Toronto Star
Critics slam exemption for energy plan
Jun. 15, 2006. 04:25 PM
STEVE ERWIN
CANADIAN PRESS
Critics are accusing the Ontario government of behind-the-scenes moves to avoid environmental assessments of a controversial electricity generation plan that calls for the construction of new nuclear reactors.
The Liberal cabinet quietly passed a regulation Monday that exempts the province’s 20-year energy strategy from environmental assessments.
Government officials said it was passed to provide “certainty” to the government’s position that current Ontario laws don’t require Energy Minister Dwight Duncan’s broad plan to be subject to a provincial environmental review.
Specific projects will be subject to environmental reviews in any event, officials added.
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Kennedy proposes tax on gas guzzlers
Jun. 15, 2006. 04:57 PM
CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Canada should impose a tax on gas-guzzling SUVs and cut the GST on hybrid vehicles to help meet its Kyoto commitments, says Liberal leadership candidate Gerard Kennedy.
Kennedy said Thursday that those two measures would yield a ``much more practical" reduction in greenhouse gas emissions than the carbon tax floated by leadership frontrunner Michael Ignatieff.
Kennedy, a Manitoba-born former Ontario education minister, claimed he brings a "western sensibility" to the leadership race. He said a carbon tax would unfairly penalize oil-rich Alberta, incense the energy industry and be counterproductive.
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Canada lobbies U.S. legislators on security
Jun. 15, 2006. 08:23 PM
BETH GORHAM
CANADIAN PRESS
WASHINGTON — The White House urged Canada to maintain its vigilance over terrorists Thursday, as Ambassador Michael Wilson led a team of security experts on a lobbying mission to quell fears on Capitol Hill.
Wilson, who took along top officials of the RCMP, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Canada Border Services Agency, said he wanted to dispel myths voiced by some U.S. legislators that Canada is overrun with Islamic extremists.
"We can persuade with the facts, like how many people we have stopped coming into Canada (with) immigration officers in other countries who are intercepting people," said Wilson.
"The numbers are quite impressive. That type of information, they value."
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Voices: Colonizing space
Jun. 15, 2006. 10:57 AM
We asked you whether you agree with physicist Steven Hawking that man must colonize space in order to survive. Here's what you had to say.
I agree. Assuming humans continue to breed and consume at the present rate, and with no real indications that we will stop, the only alternative is that we have to get off the planet.
Paul Perkins, San Francisco
I disagree. This concept is like assuming that the world will be ruined one day and hence better to get prepared. It is like when your house shows signs of wearing down, instead of fixing it, you discard it and look elsewhere.
Betty Wong, Richmond Hill
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2,500th U.S. soldier dies in Iraq
Death comes as Congress debates war's future
Jun. 15, 2006. 12:58 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — American deaths since the invasion of Iraq have reached 2,500, the Pentagon said today, marking a grim milestone in the wake of recent events that President Bush hopes will reverse the war’s unpopularity at home.
The latest death was announced as Congress was launching a symbolic election-year debate over the war, with Republicans rallying against calls by some Democrats to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
The Pentagon provided no details on the nature of the 2,500th death. Nevertheless, reaching the new marker underscored the continuing violence in Iraq just after an upbeat Bush returned from a surprise visit to Baghdad determined that the tide was beginning to turn.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150367949121&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Faces of the Fallen
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/iraq/
Casualty Map
http://projects.washingtonpost.com/fallen/states/
United Nations 'army' proposed
International rapid reaction force could be deployed within 48 hours of a UN green light
Jun. 15, 2006. 09:03 AM
OLIVIA WARD
FEATURE WRITER
When emergencies strike, Canadians dial 911.
But in countries racked by crisis, such a call for help — by civilians or government officials — is out of the question. So conflicts escalate, wounded and traumatized people go untreated and the survivors wait agonizing weeks or months for aid and shelter, as happened in strife-torn Darfur.
This week, a group of academics, former officials and security experts are tabling a proposal they hope will change that by creating an international rapid reaction force that could be deployed within 48 hours of a green light from the United Nations.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150321812602&call_pageid=968332188492&col=968793972154&t=TS_Home
Political gurus explore U.S.-Canada split
Conference explores U.S.-Canada split Future of `progressive politics' on agenda
Jun. 15, 2006. 05:52 AM
SUSAN DELACOURT
OTTAWA BUREAU CHIEF
MONT-TREMBLANT, QUE.—"Father knows best" isn't just an old TV show any more — it's where Canada and the U.S. beg to differ, according to Environics pollster Michael Adams.
And the difference between Canadian and American attitudes toward big daddy may reveal something larger about how to rebuild the centre-left of the political spectrum in Canada — a task now under way at a big, "progressive politics" conference at the Mont-Tremblant resort.
The conference also drew former U.S. vice-president Al Gore to talk last night about Canada-U.S. attitudinal divides on the environment.
One of Adams' most stunning illustrations of Canada-U.S. differences to the conference was on the question of family dynamics —— specifically the idea of the father as head of the family.
In Canada, that notion has been slowly eroding since 1992. In the United States, it's been growing.
In 1992, 26 per cent of Canadians said they agreed with the statement: "The father of the family must be the master of his own house." In 2005, only 18 per cent of Canadians agree with that notion, according to Adams' numbers.
By contrast, 42 per cent of Americans agreed with that statement in 1992. But by 2005, more than half of Americans — 52 per cent — said that dad must be the boss at home.
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Lord of the bling
After more than a century, the traditional Stanley Cup ring is anything but
Jun. 15, 2006. 03:36 PM
RICK WESTHEAD
BUSINESS REPORTER
When the siren sounds on the Stanley Cup final, another less publicized annual hockey skirmish will be picking up steam: the fight between jewellery companies to make championship rings for the winners.
Making rings for pro sports teams is a long-standing ritual that has become big business.
In 1893, the Montreal AAAs awarded each of its seven players a plain gold ring inscribed with crossed hockey sticks after the team claimed the inaugural Stanley Cup.
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Supreme Court cool to anti-terror law
Indefinite detention can't be ignored
3 men challenging security certificates
Jun. 15, 2006. 05:44 AM
TONDA MACCHARLES
OTTAWA BUREAU
OTTAWA —The Supreme Court of Canada is clearly signalling its displeasure at the prospect of indefinitely jailing national security risks who do not get to know the case against them.
Despite a warning from the federal government that national security is at stake, the justices speculated that Parliament could better accommodate an individual's right to know and answer allegations against him.
It may not have been Parliament's purpose when it designed "security certificates," but indefinite detention is a reality the court cannot ignore, the chief justice said.
"Parliament doesn't just get off by saying, `Well, we had a different purpose, so let the effect be much broader than our purpose,'" said Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin.
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Gates transferring duties at Microsoft
Jun. 15, 2006. 05:44 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
REDMOND, Wash. — Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) chairman Bill Gates said Thursday he will transition from day-to-day responsibilities at the company to concentrate on the charitable work of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Gates will continue as the company’s chairman after transferring his duties over a two-year period.
“This was a hard decision for me,” said Gates, who founded the world’s largest software company with childhood friend Paul Allen. ``I’m very lucky to have two passions that I feel are so important and so challenging. As I prepare for this change, I firmly believe the road ahead for Microsoft is as bright as ever.”
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150367949399&call_pageid=968332188492
Markets roar back to life
Stocks surge on hopes correction is over, soothing words from Fed chief
Jun. 15, 2006. 05:48 PM
MALCOLM MORRISON
CANADIAN PRESS
North American stock markets delivered sharp, triple-digit gains Thursday on hopes that indexes have found a bottom after a series of sharp losses.
Markets also got a boost from comments by U.S. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, who suggested economic activity seems to be holding up fairly well to lofty energy prices.
"In the long term, the impact of higher energy prices will probably be manageable," he said.
The Toronto stock market
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150367949458&call_pageid=968332188492
Tom Cruise tops Forbes' Celebrity Power list
Jun. 15, 2006. 07:21 PM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES — Never mind the couch-jumping and the depression-dismissing. Tom Cruise is the world's No. 1 star, according to Forbes' annual Celebrity 100 Power List (http://www.forbes.com/celebs), which ranks famous folks based on earnings and buzz.
The less-than-scientific ranking tracks the highest-paid stars from the worlds of television, film, music and sports, said editor Lea Goldman.
"It's what kind of currency does the star's name have," she said.
"It's increasingly important how they are perceived both in industry circles and commercial circles and this list represents who has cachet in both arenas."
Cruise is the only celebrity to top the list twice, she said. He was also No. 1 in 2001.
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62 dead in Sri Lanka bus blast
Jun. 15, 2006. 08:41 AM
DILIP GANGULY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — A powerful landmine ripped through a packed bus in northern Sri Lanka on Thursday, killing at least 62 people in the worst act of violence since a 2002 ceasefire, the army said. Sri Lanka's air force responded by bombing rebel-held areas in the northeast.
The government blamed the Tamil Tiger rebels for blowing up the bus crowded with commuters and schoolchildren — spokesman Keheliya Rambukwella called it "a barbaric act" — but the rebels denied responsibility.
Thursday's violence came during nearly a year of fighting that began with last summer's assassination of Sri Lanka's foreign minister. With the ceasefire as shaky as ever and diplomats saying relations between the government and Tigers are at a low point, Sri Lanka appeared once again on the brink of full-scale war.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150367947301&call_pageid=968332188492
Performance artist offers breast milk tastings
Jun. 15, 2006. 06:10 PM
MIKE FUHRMANN
CANADIAN PRESS
A performance artist is inviting people to ``quench their curiosity" and taste samples of pasteurized human breast milk at her upcoming show.
Jess Dobkin has titled her work the Lactation Station Breast Milk Bar.
"Participants will have the opportunity to sample small quantities of breast milk, donated by local lactating new mothers at this free public tasting," said a news release.
The work will be staged July 13 at the Ontario College of Art and Design Professional Gallery.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150408210067&call_pageid=968332188492
Fabulous fathers, model dads
Models by day, these doting hands-on dads juggle their jobs with fatherhood and enjoy every moment
Jun. 15, 2006. 08:46 AM
KRISTIN RUSHOWY
TORONTO STAR
For Jim Stack, tired, bloodshot eyes are, "a look I wear with pride."
For this male model — and a number of well-known models who are also doting dads — behind the picture-perfect smiles are often sleepless nights tending to a newborn or a sick child.
But these fabulous fathers have learned to combine a career where looks matter with the realities of being a hands-on parent.
Of course, a little makeup and eye drops never hurt for these men, who appear in ads for Sears, Zellers and The Bay.
http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1150282852706&call_pageid=968332188492
Editorial: Anti-terror laws are tough enough
Jun. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
Are Canada's anti-terror laws too lax?
That is a question many Canadians are asking in the wake of the terror scare in Toronto that saw 17 men arrested for allegedly plotting to besiege Parliament, take hostages and bomb targets in the heart of the city.
Moreover, the arrests come in the midst of Parliament's mandatory three-year review of the Anti-Terrorism Act (2001), passed after the 9/11 Al Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. They also come as the Supreme Court of Canada weighs the lawfulness of detaining terror suspects indefinitely, after hearings that ended yesterday.
If Canada's laws need adjusting, now seems a good moment.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government appears open to toughening the Anti-Terrorism Act. That suggestion came in a comment by Justice Minister Vic Toews, who told the Senate committee studying the issue this week that the government would consider amending the law to make it easier for prosecutors to secure convictions.
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Show of resolve or publicity stunt?
Jun. 15, 2006. 01:00 AM
A sampling of editorial comment from U.S. newspapers after President George Bush's surprise visit earlier this week to Baghdad:
Washington Post: President Bush delivered an important demonstration of American support for Iraq's new democratic government in his visit to Baghdad this week. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki represents the best and maybe last hope that a national government can stem sectarian bloodshed, defeat Islamic terrorist organizations and die-hard defenders of Saddam Hussein, and make economic recovery possible ...
If Democratic party leaders ... had their way, almost all U.S. troops would be out of Iraq by the end of 2006 — a blow that Maliki's government almost certainly could not survive. Bush's willingness — at least for now — to resist such politically expedient demands may not rescue Iraq's fledgling political system; it may be that nothing can at this point. But he is — correctly and courageously — using what remains of his personal political capital to give Iraqi democracy a chance.
Boston Globe: What Bush should have told Maliki in private is that he will honour his obligation to help Iraqis cope with the Sunni Arab insurgency — but not indefinitely. America cannot let Iraq become a safe haven for Al Qaeda, but nevertheless Iraqis must soon take the lead in waging and winning their war against insurgents who are overwhelmingly Iraqi.
The killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and the ensuing capture of useful documents were steps in the right direction, as were the completion of an Iraqi cabinet with competent ministers and Jordan's contribution to Zarqawi's capture. The foreign Islamist sector of the insurgency has been weakened; Maliki has begun the crucial work of bringing Sunni Arab factions into the political arena; and at least one other Arab country has joined in Iraq's struggle against Islamist extremism.
New York Times: By now, Americans surely know the difference between a presidential publicity stunt and a true turning point in this ever-lengthening war. If they had any question about which one this was, Karl Rove provided some guidance in New Hampshire, where he delivered the campaign talking points to the Republican faithful: The Democrats could never have summoned the will to kill Zarqawi. For an administration that is supposed to be rallying a nation at war, it was a revealingly nasty, partisan and divisive moment ...
After too many photo ops aimed at giving Bush and his fellow Republicans a short-term lift in the domestic opinion polls at election time, Americans hunger more than ever for a realistic game plan for Iraq.
USA Today: ... Amid extraordinary security, Bush dropped in on Maliki like an uninvited dinner guest and didn't even tell most White House aides ahead of time. Security remains so dicey that Bush was in and out of Baghdad in hours. An insurgency and sectarian violence rage. Deadly bombings produce daily tragedies. The government, supposedly one of national unity, is weak ...
But Bush has showed no sign of caving in ... While his original vision of victory is not achievable, there remains a chance to mitigate the damage by leaving behind a relatively stable country that isn't a terrorist training ground or launching pad.
As long as there's a reasonable chance of achieving that goal, the troops should stay as long as needed. And as soon as that chance disappears, they should be brought home promptly, not left to die to save face ...
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Power to the People: Why not Hydro?
Jun. 15, 2006. 11:17 AM
TONY O'DONOHUE
It is ironic that Premier Dalton McGuinty wants to build more nuclear power plants, on this, the 100th anniversary of the development of hydroelectricity in Ontario.
A 1982 report from Ontario Hydro, Hydraulic Power Resources of the Province of Ontario states that the hydroelectric potential of the province was 21,000 megawatts and that 7,174 MW of that potential — 34 per cent — was being used.
Ontario Power Generation still lists 7,309 MW as the amount of hydroelectricity presently produced in the province — really no change from 1982.
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Michael Moore Today
On the Occasion of the 2,500th Troops Death in Iraq, Military Families Mourn and Speak Out: Honor the Fallen, and Bring Our Troops Home Now!
Available for Interview: Families of deployed and fallen soldiers from Iraq War
WASHINGTON - June 13 - On the eve of the next horrific milestone, the 2,500 troop death in Iraq, families with loved ones who are serving in Iraq, those with loved ones who were killed in Iraq, and families whose loved ones may deploy or re-deploy are calling on the Bush Administration, Congress and decision-makers at all levels to honor the fallen and prevent further deaths by ending the occupation of Iraq, bringing our troops home now and taking care of them when they get here.
Despite the Bush Administration's celebration of a continuing series of "banner days" and milestones in Iraq, Military Families Speak Out members have not seen milestones to celebrate; they are instead seeing gravestones - more and more of them each day. Military Families Speak Out is an organization of over 3,000 military families speaking out against the war in Iraq, the largest organization of military families in the history of the United States to ever oppose a war.
http://www.commondreams.org/news2006/0613-11.htm
House at Stake, Midterm Election Gets Early Start
By Adam Nagourney / New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 5 — Congressional campaigns have begun early and with unusual intensity this year in many districts across the country, reflecting a consensus in both parties that Republicans could lose control of the House and perhaps the Senate.
A special election in a bedrock Republican Congressional district in San Diego on Tuesday — for the seat left vacant when Representative Randy Cunningham resigned after pleading guilty to corruption charges — has sharpened the early intensity and could provide the clearest evidence so far about whether Democrats can capitalize on the unsettled political climate.
The National Republican Congressional Committee, fearful that a loss or meager victory could further rattle the party and give Democrats a huge boost, has poured at least $4.5 million into the district. And it has enlisted President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and Laura Bush to make automated telephone calls to voters, putting the prestige of the White House on the line.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7166
Senate Emphasis on Ideology Has Some in G.O.P. Anxious
By Carl Hulse / New York Times
WASHINGTON, June 6 — Though some Republican candidates may relish the Senate's current concentration on same-sex marriage and other ideologically charged topics, Senator Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island is not among them.
"It may stir up my primary voters a little bit against me," said Mr. Chafee, a centrist Republican up for re-election. He opposes the push for a constitutional amendment to prohibit same-sex marriage and is under intense pressure to back a proposed amendment that would forbid flag burning. "I'm collateral damage."
Other Republicans, including some conservatives, say Mr. Chafee may not be the only potential victim of what they see as a misguided effort to appeal to social conservatives by staging votes intended primarily to make a point about the party's values. They say that voters are more concerned about the economy, health care and immigration, and that replaying the marriage debate in particular could do as much damage as good as Republicans fight to retain control of Congress.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7182
Police find 9 severed heads in Iraq
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Police found nine severed heads in fruit boxes near a volatile city northeast of Baghdad on Tuesday, authorities said, the second such discovery in less than a week.
A roadside bomb also exploded near an American military convoy in central Baghdad, killing a woman and wounding three pedestrians, Lt. Thair Mahmoud said. The three-vehicle convoy was traveling near one of Baghdad's bus stations when the bomb detonated. The convoy kept moving.
The boxes containing the heads — all from men — were discovered by a highway in the village of Hadid near Baqouba, a mixed Shiite-Sunni Arab city 35 miles northeast of Baghdad that has seen a recent rise in sectarian violence.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7173
Baghdad targeted civilian killings soar in May
Most were victims of execution-style murders, Iraqi official says
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Nearly 1,400 Iraqi civilians died in a wave of targeted killings in Baghdad last month, according to a high-ranking Iraqi Health Ministry official.
The figure does not include civilians killed in insurgent bombings, the official said. Even so, the number is the highest monthly death toll in the capital since the war began three years ago.
In May 1,398 bodies were brought to the Baghdad morgue, the official said.
All were killed in attacks; in most cases the bodies were found strewn across the Iraqi capital, shot execution-style, the official said.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7172
U.S. military deaths in Iraq reach 2,500
By Lolita C. Baldor / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that 2,500 U.S. troops have died in the Iraq war since it began more than three years ago, marking a grim milestone even as President Bush hopes a recent spate of good news will reverse the war's widespread unpopularity at home.
The latest death was announced as Congress was launching into a symbolic election-year debate over the war, with Republicans rallying against calls by some Democrats to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
While there were no details on who it was or where the 2,500th death occurred, it underscored the continuing violence in Iraq just after an upbeat Bush returned from a surprise visit to Baghdad determined that the tide was beginning to turn.
Some members of Congress have been calling for a timetable for the eventual withdrawal of troops from Iraq, of which there are about 127,000. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., planned to introduce an amendment to the Senate's annual military measure to redeploy U.S. combat forces from Iraq by year's end, though Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a potential 2008 presidential candidate, and other Democrats have opposed setting a rigid deadline.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7262
House Holds First Extended Debate on Iraq War
By William Branigin and Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post
The House of Representatives today held its first extended debate on the war in Iraq, as Republicans pushed a resolution that ties the conflict to the "global war on terrorism" and rejects setting a date for U.S. withdrawal, while Democrats denounced what they described as the majority's political gamesmanship.
The debate came as the U.S. military death toll in Iraq reached 2,500, a grim milestone that served as a reminder of the steadily mounting American losses in a war that President Bush said was effectively over more than three years ago after U.S. forces swiftly toppled Saddam Hussein. Most of the deaths have come since Bush declared May 1, 2003, on the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed."
With nearly 130,000 U.S. troops in Iraq battling a persistent insurgency and many Americans disillusioned with the war, House Republicans introduced a resolution "declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror," and they practically dared Democrats to vote against it.
Rejecting characterizations of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq as a "war of choice" launched by Bush, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said in a floor speech today: "It is not enough for this House to say, 'We support our troops.' To the men and women in the field, in harm's way, that statement rings hollow if we don't also say we support their mission."
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7272
Gunmen kill 4 at Sunni mosque in Iraq
Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen stormed a Sunni mosque near Tikrit during prayers on Thursday, killing four people and wounding 15, police said.
The wounded in the attack on the Muslim bin Aqil mosque included fundamentalist cleric Abu al-Manar, who has spoken out against the killings of Iraqis.
The attack occurred at 5 a.m. in Alam, just northeast of Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, which is about 80 miles north of Baghdad. Police Col. Luay Muhammad said a cylinder filled with explosives was also found at the scene, but it did not explode.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7269
10 Iraqis pulled from bus, gunned down
By Sinan Salaheddin / Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunmen shot and killed 10 Shiites on Thursday after pulling them off a bus in Baqouba, northeast of Baghdad, police said.
The 10 men, nine workers at the city's industrial area and the driver, were aged from 20 to 45 and were heading back to their homes, a police officer said on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to media. Baqouba is located 35 miles northeast of Baghdad and is near the site where an airstrike last week killed al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The gunmen were in two black Opel sedans and the workers included three brothers and six other relatives except for the driver.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7270
4 contractors with Ala. co. killed in Iraq
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. - Four civilians working for an Alabama-based military operation in Iraq were killed by a roadside bomb, the Army said.
They were under a contract with the Army Engineering and Support Center, based at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, the center said Wednesday.
Killed in the June 8 explosion were Wayne Shultz, 34, of Hervey Bay, Australia; Penaia Vakaotia, 32, of Suva, Fiji; Mikaele Banidawa, 46, of Yalalevu, Fiji; and Vilisoni Guana, 43, of Ona-I-Lau, Fiji.
They were security specialists for Armor Group of London.
The Huntsville center is responsible for handling and disposing of munitions in Iraq.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7271
States signing on to deadly force law
By Robert Tanner / Associated Press
A campaign by gun rights advocates to make it easier to use deadly force in self-defense is rapidly winning support across the country, as state after state makes it legal for people who feel their lives are in danger to shoot down an attacker — whether in a car-jacking or just on the street.
The law has spurred debate about whether it protects against lawlessness or spurs more crime. Supporters say it's an unambiguous answer to random violence, while critics — including police chiefs and prosecutors — warn that criminals are more likely to benefit than innocent victims.
Ten states so far this year have passed a version of the law, after Florida was the first last year. It's already being considered in Arizona in the case of a deadly shooting on a hiking trail.
Supporters have dubbed the new measures "stand your ground" laws, while critics offered nicknames like the "shoot first," "shoot the Avon lady" or "right to commit murder" laws.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7009
ACLU tries to force Pentagon to turn over records on peace groups
By Drew Brown / Knight Ridder
WASHINGTON - A civil rights group sued the Defense Department on Wednesday in an effort to force the Pentagon to turn over information it's collected on peace groups and antiwar activists under a controversial program designed to track terrorists.
The lawsuit, filed in Philadelphia by the American Civil Liberties Union, asks the Defense Department to produce records it's collected under its Threat and Local Observation Notice program. Former Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz started TALON in 2003 to track groups and individuals with possible links to terrorists and others who might pose a threat to Defense Department installations and personnel.
ACLU officials say the program has been wrongfully extended to monitor peace groups who were doing nothing more than expressing their views.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7261
Police don't have to knock, justices say
Alito's vote breaks 4-4 tie in police search case
By Bill Mears / CNN
WASHINGTON -- A split Supreme Court ruled Thursday that drug evidence seized in a home search can be used against a suspect even though police failed to knock on the door and wait a "reasonable" amount of time before entering.
The 5-4 decision continues a string of rulings since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that in general give law enforcement greater discretion to carry out search-and-seizure warrants.
President Bush's nominees to the high court, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito, notably sided with the government.
Writing for the majority, Justice Antonin Scalia said disallowing evidence from every "knock-and-announce violation" by officers would lead to the "grave adverse consequence" of a flood of appeals by accused criminals seeking dismissal of their cases.
He was joined by Roberts and his fellow conservatives Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Alito.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7265
Soldier complains of sexual coercion
By Susan Palmer / Register-Guard
EUGENE, OR -- A Eugene soldier being investigated for deserting her military police unit has alleged that she was sexually harassed by two superiors and coerced into a sexual relationship with a sergeant while she was in Iraq.
Suzanne Swift, a specialist with the 54th Military Police Co. based at Fort Lewis, Wash., was arrested at her mother's house in south Eugene on Sunday and held at the Lane County Jail before being escorted by military police to Fort Lewis on Tuesday.
In a brief phone interview from the base, Swift said three sergeants directly in her chain of command began propositioning her for sex almost from the minute she arrived overseas. She was in Iraq from February 2004 until February 2005. When her unit was redeployed to Iraq in January 2006, she refused to go and remained in Oregon.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7267
GOP Measure Forces House Debate on War
Divisions Within Party Likely to Surface
By Jonathan Weisman / Washington Post
Nearly four years after it authorized the use of force in Iraq, the House today will embark on its first extended debate on the war, with Republican leaders daring Democrats to vote against a nonbinding resolution to hold firm on Iraq and the war on terrorism.
In the wake of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death and President Bush's surprise trip to Baghdad, Republican leaders are moving quickly to capitalize on good news and trying to force Democrats on the defensive. Bush continued his own campaign with a morning news conference and a White House meeting with congressional leaders from both parties, while House leaders strategized on today's 10-hour debate.
A memo from House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) urged House Republican members Tuesday to make the debate "a portrait of contrasts between Republicans and Democrats." After Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was booed this week by liberal activists for her failure to resolutely oppose the war, Republicans hope to present a united front that highlights the fractures in the Democratic Party.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=7264
In Kansas, a Troubling Fissure for GOP
By Nicholas Riccardi / Los Angeles Times
TOPEKA, Kan. — Mark Parkinson got his start in Republican politics at age 19, as a precinct committeeman. He served six years as a Republican state legislator, eventually becoming state Republican chairman.
But two weeks ago, Parkinson announced he was running for lieutenant governor — as a Democrat. He said he no longer felt welcome in the increasingly conservative Kansas Republican Party.
Parkinson became the third Republican politician in the last nine months to startle this red state by switching to the minority party. The other two are targeting GOP incumbents in the attorney general's office and in the state House of Representatives.
Political observers say the fracture within the Kansas GOP may foreshadow the future for the national party. The division between moderates and social conservatives is expected to define the contest for the party's 2008 presidential nomination.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/the06fix/index.php?id=94
When Bush Comes to Shove
By Missy Comley Beattie / Nephew, Lance Cpl. Chase Comley, KIA in Iraq, Aug. 6th, 2005
According to T.S. Eliot in his poem, “The Hollow Men,” the world will end “not with a bang but a whimper.” The Project for the New American Century, steered and driven at full throttle by the Bush Mafia, makes it a certainty that, instead, the end of our world will occur with thunderous dissonance. From the bullying, “with us or against us” language and an appetite for threats rather than conciliation, George W. has drawn a big, red bull’s eye around our land and said, “Bring ‘em on.”
The choir of those against us is not humming “ugly Americans” softly.
Not only has Bush shoved his domestic policies down our throats and redefined the rule of law unlike any president in US history, his brutal foreign policy has created repercussions that are reverberating throughout our planet, imperiling our security.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=663
Welcome to World Peace Forum Society 2006
The World Peace Forum 2006 is an international gathering of individuals, groups and civic governments from cities and communities to envision a living culture of peace and sustainability in our lifetimes. The success of this event depends on all of us. We can work together in the journey to peace!
http://www.worldpeaceforum.ca/
Peace Has No Borders
http://www.peacehasnoborders.org/
Camp Casey August 16th-Sept 2nd 2006
Cindy Sheehan and Gold Star Families for Peace will be returning to Crawford Tx. President Bush has still not satisfactorily answered our question, "What Noble Cause did our loved ones die for?" One year later we are still in the quagmire that is Iraq. As of this writing 2497 of our brave and noble military men and women have died for this Noble Cause. Join us at Camp Casey and show the President that we will not accept one more death be it American or Iraqi.
http://www.gsfp.org/article.php?list=type&type=21
Impeach the President
http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=622
The Impeachment Project
http://www.freewayblogger.com/impeachment_project2.htm
RIA Novosti
Wrap: Shanghai group talk energy, Iran and terror at jubilee summit
MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - Energy, anti-terrorism and Iran were the focus of a regional summit Thursday as the leaders from six nations gathered in Shanghai.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which was set up as a group dealing in security and confidence-building measures, returned to its roots at a fifth-anniversary summit with three anti-terrorism agreements. But energy proposals and a discussion of the status of its four observer nations highlighted how it has evolved since 2001.
Iran was perhaps predictably one of the dominant themes given the international furor over its controversial nuclear programs. Suggestions that it would join the six full members of the Shanghai club - Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - were downplayed in the run-up to the summit, especially after criticism from the United States.
Earlier in the month U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld expressed his surprise that "the leading terrorist nation in the world" was being invited into "an organization that says it's against terror."
http://en.rian.ru/world/20060615/49537755.html
Georgia's Saakashvili urges thaw in relations with Russia
TBILISI, June 14 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia and Russia should concentrate on rebuilding currently strained relations, the president of the South Caucasus nation said Wednesday after talks with his Russian counterpart in St. Petersburg.
Mikheil Saakashvili and Vladimir Putin met late Tuesday on the sidelines of an international economic forum in Russia's second city.
"The important thing to us now is to make the climate of our relations warmer," Saakashvili told RIA Novosti in an interview. "They have reached freezing point, and are in need of a thaw."
"Now our relations are in such a bad state that they just cannot get any worse," he said. "A flywheel of hostility is actually spinning in Georgia. We must halt this flywheel and set it off in the opposite direction."
http://en.rian.ru/world/20060614/49493357.html
Energy riches bad for democracy in post-Soviet space - U.S. NGO
MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - Former Soviet republics with massive energy resources backslide on democracy and have developed totalitarian tendencies, a respected Russian business daily cited a report by American NGO Freedom House as saying Thursday.
Vedomosti said the Nations in Transit report had singled out Russia, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan in a study measuring democracy in the EU's eastern neighbors, saying they had seen economic growth thanks to high energy prices, but had failed to advance democracy, national governance, media freedom, and judicial independence.
"They [national leaders] are taking advantage of high energy prices by building authoritarian regimes that are unresponsive to their citizens and unreliable in the international sphere," the paper quoted report editor Jeannette Goehring as saying.
And Russia "warrants particular attention because its position and influence give it enormous implications for the former Soviet region," a Freedom House press release said.
Vedomosti said the think tank had downgraded Russia's democracy ratings for the third consecutive time, from 5.61 in 2005 to 5.75 in 2006 on a scale with 1 as the best and 7 as worst. The NGO criticized President Vladimir Putin for moves to centralize power, introducing a 7% threshold for political parties running for parliament, and passing a new law on NGOs that is seen in the West as too restrictive.
The paper said the study also slammed Russia for corruption, which it said was particularly widespread in the energy sector, as the state had regained control over 30% of the oil industry.
Report editor Goehring added that leaders in the region did not seem to understand that improving accountability would provide prosperity and rule of law, and would give their states more options internationally.
The NGO was critical of other energy states in the region, Vedomosti said. Democratic development in oil-rich Kazakhstan was hindered by the re-election in 2005 of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who has run the Central Asian republic since 1989, the newspaper cited the report as saying.
In oil-rich Caucasus republic Azerbaijan in 2005, the study said, President Ilkham Aliyev continued to accumulate power he had inherited from his father, the late President Geidar Aliyev.
In Turkmenistan, which has vast natural gas and oil deposits, a campaign in 2005 to force citizens to study the Rukhnama, a kind of spiritual code written by President Saparmurat Niyazov, also known as Turkmenbashi or "father of all Turkmen," had further worsened the country's democratic record, the paper said, quoting the study.
Vedomosti also quoted an analyst from the liberal Moscow Carnegie Center, who largely supported the study, but said the organization had overdone in its criticism of Russia.
Alexei Malashenko said the West was thereby trying to "touch on Russia's sore point" ahead of the summit of the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations the country will host in July.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060615/49526003.html
Nuclear impasse blocks effective cooperation with Iran - senator
MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russian-Iranian cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will have bright prospects if Iran allays the West's concerns over its nuclear programs, a senior member of Russia's upper house of parliament said Thursday.
Given the international furor over its controversial nuclear programs, Iran, which is a SCO observer, was one of the dominant themes at a summit of the group in Shanghai today.
"The [SCO] format enables us to reach agreements and solutions to maintain regional political and economic stability without pressure from the United States or the European Union," said Mikhail Margelov, the chairman of the Federation Council's international affairs committee.
But he said the future of cooperation with Iran depended on resolving its nuclear problem.
Iran's nuclear programs have been a source of major controversy since the beginning of the year, as many countries suspect the Islamic Republic of pursuing a covert weapons program under the pretext of civilian research, despite its claims to the contrary. Russia proposed setting up a joint venture with Iran to enrich uranium on Russian soil as a solution to the problem, which the Islamic Republic, however, has neither accepted nor rejected.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060615/49567657.html
The Moscow Times
Straight from the Wires
Fate of Russian diplomats kidnapped in Iraq still unknown
RIA NOVOSTI. June 15, 2006, 9:04 PM
MOSCOW, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - No new information about four Russian diplomats kidnapped in Iraq has been received, a Russian deputy foreign minister said Thursday.
"I have just contacted our embassy in Baghdad." Alexander Yakovenko told TV channel Rossiya. "Unfortunately, we have no new information."
One Russian diplomat was killed and four others kidnapped when unidentified gunmen attacked a Russian embassy car in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, on June 3. The kidnappers have yet to make ransom or other demands.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier on Thursday called on the international community to help free the diplomats.
The Organization of the Islamic Conference, which has condemned the kidnapping as a crime against humanity and Islam, has pledged assistance in securing the diplomats' release.
Russia, Uruguay in talks on joint military venture
RIA NOVOSTI. June 15, 2006, 8:39 PM
BUENOS AIRES, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is in talks with Uruguay on setting up a joint venture to produce dual-purpose military products, Russia's arms exporter said.
Rosoboronexport spokesman Alexander Denisov said, "A Russian delegation is holding talks with Uruguayan partners in Montevideo, who announced their intention to sign contracts by the end of the year if they agree to our terms."
In an effort to increase its share of Latin America's defense market, Russia has clinched a series of deals on sales of military hardware with Venezuela, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, and is developing contacts with Brazil, Chile and Argentina.
Denisov said that at the talks, the sides agreed that Russia would repay $20 million of Russia's Soviet-era debt to Uruguay, out of a total $43 million, through supplies of heavy trucks by October, as well as through provision of road-building equipment and armored vehicles.
The spokesman said Uruguay was also considering a $6 million deal to buy a mobile field hospital.
Russia, Belarus to conduct Union Shield-2006 exercise in June
RIA NOVOSTI. June 15, 2006, 8:34 PM
MINSK, June 15 (RIA Novosti) - Belarus will host a joint large-scale military exercise with Russia on June 17-25, to be attended by the leaders of a regional security bloc's member states, a Belarusian Defense Ministry spokesman said Thursday.
The Union Shield-2006 command and staff exercises will involve a total of 8,800 servicemen, of which about 7,000 will represent Belarus, the spokesman said.
He said the leaders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) countries (Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan) were expected to attend the exercise, which will be conducted within the framework of the organization.
Military observers from over 40 countries will be invited to attend the exercise, the spokesman said.
Russia's 1,800-strong force will include units of the 20th Army of the Moscow Military District, alongside air force and air defense units. Russia is set to deploy strategic bombers, Su-24M Fencer tactical bombers, Su-27SM Flanker fighters, two new Mi-28N Night Hunter attack helicopters and a modernized A-50 Mainstay AWACS plane.
The exercise will also involve 40 tanks, 180 armored infantry carriers, 140 anti-tank guided missiles, and 30 multiple launch rocket systems.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/doc/HotNews.html
New Editor at The Moscow Times
Lynn Berry
Andrew McChesney, who started his journalism career with The Moscow Times more than nine years ago and has been with the paper ever since, is taking over from Lynn Berry as the paper's editor on Friday.
Berry, who became editor in January 2001, is the longest-serving editor in the newspaper's 14-year history. McChesney was the deputy editor throughout her tenure, and they worked together closely.
"I have all the confidence in the world that Andy will continue to uphold the standards the paper has set for solid reporting and impartial coverage of politics and business in Russia," Berry said.
"In this sense, the paper
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/06/16/002.html
Iran Open to Offer by UN Powers
By Henry Meyer
Ahmadinejad following Putin and Hu during the summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization on Thursday.
SHANGHAI -- President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Iran was ready to open negotiations on an offer by UN powers designed to encourage Tehran to relinquish its nuclear fuel enrichment program.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signaled Iran's willingness to take a step forward in resolving the nuclear dispute during talks with Putin.
"The Iranian side responded positively to the six-nation proposal for a way out of the crisis," Putin told reporters after the talks.
"Iran is ready to enter negotiations," he said, adding that he hoped Iran would soon set a date for the start of talks.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/06/16/014.html
Putin Calls for Energy Club in Asia
By Valeria Korchagina
Staff Writer
President Vladimir Putin on Thursday backed the creation of an Asian energy club to further develop economic cooperation between Russia, China and four Central Asian nations.
"I consider very timely the proposal to create the energy club of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and to expand cooperation in the transport and communication sectors," Putin said at the group's annual summit in Shanghai, as quoted in the official transcript.
Created five years ago, the organization unites China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. The summit was also attended by observers representing other Asian nations, including Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, welcomed Putin's proposal.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/06/16/015.html
Dangerous Mind
By Chris Floyd
Published: June 16, 2006
After last week's killing of terrorist chieftain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (or someone just like him) in Iraq, remembrances of his most celebrated alleged victim surfaced briefly in the press: Nicholas Berg, the young American businessman whose horrific beheading was publicized in a video fortuitously released a few days after the first revelations of torture by U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib….
...It's no wonder, then, that his media appearances last week were so brief and circumscribed. For there he was, the father of a victim murdered in the most gruesome fashion imaginable by the terrorist Zarqawi (or someone just like him), a survivor fully entitled to exult in the revenging fury and violent self-righteousness that are among the chief values of the Bush imperium -- and all Berg could talk about was mercy and forgiveness. He would not even take pleasure in the death of Zarqawi, whom he called a "fellow human being." Instead, he grieved for Zarqawi's family and wished that the brutal killer could have been subjected to "restorative justice" -- made to work in a hospital with children maimed by war, for example -- setting him on a path where his human decency might have been restored.
Nor would Berg praise that guardian of civilization, President Bush, for finally ending the career of the terrorist he had used so cynically to justify aggressive war. Instead, Berg blamed Bush for unleashing mass death on the people of Iraq, and instigating the cycle of violence that had consumed his son -- in murky circumstances. Just before his death, Nicholas Berg had been held by U.S. forces for 13 days without any charges or stated reason, missing his scheduled flight home; he was released only after his family filed a lawsuit charging illegal detention. Four days later, he disappeared again, into that dark maw where high politics and low murder feast on the same lies, the same flesh.
But even for the authors of war, for the state terrorists who kill on an industrial scale, Berg called for restoration, not revenge: They should be removed from power and compelled to some compassionate labor that might redeem their corrupted humanity.
It goes without saying that Berg's comments were instantly condemned throughout the vast engine of bile-driven groupthink known as the right-wing media. He was reviled as a traitor, a fool, a terrorist-lover, "less than human," a monster whose son will slap his face in the afterlife. He was derided for his quixotic congressional campaign as the Green Party candidate for Delaware: What place do such weapons of the weak -- mercy, forgiveness, nonviolence -- have in the halls of power? For the mainstream, he was just a blip, a quirky diversion in the flood of triumphant stories on Zarqawi's demise.
And to be sure, it is foolish to oppose the cherished values of our 21st-century civilization: violence, bluster, ignorance and fear. It's foolish to take upon oneself the responsibility to break the cycle of violence at last, to say, "Let it end with me, if nowhere else; let it end now, no matter what the provocation; let something new, something more human, some restoration take root in this bloodstained ground."
But what if such folly is the only way for humankind to begin climbing out of the festering pit we have made of the world?
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/06/16/120.html
A Working Relationship
The Muslim experience in tsarist Russia is often described as a cycle of repression, Russification and conflict. A new book by scholar Robert D. Crews tells a different story.
By Ronald Grigor Suny
Published: June 16, 2006
In her wisdom, the Empress Catherine II ordered that all religious faiths be tolerated in Russia. Herself a convert from Protestantism to Orthodoxy, Catherine, who earned the title "the Great" from her military victories and the expansion of her empire, was a true woman of the Enlightenment as well as a shrewd pragmatist. Through tolerance, she bound Russia's Muslims to her regime, guaranteed their loyalty and established her own governmental institutions as the courts of appeal for disputes within the Muslim communities. From the late 18th century to the end of the Romanov dynasty, a precarious but surprisingly successful benign symbiosis developed between the tsars and their Muslim subjects.
http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/06/16/106.html
The Washington Post
As Natural Gas Glut Looms, Producers Eye the Weather
By Steven Mufson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page D01
The whole world is talking about energy shortages, but for the moment, the U.S. natural gas business is looking at a potential glut.
Thanks in part to a warm winter, inventories of natural gas have built up to levels far greater than normal for this time of year. And terminals built to handle imports of liquefied natural gas from other countries are operating at about half of their capacity.
It is, unfortunately for consumers, a situation that may not last. Energy traders are still pricing futures contracts at high levels, and natural gas producers are planning for big increases in U.S. demand over the coming years. Yesterday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved proposals to build three new terminals and expand two others that together would triple the nation's capacity to import liquefied natural gas (LNG). One of those projects is an expansion of the LNG terminal at Cove Point in Calvert County, Md.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061502062.html
Shiite Militias Control Prisons, Official Says
By Jonathan Finer and Ellen Knickmeyer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page A01
BAGHDAD -- Iraq's prison system is overrun with Shiite Muslim militiamen who have freed fellow militia members convicted of major crimes and executed Sunni Arab inmates, the country's deputy justice minister said in an interview this week.
"We cannot control the prisons. It's as simple as that," said the deputy minister, Pusho Ibrahim Ali Daza Yei, an ethnic Kurd. "Our jails are infiltrated by the militias from top to bottom, from Basra to Baghdad."
As a result, Yei has asked U.S. authorities to suspend plans to transfer prisons and detainees from American to Iraqi control. "Our ministry is unprepared at this time to take over the facilities, especially those in areas where Shiite militias exist," he said in a letter to U.S. Army Maj. Gen. John D. Gardner, the official in charge of American detention facilities.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061502180.html
Parties Face Off Over Iraq War in 11-Hour Debate
By Jonathan Weisman and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page A01
Congress plunged into a wide-ranging debate over the origins and conduct of the war in Iraq yesterday, with each party excoriating the other for alleged weakness and complacency about the stakes involved.
As the Pentagon announced the 2,500th death of a U.S. service member in the conflict, the House embarked on its first extended discussion of the war since Congress authorized force nearly four years ago. More than 140 lawmakers took the floor to applaud or attack President Bush's prosecution of the war in an 11-hour debate scheduled to last until nearly midnight.
The debate will culminate today with a vote on a Republican-drafted resolution declaring that the United States must complete "the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure and united Iraq" without setting "an arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment" of U.S. troops.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061501390.html
Senate Approves $94.5B for War, Hurricane Funds
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page A07
An emergency spending bill to pay for war and storm-recovery costs is headed to President Bush after easily passing the Senate yesterday.
The 98 to 1 vote was a rare moment of consensus on a day of anguished debate in both chambers over the Iraq war.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061500705.html
Malvo Claims 4 Other Shootings, Source Says
List of Snipers' Confirmed and Suspected Attacks Across U.S. Grows to 27 -- 17 Fatal
By Ernesto Londoño and Eric Rich
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page A01
Lee Boyd Malvo told law enforcement officials this spring that he and fellow sniper John Allen Muhammad are responsible for four shootings across the country that have not been publicly attributed to them, a source familiar with the case said.
A second source confirmed that investigators have received information implicating the snipers in those shootings, which claimed the lives of two men and wounded two others in the months before the October 2002 slayings that terrorized the Washington region. The sources declined to speak for attribution because of the sensitivity of the information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061502142.html?sub=AR
Cleric Calls on Bush to Convert to Islam
By IRWAN FIRDAUS
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 15, 2006; 11:07 AM
SOLO, Indonesia -- A reputed leader of an al-Qaida-linked terror group blamed for deadly bombings across Indonesia on Thursday accused President Bush and Australia's prime minister of waging wars against Muslims in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Militant cleric Abu Bakar Bashir also called on Bush and Prime Minister John Howard to convert to Islam, saying it was "the only way to save their souls."
He added that families still grieving after the 2002 Bali blasts that killed many foreigners should also become Muslim to find "salvation and peace."
Bashir, 68, was released from prison Wednesday after completing a 26-month sentence for conspiracy in the Bali bombings that killed 202 people. He spoke Thursday at a hard-line Islamic boarding school that has spawned some of Southeast Asia's deadliest terrorists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061500300.html
Somali Militias Decry Terrorists
Letter to U.S. Pledges Nation Won't Be Haven
By Craig Timberg
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page A14
NAIROBI, June 15 -- The leader of Somalia's increasingly powerful Islamic militias sent a letter to the United States this week asserting that they would assist international efforts to prevent the fractured, chaotic country from becoming "a transit route or hiding ground" for terrorists.
The letter, dated Wednesday and sent to the State Department and the embassies of several other countries, gives a direct though conciliatory response to concerns by U.S. officials that the Islamic militias harbor terrorists linked to attacks across East Africa, including the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061502086.html
Magnetic Ecuador Is Coming Together
Ecuador 3, Costa Rica 0
By Steven Goff
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page E01
HAMBURG, June 15 -- They have come from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Nevada and California, and from adoptive homes in Spain, Italy and Belgium. They have dressed in blinding canary-yellow jerseys and snapped blue, red and yellow flags after every crushing goal. They have witnessed the team representing their native country, in only its second World Cup, win games with power and precision.
Most importantly, they have watched with immense pride as a once-undistinguished squad has passed the group stage after just seven days of competition in the sport's grandest theater.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061500754.html
Suicide-Risk Tests for Teens Debated
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page A03
A growing number of U.S. schools are screening teenagers for suicidal tendencies or signs of mental illness, triggering a debate between those who seek to reduce the toll of youthful suicides and others who say the tests are unreliable and intrude on family privacy.
The trend is being aggressively promoted by those who say screening can reduce the tragedy of the more than 1,700 suicides committed by children and adolescents each year in the United States. Many of the most passionate supporters have lost children to suicide -- among them Sen. Gordon Smith (R-Ore.), whose son Garrett died in 2003.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061501984.html
Underpaid and Barely Housed
By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page B01
In the life of a Washington intern, there are a couple of things one can count on: long days of work for little or no pay and late nights swilling pints of Yuengling with members of the opposite political party. In between, when it's time to recharge and put on a new button-down shirt, things get less predictable.
For the 15,000 to 20,000 interns who compete for housing in one of the tightest rental markets in decades, finding a decent place to live could be the biggest gamble of the summer.
Some interns come with fingers crossed and a hotel reservation or the promise of a cousin's couch as they brave the temporary housing market. Others line up a room in advance, hoping for the best and possibly paying the most for cramped apartments that go for three times the market rates.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061501963.html
Senators Grill Fannie Mae Chief
Mudd Tells Panel He Was 'Shocked' by Accounting Problems
By David S. Hilzenrath and Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page D02
Fannie Mae chief executive Daniel H. Mudd came under fire yesterday from members of a Senate committee who questioned how he could have been unaware of the company's alleged accounting fraud.
Mudd was chief operating officer during the years in which regulators have concluded that the housing finance company manipulated its accounting to maximize executive bonuses.
"I'm astounded you would even stay with this institution," Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) told Mudd at a hearing of the Senate Banking Committee. "Have you thought about resigning?"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/15/AR2006061500677.html
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