Morning Papers - continued

The Chicago Tribune

Yankees pitcher dies when plane hits NYC building
By Stevenson Swanson
Tribune national correspondent
Published October 11, 2006, 6:08 PM CDT
NEW YORK -- A small fixed-wing aircraft piloted by a New York Yankees pitcher slammed into a posh Manhattan residential skyscraper Wednesday afternoon, leaving at least two people dead and the city reeling with initial fears of terrorism over what was determined to be a tragic accident.
Nonetheless, as a precaution North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) scrambled fighter jets over several U.S. and Canadian cities minutes after the plane crashed into the midsection of the 50-story building at 2:45 p.m. Eyewitnesses said the plane smashed into the north face of the red brick building, producing a fireball that engulfed several apartments around the 30th floor and dropped debris into the street.
The aircraft, a Cirrus SR 20, carrying an instructor and a pilot believed to be Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, took off from New Jersey's private Teterboro Airport, just across the Hudson River from northern Manhattan, at about 2:30 p.m. The pilot reportedly made a distress call just before colliding with the 18-year-old Upper East Side structure.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-061011crash,1,898160.story?coll=chi-news-hed


Blagojevich fundraiser indicted
By Rudolph Bush and John Chase
Tribune staff reporters
Published October 11, 2006, 4:01 PM CDT
A federal grand jury has indicted Antoin "Tony" Rezko, a top fundraiser for Gov. Rod Blagojevich, on charges that he demanded millions of dollars in kickbacks from investment firms seeking business from the state teachers' pension system, according to an indictment unsealed today.
The new charges came in the form of an Oct. 5 superseding indictment against Stuart Levine, a former member of the pension board, who is cooperating with federal authorities in a wide-ranging investigation of state corruption. The indictment, rumored for weeks, was unsealed less than a month before the Nov. 7 election.
A second indictment, also unsealed today, alleges Rezko fraudulently obtained more than $10 million in loans for a pizza restaurant business from General Electric Capital Corp. and also defrauded investors in that business.
Blagojevich has not been accused of any wrongdoing, but the federal investigations have shadowed his re-election campaign against Republican challenger Judy Baar Topinka.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-061011rezko,1,6730890.story?coll=chi-news-hed



Top team, lasers to aid traffic cops
1,800 tickets written since police started testing new programs
By Josh Noel
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 11, 2006
Speeders and those who favor rolling through stop signs had best beware: Chicago police are looking for you like never before.
The department announced two new tools Tuesday to catch traffic lawbreakers: a batch of high-tech, hand-held laser guns to catch speeders and a team of officers dedicated to traffic enforcement.
Enforcing speed limits in the city had previously amounted to a handful of vehicle-mounted radar guns. Police say there are close to a dozen such radar guns, but an alderman who leads the City Council's Transportation Committee said the number was far smaller.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0610110045oct11,1,348090.story?coll=chi-news-hed


Bush defends Hastert, calls for action on N. Korea
By Mark Silva
Washington Bureau
Published October 11, 2006, 12:52 PM CDT
WASHINGTON -- President Bush, maintaining that House Speaker Dennis Hastert's credibility has not been harmed by the congressional page scandal, said today that midterm congressional elections will not be driven by this scandal — but rather by his party's commitment to cutting taxes and protecting national security.
"I believe taxes are a big issue in the campaign,'' the president said in a Rose Garden press conference today. "How best to protect the country is a big issue, a really big issue…. And I believe those two issues will be the issues that drive the election.''
In the midst of a standoff with North Korea, which has claimed it has tested an underground nuclear device, Bush also insisted today that a united front of diplomacy involving the United States and Asian allies remains the key to convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear ambitions.
"Diplomacy hasn't run its course,'' the president said. "We'll continue working to make sure we give diplomacy a full opportunity to succeed.''

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-061011bush,1,6503189.story?coll=chi-news-hed



Quads naturally a surprise to suburban family
By James Kimberly
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 11, 2006, 5:07 PM CDT
Anissa and Jesus Medrano of Elgin planned to one day add a third child to their young family.
They just didn't expect it to be so soon. Nor did they expect to so dramatically exceed that goal.
Anissa Medrano delivered a healthy set of quadruplets last week at Edward Hospital in Naperville.
"It was very scary," said Medrano, 30, "carrying that many babies at one time."
Edward Hospital physicians said the birth was extremely rare because the quadruplets were conceived without fertility drugs. Quadruplets are conceived naturally only in one out of every 512,000 pregnancies, hospital officials said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/custom/newsroom/chi-061011naperville-quads,1,5048934.story?coll=chi-news-hed


Suburb bans most public smoking
By Dave Wischnowsky
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 11, 2006, 5:54 PM CDT
Northbrook is the latest north suburban community to go smoke-free.
The Village Board voted unanimously Tuesday night for an ordinance that bans smoking in almost all public places.
"It's very comprehensive," Village President Gene Marks said of the ban, which will go into effect Jan. 1. "We're going to enjoy our clean air."
Under the ordinance, smoking will be prohibited in all restaurants, bars and workplaces, as well as at most outdoor locations, including school property.
Smoking also will be banned at Park District sites, except for the main golf course at Sportsman's Country Club, where smokers must remain at least 75 feet from the clubhouse, Marks said.
Exempt from the ban are businesses dedicated strictly to tobacco sales and up to 10 percent of a hotel's total rooms. The nursing-home rooms of smokers also can be exempt if the room's occupants agree to sign a waiver, Marks said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-061011nosmoke,1,4548369.story?coll=chi-news-hed


The start of Bulls' school
Thomas, Sefolosha show nerves, skills
By K.C. Johnson
Tribune staff reporter
Published October 12, 2006, 12:24 AM CDT
When the trainer notices nerves while he's taping a player's ankles, they must be palpable. And this transpired with rookies Tyrus Thomas and Thabo Sefolosha at the Bulls' morning shootaround.
"Everybody on the staff could see it," coach Scott Skiles said. "Frankly, I would wonder what's going on in their heads if they weren't nervous.
"I want them to understand the significance of what they're about to undertake."
First-round picks Thomas and Sefolosha insist they do, and their NBA education sped up tenfold Wednesday night at the United Center.
Playing in The House That Michael Built for the first time, the rookies alternately flashed promise and problems during the Bulls' 87-86 victory over Washington.
Rookie free agent Andre Barrett's jumper with 17.7 seconds remaining capped a game-ending 7-0 Bulls run that sealed the comeback. Former Bull Roger Mason Jr.'s jumper at the buzzer rimmed out for Washington.
"It's always good to win," center Ben Wallace said. "They say losing builds character. But, to me, losing [stinks]."
Wallace received a standing ovation during introductions and finished with seven points and nine rebounds in 20 minutes. He shot 1 of 6 from the free-throw line, including an air ball.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/basketball/bulls/cs-061011bulls,1,2051406.story?coll=chi-sportstop-hed



Skilling Asks Judge to Throw Out Verdict
By RASHA MADKOUR
Associated Press Writer
Published October 11, 2006, 5:09 PM CDT
HOUSTON -- Former Enron Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling has asked a federal judge to overturn his guilty verdict based on an August decision that reversed four other Enron-related convictions.
Skilling, 52, was found guilty in May of fraud, insider trading, conspiracy and lying to auditors for actions leading to his abrupt resignation in August 2001. Four months later, his company -- once the nation's seventh-largest -- went bankrupt amid revelations of inflated profits and hidden debts.
Now Skilling is asking U.S. District Judge Sim Lake, who presided over his trial, to dismiss those counts or grant a new trial in light of a federal appeals court ruling in New Orleans that Merrill Lynch employees accused of assisting Enron in defrauding investors were doing what Enron wanted them to do and did not profit at its expense. As a result, the court ruled, they did not deprive Enron of "honest services."
Skilling faces sentencing on Oct. 23, and will possibly be sent to jail at that time. His motion, filed on Tuesday, also asked for bail pending appeal.
The legal statute "honest services" had been applied too broadly before the appeals court clarified its application, said Daniel Petrocelli, Skilling's lawyer. Federal prosecutors in the case had stretched it to cover any conduct that was not honest, instead of specifically self-dealing actions, Petrocelli said.
While convicted former Chief Financial Officer Andrew Fastow stole millions of dollars from Enron, Petrocelli said, "Jeffrey Skilling was not accused of doing such things." He did not do anything not in Enron's interest, Petrocelli said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-enron-skilling,1,5657070.story?coll=chi-news-hed



Anna Nicole jumps in; Vince, Jen bail out
By Lucinda Hahn
Special to the Tribune
Published October 11, 2006
PEOPLE: Mourning mom Anna Nicole Smith provided People with exclusive photos of her and her attorney, Howard K. Stern, leaping from a catamaran into the ocean near her home in the Bahamas ("Leap of Love," Page 68). The feet-first jump sealed the deal on a non-legally binding shipboard commitment ceremony between lovers Smith and Stern. The guests then ate Kentucky Fried Chicken.
The high-seas outing was a respite from a "stream of disturbing news surrounding" the death of her son, Daniel, People writes. Toxicology reports indicate he had alarmingly high levels of the antidepressant Zoloft and the painkiller methadone in his system, which likely caused a fatal irregular heartbeat.
Elsewhere, People's editors apparently think a sect of Americans who voluntarily go through life deprived of plasma-screen TVs and cell phones need some serious explanation. After decoding the mores and habits of the Amish ("Living the Simple Life," Page 65), the article reaches this conclusion: Their kooky stance against totally great electronic gadgets notwithstanding, the Amish are people too.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0610100351oct11,1,1888911.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed



Winter with the monarchs in Mexico
By Hugh Dellios
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published October 8, 2006
CERRO PELON, Mexico -- Down the trail, straight at us, fluttered a stream of orange wings. They were monarch butterflies, one behind the other, flickering down the mountain by the hundreds in the morning sunshine to find water.
It was a colorful welcome to our visit to Bald Mountain in central Mexico, but it raised a suddenly worrisome question: We were on horseback, hoofing up the mountain to see a sanctuary where the monarchs spend the winter. But if they were all coming down the hill through the woods, how many would be left for us to see up top?
"Oh, don't worry," chuckled Jose Luis Juarez, the farmer serving as our guide. "There's millions."
And so there were. Over the ridge, a 300-foot-deep ravine was orange with them, clustered on cedar trunks and clinging to branches like mussels on seashore rocks. In the air, they bobbed like aimless acrobats. Our backs to one of the ravine walls, the entire vista was alive as if we were watching a wrap-around IMAX movie.
The whisper of thousands of dancing wings sounds like a soft alpine wind through the trees. No, more like a storm of soft snow touching down on a quiet December night. Then a branch breaks and thousands pour out of a tree, making a sound like a giant cola bottle fizzing over.
"It's the eighth wonder of the world, I swear," said another tourist on her hike back up the ravine trail.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0610080445oct08,0,7490276.story?coll=chi-homepagetravel-hed



Gibson: I Haven't Had a Drink in 65 Days
By SANDY COHEN
AP Entertainment Writer
Published October 11, 2006, 11:07 AM CDT
LOS ANGELES -- Mel Gibson calls his anti-Semitic rant following his arrest for drunk driving in July "the stupid ramblings of a drunkard." In an interview with Diane Sawyer set to air on "Good Morning America" on Thursday and Friday, Gibson says that though staying sober is a struggle, he has not had a drink in 65 days.
He adds that he plans to continue making movies and working to heal himself and those he offended.
"All you can do is take another step, keep breathing," he says, according to a partial transcript of the interview released by ABC.
Clean shaven and casually dressed in jeans and a blue checkered shirt, Gibson tells Sawyer he began drinking two months before sheriff's deputies arrested him in Malibu on July 28.
"Years go by, you're fine," he says. "And then all of a sudden in a heartbeat, in an instant, on an impulse, somebody shoves a glass of Mescal in front of your nose and says, `It's from Oaxaca.' And it's burning its way through your esophagus and you go, `Oh man, what did I do that for? I can't put the toothpaste back in the tube.'"

http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-gibson-interview,1,4789244.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed


Voters might be on horns of a dilemma
Published October 11, 2006
When the candidates for governor began the race, I said they were like two horns on the head of the same goat.
But after watching them together before the Tribune's editorial board Tuesday, I must apologize to every goat in Illinois.
Goats should never get themselves caught up in politics. Yes, they smell like wet junkyard car seats and eat ashtrays full of cigarette butts. But goats have a sense of humor. And they're innocent creatures.
So no goat should ever have politicians growing out of its head, even if it's only in metaphor.
Still, the 90-minute debate at the Tribune between Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich and Republican Illinois Treasurer Judy Baar Topinka was entertaining. They answered complicated questions, but couldn't answer the simple ones.
Governor, have you retained criminal legal counsel as a result of the ongoing federal investigations into your administration?
"One of the things I have learned since I've been governor is that what you need to do in modern politics today is you need to have political consultants, pollsters and a whole bunch of lawyers," Blagojevich said.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0610110128oct11,1,4389684.column?coll=chi-news-col


A border solution that's chock-full of holes
Published October 8, 2006
In recent years, illegal immigrants have become a continuous river surging over our southern border. When water goes where it shouldn't, you build a dam to stop the flow. So recently Congress voted to block this torrent--by putting up one-third of a dam. In practice, it will amount to far less than one-third of a solution.
The fence, as advertised, simultaneously manages to be both stupendously vast and pitifully undersized. Covering some 700 miles in five segments, it's the equivalent of a structure stretching from Chicago to Washington. It would consist of double steel walls supplemented with cameras, motion detectors and floodlights--everything but an alligator-infested moat.
Supporters put the cost at $2.2 billion, but it's wise to take that as a floor, not a ceiling. This sizable sum, however, would not cover the perpetual expense to maintain the fence in a remote and harsh environment. Nor would it pay the cost of buying the needed land from private owners.
As it happens, though, when Congress voted for 700 miles of fencing, it provided money for only about half that much. Even at 700 miles, the barrier would leave 1,300 miles of the border as unobstructed as the South Pole.
It turns out the inadequate funding may not all be spent on the fence, since the president was granted leeway to use the money for roads, gadgets and "tactical infrastructure." The Department of Homeland Security declines to say if it will construct what Congress conceived. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), head of the subcommittee on homeland security appropriations, told The Washington Post that "there'll be fencing where the department feels that it makes sense"--which will be, uh, let's see ... "at least 300 to 400 miles."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0610080415oct08,1,518470.column?coll=chi-news-col


Hear that thud? It's the GOP's latest scandal
Published October 9, 2006
Do you think that when there's a scandal, particularly a sex scandal involving politicians, that Republicans get slammed harder when they're at the center than Democrats?
Or is it just that the heat gets intense when scandal hits the party in power?
In the days since the Mark Foley sex scandal broke, as we've been waiting to learn what House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) knew and whether he responded appropriately, I've heard a lot of people saying that scandal is tougher on Republicans.
I'm not sure that's the case, but if so it's pretty clear why. Republicans have been winning big elections by setting themselves aloft, placing themselves on such high moral perches that when they lose their footing, the thud reverberates much louder than when their counterparts get in trouble.
Hastert has led a House that has seen its share of thuds from his fellow Republicans in the last year. Consider the fall of U.S. Rep Tom DeLay, who resigned after being indicted in his home state of Texas in relation to campaign finance problems. He created quite a thud. Consider the fall of California Rep. Randy Cunningham, who was convicted of taking more than $2 million in bribes. Thud. Then there was the fall of Ohio Rep. Bob Ney, who resigned after his lucrative relationship with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff became public. Another thud.
Most Americans understand that conservatives are human beings and susceptible to making stupid mistakes. (Democrats aren't immune. Think of Rep. William Jefferson, accused of having $90,000 in bribe money chillin' in the freezer of his Louisiana home.)
It's just that the more moralistic conservatives have shown so little empathy for the fallibility of others that it feels like they're getting what they deserve and more when they thud.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/chi-0610090100oct09,1,5241656.column?coll=chi-news-col


South Korea Times


Ban Nominated as Next UN Leader
South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon was formally nominated Monday (Oct. 9) to become the secretary-general of the United Nations.
The U.N. Security Council recommended the 62-year-old veteran diplomat as the successor to Kofi Annan who is scheduled to retire at the end of this year.
The council's choice of the mild-mannered official was widely expected, as he won a series of straw polls on a pool of candidates for the post.
In the final straw poll last week, Ban was the only candidate to escape a veto from the five permanent members of the council.
Ban's nomination is subject to endorsement by the 192-nation General Assembly, which is expected to meet next week, but tradition suggests there will be no debate or protest.
The assembly has traditionally approved the council's decision for the U.N. secretary-general by acclamation.
If Ban receives the assembly's approval, he will become the first South Korean to take the much-coveted post and the second Asian following U Thant of Burma who served from 1961-1971.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006100923224211990.htm


Rumsfeld to Confirm Nuclear Umbrella for South Korea

South Korea and the United States will discuss the U.S. military’s provision of nuclear weapons in case of war on the Korean Peninsula when their defense ministers meet next week ...



Roh, Hu Seek Peaceful Solution
By Ryu Jin
Staff Reporter
South Korea is stepping up its diplomatic efforts with China and the United States for a breakthrough in the U.S.-North Korea nuclear standoff as discussions are underway at the U.N. Security Council to map out punitive measures against Pyongyang.
President Roh Moo-hyun is to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing today, following his talks with U.S. President George W. Bush and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe early this week.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is also scheduled to make an Asian tour as early as next week to discuss the situation on the Korean Peninsula after the North’s proclaimed nuclear test on Oct. 9 with officials of South Korea, Japan and China.
South Korean officials said Roh would try to find a solution to the nuclear impasse in the summit with the Chinese president, which was arranged before the North’s nuclear blast.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200610/kt2006101217320810440.htm


Governing Party Opposes Blockade of NK Ships
By Park Song-wu
Staff Reporter
The governing Uri Party yesterday strongly criticized the government for its apparent readiness to increase Seoul's role in a U.S.-led international scheme to interdict suspicious arms shipments, targeting rogue states like North Korea.
Calling it a ``dangerous idea,'' Rep. Kim Geun-tae, chairman of the liberal party, claimed that Seoul should not fully join the Proliferation Security Initiative (PSI), which was launched in May 2003 by Washington, as it could trigger a full-scale armed conflict at sea.
Late last year, Pyongyang also branded the PSI a ``fuse'' that invites ``a fire cloud of war.''
Seoul has maintained an observer's status in the PSI since 2005.
Kim's remarks came as the United States and Japan are trying to pass a new Security Council resolution on the North's nuclear test under the U.N. Charter's Chapter 7, which authorizes the blockage of rail, sea and air transportation _ using armed force, if necessary.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a press release on Wednesday that the government's measures regarding the PSI, will be made in accordance with the resolution that is expected to be adopted this week.
But a ranking official in Seoul told reporters hours earlier that the North's proclaimed nuclear test on Monday forced the government to extend its role in the PSI ``to a wider frame.''

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200610/kt2006101217331210160.htm


S. Koreans Seem Unfazed by Threat
By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
Despite North Korea’s claimed nuclear test on Monday, which clouds national security, the South Korean public has shown little panic.
Although the stock market saw a sharp fall on the first day, it stabilized over the following three days. This attitude is dramatically different from that during the nuclear crisis in 1994, when people indulged in panic buying.
Lee Chol-ki, an international relations professor of Dongkuk University, considers the public attitude mature and positive. ``In contrast to attitudes during the Cold War era, South Koreans have become more objective and balanced in their views on North Korea’s military situation and the security of the Korean Peninsula,’’ Lee said. ``The change is largely due to the South Korean government’s consistent engagement policy toward the North.’’
``If the government had been pursuing a hostile policy toward the North, there would have been a large exodus of foreign capital and a great level of panic selling since Monday,’’ Lee said.
Others said that North Korea’s repetitious nuclear threats have caused South Koreans to not take them seriously, almost becoming insensitive to them.
``Especially among young people who are indifferent to politics, there seems to be a great level of insensitivity toward national security,’’ said Yoon Hee-kyong, a student at Yonsei University.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200610/kt2006101217395653460.htm


English ID Cards Planned for 2009
By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
The Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs (MOGAHA) is considering making English names compulsory for new identification cards from 2009.
The ministry plans to insert an integrated-circuit (IC) chip and mark the holder’s name in English as well as in Korean on cards beginning in 2009. The design for the new card was suggested in February. Current identification cards only have the holder’s name in Korean.
``We thought marking holder’s name in English goes well with the international era,’’ said ministry official Choi Jeong-rye.
The move is facing a backlash from Korean-language related organizations as well as some Internet users who claim that marking names in English is unnecessary since identification cards are for domestic use only.
The Korean Language Promotion Organization, a non-governmental organization aimed at spreading the use of Hangul (Korean language), officially asked the government to scrap the plan last week. It said that inscription of names in English goes against Korean language law, which obliges the use of Hangul in every official governmental document.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101119385610510.htm


25 Percent of Citizens Suffer From Anxiety
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
One out of four adults suffers from anxiety and uncertainty according to a recent survey.
The finding was made in a survey conducted by the Korean Anxiety Medical Association last March of 1,000 male and female adults aged between 20 and 69 residing in Seoul and five other metropolitan cities.
Six percent of the respondents showed problems so serious that they disturb their daily lives and need medical treatment or counseling. However, less than 20 percent of them were receiving the treatment they needed.
The survey indicated that mild mental diseases, which could be healed if treated early, became chronic due to a lack of understanding, the association said.
Noting the fact that the patients suffering from anxiety neglect their diseases in the early stage, the association said it will hold ``Anxiety Recognition Day’’ in 13 regions nationwide this month.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200610/kt2006100816430810160.htm


Seoul Misjudged Location of Site, Says Lawmaker
By Kim Tae-gyu
Staff Reporter
A South Korean lawmaker yesterday said the country seems to be wrong about the exact site where the North’s alleged nuclear tests happened on Monday.
Rep. Kim Hee-jung of the main opposition Grand National Party made the remarks based on four different analyses from the United States and Japan, as well as South Korea.
The Southern government announced the test took place near Sangpyong-ri, the North’s northeastern coastal area, in line with reports of the Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGMR).
``The institute was the only one to pick Sangpyong-ri. Agencies in the United States, Japan and even South Korea designated Kilju, about 50 kilometers north of Sangpyong-ri,’’ Kim said.
``I am about 90 percent sure that the government and the KIGMR were wrong. A senior official at the KIGMR also admitted they might be wrong during a recent telephone interview,’’ the first-term lawmaker said.
KIGMR official did not answer phone calls yesterday seeking comment.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200610/kt2006101217354710230.htm


Military Reviews Nuclear War Plan
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
The military has stepped up preparations for a possible nuclear war on the Korean Peninsula since North Korea’s proclaimed nuclear weapons test Monday.
According to sources at the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS), the military is reviewing plans to revise the current theater war plan, drawn up by the South Korean and U.S. militaries, in case of war on the peninsula to make it include detailed measures for a nuclear war.
The JCS has submitted two reports to Defense Minister Yoon Kwang-ung since Oct. 3 when Pyongyang announced its plan to conduct a nuclear test, they said.
``Things have changed completely,’’ a JCS official said on condition of anonymity. ``We can’t help reviewing the joint contingency plan with the U.S. military to counter an allegedly nuclear-armed Pyongyang.’’
The move comes at a time when public concerns are growing over North Korea’s nuclear threat. Military analysts say if the North detonates a 10-kiloton atomic bomb in the air, about 10 percent of South Korean frontline Army divisions would be neutralized. The reclusive state is believed to have up to seven nuclear weapons of about 20 kilotons.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/200610/kt2006101217482868040.htm


Elderly Population Reaches 9.2%
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
The number of Korean people aged over 65 reached just under 10 percent of the population as of August, the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs said yesterday.
As of Aug. 29, about 9.2 percent of Korea’s 48.9 million people were aged 65 and over, a rise from the 8.1 percent at the end of 2003, according to the ministry’s numbers.
However, the birth registration rate, or the registered number of births per total population, stood just at 1 percent during the three-year period between January 2003 and December 2005.
South Cholla Province had the highest elderly rate, with more than 16 percent of its residents over the age of 65.
North Kyongsang Province, South Chungchong Province, and North Cholla Province had more than a 13 percent elderly rate.
The southern industrial city of Ulsan had the lowest elderly rate among cities, counties and provinces at 5.5 percent. Seoul had an elderly rate of 7.5 percent.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101119414311970.htm



Starbucks Loses Trademark Dispute
By Park Chung-a
Staff Reporter
American coffee chain Starbucks has lost a second trademark dispute with the little-known local company Elpreya.
The nation's patent court ruled Wednesday against Starbucks, which had filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against the local firm Elpreya over the firm's alleged plagiarism of its trademark logo.
The Seattle-based global coffee retailer claimed that Elpreya's use of the brand ``Starpreya'' is an attempt to free ride the fame of Starbucks and cause local consumers to confuse the product with its own corporate and brand name.
The Intellectual Property Tribunal's court ruled that the trade names' characteristics and appearances were dissimilar in terms of trademark rights, hence leading to little possibility of confusion.
The court also said there is insufficient evidence of Elpreya plagiarizing Starbucks' trademarks.
The court said that the trade name "Starpreya", a combination of the words of "Star" and "Preya", is very different in appearance from "Starbucks."
The court also said that the word ``Star'' which is used in both brands is a common term for trade brands and it is generally not considered as significant part of the names that distinguishes one brand from another.
``Plus, the words 'Preya' and 'Bucks' do not have any special meanings,'' the judge said in a statement. ``Both of the trade names are made of two words and are very unlikely to be called in separate forms such as `Star' or `Preya' and `Star' or `Bucks'.''

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101119340711960.htm



Anti-Cronyism Campaign Ready to Be Launched
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
An anti-corruption expert yesterday called for tougher measures against rampant cronyism among public officials, which he described as a legacy from previous authoritarian governments.
Professor Kim Tae-young at the University of Seoul proposed a ``two-and-out system for cronyism,’’ under which public servants indicted twice for giving favors are to be sacked. He also suggested that offenders charged with paternalism not be excluded from government amnesty.
``To root out the widespread cronyism or paternalism among civil servants, the government should come up with comprehensive, stronger measures, including a revision of relevant laws,’’ Kim, director of an anti-corruption institute affiliated with the university, told a forum in central Seoul.
The forum, held at the Korea Press Center in Seoul, was co-organized by the Korea Independent Commission Against Corruption (KICAC).

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101120073511980.htm



Pyongyang Vows to Hit Back
By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
North Korea yesterday threatened to respond with a series of physical measures if the United States steps up pressure on the Stalinist country.
``We have no choice but to carry out a nuclear test due to the United States’ nuclear threat and its sneaky tactics of using sanctions,’’ the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The statement was carried by the North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA).
If Washington continues the pressure, North Korea will consider the U.S. acts as a ``declaration of war,’’ it said.
However, the North said it is still willing to hold negotiations with the United States and remains committed to a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula through dialogue.
``We had to conduct the nuclear test because of the U.S. government’s (hostile attitude toward the North), but our determination to realize the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and negotiations remains unchanged,’’ the statement said.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101122573711990.htm


Online Nuclear Rumors Confuse People
By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter
After North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test, some online communities and portal Web sites flared into action with people talking about a possible war.
In contrast to most of the world where people have reacted calmly to the news, the Internet world is afire with rumors about war or the invasion of North Korea. Some netizens have confused others by writing fake news articles about the outbreak of a war and the U.S. attacking North Korea.
A netizen (ID: woovx) on the portal site Naver posted an article called ``Watch out,’’ saying that the North Korean government has decided to launch a nuclear bomb at Mt. Namsan, and that all high-ranking officials have already hidden in safe places underground.
Another netizen posted a fake scenario in which the U. S. attacked North Korea after President George W. Bush, seeing no other option, decides to destroy the country. The replies and rumors have spread to many famous portal sites and online communities.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101117460111990.htm



Food Aid to Pyongyang Should Continue: WFP
By Kim Sue-young
Staff Reporter
Amid increasing denunciations of North Korea's proclaimed nuclear test on Monday, the United Nations food agency said yesterday that food support for the reclusive regime should continue.
The agency cannot help stopping the food aid from early next year due to a lack of support from food supplying nations, Paul Risely, a spokesman of the World Food Program (WFP) in Bangkok said.
``As long as the WFP and others can demonstrate that their food will be given directly to the people of North Korea rather than being used in any other way, then I think funding for the food assistance must continue,'' he said in an interview with Radio Free Asia.
The WFP planned to provide food for 1.9 million North Koreans but less than one million people are currently benefiting because of financial problems, Christiane Berthiaume, a spokeswoman for the agency, said during a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, Tuesday.
As the isolated North asked for development support not humanitarian aid, the WFP decided to decrease annual support from 200,000-300,000 tons to 75,000 tons from the middle of this year.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101117440511990.htm



Local Governments Stop NK Aid
By Kim Tong-hyung
Staff Reporter
South Korean cities and provincial governments are withdrawing their inter-Korean relations programs and activities in response to North Korea’s claim to have tested a nuclear weapon.
The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced yesterday that it will indefinitely halt all cross-border activities in response to North Korea’s alleged nuclear test.
In a senior officials' meeting chaired by Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, the city government decided to suspend the use of a 20 billion won ($20.7 million) fund raised since 2004 to support the joint activities and provide financial aid to the North.
The city has used about 3.2 billion won from the fund, including the 200 million won it gave to North Korea in September to help its recovery efforts after the country was hit by massive floods during the summer monsoon season.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101018012711990.htm



Was It Success or Failure?
Questions Raised Over Test Result
Despite North Korea’s announcement of its successful underground nuclear weapon’s test, South Korea and many other nations including the U.S. and Japan are still reluctant to accept it as being a successful detonation of a nuclear device. They are saying that the test might have been either a hoax or a failed one. The claim was from the fact that the intensity of the seismic shockwave from the explosion was weaker than that which would have been expected from a nuclear detonation.
However, some scientists see it differently, saying that the North’s detonation, presumed to have the output equivalent to about 0.5 or 1 kiloton of TNT, was small in intensity, but powerful enough to kill thousands of people instantly, and make many others suffer from radioactive poisoning if it was exploded in an urban area. Moreover, it also raised the possibility that the device was small enough to pave the way to develop a nuclear warhead to be attached to a missile, according to these scientists.
We believe that the debate over whether or not the test was a success is meaningless. What is important at this stage is that the test was enough to prove North’s capabilities to translate their nuclear technology into making a deadly weapon. It demonstrated Kim Jong-il really means to be a nuclear power, and is not just a bluffing. Another noteworthy thing was that the test has swept away the perception of the Roh Moo-hyun government that the North’s threat to test a nuclear device was just intended to attract the U.S. to bilateral talks, and was no threat to our security.
It also proved that our North Korean policy that has required an astronomic amount of money has been a total failure. The only comfort amid this misfortune is that the test has made our government realize that it was wrong and that a brand new policy is needed, though belated. Actually, the South-North contacts including lavish endowments over the last several years had been brisk enough to drive people here into believing that the worst thing could not happen. So, the test was a bolt out of the blue to the people.
Now, what is urgently needed for the government is to set the public’s mind at ease. In connection with this, we hope that the test will serve as a wakeup call for the government to realize the need for bolstering the Korea-U.S. security alliance that has been greatly weakened under the current regime. We are heartened that President Roh has expressed his willingness, even vaguely, to review the plan of getting back wartime operation control from the U.S. under new environment.
Our costly military modernization plan aimed at bolstering conventional military hardware has become meaningless in the face of a nuclear weapon. At this juncture, the only plausible measure for our government to take to keep the people at ease and our economy stable is to strengthen our military alliance with the U.S.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200610/kt2006101118015954040.htm



Bell Reaffirms Security Commitment to S. Korea
By Jung Sung-ki
Staff Reporter
Gen. B. B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea (USFK), yesterday reaffirmed a strong commitment to the defense of South Korea against a nuclear-armed North Korea.
Bell, who is currently in the United States, posted a message on the USFK's official Web site directing his soldiers to maintain combat readiness against Pyongyang, which conducted a nuclear test on Monday.
``I want to make it clear to all that we are executing daily operations and maintaining our readiness at appropriate levels,'' said the four-star general, who concurrently serves as chief of the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Command and the United Nations Command.
``While this test is a significant development, there is no cause for alarm within the command,'' he said. ``Be assured that the Alliance has the forces necessary to deter aggression and, should deterrence fail, decisively defeat any North Korean attack against the Republic of Korea.''

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101117444811990.htm



Seoul in 2010
4-Year-Plan Should Focus on Feasible Projects
Mayor Oh Se-hoon’s administrative plan for Seoul until 2010 comprises 471 projects in five categories. A considerable number of them were inherited by his predecessor, but a simple calculation shows that City Hall has to complete one about every three days. For this and other reasons, there are concerns about over-ambitiousness of this plan, aimed at raising the capital city’s competitiveness to 10th in the world. Without concentrating on a selected few projects, the rosy blueprint could end up as being just that _ blueprint.
The four-year-plan has its targets right, as they contain not just such hard projects dealing with the economy and welfare but also the soft areas of culture and environment. If everything goes as planned, Seoul, ranked 27th in global competitiveness, will surely jump to one of the 10 most beautiful and competitive cities. At stake is how to turn these projects into reality. Not a few of the 471 projects are unrealistic, pulling down the feasibility of other more serious ones.
Financing is another problem. The plan calls for investing $28 billion between 2007 and 2010, $7 billion a year. Concerns are mounting about the renovation plan eroding programs related to the daily lives of the mid- to low-income class. A city hall official cast aside this concern, saying the municipal government will secure $30 billion, 20 percent of which will go for public livelihood. But it can hardly be emphasized too much that citizens’ quality of life should come ahead of demonstrative programs.
Seoul is not just another metropolis in Korea. One in every five Koreans lives in the capital, which accounts for 20 percent of the nation’s GDP. About 40 percent of governmental revenues and half of all financial deposits are made in it. Seoul is Korea in miniature, both in its problems and potential. The capital city’s problems of overpopulation and unbalanced development are those of Korea. Its potential as Northeast Asia’s information technology and financial hub is also the nation’s dream.
All this shows Seoul’s administrative plan cannot be only its own but should harmonize with a national development plan. In reality, however, the two often clash with each other, as shown by the project to turn the U.S. base in Yongsan into a public park. Central and local governments should overcome their political biases when it comes to conducting national projects. Mayor Oh’s ambitious project to renovate the Han River and upgrade air quality also require more realistic and detailed action plans.
Oh should not worry about trying to outdo his predecessor, Lee Myong-bak, in large civil engineering projects. Nor should the incumbent follow the former mayor’s steps in using the mayoralty as a stepping-stone to the presidency. Oh will go down in history as a great mayor if only he makes Seoul a clean, environment-friendly city.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/opinion/200610/kt2006101118010654050.htm


S. Korea Keeps Eye on North’s Next Nuke Move
By Lee Jin-woo
Staff Reporter
Alarmed by North Korea’s first-ever alleged nuclear test, South Korea was anxious yesterday to find clues as to whether the communist North would go ahead with a second _ but it is as challenging now to find out the reclusive state’s intentions as it was before the North’s sudden announcement about the test on Monday.
In a radio interview yesterday, Rep. Shin Ki-nam of the governing Uri Party did not rule out the possibility of the North carrying out a second nuclear test.
The lawmaker also serves as chairman of the National Assembly’s intelligence committee.
“It is still possible that North Korea could go ahead with another nuclear test,” Shin said.
“But it remains to be seen whether the secretive North will surprise the world again despite sharp criticism by almost all countries in the world.”
The three-term lawmaker expected the joint inter-Korean business projects _ Mt. Kumgang tourism and the Kaesong industrial complex projects _ would face certain changes due to the test.
But he did not agree that it implied the end to the Roh Moohyun administration’s reconciliatory inter-Korean policies, initiated by former President Kim Daejung and dubbed the “Sunshine Policy.”

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101018050711990.htm


Rich Kids More Apt to Get Atopy
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
Children of parents in the high-income bracket get atopic diseases more easily than those in poor families, according to a report the Ministry of Environment recently presented to Rep. Dan Byoung-ho of the Democratic Labor Party.
The ministry recently conducted research on 2,495 elementary schoolchildren aged 8 to 10 nationwide, and found 29.1 percent, or 726 children, have had symptoms related to atopy, such as itching and rashes.
The figure was higher than the 12.9 percent in 1995 and 20.3 percent in 2000, announced by the Korean Academy of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Disease last year.
The report also showed the richer the children’s families were, the more likely kids were to get atopic ailments.
The prevalence of atopy in children in a family earning more than 5 million won per month was 42.2 percent. Prevalence is a ratio of the number of sufferers of a disease to the population in the area.
Children in a family with 3-5 million won of monthly income had an atopy prevalence of 34 percent, while those in a family with 2-3 million won of income had a prevalence of 28.8 percent.
The prevalence in children with 1-2 million won of monthly income was 27.2 percent, and that in children with less than 1 million won was 21.5 percent.
“The researchers could not exactly clarify the reason. But they suspect children in highincome brackets have more atopy because they usually live in large cities where people are more frequently exposed to pollutants and other harmful chemicals,” Rep. Dan said.
On the contrary, the level of lead in the blood, which can affect the central nervous system, was in inverse proportion to income.
Children in a family with over 5 million won of monthly income had 1.9 micrograms of lead in 1 deciliter of blood, while those in a family with less than 1 million won of income had 2.21 micrograms.
More than 6 percent of children studied also had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a kind of mental disorder, which was directly proportional to the lead blood level.
The children also had an average 2.9 micrograms of mercury per one liter of blood, about 3.5 to five times more than the 0.58-0.82 micrograms average level of adults in Germany and the U.S.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101020590911990.htm


Dance Students SHOCK Sogang Campus
By Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
A group of dancing students is blasting new life into disciplined Songang University, a small school with tough curriculums and a reputation for having dedicated students.
The school’s dance club SHOCK _ Sogang Hiphop On Cheer Kingdom _ has stirred up strong emotions on campus, known for its conservative study habits.
SHOCK was formed in 1998 by seven students who love dancing and expressing their feelings through dance.
It created a sensation at a time when not many people were familiar with freestyle clothes and liberal dancing. As a result, many students were interested in watching dynamic dances but not willing to participate.
``We just loved dance. There was nothing but our passion for dance. Through dance, we could realize that we are young and express our youth,’’ said Song Jae-young, founder of SHOCK. ``It is very rewarding to see the club growing and my juniors show their passion and affection toward dance.’’
Although the club didn’t see great start, it is booming now. Every year the club recruits more than 50 freshmen.
``During my high school days, I couldn’t dance as I wanted to study for college. I joined the club to feel free,’’ said Kim Hyo-sun, a first-year student majoring in business management at the school.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101116432152990.htm


KNA ‘Hangul’ Class Attracts US Sailors
Kang Shin-who
Staff Reporter
Members of the U.S. Navy are engaged in learning Korean at the Korea Naval Academy, located in Chinhae, South Kyongsang Province, which started offering an 8-week Korean language class from last month. Now more and more foreigners are becoming interested in the class _ much more than the school expected.
On the course, sailors and their spouses learned the basic skills of how to read and write the vowels and consonants that make up the language, and various examples of conversation used in daily life.
``Although I know how to speak Korean a little bit because of my Korean wife, I believe I can learn Korean more systematically and effectively through the language classes,’’ said Robert Sanchez, 24, who is a shore patrol member of the U.S. Navy unit assigned to Korea He added that he hoped to upgrade his Korean so that he can have better conversations in Korean with his wife.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/nation/200610/kt2006101116475353000.htm


Businessman Finds Working in Korea Has Bright Side
By Tony MacGregor
Contributing Writer
If popularity is a side benefit of running a restaurant/pub in Korea, Todd Jenkins of New Phillies Restaurant in Haebangchon wins first prize.
I dropped around to his 37th birthday party at the restaurant on Oct. 3 and couldn’t get in. The place was packed.
The place is packed on other nights too. Since he started the restaurant/pub a year and four months ago, Phillies has become the byword for ``get-together’’ for westerners in Haebangchon.
Jenkins and his partner Helen Kim have hit the nail on the head in meeting the needs of young westerners in the area and their business is flourishing.
Jenkins says starting a business in Korea has a lot of challenges for a foreigner, but the payoff is there in the end despite long hours and the challenges of working in a foreign culture.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/special/200610/kt2006101018123967650.htm


AIDS Concert Warms Up Chilly Evening
By Tony MacGregor
Contributing writer
The evening was chilly, but it didn’t dampen the spirits of the revelers of the NJ Music Festival on Saturday. The band Copymachine sang ``No Woman No Cry,’’ and the audience flocked to dance at the I’Parkmall outdoor auditorium near Yongsan Station.
About 700 guests, about half foreigners, turned up at the concert to raise money to spread awareness about HIV/AIDS in Korea. The exact amount raised had not been calculated at press time.
Two revolving circles of colored lights flashed overhead as three well known pop bands blasted out music and songs.
First on deck was Diode Stereo, and band leader Soon ho demonstrated his smooth vocals and chicken scratch guitar.
Next was Copymachine, an eclectic ska/punk group that specializes in body-grabbin’ dance music.
They were followed by Raw Edge, an expat group from the East Asian hotel circuit.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/special/200609/kt2006091217533567660.htm


Coffee Haven Catches Foreigners’ Fancy
By Rosalind Whalley
Contributing Writer
At a loss for how to fill in several hours between activities without having to go home? Air conditioner malfunctioning or non-existent? Looking for a place to chat without tobacco smoke or alcohol? Reeling from rejection, needing comfort, yet not wanting to talk? Needing to speak a few words of English to someone who isn’t an ESL instructor? Why not try Holy Cross Coffeehouse in Tunsa-dong, Taejon.
Despite its name, this oasis of comfort is for anyone. Save your sanity, if not your soul.
It is conveniently located about a block west of the wide street hosting E-mart and TimeWorld Galleria, and is just minutes from the new Government Complex Taejon subway stop and several bus routes (Nos. 140, 111-1) in the basement of a new building. A vertical banner on the sidewalk alerts you.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/special/200609/kt2006090519564967660.htm


'Am I Dreaming the World?' American Sings the Blues in Zen Korean Temple
By Annie Shapiro
Contributing Writer
An electric guitar strumming out the blues might be a surprising sound in the mountain calm of a Zen Temple. But to Matthew Dewey, a 34-year-old Colorado-born musician, the two are not exclusive but complementary.
Jumping head first into a philosophical conversation, Dewey explains in an interview with the Korea Times the origin of his band's name, ``The Seon Dogs.'' ``It's a pun,'' he says. ``Sundogs are a metrological phenomenon, an illusion _ just like us and this world.''
The metaphysical tone of this guitarist and singer may stem from his personality or perhaps he soaked up the atmosphere of the Jakwangsa Seon (Zen) Temple in Deajon, where he and the Seon Dogs recorded a two-disk album over the course of two days called ``Seon Dogs Pay Chain Gang Shastras.''

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/special/200607/kt2006071816262467660.htm



Orphanage Appeals to Expats for Support
By Tony MacGregor
contributing writer
A U.S-educated Korean woman is appealing to Korea’s expatriate community for help in sending nine Korean orphans to Thailand on what could be a life-changing visit.
Choi Jin-young, who spends her spare time helping out at the Shinmyung Orphanage in Pupyong, Inchon, is organizing a fund-raising party on July 28.
It is designed to be a fun event _ wine and cheese, a Latin dance performance and an art display by artists of the Seoul Art Collective.
Guests will be able to purchase T-shirts and mugs emblazoned with artwork created by the orphans who were helped by Seoul Art Collective artists.
She is making a special appeal to the expatriate community to attend. ``It will be an interesting, fun event and you will be helping the children realize a dream and learn something about themselves,’’ she said.

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/special/200607/kt2006071816244767650.htm


The Washington Times


In Ontario, Making 'Clean Energy' Pay
Utilities Ordered to Compensate Homeowners For Power From Solar, Wind, Water Projects
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A16
TORONTO -- Leonard Allen, who runs a small solar panel company here, finally has something good to tell callers, he says. For the first time, he can promise it won't take 50 years to recoup the money they spend on a rooftop solar system.
Canada's Ontario province has ordered local utility companies to pay homeowners or businesses for any electricity they generate from small solar, wind, water or other renewable energy projects, beginning next month.
The plan is unique in North America, but it is modeled after similar schemes in Europe that have spawned a boom in small "clean energy" projects. Critics say paying for such electricity is not the cheapest source for utilities, but advocates say it is the cleanest and most environment-friendly.
In Ontario, the program has already brought a rush of activity. Homeowners in Toronto are climbing onto roofs to add solar panels. A cooperative of small investors is raising money to build five large wind turbines to harness Lake Huron winds. Others are eyeing the locks of a St. Lawrence Seaway canal for small hydro-turbines. Farmers are looking at manure piles and figuring the profits of using organic decomposition to create methane gas that can make electricity.
"There's a tremendous interest, at all levels, from well-organized business consortiums to small homeowners," said Tim Taylor, a spokesman for the Ontario Power Authority. "The impact in megawatts is going to come from the larger projects, but there's a tremendous momentum found in small, backyard projects."
"We love the idea," said Keith Stewart, an energy specialist at World Wildlife Fund Canada. "The small stuff adds up. This model should be taken right across North America."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101846.html


Bush Stands Firm on Policies
President Defends Strategies for Iraq, North Korea
By Michael Abramowitz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A01
Despite setbacks on North Korea and Iraq, President Bush vowed yesterday to stick with his policies on both crises, praising Chinese condemnation of North Korea's apparent nuclear test and citing progress in helping the fledgling Iraqi government stand on its own.
Even as he rejected calls to hold bilateral talks with Pyongyang, Bush said during a Rose Garden news conference that diplomacy is beginning to unite the world against North Korea's nuclear efforts. He called it hopeful that China is helping North Korea "understand it's not just the United States speaking to them," and he reassured South Korea and Japan that the United States "reserves all options" to protect its allies in the region against threats from the communist state.
At the same time, Bush addressed the recent doubts expressed by senior Republicans, including Sen. John W. Warner (Va.) and former secretary of state James A. Baker III, about the current U.S. course in Iraq -- which he described as more flexible than critics suggest.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101100523.html



FBI Agents Still Lacking Arabic Skills
33 of 12,000 Have Some Proficiency
By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A01
Five years after Arab terrorists attacked the United States, only 33 FBI agents have even a limited proficiency in Arabic, and none of them work in the sections of the bureau that coordinate investigations of international terrorism, according to new FBI statistics.
Counting agents who know only a handful of Arabic words -- including those who scored zero on a standard proficiency test -- just 1 percent of the FBI's 12,000 agents have any familiarity with the language, the statistics show.
The numbers reflect the FBI's continued struggle to attract employees who speak Arabic, Urdu, Farsi and other languages of the Middle East and South Asia, even as the bureau leads a fight against terrorist groups primarily centered in those parts of the world. The same challenge is facing the CIA and other agencies as the government competes with the private sector for a limited number of applicants with foreign-language proficiency, according to U.S. officials and experts.
The shortage of agents with foreign-language skills also shows the extent to which the FBI has focused on translators since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in part because officials believe it is more valuable to have specially trained linguists.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001388.html



Study Claims Iraq's 'Excess' Death Toll Has Reached 655,000
By David Brown
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A12
A team of American and Iraqi epidemiologists estimates that 655,000 more people have died in Iraq since coalition forces arrived in March 2003 than would have died if the invasion had not occurred.
The estimate, produced by interviewing residents during a random sampling of households throughout the country, is far higher than ones produced by other groups, including Iraq's government.
It is more than 20 times the estimate of 30,000 civilian deaths that President Bush gave in a speech in December. It is more than 10 times the estimate of roughly 50,000 civilian deaths made by the British-based Iraq Body Count research group.
The surveyors said they found a steady increase in mortality since the invasion, with a steeper rise in the last year that appears to reflect a worsening of violence as reported by the U.S. military, the news media and civilian groups. In the year ending in June, the team calculated Iraq's mortality rate to be roughly four times what it was the year before the war.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001442.html



China Says It Will Back Sanctions On N. Korea
Beijing Stresses Limits on U.N. Action Against Ally
By Colum Lynch and Maureen Fan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A01
UNITED NATIONS, Oct. 10 -- China on Tuesday expressed a rare willingness to support U.N. sanctions against its ally North Korea, but it said any punitive action would have to be narrowly targeted at the country's ballistic missile and nuclear weapons programs.
The United States and Japan continued to press the U.N. Security Council to support far stronger economic and trade measures that would permit international inspections of all North Korean cargo to search for weapons and to strangle Pyongyang's ability to finance its nuclear program.
Varied responses to the nuclear test that North Korea apparently conducted early Monday emerged as the Bush administration sought to assuage fresh worries by its foreign counterparts that the tough strategy may cause hardship for the country's impoverished population or topple the government. France, for instance, voiced concern that a Japanese proposal to ban all North Korean exports could fuel a humanitarian crisis.
John R. Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, insisted that the U.S. sanctions plan calls for the exemption of food, medicine and other humanitarian goods for civilians. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, meanwhile, specifically ruled out any attempt at regime change. "We have made it very clear that the United States has no intention to attack North Korea. That element of our policy still stands," he told reporters. "What we have sought is a change in the behavior of the North Korean regime."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101000490.html



North-South Relations Suffer A Sudden Chill
As 'Sunshine Policy' Dims, So Does Hope for Families
By Anthony Faiola and Joohee Cho
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A01
SEOUL, Oct. 10 -- Like so many other South Koreans, Lee Won Son, a gaunt 97-year-old watchmaker, will remember Monday's professed nuclear test by North Korea as the day night began to fall on the "sunshine policy."
The policy, launched by Seoul, had since the late 1990s provided the impoverished North with financial benefits and a road map for national reunification. It had also offered tens of thousands of South Koreans the prospect of reuniting with their loved ones, relatives in the North who had been completely shut off from the world in the aftermath of the 1950-53 Korean War. For Lee, who in 1949 had left his family in the North to prepare for the new life they hoped for in the South, there was no greater prize the Pyongyang government could have offered.
But Monday's reported test cast a sudden chill on North-South relations, stalling Seoul's financial incentives to the North and indefinitely ending nearly eight years of emotive family reunions. Though about 13,000 families have briefly come together under the watchful eyes of North Korean guards, Lee's turn to glimpse the sons and daughters he last saw sleeping in their beds nearly 60 years ago had yet to come up. Aging and ailing, he said he now fears it never will.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001438.html



America's Population Set to Top 300 Million
Immigration Fuels Much of Growth
By Blaine Harden
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A01
Clicking upward at a rate of one person every 11 seconds, the U.S. population will officially surpass 300 million in the next week or so.
The milestone is a reminder that the United States remains a remarkable demographic specimen, 230 years old (since the Declaration of Independence) and still in a growth spurt.
Behind only China and India, it is the planet's third most populous nation. For a rich, highly developed country, it is anomalously fertile, with a population that is increasing briskly, in sharp contrast to anemic growth or decline in Western Europe and Japan. Some demographers say this continued growth is essential to support an aging population in retirement and a sign of the continued allure of the United States even at a time when its image around the world has been sullied by the war in Iraq.
Yet, how will the momentous 300-million marker be celebrated in Washington?
"Those plans, believe it or not, are still being finalized," said Robert B. Bernstein, a Census Bureau spokesman. "I don't yet know what, if anything, we are going to do in the way of an event."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101730.html



Hastert Aides Interest Ethics Panel
Staff Members' Knowledge of Foley's Actions With Former Pages in Question
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A06
With House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert denying personal knowledge of former representative Mark Foley's activities, investigators for the House ethics committee are bearing down on three senior members of Hastert's staff to determine when they learned of Foley's actions and whether they passed on their knowledge to the speaker.
The three -- chief of staff Scott Palmer, deputy chief of staff Mike Stokke and counsel Ted Van Der Meid -- have formed a palace guard around Hastert (R-Ill.) for years, attaining great degrees of power and unusual autonomy to deal with matters of politics, policy and House operations. They are also remarkably close. Palmer and Stokke have been with Hastert for decades. They live together in a Capitol Hill townhouse and commute back to Illinois on weekends.
It is that relationship that has made investigators so interested in their knowledge of Foley's contacts with teenage male congressional pages, especially allegations that his chief of staff personally appealed to Palmer in 2003 to confront the Florida Republican. Foley resigned Sept. 29 when news reports indicated he had sent electronic messages to a former page.
"It would be very hard to believe if Palmer knew that kind of detail, he wouldn't have acted upon it, and it's hard to imagine Scott Palmer would have spared the speaker that knowledge," said one former Republican leadership aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of jeopardizing his lobbying contacts.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101639.html



'Values' Decline As Issue In Ohio
Economic Woes Boost Democrats
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A01
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Two years ago, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell was a driving force in the triumphant campaign for a state constitutional amendment to outlaw same-sex marriage. That helped cause a surge in turnout of "values voters," who helped deliver this pivotal state to President Bush's successful reelection effort.
As the Republican candidate for governor, Blackwell has been counting on values voters to do for him this year what they did for the party in 2004. But the culture wars are being eclipsed as a voting issue by economic worries and Republican scandals that have altered the political dynamic here in striking ways. Several polls find Blackwell trailing his Democratic opponent, five-term Rep. Ted Strickland, by double digits with less than four weeks to go until the Nov. 7 midterm elections.
The difficulty Blackwell is experiencing winning support for his socially conservative message reflects the anxiety evident this year among voters in Ohio and elsewhere, some pollsters say.
"It is harder to run on wedge issues when voters have huge concerns on their minds regarding war in Iraq, economic issues and a Congress they perceive as doing little," said Michael Bocian, a vice president at Greenberg Quinlan Rosner, a Democratic polling firm in Washington.

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A Contest of Character
By Robert Barnes
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page B01
If Virginia voters want to pick their next U.S. senator based on issues, Democratic challenger James Webb and Republican incumbent George Allen give them plenty to work with. They disagree on taxes, the war in Iraq, support for the Bush administration, the deficit, how the government should fight terrorism, and a constitutional amendment aimed at same-sex marriage.
If Allen had ever heard of them, they might also disagree about what Webb thinks is the vitally important subject of the Senkaku Islands.
But if the character of the candidate is the deciding factor, Virginians are entering murkier territory in the four weeks before they decide one of the nation's most competitive and high-stakes Senate contests. Will they choose Webb, a man they're still getting to know, or Allen, a man they're having trouble recognizing?
Some Democrats privately worry that Webb -- war hero, military expert, noted novelist, a former Republican who broke with his party over the war in Iraq -- is still an attractive résumé in search of a campaign persona. His appearances on stage with Allen have been described by party professionals as feisty but chilly. And, strapped for cash, he was not able to introduce himself to voters on television before Allen put him on the defensive, especially with women, key voters for any Democratic candidate.

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In Search of a North Korea Policy
By William J. Perry
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A19
North Korea's declared nuclear bomb test program will increase the incentives for other nations to go nuclear, will endanger security in the region and could ultimately result in nuclear terrorism. While this test is the culmination of North Korea's long-held aspiration to become a nuclear power, it also demonstrates the total failure of the Bush administration's policy toward that country. For almost six years this policy has been a strange combination of harsh rhetoric and inaction.
President Bush, early in his first term, dubbed North Korea a member of the "axis of evil" and made disparaging remarks about Kim Jong Il. He said he would not tolerate a North Korean nuclear weapons program, but he set no bounds on North Korean actions.
The most important such limit would have been on reprocessing spent fuel from North Korea's reactor to make plutonium. The Clinton administration declared in 1994 that if North Korea reprocessed, it would be crossing a "red line," and it threatened military action if that line was crossed. The North Koreans responded to that pressure and began negotiations that led to the Agreed Framework. The Agreed Framework did not end North Korea's aspirations for nuclear weapons, but it did result in a major delay. For more than eight years, under the Agreed Framework, the spent fuel was kept in a storage pond under international supervision.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001285.html



The Handwriting Is on the Wall
Researchers See a Downside as Keyboards Replace Pens in Schools
By Margaret Webb Pressler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A01
The computer keyboard helped kill shorthand, and now it's threatening to finish off longhand.
When handwritten essays were introduced on the SAT exams for the class of 2006, just 15 percent of the almost 1.5 million students wrote their answers in cursive. The rest? They printed. Block letters.
And those college hopefuls are just the first edge of a wave of U.S. students who no longer get much handwriting instruction in the primary grades, frequently 10 minutes a day or less. As a result, more and more students struggle to read and write cursive.
Many educators shrug. Stacked up against teaching technology, foreign languages and the material on standardized tests, penmanship instruction seems a relic, teachers across the region say. But academics who specialize in writing acquisition argue that it's important cognitively, pointing to research that shows children without proficient handwriting skills produce simpler, shorter compositions, from the earliest grades.
Scholars who study original documents say the demise of handwriting will diminish the power and accuracy of future historical research. And others simply lament the loss of handwritten communication for its beauty, individualism and intimacy.
"It's like so many other things in our society -- there's a sense of loss for what once was," said Laura B. Smolken, a professor of elementary education and early childhood development at the University of Virginia.

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OPEC to Cut Output by 1M Barrels a Day
By BASHIR ADIGUN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; 7:29 AM
ABUJA, Nigeria -- OPEC has agreed to trim global oil production by 1 million barrels a day to boost prices, and its members were discussing how to share the cut, the cartel's president said Wednesday.
Oil prices rose after his comments.
"The cut itself is agreed," said Nigerian oil minister and OPEC president Edmund Daukoru.
Daukoru told reporters after a Cabinet meeting in the Nigerian capital that the cuts would begin at the end of the month and said members of the producing cartel were "nearing consensus" on how to share the cuts.
Daukoru's comments followed a slew of reports attributed to anonymous sources from member countries who said the cartel plans to trim its daily production by 1 million barrels.
Daukoru had said last week that OPEC was considering holding an emergency meeting before its scheduled Dec. 14 conference to discuss what to do about falling prices.
Oil prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks from their mid-July high of $78.40 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. By Wednesday afternoon in Europe, light, sweet crude for November delivery was at $58.70 a barrel, up slightly from the opening price.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101100318.html



Medicaid Spending Rises Only Slightly
Some States Will Expand Program
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A03
Medicaid spending rose by 2.8 percent in fiscal 2006, the smallest increase in a decade, according to a study released yesterday by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.
At the same time, state tax revenue grew by 3.7 percent as the economy continued to improve, the survey of 50 states and their Medicaid directors found.
Together those trends signal that the state-federal program that pays for health care for the poor and disabled is emerging -- at least temporarily -- from a period in which many states limited eligibility, benefits and reimbursement rates for health-care services in a drive to corral costs. For 2007, only five states plan to restrict eligibility, while 26 indicated they will restore benefits, relax application and enrollment restrictions and undertake new outreach efforts.
"The program continues to grow, but it is not out of control," said Diane Rowland, executive director of the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured.
"We now see that as the economy is improving that the states are looking at how they can best meet the needs of their citizens using the tools they have available to them."

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Uganda's Plight Pressed on Capitol Hill
Activists Call for U.S. Role in Negotiating Peace for Nation's War-Torn North
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A13
Donning yellow and orange T-shirts, 700 activists from across the country pressed legislators and Capitol Hill staffers yesterday on the need for high-level American involvement to bring peace to northern Uganda, a region that has experienced wartime atrocities, abductions of children and widespread displacement for more than 20 years.
Among the participants was Grace Akallo, 25, a former Ugandan child soldier, kidnapped from her dormitory by rebels along with 139 other girls 10 years ago. Yesterday, she recalled her ordeal.
"They crashed the dorm windows with rifle butts and threatened to hurl a bomb at us," she said. "We first hid under our beds, pretending not to be there. They could see us, they said, and forced their way in with their guns. Tied together with rope, the girls marched all night."
Akallo said she was held for seven months by the followers of Joseph Kony, the messianic and charismatic founder of the Lord's Resistance Army. During that time, she was forced to walk for miles, subsisting on leaves and sorghum. At a rebel base in southern Sudan, she was trained to handle guns and was ordered to steal food at gunpoint. "We were raped, all of us," she said. Five of her friends were killed and two are still there, she said, adding, "I don't know if they are alive."

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Chairman Of Sprint Moves Up Exit Date
Reston Firm Also Discloses Board's Business Links
By Kim Hart
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page D01
Sprint Nextel Corp. executive chairman Timothy M. Donahue announced yesterday that he will retire in December, becoming the second top executive to move on in recent weeks, as the company has struggled to bounce back from falling profits and declining subscriber numbers.
Donahue's departure came on the same day the company amended a previous filing with the government to disclose several business relationships it had with firms connected to members of its board, including transactions with Donahue's brother-in-law.
The relative, Glenn Grella, owns two companies that are authorized dealers for Sprint Nextel and received commissions totaling $18 million in 2005, the company disclosed. The company also bought equipment from North American Wireless and the Customer Center for $14 million.
Sprint spokesman David Gunasegaram said the company did not realize it needed to disclose the detail of such relationships until after earlier amendments to the annual report had been filed March 31. Because companies file documents on predetermined schedules, the disclosure of Donahue's brother-in-law's relationship with the company falling on the same day as Donahue's retirement announcement is "purely coincidental," Gunasegaram said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101000388.html



Muslim Anger Burns Over Lingering Probe of Charities
By Jerry Markon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page B01
More than four years ago, federal agents swarmed into homes and businesses in Herndon and elsewhere in Northern Virginia, carting away 500 boxes of documents they believed contained evidence of an international terrorism financing network.
The raids, which targeted some of the most established Islamic organizations in the United States, caused an immediate firestorm in the Muslim community.
So far, the March 2002 searches have led to the convictions of two people, including prominent Muslim activist Abdurahman Alamoudi, who admitted in federal court that he plotted with Libya to assassinate the Saudi ruler.
But no charges have been filed against the principals of the Herndon-based cluster of companies and charities that are at the center of the investigation, and Muslims say the raids were no more than a fishing expedition.
"They are still trying to prove that they weren't wrong in the first place,'' said Nancy Luque, an attorney for the Herndon charities. "You storm into people's homes, take their children's toys, terrorize the women, and 4 1/2 years later, you haven't got a scintilla of evidence against any of them.''

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In Brazil, Field Trials To Treat World's Poor
Private Wealth Fuels U.S.-Based Project To Create Crucial Hookworm Vaccine
By Monte Reel
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A11
BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil -- Adriana Pereira da Silva's family and friends are a weary lot who spend their days coaxing whatever crops they can from the red dirt that surrounds their thatch-roofed shacks.
It's a tough life, which Pereira da Silva assumed was why so many people seemed perpetually worn out. But another explanation hides in the dirt itself: Up to 80 percent of the people in her village are infected with hookworm, a vitality-sapping parasite that crawls up from the ground, penetrates the skin and settles in the intestines.
"People seem tired all the time, and they never eat," said Pereira da Silva, a nurse who lives in Americanias, a small village here in Minas Gerais state, in eastern Brazil. "They don't know what's wrong with them."
The global health community has known for a long time about the wide-ranging complications that hookworm causes, but pharmaceutical companies have had little incentive to develop a vaccine: Most of those infected are too poor ever to pay for medicine, so recovering expensive development costs would be a long shot.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001309.html



Crowds Bid Farewell to Russian Reporter
No Senior Officials Attend Service for Slain Critic of Putin's Chechnya Policies
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A11
MOSCOW, Oct. 10 -- In the House of Farewell, an austere, cavernous funeral hall at the Troyekurovskoye Cemetery, the body of murdered journalist Anna Politkovskaya lay in an open casket Tuesday afternoon as thousands of mourners -- ambassadors, journalists, civil activists, politicians and ordinary Russians -- filed past and paid their final respects.
No senior Kremlin official attended -- an absence that people here noted, along with the almost complete silence of President Vladimir Putin in the immediate wake of the apparent contract killing of Politkovskaya in the lobby of her apartment Saturday.
"It's really strange to see none of our senior officials here," Eduard Sagalayev, chairman of the Independent Broadcasting Corporation, told the assembled mourners.
The Kremlin said it was represented by Deputy Culture and Press Minister Leonid Nadirov.
Shortly after Politkovskaya was put in the ground, Putin, on an official visit to Germany, condemned the killing, but not without a parting swipe at a woman who was one of his fiercest critics.
"We must be clear that it was a dreadful and unacceptable crime which cannot be allowed to go unpunished," Putin told reporters after meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Dresden, the city where Putin served as a KGB officer in the 1980s.

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Search For N.Va. Woman Growing
By Jamie Stockwell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page B02
As her parents made a plea for her safe return, the FBI and the Vermont National Guard yesterday joined the growing search for a college senior from Arlington County who was reported missing late Saturday from the University of Vermont.
Authorities in Burlington, Vt., said more than 50 federal and local investigators are working full time on the case, which has garnered national attention in the days since Michelle Gardner-Quinn, 21, was last seen near the downtown campus. Police said they continued to interview Gardner-Quinn's friends as well as comb the town and surrounding communities for evidence that might lead them to her.
A number of "helpful leads" have sent the investigation "in a specific direction," according to a statement released on the Web site of the Burlington police. They would not elaborate but said they remain optimistic that Gardner-Quinn will be found alive.

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She's a Warrior
H.D. Woodson's Wide Receivers Coach Is Breaking Football Taboos
By Alan Goldenbach
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page E01
Oh boy, was Jerrard Hunter in trouble. The drill called for him to run a stop-and-go pattern, only the H.D. Woodson High School wide receiver didn't do much of the latter. The pass from quarterback Gabriel Prophet sailed past the 6-foot-2 sophomore, right to the spot to where Hunter should have run, and his coach was seething.
Hunter tried to return to the huddle inconspicuously, but the Warriors' 5-foot-5, 125-pound wide receivers coach wouldn't let him get away. Natalie Randolph grabbed Hunter's right arm, and spun him around to face her.
"What are you doing?" she screamed. "You can't do that, and just stop running."
Hunter turned his head skyward.
"Look at me!" she yelled. "You're running up there blind. You have to run your route and see the ball. Can you do that for me next time?"
"Yes, coach."
Not too many women hear that from boys, much less football players. Randolph, 26, was hired as the Warriors' wide receivers coach before this season, making her what is believed to be the only woman on a varsity football coaching staff in the Washington area. While women have coached boys' high school teams in other sports, football has remained a boys-only club.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/10/AR2006101001206.html



Pa. Schoolhouse Gunman Made Demand, Began Firing
By Mark Scolforo
Associated Press
Wednesday, October 11, 2006; Page A02
LANCASTER, Pa., Oct. 10 -- The gunman who attacked an Amish schoolhouse opened fire on his 10 hostages just moments after demanding that authorities get off the property, giving state troopers no time to try to save the girls, according to investigators and 911 transcripts released Tuesday.
Charles Carl Roberts IV threatened to kill the children "in two seconds" during a 70-second call to a 911 dispatcher.
"Don't try to talk me out of it, get 'em all off the property now," Roberts told a Lancaster County dispatcher in a calm, flat voice, his only contact with police.
The dispatcher asked Roberts to stay on the phone so he could be transferred to state police. Roberts replied: "Two seconds, that's it." He then hung up, before police could have him talk to a negotiator.
Before authorities could react, he started shooting inside the West Nickel Mines Amish School, killing five girls and wounding five others before killing himself. Police burst in after hearing the gunfire.
"He clearly did not give the police any opportunity to get off the property," said Lancaster County prosecutor Don Totaro, who did not release the actual audiotapes to avoid further traumatizing the Amish community and Roberts's family.

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The Conversation
She Didn't Want to Face Her Father's Impending Death. Talking About It With Him Helped Them Both.
By Annie Groer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, October 10, 2006; Page HE01
It had been several decades since I closed down a bar. But two years ago, in a tile-floored dining room a few kilometers from the Tecate beer brewery in Baja California, I became so engrossed in conversation with a wise stranger I failed to notice how desperately the staff wanted us gone.
"It is an honor and a privilege to help a parent die," she said simply.
Those dozen words would become my road map and my mantra in the coming months. (Live Discussion: Cope With a Dying Parent)
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
In an extravagant act of physical and spiritual renewal, I had gone to a Mexican spa called Rancho La Puerta to try to prepare emotionally and strategically for my father's imminent death. Franny was there recovering from the recent loss of her mother.
Two weeks earlier, with his aged heart barely pumping, I had driven Aron Groer to the emergency room and listened numbly as the doctors said he'd die within the hour without a pacemaker. After briefing my brother in Denver by phone, we agreed to surgery, mostly because this courtly gent, who sacrificed much to raise us after our mother's death in 1958, really wanted to reach his 100th birthday six months hence.
His cardiac team and hospice nurse weren't sure he'd make it that long. I, however, was certain he would, based on his congenital obstinacy and optimism.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/06/AR2006100601233.html

Little Benefit Seen in Antipsychotics Used in Alzheimer's
By Shankar Vedantam
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A09
Antipsychotic drugs that are widely used to calm agitated patients with Alzheimer's disease help very few of them, and those modest benefits are canceled out by the frequent side effects, a comprehensive government-funded study has found.
The surprising finding is expected to trigger a broad reevaluation of the widespread use of the drugs in patients with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia. As many as a quarter of the Alzheimer's patients in nursing homes are prescribed the powerful drugs, even though they have never been formally approved for this purpose.
"I wish I could say the odds are better," said Thomas R. Insel, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, which funded the $17 million study. "This paper says most people are not going to be any different on these drugs than they would on placebo."
The researchers did not conclude that the drugs should never be used, and a minority of patients do benefit. But the study suggests that doctors would be well advised to prescribe the drugs sparingly and as a last resort, experts said.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101595.html


AT& T Deal Wins A Key Go-Ahead
By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page D01
The Justice Department yesterday endorsed AT&T Inc.'s proposed $78.5 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp., clearing the way for the Federal Communications Commission to approve as early as this week the creation of a corporate giant that would be the country's largest provider of telephone, wireless and broadband services.
But the outcome of the FCC consideration, scheduled for tomorrow morning, remains in doubt because the prospective swing vote on the five-member board has maintained since summer that he is sitting out the case to avoid a possible conflict of interest.
The merger, proposed in March, would reunite two major parts of the old AT&T telecommunications empire that was broken up by the federal government in 1984. The deal would also give AT&T complete control over Cingular Wireless, the country's largest cellular telephone provider, now owned jointly by AT&T and BellSouth.
The deal, originally valued at $67 billion, is now worth substantially more because of increases in stock prices.
While consumer advocates say the merger would lead to higher prices for a range of telecommunications services, the companies have argued it would foster greater innovation.

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N.Y. Threat May Have Been a Hoax
Officials Say Iraqi Informant Disappeared; Alert Has Ended
By Dan Eggen and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 12, 2005; Page A03
The alleged threat that led to heightened security on New York subways last week may have been a hoax on the part of an Iraqi informant attempting to get money in exchange for information, U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism officials said yesterday.
The informant has since disappeared in Iraq, and the Defense Department has not been able to locate him, city and federal officials said.
New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg described the informant's claims last week as the "most specific threat" ever received against the city's transit system, leading officials to issue a heightened terrorist alert and blanket the subways with police and National Guard troops.
U.S. troops in Iraq captured three suspects south of Baghdad who the informant said were involved in the alleged plot.
But none of the suspects, including two who were given polygraph examinations, corroborated the informant's allegations or appeared to have any connection to a terrorist plot, according to intelligence officials.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/11/AR2005101101621.html



China's Party Leadership Declares New Priority: 'Harmonious Society'
Doctrine Proposed By President Hu Formally Endorsed
By Maureen Fan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A18
BEIJING, Oct. 11 -- China's Communist Party on Wednesday formally endorsed a political doctrine laid out by President Hu Jintao that calls for the creation of a "harmonious society," a move that further signaled a shift in the party's focus from promoting all-out economic growth to solving worsening social tensions.
The endorsement, made at a closed-door plenary session held by the party's Central Committee, underlined Hu's increasing power. It effectively enshrined his doctrine in the same pantheon as those of Mao Zedong and other predecessors.
China's leaders have become concerned in recent years about problems tied to the country's blistering economic growth. Anger over a growing gap between rich and poor and an inadequate social security system is feared to threaten the party's stability. Retirees increasingly cannot live on their pensions, crime and divorce rates have escalated, and clashes have broken out between security forces and farmers whose fields and villages have been swallowed by development.
The four-day plenary session, which ended Wednesday, was the first in 25 years to focus on social issues rather than on economic or political development.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/11/AR2006101101610.html



U.S. Supporter of Al-Qaeda Is Indicted on Treason Charge
By Dan Eggen and Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A03
A California native who has appeared in al-Qaeda propaganda videos has been indicted for treason, making him the first American to be charged with that crime in half a century, the Justice Department announced yesterday.
Adam Gadahn, a 28-year-old fugitive believed to be living in Pakistan, could be sentenced to death if convicted of treason, which has been alleged only about 30 times in U.S. history and has not been used since the aftermath of World War II.
Gadahn, allegedly "gave al Qaeda aid and comfort . . . with intent to betray the United States" by appearing in videos calling for attacks on U.S. targets, according to the indictment, which was handed up by a federal grand jury in Santa Ana, Calif. Gadahn is also charged with providing material support to terrorists, which carries a penalty of up to 15 years in prison.
Gadahn was also added to the FBI's official list of "Most Wanted Terrorists," officials said.

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By Josh White and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, October 12, 2006; Page A21
Violence in the Baghdad region has peaked with a flare-up of sectarian attacks in the past few weeks, leaving U.S. commanders and the Iraqi government "not comfortable" with the current situation there, Gen. George W. Casey, the top U.S. general in Iraq, said yesterday.
Casey, in Washington for regular meetings with top U.S. officials, said at a Pentagon news conference that Iraq is a "tough situation" and that he expects it to continue to be difficult through Ramadan and in coming months, as Sunni and Shiite extremists vie for control of that nation's capital.
"I think it's no surprise to anyone that the situation in Iraq remains difficult and complex," Casey said.
The general tempered his assessment of the Baghdad area by saying that progress exists in Iraq alongside the attention-grabbing violence. Much of the country is relatively peaceful, Casey said, and U.S. goals for the development of Iraqi security forces are on track.

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