The Boston Globe


Democrats clash over taxes, crime, education
Reilly, Gabrieli target Patrick
By Frank Phillips and Andrea Estes, Globe Staff September 14, 2006
The three Democratic candidates for governor picked apart one another's positions on taxes, education, and crime in a robust debate last night, but avoided the rancor that dominated a similar face-off last week.
In their final appearance together before Tuesday's primary, Deval L. Patrick, Christopher F. Gabrieli, and Thomas F. Reilly offered primary voters strongly differing visions of how to roll back the state income tax and bickered over the value of charter schools and whether their campaign had taken an unecessarily harsh turn.
Patrick, who has taken a lead in recent polls, appeared at times defensive and off balance. His two rivals targeted him in the debate, suggesting he was vague in his proposals. Gabrieli asked Patrick at one point: ``You have been in the race a year and a half; got any specifics?"
The only personal barbs came when Patrick asked about his two rivals' character, saying Reilly and Gabrieli had been waging a ``nasty and negative" campaign in recent days. Patrick charged that Reilly and Gabrieli, in last week's debate and in recent days, have crossed ``over that line," referring to an early agreement among Democrats to conduct a civil campaign.
``And I just wonder what that says about your character and your leadership," Patrick asked.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/politics/candidates/articles/2006/09/14/democrats_clash_over_taxes_crime_education/



Small differences
September 14, 2006
IT'S BEEN a long campaign, and it showed last night, as the three Democratic candidates for governor recited their stands on the issues on the last televised debate before the primary Tuesday. Their similarities outweighed their disagreements and suggested that the party will unite behind the winning candidate when he faces Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey in the general election.
As usual, the income tax was the most important difference, with Reilly favoring an immediate rollback, Deval Patrick opposed, and Chris Gabrieli in the middle. From the discussion last night, viewers would have no inkling that the Legislature, not the governor, will have the most say in that decision. And the electorate shows no inclination to change the legislative balance that favors the current 5.3 percent rate, barring an economic miracle that increases revenues more than expected.
The other differences presented were exceedingly small. Reilly favored merit pay for teachers, Patrick would offer it on a schoolwide basis, and Gabrieli favored payments for innovation plans offered by individual districts. Patrick wants to tweak the payment for charter schools, while Gabrieli wants to increase their number.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/09/14/small_differences/



Smog pollutants in Eastern states decline sharply, EPA says
By John Heilprin, Associated Press September 14, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Ozone levels are falling sharply in Eastern states where smog has been a recurring summer problem, the Environmental Protection Agency said yesterday.
The improvement in air quality for a third of the nation's population is due to fewer emissions of nitrogen oxides from hundreds of coal-burning power plants, manufacturing, and other large facilities in 19 Eastern states.
Ozone occurs naturally in the stratosphere, where it is a shield against harmful ultraviolet rays. But ground-level ozone pollution caused by nitrogen oxides reacting with other chemicals produces smog . Other major sources of the pollution are motor vehicle exhaust, gas vapors, and solvents.
The EPA said in an annual report that nitrogen oxides from hundreds of power plants and other industrial sources in the East fell to 530,000 tons in 2005, an 11 percent decrease from 2004 and a more than 50 percent decrease from 1.2 million tons in 2000.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/09/14/smog_pollutants_in_eastern_states_decline_sharply_epa_says/


Central America seeks American retirees
By Juliana Barbassa, Associated Press Writer September 14, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO --High in a downtown hotel, Nicaraguan folk dancers twirl in lacy white dresses, their bare feet creating rythyms on the wooden stage, giving their buttoned-down audience a bit of tropical warmth on a foggy afternoon.
Their flounce and easy smiles before this roomful of travel experts are part of an effort to promote Nicaragua to Americans who might choose to retire there, attracted by its pristine beaches and colorful culture.
Then there are the tax breaks and other incentives, which baby boomers may find even sweeter than the tropical fruits the dancers carefully balance in baskets on their heads.
"They're a growing market with disposable income looking for a place to live, and Nicaragua has that," says the country's young minister of tourism, Maria Rivas. She's putting her Harvard-honed business skills to work highlighting the country's safety, its modernizing infrastructure, and the laws enacted to attract foreign investment and retirees.
In spite of the country's gorgeous coastline and undisturbed forests, Rivas' job has its challenges.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/09/14/central_america_seeks_american_retirees/


9/11's effects persist in the pews
By Michael Paulson, Globe Staff September 14, 2006
That first weekend, after the planes crashed and the towers fell and the tears were shed, churches and synagogues were packed.
Five years later, clergy in multiple denominations and across the theological spectrum say any numerical increase that they saw in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks has long since dissipated.
There is no single view, but in several dozen interviews over the past month, clergy at many of the major houses of worship in Greater Boston say they sense numerous subtler, sustained changes in their remaining congregations: a persistent sadness, a greater interest in poorly understood faiths, an uneasiness with war, and a yearning for security.
``I do sense that people are paying greater attention to spiritual things in recent years, and I suspect part of that can be attributed to a shift in focus that resulted from the events of September 11," said the Rev. Allen Ewing-Merrill, pastor of First United Methodist Church of Hudson.
``There is this predisposition that we seem to possess," he said, ``that when all around us seems insecure, we seek security in the eternal."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/09/14/911s_effects_persist_in_the_pews/


Jury takes up case of driver in fatal Super Bowl riot crash
By Melissa Trujillo, Associated Press Writer September 14, 2006
BOSTON --Prosecutors say a man charged with manslaughter in the death of a Super Bowl reveler was drunk and trying to get away from police as he plowed his car through a crowd celebrating the New England Patriots' 2004 championship.
But Stanley Filoma said he was frightened for his own safety and panicked when two groups of people attacked his car.
A jury was to begin deliberating the case on Thursday. Filoma is charged with killing one man and injuring four others when he struck them with his SUV on Feb. 1, 2004.
"I just made up my mind to just leave the street and get out of there," Filoma told the jurors on Wednesday. "The next thing that probably would have happened was they would get their hands on me."
During his closing argument, Filoma's attorney, Bruce Namenson, told of a "crazy, mob, riot situation" of violent revelers, little police presence and few options for a driver trying to safely get out.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/09/14/jury_takes_up_case_of_driver_in_fatal_super_bowl_riot_crash/



Militant gets 15 years for Bali bombings
September 14, 2006
BALI, Indonesia --An Islamic militant showed no remorse Thursday as he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for the 2005 Bali bombings that left 20 people dead, vowing to take part in new suicide missions after he is freed.
Anif Solchanudin -- one of four men convicted in the attacks on three crowded restaurants -- was charged with helping plan the bombings and hiding one of Southeast Asia's most wanted terror suspects.
Judge Daniel Palipin said the court handed down a 15-year sentence -- five years more than prosecutors demanded -- because the 24-year-old militant had also offered to be a suicide bomber for the Oct. 1, 2005 attacks.
Solchanudin, wearing a grey traditional Muslim shirt, told reporters after the ruling that he still intended to seek death as a martyr once he was freed. He said he had no plans to appeal.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2006/09/14/militant_gets_15_years_for_bali_bombings/



Series of attacks around Iraq kill 10
An Iraqi civil defense earthmover removes the wreckage of a car bomb, in Baghdad, Iraq, Thursday Sept.14, 2006. A car bomb targeting a police patrol in a Shiite neighborhood of northern Baghdad missed Thursday, instead killing a civilian and wounding 13 others, police said. (AP Photo/Asaad Mouhsin)
By Sinan Salaheddin, Associated Press Writer September 14, 2006
BAGHDAD, Iraq --Car bombs and drive-by shootings killed at least 10 people and wounded dozens of others Thursday in a series of attacks around central Iraq, officials said.
The attacks followed a day that was bloody even by Baghdad's standards, with car bombs, mortars and other attacks killing at least 39 people and wounded dozens. Police also uncovered the tortured bodies of 65 men dumped in and around the capital.
In Thursday's first attack, a car bomb missed a police patrol in a Shiite neighborhood of northern Baghdad, killing a civilian and wounding 13 others, police said.
Another car bomb then blew up near the government's passport office in central Baghdad, killing four people and wounding 22. The injured included four police officers, said police Lt. Bilal Ali.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/09/14/series_of_attacks_around_iraq_kill_10/



Poland to send 900 troops to Afghanistan
September 14, 2006
WARSAW, Poland --Poland will send at least 900 troops to bolster the NATO mission in Afghanistan, its defense minister said in comments broadcast Thursday.
"As of February next year, over 1,000 Polish soldiers are going to be serving in Afghanistan," Radoslaw Sikorski told Polish journalists during an event in Washington.
His remarks Wednesday evening were broadcast on Polish television Thursday morning.
Poland has about 100 soldiers in Afghanistan as part of the NATO force.
"It will be a mechanized battalion that will be stationed at Bagram, where 100 of our soldiers are," Sikorski said of the new force. "We are going to take part in operations primarily in the eastern part of Afghanistan."

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/09/14/poland_to_send_900_troops_to_afghanistan_1158222830/



Gunman slain after killing 1, wounding 19 in Montreal
By Phil Couvrette, Associated Press September 14, 2006
MONTREAL -- A young man in a black trench coat and a mohawk haircut opened fire yesterday at a college in downtown Montreal, slaying a young woman and wounding at least 19 other people before police shot and killed him, witnesses and authorities said.
Police dismissed suggestions that terrorism played a role in the lunch-hour attack at Dawson College, where scores of panicked students fled into the streets after the shooting began. Some had clothes stained with blood, others cried and clung to one another . Two shopping centers and a daycare center nearby also were evacuated.
``I was terrified. The guy was shooting at people randomly. He didn't care, he was just shooting at everybody," said student Devansh Smri Vastava. ``There were cops firing. It was so crazy."
Police said the 25-year-old attacker had a rapid-fire rifle and two other weapons, which they did not further describe.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/canada/articles/2006/09/14/gunman_slain_after_killing_1_wounding_19_in_montreal/



As kidney drug doses rise, so do warnings
Many on Medicare relying on Epogen
By Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff September 14, 2006
Kidney dialysis patients covered by Medicare are receiving escalating doses of an expensive anti-anemia drug, despite growing evidence that aggressive treatment raises the risk of fatal heart attacks and strokes.
Epogen, made by Amgen Inc., is taken by most of the 325,000 Americans with kidney failure, making it Medicare's single-largest drug expenditure at $2 billion a year and rising. It boosts oxygen-carrying red blood cells to counteract anemia, and without it, patients would require blood transfusions.
Statistics suggest patients feel better and have more energy with higher red blood cell counts. But weekly Epogen doses for dialysis patients have increased more than 200 percent since the drug's introduction in 1989, prompting questions about the safety of higher doses. Federal data show that more than half of the dialysis patients taking Epogen are being treated with enough to elevate red blood cell counts beyond what the Food and Drug Administration says is safe. About 20 percent -- 65,000 patients -- had red blood cells boosted high enough to be in a range that a clinical trial last year revealed as potentially dangerous.

http://www.boston.com/business/technology/biotechnology/articles/2006/09/14/as_kidney_drug_doses_rise_so_do_warnings/


UMass caution
September 14, 2006
GOVERNOR MITT ROMNEY has quietly taken control of the University of Massachusetts board and wants to install a veteran Republican political operative as chairman. But Stephen Tocco, Romney's choice, ought to avoid mounting an assault against the current board leadership. Any changes at UMass are best done by consensus and persuasion.
On Sept. 1, Romney appointed six new board members, one of whom replaced James Karam, the board chairman, whose term had expired. Vice chairman Karl White, an investment executive, automatically became chairman upon Karam's departure. White's term will last until August. The board will have to take a special vote if it wants to make Tocco the chairman before then, and yesterday several Romney appointees asked for a meeting within a week.
Since 1999, Tocco has headed the Board of Higher Education, which directly oversees state and community colleges and has loose oversight over UMass. In an interview this week, he said he hoped to use this experience to connect the state university with college academic programs. That's a sensible idea, but UMass has traditionally operated apart from the colleges. An abrupt takeover of the board will not encourage the dialogue needed to make his plan a success.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/09/14/umass_caution/


School rescue mission
September 14, 2006
THE COMING battles in education reform will be fought in the cities. A new state report shows that 37 percent of Massachusetts schools, mainly in urban districts, are failing to meet federal educational requirements. Serious concerns about the rate of student improvement now exist in 617 public schools, nearly 200 more than a year ago.
Massachusetts students outperform their national counterparts on nearly every reading and math assessment . But educational success remains rare in many parts of Boston, Holyoke, Fall River, and other areas where families earn less, move often, and frequently lack the know-how to prepare their children for success in the classroom.
In Springfield, however, the conditions look right to turn around the failing schools in the state's third - largest city. The recently ratified teachers' contract contains many of the measures that education reformers have touted as necessary to lift student achievement. Severe fiscal pressures on the city had a psychological impact on collective bargaining. Teachers had soldiered on for years without raises. But teachers and school officials in other cities shouldn't wait for a fiscal crisis of their own to consider similar reforms.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/09/14/school_rescue_mission/



Guantanamo's Catch-22: defining the rules of the road
By Moazzam Begg September 14, 2006
A FEW months ago, I was approached by US military defense attorneys, something I have grown increasingly accustomed to since my release from the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.
The request wasn't from lawyers defending Guantanamo detainees. The defendant was a soldier facing several charges, including detainee abuse at a US detention facility in Bagram, Afghanistan. Some of the events surrounding these allegations coincided with my time there during 2002. I'd spoken to members of the Army's Criminal Investigation Command and internal investigation officers who were trying to build a case against other soldiers. So it came as a surprise when lawyers asked me if I would consider being a defense witness.
The then specialist, Damien Corsetti , didn't mistreat me. He never interrogated me and he always passed by my cage with a smile, often stopping to talk. He even gave me reading books at a time when they were hard to come by. One of the books, ironically, Heller's ``Catch-22," is described as ``the classic antiwar novel of our time." I was even allowed to bring it with me to England, where it remains on my bookshelf, next to another book from US soldiers: a military issue of the Bible, in full camouflage jacket.
I often found myself discussing religion with guards and interrogators, some of whom were Christian Evangelists or Southern Baptists. I thought it important to try to explain similarities between the Bible and the Koran , as well as looking at the fundamental differences in belief and perception. Perhaps, I thought, it might help some of my captors appreciate that we all held things sacred.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/09/14/guantanamos_catch_22_defining_the_rules_of_the_road/



Oil prices rise after plunging 3 percent
September 13, 2006
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia --Oil prices rose marginally Wednesday -- a day after plunging 3 percent -- as traders awaited the outcome of the atomic energy agency's meeting on Iran's enrichment program.
U.S. oil stockpile data, another market mover, was due out later Wednesday. A Dow Jones Newswires poll of analysts predicted that commercially-available crude oil inventories were likely to fall, while distillate stocks, which include heating oil and diesel, would rise.
"People are not likely to take fresh positions" before the release of the data, said Tokyo-based Mitsui Bussan Futures trader Tetsu Emori. Emori said any bearish news could give the market its next nudge -- toward the psychologically important $60 a barrel mark.
Benchmark crude oil prices on the New York Mercantile Exchange was up 11 cents to $63.87 a barrel for the October contract in electronic trading after earlier rising as high as $64.22 a barrel. The contract fell $1.85 to settle at $63.76 a barrel in Tuesday's floor trade, the lowest front-month closing price since March 22.

http://www.boston.com/business/markets/articles/2006/09/13/crude_oil_prices_rise/



RIA Novosti

Deputy Russian central bank chief Kozlov dies after shooting
MOSCOW, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - Andrei Kozlov, a first deputy chairman of the Central Bank of Russia, died Thursday morning after gunmen opened fire on him with automatic weapons late Wednesday, hospital officials said.
Kozlov, 41, oversaw the bank's efforts to cleanup the banking sector, and was shot in what bears the hallmarks of a contract killing as he left a sports stadium in northwestern Moscow. His driver Alexander Semyonov was killed at the Spartak stadium and the banker had to undergo emergency surgery after he was shot in the head.
But a hospital official said Thursday morning that doctors had been unable to save the married father of three. "The patient died early in the morning without regaining consciousness," the representative said.
Kozlov led efforts to close down dozens banks for violations of banking legislation, particularly on money laundering, and Central Bank regulations. Two high-profile cases centered on the revocation of licenses from Moscow-based Sodbiznesbank in 2004 and Neftyanoi Bank this year, but the CBR has been withdrawing licenses almost by the week in 2006.
Russia's politicians have already condemned the killing.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060914/53862983.html


Russia launches major Air Force exercise
MOSCOW, September 13 (RIA Novosti) - A large-scale exercise involving transport planes and more that 3,000 paratroopers started Wednesday in northwestern Russia, the Russian Air Force commander said.
General of the Army Vladimir Mikhailov said the nine-day command and staff exercise would practice coordination between Russia's transport aviation and airborne commands.
"Transport aviation command's crews will develop skills for coordination with airborne forces," he said, adding that a dozen aviation units from all over Russia will take part in the exercise.
Mikhailov said a landing operation near the city of Pskov, which is about 450 miles northwest of Moscow, will involve more than 3,000 paratroopers.
He said Lieutenant General Viktor Denisov, head of Russia's transport aviation command, will oversee the exercise.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060913/53829771.html



Georgia-U.S. military consultations over in Batumi
TBILISI, September 13 (RIA Novosti) - Georgia's armed forces have achieved considerable progress lately which should be preserved and developed, a Pentagon delegation that held bilateral consultations in Batumi with Georgian colleagues said Wednesday.
The head of the American delegation, Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary James MacDougall, said bilateral cooperation was becoming deeper and that in the future the U.S. would render Georgia assistance in training and managing professional personnel.
Another defense official said the U.S. would help Georgia integrate into NATO and implement structural reforms to transform the Georgian Armed Forces' General Staff to the Joint Staff.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20060913/53846257.html



Talks on Iran nuclear issue still possible - Russian envoy
VIENNA, September 13 (RIA Novosti) - Russia believes that talks on the Iranian nuclear issue may still be held, a Russian permanent representative to international organizations in Vienna said.
Iran has been at the center of an international dispute this year over its nuclear ambitions. Some countries suspect the Islamic Republic of pursuing a covert weapons program, but Tehran has consistently denied the claims and says it needs nuclear energy for civilian needs.
"We believe that today it is possible... to launch talks aimed at finding a diplomatic long-term resolution of the Iranian nuclear problem," Grigory Berdennikov said at a session of the IAEA Board of Governors.
He urged Iran "to ensure effective cooperation with the [International Atomic Energy] Agency on the basis of resolutions of the IAEA Board of Governors and the UN Security Council."
The UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1696 July 31, demanding that Iran suspend uranium enrichment by August 31 or face possible economic and diplomatic sanctions. However, an IAEA report said Tehran has refused to suspend the program and has blocked IAEA inspectors from inspecting Iran's nuclear facilities.
The Russian diplomat also highlighted the UN nuclear watchdog's central role in the resolution of the Iranian problem.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20060913/53846326.html



Five years after September 11. Russian attitude towards America
Moscow. (RIA Novosti political commentator Andrei Kolesnikov) September 11, 2001 drastically changed our vision of the modern world order.
Civilization suddenly faced extraordinary challenges, its inability to guarantee security and the need to find a non-trivial response to intricate and evolving methods used by terrorists.
The attacks targeted the U.S. Five years ago we all felt a bit American, as the shock from the outbreak of WWIII reverberated around the world. The attack was broadcast live and online. Today, however, Russians no longer feel that they are fighting this war together with the U.S. The reason, they believe, is the Bush administration's desire to impose their values on the world. This position can be interpreted in different ways; we are not going to judge it here, we are just stating that this is a prevailing sentiment among Russian people. Most of them, however, feel positive about America itself.
A survey conducted by the VTsIOM public opinion research center shows that the correlation of positive and negative responses is 49% to 34%. This is a deterioration against 2002, when 63% of respondents felt positive about the United States against 21% who expressed negative feelings. These findings are confirmed by another poll conducted by the Public Opinion Foundation, a prominent pollster: 15% of respondents said their attitudes toward America had been good a year or two before, but deteriorated since then. Moreover, as many as 18% said that the main reason for the September 11 attacks was "the U.S. (President Bush) foreign policy, its aspiration for global domination and interference in other countries' affairs." Only 6% described the tragedy as "actions of criminals and terrorists", unprovoked by the U.S. The VTsIOM poll respondents said that the goal of the U.S. military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq was to reinforce America's stand in the world.
Remarkably, these views, which are more likely to be voiced by left European intellectuals than by ordinary Russians, are supported mainly by respondents with better education and income, who are better adjusted in society and are in the most active age group, i.e. 36-54, according to the Public Opinion Foundation. Apparently, this group knows why we should dislike America better than other groups that are less educated, but more composed in their attitudes. The VTsIOM survey, however, shows that America's foreign policy is better understood by young people and sometimes even supported: as many as 22% of Russians aged 18-24 said they supported the U.S. efforts, including in Iraq.
Negative attitudes towards the U.S. foreign policy doctrine on the part of better educated and more affluent people in active age groups are not necessarily related to their post-imperial "phantom-limb pains" and complexes but to their vision of civilized values and a multi-polar world. As many as 61% of affluent respondents in the VTsIOM poll were more aware of the increasing terrorism threat, and in this respect this is the most pessimistic group. Apparently, this group believes that the U.S. policy provokes terrorists' action and therefore diminishes global security. In other words, Russians view the United States as a powerful, but overly active geopolitical player that is trying to spread its influence to as many countries and regions as possible. A similar role traditionally belonged to the Soviet Union and was passed on to Russia. So Russian respondents are inclined to assess the U.S. with a view to competition for geopolitical influence. But it is still a competitor, not an adversary.
After all, 77% of Russians took the September 11 attacks "to heart", the Public Opinion Foundation's poll showed. Normal human emotions prevailed over rational analysis. The latter is not in favor of U.S. policy, but it is neutral and even well-wishing towards American people.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060912/53794316.html



Political settlement in Chechnya has become reality
MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Yury Filippov) - Surprising as it may seem, political settlement of the situation in Chechnya has become a reality.
This is difficult to believe considering that the referendum, in which the Chechens voted for being part and parcel of the Russian Federation, and renounced separatism, was preceded by a decade filled with two fierce military campaigns, rampant crime, merciless ethnic purges, slave trade, and horrible acts of terror, many of which, such as the hostage crises in a Moscow theater and Beslan, have become known all over the world, and are still unprecedented in cruelty, audacity, and recklessness.
Strictly speaking, none of the sides has achieved its initial goals. The separatists, who seemed to have received "independent Ichkeria" as a result of the Khasavyurt peace agreement in 1996, suffered a complete fiasco in trying to build their own state. Ichkerian President Aslan Maskhadov, who enjoyed authority as a military leader, lost all his influence in a situation of relative peace and became a puppet in the hands of cutthroats and terrorists like Shamil Basayev, the man behind the Beslan attack. Maskhadov's semi-guerrilla army quickly disintegrated into numerous armed gangs, engaged in violence, slave trade, drug trafficking and abduction. It is often believed that this aggression was aimed primarily against Russia, but in reality its main target was Chechen society. On the one hand, the civilian population was a victim of very tough federal action (it is enough to mention the bombing of Grozny, which still lies in ruins). On the other, the criminal dictate on behalf of former separatists, who very quickly turned into terrorists and Wahhabi religious extremists, was even worse. The federal troops would come and go, but the home bandits were always there. Indicatively, out of thousands of people abducted by Chechen criminals in the last ten years, 90% were Chechens. They captured wealthy Chechens even in Moscow, and took them to Chechnya, demanding millions of dollars for their lives.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060905/53515330.html



Madonna could be sent into space in 2009 - Russian Space Agency
MOSCOW, September 13 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Space Agency has no objections to Madonna's plans for a space flight, but the American pop diva could make a space trip no earlier than 2009, the agency's spokesperson said Wednesday.
Alexei Mitrofanov, a flamboyant lawmaker from the ultra-nationalist LDPR party, earlier proposed that Madonna's desire to make the trip, which she expressed during her two-day visit to Russia, be fulfilled - a proposal that met with rejection by Russian lawmakers.
"We are aware of today's debates in the State Duma [the lower house of the Russian parliament] as to the proposed flight by Madonna to the International Space Station," Igor Panin said.
"Although a precise schedule for the flights of the so-called 'space tourists' has been approved until the end of 2008, Madonna's request will not meet any objections, and her representatives can approach us even now," he said, adding that the pop star's physical fitness and finances guarantee that her space dreams might come true as early as 2009.
Madonna's world tour, which continues next week in Japan, has drawn widespread criticism from religious groups for its depiction of a mock crucifixion. In Moscow, Russian nationalists vowed to disrupt her concert, while in Germany the authorities briefly considered an investigation under the country's religious blasphemy laws.
Tuesday's Moscow performance at the Luzhniki stadium, which was guarded by up to 7,000 police, passed off without any serious problems.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060913/53845036.html



After 15 years Russians miss Communist Party
Moscow. (Andrei Kolesnikov, RIA Novosti political commentator)
On August 24, 1991 Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as General Secretary of the Soviet Communist Party (CPSU). Fifteen years ago, the era of the Bolshevik Party, which ruled a vast empire for a long time, came to an end with the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The Party was doomed at the start of perestroika, and the gradual devolution of power to the Soviets (de facto parliamentary bodies) began in 1987.
The Party launched perestroika and glasnost, and was killed by them. Several landmarks accompanied its final journey: the agonizing renunciation of overt and covert Stalinism; Gorbachev's attempts to find genuine Party ideology in Lenin's writings, which he continued reading even when the nation had given up Marxism-Leninism in all but name; and an actual split in the Party, which became obvious with the emergence of the democratic platform within the CPSU in 1990 and finally, the Orthodox Stalinist Communist Party of Russia. The Party was the backbone of the Soviet Union, its brains and heart. It could not exist without the state, and likewise, the state could not exist without the Party. Together, they lived an unhappy life but died on the same day, as if in a fairy tale - the failure of the coup made the death of both inevitable.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060828/53212492.html


Houston Chronicle

Groundbreaking politician, quintessential Texas woman
The feisty homemaker who rose to governor dies after 6-month fight with cancer
By R.G. RATCLIFFE and ANNE MARIE KILDAY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN — Ann Richards, who shed the role of homemaker to rise through Texas politics to become the state's 45th governor and a national celebrity, died Wednesday after a six-month battle with cancer. She was 73.
Richards was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in March
Richards was the quintessential Texas woman, with a sassy homespun charm, sharp wit and tough pioneer spirit. With bright silver hair, a weathered face and an affinity for cobalt blue suits and pearls, Richards was instantly recognizable to national television audiences.
As a Democratic politician, Richards' 1990 race for governor against Republican cowboy oilman Clayton Williams became a battle of the sexes. Her victory symbolically broke down gender barriers for a generation of Texas women who were seeking professional careers.
Richards labeled her administration the "New Texas," appointing more Hispanics, blacks and women to state boards and commissions than any previous governor. She pushed for increases in public education funding and promoted business expansion in the state.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/4185661.html



Oil lease blunder hidden 6 years
Investigator says mistake cost taxpayers billions of dollars
By DAVID IVANOVICH
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - Interior Department officials realized in 2000 that their offshore lease agreements with oil companies shortchanged American taxpayers, but they covered up their multibillion-dollar mistake for six years, an investigator said Wednesday.
After combing through 11,000 e-mail messages and interviewing 29 current and former Interior Department employees, federal investigators still aren't ready to say who they think told a staffer to omit contract language that would have forced oil companies operating in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico to pay billions of dollars in royalty payments as energy prices rose.
"Although we have found massive finger-pointing and blame enough to go around, we do not have the proverbial 'smoking gun,' " Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney told a House panel Wednesday.
"However, we do have a costly mistake."
Devaney's office discovered a "flurry of e-mails" back in 2000 as officials at Interior's U.S. Minerals Management Service learned they had failed to include price triggers in leases signed with oil companies in 1998 and 1999.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4185660.html



Gordon now category 3; Tropical Storm Helene forms
Associated Press
MIAMI — Tropical Storm Helene developed from a tropical depression in the open Atlantic late Wednesday, while Hurricane Gordon strengthened into a powerful Category 3 hurricane and the remnants of Hurricane Florence brought high winds and heavy rain to Newfoundland in Canada, forecasters said.
Helene had top sustained winds near 40 mph, just above the 39-mph threshold for a tropical storm. It is the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.
At 11 p.m. EDT, it was located 565 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands and moving west-northwest over warm Atlantic waters at 22 mph, forecasters said.
Gordon became a major hurricane when its top sustained winds jumped to 120 mph, up from 110 mph earlier in the day, forecasters said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4183434.html



Immigrants find military a faster path to citizenship
By JAMES PINKERTON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
SAN JUAN, TEXAS - A record number of immigrants are becoming U.S. citizens by serving in the armed forces. Some are granted citizenship posthumously after they are killed in battle. But most survive the perils of war and soon pledge allegiance to the red, white and blue.
More than 25,000 immigrants have become citizens and another 40,000 have become eligible for citizenship through the military since President Bush signed an executive order in July 2002 speeding the process.
''We've had a record surge of applications," said Dan Kane, a spokesman for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in Washington. Immigrants ''can apply for citizenship immediately, the day they are sworn in as members of the military."
The 40,000 immigrants in the U.S. military can become citizens after only a year of active duty instead of the previous three years, Kane said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4185659.html



Study says English is alive, well
Offspring of immigrants are increasingly losing touch with their native tongues
By ERICKA MELLON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
The English language is not an endangered species in the United States, despite an influx of immigrants, according to a study published Wednesday.
Researchers from the University of California at Irvine, and Princeton University found that even in Southern California, which counts the nation's largest Spanish-speaking population, third-generation Americans are rarely fluent in their immigrant ancestors' native tongue.
"If there's one thing that can come out of our study, it's, 'Relax, there's nothing to fear,' " said Ruben Rumbaut, a professor of sociology at the University of California, who co-authored the article in the journal Population and Development Review.
History has shown that the children of immigrants tend to abandon their native language for English, and that is also the case now among Hispanics, Rumbaut said — despite a recent book by Harvard professor Samuel Huntington that argues Latinos today are different.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/4185421.html



Fear of Spanish
A few days ago, the Chronicle published a piece by James T. Campbell, the paper's reader representative, about complaints that they receive about running some sports stories in Spanish. Campbell's take on it:
One doesn't have to scratch far beyond the surface to know that the complaints are more about the contentious illegal immigration debate in this country than about Spanish in the Chronicle. The page of Spanish is but a convenient reason to complain, like voicemail that instructs the caller to "press one for English" and "two for Spanish."
"Why do you print sport pages in Spanish?" an e-mailer wrote. "If you are in this country legally you understand English. By printing anything in Spanish you are pandering to the illegals who refuse to learn English. ENGLISH ONLY, PLEASE. ... "
This is something we've been hearing a lot lately, isn't it?

http://blogs.chron.com/bluebayou/2006/06/is_it_nativism_or_something_el_1.html



Survivor and the great divide
Critics say networks will profit from racial tensions, fear networks edit in stereotyping
By ANDREW GUY JR.
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
An apt subtitle for the new season of Survivor would be "The War of the Races." Who is going to win? Which group is superior? Will everything be viewed through the sensitive lens of race?
For those of you just returning from Exile Island, this season of Survivor — starting tonight on CBS — divides teams by race.
Survivor producers say the gimmick fits the show's "social experiment" concept of disparate strangers in a remote locale struggling to get by.
Not everyone agrees. National leaders, academics and even former contestants worry that dividing people by race will do much more harm than good.
"They're profiteering on polarization," said Elizabeth Amelia Hadley, professor of media studies and African-American History at Simmons College in Boston. "And it's disturbing because we've just begun seeing more positive images (on television) of many groups."

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/entertainment/4184745.html



THE CANTU CASE: DEATH AND DOUBT
Did Texas execute an innocent man?
Eyewitness says he felt influenced by police to ID the teen as the killer
By LISE OLSEN
Copyright 2005, Houston Chronicle
Texas executed its fifth teenage offender at 22 minutes after midnight on Aug. 24, 1993, after his last request for bubble gum had been refused and his final claim of innocence had been forever silenced.
Ruben Cantu, 17 at the time of his crime, had no previous convictions, but a San Antonio prosecutor had branded him a violent thief, gang member and murderer who ruthlessly shot one victim nine times with a rifle before emptying at least nine more rounds into the only eyewitness — a man who barely survived to testify.
Four days after a Bexar County jury delivered its verdict, Cantu wrote this letter to the residents of San Antonio: "My name is Ruben M. Cantu and I am only 18 years old. I got to the 9th grade and I have been framed in a capital murder case."
A dozen years after his execution, a Houston Chronicle investigation suggests that Cantu, a former special-ed student who grew up in a tough neighborhood on the south side of San Antonio, was likely telling the truth.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/3472872.html



Labor leaders fuming over Texas prison plan
The state may expand program that hires convicts at cut-rate wages
By LISA SANDBERG
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
LOCKHART — Penny Rayfield's 35 assembly workers get neither vacation nor sick pay. Their salaries are barely above minimum wage. But they show up on time and don't hunt for work elsewhere.
They seem happy to have a job, even one that pays about $4 less per hour than what assembly workers make, on average, elsewhere in Texas.
Rayfield's company, Onshore Resources, has a sweetheart deal.
It pays Texas exactly $1 a year for the sprawling building where it makes electronic circuit boards.
It has no need to foot health insurance for the employees because the state provides their medical care.
The for-profit business is tucked inside a private prison in this rural community 30 miles south of Austin.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4185634.html



Friedman urges pot be decriminalized
Candidate says more room in prison is needed for 'the pedophiles and the politicians'
By JANET ELLIOTT and PEGGY FIKAC
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - Independent gubernatorial candidate Kinky Friedman called Wednesday for the decriminalization of marijuana to avoid further clogging state prisons with nonviolent offenders.
He also said he would favor a review of people already imprisoned on marijuana charges to "rehab them, try to get them back into society."
"We've got to clear some of the room out of the prisons so we can put the bad guys in there, like the pedophiles and the politicians," said Friedman, a humorist and author.
Friedman said he doesn't yet have specifics on how decriminalization would work, including what amount of marijuana a person could possess without being charged. He did say that he doesn't favor making marijuana legally available for purchase.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4185618.html



GOP divided on plan to try terror suspects
White House faces tough road in selling its party on security agenda
By ERIC LICHTBLAU and KATE ZERNIKE
New York Times
WASHINGTON - The White House took a critical step on Wednesday in its effort to get congressional blessing for President Bush's domestic eavesdropping program, but it ran into increasingly fierce resistance from leading Republicans over its plan to try terror suspects being held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The mixed results signaled the tough road the White House faces in trying to sell the two key planks in its national security agenda to sometimes skeptical Republicans less than two months before the midterm elections. Democrats have let Republicans fight among themselves over the issues.
On the domestic eavesdropping program, aggressive White House lobbying began to pay dividends on Wednesday as the Senate Judiciary Committee approved on a straight party-line vote two legislative approaches favored by the White House, along with a third the Bush administration opposes. The program would allow the National Security Agency to eavesdrop without a warrant on the international phone calls and e-mail of people in the United States.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4185753.html



Shiite leaders say militias beyond control
Series of strikes by fighters has eroded U.S., Iraqi forces' early gains in security sweeps
By SOLOMON MOORE
Los Angeles Times
BAGHDAD, IRAQ - As U.S. and Iraqi officials seek a way to disarm Shiite militias involved in the sectarian violence driving Iraq toward civil war, the paramilitary forces are splintering into more extreme groups that militia leaders say they are powerless to control.
U.S. officials had hoped that an ongoing military sweep in the capital would curtail the Sunni Arab insurgency and convince the Shiite militias — armed partisan brigades that guard neighborhoods, mosques and political offices — that they could leave security to the Iraqi government.
"I think when the people begin to feel more confidence in their security forces, they'll feel less need to rely on the militias," Army Gen. George Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said during a recent news conference.
But a series of devastating paramilitary strikes against Shiite neighborhoods has eroded early gains attributed to the security sweep and severely undermined U.S. arguments for disarming militias.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4185505.html



NATO rejects plea for troops
Military leaders' request comes as 50 people are killed in violence in Afghanistan
By PAUL GARWOOD
Associated Press
KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - NATO nations failed to agree on calls by military commanders for 2,500 extra troops to help crush the growing Taliban-led insurgency in Afghanistan, where at least 50 people were killed Wednesday in violence.
NATO announced that 173 people — including 151 Afghan civilians — have been killed in suicide bombings across the country since Jan. 1. The remaining victims include NATO and U.S.-led coalition forces and Afghan authorities.
It was the first time NATO released such figures and they indicate the dangerous change in tactics by militants, who have been following the lead of insurgent attacks in Iraq.
The ferocity of the Taliban resurgence since their 2001 ouster has taken U.S. and NATO commanders by surprise, particularly in southern provinces where NATO forces have been clashing daily with militants since taking control of the region on Aug. 1.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4185306.html



College gunman started shooting outside first
Man in a black trench coat kills one and injures 19 at Montreal school
By PHIL COUVRETTE
Associated Press
MONTREAL - Scores of panicked teenagers fled into the streets of downtown Montreal after the shooting began. Some had clothes stained with blood; others cried, clung to each other and clutched their backpacks. Many held their hands above their heads to show police they were not carrying a weapon.
The attacker's bloody body, covered in a yellow sheet, lay next to a police cruiser near an entrance to a building at Dawson College.
"I was terrified. The guy was shooting at people randomly. He didn't care, he was just shooting at everybody," said student Devansh Smri Vastava. "There were cops firing. It was so crazy."
A man in a black trench coat and a mohawk haircut, his skin pierced with jewelry, opened fire Wednesday at the Montreal college, slaying a young woman and wounding at least 19 other people before police shot and killed him, witnesses and authorities said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/world/4185424.html



Evacuee teachers offered free homes
FEMA will pay $14 million for units officials hope will lure educators to New Orleans
Associated Press
NEW ORLEANS - Education leaders struggling to bring teachers back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina got a boost Wednesday with the announcement that FEMA will pay $14 million to set up 250 modular homes to house teachers in the city.
The two-bedroom units will be fully furnished and rent-free to teachers who were victims of the hurricane, according to the Louisiana Recovery Authority.

New Orleans schools — a handful of which are managed by the local school board and dozens of others managed by the state Education Department or charter agencies — are having trouble attracting specialized teachers certified in math, science, foreign languages and special education.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved 14 sites to install the housing units on school properties. The first homes will be put in place this month, the LRA news release said.
"We are doing everything in our power to provide affordable housing so good teachers can return to the classroom, where New Orleans children need them most," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/4185447.html


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