK (AP) — Pregnant pop princess Britney Spears is baring nearly all on the cover of Harper's Bazaar magazine.
The singer of ... Baby, One More Time posed in the buff for the cover of the August issue; there's also a photo spread inside. On the cover, Spears, who is sitting, cups her breasts with her hands and crosses her legs while showing her protruding belly and smiling for the camera of lensman Alexi Lubomirski.
"Nothing to wear?" a cover headline asks. "487 Best new ideas inside."
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1151577545582&call_pageid=968332188492
A player in nation's birth
Jun. 29, 2006. 07:59 AM
ADAM MAYERS
TORONTOSTAR
When Christine Macdonald died in 1909, the news of her passing was a footnote in the Toronto Star, a three-paragraph treatment at the bottom of page 17, dwarfed by an ad extolling the virtues of Calvert's Carbolic tooth powder.
The paper noted that her husband was Sandfield Macdonald, Ontario's first premier. There were a few details about the funeral and that was it.
But if the final record of Christine Macdonald's life was small and thin, her 89 years were full of the tumultuous life and times of Canada and the United States in the latter half of the 19th century. She was a witness and participant in the great events of the time — the U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction, Canadian Confederation and the creation of the province of Ontario.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&pubid=968163964505&cid=1151490012701&call_page=TS_News&call_pageid=968332188492&call_pagepath=News/News
The Los Angeles Times
Letters to the Editor,
I support The Times' decision to print the banking surveillance article. I am a retired military officer who served his country for 30 years. In all that time, I never questioned my supreme duty to support, defend and bear true allegiance to the Constitution. Though most public officials do not take such an oath, their actions and sense of duty and responsibility should be guided by it. You are right. All too often history proves that demagogues hide behind the mantras of national security and national interests. When public officials fail in their duty and responsibility to our Constitution, then the press must act, and thank God it has the courage to do so. I applaud your decision.
PAUL LABONTE
Tustin
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-le-wednesday28.2jun28,1,916668.story
Secret U.S. Program Tracks Global Bank Transfers
The Treasury Dept. program, begun after the Sept. 11 attacks, attempts to monitor terrorist financing but raises privacy concerns.
By Josh Meyer and Greg Miller, Times Staff Writers
12:06 PM PDT, June 23, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The U.S. government, without the knowledge of many banks and their customers, has engaged for years in a secret effort to track terrorist financing by accessing a vast database of confidential information on transfers of money between banks worldwide.
The program, run by the Treasury Department, is considered a potent weapon in the war on terrorism because of its ability to clandestinely monitor financial transactions and map terrorist webs.
It is part of an arsenal of aggressive measures the government has adopted since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that yield new intelligence, but also circumvent traditional safeguards against abuse and raise concerns about intrusions on privacy.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/la-na-swift23jun23,1,357838.story
Ex-SEC Attorney Testifies on Probe
From the Associated Press
June 29, 2006
A former government attorney told Congress on Wednesday that he was fired last summer after he tried to subpoena a prominent Wall Street executive to testify in an insider-trading probe of a major hedge fund.
Gary Aguirre, who led the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation of Pequot Capital Management Inc., said he was told by his supervisors that it would be difficult to obtain the subpoenas because the executive had "very powerful political connections."
The SEC was investigating whether the hedge fund had received a tip from an individual about an upcoming merger.
"By mid-June, growing evidence pointed to one person, the former CEO of a large investment bank," Aguirre said in written testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Under questioning by committee members, he identified the executive as John Mack, who is the chairman and chief executive of Morgan Stanley Inc.
Morgan Stanley said Aguirre had provided no evidence to support his allegation against Mack, a major fundraiser for President Bush's campaigns. At the time in question, Mack was CEO of Credit Suisse First Boston.
The panel is looking into problems involving the hedge fund industry, which commands trillions of dollars in assets.
No charges have been brought against Pequot, a hedge fund with some $6.5 billion in assets that is overseen by Arthur Samberg, a well-known money manager and philanthropist. Pequot has denied that there was any improper activity by the fund. The SEC investigation of the fund and Aguirre's accusations were first reported Friday by the New York Times.
SEC officials have denied Aguirre's allegation of political influence.
Also Wednesday, top U.S. House Democrats said they planned to introduce legislation to revive a government effort to regulate hedge funds that was blocked last week by a court.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said he would unveil a bill today to give the SEC "clear authority to require registration and monitoring" of hedge fund advisors. A federal appeals court last week threw out an SEC rule narrowly adopted in late 2004 that required most U.S. hedge fund advisors to register with the investor protection agency and open their books for occasional inspections.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-wrap29.1jun29,1,4678249.story
'Big Brother' Bush and connecting the data dots
The Total Information Awareness program was killed in 2003, but its spawn present bigger threats to privacy.
By Jonathan Turley, JONATHAN TURLEY is a law professor at George Washington University.
June 24, 2006
THE DISCLOSURE this week of a secret databank operation tracking international financial transactions has caused renewed concerns about civil liberties in the United States. But this program is just the latest in a series of secret surveillance programs, databanks and domestic operations justified as part of the war on terror.
Disclosed individually over the course of the last year, they have become almost routine. Yet, when considered collectively, they present a far more troubling picture, and one that should be vaguely familiar.
Civil liberty-minded citizens may recall the president's plan to create the Total Information Awareness program, a massive databank with the ability to follow citizens in real time by their check-card purchases, bank transactions, medical bills and other electronic means. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, was assigned this task, but after its work was made public, Congress put a stop to it in September 2003 as a danger to privacy and civil liberties.
However, when Congress disbanded the Total Information Awareness program, it did not prohibit further research on such databanks, or even the use of individual databanks.
And, according to a recent study by the National Journal, the Bush administration used that loophole to break the program into smaller parts, transferring some parts to the National Security Agency, classifying the work and renaming parts of it as the Research Development and Experimental Collaboration program.
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-turley24jun24,1,3332362.story
Why we ran the bank story
The Times editor on the paper's decision to expose U.S. money monitoring.
By Dean Baquet, DEAN BAQUET is the editor of the Los Angeles Times.
June 27, 2006
MANY READERS have been sharply critical of our decision to publish an article Friday on the U.S. Treasury Department's program to secretly monitor worldwide money transfers in an effort to track terrorist financing.
They have sent me sincere and powerful expressions of their disappointment in our newspaper, and they deserve an equally thoughtful and honest response.
The decision to publish this article was not one we took lightly. We considered very seriously the government's assertion that these disclosures could cause difficulties for counterterrorism programs. And we weighed that assertion against the fact that there is an intense and ongoing public debate about whether surveillance programs like these pose a serious threat to civil liberties.
We sometimes withhold information when we believe that reporting it would threaten a life. In this case, we believed, based on our talks with many people in the government and on our own reporting, that the information on the Treasury Department's program did not pose that threat. Nor did the government give us any strong evidence that the information would thwart true terrorism inquiries. In fact, a close read of the article shows that some in the government believe that the program is ineffective in fighting terrorism.
In the end, we felt that the legitimate public interest in this program outweighed the potential cost to counterterrorism efforts.
Some readers have seen our decision to publish this story as an attack on the Bush administration and an attempt to undermine the war on terror.
We are not out to get the president. This newspaper has done much hard-hitting reporting on terrorism, from around the world, often at substantial risk to our reporters. We have exposed terrorist cells and led the way in exposing the work of terrorists. We devoted a reporter to covering Al Qaeda's role in world terrorism in the months before 9/11. I know, because I made the assignment.
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-baquet27jun27,1,2079077.story
20% of U.S. Transplant Centers Are Found to Be Substandard
Medicare allows 20% of the 236 programs in the U.S. to stay in business despite performing too few operations or having low survival rates.
By Tracy Weber and Charles Ornstein, Times Staff Writers
June 29, 2006
About a fifth of federally funded transplant programs fail to meet the government's minimum standards for patient survival or perform too few operations to ensure competency, a Los Angeles Times investigation has found.
The U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has allowed 48 heart, liver and lung transplant centers to continue operating despite sometimes glaring and repeated lapses, the newspaper's review found. There are 236 approved centers nationwide.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-transplant29jun29,0,2730832.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Economic Jitters an Albatross for Bush
By Doyle McManus, Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2006
WASHINGTON — All year long, in speeches and briefings and visits to factories and shops, President Bush and his aides have tried to convince Americans that the economy is in good shape — and that the president deserves some credit for that.
That effort is not making much headway, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.
Americans are closely divided on whether the economy is in good shape, with 50% saying it is doing well and 47% saying it is doing badly, the poll found. In January, when Bush launched his campaign to spread good news, the national mood was slightly better: In a Times Poll that month, 55% said the economy was doing well.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-econpoll29jun29,0,5298422.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Tented Homes Luring a Criminal Kind of Pest
By Bob Pool, Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2006
What kind of insect would take advantage of someone whose house is being fumigated?
A lowlife worm, says Janice Dawson, whose Carson home was looted while it was shrouded in a tent erected by an extermination company.
Los Angeles County Sheriff's detectives are investigating the burglary, which occurred when intruders peeled back the tarp covering the house and pried open a rear door. Several rooms were ransacked, and photographic gear, video game equipment, jewelry and other items were taken.
At the time, the two-story dwelling was pumped full of Vikane, a gas that kills termites and other pests but is potentially lethal to humans as well.
"The exterminators wouldn't even let the sheriff go in," said Dawson, a Los Angeles Times office manager. "They said it was too dangerous."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tent29jun29,0,6966337.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Fall Ballot Is a $46-Billion Question
Five bond measures and four tax-hike efforts contribute to the record tally. The issues are expected to complicate political alliances.
By Robert Salladay, Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2006
SACRAMENTO — Already cranky about tax increases and big-ticket bonds, California voters now face a November ballot that would break records in government spending.
Never before has so much taxpayer money been at stake in a California election: a total of $46 billion in five bond measures and four tax increases.
Voters will face a fusillade of messages over who should carry the burden of public programs. Private groups, not elected officials, say the four tax increase measures. Each asks a specific entity— property owners, cigarette smokers, corporations and oil producers — to pay for projects designed to benefit the public at large.
Tobacco companies are expected to spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat a $2.60-a-pack increase in cigarette taxes. Oil companies so far have given $10 million to defeat a tax on drilling. Big business is planning a fierce and expensive fight against an initiative limiting their political contributions and, thus, influence.
Set to be finalized today, the November ballot requires some complicated political footwork. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will lead conflicting campaigns — arguing against tax increases favored by his Democratic challenger even as he asks voters to approve more than $37 billion in multiple bonds to fund the biggest government building project in four decades.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ballot29jun29,0,1175019.story?coll=la-home-local
Iran on Agenda for Industrial Democracies
By ANNE GEARAN, AP Diplomatic Writer
1:22 AM PDT, June 29, 2006
MOSCOW -- Iran's disputed nuclear program was on the agenda as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and foreign ministers from the world's largest industrial democracies met in run-up to Russia's debut as host to leaders of the Group of Eight nations next month.
Iran's top nuclear negotiator and the European Union's foreign policy chief plan to meet on July 5 to discuss a package of incentives from key global powers to try to persuade Iran to roll back its uranium enrichment program, a U.N. official said on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made.
An announcement of the meeting between the EU's Javier Solana and Iran's Ali Larijani was expected at Thursday's meeting in Moscow.
The Larijani-Solana meeting would be the first since the EU official presented the incentive package to the Iranian negotiator in Tehran on June 6. Larijani said then that the proposals contained "positive steps" but talks were needed to clear up ambiguities.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top13jun29,0,2017015.story
William Shurcliff, 97; Outspoken Physicist on Manhattan Project
By Thomas H. Maugh II, Times Staff Writer
June 29, 2006
William A. Shurcliff, a physicist on the Manhattan Project who subsequently became a leading opponent of supersonic transport and President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, died June 20 at his home in Cambridge, Mass.
Shurcliff, who spent the latter part of his career designing and promoting solar energy systems, was 97 and died from complications of pneumonia, according to his granddaughter Elizabeth Shurcliff.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-shurcliff29jun29,0,4920092.story?coll=la-home-obituaries
Rivers in Pa. Head Higher
Hundreds of thousands evacuate their homes as Wilkes-Barre keeps a wary eye on its levees. At least 12 have been killed across the Northeast.
By Heather Gehlert and Ellen Barry, Times Staff Writers
June 29, 2006
SCRANTON, Pa. — As the Susquehanna River rose Wednesday night, 200,000 people were ordered to leave their homes near Wilkes-Barre in anticipation of cresting waters that threatened to top the city's levees this morning and pour into residential neighborhoods.
The evacuation came after another day of torrential rain in the Northeast that left at least 12 people dead. Houses were lifted from their foundations, bridges washed away and terrified residents awaited rescue on their rooftops.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-flood29jun29,0,7933668.story?coll=la-home-headlines
200,000 Ordered to Evacuate Due to Floods
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Writer
4:00 AM PDT, June 29, 2006
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. -- Officials worried about pressure on the town's levees ordered up to 200,000 people to evacuate the Wilkes-Barre area after the Susquehanna River was swelled by a record-breaking deluge that has killed at least 12 people in the Northeast.
Besides those evacuees, at least another 11,000 people were ordered to leave their homes in New Jersey, Maryland and New York as rivers and streams surged over their banks, washed out roads and bridges and cut off villages in some of the worst flooding in the region in decades. In the Binghamton, N.Y., area, an entire house floated down the Susquehanna.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top10jun29,0,837364.story
Recipe of the Day
Arugula, Mozzarella, Tomato on Focaccia Recipe
http://www.elise.com/recipes/archives/001987arugula_mozzarella_tomato_on_focaccia.php
"You don't have enough sandwiches on your blog," my father declared a few days ago. "Wadaya mean I don't have enough sandwiches? I've got plenty of sandwiches," said I. Dad proceeded to rattle off a list of sandwiches he likes that he couldn't find on the site, ending with, "and you don't even have the arugula focaccia sandwich!" as if given how much arugula we grow around here the very omission was a sin of the highest order.
continued ...
With storm clouds over head this pisture wasn't nearly this sunny. I wanted to visualize the building so I added some brightness.
June 28, 2006.
Vestal, New York.
Photographer states :: Flood near Endicott Light building and Union Endicott High School from the Vestal/Endicott bridge - afternoon June 28, 2006. Susquehanna River fromVestal/Endicott bridge.
Close down any and all access to recreational areas !! These are statewide emergencies.
June 28, 2006.
Black Bridge, Wells, New York.
The bridge washed out. This is at least two fishermen. One on the 'quad' and the other taking the picture.
Photographer states :: Stranded on the wrong side of the bridge.
June 24, 2006.
Lecco, Italy.
Photographer states :: 6/24/06 h.8.34pm: In less than an hour a sunny warm day like many others has turned into the stormiest in this Summer for us. The photo shows probably a shelf cloud (not actually one of the neatest examples, but these are not the Plains!) of a huge multi-cellular system with overshooting top passed on almost the whole Northern part of Italy. Despite its size, its frightning appearance and the number of lightning strikes, this storm left ridiculous amounts of rain, probably because humidity in the air was low.
Wednesday, June 28, 2006
Morning Papers - continued ...
The Jordan Times
7 Iraqi Sunni groups offer truce
Nationwide violence kills 35
An Iraqi father on Monday fans over the face of his sick daughter as his wife prepares medicine inside their ‘house’ located in an abandoned government building of the regime of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. During the past two months, more than 85,000 Iraqis had been displaced because of violence, according to a UN report (AFP photo by Sabah Arar)
BAGHDAD (AP) — Seven Sunni Arab rebel groups — said to be motivated in part by fear of undue Iranian influence in the country — offered the government a conditional truce Monday, two top lawmakers, Kurd and a Shiite, told the Associated Press. At least 35 people were killed in violence nationwide.
Despite the fresh opening from the militant organisations — which do not include Al Qaeda in Iraq or other groups — a key Iraqi commander said Baghdad's forces would not be ready to keep the peace in Anbar province — the insurgent heartland — for at least a year.
Brig Gen. Jaleel Khalf's said his one-year estimate was what he termed “optimistic under the best of circumstances.” And it closely aligns with recent forecasts from the US military.
“I don't think by this winter we'll be quite ready to turn over completely” to Iraqi forces, Army Col. Sean MacFarland said recently. He commands the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armoured Division that oversees Ramadi, the capital of Anbar and the lynchpin of the insurgency.
http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news2.htm
Iran says will not benefit from talks with US
TEHRAN (Reuters) — Iran's supreme leader said on Tuesday the country would not benefit from talks with the United States, playing down the significance of a prominent element in proposals to defuse a nuclear standoff.
Washington, which broke ties with Tehran in 1980, said it would join the European Union's direct talks with Iran if Tehran first agreed to suspend uranium enrichment. The offer came in a package of incentives backed by six world powers.
The White House said it did not view supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comment as Iran's final word on its offer, viewed as a major policy shift in Washington and by some analysts, particularly in the West, as a possible deal clincher
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news3.htm
US gives sober assessment of Iraqi security crackdown
Saddam to go on trial in August for Kurdish alleged genocide
A woman on Tuesday embraces her son, who was released from the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad (Reuters photo by Namir Noor-Eldeen)
BAGHDAD (AP) — The US military issued a sober assessment Tuesday of the Baghdad security crackdown, saying violence had decreased slightly but not to “the degree we would like to see” in the two weeks since 75,000 American-backed Iraqi soldiers flooded the capital.
An influential Sunni Arab cleric endorsed the Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Maliki's reconciliation plan, saying he saw a “glimmer of hope” and calling on the government to implement it quickly.
The US military announced the deaths of a Marine and three soldiers, and police reported 18 more Iraqis fell victim to sectarian and insurgent violence, including five people whose bodies were found dumped in the capital.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news2.htm
6 killed in attack on Somali warlords’ posts
MOGADISHU (AP) — Days after cleric took charge of Somalia's Islamic fighters, a clan leader said the fighters broke a ceasefire to seize a clan-held checkpoint outside the capital in an hourlong battle Tuesday that killed six people.
It was the first military movement since the fighters signed an agreement last week to stop all military action and recognise the country's powerless, UN-backed interim government. The fighters control Mogadishu and most of the rest of southern Somalia, while the interim government holds only the southern town of Baidoa, 250 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu.
The checkpoint connecting the capital, Mogadishu, to the Lower Shabelle region was manned by members of the Habar Gidir clan, who charged motorists a fee to pass. Three of the victims were civilians and the others were clan members, said clan leader Abdi Kaibdid.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news5.htm
THE ANNOUNCED TROOP REDUCTIONS IS A FALSEHOOD. 'LOOKING FOR' A DRAWDOWN IS NOT THE SAME AS REDEPLOYING TROOPS HOME ! It provides no reason for the Iraqis to take over the security of their nation. It only prolongs it. Bush refuses to 'take responsibility' for making the tough decisions. He leaves all the tough decisions to General Casey whom knows once the troops start to deploy it has to be reasonably fast to insure all their safety out of a Civil War Zone. The chances of redeployment out of Iraq are slim to none when 'the safety' of the troops are considered. General Casey simply needs the 'go ahead' to bring out troops home while telling Baghdad they have to improve their security forces on their own. General Casey is 'assigned' the 'task' of assessing the Iraqi forces 'based on' the standards he measures has security and not that of Iraq's real time status. The Iraqi 'forces' do not have to meet USA standards. It's not that kind of thing. They should be measured according to other allies in the region and the needs of an unoccupied Arab nation. There are currently 75,000 Iraqi force. There are 130,000 USA military. Does Iraq need all those personnel? No. A good amount of the USA military's efforts is to protect it's own well being in Iraq. Bush needs to give the order to redeploy out. Other Republican presidents have done it, namely Gerald Ford, in recent history.
US confirms looking at Iraq troop drawdown
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States confirmed Monday that it was considering a plan to sharply reduce US forces in Iraq by the end of 2007, but said it was just one option among many and was not "engraved in stone." The White House confirmed that US General George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq, had drawn up a drawdown plan but stressed that implementation would depend on whether Iraq's fledgling security forces can take up any slack.
US President George W. Bush, who met with the general on Friday, said that "one of the things that General Casey assured me of that whatever recommendation he makes, it'll be aimed towards achieving victory." "In terms of our troop presence there, that decision will be made by General Casey, as well as the sovereign government of Iraq, based upon conditions on the ground," the president told reporters.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news6.htm
Egyptian women flock to hear female preachers
By Yara Bayoumy
Reuters
CAIRO — Women of all ages pour into a fluorescent-lit mosque hall hours before Sherine Gouda Al Sahhar is due to deliver her weekly sermon, seeking a seat near the front so they can catch a glimpse of the preacher.
The 200 women can barely squeeze into the hall, so Sahhar's helpers remove the screens separating the men's hall from the women's to accommodate the gathering.
As she starts, a hush falls over the crowd. Sahhar begins preaching about the need to perform good deeds to please God, not to boast to colleagues, friends or family.
She is one of a growing number of Muslim women preachers in the Egyptian capital who deliver regular sermons in mosque halls, preaching about Islam, interpreting Koranic verses and advising people how to live as virtuous Muslims.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news7.htm
Jordanian youth join int’l interfaith conference
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — Emphasising the role of the youth in promoting interfaith dialogue and tolerance, religious leaders at a recent conference in Beirut said young people are key players in the global fight against terrorism.
The remarks were made during an event focused on the role of inter-religious dialogue in combating violence and advancing shared security, which brought together religious leaders, representatives from youth-concerned institutions and young people from the Ecumenical Studies Centre from Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Egypt and Japan earlier this month.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/homenews/homenews10.htm
The end of democratisation — time to reconsider
Hasan Abu Nimah
Talk about reforming and democratising the Greater Middle East seems to be fading without any trace of accomplishment.
The United States believed at some point in its “war on terror” that terror is linked with dictatorships and therefore democracy should be part of the cure. While justifying the need for democratisation, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once said that the United States had ended up serving neither democratisation nor security when, for 60 years, Washington ignored the former in favour of the latter. It was time, she said that democratisation should be placed at the top of the priority list.
Regardless of the fact that democracy cannot stop terrorism, as this issue was well argued in a study published in Foreign Affairs (September/October 2005) by Gregory Cause, reactions to the call for democratisation and reform in the targeted region varied widely. Reform should not be imposed from outside, said some. That logic failed to address a basic question: Why delay reform until confronted by outside pressure? Others said no reform should precede the resolution of the chronic political problems in our region, beginning with the Arab-Israeli conflict. That logic also failed to recognise that stagnant politics contributes to perpetuating conflicts and instability.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/opinion/opinion2.htm
Michael Moore Today
Former Admin. Official Needs Only Three Words To Explain Manipulation of Intel: ‘The Vice President’
The Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing this afternoon to examine the manipulation of pre-war Iraq intelligence. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who previously disavowed his vote for the war, attended the hearing and asked the panelists why a small number of individuals in the administration “had more influence…than the professionals.” Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, said he only needed three words. Watch it.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/26/wilkerson-vp/
Cheney's visit brings out protesters
By Robert Pore / Grand Island Independent
GRAND ISLAND, NE -- About two dozen people protested Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Grand Island today.
The protesters were gathered across the street from the Midtown Holiday Inn on South Locust Street. Cheney was attending a fundraiser for state Sen. Adrian Smith, who is the Republican candidate for the 3rd Congressional District.
Cheney's entourage was ushered into the Holiday Inn, away from the view of the protesters. For Margaret Williams of Grand Island, however, it was important that she be there to voice her opposition to the policies of the Bush/Cheney administration.
Williams, who was by herself, carried a sign that read, "For the people, by the people. Not for the wealthy, by the wealthy."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7359
Protestors get their messages known
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_media/impeach_cheney_62606.mov
Join the June 27th National Day of Action to Stand Up with Lt. Ehren Watada TODAY!
“I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.”
- U.S. Army First Lt. Ehren Watada
http://thankyoult.live.radicaldesigns.org//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=1
Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress
By Lauria Kellman / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain thought he had a deal when President Bush, faced with a veto-proof margin in Congress, agreed to sign a bill banning the torture of detainees. Not quite. While Bush signed the new law, he also quietly approved another document: a signing statement reserving his right to ignore the law. McCain was furious, and so were other lawmakers.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is opening hearings this week into what has become the White House's favorite tool for overriding Congress in the name of wartime national security.
"It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," the committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm interested to hear from the administration just what research they've done to lead them to the conclusion that they can cherry-pick."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7361
Karl Rove speaks at Mike Whalen fundraiser in Waterloo
By Jeff Wilford and RC Balaban / WCF Courier
WATERLOO, IA -- While Karl Rove was enroute to talk at a campaign fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Mike Whalen at the members-only Sunnyside Country Club Monday, roughly three dozen protesters stood along Ansborough Avenue with signs showing what they thought of President Bush's deputy chief of staff.
"Rove fiddles while working families burn."
"Health care is a right, not a privilege."
"Karl Rove, congratulations on not getting indicted!" Signed, "Concerned Iowans."
Rove's response: "What protesters?"
"He said you've never seen protesters until you've seen the ones that were outside my house," said Hugh Field, a Waterloo lawyer who attended the invitation-only fundraiser. "So he wasn't very impressed."
Whalen said between 70 and 75 people attended the $250-a-plate luncheon. The event was closed to the public and the press.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=117
Wars force Army equipment costs to triple
By Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The annual cost of replacing, repairing and upgrading Army equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to more than triple next year to more than $17 billion, according to Army documents obtained by the Associated Press.
From 2002 to 2006, the Army spent an average of $4 billion a year in annual equipment costs. But as the war takes a harder toll on the military, that number is projected to balloon to more than $12 billion for the federal budget year that starts next Oct. 1, the documents show.
The $17 billion also includes an additional $5 billion in equipment expenses that the Army requested in previous years but has not yet been provided.
The latest costs include the transfer of more than 1,200 2 1/2-ton trucks, nearly 1,100 Humvees and $8.8 million in other equipment from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi security forces.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7362
GM to shed quarter of workforce this year
By Bernard Simon in Toronto / Financial Times
General Motors will on Monday disclose details of one of most dramatic corporate downsizings in US history, exceeding a key target of its turnround plan and accelerating the demise of the privileged American car worker.
Rick Wagoner, chief executive, is expected to announce that about 30,000 workers – more than a quarter of GM's blue-collar US workforce – have taken up its offer of early retirement and severance packages.
Almost all will leave by the end of the year, achieving in a few months what the company had set out to accomplish over more than two years.
A total of 50,000 workers or more is set to leave the industry over the next few months.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7357
Iraq conflict leaves at least 130,000 displaced
By Hiba Moussa and Michael Georgy / Reuters
BAGHDAD - Iraq's sectarian violence of the past four months has pushed the number of displaced people to above 130,000, parliament heard on Monday as members urged ministers to give more aid and security to contain the crisis.
"There should be more field visits to understand their plight," Sunni Arab parliamentarian Dhafir al-Ani told the assembly. "The government should take direct steps and provide security for displaced families, including at their camps."
Iraq's Ministry of Displaced and Migration now puts the number of internal refugees at 130,386, or 21,731 families, its spokesman Sattar Nowruz said.
The number of registered displaced has climbed by as much as 30,000 in the last month, according to ministry statistics.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7358
Documentary slams GM for ending electric car production
By Justin Hyde / Detroit Free Press
Just as General Motors Corp. has begun to talk about turning a corner after months of bad news from losses and job cuts, a documentary rolling out this week accuses GM of putting its EV1 electric vehicle in an early grave.
"Who Killed the Electric Car?" examines California's fling with mandating electric cars in the 1990s and its decision to drop the mandate in the face of strenuous opposition from the auto industry. "Who Killed the Electric Car?" contends carmakers, government officials and others worked together to keep a viable alternative to gas-powered vehicles off the road.
Like "Roger and Me," which illustrates the negative impact of GM's decision to downsize in Flint, Mich., "Who Killed the Electric Car?" could create a public relations headache for GM. Many automakers have long dismissed electric vehicles as a dead end, but the documentary could resonate with moviegoers, who now spend $3 for every gallon of gasoline they use to drive to the theater.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7365
Get the Facts !
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html
Watch the Trailer !
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
Find a Theater !
http://movies.aol.com/movie/who-killed-the-electric-car/24980/main
Apple - Trailers - Who Killed The Electric Car? - Trailer
Who Killed The Electric Car? It was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. ... Official Movie site · QuickTime 7 Required ...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/whokilledtheelectriccar/trailer/
Apple - Trailers - Who Killed The Electric Car?
Who Killed The Electric Car? Who Killed The Electric Car? Copyright © 2006 Sony Pictures Classics ... Official Movie site · QuickTime 7 Required ...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/whokilledtheelectriccar/
YouTube - Who Killed the Electric Car trailer
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1, ... "The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat, & Beers" Movie Trailer ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSBykAngDpY
The New Zealand Herald
Fresh violence in East Timor as rivals square off =
3.45pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
By David Fox
DILI - Fears of renewed violence in East Timor rose today after several houses and small shops in the capital were torched by protesters allied to or against ousted Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
Alkatiri quit on Monday following weeks of public protest and while President Xanana Gusmao mulls the ruling Fretilin party's suggestions for a replacement, thousands of party supporters gathered outside the capital, preparing to march on Dili.
Hopes for an end to more than two months of violence fizzled out as news of the gathering by Fretilin party supporters spread. They were expected in the capital today.
But hundreds of anti-Alkatiri protesters were still camped outside the main government building and scores scattered in groups in parks and open areas around the sleepy seaside capital.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388789
East Timor president to announce interim government
Wednesday June 28, 2006
East Timor's president Xanana Gusmao is expected to announce a transitional government to replace the administration of Mari Alkatiri, who resigned as prime minister earlier this week.
The president began meeting with his advisory Council of State yesterday, trying to balance the rights of the ruling Fretilin Party, which was elected with an overwhelming majority, against his belief that the current Fretilin leadership is illegitimate.
The last leadership ballot was illegal because it was not a secret ballot.
Nevertheless his close supporter, former foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta, says a compromise can be found.
"The president is trying to navigate through this political complexity and find consensus to form a government in the next few days," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10388780
Flooding cripples US capital, closes attractions
7.20am Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON - Torrential rain soaked the US capital, toppled a century-old elm tree at the White House, closed the home of the Declaration of Independence and kept tax collectors from work on Monday.
With as much as 18cm of rain falling since Sunday in an East Coast deluge, flooded basements or power outages forced the Internal Revenue Service, Commerce Department, Justice Department and the National Archives to close.
"The nation's attic" - the Smithsonian Institution - was also hit. Two Smithsonian-run museums and the National Zoo were closed.
The federal government told its 280,000 area workers they could take leave if they were unable to get to work. The Justice Department's main building, where hoses pumped out a flooded basement, would stay closed all week, authorities said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10388676
Australian stocks: All eyes on US rates
Wednesday June 28, 2006
The Australian share market fell 1 per cent on Wednesday, as top stocks followed Wall Street down on investor wariness over how high the US Federal Reserve might raise interest rates to tame inflation.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO shed 52.4 points to hit 4,946.8 at the close. Top miner BHP Billiton Ltd./plc was the biggest drag on the index, falling 2.7 per cent, after copper prices slumped 4 per cent.
"Interest rates remain the main preoccupation," said John Sevior, head of Australian equities for Perpetual Investments.
The Fed is widely expected to lift its key funds rate by 25 basis points to 5.25 per cent on Thursday, but investors are keen to know whether it is likely to raise rates further, fearing that an aggressive tack will curb economic growth.
An overnight fall in gold prices hammered gold miners, with Lihir Gold down 4.6 per cent and Newcrest Mining down 2.2 per cent.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10388828
Currency: Trade deficit knocks dollar down
6.00pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
Another ugly and worse-than-expected monthly trade deficit sent the New Zealand dollar spinning lower on all fronts today.
Instead of the expected $23 million surplus forecast by economists for May, a record deficit for that month at $104 million was posted. This was despite exports being at a record.
The kiwi dropped to US60.08 from its US60.60c opening, which was similar to yesterday's close.
There was similar damage against other currencies with the euro falling to a four-year low of 0.4780 from 0.4815 yesterday. Against the aussie, the kiwi fell to A82.04c and against sterling it dropped to a three-year low of 0.3295 from 0.3328.
The trade-weighted index was also at a three-year low of 60.87 compared to 61.43 yesterday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10388799
Trade deficit hits all-time high
1.00pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
New Zealand's trade deficit for May was an all-time high for the month at $104 million, even as exports hit the highest figure for any month, data published today by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) showed.
Imports and exports both showed large increases in May, up 24.3 per cent and 24 per cent respectively, compared to May 2005.
Imports were valued at $3.75 billion, with most of the $735 million increase on May 2005 coming from petroleum, diesel and crude and aircraft, SNZ said.
Aircraft were also a large contributor to exports which reached an all-time monthly high of $3.65b.
The figures, which took the annual trade deficit for the year to May to $6.91b, were well outside the expectations of many economists.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10388761
Forecaster cuts Australia barley crop on dry weather
3.40pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
SYDNEY - Private group Australian Crop Forecasters said it has reduced its forecast for barley production for this season by 18 per cent to 8.2 million tonnes due to dry weather.
Rainfall had been generally disappointing despite good falls in June in some areas, it said.
This compares with a recent forecast by the government's Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics for a barley crop of 8.485 million tonnes, compared with 9.869 million tonnes in 2005/06.
Australian Crop Forecasters said pre-season rainfall from January to March had been fairly high, but national rainfall in May was well below the long-term average, leaving most of the cropping belt dry.
Dry weather had stressed crops in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, the group said.
"Due to extremely low sub-soil moisture, New South Wales needs constant rainfall to prevent the crops from drying out," it said.
South Australia was the only area likely to produce an average barley crop, but it also urgently needed rain, it said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10388787
Trampers rescued after losing path in snow
1.00pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
Three trampers had to be airlifted from the Tararua Ranges after waist-deep snow concealed their path.
Senior sergeant Murray Johnston, of Masterton, said the Lower Hutt trampers - two men and a woman, all aged 18 - were making their way from Cattle Ridge Hutt to Cow Creek Hutt.
Mr Johnston said they lost touch with the track, which was buried under a metre of snow on the second day of a three-day tramp.
"Basically it's not only a marginally maintained track, but was also under a metre of snow. They made it halfway through to Cow Creek, got off the track and couldn't get back on it," he said.
At 4.20pm on Monday they phoned one of the tramper's mothers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10388768
Israeli tanks roll into southern Gaza
UPDATED 12.00pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - Israeli forces pushed into the Gaza Strip today after threatening a major offensive to try to bring home a soldier captured by Palestinian militants, the army said.
Tanks and armoured vehicles entered the territory near the southern town of Rafah less than a year after Israel pulled thousands of soldiers and settlers from the territory following 38 years of occupation.
An army spokeswoman confirmed the troops had moved into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Meanwhile, aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive. A helicopter strike on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness.
Israel threatened to launch an offensive into Gaza following the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid on Monday by three Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=601&objectid=10388762
Hamas reaches deal with Abbas, but keeps hard line
9.30am Wednesday June 28, 2006
GAZA - Hamas reached a political agreement with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today under the pressure of an international embargo to push it to recognise Israel and soften its line.
But the governing Islamist group -- whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state -- rejected any suggestion that the deal could imply it now accepts Israel's existence.
The European Union, main donor to the Palestinians, praised the agreement as a good first step while Washington said it wanted to see more details. Both emphasised Hamas still had to make clear it recognised Israel and also renounced violence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388743
Space shuttle crew arrives in Florida for launch
5.20pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - The seven astronauts scheduled to fly aboard the space shuttle Discovery arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning to prepare for Saturday's planned liftoff.
The flight, which is bound for the International Space Station, will be the shuttle's second since the Columbia accident killed seven astronauts more than three years ago. The launch is scheduled for 3.49 pm EDT (7.49am Sunday NZT).
"It's really great to finally be here in Florida for the launch," said Discovery's flight engineer Lisa Nowak, one of three rookie astronauts on the crew, which flew to Florida from Houston.
About the only hurdle in the way of launch could be the weather. Central Florida has been socked by seasonal rain and thunderstorms for the past several days.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388788
Scandal-plagued Taiwan president survives vote
Wednesday June 28, 2006
TAIPEI - Scandal-plagued Taiwan President Chen Shui Bian survived a parliamentary vote aimed at unseating him yesterday as thousands of supporters and critics protested outside.
As expected the main Opposition Nationalist Party and the splinter People First Party lacked the necessary two-thirds majority to authorise a referendum on whether to kick Chen out of office.
A total of 119 deputies voted to refer Chen's fate to the electorate, while 14 cast null ballots, meaning that the motion fell short of the 148 votes needed to pass, parliamentary speaker Wang Jin Pyng said.
Barbed-wire barricades were set up outside Parliament before the vote, but no clashes were reported between thousands of Chen supporters and Opposition protesters. Up to 5000 policemen were mobilised to maintain order.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10388640
Tamil Tiger apology for Gandhi assassination
11.20am Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Justin Huggler
In an unexpected move, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today apologised for the assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991.
It was the first time the Tigers have directly admitted responsibility for the death of Gandhi, who was killed by a suicide bomber.
"I would say it is a great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy for which we deeply regret," the Tigers' chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, said in an interview with India's NDTV.
"We call upon the government of India and people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind." The apology comes at a time when Sri Lanka is on the brink of a return to civil war between government forces and the Tamil Tigers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388749
Two British marines killed in Afghanistan
10.20am Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Kim Sengupta and Tom Coghlan
KABUL - Two British special forces personnel have been killed after an attack on a night-time patrol in southern Afghanistan.
The deaths came after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the patrol in the Sangin Valley part of Helmand province. The killings were the first to claim the lives of Special Forces personnel since 2003, when Corporal Ian Plank died in Iraq.
They occurred in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan, where Western forces are engaged in a vicious war of attrition with a resurgent Taleban.
The deaths came during a sustained and intense firefight in which British troops had to call up artillery, Apache helicopter gunships and Harrier warplanes in support.
The lethal attack took place just 24 hours after the Defence Secretary had said the use of the vehicles in combat zones will be reviewed after repeated claims that they did not provide enough protection.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388747
Guantanamo inmates hid pills, nooses
1.20pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Jane Sutton
GUANTANAMO BAY - Guantanamo detainees were found with pills stuffed into the waistbands of their pants and in one case, inside a prosthetic leg, weeks before three prisoners hanged themselves, a doctor at the camp hospital said today.
Guards found nooses in other prisoners' cells after the three deaths, said Rear Admiral Harry Harris, who oversees the detention operation. He said the stashed pills and nooses indicated other prisoners planned to take part in co-ordinated suicides, something some have acknowledged.
"They continue to look for ways to make their point or fight their fight," Harris said.
US military officials have implemented new measures aimed at preventing suicides since the prisoners killed themselves, an event that intensified pressure on Washington to close the controversial prison at a remote US naval base in Cuba.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388774
continued …
7 Iraqi Sunni groups offer truce
Nationwide violence kills 35
An Iraqi father on Monday fans over the face of his sick daughter as his wife prepares medicine inside their ‘house’ located in an abandoned government building of the regime of ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. During the past two months, more than 85,000 Iraqis had been displaced because of violence, according to a UN report (AFP photo by Sabah Arar)
BAGHDAD (AP) — Seven Sunni Arab rebel groups — said to be motivated in part by fear of undue Iranian influence in the country — offered the government a conditional truce Monday, two top lawmakers, Kurd and a Shiite, told the Associated Press. At least 35 people were killed in violence nationwide.
Despite the fresh opening from the militant organisations — which do not include Al Qaeda in Iraq or other groups — a key Iraqi commander said Baghdad's forces would not be ready to keep the peace in Anbar province — the insurgent heartland — for at least a year.
Brig Gen. Jaleel Khalf's said his one-year estimate was what he termed “optimistic under the best of circumstances.” And it closely aligns with recent forecasts from the US military.
“I don't think by this winter we'll be quite ready to turn over completely” to Iraqi forces, Army Col. Sean MacFarland said recently. He commands the 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Armoured Division that oversees Ramadi, the capital of Anbar and the lynchpin of the insurgency.
http://www.jordantimes.com/tue/news/news2.htm
Iran says will not benefit from talks with US
TEHRAN (Reuters) — Iran's supreme leader said on Tuesday the country would not benefit from talks with the United States, playing down the significance of a prominent element in proposals to defuse a nuclear standoff.
Washington, which broke ties with Tehran in 1980, said it would join the European Union's direct talks with Iran if Tehran first agreed to suspend uranium enrichment. The offer came in a package of incentives backed by six world powers.
The White House said it did not view supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comment as Iran's final word on its offer, viewed as a major policy shift in Washington and by some analysts, particularly in the West, as a possible deal clincher
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news3.htm
US gives sober assessment of Iraqi security crackdown
Saddam to go on trial in August for Kurdish alleged genocide
A woman on Tuesday embraces her son, who was released from the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad (Reuters photo by Namir Noor-Eldeen)
BAGHDAD (AP) — The US military issued a sober assessment Tuesday of the Baghdad security crackdown, saying violence had decreased slightly but not to “the degree we would like to see” in the two weeks since 75,000 American-backed Iraqi soldiers flooded the capital.
An influential Sunni Arab cleric endorsed the Shiite Prime Minister Nuri Maliki's reconciliation plan, saying he saw a “glimmer of hope” and calling on the government to implement it quickly.
The US military announced the deaths of a Marine and three soldiers, and police reported 18 more Iraqis fell victim to sectarian and insurgent violence, including five people whose bodies were found dumped in the capital.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news2.htm
6 killed in attack on Somali warlords’ posts
MOGADISHU (AP) — Days after cleric took charge of Somalia's Islamic fighters, a clan leader said the fighters broke a ceasefire to seize a clan-held checkpoint outside the capital in an hourlong battle Tuesday that killed six people.
It was the first military movement since the fighters signed an agreement last week to stop all military action and recognise the country's powerless, UN-backed interim government. The fighters control Mogadishu and most of the rest of southern Somalia, while the interim government holds only the southern town of Baidoa, 250 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu.
The checkpoint connecting the capital, Mogadishu, to the Lower Shabelle region was manned by members of the Habar Gidir clan, who charged motorists a fee to pass. Three of the victims were civilians and the others were clan members, said clan leader Abdi Kaibdid.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news5.htm
THE ANNOUNCED TROOP REDUCTIONS IS A FALSEHOOD. 'LOOKING FOR' A DRAWDOWN IS NOT THE SAME AS REDEPLOYING TROOPS HOME ! It provides no reason for the Iraqis to take over the security of their nation. It only prolongs it. Bush refuses to 'take responsibility' for making the tough decisions. He leaves all the tough decisions to General Casey whom knows once the troops start to deploy it has to be reasonably fast to insure all their safety out of a Civil War Zone. The chances of redeployment out of Iraq are slim to none when 'the safety' of the troops are considered. General Casey simply needs the 'go ahead' to bring out troops home while telling Baghdad they have to improve their security forces on their own. General Casey is 'assigned' the 'task' of assessing the Iraqi forces 'based on' the standards he measures has security and not that of Iraq's real time status. The Iraqi 'forces' do not have to meet USA standards. It's not that kind of thing. They should be measured according to other allies in the region and the needs of an unoccupied Arab nation. There are currently 75,000 Iraqi force. There are 130,000 USA military. Does Iraq need all those personnel? No. A good amount of the USA military's efforts is to protect it's own well being in Iraq. Bush needs to give the order to redeploy out. Other Republican presidents have done it, namely Gerald Ford, in recent history.
US confirms looking at Iraq troop drawdown
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States confirmed Monday that it was considering a plan to sharply reduce US forces in Iraq by the end of 2007, but said it was just one option among many and was not "engraved in stone." The White House confirmed that US General George Casey, commander of US forces in Iraq, had drawn up a drawdown plan but stressed that implementation would depend on whether Iraq's fledgling security forces can take up any slack.
US President George W. Bush, who met with the general on Friday, said that "one of the things that General Casey assured me of that whatever recommendation he makes, it'll be aimed towards achieving victory." "In terms of our troop presence there, that decision will be made by General Casey, as well as the sovereign government of Iraq, based upon conditions on the ground," the president told reporters.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news6.htm
Egyptian women flock to hear female preachers
By Yara Bayoumy
Reuters
CAIRO — Women of all ages pour into a fluorescent-lit mosque hall hours before Sherine Gouda Al Sahhar is due to deliver her weekly sermon, seeking a seat near the front so they can catch a glimpse of the preacher.
The 200 women can barely squeeze into the hall, so Sahhar's helpers remove the screens separating the men's hall from the women's to accommodate the gathering.
As she starts, a hush falls over the crowd. Sahhar begins preaching about the need to perform good deeds to please God, not to boast to colleagues, friends or family.
She is one of a growing number of Muslim women preachers in the Egyptian capital who deliver regular sermons in mosque halls, preaching about Islam, interpreting Koranic verses and advising people how to live as virtuous Muslims.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/news/news7.htm
Jordanian youth join int’l interfaith conference
By Mohammad Ghazal
AMMAN — Emphasising the role of the youth in promoting interfaith dialogue and tolerance, religious leaders at a recent conference in Beirut said young people are key players in the global fight against terrorism.
The remarks were made during an event focused on the role of inter-religious dialogue in combating violence and advancing shared security, which brought together religious leaders, representatives from youth-concerned institutions and young people from the Ecumenical Studies Centre from Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan, Egypt and Japan earlier this month.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/homenews/homenews10.htm
The end of democratisation — time to reconsider
Hasan Abu Nimah
Talk about reforming and democratising the Greater Middle East seems to be fading without any trace of accomplishment.
The United States believed at some point in its “war on terror” that terror is linked with dictatorships and therefore democracy should be part of the cure. While justifying the need for democratisation, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once said that the United States had ended up serving neither democratisation nor security when, for 60 years, Washington ignored the former in favour of the latter. It was time, she said that democratisation should be placed at the top of the priority list.
Regardless of the fact that democracy cannot stop terrorism, as this issue was well argued in a study published in Foreign Affairs (September/October 2005) by Gregory Cause, reactions to the call for democratisation and reform in the targeted region varied widely. Reform should not be imposed from outside, said some. That logic failed to address a basic question: Why delay reform until confronted by outside pressure? Others said no reform should precede the resolution of the chronic political problems in our region, beginning with the Arab-Israeli conflict. That logic also failed to recognise that stagnant politics contributes to perpetuating conflicts and instability.
http://www.jordantimes.com/wed/opinion/opinion2.htm
Michael Moore Today
Former Admin. Official Needs Only Three Words To Explain Manipulation of Intel: ‘The Vice President’
The Democratic Policy Committee held a hearing this afternoon to examine the manipulation of pre-war Iraq intelligence. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC), who previously disavowed his vote for the war, attended the hearing and asked the panelists why a small number of individuals in the administration “had more influence…than the professionals.” Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, said he only needed three words. Watch it.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/06/26/wilkerson-vp/
Cheney's visit brings out protesters
By Robert Pore / Grand Island Independent
GRAND ISLAND, NE -- About two dozen people protested Vice President Dick Cheney's visit to Grand Island today.
The protesters were gathered across the street from the Midtown Holiday Inn on South Locust Street. Cheney was attending a fundraiser for state Sen. Adrian Smith, who is the Republican candidate for the 3rd Congressional District.
Cheney's entourage was ushered into the Holiday Inn, away from the view of the protesters. For Margaret Williams of Grand Island, however, it was important that she be there to voice her opposition to the policies of the Bush/Cheney administration.
Williams, who was by herself, carried a sign that read, "For the people, by the people. Not for the wealthy, by the wealthy."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7359
Protestors get their messages known
http://www.michaelmoore.com/_media/impeach_cheney_62606.mov
Join the June 27th National Day of Action to Stand Up with Lt. Ehren Watada TODAY!
“I refuse to be silent any longer. I refuse to be party to an illegal and immoral war against people who did nothing to deserve our aggression. My oath of office is to protect and defend America’s laws and its people. By refusing unlawful orders for an illegal war, I fulfill that oath today.”
- U.S. Army First Lt. Ehren Watada
http://thankyoult.live.radicaldesigns.org//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=1
Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress
By Lauria Kellman / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Sen. John McCain thought he had a deal when President Bush, faced with a veto-proof margin in Congress, agreed to sign a bill banning the torture of detainees. Not quite. While Bush signed the new law, he also quietly approved another document: a signing statement reserving his right to ignore the law. McCain was furious, and so were other lawmakers.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is opening hearings this week into what has become the White House's favorite tool for overriding Congress in the name of wartime national security.
"It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," the committee's chairman, Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa, said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I'm interested to hear from the administration just what research they've done to lead them to the conclusion that they can cherry-pick."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7361
Karl Rove speaks at Mike Whalen fundraiser in Waterloo
By Jeff Wilford and RC Balaban / WCF Courier
WATERLOO, IA -- While Karl Rove was enroute to talk at a campaign fundraiser for Republican congressional candidate Mike Whalen at the members-only Sunnyside Country Club Monday, roughly three dozen protesters stood along Ansborough Avenue with signs showing what they thought of President Bush's deputy chief of staff.
"Rove fiddles while working families burn."
"Health care is a right, not a privilege."
"Karl Rove, congratulations on not getting indicted!" Signed, "Concerned Iowans."
Rove's response: "What protesters?"
"He said you've never seen protesters until you've seen the ones that were outside my house," said Hugh Field, a Waterloo lawyer who attended the invitation-only fundraiser. "So he wasn't very impressed."
Whalen said between 70 and 75 people attended the $250-a-plate luncheon. The event was closed to the public and the press.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=117
Wars force Army equipment costs to triple
By Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The annual cost of replacing, repairing and upgrading Army equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to more than triple next year to more than $17 billion, according to Army documents obtained by the Associated Press.
From 2002 to 2006, the Army spent an average of $4 billion a year in annual equipment costs. But as the war takes a harder toll on the military, that number is projected to balloon to more than $12 billion for the federal budget year that starts next Oct. 1, the documents show.
The $17 billion also includes an additional $5 billion in equipment expenses that the Army requested in previous years but has not yet been provided.
The latest costs include the transfer of more than 1,200 2 1/2-ton trucks, nearly 1,100 Humvees and $8.8 million in other equipment from the U.S. Army to the Iraqi security forces.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7362
GM to shed quarter of workforce this year
By Bernard Simon in Toronto / Financial Times
General Motors will on Monday disclose details of one of most dramatic corporate downsizings in US history, exceeding a key target of its turnround plan and accelerating the demise of the privileged American car worker.
Rick Wagoner, chief executive, is expected to announce that about 30,000 workers – more than a quarter of GM's blue-collar US workforce – have taken up its offer of early retirement and severance packages.
Almost all will leave by the end of the year, achieving in a few months what the company had set out to accomplish over more than two years.
A total of 50,000 workers or more is set to leave the industry over the next few months.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7357
Iraq conflict leaves at least 130,000 displaced
By Hiba Moussa and Michael Georgy / Reuters
BAGHDAD - Iraq's sectarian violence of the past four months has pushed the number of displaced people to above 130,000, parliament heard on Monday as members urged ministers to give more aid and security to contain the crisis.
"There should be more field visits to understand their plight," Sunni Arab parliamentarian Dhafir al-Ani told the assembly. "The government should take direct steps and provide security for displaced families, including at their camps."
Iraq's Ministry of Displaced and Migration now puts the number of internal refugees at 130,386, or 21,731 families, its spokesman Sattar Nowruz said.
The number of registered displaced has climbed by as much as 30,000 in the last month, according to ministry statistics.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7358
Documentary slams GM for ending electric car production
By Justin Hyde / Detroit Free Press
Just as General Motors Corp. has begun to talk about turning a corner after months of bad news from losses and job cuts, a documentary rolling out this week accuses GM of putting its EV1 electric vehicle in an early grave.
"Who Killed the Electric Car?" examines California's fling with mandating electric cars in the 1990s and its decision to drop the mandate in the face of strenuous opposition from the auto industry. "Who Killed the Electric Car?" contends carmakers, government officials and others worked together to keep a viable alternative to gas-powered vehicles off the road.
Like "Roger and Me," which illustrates the negative impact of GM's decision to downsize in Flint, Mich., "Who Killed the Electric Car?" could create a public relations headache for GM. Many automakers have long dismissed electric vehicles as a dead end, but the documentary could resonate with moviegoers, who now spend $3 for every gallon of gasoline they use to drive to the theater.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7365
Get the Facts !
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/electric.html
Watch the Trailer !
http://www.sonyclassics.com/whokilledtheelectriccar/
Find a Theater !
http://movies.aol.com/movie/who-killed-the-electric-car/24980/main
Apple - Trailers - Who Killed The Electric Car? - Trailer
Who Killed The Electric Car? It was among the fastest, most efficient production cars ever built. ... Official Movie site · QuickTime 7 Required ...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/whokilledtheelectriccar/trailer/
Apple - Trailers - Who Killed The Electric Car?
Who Killed The Electric Car? Who Killed The Electric Car? Copyright © 2006 Sony Pictures Classics ... Official Movie site · QuickTime 7 Required ...
http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony/whokilledtheelectriccar/
YouTube - Who Killed the Electric Car trailer
WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR? chronicles the life and mysterious death of the GM EV1, ... "The Outdoorsmen: Blood, Sweat, & Beers" Movie Trailer ...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSBykAngDpY
The New Zealand Herald
Fresh violence in East Timor as rivals square off =
3.45pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
By David Fox
DILI - Fears of renewed violence in East Timor rose today after several houses and small shops in the capital were torched by protesters allied to or against ousted Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri.
Alkatiri quit on Monday following weeks of public protest and while President Xanana Gusmao mulls the ruling Fretilin party's suggestions for a replacement, thousands of party supporters gathered outside the capital, preparing to march on Dili.
Hopes for an end to more than two months of violence fizzled out as news of the gathering by Fretilin party supporters spread. They were expected in the capital today.
But hundreds of anti-Alkatiri protesters were still camped outside the main government building and scores scattered in groups in parks and open areas around the sleepy seaside capital.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388789
East Timor president to announce interim government
Wednesday June 28, 2006
East Timor's president Xanana Gusmao is expected to announce a transitional government to replace the administration of Mari Alkatiri, who resigned as prime minister earlier this week.
The president began meeting with his advisory Council of State yesterday, trying to balance the rights of the ruling Fretilin Party, which was elected with an overwhelming majority, against his belief that the current Fretilin leadership is illegitimate.
The last leadership ballot was illegal because it was not a secret ballot.
Nevertheless his close supporter, former foreign minister Jose Ramos Horta, says a compromise can be found.
"The president is trying to navigate through this political complexity and find consensus to form a government in the next few days," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10388780
Flooding cripples US capital, closes attractions
7.20am Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Randall Mikkelsen
WASHINGTON - Torrential rain soaked the US capital, toppled a century-old elm tree at the White House, closed the home of the Declaration of Independence and kept tax collectors from work on Monday.
With as much as 18cm of rain falling since Sunday in an East Coast deluge, flooded basements or power outages forced the Internal Revenue Service, Commerce Department, Justice Department and the National Archives to close.
"The nation's attic" - the Smithsonian Institution - was also hit. Two Smithsonian-run museums and the National Zoo were closed.
The federal government told its 280,000 area workers they could take leave if they were unable to get to work. The Justice Department's main building, where hoses pumped out a flooded basement, would stay closed all week, authorities said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10388676
Australian stocks: All eyes on US rates
Wednesday June 28, 2006
The Australian share market fell 1 per cent on Wednesday, as top stocks followed Wall Street down on investor wariness over how high the US Federal Reserve might raise interest rates to tame inflation.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index .AXJO shed 52.4 points to hit 4,946.8 at the close. Top miner BHP Billiton Ltd./plc was the biggest drag on the index, falling 2.7 per cent, after copper prices slumped 4 per cent.
"Interest rates remain the main preoccupation," said John Sevior, head of Australian equities for Perpetual Investments.
The Fed is widely expected to lift its key funds rate by 25 basis points to 5.25 per cent on Thursday, but investors are keen to know whether it is likely to raise rates further, fearing that an aggressive tack will curb economic growth.
An overnight fall in gold prices hammered gold miners, with Lihir Gold down 4.6 per cent and Newcrest Mining down 2.2 per cent.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10388828
Currency: Trade deficit knocks dollar down
6.00pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
Another ugly and worse-than-expected monthly trade deficit sent the New Zealand dollar spinning lower on all fronts today.
Instead of the expected $23 million surplus forecast by economists for May, a record deficit for that month at $104 million was posted. This was despite exports being at a record.
The kiwi dropped to US60.08 from its US60.60c opening, which was similar to yesterday's close.
There was similar damage against other currencies with the euro falling to a four-year low of 0.4780 from 0.4815 yesterday. Against the aussie, the kiwi fell to A82.04c and against sterling it dropped to a three-year low of 0.3295 from 0.3328.
The trade-weighted index was also at a three-year low of 60.87 compared to 61.43 yesterday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10388799
Trade deficit hits all-time high
1.00pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
New Zealand's trade deficit for May was an all-time high for the month at $104 million, even as exports hit the highest figure for any month, data published today by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) showed.
Imports and exports both showed large increases in May, up 24.3 per cent and 24 per cent respectively, compared to May 2005.
Imports were valued at $3.75 billion, with most of the $735 million increase on May 2005 coming from petroleum, diesel and crude and aircraft, SNZ said.
Aircraft were also a large contributor to exports which reached an all-time monthly high of $3.65b.
The figures, which took the annual trade deficit for the year to May to $6.91b, were well outside the expectations of many economists.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10388761
Forecaster cuts Australia barley crop on dry weather
3.40pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
SYDNEY - Private group Australian Crop Forecasters said it has reduced its forecast for barley production for this season by 18 per cent to 8.2 million tonnes due to dry weather.
Rainfall had been generally disappointing despite good falls in June in some areas, it said.
This compares with a recent forecast by the government's Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics for a barley crop of 8.485 million tonnes, compared with 9.869 million tonnes in 2005/06.
Australian Crop Forecasters said pre-season rainfall from January to March had been fairly high, but national rainfall in May was well below the long-term average, leaving most of the cropping belt dry.
Dry weather had stressed crops in Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales, the group said.
"Due to extremely low sub-soil moisture, New South Wales needs constant rainfall to prevent the crops from drying out," it said.
South Australia was the only area likely to produce an average barley crop, but it also urgently needed rain, it said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10388787
Trampers rescued after losing path in snow
1.00pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
Three trampers had to be airlifted from the Tararua Ranges after waist-deep snow concealed their path.
Senior sergeant Murray Johnston, of Masterton, said the Lower Hutt trampers - two men and a woman, all aged 18 - were making their way from Cattle Ridge Hutt to Cow Creek Hutt.
Mr Johnston said they lost touch with the track, which was buried under a metre of snow on the second day of a three-day tramp.
"Basically it's not only a marginally maintained track, but was also under a metre of snow. They made it halfway through to Cow Creek, got off the track and couldn't get back on it," he said.
At 4.20pm on Monday they phoned one of the tramper's mothers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10388768
Israeli tanks roll into southern Gaza
UPDATED 12.00pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - Israeli forces pushed into the Gaza Strip today after threatening a major offensive to try to bring home a soldier captured by Palestinian militants, the army said.
Tanks and armoured vehicles entered the territory near the southern town of Rafah less than a year after Israel pulled thousands of soldiers and settlers from the territory following 38 years of occupation.
An army spokeswoman confirmed the troops had moved into Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Meanwhile, aircraft struck at three bridges on key roads in what the army said was an attempt to stop militants moving the captive. A helicopter strike on a power plant plunged much of Gaza into darkness.
Israel threatened to launch an offensive into Gaza following the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid on Monday by three Palestinian factions, including the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=601&objectid=10388762
Hamas reaches deal with Abbas, but keeps hard line
9.30am Wednesday June 28, 2006
GAZA - Hamas reached a political agreement with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today under the pressure of an international embargo to push it to recognise Israel and soften its line.
But the governing Islamist group -- whose charter calls for the destruction of the Jewish state -- rejected any suggestion that the deal could imply it now accepts Israel's existence.
The European Union, main donor to the Palestinians, praised the agreement as a good first step while Washington said it wanted to see more details. Both emphasised Hamas still had to make clear it recognised Israel and also renounced violence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388743
Space shuttle crew arrives in Florida for launch
5.20pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - The seven astronauts scheduled to fly aboard the space shuttle Discovery arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida this morning to prepare for Saturday's planned liftoff.
The flight, which is bound for the International Space Station, will be the shuttle's second since the Columbia accident killed seven astronauts more than three years ago. The launch is scheduled for 3.49 pm EDT (7.49am Sunday NZT).
"It's really great to finally be here in Florida for the launch," said Discovery's flight engineer Lisa Nowak, one of three rookie astronauts on the crew, which flew to Florida from Houston.
About the only hurdle in the way of launch could be the weather. Central Florida has been socked by seasonal rain and thunderstorms for the past several days.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388788
Scandal-plagued Taiwan president survives vote
Wednesday June 28, 2006
TAIPEI - Scandal-plagued Taiwan President Chen Shui Bian survived a parliamentary vote aimed at unseating him yesterday as thousands of supporters and critics protested outside.
As expected the main Opposition Nationalist Party and the splinter People First Party lacked the necessary two-thirds majority to authorise a referendum on whether to kick Chen out of office.
A total of 119 deputies voted to refer Chen's fate to the electorate, while 14 cast null ballots, meaning that the motion fell short of the 148 votes needed to pass, parliamentary speaker Wang Jin Pyng said.
Barbed-wire barricades were set up outside Parliament before the vote, but no clashes were reported between thousands of Chen supporters and Opposition protesters. Up to 5000 policemen were mobilised to maintain order.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10388640
Tamil Tiger apology for Gandhi assassination
11.20am Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Justin Huggler
In an unexpected move, Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels today apologised for the assassination of the former Indian Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, in 1991.
It was the first time the Tigers have directly admitted responsibility for the death of Gandhi, who was killed by a suicide bomber.
"I would say it is a great tragedy, a monumental historical tragedy for which we deeply regret," the Tigers' chief negotiator, Anton Balasingham, said in an interview with India's NDTV.
"We call upon the government of India and people of India to be magnanimous to put the past behind." The apology comes at a time when Sri Lanka is on the brink of a return to civil war between government forces and the Tamil Tigers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388749
Two British marines killed in Afghanistan
10.20am Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Kim Sengupta and Tom Coghlan
KABUL - Two British special forces personnel have been killed after an attack on a night-time patrol in southern Afghanistan.
The deaths came after a rocket-propelled grenade attack on the patrol in the Sangin Valley part of Helmand province. The killings were the first to claim the lives of Special Forces personnel since 2003, when Corporal Ian Plank died in Iraq.
They occurred in one of the most violent areas of Afghanistan, where Western forces are engaged in a vicious war of attrition with a resurgent Taleban.
The deaths came during a sustained and intense firefight in which British troops had to call up artillery, Apache helicopter gunships and Harrier warplanes in support.
The lethal attack took place just 24 hours after the Defence Secretary had said the use of the vehicles in combat zones will be reviewed after repeated claims that they did not provide enough protection.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388747
Guantanamo inmates hid pills, nooses
1.20pm Wednesday June 28, 2006
By Jane Sutton
GUANTANAMO BAY - Guantanamo detainees were found with pills stuffed into the waistbands of their pants and in one case, inside a prosthetic leg, weeks before three prisoners hanged themselves, a doctor at the camp hospital said today.
Guards found nooses in other prisoners' cells after the three deaths, said Rear Admiral Harry Harris, who oversees the detention operation. He said the stashed pills and nooses indicated other prisoners planned to take part in co-ordinated suicides, something some have acknowledged.
"They continue to look for ways to make their point or fight their fight," Harris said.
US military officials have implemented new measures aimed at preventing suicides since the prisoners killed themselves, an event that intensified pressure on Washington to close the controversial prison at a remote US naval base in Cuba.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10388774
continued …
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