The Peninsula
Qatar to set up four more relief centres in Lebanon
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:43:6
Source ::: THE PENINSULA
H E Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi
DOHA • Qatar will be setting up four more relief centres in Lebanon to help the many people displaced by the recent aggression by Israel. Enough fuel has also been supplied by Qatar to last Lebanon for three months, according to Assistant Foreign Minister for Follow-Up Affairs H E Mohammad bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi.
Speaking in an interview with Al Sharq on Lebanon and other regional matters, he said that there was no contradiction between its support for the Lebanese position and Qatar's keenness to also implement peace and security in the region.
Mohammad bin Abdullah, who also heads the Foreign Ministry team here looking after Security Council matters, said the country's stance in the body helped in making changes to proposals made by the US and France on the draft resolution on a ceasefire in Lebanon.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=August2006&file=Local_News200608242436.xml
Nation News In Brief: Emir sends cable to Russia
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:43:37
Source ::: QNA
DOHA • The Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has sent President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation a cable of condolences on the loss of lives caused by the passenger plane crash in eastern Ukraine yesterday.
The Deputy Emir and Heir Apparent H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani also sent a similar cable to the Russian President.
Foreign Minister phones UN chief
Doha • The First Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani telephoned yesterday UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.
Over the phone, Annan briefed the minister on the outcome of the latest contacts and talks he had held concerning the UN Security Council’s resolution No 1701 which is connected with the situation between Lebanon and Israel .
The resolution calls for cessation of hostilities between Lebanon and Israel.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=August2006&file=Local_News2006082424337.xml
Russian air safety questioned after crash
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:27:16
Source ::: AFP
Journalists filming the black box found amongst the wreckage of Russian Tupolev Tu-154 airplane of Pulkovo Airlines, 45km north of the regional town of Donetsk, yesterday. (REUTERS)
MOSCOW • The latest crash of a Russian airliner was the third plane disaster in or near Russia in the past four months and has raised fresh questions about air travel safety in the country, experts said yesterday.
Aviation officials have suggested that Tuesday’s crash in eastern Ukraine was caused by severe weather, a possible explanation that raises as many questions about the crash that killed all 170 people aboard as it answers.
But whatever cause is ultimately assigned to the crash of Pulkovo airlines flight 612, the fact is that large civilian jets packed with passengers have fallen from the sky with alarming frequency recently.
“The pool of Russian planes is generally old,” said Yefim Gordon, a respected Russian aviation historian.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World%5FNews&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=August2006&file=World_News2006082422716.xml
Qatar cadets sent to UK
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:41:59
DOHA • The first part of a very successful cooperation between The Ministry of Defense and CHN Institute came to an end during this summer. CHN Institute trained Navy and Air Force cadets in General English for five months in four different levels of General English.
After the process of grading and assessing the new recruits, the first group of 44 students started their English courses in February 2006. The aim of these courses was to prepare young Qatari Nationals in English before they are being sent to UK to complete their training for the Navy and the Air Force. It is the first time that number as big as 40 cadets is being sent abroad. They reached their different destinations in UK by July 2006.
After the first batch successfully completed their course, a new group kicked off in August. They will complete their courses within the coming week.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=Local_News&subsection=Qatar+News&month=August2006&file=Local_News2006082424159.xml
Firefighters battle Greek fire for third day
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:26:51
Source ::: AFP
ATHENS • Firefighters in Greece battled wildfires on multiple fronts for the third straight day yester the damage wreaked on the picturesque northern peninsula of Halkidiki by a blaze that also claimed the life of a German tourist.
In Cassandra, the western point of the pine-forested peninsula, a force of 83 fire engines, over 260 firemen, 11 aircraft, volunteers and troops struggled to extinguish a fire which has destroyed some 3,500 hectares (8,500 acres) of forest, at least 15 buildings and killed scores of farm animals.
The fire, which on Monday neared tourist resorts and towns, leading hundreds of holidaymakers and residents to spend the night on local beaches, remained out of control along a 300-metre (yard) front near the village of Skioni, the fire department said.
On Monday, a German tourist drowned on Cassandra beach as he tried to board a dinghy to escape the fire, and dozens of people were treated at local hospitals for burns, injuries suffered in traffic accidents and respiratory problems.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=August2006&file=World_News2006082422651.xml
Chavez hails China’s economic boom
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:25:46
Source ::: AFP
BEIJING • Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hailed China yesterday as an economic model for the world as he began the first day of an official visit likely to see him secure lucrative energy contracts. At the outset of his six-day tour, Chavez praised his host nation for being able, in less than half a century, to leave behind a “practically feudal” society and turn itself into one of the world’s largest economies.
“It’s an example for western leaders and governments that claim capitalism is the only alternative,” he told reporters after he touched down at the Beijing International Airport. China’s achievement in reducing the number of poor people from 300 m to fewer than 30m in little more than a generation was a feat of world historical significance, he said.
“We’ve been manipulated to believe that the first man on the moon was the most important event of the 20th century,” Chavez said. “But no, much more important things happened, and one of the greatest events of the 20th century was the Chinese revolution.” While praising his host’s economic acumen, Chavez’s main purpose in visiting China was to sell oil, according to observers.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=August2006&file=World_News2006082422546.xml
China to ban teachers hitting, insulting kids
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:16:41
Source ::: REUTERS
BEIJING • China is changing the law to stop teachers hitting or insulting their pupils, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
More than 80 per cent of primary school pupils surveyed by the National Youth Working Committee last year said teacher insults were their most serious problem, the report said.
“The amendment ... requires teachers and other school staff to respect minors and prohibits corporal punishment of students,” Xinhua said.
The amendment is being considered by the standing committee of China’s rubber-stamp parliament.
Teachers who hit or insult their pupils could be fired, according to the new rules under consideration, Xinhua said.
Two years ago, a 17-year-old student killed herself after a teacher humiliated her in front of the class, it added.
The life of a Chinese student is not easy. For most, tuition is no longer free as it was in Communist China’s heyday, and pupils often go to after-hours cram schools to prepare them for highly competitive exams for a limited number of university places.
In poverty-stricken rural areas, some schools have no teachers, and children must study with only the most basic educational materials.
In 2001, more than 40 students died in a fireworks explosion in their classroom in the southeastern province of Jiangxi. Some parents said their children had been forced to make the fireworks in class to supplement the school’s income.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=August2006&file=World_News2006082421641.xml
Reports document post-Katrina failures
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:31:3
Source ::: AP
Former New Orleans resident Tiffany Ross sitting with her children during the opening of a center in Houston on Tuesday for the rehabilitation of Katrina victims.
NEW ORLEANS • No less than a half-dozen reports on the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort are being released to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the storm – and nearly all criticise the sluggish pace of the response.
The reports document a host of problems, from the still-unfinished levees to the plight of small businesses and the city's continuing racial divide.
"It's a pretty bleak picture," said Minor Sinclair, who heads the US regional office of Oxfam America, a charitable organisation.
Many of the reports focus on the failure of federal dollars to reach their intended targets. Oxfam's report points out that although $17bn has been approved by Congress to rebuild homes in Louisiana and Mississippi
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=August2006&file=World_News200608242313.xml
Moscow blast fuels race attacks
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:27:34
Source ::: REUTERS
MOSCOW • A bomb blast this week at a multi-ethnic market in Moscow that killed 10 people marked a dramatic escalation in a violent campaign by Russian far-right militants against immigrants.
Russia has seen a wave of racially-motivated attacks but until Monday’s bombing most were no more sophisticated than youths with shaved heads attacking dark-skinned people in the street, many of them immigrants from poor ex-Soviet republics.
Prosecutors said they had charged two students with racially-motivated murder over the bombing. A third man was being questioned. Racist literature and bomb-making materials were found in their dormitory, said prosecutors.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=August2006&file=World_News2006082422734.xml
Taiwan to boost military spending
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:25:5
Source ::: AFP
Taiwan’s President Chen Shui-bian (centre) and Defence Minister Lee Jye arriving at Kinmen, the fortified island group miles off China’s south-eastern Xiamen city, during a whirlwind visit, yesterday. (AFP)
TAIPEI • Taiwan’s cabinet yesterday decided to increase military spending by nearly 30 per cent next year as President Chen Shui-bian warned of rival China’s continuing hostility towards the island.
The cabinet approved a draft bill proposed by the defence ministry calling for 323.5bn Taiwan dollars (US$9.86bn) in spending next year, a rise of $71bn, or 28.1 per cent, from the current year. The planned military spending, pending the legislature’s final approval, would account for 18.7 per cent of the government budget for 2007, up from 15.3 per cent the preceding year. Much of the extra spending would be used to buy advanced US-made weaponry as part of the island’s efforts to boost its defense capability against China, the defense ministry said.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=August2006&file=World_News200608242255.xml
Nigerian oil unions mull quitting Niger Delta
Web posted at: 8/24/2006 2:25:57
Source ::: REUTERS
ABUJA • Nigeria’s oil workers’ unions may pull out all members from the Niger Delta over safety fears following a spate of abductions by militants and a military crackdown, the head of one of the unions said yesterday.
The two oil unions have called an emergency meeting after a bloody shoot-out on Sunday between troops and militants during a botched attempt to free a Nigerian hostage in the delta. It is not known whether the hostage, an employee of Royal Dutch Shell , survived. “We are afraid for the safety of our members and anyone working in the Niger Delta. We feel the government is not doing enough,” said Peter Esele, president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN).
A series of attacks on installations in the western delta in February forced Shell to evacuate workers from oilfields producing about 500,000 barrels per day, almost a quarter of Nigerian output. The disruptions to production in Opec member Nigeria, the world’s eighth largest crude oil exporter, have contributed to driving oil prices to current levels above $70 a barrel. Prices rose briefly on the news that the unions would call the meeting.
http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Display_news.asp?section=World_News&subsection=Rest+of+the+World&month=August2006&file=World_News2006082422557.xml
BBC
Oil workers released in Nigeria
Six foreign oil workers kidnapped in Nigeria 10 days ago have been released, according to government officials.
The men - two Britons, an American, an Irishman, a Pole and one other - were taken from a nightclub in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt.
"I appreciate everything everybody's done for us. We're having champagne," the American Royce Parfait told the Associated Press by phone.
The men were among a number of workers taken in a recent spate of abductions.
There was no information on who might have snatched the men.
They were kidnapped from the Port Harcourt nightclub on 13 August. Reports said gunmen entered the club and began shooting in the air, sending customers diving for cover.
Lucrative business
Last week, Nigerian police launched a crackdown on armed groups believed responsible for the wave of kidnappings.
More than 100 people were arrested, though most were reportedly later released.
Oil industry sources say hostage-taking has become an attractive business, as oil companies strike clandestine ransom deals - frowned upon by the government.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5280530.stm
Israel army chief admits failures
Israeli military chief of staff Lt Gen Dan Halutz has for the first time publicly admitted to failings in the conflict with Hezbollah.
In a letter to troops, he said it had exposed shortcomings in the military's logistics, operations and command.
There would be a thorough and honest investigation, he said.
Apart from his conduct of the war, Gen Halutz has faced criticism for selling his entire stock market portfolio hours before the outbreak of fighting.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
"We have to proceed to a meaningful examination of the successes and the errors. We have to extract professional lessons, as we are faced with more challenges... This test concerns us all, from me down to the last soldier," Gen Halutz said in his letter.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5282548.stm
EU's Lebanon action gathers pace
Finland's foreign minister, whose country holds the EU presidency, says he would like to see fresh UN troops deployed in Lebanon within a week.
Erkki Tuomioja was speaking as he made whistlestop visits to France and Germany to discuss Europe's contribution to the peace force.
France will reveal later on Thursday if it is boosting its 200 extra troops.
Meanwhile, the UN has launched what it calls a 60-day plan to tackle the humanitarian situation in Lebanon.
Hundreds of thousands of people have returned to southern Lebanon to find their homes destroyed or badly damaged and have no access to proper sanitation or drinking water, UN emergency relief co-ordinator Jan Egeland said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5280734.stm
Kiryat Shmona counts cost of war
By Raffi Berg
BBC News, Kiryat Shmona, Israel
With a fragile ceasefire holding between Israel and Hezbollah, Israel's northern-most city of Kiryat Shmona is slowly emerging from more than a month under fire.
Just a mile and a half east of the Lebanese border, the city was battered by at least 1,000 missiles, more than anywhere else in Israel.
The battle scars are evident everywhere - shattered roofs, pock-marked walls, buildings in a state of collapse - and the residents are shell-shocked and exhausted.
Sandwiched between the Golan Heights and the Naftali Hills, Kiryat Shmona has for years been on the front line of Israel's skirmishes with militants in south Lebanon.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5264594.stm
Syria warns over UN peacekeepers
Syria has reportedly threatened to close its border with Lebanon if UN peacekeepers are deployed along it.
Finland's foreign minister outlined the Syrian position after meeting his Syrian counterpart in Helsinki.
"They will close their borders for all traffic in the event that UN troops are deployed..." Erkki Tuomioja said.
Earlier, the Syrian president, Bashar Assad, said the stationing of UN troops just across its border with Lebanon would be a hostile move against Syria.
"This is an infringement on Lebanese sovereignty and a hostile position," President Bashar Assad told Arab TV.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5280592.stm
Challenges facing Lebanon peace force
By Paul Reynolds
World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website
The ceasefire in Lebanon is now being followed by a complex series of manoeuvres, under UN Security Council resolution 1701, to try to ensure that conflict does not break out again.
"I think the next few days are still indeed quite dangerous," said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the French diplomat who heads the UN's peacekeeping operations.
(Update Thursday: The French have agreed to command an international peacekeeping force as long as its rules of engagement are clear in advance. However these have yet to be agreed.)
(Update Friday: however, France has offered only 200 troops for the force so far and this has disappointed UN officials.
Italy has since emerged as a possible force leader.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4794673.stm
Kenya ready to fete Obama return
Kenyans are preparing a hero's welcome for US Senator Barack Obama, who is to make his first visit to his father's homeland since his 2004 election.
The road to his family village of Nyangoma Kogalo in western Kenya has been upgraded and local residents have been busy cutting the grass.
Pupils at a local school have been rehearsing a song to welcome him.
Mr Obama is the only black US Senator and is seen as a rising star of the Democratic party.
He is expected to arrive in Nairobi on Thursday, before travelling west at the weekend.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5281190.stm
Zanzibar bans mainland's bananas
Bananas are one of Zanzibar's top exports
Zanzibar's government has banned the import of bananas from the Tanzanian mainland to the islands, in a move aimed at controlling diseases.
The island authorities says an outbreak of a disease called banana bacterial wilt on the mainland could destroy Zanzibar's own banana crop.
The disease can cause up to 90% crop losses. The banana import ban is to continue indefinitely.
Bananas are among Zanzibar's top exports, together with fish and rice.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/5282196.stm
Attempt to impeach Arroyo fails
Philippine President Gloria Arroyo has survived a second attempt to impeach her over allegations of corruption, human rights abuses and election fraud.
After a long session, the House of Representatives voted 173-32 to dismiss the opposition's complaint against her.
The move blocked a potentially damaging trial in the Senate, which is dominated by the opposition.
But Mrs Arroyo's opponents say they will continue their efforts to have her removed from office.
"I am happy to report to our people that we just closed the impeachment case," Jose de Venecia, speaker of the House of Representatives, told reporters on Thursday.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5280686.stm
China abortion activist sentenced
A Chinese activist who raised concerns about forced abortions has been jailed for public order offences.
Chen Guangcheng was sentenced to four years and three months for "damaging property and organising a mob to disturb traffic", state media said.
Mr Chen had accused officials in Shandong province of breaking family planning laws in their enforcement of the one-child policy.
His trial last week took two hours, and his lawyers were arrested before it.
One of the lawyers who was arrested, Li Fangping, told the BBC that Mr Chen had been represented, against his will, by two state-appointed lawyers in the closed-door proceedings.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/5281440.stm
Lebanon holds train bomb suspect
A second suspect in last month's alleged plot to blow up German trains has been arrested in Lebanon, prosecutors in Germany say.
They say Jihad Hamad, 19, turned himself in to police in the northern city of Tripoli.
The other suspect, a 21-year-old Lebanese student, was arrested in the German city of Kiel last week.
Two bombs were found on trains in Dortmund and Koblenz in late July. The devices failed to go off, police said.
The bombers had intended to kill large numbers of people, police said.
Security has since been stepped up at German airports and the rail authorities have announced they are installing more closed circuit TV cameras at stations.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5281208.stm
Can Nato bring peace and order to Afghanistan?
Is the rise in violence the result of international community's greater focus on other conflicts like Iraq and Lebanon?
While the eyes of the world are on Iraq and Lebanon, al-Qaeda and Taleban militants have recently stepped up their insurgency against the government and foreign forces, particularly in the south and east Afghanistan.
A Nato peacekeeping force, currently under British leadership, has been deployed to help extend government control across the country, but increasingly finds itself fighting militants and taking casualties.
Is Nato failing in its objective to stabilise the country? Is it the organisation best suited to win 'hearts and minds'? What is the way forward for the Afghan government? Tell us what you think.
We will be discussing these issues in our global phone-in programme Have Your Say on Sunday 27 August at 1406GMT. If you would like to take part please include your phone number. It will not appear online.
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?threadID=3383&&&edition=2&ttl=20060824164429
Austrian girl 'found' after years
More details have emerged in Austria suggesting that a woman found near Vienna on Wednesday is a schoolgirl who vanished eight years ago.
The passport of Natascha Kampusch was found at the house where she was allegedly imprisoned and the woman had the same distinctive scar as the girl.
DNA test results are due later on Thursday which Austrian police expect will confirm the woman's identity.
The suspected kidnapper died after throwing himself in front of a train.
The man, named in Austrian media as Wolfgang Priklopil, had been chased by police earlier on Wednesday evening and his red BMW car was later found abandoned.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5280472.stm?l
Tea 'healthier' drink than water
Drinking three or more cups of tea a day is as good for you as drinking plenty of water and may even have extra health benefits, say researchers.
The work in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition dispels the common belief that tea dehydrates.
Tea not only rehydrates as well as water does, but it can also protect against heart disease and some cancers, UK nutritionists found.
Experts believe flavonoids are the key ingredient in tea that promote health.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/5281046.stm
Chicago Tribune
32,000 without power as storms roll through area
By Dan P. Blake
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 24, 2006, 9:17 AM CDT
Severe thunderstorms quickly rolled through the Chicago area this morning, bringing with them lightning and heavy winds that felled trees and knocked out power to tens of thousands.
Earlier, in northern Indiana, thousands of homes and business in a 30-mile-wide stretch near Lake Michigan were left without power in the wake of a severe thunderstorm that swept in from the lake with strong winds and large hail.
This morning's area storm damage included a house in north suburban Buffalo Grove that was struck by lightning. Fire destroyed half of the home's roof, but no one was injured, WGN Radio reported.
O'Hare International Airport reported average delays of 20 to 40 minutes for all inbound and outbound flights. But only a handful of flights have been canceled, according to Department of Aviation spokeswoman Wendy Abrams. Midway is averaging flight delays of 30 minutes to an hour, with 10 flights having been canceled, she said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060824weather,1,6055696.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Warmest in 18 days Tuesday; now on to 90 (degrees)
Published August 23, 2006
Tuesday's 87 (degrees) high at both O'Hare and Midway was the city's warmest temperature in the 18 days since the 89 (degrees) high on Aug. 4. While only 7 (degrees) above normal, only two Aug. 22 daytime highs have been any warmer here in the past 30 years. The 87 (degrees) reading here was the same high recorded at Oklahoma City Tuesday. But there, the reading was significant because it marked the first time in 56 days readings failed to exceed 90 (degrees).
Cordoba, Alaska, on the state's southern coast, has been swamped by 13" of rain in just the past two days. Like Chicago, August is southern Alaska's wettest month. But the rains of the past two weeks have been extraordinary from the southeast Alaska Panhandle north to the Alaska Range. Normally the result of typhoon remnants, this year's rains have been spawned by non-tropical systems and have buried glaciers above the 4,000 ft. level under snow.
Tom Skilling is chief meteorologist at WGN-TV. His forecasts can be seen Monday through Friday on WGN-TV News at noon and 9 p.m.
WGN-TV meteorologists Steve Kahn, Richard Koeneman and Paul Dailey plus weather producer Bill Snyder contribute to this page.
http://www.chicagotribune.com:/news/weather/chi-0608230299aug23,1,1580724.column?coll=chi-news-hed
Paramount concern: Cruise's behavior
Published August 23, 2006
Hollywood is a tolerant place. It will accept almost anything, except a bad balance sheet.
Ask Tom Cruise.
Drug and alcohol abuse, sexual infidelities, run-ins with the law, abhorrent beliefs--none of it keeps you from working in show business. Look at Woody Allen, Hugh Grant and Mel Gibson.
WGN-TV video
But Paramount Pictures is ushering Cruise's production company off its lot after 14 years and, according to Sumner Redstone, chairman of Viacom, the studio's parent, it's because Cruise has been, well, weird.
Truth be told, Cruise has been weird and expensive, and that's a lethal combo. So the star, who arguably has brought more money into Paramount than any other, is on the outs.
Redstone, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal posted online Tuesday, blamed Cruise's recent behavior for the performance of "Mission: Impossible III."
The fact that "Impossible" trilogy already might have exhausted itself apparently is not considered as big a factor as Cruise pummeling "Today" co-host Matt Lauer with Scientology's denunciation of antidepressant drugs and pouncing on Oprah Winfrey's couch to proclaim his love for Katie Holmes.
"As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal," Redstone told the Journal. "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."
That's stunning, because being weird usually is considered a prerequisite for entry into the entertainment industry rather than a ticket out of it.
After all, if Hollywood suddenly rid itself of everyone who is weird, it would be like a neutron bomb went off. Structures would remain but the place would be a ghost town.
Of course, it's also possible Redstone finds something else disturbing, and it isn't weird.
The Los Angeles Times has reported "Mission: Impossible III" is likely to gross close to $400 million worldwide, with another $200 million in DVD cash, but Paramount probably will only break even because Cruise's take could be $80 million.
Cruise/Wagner Productions, Cruise's partnership with former agent Paula Wagner (wife of Cruise's current agent, Creative Artists Agency's Rick Nicita), has enjoyed an unusually lucrative arrangement with Paramount, through which it produces films for Paramount and other studios, some of which he stars in, some of which he doesn't.
This is no doubt in part because Cruise made tons of cash for Paramount with such hits as "Top Gun," "Days of Thunder" and "Mission: Impossible."
According to the Times, Paramount has a commitment to Cruise/Wagner of upwards of $10 million a year, though it's not known how much the company was actually spending. With current studio chief Brad Grey trying to rein in costs, the renewal offer was thought to be around $2.5 million for each of the next two years, closer to what fellow A-listers Brad Pitt and Johnny Depp get to underwrite their companies.
If Cruise was costly to Paramount, his behavior apparently made him costlier, according to Redstone.
Now Cruise/Wagner, which has a staff of about 10 people, will be vacating its two floors in the Lucille Ball Building. Wagner told Daily Variety the company is talking to others about distributing its films, which will be self-financed.
Some recent Cruise/Wagner efforts, such as "Elizabethtown" and "Narc," have not exactly done great business. But 2001's "The Others," a film on which Paramount passed, cost less than $18 million and brought in almost 12 times that for Miramax's Dimension Films, a tidy return.
If Paramount had been making money off Cruise, the Oprah couch thing and all that wouldn't be a big deal. It's always been more about dollars than sense in Hollywood.
To hear Redstone, however, a little Cruise control would have gone a long way.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-060823cruise,1,6526070.column?coll=chi-news-hed
Inactive Marines recalled to duty
Corps says too few volunteer for tours in Iraq, Afghanistan
By Julian E. Barnes, Tribune Newspapers
Los Angeles Times
Published August 23, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The Marine Corps said Tuesday that it would begin calling thousands of Marines back to active-duty service on an involuntary basis to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan, the latest sign that American armed forces are under strain.
Marine commanders will call up formerly active-duty service members now classified as reservists after the corps failed to find enough volunteers among their emergency reserve pool to fill needed jobs in combat zones. The call-ups will begin in several months, summoning as many as 2,500 reservists at a time to serve for a year or more.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0608230164aug23,1,6770850.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Getting to the truth on Iraq
Molly Ivins, Creators Syndicate
Published August 24, 2006
AUSTIN, Texas -- The Bushies are having the hardest time trying to un-lie now. For example, at his Monday press conference, President Bush asserted, "Nobody's ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the [Sept. 11, 2001] attack."
How true: What Vice President Dick Cheney said in December 2001 about links between Sept. 11 and Iraq was that it was "pretty well confirmed" that hijacking ringleader Mohammed Atta had met with Iraqi intelligence. On June 17, 2004, Cheney said: "We have never been able to confirm that, nor have we been able to knock it down, we just don't know. ... I can't refute the Czech claim, I can't prove the Czech claim, I just don't know."
In July 2004, the CIA's own report stated it does not have "any credible information" that the meeting ever took place. The CIA said the whole concoction was based on a single source "whose veracity ... has been questioned" and the Iraqi official allegedly involved was in U.S. custody and denied the meeting ever took place. The commission that investigated Sept. 11 had already concluded that the meeting never occurred.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0608240026aug24,1,6753469.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
2 privates charged in Marine slayings
Joliet High graduate, roommate shot in an attack on home
By Gerry Doyle
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 23, 2006
Two Marines in North Carolina were charged Tuesday in the slayings of two other Marines from the Chicago area last week, police said.
Lance Cpl. Jordan Barrow, 19, was found dead early Aug. 15 along with Lance Cpl. Amanda Carrithers, 19, with whom he shared a house in Jacksonville, said Jacksonville Police Chief Mike Yaniero. The two were stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., but were living off the base, he said.
"From what we've pieced together, [the four Marines] knew each other," Yaniero said. "They knocked on the door and came in the house and shot Mr. Barrow first, and then Carrithers. There wasn't any sign of forced entry."
Yaniero said Carrithers was the target of the attack, which occurred about 12:20 a.m. Barrow made it out of the house and was trying to get help from a neighbor when he died of his three bullet wounds, Yaniero said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0608230135aug23,1,5787808.story?coll=chi-news-hed
St. Xavier professor says leave is forced
War injuries caused sabbatical, he says
By Jo Napolitano
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 23, 2006
An associate professor at St. Xavier University says the school is placing him on "forced sabbatical" to avoid accommodating physical disabilities that resulted from his service in Iraq.
Christopher Cooper, a Marine and reservist who suffered numerous injuries in the war, said the university is acting in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. St. Xavier denies that.
"No one takes a sabbatical 2 1/2 weeks before the semester starts," said Cooper, who is tenured. "I went to work Friday under the contract I signed back in June, my teaching contract. They didn't say anything. On Saturday morning, I received an e-mail saying I was on sabbatical."
Cooper's right leg was seriously injured in 2004 when he was thrown from a Humvee and then dragged by the vehicle for 6 to10 feet.
He also contracted two viruses while serving overseas. The first, which causes extreme abdominal pain, adversely affects his bladder, making him urinate more frequently. The second leaves him with swollen glands, a chronic sinus infection, painful blisters on his tongue and, ultimately, vertigo.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608230252aug23,1,5984190.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Dutch F-16s Escort Plane Back to Airport
By Associated Press
Published August 23, 2006, 7:39 AM CDT
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- Dutch F-16s escorted a Northwest Airlines flight bound for India back to Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport on Wednesday after the pilot radioed an unspecified security alarm, and authorities questioned some of the passengers, officials said.
The pilot of Flight NW0042 to Bombay radioed Schiphol for permission to return and for a military escort as it was flying over Germany shortly after leaving Amsterdam, said spokeswoman Pamela Kuypers.
Several passengers on the flight to Bombay were taken off the plane for questioning, and others were questioned at the gate, Kuypers said. Routine security measures were swiftly put into place.
Customs police were investigating, she said.
Customs police spokesman Rick Hirs said it was not yet clear why the plane had returned. He said no one had been arrested and there were no injuries.
The Dutch National Terrorism Coordinator's Office had been informed of the incident but said there was no cause to raise the national threat level, said spokeswoman Judith Sluiter.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-netherlands-airplane-diverted,0,868656.story?coll=chi-homepagepromo440-fea
DNA links 9 sexual attacks
Public asked to help find fugitive in assaults reaching back 7 years
By Tonya Maxwell
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 23, 2006
Chicago police are asking the public to help identify a man they suspect in at least nine sexual assaults of South and Southwest Side women and girls since 1999.
Police released a sketch and description of the unknown man on Tuesday after state crime lab technicians matched his DNA profile to each of the cases, officials said at a news conference. The most recent victim, a 12-year-old girl, was assaulted in August 2005 after the suspect picked her up in the area of Marquette Park, said Sgt. Anthony Kuta.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608230250aug23,1,5197756.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Obama in Iranian no-talk zone
Posted by Jeff Zeleny at 6:24 am CDT
PRETORIA, South Africa -- It is a policy of the U.S. government to have no direct communication with Iran. Between the two nations, there are no formal diplomatic ties.
But what if a U.S. senator and an Iranian foreign minister happened to be staying in the same hotel -- on the same floor, no less -- and bumped into each other in the hallway?
A hypothetical question, it's not.
Here in Pretoria, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Motakki are staying in the same hotel. Their groups have crossed paths in the lobby of the Sheraton Hotel, but the two officials have not. Yet.
"They are staying on our floor of our hotel," Obama said Tuesday evening. "So if I bump into them in the elevator, I'm going to say 'What's up.'"
Obama was joking around when he said it, but the tone of his voice quickly turned serious when a reporter asked whether he actually could speak to the minister, given the U.S. policy toward Iran.
"Technically, we're not supposed to," Obama said. "And that obviously would be inappropriate at a moment when there are extraordinarily delicate negotiations going on for me to interject myself, even if that was possible."
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2006/08/obama_in_irania.html
Wal-Mart bans voter registration group
Items compiled from Tribune news services
Published August 23, 2006
NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE -- A voter registration group has been banished from Wal-Marts in Tennessee for failing to meet the retailer's non-partisan standards.
Liberty Consultants wanted to register Wal-Mart shoppers in seven suburban counties around Nashville. But the request was denied after the company's owner, Gary Thompson, acknowledged he had been hired by Tempe, Ariz.-based Sproul & Associates.
Sproul & Associates was paid $7.9 million by the Republican National Committee for consulting and voter registration in 2004, according to data from the Center for Responsive Politics.
http://www.chicagotribune.com:/business/chi-0608230174aug23,1,5572547.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Look out, Bobby--bin Laden might be sweet on Whitney
Published August 23, 2006
Who would have ever thought we'd see Osama bin Laden and Whitney Houston paired in the same sentence, let alone with a romantic/obsessive twist?
Yet one memoirist is linking those very same names.
Sudanese writer and activist Kola Boof, 37, claims in "Diary of a Lost Girl" that she was the unwilling mistress of the leader of Al Qaeda years before he masterminded the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and that he often fantasized about the pop diva.
In her book, Boof alleges that bin Laden joked about killing Houston's husband, Bobby Brown, and then inviting Houston to join his harem.
"He mentioned her constantly, how beautiful she is, what a nice smile, how truly Islamic she is, but just brainwashed by American culture and her husband," Boof reportedly said.
The story was first reported by the New York Post's Page Six. Harper's Bazaar has excerpted the book.
http://www.chicagotribune.com:/entertainment/chi-0608230203aug23,1,5821072.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed
Anti-poverty victories have to begin at home
Published August 23, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Amid the flood of one-year-after analyses of Hurricane Katrina's impact on the Gulf Coast, it is important to remember what Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said on the Senate floor shortly after the storm: "I hope we realize that the people of New Orleans weren't just abandoned during the hurricane. They were abandoned long ago to murder and mayhem in the streets, to substandard schools, to dilapidated housing, to inadequate health care, to a pervasive sense of hopelessness."
Indeed, despite the hard-won victories of the civil rights movement, the black poor of New Orleans, like poor communities in many other cities, were failed, abandoned and left isolated, not only by Washington but by all levels of government long before Katrina blew in.
And the failure was not limited to government, as my friend and colleague Juan Williams argues in his new book "Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movement, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America--and What We Can Do About It."
As you might guess from its mouthful of a title, Williams, author of "Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965," targets a failure of black leadership too.
http://www.chicagotribune.com:/news/opinion/chi-0608230124aug23,1,5770426.column?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
Topinka gambling on casino
Candidate pins hopes for schools, tax relief on gaming in Chicago
By Rick Pearson, Tribune political reporter. Tribune staff reporters Virginia Groark and Crystal Yednak contributed to this report
Published August 24, 2006
Republican governor candidate Judy Baar Topinka unveiled a four-year revenue plan for the state Wednesday that hinges upon the controversial creation of a land-based Chicago casino to help raise billions of dollars for public schools and property-tax relief.
After criticizing Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich for "four years of gimmicks" to manage the state budget, Topinka turned to the politically volatile issue of gambling to anchor what she called her $15 billion "budget recovery plan."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608240209aug24,1,7163842.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Davis' Tamil trip scrutinized
Terror group funded visit, law officials say
By Andrew Zajac and Mike Dorning
Washington Bureau
Published August 24, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Chicago congressman Danny Davis and an aide took a trip to Sri Lanka last year that was paid for by the Tamil Tigers, a group that the U.S. government has designated as a terrorist organization for its use of suicide bombers and child soldiers, law-enforcement sources said.
Davis' seven-day trip came under scrutiny this week following the arrests of 11 supporters of the organization on charges of participating in a broad conspiracy to aid the terrorist group through money laundering, arms procurement and bribery of U.S. officials.
The five-term Democratic congressman said he was unaware that the Tigers paid for the trip and on his required congressional disclosure form he reported that the trip was paid for by a Tamil cultural organization, the Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America, based in Hickory Hills, Ill.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608240213aug24,1,5263293.story?coll=chi-news-hed&?track=sto-topstory
U.S. Cold War gift: Iran nuclear plant
Now cited as evidence of weapons activity, facility was provided to shah's government
By Sam Roe
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 24, 2006
In the heart of Tehran sits one of Iran's most important nuclear facilities, a dome-shaped building where scientists have conducted secret experiments that could help the country build atomic bombs. It was provided to the Iranians by the United States.
The Tehran Research Reactor represents a little-known aspect of the international uproar over the country's alleged weapons program. Not only did the U.S. provide the reactor in the 1960s as part of a Cold War strategy, America also supplied the weapons-grade uranium needed to power the facility--fuel that remains in Iran and could be used to help make nuclear arms.
As the U.S. and other countries wrestle with Iran's refusal this week to curb its nuclear capabilities, an examination of the Tehran facility sheds light on the degree to which the United States has been complicit in Iran developing those capabilities.
Though the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations nuclear watchdog, has found no proof Iran is building a bomb, the agency says the country has repeatedly concealed its nuclear activities from inspectors. And some of these activities have taken place in the U.S.-supplied reactor, IAEA records show, including experiments with uranium, a key material in the production of nuclear weapons.
U.S. officials point to these activities as evidence Iran is trying to construct nuclear arms, but they do not publicly mention that the work has taken place in a U.S.-supplied facility.
The U.S. provided the reactor when America was eager to prop up the shah, who also was aligned against the Soviet Union at the time. After the Islamic revolution toppled the shah in 1979, the reactor became a reminder that in geopolitics, today's ally can become tomorrow's threat.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0608240188aug24,1,1982129.story?coll=chi-news-hed
FDA Eases Limits on Plan B Sales
By ANDREW BRIDGES
Published August 24, 2006, 9:27 AM CDT
WASHINGTON -- Women may buy the morning-after pill without a prescription -- but only with proof they're 18 or older, federal health officials ruled Thursday, capping a contentious three-year effort to ease access to the emergency contraceptive.
Girls 17 and younger still will need a doctor's note to buy the pills, called Plan B, the Food and Drug Administration told manufacturer Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc.
The compromise decision is a partial victory for women's advocacy and medical groups that say eliminating sales restrictions could cut in half the nation's 3 million annual unplanned pregnancies. Opponents have argued that wider access could increase promiscuity.
The pills are a concentrated dose of the same drug found in many regular birth-control pills. When a woman takes the pills within 72 hours of unprotected sex, she can lower the risk of pregnancy by up to 89 percent. If she already is pregnant, the pills have no effect.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/sns-ap-morning-after-pill,1,4217685.story?coll=chi-news-hed
West Nile claims 1st '06 victim in Illinois
By Jo Napolitano
Tribune Staff Reporter
Published August 24, 2006
A 68-year-old Crete man died Wednesday of West Nile virus, becoming the first fatal case in the state this year, authorities said.
The man's name was not released, but Will County Health Department spokesman Vic Reato said he was hospitalized for "some time" before succumbing to the virus, which was identified Tuesday.
Reato, who also would not say which hospital treated the man, said he suffered from many of the illness' classic symptoms, including mental confusion, fever, severe headaches, dizziness, nausea and sensitivity to light.
The spokesman cautioned people to protect themselves from the potentially deadly virus.
"What we are really about is educating the public about the need to take precautions against mosquito bites," he said, especially between dusk and dawn.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608240050aug24,1,4870076.story?coll=chi-news-hed
'Hitler' Restaurant to Change Name
By Associated Press
Published August 24, 2006, 8:54 AM CDT
BOMBAY, India -- The owner of a restaurant named after Adolf Hitler said Thursday he will change its name because it angered so many people.
Puneet Sablok said he would remove Hitler's name and the Nazi swastika from billboards and the menu. He had said the restaurant's name -- "Hitler's Cross" -- and symbols were only meant to attract attention.
Sablok made the decision after meeting with members of Bombay's small Jewish community.
"Once they told me how upset they were with the name, I decided to change it," he said. "I don't want to do business by hurting people."
Sablok said he had not yet decided on a new name.
Hitler's Cross opened five days ago and serves pizza, salad and pastries in Navi Mumbai, a suburb of Bombay, also known as Mumbai.
On Thursday, Bombay's Jewish community welcomed Sablok's decision to rename his restaurant.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-hitler-eatery,1,7176100.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Wal-Mart Opens Communist Branch in China
By ELAINE KURTENBACH
AP Business Writer
Published August 24, 2006, 5:55 AM CDT
SHANGHAI, China -- Capitalist icon Wal-Mart, the world's biggest retailer, now has its first communist party branch.
The party branch, a Communist Youth League branch and a trade union were set up earlier this month at the outlet in the northeastern rust belt city of Shenyang, a staffer in the store's communications department said, confirming Chinese media reports.
Like many media-shy Chinese, she gave only her surname, Liu. She would not discuss further details.
Repeated phone calls to the public relations department of Wal-Mart's China headquarters in the southern city of Shenzhen went unanswered Thursday afternoon.
President Hu Jintao, who heads the ruling communist party, reportedly prompted China's state-sanctioned labor group to launch a campaign to set up party-controlled unions in Wal-Mart branches. The retailer resisted for two years before employees in the southeastern city of Quanzhou successfully voted to set up a union in late July.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-china-wal-mart,1,502644.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Chicago film festival will honor Hoffman
By Michael Phillips
Published August 24, 2006
Dustin Hoffman, who shot scenes for his new comedy "Stranger Than Fiction" here last year, picks up the career achievement award at this year's Chicago International Film Festival.
The 69-year-old Hoffman is expected Oct. 5 for the Chicago Theatre opening night "Fiction" screening. Director Marc Forster's film is about a novelist (played by Emma Thompson) whose main character (Will Ferrell) takes on a life of his own. Hoffman plays a literature professor who aids the fictional character's quest for survival.
"I'm really proud of it," Hoffman has said, pointing out he has "only said that about three times during my career."
The 42nd film festival runs Oct. 5-19 and showcases more than 100 features from more than 30 countries. The Cannes Film Festival favorites "Babel" and "Ten Canoes" are among the movies on offer, along with the restored 1927 silent version of "Chicago."
Screenings will take place at AMC River East 21, Landmark Century Centre Cinema and Northwestern University's Thorne Auditorium. Advance discount passes are available at 312-902-1500 or at www.chicagofilmfestival.org.
The Personals page was compiled by Emily Rosenbaum from Tribune news services and staff reports.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0608240182aug24,1,1294495.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed
Pedestrian bridge to fun and profit
Link to Prairie Path and CTA Blue Line likely to open in fall
By Victoria Pierce
Special to the Tribune
Published August 24, 2006
Two cranes carefully lifted separate spans of a pedestrian bridge into place over the Des Plaines River Wednesday, speeding the day when thousands of bicyclists, lawyers and residents of the western suburbs will be closer to their destinations.
The bridge, which is expected to open in the fall, will link the Illinois Prairie Path with the CTA's Blue Line.
Cyclists will be able to take the Blue Line to the last stop in Forest Park where they can pedal as far as Elgin or Aurora. Likewise, west suburban bicyclists will be able to tour the lakefront without using their cars to get downtown.
And for many employees and patrons of the Maybrook courthouse in Maywood, the bridge will provide a short walk from the "L" line to the courthouse on the west bank of the Des Plaines River in Maywood.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0608240039aug24,1,7491523.story?coll=chi-news-hed
London's larder
The ancient-but-now-trendy Borough Market reflects the city's growing fascination with food
Story and photos by Carolyn McGuire
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 23, 2006
LONDON -- In a city rich with markets, Borough Market is foodie central.
While it doesn't rank with Buckingham Palace or the Tower of London as a tourist destination, the word is out that it's a market not just for Londoners.
Frequented by top chefs (Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay) and a location for movies ("Bridget Jones's Diary," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban," "Howards End"), it is a place where running into a celebrity shopper ("Is that Helen Mirren?" "Did I just bump into Keira Knightley?") can add extra spiff to the scene.
But Borough is more than a fashionable, trendy place. Located in the Bankside area of London south of the River Thames and the London Bridge, it is a market where visitors can engage the fishmonger who caught diver scallops off the coast of Dorset that morning, the London woman who will share a secret or two about her steamed puddings, the Cumbrian farmer who is determined to elevate mutton's not-so-tasty reputation and a cheesemaker from Cheshire whose family has been making Cheddar for about 200 years.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0608230001aug23,1,6682043.story?coll=chi-homepagetravel-hed
BASEBALL LITTLE LEAGUE WORLD SERIES
Run was great until the last hop
Defense, bats fail Lemont but team battles foe hard till the bitter end
BEAVERTON, ORE. 4, LEMONT 3
By Skip Myslenski
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 24, 2006
SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. -- There were men on second and third.
At the plate, Lemont second baseman Michael Hall was in a 1-2 hole.
He was his team's last chance, its last hope for survival against Beaverton, Ore., in the Little League World Series.
Hall swung and hit a hard hopper to second. Sam Albert corralled it on the short hop but then threw short. He inhaled until teammate Jace Fry dug the ball from the dirt for the game's final out as the Oregon team prevailed 4-3.
Hall, whose father, Mike, is the Lemont manager, collapsed in disappointment just beyond first base.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/baseball/chi-0608240245aug24,1,2643178.story?coll=chi-sportsnew-hed
The New Zealand Herald
World's Fastest Indian scores seven Screen Awards
10.15pm Thursday August 24, 2006
By Scott Kara
Invercargill seven - Grey Lynn nil.
The World's Fastest Indian, the hit film about the motorcycle exploits of legendary Southland speedfreak Burt Munro roared away with seven honours at the 2006 Screen Awards tonight.
However its comedy rival Sione's Wedding, about four wayward Samoan blokes from Grey Lynn, came away empty handed despite its 10 nominations and a local box office popularity second only to Indian.
Sione's star and co-writer, Oscar Kightley - and his fellow members of the Naked Samoans comedy team - had to be content with three TV awards for animated series bro'Town, which included best comedy.
The Air New Zealand-sponsored awards bringing together the local big and small screen industries were held at Auckland's SkyCity.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/6/story.cfm?c_id=6&objectid=10397907
New anti-HIV drug will save lives, Aids foundation says
5.00pm Thursday August 24, 2006
The decision by Pharmac to begin funding a new drug for HIV sufferers will mean the difference between life and death for some people, the New Zealand Aids Foundation (NZAF) says.
The Government's drug-buying agency Pharmac announced today it would start subsidising enfuvirtide (also known as fuzeon, or T20), from September 1.
The drug, which was aproved in the United States in March 2003, is the first of a new class of anti-HIV drugs, which block the HIV virus outside the body's cells, rather than attempting to treat it once cells are already infected.
Enfuvirtide is used in combination with other drugs, and injected twice daily. Studies overseas have proven its effectiveness in controlling HIV.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10397861
Deadly alpine quake predicted
Thursday August 24, 2006
By Jarrod Booker
An overdue alpine fault earthquake will strike "out of the blue" and cause widespread death, shut down power generators, create tsunami within New Zealand and overwhelm emergency services, experts warn.
The major quake will cause intense shaking and rupturing along hundreds of kilometres of the fault line bisecting the South Island, geology experts Tim Davies and Mauri McSaveney predict.
"The most likely time [for the quake] is now. The next most likely time for it to happen is tomorrow," Associate Professor Davies, of Canterbury University, told the Natural Hazards Management Conference in Christchurch.
"The longer the delay, the bigger it will be. It will occur with no recognisable warning. We can't manage it - we have to adapt to it."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10397752
Brazilian policeman convicted over Rio massacre
1.00pm Thursday August 24, 2006
By Andrei Khalip
RIO DE JANEIRO - A Brazilian court has sentenced the first of five police officers charged with murdering 29 people in a massacre in Rio de Janeiro to a long prison term - a rare ruling in a country where police have often acted with impunity.
Carlos Jose Carvalho, 32, who had pleaded not guilty to the killings, was convicted and sentenced to 543 years behind bars. He will serve no more than 30 years, the maximum term under Brazilian law, a court spokesman said.
"He was found guilty of 29 homicides, one attempted murder and forming a criminal gang. The right to await retrial in freedom was denied," the spokesman said, adding Carvalho's lawyer would appeal.
Four suspected accomplices of Carvalho, who was identified by witnesses and one survivor, have obtained injunctions delaying their trials.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397849
Death row Bali bomber planned attack online, say police
Thursday August 24, 2006
JAKARTA - A man on death row for the 2002 Bali bombings communicated with Islamic militants on the internet while in prison to organize another deadly attack on the Indonesian resort island last year, police said yesterday.
Imam Samudra used a laptop with a wireless connection smuggled to his prison cell in Bali to hook up to the internet and chat with co-conspirators, said the national police head of the cyber crime unit, Petrus Golose.
"Imam Samudra ... directed the fund-raising for the second Bali bombing," Golose told reporters.
"The laptop allowed Imam Samudra to chat without restrictions in Ahlussunnah and CafeIslam chatrooms," he said referring to religious chatrooms. "This took place before the second Bali bombing."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397801
France tells Iran to stop atomic work before talks
Thursday August 24, 2006
PARIS - World powers are ready to respond to Iran's call for talks over its nuclear ambitions but only if it first suspends uranium enrichment, France said today.
Iran handed over its response to an incentives package offered by six nations yesterday, saying it offered ideas that would allow serious talks to start immediately. The West has in the past said such calls for talks were a stalling tactic.
"As we have always said ... a return to the negotiating table is tied to the suspension of uranium enrichment," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told a news conference.
There has been no sign Tehran agrees to this precondition, which it has previously dismissed as unacceptable.
The UN Security Council has warned Iran could face possible sanctions if it does not meet an August 31 deadline to freeze enrichment, a process that can be used to make fuel for nuclear power plants or material for warheads.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397800
War dries up tourist dollars for tsunami survivors
Thursday August 24, 2006
By Simon Gardner
KOGGALA - Standing by the razed foundations of his home in Sri Lanka's southern tip, tsunami survivor Namal Kumara is far removed from fighting in the country's north between Tamil Tigers and the military.
But the 24-year-old is paying a heavy price for the renewed conflict, which is deterring tourists from holidaying along the tranquil, sun-kissed beaches that skirt Sri Lanka's south coast.
The violence has begun to hurt job prospects in the tourist-dependent south and shatter the dreams of Kumara and other survivors of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami who were hoping to earn tourist dollars to put lives and homes back together.
"I need money to rebuild my house, and that comes from tourists. But the war is stopping tourists from coming," said Kumara, dressed in a traditional red-and-black sarong and gazing at an empty beach.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397760
Nanjing Massacre survivor wins compensation
5.20am Thursday August 24, 2006
A Chinese court has awarded a Nanjing Massacre survivor 1.6 million yuan ($317,762) in compensation after ruling in her favour against two Japanese historians who claimed she fabricated her account of the World War II atrocity of murder and rape.
The court in Nanjing ruled that Xia Shuqin suffered trauma and damage to her reputation from the allegations.
Shudo Higashinakano and Toshio Matsumura claimed in two books that historical accounts were untrue.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397767
Solidarity trade union now Lech-less
Thursday August 24, 2006
WARSAW - Polish Solidarity hero Lech Walesa said he had quit the trade union he founded and that helped bring about the collapse of communism in eastern Europe.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Walesa said he had opposed Solidarity's decision to support the Law and Justice Party in elections last year. Party leaders, twins Jaroslaw and Lech Kaczynski, are now Prime Minister and President of Poland respectively. "They [Solidarity] have backed the Kaczynskis too much. I don't want to be involved with that. It is no longer my Solidarity. Something is wrong with it."
Solidarity leaders said the former technician, who became postwar Poland's first freely elected President after the fall of communism, had not been a member of the movement since January because he had not paid his annual dues.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397719
Fight back against rape, Kenya's women told
Thursday August 24, 2006
By Tia Goldenberg
NAIROBI - "Poke out his eyes! Kick him between the legs!"
Karate expert Duncan Bomba yells instructions at 200 Kenyan schoolgirls watching in amazement as he ferociously attacks a colleague posing as a rapist.
With their navy and white school uniforms, tightly braided hair and socks pulled up to their knees, two girls coyly attempt the moves as Bomba takes on the role of attacker.
Fending him off, the girls draw raucous applause and laughter.
In a country where activists say one woman is raped every half hour, a growing number of Kenyan women and young girls are learning to defend themselves against assault.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397731
Washed up as tide of war turns again
Thursday August 24, 2006
By Simon Denyer
ARICHAL MUNAI, India - They wade through the surf, their suitcases on their heads and plastic bags in their hands, refugees from war in their homeland.
Behind them, the small fishing dinghy that brought them is already speeding away through the waves.
Every day, boatloads of Sri Lankans arrive on the shores of southern India, leaving their fields and fishing boats behind and even selling their jewellery to pay for the passage.
And as conflict and fear escalate, what started as a trickle of refugees in January is turning into a flood - about 8000 this year, including 785 arriving on Sunday and Monday alone on this narrow spit of sand which juts out from a small island on India's southeastern coast.
They are men like Chinnathambi Pakiaraja, cradling his 15-month-old daughter in his arms, overcome with tears as he set foot on the sands of Arichal Munai after a three hour, 29km boat journey.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397763
Sporadic fighting as aid nears Sri Lankan city
Thursday August 24, 2006
By Peter Apps
COLOMBO - Sporadic artillery fire and air strikes continued along Sir Lanka's Jaffna peninsula on Thursday as an aid ship approached the beseiged city for the first time in nearly two weeks, residents and officials said.
The army said the peninsula was "calm and quiet", but admitted some exchange of gunfire, which was confirmed by residents.
The military also said jets struck a rebel Sea Tiger base near their de facto capital of Kilinochchi on Thursday.
No supplies have reached Jaffna since Tamil Tiger rebels and government troops began heavy fighting along the front line on August 11, but relief looked at hand later on Thursday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10397867
Syria threatens to close Lebanon border
1.00pm Thursday August 24, 2006
By Laila Bassam
BEIRUT- Syria said on Wednesday it would close its border with Lebanon if the United Nations stationed troops along it as part of its mission to enforce a UN-backed truce between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem made the threat in a meeting with Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja in Helsinki.
"They indeed do not want this [the stationing of UN troops] and they announced they will close their borders if this takes place," Tuomioja told reporters afterwards.
"I didn't see there would be any other threat in this statement except for the fact that they will close their borders."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397844
Iraqi PM confident his forces can handle security
1.00pm Thursday August 24, 2006
By Mussab Al-Khairalla
BAGHDAD - Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has insisted his forces will be ready to take control of most provinces within months, even though the US military has boosted troop levels in Baghdad to shore up his government.
"We will assume responsibility for security in one province this month and another next month. At the end of the year we will take control of most provinces," Maliki told reporters.
Washington's strategy is to train Iraq's security forces to assume responsibility for the country's 18 provinces and pave the way for the withdrawal of US troops, but a surge in sectarian violence in recent months has frustrated that plan.
While the US military has been handing over control of more "battle space" in provinces to Iraqi forces, it has been forced to send reinforcements to Baghdad to help the government take back the streets from sectarian militias and death squads.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397839
Greenpeace to leave French port after tuna protests
12.20pm Thursday August 24, 2006
MARSEILLE, France - Greenpeace has said its ship Rainbow Warrior II will leave waters near Marseille on Thursday after tuna fishermen angry at the environmental group's campaign for a moratorium on tuna fishing blocked the port.
Several ferries and cargo ships were forced to suspend their journeys and the fishermen also threatened to cut off an important oil terminal if the Rainbow Warrior II did not leave.
"We hope to end the tension and calm things down," said Greenpeace spokesman Yannick Jadot, who announced the ship would leave Marseille on Thursday evening.
The fishermen said they would maintain the blockage until the ship had gone.
"We are not letting up. If tomorrow, the ship hangs around, we will also close the oil terminal at Fos-sur-Mer," said Mourad Kahoul, the president of the Union of Mediterranean tuna fishermen.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397829
UK police free 2 bomb plot suspect, hold 9
UPDATED 12.10pm Thursday August 24, 2006
British police investigating a suspected plot to blow up transatlantic airliners have freed two suspects and obtained permission to continue questioning nine others.
Police charged 11 people on Tuesday in the suspected plot and had been holding 11 others pending a decision on whether to charge them.
They did not name the men they freed on Wednesday, but Sky News reported that one was Tayib Rauf of Birmingham, Britain's second city. His brother Rashid Rauf has been arrested in Pakistan, where authorities called him a ringleader of the plot.
Police later said they had obtained a judge's permission to continue questioning eight of the additional suspects for a further week, and one for just 24 more hours.
Under new anti-terrorism powers that came into force last month, police can hold suspects without charge for up to 28 days, but must seek a judge's permission every seven days.
British police announced on August 10 they had thwarted the plot to blow up airliners over the Atlantic.
Those charged yesterday included eight British Muslims accused of conspiracy to murder and three accused of other terrorism-related offences. Police gave the first description of the evidence in the case yesterday, saying they had found bomb-making materials, suicide notes and "martyrdom videos".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10397815
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