All Africa.com
Zambia: Rainy Season and Cholera
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
EDITORIALNovember 21, 2006Posted to the web November 21, 2006
EVERY rainy season, some parts of Zambia become constant victims of the embarrassing water-borne disease called cholera.
It is not difficult to pinpoint these areas. One simply needs to go to a library and check the stories we have been carrying about cholera outbreaks. They are not only similar but the attacks are in the same places.
The second clear point is that causes of cholera are the same - contaminated water, spewing sewer and other dirt consumed by human beings through contact.
These are the same people that end up getting sick and even die.
Looking at the profile of this preventable but killer scourge, at this stage we as a country have reached, we should have taken measures to eradicate the disease. There are countries in this world where cholera does not exist in their vocabulary.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611210589.html
Kenya: President to Declare Disaster If Rains Persist
The Nation (Nairobi)
November 21, 2006Posted to the web November 21, 2006
Nation TeamNairobi
President Kibaki will declare the floods a national disaster next week if the heavy rains do not subside.
Government officers were yesterday compiling data following deaths and disease outbreaks in the wake of the rains. Roads, houses and crops have also been destroyed.
"We need to do something very quickly, just like we did with the drought," Special Programmes minister John Munyes said by telephone.
The data will be given to President Kibaki for action, as it is only the President who can declare a national disaster, he said.
The minister said the Government was overstretched because it did not anticipate the situation. However, the meteorological department had warned of the floods.
Emergency appeal
Yesterday, the Kenya Red Cross Society welcomed the news, while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies launched an emergency appeal for Sh560 million to help respond to floods.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611210169.html
Kenya: Coping With Flood Havoc UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 21, 2006Posted to the web November 21, 2006
Kwale/Dadaab
Sindani Fuketi, a 66-year-old father of four, was woken up by the wetness of his mattress to find his house submerged in flood water.
The Ramisi River in the Kenyan coastal district of Kwale had breached its banks and Nikaphu village was under water. Fuketi and members of his family waded through the raging waist-high water, which kept rising.
"We decided to climb trees, but the water continued to follow us up the trees," he said. Marooned with his fellow villagers, Fuketi was eventually rescued by soldiers from the Kenya Navy, but a five-year-old girl drowned during the rescue effort.
"We have lost our homes and everything we had. I came here in my underwear," Fuketi told IRIN. He and his fellow inhabitants of Nikaphu are now housed in a crumbling building in the compound of the disused Ramisi Sugar Factory.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611210024.html
Kenya: Agencies Struggle to Deliver Aid to Marooned Refugees
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 21, 2006Posted to the web November 21, 2006
Dadaab
Bad weather is hampering efforts by aid agencies to evacuate tens of thousands of Somali refugees from their flooded camp in a remote region of northeastern Kenya, the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), which is airlifting emergency supplies to the rain-drenched Dadaab region, said.
"We are completely cut off from the world because the main road to Garissa has been completely washed out by these floods and therefore our capacity is very limited," said UNHCR senior emergency officer, Geoff Wordley, as dark rain clouds built up to the north.
Roads between the three camps have also been severely eroded by the fast-flowing floodwaters. Several Red Cross trucks carrying food rations became bogged down in knee-deep mud.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611210167.html
Kenya: "What is WSF? Something That Will Bring Me Medicine?"
Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
November 22, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
Joyce MulamaNairobi
In just two months time the World Social Forum (WSF) will get underway in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, marking the first instance in which Africa is acting as sole host of the event.
With the East African country also home to Kibera -- sometimes referred to as Africa's largest slum -- it could be argued that there is no more appropriate venue for the 2007 WSF. Where better to hold it than near one of the communities most affected by the social ills which the forum aims to combat?
Still, some in Kibera, which lies south-west of Nairobi, view preparations for next year's WSF with ambivalence.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240081.html
Egypt: Blogger's Detention Extended for Another 15 Days International Freedom of Expression Exchange Clearing House (Toronto)
PRESS RELEASENovember 22, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
HRinfo condemns the extension of Abdel Karim Suliman Amer's detention for an additional 15 days. The blogger, also known as Kareem Amer, is in detention while being investigated only because he practiced the basic right to express his own thoughts on his blog.
On 22 November 2006, Mohram Bek Court considered the extension of Kareem's detention through to 6 December. This occurred despite the defense arguments provided by Kareem's HRinfo lawyer and the lack of justification for the detention. Kareem went to the Prosecutor's Office when he was called to be questioned on 7 November, and there is no evidence to suggest that Kareem might attempt to alter evidence in his case if he is released.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240083.html
Guinea: MFWA Calls for Reinstatement of Two Newspaper Journalists Media Foundation for West Africa (Accra)
PRESS RELEASENovember 24, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
MFWA urges the government of Guinea to immediately reinstate "Horoya" state-owned daily newspaper managing director Ibrahima Sory Dieng and editor-in-chief Alhassane Souare to their posts.
On 4 October 2006, Information Minister Aboubacar Sylla indefinitely suspended the two journalists for the failure of the newspaper to publish a photograph of President Lassana Conte alongside the text of his speech.
The minister ordered the printing of the 30 September edition of "Horoya" to be stopped, so that Souare could publish a belated speech by President Conte, to commemorate the 48th anniversary of the country's independence.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240086.html
Africa: People Smugglers Have Shipped More Than 22,000 Africans to Yemen This Year, UN Says
UN News Service (New York)
November 24, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
More than 22,000 people have risked their lives to cross the Gulf of Aden in rickety smugglers' boats from Somalia to Yemen this year, the United Nations refugee agency reported today.
"At least 355 died making the perilous voyage and more than 150 are missing," UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) spokesperson Ron Redmond told a news briefing in Geneva, noting that nearly 1,500 Somalis and Ethiopians arrived in 12 smugglers' boats over the past eight days alone.
At least 18 people aboard those boats died and 17 are missing, he added. The boats usually land along a remote, 300-kilometre stretch of tribal-ruled coastline. UNHCR, which has only limited access to the often insecure coast, was able over the past eight days to transport 853 Somalis and Ethiopians to its May'fa reception centre, providing them with food, water, medical care and other assistance, Mr. Redmond said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240072.html
South Africa: Calls for Probe of Top Cop
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 24, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
Johannesburg
Allegations of links between South Africa's top cop and organised crime have prompted calls for an independent inquiry to restore "shaken" public confidence in the police services.
For the past few days, South African media have been flooded with reports about Jackie Selebi, National Commissioner of the South African Police Service, and his relationship with Glen Agliotti, who is alleged to have links with the underworld and was arrested last week in connection with the murder of controversial businessman Brett Kebble. Selebi had earlier publicly declared that he and Agliotti were friends. The allegations have stirred heated debate on radio talk shows and readers have penned furious letters to newspapers. According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, South Africa is "among the most crime-ridden and crime-concerned societies in the world". The public outcry led religious leaders to seek a meeting with President Thabo Mbeki this week to get to the bottom of the situation.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240071.html
Congo-Brazzaville: Transport Problems Halt Gun-Retrieval Scheme
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 23, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
Brazzaville
A gun-retrieval effort launched in November 2005 in the Republic of Congo has been suspended because the agency involved has run into transport difficulties, an official of the government body said.
Daniel Gassiélé said on Wednesday the state-owned railway company had been unable to buy equipment for the smooth running of its trains. Heavy rains have also been battering the country, severely disrupting rail traffic. This has made it difficult for the agency to deliver money, farming and other tools to former civil-war combatants in the administrative department of the Pool where they live.
In its bid to soak up all illegal weapons of war, the government has set up a scheme whereby combatants willing to surrender them are given money and tools to start self-employment projects in exchange. Money for this is partly provided by external donors. Le Projet de collecte d'armes pour le développement, the gun-retrieval agency, had received two million euros (US$2.6 million) from the European Union.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240069.html
Rwanda: UN Trashes French Judge Allegations The New Times (Kigali)
November 23, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
Edwin MusoniKigali
The Arusha, Tanzania-based United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR), has trashed France's allegations accusing President Paul Kagame for having ordered to shoot down a plane carrying the then-Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana.
The ICTR has stated that it was at nobody's order to prosecute Kagame. "Magistrate Bruguiere (pictured) took instructions from nobody in the world to issue an arrest warrant; not even UN Secretary General Koffi Annan," the tribunal Deputy Registrar Lovemore Green Munlo said at a press conference in Arusha yesterday.
Munlo also said that the tribunal has evidence to the effect that the missiles which downed Habyarimana's plane were from the arms stock of the ex-FAR and had been purchased from Egypt.
It is also alleged that the missile, SA-16 that downed Habyarimana's plane was imported from Egypt by the then Rwandan government. Also, sources have it that the French had a link to the two missiles. Bruguiere is a French anti terrorism magistrate who said on Monday this week that Kagame should be prosecuted for 'suspected involvement' in the death of Habyarimana. Last month, under the order of UN, the ICTR denied a request to hear testimony from Bruguiere. Also under the same order, the tribunal refused to give a 1997 UN report to Bruguiere which allegedly discusses the spark of the 1994 Genocide.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240062.html
Rwanda: Anti-France Protests Rock Kigali
The New Times (Kigali)
November 23, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
James MunyanezaKigali
Business in Kigali city paralysed yesterday when thousands of infuriated Rwandans singing anti-France slogans and praising President Paul Kagame, staged a peaceful demonstration. The impromptu demo was a public reaction to Monday's call by a French magistrate, Jean Louis Bruguierre, for the arrest and trial of Kagame and
nine Rwandan top military officers, accusing them of downing the plane that was carrying former Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana. An estimated 15,000 demonstrators from all corners of the city took to the streets, many carrying placards and banners that described Kagame as a hero, and others condemning the French government over its alleged role in the 1994 Rwanda Genocide.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240067.html
Tanzania: Control Cholera Outbreak in Two Weeks or Lose Jobs, PM Says
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 22, 2006Posted to the web November 22, 2006
Dar es Salaam
Tanzanian Prime Minister Edward Lowassa has given Dar es Salaam regional administrative officials two weeks to eradicate cholera or lose their jobs.
"I give you up to December 3," he told the officials on Monday during a brief health inspection of the city's cholera-infected neighbourhoods of Temeke, Buguruni and Mburahati.
Over the past 12 months, the disease has killed 117 people in the city, the nation's commercial capital.
Cholera, a severe diarrhoeal disease caused by infection of the small intestine of humans with vibrio cholerae bacteria, has frequently broken out in the past three decades in Dar es Salaam and other parts of the country.
Health officials say cholera is transmitted via the faecal-oral route and blame its almost endemic prevalence in the country on poor public hygiene standards and the lack of individual precautions such as boiling drinking water.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611220061.html
Africa: EU-Africa Minsterial Conference on Migration and Development Issues African Union (Addis Ababa)
PRESS RELEASENovember 22, 2006Posted to the web November 22, 2006
Tripoli
Tripoli, capital of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya will, on 22 to 23 November 2006, host the Ministerial Conference on Migration and Development in the presence, notably, of Ministers responsible for Migration and Development as well as African and European Ministers of Foreign Affairs.
The Conference, which will be devoted to the consideration of a number of issues of mutual interest relating to migration and development as a basis for enhanced partnership in this field, and founded, above all, on the African common position on migration and development, will be preceded by a one-day joint meeting of experts and AU Ministers.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611220012.html
Senegal: "Mankind is Like This - One Wants to Get Ahead"
United Nations (New York)
October 31, 2006Posted to the web October 31, 2006
Dakar
He tried two times to get to Spain's Canary Islands in a fishing boat - and failed. But Mansour, a soft-spoken 42-year-old father of two, has not yet relinquished his ambition to emigrate to Europe.
Like tens of thousands of illegal migrants in Senegal, Mansour stepped aboard a wooden fishing boat in April after he was offered free passage because of his navigating skills. He brought a sea map he had found on the Internet, and promised to steer the boat to the Canaries with a global positioning system (GPS).
Mansour still has the map he printed out in a cybercafe. And he doesn't hesitate to show the amulets a marabout made for him to guarantee safe passage.
Fetching three leather waistbands from a cupboard towering over the edge of his bed, he says, "You need protection, of course, and this is what I wore on the trip."
http://allafrica.com/stories/200610310564.html
Cameroon: Poverty And Culture Conspire to Deny Girls Schooling
Inter Press Service (Johannesburg)
November 22, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
Sylvestre TetchiadaGaroua
Of the 71 pupils in Daouda Soulé's class, only 18 are girls. "Last year there were about 20 girls, but even some who were promoted to the next grade dropped out and are at home, although primary school is free," the teacher at the Central Public School in Garoua, northern Cameroon, told IPS.
Her experience is not unique. Two months into the new academic year, there is a noticeable lack of girls attending schools, especially in Cameroon's three northern provinces.
In part, this is a legacy of economic turmoil in the Central African country.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240082.html
South Africa: Open Borders for Child Traffickers
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 24, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
Malelane
When the governments of Mozambique and South Africa decided to revive the transport route between Maputo and Johannesburg in the mid-1990s, child slaves were not the cargo envisaged for haulage.
Yet management at the Amazing Grace Children's Home (AGCH), a grassroots child welfare organisation in Malelane, near one of the main border-crossing points to Mozambique in South Africa's northeastern Mpumalanga Province, believe child traffickers are increasingly using the highway to deliver their human merchandise to local and overseas buyers.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240091.html
Kenya: Country's Ogiek Hunter-Gatherers Plead San's Case
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 24, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
Gaborone
Kenya's Ogiek people, one of the last hunter-gatherer ethnic communities in East Africa, have joined a call by rights groups to the Botswana government to allow San families relocated from their ancestral land in a game reserve to return home.
The San, or Bushmen, were relocated to settlements outside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) in 1997 as a result of government plans to set aside the protected area for wildlife and tourism development. Rights groups have claimed that the San community was forcibly removed from their ancestral land to make way for diamond exploration in the CKGR. The government has maintained that the emphasis has always been on persuasion and voluntary relocation.
Addressing a press conference on their return from a fact-finding mission to New Xade, one of the settlements, Ogiek representatives Kiplangat Cheruyot and Mpoiko Kobei said the evicted San families were living in squalor and shame in the resettlement areas. "Their lives, culture and tradition have been disrupted through the evictions. Families have been torn apart and the conflict between the people and the government agencies has induced a state of permanent fear," Cheruyot said.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240093.html
Chad: Chadians Displaced By Darfur Border Killings Are Too Afraid to Return Home -UN Agency
UN News Service (New York)
November 24, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
At least 15,000 Chadians who fled their homes over the past three weeks because of deadly violence close to the border with Darfur are still too afraid to return to their villages because armed groups remain in the area, where some who went back were shot to death, the United Nations refugee agency warned today.
Insecurity around the southeastern town of Goz Beida, where some 7,000 of these displaced people have gathered, also forced today's distribution of relief supplies to be put on hold, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said, adding the agency plans to move this group to a temporary site south of the town.
"No new attacks have been reported this week in volatile southeastern Chad near the border with Sudan's Darfur region, but thousands of displaced people remain too frightened to return to their villages because armed groups are still moving in the region," UNHCR spokesperson Ron Redmond told reporters in Geneva.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240095.html
Chad: State of Emergency Extended
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
November 24, 2006Posted to the web November 24, 2006
Ndjamena
The Chadian government has extended a state of emergency to six months from an initial 12 days in the midst of continuing violence that has displaced tens of thousands of people.
"There is a kind of crisis of confidence between the communities in the areas and, in one way or another, between the communities and the administration," Prime Minister Pascal Yoadimnadji told parliament on Thursday when requesting that it authorise the extension.
"More time is needed to restore the administration, to sensitise the population, to reconcile populations and create confidence," he said.
The prime minister also said that the government would have the power disarm civilians and put in place more civilian and military authorities.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200611240087.html
The Times Picayune
Katrina spending target of auditReport looks N.O.'s overtime, contracts
...Among the most eye-popping cases laid out in the review of fiscal matters are claims that amid $39.2 million in overtime costs that the city asked the Federal Emergency Management Agency to reimburse was an employee who earned $207 per hour after the storm; that employee normally was paid $23 per hour. Another worker earned overtime pay for 14 consecutive 24-hour days, the report says.
Though auditors deemed both "ineligible" for compensation, city officials said this week that all overtime requests were proper and blessed by FEMA.
The fiscal report also claims that city officials used "illegal contracting methodology" in inking agreements worth more than $92 million with two national firms, the Shaw Group and Montgomery Watson Harza. It says the deal with Montgomery Watson tied profits to costs, an arrangement that violates federal rules because it provides no incentive to keep costs low.
The report also claims both contracts were awarded without competition, which boosted the risk of "unreasonable prices," and that the city failed to monitor contractor performance. The Shaw contract, for home inspections and environmental mitigation, was written after the storm. Montgomery Watson already had a contract with the city that was amended to include storm-drain cleaning and construction management....
...Many were called
As for the claims that the contract was not competitively bid, Mendoza said that despite extraordinary circumstances in the weeks after Katrina, officials called known vendors to solicit bids for the deal. Montgomery Watson offered the lowest price, he said, adding that the new work was added to an existing contract for the sake of expediency.
Mendoza said the city's position has been laid out in a comprehensive appeal, which the city did not provide immediately.
Jack Lankford, the federal auditor who wrote the fiscal report, said he has not received an appeal, or any documents for that matter, from the city. "That does not mean that the city has not corrected some of the problems. That just means we have not received any of the information," he said.
In a recent letter to the federal government seeking reimbursement, the state defended the city's contracting practices related to the Montgomery Watson deal. Nevertheless, they have refused to release the $9.6 million as long as the Montgomery Watson contract is under review by FEMA.
"The state has held the line on how we handle our contracts," said George Schmidt, an auditor with the state's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. "When the documentation comes through, we either pay the money, or if we find problems, we hold the money.
. . . If a contract doesn't seem to me to meet the muster, we're not paying the money."...
...More than 10 percent of the 56,000 homeowners whose houses were deemed beyond repair filed appeals, and city officials "lowered damage ratings for the overwhelming majority to less than 50 percent," the report says. In nearly every case, officials did not keep any documentation supporting their decision to change the initial damage assessment, the report says...
...As has been previously reported, the assessments were ballpark figures generally based on the height of the water mark on a house. Though FEMA guidelines say inspectors should examine a home's interior, inspectors in New Orleans lacked permission to enter homes. Consequently, inspectors spent an average of six to eight minutes on each house, the report says....
...Butch Kinerney, a spokesman for the flood program, said that FEMA may require some of the appeals to be reviewed again. But generally, the point is to learn lessons for the future, he said.
"Our goal is not to kick people out of the program; it's to make safer, stronger communities," he said. "Quite frankly, the city government gets a little bit of a bye in this case. Taking punitive action isn't really going to . . . serve anyone's interest."
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/washington/index.ssf?/base/news-1/116435151331380.xml&coll=1&thispage=1
Grants may have IRS come calling
They're taxable if loss claimed in '05 Friday, November 24, 2006
By Bill Walsh
WASHINGTON -- Louisiana hurricane victims lining up for government Road Home grants to rebuild their homes might be surprised to discover that, for some at least, there is a toll booth on the road to recovery.
The grants, which are averaging about $60,000, are not directly taxable. But the Internal Revenue Service says Road Home recipients who claimed a storm loss on their taxes last year should count the grants as income on their federal tax returns this year. That means some people will be thrown into lofty tax brackets they never dreamed of -- and pay more taxes too.
Not everyone will be hit with a higher tax bill. But the extra "income" could erode tax exemptions long enjoyed by some filers, such as some of those on Social Security, and force them to pay a fee for the government's largesse.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-7/116435104531380.xml&coll=1
City passes first big convention test
By Greg ThomasReal estate writer
There were plenty of reasons for the National Association of Realtors to reverse its promise, made just four months after Hurricane Katrina, to bring a huge convention to town about 10 months later.
National media exposure made New Orleans seem ill-equipped to handle any of its own residents, much less take care of about 25,000 visitors. Then, just two weeks before NAR’s convention came the shooting of five people in a French Quarter bar.
“So many of our people had reservations about coming down, said Lens Ferber, president of the Pennsylvania Realtors Association. But NAR organized numerous trips for doubters like Ferber to prove that the city was ready. “Me going down (in August) helped break the ice. Many were apprehensive. The press outside your area is unbelievable” in painting a totally negative image of the city, Ferber said.
The show went on, and delegates learned that the national media was dead wrong about New Orleans.
http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tpupdates/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tpupdates/archives/2006_11_22.html#207603
Contract buoys Miss. firmVT Halter building 3 vessels for Egypt
Thursday, November 23, 2006By Jaquetta WhiteVT Halter Marine has been awarded a contract for $165.5 million in support of the design and construction of the Egyptian Navy's Fast Missile Craft.
The award modifies a contract the Pascagoula, Miss.-based company received in December to build three of the 203-foot vessels. Last year's contract, for $28.9 million, let VT Halter Marine begin design work on the vessels.
The new contract, announced by the Department of Defense on Tuesday, provides money for the firm to begin buying construction supplies. VT Halter Marine is building the vessels for the Egyptian government under the Foreign Military Construction Sales Program, which lets U.S. companies construct vessels, among other things, for foreign governments.
http://www.nola.com/business/t-p/index.ssf?/base/money-0/116438912124070.xml&coll=1
Signs of recoveryEvidence of recovery can be seen all over the metro New Orleans area.
Those signs brighten our mood and show that we are on the mend. We'll be watching for these harbingers of rebirth and taking note of some of them every week. Friday, November 24, 2006-- Runners poured into City Park for the Turkey Day Race on Thanksgiving Day. The race, which is in its 99th year, is one of the oldest in the country. The race also is a fund-raiser, with proceeds benefiting the Spina Bifida Association and City Park.
-- Carousel Gardens amusement park reopens in City Park today. The miniature train also is rolling again, carrying kids and grownups through the heart of the park.
-- Performances of the Nutcracker are being staged across greater New Orleans this holiday season. All of the old venues are back, and the New Orleans Ballet Theatre and Schramel Conservatory of Dance are adding their version to the mix.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-3/116435059831380.xml&coll=1
EDITORIAL: Welcome back to the party
Friday, November 24, 2006New Orleans has changed since the last time the Grambling State Tigers and the Southern University Jaguars played in New Orleans. Bayou Classic fans who haven't been here since Thanksgiving 2004 will, if they drive around the city, discover that much of what they've heard is true: The devastation here is too mind-bogglingly vast to comprehend without seeing it.
But visitors also will discover something else: New Orleans is still alive. It's still open for business, and its people still know how to throw a party.
The fact that our ability to have a good time weathered the storm shouldn't lead anyone to conclude that we are free of worry or depression. Truth is, the fact that we have so many worries makes us anticipate traditional parties like the Bayou Classic that much more. The fact that the city's economy relies heavily on tourism means mega events like Saturday's game are necessary for recovery.
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-3/116435015131380.xml&coll=1
Opinion Poll
Do you think it is important to buy from locally owned stores this holiday season?
Yes - 80.6%
No - 19.4%
Troopers report initial success with I-40 'police chain'
11/24/2006, 3:11 p.m. CTBy ANDREW DeMILLO The Associated Press
LITTLE ROCK (AP) — An eight-state operation to put state troopers every few miles along Interstate 40 the day before Thanksgiving appeared to help cut down on fatalities along the major corridor, state police said Friday.
From California to North Carolina, state police were posted every 10 miles along the 2,547- mile east-west corridor Wednesday afternoon through early Thursday in the largest operation of its kind.
Troopers participating in the program — dubbed I-40 Care Across America — said they were waiting for final figures from the holiday weekend but initially praised the interstate patrol as a success.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-28/1164403192104970.xml&storylist=louisiana
The Daily Star - Lebanon
Siniora ignores opposition objection, schedules
Cabinet meet for Saturday
Sabaa returns in time for controversial session on hariri tribunal
BEIRUT: Lebanon's Cabinet is to meet Saturday to approve the UN statutes for the creation of an international court to try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, a move pro-Syrian parties say should not take place while they are not represented in the government.
The draft requires approval by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's government and pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud before being forwarded to Parliament for a final vote.
Speaker Nabih Berri will now play a key role in the UN blueprint's progress as only he can put the related legislation on Parliament's agenda once the Cabinet has renewed its approval of it.
However, Berri has stated publicly that all decisions taken by Siniora's Cabinet since six pro-Syrian ministers resigned are "unconstitutional."
Down to just 17 ministers from the 24 it started with, the Cabinet barely had the two-thirds plus one required for the quorum necessary to pass decisions and remain in office.
However, Interior Minister Hassan Sabaa, who had quit Cabinet in February over an unrelated dispute, officially retracted his resignation and resumed his duties on Friday, bolstering the majority's control of the government. Ahmed Fatfat, who had served as acting interior minister, returned to the sports and youth portfolio.
Berri had also defined as "unconstitutional" Siniora's November 13 decision to submit the draft to the UN Security Council for endorsement.
"Any [Cabinet] session held now is unconstitutional because it would be in breach of Lebanon's national pact," he said last week, referring to the unwritten arrangement providing for all of the country's religious groups to be represented in government.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=77158
Hizbullah 'plans to start street protests next week'
BEIRUT: Hizbullah and its allies will take to the streets next week to force the government's resignation, political sources told the Reuters news agency on Friday, a move that will likely fuel already simmering tension. The protests, which had originally been planned for this week, were postponed following Tuesday's assassination of anti-Syrian Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel in a northern suburb of Beirut.
Hizbullah and its ally, the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) have been demanding a bigger say in Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's Cabinet, dominated by members of the March 14 Forces.
The anti-Syrian coalition has rejected the demand, claiming Hizbullah's real aim is to block the formation of an international court into the 2005 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
"We are heading for a confrontation," a senior political source close to the opposition said. "The room for a political solution is very, very tight. There is no room other than going to the street," he added.
The source said the protests would take place in several parts of Lebanon, not just Beirut.
The opposition was considering adding other options to its campaign, including sit-ins, strikes by government workers and the resignation of opposition parliamentarians, he added.
The head of Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, said Gemayel's assassination was a shock to all Lebanese and had forced the party to postpone its protests.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=77160
BEIRUT: Sports and Youth Minister Ahmad Fatfat said Friday he had warned late Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel three weeks ago that threats had been made against his life and asked him to take precautions. In an interview with the Saudi-based Elaph Web site to be published Saturday, Fatfat said several ministers have received death threats in recent weeks.
Fatfat, in his last comments as acting interior minister, added that due to these threats, several of the ministers were currently residing at the Grand Serail for protection.
Fatfat warned that the inquiry into Gemayel's murder risked being a complex one, amid varying accounts of the killing.
"The investigation is very complex because there are a large number of witnesses and closed circuit camera recordings that must be analyzed," he said.
"One of the camera recordings shows Mr. Gemayel's car and the vehicle that was following him," the minister said without elaborating.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=77157
Israelis rebuff Palestinian offer of mutual cease-fire
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya said Friday that militant factions had agreed to halt rocket fire if Israel reciprocates by stopping its military offensives but the Jewish state rejected the proposal. Later Israeli forces shot dead a 10-year old boy and two other Palestinians. On the political front, the Palestinian foreign minister accused President Mahmoud Abbas for delaying the formation of a national unity government as Hamas' political leader, Khaled Meshaal, held talks with Egyptian officials on the deadlock.
Haniyya said the armed factions reached the agreement a day earlier, adding that the "ball now is in the Israeli court."
"[Israel] must stop its aggression and escalation against the Palestinian people," he said. "Then there will be no problem according to what the factions agreed in their last meeting."
Haniyya was scheduled to meet faction leaders again later Friday, and the sides hoped to draw up a written truce proposal, officials said.
A Hamas spokesman in Gaza, Ismail Radwan, watered down Haniyya's talk of a cease-fire, saying the factions had agreed to "alter their strategies of resistance" if Israel halted fire.
Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, described the offer to trade a partial cease-fire for a suspension of all Israeli military operations in Palestinian territories as "ludicrous" and "a media stunt."
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=2&article_id=77162
Business 'strike' falls flat as most companies ignore call
Only banking sector was largely observant
BEIRUT: Most businesses in Lebanon's capital resumed regular operations on Friday, ignoring a joint call from major business groups for a two-day strike across all commercial sectors. Business leaders had hoped the move might break the political deadlock over Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's Cabinet and discourage rival parties from continuing to threaten street protests.
Though supportive of the strike in principle, most merchants, industrialists, and traders were not in the financial position to adhere to such a demand, the head of the Hotel, Cafe, and Restaurant Syndicate said.
"The decision was taken at a bad time," Paul Ariss told The Daily Star. "It's the end of the month and restaurants need the extra cash to pay salaries. We requested by SMS and telephone last night that everyone comply with decision, but let's just say people were not enthusiastic about it, because they need to make some money."
On top of staggering indirect losses from the July-August war with Israel, many restaurants - particularly those in Christian communities - were closed for most of this week following the assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel.
Continued political instability has caused consumer confidence, and consequently spending habits, to dip even further, meaning people are buying fewer non-essential items.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=77152
Report downgrades estimate of direct war losses
BEIRUT: A government report said on Friday that total direct costs to Lebanon from the war of this past summer were $2.8 billion - $800 million less than an earlier estimate. Shortly after the August 14 cessation of hostilities, the Council for Development and Reconstruction estimated direct material losses at $3.6 billion.
The new government report, which was issued by Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's office, said the Israeli bombardment likely would cause GDP growth to fall to close to zero - a drop of 4-5 percent - by the end of the year.
Lebanon was hoping to record GDP growth of 6 percent in 2006 based on a projected influx of tourists, surge in exports and increase in foreign direct investment.
The Tourism Ministry expected more than 1.6 million visitors to come to Lebanon in the summer season alone, generating revenues of $3 billion.
Treasury revenues during the conflict fell by $1.6 billion, the report said.
"For the first time in six years, the Treasury will suffer a deficit in the primary surplus of $778 million, although the ministry was expecting a surplus of $827 million at the end of 2006," the report said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=77153
Moody's downgrades Lebanese bonds in light of accelerating political crisis
BEIRUT: Moody's Investors Service has changed the outlook on Lebanon's B3 foreign-currency government bonds to negative from stable. The action reflects the ongoing deterioration in the country's domestic political environment following the resignations of six opposition ministers from the Cabinet on November 11 and 13 and the assassination of the minister of industry on Tuesday.
Moody's believes that the resignations by the ministers, most of whom were Shiite, has undermined the government's standing, further calling into question its ability to maintain political stability or implement much-needed economic reforms.
The assassination of Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel has emphasized the fragility of the current political situation.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=77129
Hotels report mass exodus in wake of Gemayel assassination
In many cases occupancy rates have dropped by at least halfBEIRUT: On a day when the streets of Beirut overflowed with people, the city's hotels stood nearly empty, as occupancy levels have dropped dramatically since Tuesday's assassination, hoteliers told The Daily Star Thursday. The prospects for the hospitality sector remain uncertain for the coming holiday season, with optimism more the exception than the norm.
At the popular Phoenicia InterContinental, a half-dozen doormen, parking valets and security guards stood idle outside the hotel entrance, with not a guest in sight.
"There's nothing today," said Leyla Kang, an employee in the hotel gift shop.
Occupancy fell from about 30 percent Tuesday to about 10 percent Thursday, said Claude Chami at the Avis Rent-A-Car and Kurban Tours office in the hotel lobby.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=3&article_id=77128
Bumper crop has Iranian pistachio exporters seeing green
Agence France Presse
TEHRAN: Almost 10 years after an EU ban rocked the industry, Iran's pistachio suppliers are looking forward to a bumper year and hoping to consolidate their position as the top exporter of one of the world's most popular nuts. The pistachio tree, which favors baking summers and cold winters, thrives in arid southeastern Iran. Along with carpets and saffron, the nut has established itself as one of the country's most iconic commodities.
The pistachio trade is a linchpin of the Iranian economy, accounting for at least half of Iran's total agricultural exports and ranking as the third-largest source of foreign revenue.
The sector is still reeling from a steep decline in demand in 1997, when relations between Iran and Europe were at a low and the European Union suspended imports of Iranian pistachios because of excessive levels of a possibly carcinogenic toxin.
Since the ban, the Iranian government has adopted internationally recognized food-safety standards, the head of the agriculture ministry's pistachio office said, adding that this year's crop was expected to top last year's 230,000 tons.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=3&article_id=77003
Amin Gemayel has lost a son, but Lebanon has gained a father
...The spree of assassinations in Lebanon has drawn international condemnation. Two state-affiliated Iranian newspapers weighed in on the matter of the most recent killing in front-page articles which accused the United States and Israel of assassinating Gemayel in order to destabilize Lebanon. If that is indeed the case, then Iran ought to be willing to give its full public support to the UN tribunal. The perpetrators of Gemayel's murder - whether American, Israeli, Syrian, Lebanese or otherwise - should be forced to stand trial and be prosecuted just like any other suspected assassins....
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&article_id=77118&categ_id=17
Hizbullah supporters fume over barbs at funeral'
This is not acceptable. do we ever insult patriarch sfeir?'
BEIRUT: It was business as usual Friday in the capital's southern suburbs, where angry Hizbullah supporters blocked off the airport road Thursday night with burning tires in response to speeches made by March 14 leaders during late Industry Minister Pierre Gemayel's funeral. Many of the slogans shouted by the hundreds of thousands of supporters gathered in Martyrs Square in Downtown Beirut Thursday were directed at the opposition and its leaders, including Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=77155
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