San Francisco Chronicle
Land of really, really cheap gas
Venezuelans pay 12 cents a gallon -- and not a penny more
06-20) 04:00 PDT Caracas, Venezuela -- Taxi driver Victor Serrano burns a tank of gasoline every day whizzing around the streets of Caracas.
But he has no problem coming up with money to pay for his daily trips to the service station. Serrano pays only $1.80 for a whole tank.
"I don't worry about that because gas is so cheap," Serrano says as he fills up. "If we live in an oil-producing country, we can't pay a lot for gas."
While a gallon of gasoline in California costs well over $3, Venezuelans pay 12 cents per gallon, about the same price as a banana.
Drivers in the world's fifth-largest oil-exporting nation say they consider cheap gasoline their birthright.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/20/BUGEEJFP3O59.DTL
Equifax: Laptop With Employe Data Stolen
Equifax Inc., one of the nation's three major credit bureaus, said Tuesday a company laptop containing employee names and Social Security numbers was stolen from an employee who was traveling by train near London.
The theft, which could affect as many as 2,500 of the Atlanta-based company's 4,600 employees, happened May 29 and all employees were notified June 7, spokesman David Rubinger said.
Employee names and partial and full Social Security numbers were on the computer's hard drive, though Rubinger said it would be almost impossible for the thief to decipher the information because it was streamed together.
"It would be very difficult to link this information and determine they were actual Social Security numbers in the first place," he said.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/06/20/financial/f080029D51.DTL
North Korea Insists It Can Test Missiles
North Korea declared Tuesday it is not bound by its own moratorium on long-range missile tests, a Japanese news report said, prompting Japan and South Korea to pledge to cooperate to stop Pyongyang's apparent plans for a launch.
The Tokyo-Seoul agreement came during a 25-minute phone conversation late Tuesday between Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso and his counterpart, Ban Ki-moon, Japan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Aso told Ban that a missile test would be a threat to regional security, while Ban replied it was necessary to cooperate to get Pyongyang to call off the launch, according to the statement.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/06/20/international/i063306D66.DTL
Senate swayed by analyst's immigrant count
How conservative think tank's estimate led to changes in bill
(06-20) 04:00 PDT Washington -- As obvious as the question seemed, nobody had really calculated how many more people the Senate's immigration bill would add to the U.S. population when the Senate opened debate on the issue last month.
So when a think tank analyst projected more than 100 million over the next 20 years -- raising the U.S. population by a third, or nearly three Californias and perhaps even twice that -- it landed like a perfectly timed statistical bomb.
Now, as the bill moves forward, the debate isn't just about the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants already living in the county -- but the tens of millions of new legal immigrants the legislation might produce in the future.
Within 24 hours of the report's publication, the Senate passed an amendment sharply limiting the new guest worker program, a key provision of the bill. Before final passage, the Senate had capped the number of new employment visas -- including relatives of workers -- that could be issued in any year.
Now the numbers are questioned as too high and based on faulty estimates.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/20/MNGL4JH1A41.DTL&type=politics
REDWOOD CITY
Trial involving body found in storage starts
Alleged marriage broker accused in woman's slaying
Xiu Li Jiang hoped a sham marriage to a U.S. citizen would let her escape the life of an illegal immigrant living in San Francisco's Tenderloin, working in a Mission Street massage parlor.
Two to three years after Bobby Tran allegedly arranged for Jiang to marry a local man, someone shot her to death, dismembered her body and sealed the pieces in a Daly City storage facility. No one found her until June 7, 2002 -- more than three years after the 22-year-old Jiang was reported missing.
Today, San Mateo County prosecutors are expected to begin laying out their case in a Redwood City courtroom against Tran, who they say murdered Jiang in a dispute over money after he brokered the fake marriage. Tran, 31, faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
Prosecutors contend that Tran is a short-tempered, violence-prone con man and thief who profited from arranging sham marriages.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/20/BAGACJH13G1.DTL
AT THE WORLD CUP
Cold water aside, this has been great ride
(06-20) 04:00 PDT Nuremberg, Germany -- Today I turn in my motorhome, the Roadenhoggenblogginwagen.
The rig has been a good companion for two weeks, although to the end it withheld many of its secrets, such as how to heat its water. But when you start every morning with a cold shower, you don't need no Starbucks.
Another mystery: The whereabouts of the blankets, towels and pillows the rental folks were supposed to stock. These deprivations would have been a drag for my family if they weren't such good sports. They never complained, and they could have, because I phoned 'em back home every day.
I'm not griping about minor inconveniences. It's not like "Pancho and Lefty," the song by Townes Van Zandt: "Livin' on the road, my friend, was gonna make you free and clean/Now you wear your skin like iron, your breath's as hard as kerosene."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/20/SPG07JH1BO1.DTL&hw=cold+water+aside&sn=001&sc=1000
SAN FRANCISCO
Mission Bay buzz -- library branch
It's the system's newest addition in 40 years
Even as San Francisco's newest neighborhood, Mission Bay has been able to boast for years of its landmarks: A waterfront stadium for the Giants. A regional Caltrain commuter hub. An emerging UCSF campus.
It's been only in recent years, however, that the neighborhood could talk of its basic amenities, including two grocery stores that opened in 2004.
Three weeks from now, the still-developing community likely will be buzzing about another milestone, as the new Mission Bay Branch Library opens its doors.
For the San Francisco Public Library system, it will be the first completely new branch to open in 40 years. For residents and workers in Mission Bay, it will be not only a place to borrow books but also a place to gather -- the kind of public center that established neighborhoods take for granted.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/20/BAGACJH1381.DTL
A welcome milestone
WHEN Katharine Jefferts Schori received a bachelor's of science degree from Stanford in 1974, no one could have anticipated that two decades later she would abandon a career as an oceanographer to become a minister in the Episcopal Church.
When she received a master's degree in divinity from Berkeley's Church Divinity School of the Pacific in 1994, no one could have predicted that a mere dozen years later she would be selected as the first woman to head the 2.4 million strong church in the United States.
Her rapid rise is extraordinary, not only because she is a woman, but also because of her support for several controversial positions within the church. She is currently bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Nevada, which allows the blessing of same-sex unions. She also supported the consecration of the church's first openly gay bishop, Bishop Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, in 2003.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/20/EDGDOILMRE1.DTL
Feinstein's phased pandering
HOW IS AMERICA supposed to win the war in Iraq when so many partisans in Washington -- including high-profile Democrats who voted for the October 2002 war resolution -- aren't doing everything in their power to make sure America prevails in Iraq?
Many Washington Dems seem to have devoted the last month instead to answering the question: With friends like these, who needs enemies?
The answer is: Not U.S. troops.
The "phased deployment" crowd -- to use Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's euphemism for cut-and-run -- does not seem to understand that when elected officials vote in favor of a war resolution, they assume a solemn responsibility to the troops who carry out their mandate. To wit, Congress is not supposed to follow a war vote with actions that undermine the war effort.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/06/20/EDGDOILMR81.DTL
Michael Moore Today
http://www.michaelmoore.com/
On February 15th and 16th, 2003, close to 10 million people in over 50 countries tried to stop George's war before it started
"I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence we encountered."
-- Dick Cheney, June 19th, 2006
FLASHBACK: "...I really do believe that
we will be greeted as liberators."
-- Dick Cheney, March 16th, 2003
Cheney Says U.S. Underestimated Iraq Insurgency
June 19 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Dick Cheney said that while the administration underestimated the strength of anti- American violence in Iraq, he still believes the insurgency is in its ``last throes,'' as he asserted last year.
``I don't think anybody anticipated the level of violence we encountered,'' Cheney said in a question-and-answer session following a speech today at the National Press Club in Washington.
The past 18 months will be viewed by history and a crucial period for democracy in Iraq as ``Iraqis increasingly took over responsibility for their own affairs,'' Cheney said.
Asked if he still believed the insurgency was in its final throes, as he said in a CNN interview on May 31, 2005, Cheney said, ``I do.'' He cited election of an interim government, a constitutional referendum and parliamentary elections in December that established a unity government as evidence the insurgency is being pushed to the margins.
Insurgent and sectarian violence has flared during the same period, and Cheney as well as President George W. Bush previously have acknowledged errors in dealing with the aftermath of the U.S.-led invasion and coping with resistance.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7302
A Cheney Reminder
Meet the Press: 03/16/03
Russert: If your analysis is not correct, and we’re not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?
Cheney: Well, I don’t think it’s likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.
I’ve talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House. The president and I have met with them, various groups and individuals, people who have devoted their lives from the outside to trying to change things inside Iraq. And like Kanan Makiya who’s a professor at Brandeis, but an Iraqi, he’s written great books about the subject, knows the country intimately, and is a part of the democratic opposition and resistance. The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that."
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/06/19.html
Soldier's Iraq war stance backed
Watada has right to refuse to go, retired officer says
By Brad Wong / Seattle Post-Intelligencer
With his Fort Lewis-based Stryker Brigade possibly deploying to Iraq in the coming weeks, Lt. Ehren Watada has picked up the public endorsement of a retired Army colonel and diplomat who also contends the war there is illegal.
Speaking at University Lutheran Church in Seattle, retired Col. Ann Wright said Monday night that the artillery-targeting officer has the right to disobey "illegal orders."
Under principles established during the Nuremberg trials after World War II, she noted, people have an obligation to oppose a government that is conducting a war of aggression.
"The country of Iraq did nothing to the United States of America," said Wright, who resigned from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2003 because of the war.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7307
Tanker Inquiry Finds Rumsfeld's Attention Was Elsewhere
By R. Jeffrey Smith / Washington Post
The topic was the largest defense procurement scandal in recent decades, and the two investigators for the Pentagon's inspector general in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's office on April 1, 2005, asked the secretary to raise his hand and swear to tell the truth.
Rumsfeld agreed but complained. "I find it strange," he said to the investigators, on the grounds that as a government official "the laws apply to me" anyway.
It was a bumpy start to an odd interview, as Rumsfeld cited poor memory, loose office procedures, and a general distraction with "the wars" in Iraq and Afghanistan to explain why he was unsure how his department came to nearly squander $30 billion leasing several hundred new tanker aircraft that its own experts had decided were not needed.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7308
Missing G.I.'s Are Found Dead in Iraq
By Dexter Filkins / New York Times
BAGHDAD, June 20 — The Iraqi military said today that the bodies of two American soldiers missing since Friday were found this morning outside the town where they were captured and that the two bodies had marks showing that they had been brutally tortured.
An American military spokesman, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV, said that the remains believed to be those of the missing soldiers were spotted last night in the vicinity of an electrical plant in Yusufiya, but due to the "unstable condition" of the area they were not retrieved until this morning.
While General Caldwell provided few specifics about the conditions of the remains, an Iraqi military official, Major General Abdul Aziz Mohammed, said that they had been "killed in a brutal way and tortured."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7305
Al-Zarqawi's successor gets the credit
By Nadia Abou El-Magd / Associated Press
CAIRO, Egypt - The new leader of al-Qaida in Iraq killed two U.S. soldiers whom the group abducted last week, an insurgent umbrella group said in a Web statement posted Tuesday. The statement, which could not be authenticated, said the two soldiers were "slaughtered," suggesting they had been beheaded by Abu Hamza al-Muhajer.
The Arabic word used in the statement, "nahr," is used for the slaughtering of sheep by cutting the throat and has been used in past statements to refer to beheadings.
The claim of responsibility was posted on an Islamic militant Web site where insurgent groups regularly post statements.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7306
Pentagon lists homosexuality as disorder
By Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A Pentagon document classifies homosexuality as a mental disorder, decades after mental health experts abandoned that position.
The document outlines retirement or other discharge policies for service members with physical disabilities, and in a section on defects lists homosexuality alongside mental retardation and personality disorders.
Critics said the reference underscores the Pentagon's failing policies on gays, and adds to a culture that has created uncertainty and insecurity around the treatment of homosexual service members, leading to anti-gay harassment.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Jeremy M. Martin said the policy document is under review.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7310
Safavian Guilty of Lying, Obstruction of Justice
By William Branigin / Washington Post
David H. Safavian, a former Bush administration official with close ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, was found guilty today in federal court of four of five felony charges against him in connection with the Abramoff corruption and influence-peddling scandal.
The verdict was announced shortly after the jury of two men and 10 women began their fifth day of deliberations in Washington following the trial of Safavian on charges of making false statements to federal officials and obstruction of justice.
Safavian, 38, a former chief of staff of the General Services Administration and top federal procurement officer, was accused of lying about a 2002 golfing trip to Scotland with Abramoff and obstructing an investigation by the GSA inspector general and other investigators. He was also charged with concealing his efforts to help Abramoff acquire control of two federally managed properties in the Washington area.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7309
Midterms Matter
Double Duty
The Midterms Matter Tour showed a little split personality this weekend, touching down at Wakarusa in Lawrence, Kansas, while also hitting moe. and the North Mississippi Allstars in Philadelphia. At Wakarusa, we hosted intimate solo performances by Michael Franti, Bela Fleck, Reid Genauer, and Trevor Garrod (Tea Leaf Green). They each spent nearly an hour at the "Porch Stage" next to the HeadCount booth performing and spreading the word about the upcoming elections.
http://www.headcount.org/
"Troops Home Fast"
Sign-up below to support the fast that begins on July 4!
You can fast with us in Washington, DC in front of the White House, or in your own community. You can fast as an individual, or organize a rolling fast (each one taking one day) in a public place such as a congressional office, a recruiting station, a federal building or a church. And if you live outside the United States, we encourage you to fast on July 4th outside a U.S. Embassy or consulate. While the U.S. officials are enjoying their barbeques and festivities, we will be reminding them of the ongoing suffering of Iraqis and soldiers in this unjust war.
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/codepink/signUp.jsp?key=1289&t=F.dwt
Syria Times
President receives cartoonist Raed Khalil
President Bashar al-Assad received yesterday morning at al-Rawda Palace Cartoonist Raed Khalil.
first
20-6-2006
summary: President Bashar al-Assad received yesterday morning at al-Rawda Palace Cartoonist Raed Khalil.
During the meeting, talks dealt with Cartoon and the mechanism of developing it and deepening the knowledge of this art.
The talk also dealt with activities of the 2nd international cartoon exhibition which has recently been organized in Damascus.
http://syriatimes.tishreen.info/_default.asp?FileName=102206283820060620122236
The Jakarta Post
Islamic nations must set aside differences
JAKARTA (AP): The Islamic world must settle internal divisions before it can tackle broader problems of conflict and poverty, leaders from Malaysia and Indonesia told a conference opening Tuesday in the capital, Jakarta.
Scholars and politicians from 53 countries, many of them Islamic, discussed the roots of terrorism and challenges facing Muslim followers in Western societies. Around 300 delegates joined prayers at the start of three days of talks.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in an opening speech that the "Muslim world must be firmly united in the global fight against terrorism," and spoke out against rising Islamophobia in non-Islamic countries.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060620172305&irec=0
Islamic scholars to discuss terrorism causes, solutions
JAKARTA (AP): Scholars and politicians from 53 countries gathered in Indonesia Tuesday to discuss the roots of terrorism and challenges facing Muslim followers in Western societies.
Around 300 delegates took part in joint prayers at the start of three days of talks in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta.
Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said in an opening speech that the "Muslim world must be firmly united in the global fight against terrorism," and spoke out against rising Islamophobia in non-Islamic countries.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060620121821&irec=6
Examining state identity, Islam and social justice
Juwono Sudarsono, Jakarta
It is a measure of our times of political transition that the debate about Pancasila as state identity (dasar negara) continues even after President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's recent reaffirmation of the precepts as the "fundamental basis of our national life" on June 1, 2006, at the 61st anniversary celebrations of the Pancasila speech by president Sukarno on June 1, 1945.
At the celebration, President Yudhoyono appealed to all Indonesians to adhere to the basic consensus since 1945: Pancasila, the 1945 Constitution, The Unitary State of Indonesia, Unity in Diversity. A "Declaration on 'Indonesian-ness'" was read before the President and a capacity crowd at the Jakarta Convention Center.
In recent weeks some Islamist groups had alarmed minority and non-Islamic communities with their fervent call for adherence to a stricter Islamic code of social, economic and political conduct by pushing for an all-encompassing official ban on "amoral and lewd" behavior, giving rise to fears among non-Muslims communities that they may be subjected to legal norms contravening their respective personal and public code of conduct.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060620.A01&irec=1
More mudflow victims suffer from breathing difficulties
Indra Harsaputra and ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Sidoarjo
Medical workers report a jump in the number of villagers with respiratory problems near the gas well accident in Porong district, East Java, with the authorities still puzzled about stemming the uncontrolled toxic mudflow.
A total of 901 ailing villagers from Siring, Renokenongo and Jatirejo near Sidoarjo were treated Monday, up from 538 reported last week.
The head of the environment research center at Surabaya-based Airlangga University, Mukono, said the increase was due to the inhalation of poisonous hydrogen sulfide (H2S) gas from the mudflow. The gas gives off a putrid rotten-egg odor.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060620.@02&irec=3
Scientist fears rain could trigger landslides of volcanic debris
MOUNT MERAPI, Yogyakarta (AP): Indonesia's most active volcano spewed burning ash and gas clouds Tuesday as scientists expressed fears that rain could send deadly flows of volcanic debris to villages below.
If forecasts of rain on Wednesday and Thursday hold, millions of metric tons of built-up ash and rock fragments could be sent down Merapi's steep slopes in mudslides, a vulcanologist warned.
Meanwhile, avalanches of new debris tumbled 3.5 kilometers (2.2 miles) down the flanks of the volatile mountain earlier Tuesday, said the government volcanologist, who used the singlename Subandrio.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060620134503&irec=4
Bird flu kills 14-year-old boy
JAKARTA (AP): Indonesia moved a step closer to becoming the world's hardest-hit bird flu country Tuesday after tests confirmed a 14-year-old boy died from the disease, bringing its human toll to 39.
The boy from Jakarta died last week, and tests sent to a World Health Organization-approved laboratory in Hong Kong came back positive, senior Health Ministry official Hariadi Wibisono said.The teen had a history of contact with dead birds.
The results were announced a day before some of the world's top bird flu experts were set to meet with Indonesian officials to try to map out a plan to get a handle on the H5N1 virus.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060620152527&irec=3
Arrest warrant issued for East Timor's former interior minister
DILI (AP): East Timor prosecutors ordered the arrest of the former interior minister Tuesday for allegedly supplying weapons to a hit squad tasked with eliminating the prime minister's political opponents, a U.N. official said.
International troops, meanwhile, tightened security across the capital as hundreds of protesters gathered to demand Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri's ouster, some handing out fliers calling him a terrorist and a murderer.
"If we are not confident in him to administer this government, it is our obligation to call on him to step down," Augusto Junior Tidade of the National Youth Forum told the crowd of mostly young men who gathered across the street from the Government Palace, in full view of Alkatiri's office window.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060620163546&irec=2
ASEAN lawmakers want suspension of Myanmar
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
As pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi spent her 61st birthday under house arrest Monday, parliamentarians of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) demanded the grouping's leaders suspend Myanmar from the regional groups.
The ASEAN Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus (AIPMC) also condemned the recent extension of Suu Kyi's detention and the continued confinement of 14 elected parliament members as it called for stronger support for the UN Security Council to have a binding resolution on Myanmar.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060620.A03&irec=4
Yudhoyono to discuss nuclear tensions with N. Korea leaders
JAKARTA (Bloomberg): President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono plans to visit North Korea in an attempt to ease nuclear tensions after reports that North Korea is preparing a long-range missile test.
The U.S., Australia and Japan have warned North Korea against carrying out such a test. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday it would be "a provocative act." Japan wouldtake severe action, Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi said Monday in Tokyo.
"Indonesia could help cool tension in the Korean peninsula," Dino Patti Djalal, a spokesman for the president, said Tuesday in Jakarta. He didn't give a date for the vis it.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060620125404&irec=5
High schoolers left to rue failed exam
Slamet Susanto and Oyos Saroso H.N., Jakarta/Yogyakarta/Bandarlampung
The numbers did not quite add up for Heri Hendro Satrio to graduate high school.
His 3.5 math score on the national exam was a failing grade according to the standard, which requires a grade above 4.50 in each subject tested.
High scores in the other subjects -- 9.8 for English and 8.5 for Indonesian -- could not help the 18-year-old finally graduate and enroll at Yogyakarta's prestigious Gadjah Mada University (UGM), which accepted him last year before he failed the exam for the first time.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060620.@01&irec=0
Swedish ship's crew learns the ropes during short stint in the tropics
Tantri Yuliandini, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The 50-strong volunteer crew of the G”theborg could not wait to go ashore to explore the city Monday after the Swedish ship docked at Tanjung Priok Seaport in North Jakarta.
Clammy, teeming Jakarta is a shock to the senses for some of them, including 19-year-old Simon Mšller.
"I know of Jakarta, but nothing else about it, so we're going ashore later at 4 p.m. just to look around," the crewman from the vessel's home port of Gothenburg told The Jakarta Post.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060620.A02&irec=2
Is a presidential instruction on Papua really necessary?
Neles Tebay, Rome
Last month, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono disclosed his intention to issue a new presidential instruction on Papua in an effort to speed up the development and implementation of poverty eradication, infrastructure, education, and health care programs in Papua province, as well as to create a mechanism to better measure the region's progress.
The instruction will be the second presidential instruction on Papua after the approval of the 2001 Special Autonomy Law for Papua Province.
The first presidential instruction was issued by then President Megawati Soekarnoputri in 2001 on the controversial policy of the division of Papua into three separate provinces.
If the government repeats Megawati's blunder in 2001, then, Yudhoyono's new policy will create another political upheaval for Papua.
In order to avoid conflict, the government needs to fulfill seven conditions before producing the instruction.
First, The central government must be very sure that the second presidential instruction is not going to violate the Papuan Autonomy Law. Otherwise, the second Instruction will become another contradictory policy, taken by Jakarta, to deliberately undermine the Autonomy Law.
The government's basic assumption here is that the implementation of the Autonomy Law has faltered in Papua Province due to the absence of a presidential instruction.
Second, the government needs to enumerate all the problems in Papua province before producing the second instruction. Such a clarification is badly needed both for the government and the Papuans.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20060620.E02&irec=3
Rio Tinto plans $1 billion investment in RI nickel mine
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
London-based Rio Tinto Group is planning to invest some US$1 billion to develop a nickel mine in Sulawesi, a move that could lead to other previously reticent international miners investing in the country's rich natural resources.
With the new investment, the world's third largest mining company is expected to produce around 46,000 metric tons of nickel and employ about 5,000 workers, the company's chief executive for copper and exploration, Tom Albanese, said here Monday.
"We have been successful with exploration, but before we can move to the next stage, we need to put together a contract of work in conjunction with the government of Indonesia and the provinces of Sulawesi," he said after meeting Vice President Jusuf Kalla.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20060620.A04&irec=5
Investor's Business Daily
Stocks Look To Snap Two-Day Slump
BY VINCENT MAO
Posted 6/20/2006
Stocks remained higher in late Tuesday trade. The Dow and S&P 500 gave back some of their earlier gains, but were poised to snap a two-day losing streak. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq fluttered between positive and negative territory.
As of 3:10 p.m. Eastern, the Dow gained 52 points, or 0.5%, to 10,994; the S&P 500 rose 2 points, or 0.2%, to 1242 and the Nasdaq rose 1 point to 2111. The S&P SmallCap 600 lost another 0.3% after tumbling 1.6% Monday.
Nasdaq volume was tracking 6% lower than Monday. NYSE volume fell 2%.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=1&artnum=2&issue=20060620
Experts Can't Agree If Near-$3 Gasoline Is Sapping Demand
BY ALAN R. ELLIOTT
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 6/19/2006
A shutdown at Exxon Mobil's (XOM) massive Baytown, Texas, refinery Friday affected production of over 8.5 million gallons of gasoline per day. The unit generally supplies fuel to the Atlantic coast.
Industry experts downplayed the impact on supply. But the interruption comes as analysts scour reports for any sign that high gasoline prices are curbing demand.
May gasoline deliveries, a measure of demand, sank 3.3% vs. a year earlier, the American Petroleum Institute said. Prices during that period shot up 35%.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=5&issue=20060619
Intel, Cisco Push Home Health Field
BY JAMES DETAR
INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY
Posted 6/19/2006
An aging U.S. population sounds like a good trend for makers of tech-oriented home health care products, but something ails that market — a lack of technical standards.
Thus, chip leader Intel (INTC) and more than 20 other big tech companies have banded together to tackle this problem — looking to unlock a market with healthy potential. This month, they announced the formation of a consortium called Continua, a plural reference to the health continuum.
Continua plans to develop standards to enable home health equipment makers to develop gear that works with that of other companies. So someone could, for example, quickly and easily take a do-it-yourself blood test and send results via a computer and the Internet to a health firm, and the health firm could quickly and easily read the results.
The group aims to put out its first guidelines within 18 months. Gear that adheres to the standard will get a Continua logo, so doctors and consumers will know it's Continua-certified.
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=17&artnum=1&issue=20060619
Zoos
Giant panda's future looks brighter, study says
1.00pm Tuesday June 20, 2006
NEW YORK - Giant pandas may not be in as much danger of extinction as feared with a new British-Chinese study finding there could be twice as many living in the wild as previously thought, scientists have said.
"This finding indicates that the species may have a significantly better chance of long-term viability than recently anticipated, and that this beautiful animal may have a brighter future," the scientists said in a statement.
Until now scientists thought there were about 1590 giant pandas living in reserves in the mountains of China. Pandas, one of the world's most endangered and elusive animals, are dependent on bamboo found in that area.
But scientists from Britain's Cardiff University and the Chinese Academy of Sciences now think there could be as many as 3000 there after a survey using a new method to profile DNA from panda faeces revealed there was more than double the number of estimated pandas in one reserve.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10387445
CALIFORNIA
Pinnacles to capture, test condors that fed on rodent carcasses
Digesting lead shot from squirrels can cause paralysis
Officials at the Pinnacles National Monument are trying to trap most of the park's California condors and test them for lead poisoning, which could be fatal to the endangered species.
Eleven of the Pinnacles' 13 condors were observed outside the monument last week feeding on carcasses of squirrels that were shot and killed with lead bullets, said Denise Louie, the park's chief of natural resources.
Even microscopic traces of lead can result in to paralysis of the condors' digestive system and leave them unable to process food, park officials said. The birds become weak, mentally impaired and either starve to death or become prey to other predators.
Park officials laid traps for the birds over the weekend. Once captured, the condors' blood will be tested for lead. The birds will also be checked for rodenticides, which were used to poison some of the squirrels and could harm the birds, Louie said.
Birds found with high levels of contamination will be taken to the Los Angeles Zoo, where they might have to undergo surgery to remove lead from their crops or be treated with a compound that eliminates lead from their system.
It was unclear if the squirrels were killed for sport or because they had become a nuisance, Louie said.
"We don't know who shot the rodents or why," Louie said. "We just want to raise awareness around this issue. If rodents have to be shot, maybe their carcasses can be buried to protect not only condors but other carrion eaters and raptors."
California condors were first listed as endangered in 1967. Twenty years later, the last wild condors were taken to zoos for an intensive breeding program. The population has grown to about 300 birds.
Pinnacles is a historic breeding area for the condors. In 2003, it became the fifth area in the state to reintroduce condors into the wild.
The park is surrounded by undeveloped ranchland and the ranchers have shown steady support for the reintroduction program, park officials said.
"There has been an effort to raise awareness," Louie said. "We really need to put more effort into it because more needs to be done."
E-mail Cicero A. Estrella at cestrella@sfchronicle.com.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/06/20/BAGACJH16F1.DTL
Justices wade into Clean Water Act
Close vote puts some limits on U.S. control of wetlands
The U.S. Supreme Court, in its first major environmental ruling under Chief Justice John Roberts, set some general limits Monday on the federal government's power to prevent landowners from polluting thousands of marshes, drainage ditches and other wetlands.
But the court's ruling also left the regulatory picture as murky as it was before.
The court's most conservative justices, including Roberts and fellow newcomer Samuel Alito, came up a vote short of a majority that would have severely weakened federal authority to protect wetlands. The moderate-to-liberal bloc likewise failed to muster five votes to uphold the government's broad assertion of authority to prevent the polluting or filling of small and seasonal waterways.
In the middle was Justice Anthony Kennedy, whose opinion -- joined by no other justice -- now becomes the law of the land, the standard for regulating 100 million acres of wetlands.
Kennedy said only wetlands that have a "significant nexus'' to navigable waters, such as rivers and lakes, fall within federal authority. That means, he said, that the government can protect wetlands if polluted water from a ditch or pond would flow into the larger waterway, or if the wetlands protect a river or lake by providing a filter against pollutants or a buffer against floods.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/06/20/MNGL4JH1A21.DTL
Sumatran tigers under threat, official says
BENGKULU, Bengkulu province (Antara): Sumatran tigers and other rare animals are under increasing threat as illegal hunters continue to operate in Sumatra's forests, an official says.
Anthoni, a ranger at the Bengkulu Natural ResourcesConservation Agency (BKSDA), said Tuesday that most of those hunting Sumatran tigers were wealthy and came from other provinces.
Sumatran tigers, which now number less than 700, are under increasing threat from habitat destruction and trafficking syndicates that sell their bones and other body parts for traditional medicines, mostly in China and other Asian countries.
The World Wide Fund for Nature estimates the number of wild tigers in the world has fallen by 95 percent over the last century to between 5,000 and 7,000 because of poaching, habitat destruction, loss of prey and conflicts with humans.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillgen.asp?fileid=20060620164045&irec=1
It's a zoo out there Wet, warm weather brings critters out of hiding Be very, very quiet
By KEILA SZPALLER
Tribune Staff Writer
When Matt Marcinek walks along river trails these days, he sees coyote, mule deer and bald eagles.
Jerry Yoder recently watched a mamma marmot and two babies play near the Missouri River.
At Benton Lake National Wildlife Refuge, long-billed curlews feed on the wetland shores.
Animal sightings are abundant. Just step outside. Critters of all kinds stir in a world renewed by plentiful rainfall and sunshine.
http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060620/NEWS01/606200301/1002
Hutch Zoo welcomes 2 new pronghorns
By Clara Kilbourn
The Hutchinson News
Baby pronghorn twins Bert and Ernie were born at the Hutchinson Zoo at 7:05 a.m. Monday. Photo by Lindsey Bauman.
The Hutchinson Zoo population increased by two Monday with the birth of twin pronghorns.
Bert and Ernie arrived at 7:05 a.m., zookeeper Steve Crile said.
By early afternoon, both fawns had nursed and napped. Mother Nina and her newborns were doing fine, Crile said.
The two "healthy boys" weighed in at a few ounces over 6 pounds each. While they appear to be identical, subtle facial markings distinguish one from the other, Zoo Director Charlotte Poepperling said.
From the beginning, Bert and Ernie modeled the behavior of pronghorns born in the wild, Crile said. When not nursing, newborns remain quiet, lie as flat as possible and blend in with the leaves and grass to avoid coyotes and golden eagles.
"Once they reach two to three weeks old, they will get up and start running around, frolicking and having fun," Crile said.
With luck, Nina will nurse the twins for several weeks.
"We like to leave them with their mom until she weans them," Crile said.
When mature, Bert and Ernie will weigh up to 130 pounds and stand about 4 feet tall at the shoulder.
Pronghorns are native to western Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. The fastest North American mammals, they can sprint at 60 mph.
One of the babies' first visitors, Javier Berends, 6, of Hutchinson, admired the fawns and smiled.
"I like them," he said.
http://www.hutchnews.com/news/local/stories/zoo062006.shtml
AZA Applauds City Councils in Los Angeles, Tuscon; Both Approve New Habitats for Elephants Continuing National Trend
4/20/2006 4:48:00 PM
To: National Desk
Contact: Jane Ballentine of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, 301-562-0777 ext. 252
SILVER SPRING, Md., April 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) today applauded the city councils of Los Angeles and Tucson, Ariz., for affirming the importance of keeping elephants at the Los Angeles Zoo and Reid Park Zoo, both of which are AZA-accredited institutions.
In a decisive 13-2 vote yesterday, the Los Angeles City Council approved the 3.7-acre "Elephants of Surin" exhibit that will create an enriching educational encounter for the almost 1.5 million annual visitors to the Los Angeles Zoo. Last week, the mayor and the Tucson City Council reaffirmed their decision of last year to expand the Reid Park Zoo and build a new three-acre exhibit for Connie and Shaba, the two elephants at the zoo, ensuring that they will stay in Tucson.
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=64310
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