The 2006 Winter Olympic Games at Torino, Italy

Morning Papers - It's Origins

The Olympics

http://www.torino2006.org/ENG/OlympicGames/home/index.html


Russia's skier wins gold in men's cross-country pursuit race
TURIN, February 12 (RIA Novosti) - Yevgeny Dementyev of Russia won the men's 30-km pursuit race in the cross-country skiing at the Turin Winter Olympics Sunday.
The silver medal went to Frode Estil of Norway (0.6 seconds behind Dementyev) and Pietro Piller Cottrer of Italy took the bronze.
Giorgio Di Centa of Italy who led the race several hundred meters before the finish came in fourth.
Dementyev won the first gold medal for the Russian team in Turin. Earlier, Yevgeniya Medvedeva-Arbuzova of Russia won the bronze medal in the women's 15-kilometer pursuit.

http://en.rian.ru/sports/20060212/43497108.html

Russia's skier wins bronze in women's cross-country pursuit race
TURIN, February 12 (RIA Novosti) - Yevgeniya Medvedeva-Arbuzova of Russia won the bronze medal in the women's 15-kilometer pursuit Sunday. The gold medal went to Kristina Smigun of Estonia who overtook silver medalist Katerina Neumannova from the Czech Republic, finishing in 42 minutes, 48.7 seconds - 1.9 seconds ahead of Neumannova.
Medvedeva-Arbuzova was 14.5 seconds behind the new Olympic champion.
Russia's Olga Zavyalova finished seventh (35 seconds behind Smigun) and Yulia Chepalova finished ninth (50.8 seconds behind Smigun).
Opening ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games in Italy. The best episodes.

http://en.rian.ru/sports/20060212/43494193.html


No doping involved in Russian skier's suspension - official
MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti, Olesya Karpova) - A Russian sports official ruled out any hint of doping after a skier was suspended for five days Friday in the first whiff of scandal at the start of the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Cross-country competitor Natalia Matveyeva was found to have a high level of hemoglobin, the red substance in the blood that combines with oxygen to take it round the body, after a blood-test.

http://en.rian.ru/sports/20060210/43468433.html


Russian sports chief puzzled by Olympic village ban
MADRID, February 10 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's top sports official has been left facing a predicament after the nation's Olympic committee refused to grant him accreditation to visit Russian athletes at their base for the Turin Games.
"I do not understand the reasons behind this decision," said an astonished Vyacheslav Fetisov, the head of the Federal Agency for Physical Culture and Sport, prior to leaving for the 2006 Winter Olympics.
It is not the first time that Fetisov, who is regarded as the country's unofficial sports minister, has been denied contact with Russian athletes in the Olympic Village. He was refused accreditation during the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and had to meet with athletes outside sports facilities.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060210/43461425.html


Russians need strong medical support at Olympics - Putin
MOSCOW, February 6 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that his country's Olympic team should be provided with strong medical, administrative and legal support at the upcoming games in Italy.
Putin met Monday with President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Leonid Tyagachyov and head of the organizing committee for the Olympics in Turin, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, to discuss the prospects for the Russian team at the 2006 Winter Olympics on February 10-26.
Putin said athletes should not think about doping issues and just focus on their performances, while the ROC handles other issues.

http://en.rian.ru/sports/20060206/43377086.html


Uzbek sportsmen promised riches for Olympic gold
TASHKENT, February 7 (RIA Novosti, Abu-Ali Niyazmatov) - The government of Uzbekistan has promised substantial rewards for the country's Winter Olympic competitors in the event that they finish on the podium in their respective disciplines.
With the opening ceremony of the Turin Games only days away, the Uzbekistan Olympic Committee said Tuesday that $100,000 would be paid for any gold medals, $50,000 for silver and $25,000 for bronze, which is an enormous sum for a country that has an estimated per capita GDP of only $1,900 in terms of purchasing power parity.

http://en.rian.ru/sports/20060207/43398798.html


Putin supports Sochi Olympic bid
MOSCOW, January 31 (RIA Novosti)-Russia will support the application made by the Black Sea city of Sochi to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the president said Monday.
Vladimir Putin told a Kremlin news conference that the country needed modern infrastructure and recreational facilities.
"Sochi is the prefect place," he said. "It has a mild climate, the sea is near and there are places with snow all year round in the mountains. I skied there two years ago myself."

http://en.rian.ru/sports/20060131/43257482.html


NBC to televise Olympics 24.5 hours a day
February 10, 2006
BY DAVID BAUDER ASSOCIATED PRESS
PASADENA, Calif.-- There aren't enough hours in the day to watch all the Winter Olympics coverage that NBC and its cable partners are serving up.
Seriously.
Even if you want to watch someone hurtling headfirst down a mountain or actually know what the biathlon is, it's impossible to see it all live. NBC's planned 416 hours of coverage (including the broadcast network and cable outlets) from Turin, Italy, averages out to 24.5 hours a day.
"We are reinventing the clock," said David Neal, executive producer of NBC Sports.
The Winter Games open Feb. 10 and competition stretches for 16 days after that. NBC executives are privately trying to downplay ratings expectations, given that Olympics on U.S. snow and ice-- like Salt Lake City in 2002-- tend to draw more interest. But they're hoping a strong United States team will spike the TV turnout.

http://www.suntimes.com/output/olympics/cst-oly-tv10.html


10 reasons to watch these Olympics
10. Women’s hockey. There are the times the U.S.-Canada rivalry has enough enmity to make Alabama-Auburn look like a PTA meeting. It’s a lock they’ll meet for the gold medal. The Americans won last year’s world championship in a shootout, after regulation and overtime had gone 0-0. Since then, the Canadians have won eight of 10 meetings. The gold medal game may be the closest you ever come to seeing a bunch of young ladies with brass knuckles.
9. Jeremy Bloom. The NCAA made him give up football at the University of Colorado because he had to earn sponsor money to keep his freestyle skiing career alive. He’ll be the only Olympian in Italy trying to win a gold medal, and then returning home for the NFL draft combine.

http://www.rrstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060210/SPORTS/102100023


Olympics 'contribute to peace'
Pope Benedict XVI said he hoped the Turin Winter Olympics would bring out a spirit of fairness and fraternity and help contribute to peace in the world.
Benedict also sent a special greeting to the athletes and organisers of the games during his traditional Sunday blessing to tourists and the faithful who gathered under his studio window in St Peter's Square in Rome.

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=222092006


Grandma Luge crashes out
'Grandma Luge' Anne Abernathy was forced to pull out of the Winter Olympics after a heavy crash in training, organisers said today.
Abernathy, 52, broke her wrist while she also smashed the right runner of her sledge after crashing "hard" in her fifth training run.
Abernathy was hoping to take part in her sixth Olympics as the first woman in her fifties at a Winter Games.
"Even if you have a little doubt, if someone is not on top of their game and they are going to fly down the track at 90mph (145km/h), you have to be pretty sure they are OK," said Melita Glanville, the trainer who has worked with Abernathy for six years.
Abernathy made her Olympic debut for the US Virgin Islands in 1988 at Calgary.
Although she has never been a serious medal threat, Abernathy, a cancer survivor, is popular with the sport's fans and her fellow athletes.
The former professional entertainer has won widespread respect for beating cancer, serious head injury and even a hurricane that destroyed her Virgin Islands home.
At these games, Abernathy had been wearing a green racing suit and a red helmet.
"I kind of look like a Christmas tree," she said following a practice run on Friday.
"The red helmet is in honour of women over 50 . . . that we can go out and do what we want to do. It's a big deal for a lot of women that someone over 50 is going out there and doing it."
The runners on Abernathy's sled also sustained serious damage in the wreck on the speedy 19-curve track at Cesana, which has thwarted several sliders in recent days.
The daunting Cesana Pariol course has already claimed a number of victims after opening last year and had to be closed to luge for modifications.
The women's luge competition opens tonight AEST.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/grandma-luge-crashes-out/2006/02/13/1139679504388.html



White wins men's halfpipe of Turin Olympics
American Shaun White cruised to the gold medal in the men's halfpipe snowboard at the Turin Winter Olympics on Sunday.
It was another dominating day in snowboarding for the Americans, who fell one bronze medal short of repeating their historical sweep of 2002.
White claimed the title with 46.8 points, fellow American Danny Kass took the silver at 44.0, while Finland's Markku Koski won the bronze at 41.5.
"It's amazing. There are so many people here, there are so many strong rivals, but I did it so well," said the 20-year-old White with tears in his eyes.
"I don't want to cry, but those tears run outside themselves. I can't control them. I didn't know if I would get the gold, I just knew I wanted it. This is the best year of my life. I'm so happy my whole family is here. I know I won't have this again," said White.
Competitors have to take two runs in the final and are ranked according to their best score of two runs, but White didn't need a second run as his amazing first run with a back-to-back 1080s landing, which earned him 46.8 points, was good enough for a gold medal. He only managed 26.6 points in his second routine run.
White, nicknamed "Flying Tomato" for his longish red hair, had a nightmare start on earlier Sunday as he missed one of the six automatic berths into the final after he landed badly in his first qualifying run.
He then rebounded with an excellent second qualifying run to move on to the final round.
After his winning first final run, White waited and watched the other 11 riders take their second trips. Nobody could better his score after the second-to-last rider, Koski, fell on his final jump. White knew he had the gold in hand.
"It's insane. After that first run I had to see how it would hang out for me. I knew I had to do my best run," said White, who claimed the titles of superpipe and slopestyle in 2006 Winter X- Games.
Kass led the 12 riders after the qualifying runs but failed in the first final run as he only managed 20.8 points. However, he did a wonderful job in the second and collected 44.0 points for the second place, beating Koski, who scored 41.5 in the first run, into the third place.
Koski tried to save his silver medal in the second run, but only had 31.4 points.
World champion Antti Autti of Finland, who was second after the qualifying stage, only finished fifth with 39.1 points.

http://english.people.com.cn/200602/13/eng20060213_242141.html


Luge: Italy claims it's first gold medal of 2006 Olympics
By Kurt Kragthorpe
The Salt Lake Tribune
CESANA PARIOL, Italy - Armin Zoeggeler did it again, Tony Benshoof barely missed doing something special and Georg Hackl did not do what he usually does.
All of the above was big news in luge Sunday night, when the host country claimed its first gold medal of the 2006 Olympics in men's singles.
Zoeggler's victory over Russia's Albert Demtschenko was not unexpected, considering he won at the Utah Olympic Park in 2002 and was the favorite on his home track. So going into the second day of competition, the developing story centered around Benshoof, a Minnesotan who was shooting for America's first singles medal in luge.
He was in third place after Saturday's two runs. But his opening run Sunday cost him that position, and he lost a little more ground to Latvia's Martins Rubenis in the final run. Benshoof was naturally
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disappointed with his third run but still described himself as "happy with fourth place" after finishing 17th in 2002.
There's no medal for it this time, as there ordinarily would be, but Benshoof can say he beat Hackl. The 39-year-old German, trying for his sixth Olympic medal since 1988, was third after the first run but dipped to seventh. Hackl will retire with two golds and two silvers. David Moeller, considered the top German contender in a sport his country has dominated, posted the fastest time in the final run but settled for fifth.

http://www.sltrib.com/torino2006/ci_3502461


Winter Olympics day two round-up
French skier Antoine Deneriaz won a shock downhill gold after a stunning late run, while Scots Finlay Mickel and Roger Cruickshank were down the field.
South Korean Ahn Hyun-Soo took the men's short track 1,500m as rival Apolo Anton Ohno slid out of the semi-finals.
American Shaun White won the snowboard half-pipe, but Britain's Dan Wakeham failed to reach the final.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/4671778.stm


The "Link" below at the BBC Olympics Headquarters has an interactive where one can select the day for schedules and events.

Winter Olympics schedule - 13 February
Daily event schedule for the Winter Olympics including BBC coverage details.
Daily event schedule for the Winter Olympics including BBC coverage details.
All times GMT.
MONDAY FEBRUARY 13
BBC COVERAGE
Television
BBC TWO - 1230-1600, 2030-2230*
Interactive TV - Three video streams 0800-0000*
BBC Sport 7-day programme guide

Website
News round the clock; live streaming of interactive video
Full interactive listings

Radio - Five Live updates through the day
(* Times subject to late change)

EVENT SCHEDULE

Curling
Men's Round Robin, Session 1 Sheet A - New Zealand v Sweden, 0800 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Men's Round Robin, Session 1 Sheet B - Italy v Great Britain, 0800 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Men's Round Robin, Session 1 Sheet C - Norway v United States, 0800 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Men's Round Robin, Session 1 Sheet D - Finland v Switzerland, 0800 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio

Women's Round Robin, Session 1 Sheet A - Norway v United States, 1300 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Women's Round Robin, Session 1 Sheet B - Canada v Sweden, 1300 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Women's Round Robin, Session 1 Sheet C - Switzerland v Italy, 1300 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Women's Round Robin, Session 1 Sheet D - Great Britain v Denmark, 1300 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio

Men's Round Robin, Session 2 Sheet A - Germany v Canada, 1800 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Men's Round Robin, Session 2 Sheet B - Finland v United States, 1800 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Men's Round Robin, Session 2 Sheet C - Great Britain v New Zealand, 1800 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio
Men's Round Robin, Session 2 Sheet D - Italy v Sweden, 1800 Pinerolo Palaghiaccio

Snowboard
Ladies' Halfpipe Qualification Run 1 0900 Bardonecchia
Ladies' Halfpipe Qualification Run 2 1000 Bardonecchia
Halfpipe Final Run 1 1300 Bardonecchia
Ladies' Halfpipe Final Run 2 1335 Bardonecchia
Biathlon
Women's 15 km Individual 1100 Cesana San Sicario

Ice Hockey
Women's Prelim. Round - Group A Game 7 - Sweden v Italy, 1400 Torino Esposizioni
Women's Prelim. Round - Group B Game 8 - Finland v Switzerland, 1630 Palasport Olimpico

Speed Skating
Men's 500 m Race 1 1430 Oval Lingotto
Men's 500 m Race 2 1623 Oval Lingotto

Luge
Women's Singles Run 1 1500 Cesana Pariol
Women's Singles Run 2 1700 Cesana Pariol
Figure Skating
Pairs Free Skating 1800 Palavela

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/other_sports/winter_sports/schedule/4557858.stm


Powerful opening ceremony a reminder that Olympic Truce goes unheeded
BY ANN KILLION
San Jose Mercury News
TURIN, Italy - They marched in under the five rings, separated by white signs and invisible borders. Wearing different uniforms, waving different flags, arriving in different shades and sizes, with different beliefs and backgrounds.
But, ultimately, at Friday night's opening ceremony, the Olympic athletes stood together, shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, in a mosh pit of humanity. They danced together, made the "YMCA" gestures together, laughed, cheered and wept a little together.
It was, as always, one of the most powerful moments in sports. No matter what you think of these "16 days of glory," the march of the athletes is profound. It is a moment that isn't marred by Olympic commercialism or controversy. Even rebel skier Bode Miller found it worth his time.
Both symbol and promise, the march of the athletes is one of the few instances when the world truly comes together. A time when Israel and Iran stand side by side. When Kenya is cheered as loudly as the United States. When everyone is a little Slovakian, a little Swedish, a little Chilean - and, this year, a whole lot Italian.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13843595.htm


The world unites, and it pleads for peace
Ann Killion
Mercury News Staff Columnist
TURIN, Italy - They marched in under the five rings, separated by white signs and invisible borders. Wearing different uniforms, waving different flags, arriving in different shades and sizes, with different beliefs and backgrounds.
But, ultimately, at Friday night's opening ceremony, the Olympic athletes stood together, shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, in a mosh pit of humanity. They danced together, made the ``YMCA'' gestures together, laughed, cheered and wept a little together.
It was, as always, one of the most powerful moments in sports. No matter what you think of these so-called 16 days of glory, the march of the athletes is profound. It is a moment not marred by commercialism or controversy. Even rebel skier Bode Miller found it worth his time.
Both symbol and promise, the march of the athletes is one of the few instances when the world truly comes together. A time when Israel and Iran stand side by side. When Kenya is cheered as loudly as the United States. When everyone is a little Slovakian, a little Swedish, a little Chilean -- and, this year, a whole lot Italian.
The scene was the embodiment of the Olympic ideal, a principle clearly expressed by Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee.
``Our world today is in need of peace, tolerance and brotherhood,'' Rogge said in English, one of the three languages he used during his speech. ``The values of the Olympic Games can deliver these to us. May the Games be held in peace, in the true spirit of the Olympic Truce.''
Sadly, the Olympic Truce is heeded about as seriously as the American quest for alternative energy forms. The leaders of the world pay lip service to the concept, invoking it only when it serves their purposes.
Several of the nations participating, including the host, had thousands of troops in Iraq as Friday's ceremony unfolded. The death toll in our own country steadily mounts. The protests in the Muslim world against Denmark and other European nations continue to rage. The Danish delegation had a special police escort on Friday. Iran is aggressively defying the world on nuclear weapons.
Last month, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan made yet another plea for the Olympic Truce. It is an idea with roots in ancient Greece, when the ekecheiria gave peace and immunity for all traveling to the Games. It was revived in 1991 in the midst of the conflict in the former Yugoslavia, but it has yielded precious few tangible results.
``The period of the Olympics Games is obviously not long enough for us to believe that we can use it to establish lasting peace,'' Annan said. ``It is, however, a chance for protagonists to look around, see how they are destroying their countries and take the chance to explore other options.''
That was the opportunity presented once again Friday night inside the refurbished Stadio Olimpico, originally built in 1932 on orders from Benito Mussolini and eventually stripped of his name.
As first lady Laura Bush looked on, along with her British counterpart, Cherie Blair, and other international dignitaries, the innocent concepts of brotherhood and unity were invoked time and again.
Turin is the largest city to be host to the Winter Olympics, and it showed its best side. For the first time this week, the Alps revealed themselves from beneath the haze, ringing the city. And inside the stadium, the host city reminded us that despite the drab industrial look of things, we are indeed in Italy, the land of Puccini and Dante, Michelangelo and Botticelli. The ceremony was a tribute to Italia, to the snow-capped peaks and to athletics.
There were Armani gowns. A revving Ferrari. A quintessential Italian stallion -- Alberto Tomba -- carrying the torch into the stadium. The famed tenor Luciano Pavarotti filled the stadium with his soaring voice. Sophia Loren was one of a delegation of eight women who carried the Olympic flag into the stadium (others were American actress Susan Sarandon and Chilean author Isabel Allende).
But an overriding theme was peace. Circus climbers dressed in white formed a human dove. Yoko Ono was on hand to recite an ode to peace, and Peter Gabriel performed her husband's famous ballad ``Imagine.''
``Imagine there's no countries,'' he sang, looking out over the athletes from every corner of the globe squished into one circle. ``It's easy if you try.''
Is it naive to think that snowboarders and lugers could really be a force for world peace? Sadly, it probably is. War rages on, and mere Games cannot slow its pace.
``You can show us a world,'' Rogge told the athletes, ``we all long for.''
If we're willing to see it.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/special_packages/olympics/13843682/13847572.htm


Olympics


http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/sports/special_packages/olympics/13843682/


The Cheney Observer also known as "They Only Talk the Talk"

Katrina & Recovery

Timeline: Who Knew When the Levees Broke

A Texas Army National Guard helicopter deposits a 6,000 pound-plus bag of sand and gravel to try to close the breach in the 17th Street Canal, Sept. 4, 2005. U.S. Army Corp of Engineers photo by Alan Dooley
“White House officials confirmed… that the report of the levee break arrived there at midnight.”
Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), Feb. 10, 2006
New Orleans residents are evacuated from their homes by a FEMA search and rescue team, Aug. 31, 2005. Photo by Jocelyn Augustino/FEMA
NPR.org, February 10, 2006 · A timeline released by congressional investigators shows that 28 federal, state and local agencies reported problems with levees the day Katrina made landfall in New Orleans. The information is at odds with contentions from Bush administration officials who say they didn't learn about the levee failures until the following day.

MONDAY, AUG. 29, 2005
8:30 a.m.: FEMA's regional office is informed that "a twenty-foot tidal surge… came up and breached the levee system in the canal."

9:08 a.m.: A brief from the Transportation Security Administration notes that the Industrial Canal levee has been breached. "There is heavy street flooding throughout Orleans, St. Bernard, and Jefferson parishes," the brief notes. A senior watch officer at the Homeland Security Operations Center receives the brief at 11:41 a.m.

9:14 a.m.: A flash flood warning from the National Weather service notes: "A levee breach occurred along the Industrial Canal… 3-8 feet of water is expected."

9:36 a.m.: FEMA coordinator Matthew Green e-mails FEMA's Michael Lowder, deputy director of response, that the Industrial Canal Levee has failed.

10 a.m.: Department of Homeland Security adviser Louis Dabdoub sends an e-mail to officials at Homeland Security and its main operation center. It reads: "It is getting bad. Major flooding in some parts of the city. People are calling in for rescue… The bad part has not hit here yet."

10:12 a.m.: Michael Heath, special assistant to then-FEMA chief Michael Brown, sends an e-mail to FEMA's chief of staff and acting director that reports: "Severe flooding in the St. Bernard/Orleans parish line... People are trapped in attics."

11:51 a.m.: Heath sends an e-mail to Michael Lowder, FEMA's deputy directory of response, informing him that the 17th Street Canal has been breached, as reported by Marty Bahamonde, a FEMA official on the ground in New Orleans. Brown responds: "I'm being told here water over not a breach."

12 p.m.- 5 p.m.: Levee breaches are reported by, among others, the Louisiana State Police, the National Weather Service, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Louisiana Office of Homeland Security.
6 p.m.: A report from the Homeland Security Operation Center says: "Preliminary reports indicate the levees in New Orleans have not been breached."

6:08 p.m. The American Red Cross e-mails officials at the White House and Department of Homeland Security about reports of levee breaches and "extensive flooding" in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish.

9 p.m.: Appearing on CNN, then-FEMA Chief Michael Brown says: "We have some, I'm not going to call them breaches, but we have some areas where the lake and the rivers are continuing to spill over."

9:29 p.m.: John Wood, chief of staff for Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, is sent an e-mail that reads in part: "the first (unconfirmed) reports they are getting from aerial surveys in New Orleans are far more serious than media reports are currently reflecting."

10:30 p.m.: A Homeland Security situation report reads: "There is a quarter-mile [breach] in the levee near the 17th Street Canal… an estimated 2/3 to 75% of the city is under water… a few bodies were seen floating in the water." This report reaches the White House around midnight, according to congressional investigators.

11:05 p.m.: Michael Jackson, deputy secretary of Homeland Security, is sent an e-mail summarizing reports of the extensive flooding that followed the collapse of the 17th Street Canal levee. The reports had been submitted by Marty Bahamonde, a FEMA official on the scene, beginning at 10:12 a.m. that day.

TUESDAY, AUG. 30, 2005
6 a.m.: A Homeland Security situation report states that the Industrial Canal and 17th Street Canal levees have been breached. It says: "Much of downtown and east New Orleans is underwater, depth unknown at this time… Widespread and significant flooding has occurred throughout the city."
Source: Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs (See the full timeline released by the Senate committee.)

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5200940


Shaking The House Of Cards
By BOB HERBERT (NYT) 771 words
Published: October 3, 2003
No wonder the sky-high poll numbers for President Bush have collapsed. The fiasco in Iraq is only part of the story. The news on one substantive issue after another could hardly be worse. It's almost as if the president had a team in the White House that was feeding his credibility into a giant shredder.
Despite the administration's relentlessly optimistic chatter about the economy, the Census Bureau reported that the number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.7 million last year, the second straight annual increase. During those two years, the number of poor Americans has grown by 3 million.
Belt-tightening is also in order for the middle class. The median household income declined by 1.1 percent, a drop of about $500, to $42,400. It was the second straight year for a decline in that category as well.
Per capita income decreased, too. It dropped by 1.8 percent, to $22,794 in 2002, the first decline in more than a decade.
Boom times these ain't.
On Monday we learned that there had been a steep increase last year -- the largest in a decade -- in the number of Americans without health insurance.
The international outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas is reporting that job losses in the U.S. have resulted in a sharp decline in the number of dual-income families, particularly for those with children under 18.
And so on.
With the federal government piling up massive deficits and local governments struggling to provide the most basic of services (some areas are closing schools; others are releasing prisoners prematurely), Mr. Bush is asking the nation to go much further into debt in the service of some vague notion of a civic renaissance in Iraq.
Even Republicans are beginning to ask what the heck is going on.
Contributing to the growing sense of unease in some quarters and outrage in others is the blatant war profiteering in Iraq by politically connected firms like Bechtel and Halliburton -- profiteering that is taking place with the scandalous encouragement and connivance of the Bush administration.
A front-page article in The Times on Tuesday said: ''A group of businessmen linked by their close ties to President Bush, his family and his administration have set up a consulting firm to advise companies that want to do business in Iraq, including those seeking pieces of taxpayer-financed reconstruction projects.''
Iraq is proving to be a bonanza for the Bush administration's corporate cronies even as it is threatening to become a sinkhole for the aspirations of ordinary Americans.
The vicious release to news organizations of the identity of an undercover C.I.A. officer could serve as a case study of the character of this administration. The Bush II crowd is arrogant, venal, mean-spirited and contemptuous of law and custom.
The problem it faces now is not just the criminal investigation into who outed Valerie Plame, but also the fact that the public understands this story only too well. Deliberately blowing the cover of an intelligence or law enforcement official for no good reason is considered by nearly all Americans, regardless of their political affiliations, to be a despicable act.
According to an ABC-Washington Post poll, nearly 70 percent of Americans believe a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the leak.
Now that so much has gone haywire -- Iraq, the economy, America's standing in the world -- the tough questions are finally being asked about President Bush and his administration.
Perhaps foreign policy was not Mr. Bush's strength, after all. And even diehard Republicans have been forced to acknowledge that the president was surely wrong when he insisted that his mammoth tax cuts would be the engine of job creation. And nothing has ever come of Mr. Bush's promise to be the education president, or to change the tone of the discourse in Washington, or to deal humbly and respectfully with the rest of the world.
Americans are increasingly asking what went wrong. How could so much have gone sour in such a short period of time?
Was it incompetence? Bad faith?
Loud warnings were ignored for the longest time. Now, finally, the truth is becoming more and more difficult to avoid.

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F10913FC3F580C708CDDA90994DB404482


THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: ASSESSMENT;
A Reckoning: Iraq Arms Report Poses Test for Bush

By DAVID E. SANGER (NYT) 1039 words
Published: October 3, 2003
The preliminary report delivered on Thursday by the chief arms inspector in Iraq forces the Bush administration to come face to face with this reality: that Saddam Hussein's armory appears to have been stuffed with precursors, potential weapons and bluffs, but that nothing found so far backs up administration claims that Mr. Hussein posed an imminent threat to the world.
In public, President Bush says that is not the issue. What should make a difference to Americans, and to the world, he says, is that Mr. Hussein is gone and Iraq is free. ''One thing is for certain,'' Mr. Bush argued last month at a fund-raiser, using a line he repeats often these days. ''Terrorist groups will not ever be able to get weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because Saddam Hussein is no more.''
But in private, Mr. Bush's political aides concede that it does matter, and it may matter more as the politics of running for president collide with the realities of containing the chaos in occupied Iraq.
While the report by the arms inspector, David Kay, is not final, and while the inspectors may yet come upon a cache of weapons, the preliminary findings support the claims of critics, including Democratic candidates, that Mr. Bush used dubious intelligence to justify his decision to go to war. At worst, these critics say, the usual caveats and cautions of the underlying intelligence reports were ignored in the rush to war.
Without question, the gap between what Mr. Bush said existed in Iraq and what Dr. Kay has failed to find will be argued about again and again as Americans discuss whether it was right to go into Iraq in the first place, and debate what to do now.
''This presents the president with a huge problem'' of explaining why the weapons have not been found, said Lee H. Hamilton, a former Democratic congressman from Indiana and now the president of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington. ''He and his aides have said over and over again that they will find'' unconventional weapons. ''They cannot say that anymore in light of the evidence.''
Mr. Hamilton, who dealt with intelligence issues in Congress, said the problem went beyond politics: it raised questions about whether intelligence could be trusted and used to rally the world to confront the North Korean and Iranian nuclear weapons programs.
Should Mr. Bush or his successors make a new argument for a pre-emptive strike against any country suspected of amassing arms, ''persuading the world will be that much harder,'' Mr. Hamilton said.
Several of Mr. Bush's advisers and associates, speaking under the cover of anonymity, said the issue of what weapons Mr. Hussein possessed would have far less political relevance if the occupation was going smoothly.
But it is not. The effect on voters is evident: a New York Times/CBS News poll released Thursday shows that public approval for how Mr. Bush is handling Iraq has now dropped to 47 percent, down from 75 percent in the midst of the heavy fighting. That is a sign, as one of Mr. Bush's senior aides said Thursday, that ''we have a lot of work to do.''
In retrospect, warning signs were evident well before the war began. There was the running dispute last winter with the International Atomic Energy Agency over the question of whether specialized tubes were intended for Iraqi nuclear centrifuges. In January President Bush argued that Mr. Hussein was seeking uranium in Africa -- a statement that was questioned at the time, discredited this summer and led this week to the first criminal investigation of the Bush White House, revolving around leaks that might have been intended to silence critics.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, more careful about his claims than the president or the vice president, deleted any mention of the uranium from his presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5.
But now even Mr. Powell's case has come under question. He made much of the mobile biological weapons laboratories that Mr. Hussein was supposed to be using; Dr. Kay's report said, ''We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence'' of a mobile biological weapons effort.
Dr. Kay paints a picture of a dictator who would be pleased to develop biological and chemical weapons, some complex and others ''small and relatively unsophisticated.''
But a similar case could be made about dictators in many other nations, including some that appear to be far ahead of Iraq. Part of Mr. Bush's task now is to explain why he has not raised the alarm about them as vociferously.
For the Democratic candidates, part of their task is to question whether going to war made sense -- without seeming to suggest that the world would be a better place if Mr. Hussein were still in power.
Dr. Kay's report offers a rationale for going ahead with the weapons search, at a cost that the administration believes will run to $600 million. Even if no caches of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons are found, Dr. Kay said, the search will provide lessons on how to improve ''the quality of intelligence.'' And even if there is ''only a remote possibility'' that aged weapons still exist, he said, it is vital to keep them out of the wrong hands.
Those reasons do little to help Mr. Bush as he, in Mr. Hamilton's phrase, ''revises his list of reasons for going to war.''
Ex post facto explanations of war are difficult anytime. They are even more difficult in the midst of an unpopular occupation, more difficult and dangerous than the one the United States led in Japan and Germany in 1945, and fraught with political dangers for Mr. Bush in 2004.

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F00616FA3F580C708CDDA90994DB404482


Poll Shows Drop in Confidence On Bush Skill in Handling Crises
By TODD S. PURDUM AND JANET ELDER (NYT)
2069 words
Published: October 3, 2003
The public's confidence in President Bush's ability to deal wisely with an international crisis has slid sharply over the past five months, the latest New York Times/CBS News Poll has found. And a clear majority are also uneasy about his ability to make the right decisions on the nation's economy.
Over all, the poll found, Americans are for the first time more critical than not of Mr. Bush's ability to handle both foreign and domestic problems, and a majority say the president does not share their priorities. Thirteen months before the 2004 election, a solid majority of Americans say the country is seriously on the wrong track, a classic danger sign for incumbents, and only about half of Americans approve of Mr. Bush's overall job performance. That is roughly the same as when Mr. Bush took office after the razor-close 2000 election.
But more than 6 in 10 Americans still say the president has strong qualities of leadership, more than 5 in 10 say he has more honesty and integrity than most people in public life and 6 in 10 credit him with making the country safer from terrorist attack.
By contrast, the Democratic presidential contenders remain largely unknown, and nearly half of Americans -- and a like number of registered voters -- say the Democrats have no clear plan of their own for the country.
A summer of continuing attacks on American soldiers in Iraq, the failure so far to find weapons of mass destruction there and Mr. Bush's recent request for $87 billion to pay for military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan have taken a toll on public support for his administration's Iraq policy and on views of his ability to handle such issues in general.
The poll found that just 45 percent of Americans now have confidence in Mr. Bush's ability to deal wisely with an international crisis, down sharply from 66 percent in April, and half now say they are uneasy about his approach. Nearly 9 in 10 Americans say the war in Iraq is still going on, and 6 in 10 say the United States should not spend as much on the effort as Mr. Bush has sought. Three-quarters of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say the administration has yet to clearly explain how long American troops will have to stay in Iraq, or how much it will cost to rebuild the country.
''I am very uneasy because of the war,'' said Joyce Austin, 69, a retired nurse's aide in Readstown, Wis., who was reinterviewed after the poll was conducted. ''I don't think the Bush administration had a good plan for ending the war, and for what was going to happen afterward. I don't think they realized how much it was going to cost.'' Mrs. Austin paused and added, ''Maybe they knew and just didn't tell us.''
The nationwide telephone poll of 981 adults has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points. The poll, taken Sunday through Wednesday, was in progress when the Justice Department announced that it would investigate accusations that someone in the White House may have leaked the name of an undercover C.I.A. officer.
As the week progressed and news coverage of the investigation intensified, respondents were somewhat less likely to credit the Bush administration with bringing heightened honesty and integrity to the workings of the White House, compared with past administrations. In the end, just over one-third of the respondents said the administration had brought more honesty and integrity, while 18 percent said it had brought less and 43 percent said it was about the same as other administrations.
For months, Americans have been critical of Mr. Bush's handling of the national economy, and they remain so, with just one in five saying the administration's policies have made their taxes go down and a near-majority saying the policies have had no effect on them personally. Half of the respondents said the federal tax cuts enacted since 2001 had not made much difference in the economy, and the rest were about evenly divided on whether the tax cuts were bad or good. Just 40 percent of voters expressed confidence in Mr. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the economy, down from half in April, while 56 percent said they were uneasy, up from 42 percent in April.
During Mr. Bush's tenure, a majority of Americans say, jobs have been lost and not created, there has been no easing of the high cost of prescription drugs and schools have not improved. Six in 10 Americans -- and 4 in 10 Republicans -- say the economy is worse than it was when Mr. Bush took office. Four in 10 of those polled were worried that someone in their household would lose his job in the next year.
Even worse news for the president was that Americans have also become critical of his handling of foreign policy, which had been been seen as his strength for most of his presidency. The latest survey found that 44 percent of those polled approved of Mr. Bush's overall handling of foreign policy, down from 52 percent in July, and that 47 percent approved of his handling of the situation in Iraq, down from 58 percent in July.
Polls last winter showed that public support for the president's decision to go to war in Iraq was sharply divided along partisan lines, with broad indications of reluctance. Now there are growing doubts about whether the results were worth the loss of life and other costs involved. Only 41 percent said it was, while 53 percent said it was not. When the question was asked using Saddam Hussein's name, the results were almost reversed, with about half those surveyed le saying it was worth removing him from power, and 41 percent saying it was not.
Over all, 51 percent of the respondents approved of Mr. Bush's performance. That is down from the high 80's after the Sept. 11 attacks, and from the high 60's at the beginning of the Iraq war. Just over 4 in 10 voters now have a favorable opinion of the president, compared with more than 6 in 10 in mid-2002, and just over 3 in 10 now have an unfavorable opinion compared with 2 in 10 in July 2002.
Nearly half said they believed that removing Mr. Hussein from power was the main reason for taking military action in Iraq. About a quarter said the main reason was to protect the oil supply, and one-fifth said the goal was to stop Iraq from manufacturing weapons. But only about 4 in 10 said they now believed that Mr. Hussein was personally involved in the Sept. 11 attacks, compared with about 5 in 10 who said so in April.
More than half of Americans said relations between the United States and its European allies were worse than when Mr. Bush took office, and fewer than half said leaders of other countries around the world had respect for Mr. Bush.
Mary Preble, 46, a registered nurse and a Republican in Sugar Land, Tex., said: ''I don't feel George W. Bush has a grasp on what the public is really interested in.'' She added: ''I wasn't happy about the invasion in Iraq. We shouldn't have attacked before anything was proven. There seem to be no nuclear weapons.
''Right now he is trying to rally everyone around to the cause and give money to rebuild Iraq. But why should other countries kick in cash when he didn't wait until the U.N. said we're behind you? The other countries don't believe he has the leadership skills he should have.''
The poll showed an electorate that remains narrowly divided. When all registered voters were asked whom they would vote for next year, 44 percent said Mr. Bush and 44 percent said the Democratic candidate. But regardless of how they intend to vote, half of registered voters said they expected Mr. Bush to win.
While Mr. Bush's standing has fallen, the poll showed that the Democratic presidential contenders are still largely unknown, and a majority of those who are planning to vote in their states' Democratic primaries or caucus next year have not formed opinions of the candidates.
Opinions of Democratic primary voters are so unformed that the mere mention of a person's title changes the dynamic. When voters were asked which candidate they would choose, without mention of titles, 17 percent said Gen. Wesley K. Clark, 11 percent said Representative Richard A. Gephardt of Missouri and 10 percent said Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut. The other candidates were all in single digits.
''I think the Democrats have a plan, but I'm not sure what it is,'' Laurel Halsey, 34, a personnel manager in Oakland, Calif, said. ''The Democrats' plan is never as clear as the Republicans' because the Republicans focus on the very narrow goal of laissez-faire government and capitalism. The Democrats try to incorporate a broader base of social issues.''
How the Poll Was Conducted
The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll is based on telephone interviews conducted Sunday through Wednesday with 981 adults throughout the United States.
The sample of telephone exchanges called was randomly selected by a computer from a complete list of more than 42,000 active residential exchanges across the country.
Within each exchange, random digits were added to form a complete telephone number, thus permitting access to listed and unlisted numbers alike. Within each household, one adult was designated by a random procedure to be the respondent for the survey.
The results have been weighted to take account of household size and number of telephone lines into the residence and to adjust for variation in the sample relating to geographic region, sex, race, age and education.
In theory, in 19 cases out of 20, the results based on such samples will differ by no more than three percentage points in either direction from what would have been obtained by seeking out all American adults.
For smaller subgroups the margin of sampling error is larger.
In addition to sampling error, the practical difficulties of conducting any survey of public opinion may introduce other sources of error into the poll. Variation in the wording and order of questions, for example, may lead to somewhat different results.
Full results are available at nytimes.com/politics.
Chart: ''Public Perceptions Of President Bush''

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?

Approve: 51%
Disapprove: 42%

Has the Bush administration brought more honesty and integrity to the workings of the White House, less or about the same as other administrations.

More: 35%
Less: 18
Same: 43
No Opinion: 4

Do you have confidence in George W. Bush's ability to deal wisely with an international crisis, or are you uneasy about his approach?

4/03
Confidence: 66%
Uneasy: 31
No Opinion: 3%

10/03
Confidence: 45%
Uneasy: 50
No Opinion: 5

Do you have confidence in George W. Bush's ability to make the right decisions about the nation's economy, or are you uneasy about

4/03
Confidence: 54%
Uneasy: 42
No Opinion: 4

10/03
Confidence: 40%
Uneasy: 56
No Opinion: 4

Do you think the policies of the Bush administration have . . .

. . . increased, decreased or not affected the number of jobs in the U.S.?

Increased: 12%
Decreased: 51
No Effect: 29
No Opinion: 9

. . . made the cost of prescription drugs more expensive, less expensive or have had no effect?

More: 35%
Less: 5
No Effect: 39
No Opinion: 21

. . . made the United States safer from terrorism, less safe or have had no effect?

Safer: 60%
Less Safe: 18
No Effect: 18
No Opinion: 4

. . . made your taxes go up, down or have had no effect?

Go Up: 29%
Go Down: 19
No Effect: 47
No Opinion: 4

Based on nationwide telephone interviews conducted Sept. 28 through Oct. 1 with 981 adults. Numbers may not add up to 100 because of rounding. (pg. A24)

Chart
Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy?
Approve: 56%
Disapprove: 37%
Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling foreign policy?
Approve: 45%
Disapprove: 44%
(Source by New York Times/CBS News Poll)(pg. A1)

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F70A10FA3F580C708CDDA90994DB404482


Korean Claim Leaves U.S. Concerned, But Skeptical
By JAMES BROOKE (NYT) 829 words
Published: October 3, 2003
SEOUL, South Korea, Oct. 2 - North Korea raised the tension in future nuclear talks by saying on Thursday that it is making atomic bombs from plutonium it has reprocessed from 8,000 spent fuel rods. The United States responded that it could not verify the Korean statement, but still took it seriously.
The Bush administration has set a ''red line'' that it would not accept North Korea's export of bombs or of its bomb-making abilities, and a North Korean diplomat said in New York that his nation would not cross that line.
''We have no intention of transferring any means of that nuclear deterrence to other countries,'' Choe Su Hon, North Korea's deputy foreign minister, told reporters at the North's mission to the United Nations in New York, the official New China News Agency reported on Thursday.
In Washington, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, said, ''This is a matter of the most serious concern,'' though he added: ''This is the third time they have told us they'd just finished reprocessing the rods. We have no evidence to confirm that.''
''The North Koreans go out of their way to make these statements from time to time,'' Mr. Powell said. ''And we will continue to pursue diplomacy and not react to each and every one of their statements.''
The fuel rods had been sealed by an international agreement for almost a decade, until last winter, when North Korea expelled United Nations inspectors and started reprocessing them. Mr. Choe told the reporters Wednesday that the North had now completed reprocessing all the stored rods.
If all 8,000 rods have indeed been reprocessed, North Korea would have the plutonium for about 20 bombs, nuclear experts calculate. But the North is not believed to have the expertise to make more than half a dozen in six months. The C.I.A.'s public estimate is that North Korea has one or two nuclear bombs.
New rods from a newly restarted research reactor will be reprocessed and ''churned out in an unbroken chain,'' the Korean Central News Agency said. It quoted an unidentified spokesman for the North's Foreign Ministry as saying that the reprocessing was aimed at increasing the nation's ''nuclear deterrent force.''
The restarted reactor, of five megawatts, is at Yongbyon, and is believed capable of producing enough plutonium for one or two bombs a year.
North Korea, run by a Stalinist dictatorship for almost six decades, is largely closed to foreign reporters, and American officials and it was impossible to make an independent check of the government's claims. The United States is believed to gather information from sensing devices in the North Korean capital and on China's border and from low flights by American spy planes.
''There is no way to verify what they are saying, but that does not mean it is not true,'' Scott Snyder, a Korea expert for the Asia Foundation, an American research institute, said here Thursday. Mr. Snyder, the author of ''Negotiating on the Edge,'' a book on North Korean bargaining tactics, added, ''The North Koreans have commonly used crisis escalation as a vehicle to draw attention to their issues and shape the environment in ways that they feel suit their purposes.''
All of North Korea's immediate neighbors -- China, Russia and South Korea -- are expecting to engage in six-nation talks that are expected to resume in Beijing by the end of November.
South Korea's Foreign Ministry spokesman, Shin Bong Kil, said, ''The North's announcement was very regrettable.''
''We are deeply concerned it not only undermines inter-Korean relations and efforts for the peaceful resolution of the nuclear issues but hurts the atmosphere for dialogue set by the previous talks,'' he said in a statement.
Recent comments by North Korea were a ''tactic to boost its negotiating power,'' Cho Kun Shik, South Korea's deputy unification minister, told reporters at a briefing on Thursday.
By claiming to have a nuclear arsenal and the ability to make it grow, the North could gain leverage at the next round of talks. The possession of half a dozen bombs could also give the North the luxury of conducting a test.
The North's tough stance comes after a military parade here in Seoul, where South Korea showed off new military hardware for the first time in years. On Wednesday, South Korea's Air Force dragged through the streets of downtown Seoul batteries of new Popeye air-to-ground missiles. Later, South Korea's president, Roh Moo Hyun, announced an 8 percent increase in military spending, one of the biggest jumps in recent years.

http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F70F1EF73C580C708CDDA90994DB404482



No More Mr. Tough Guy
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: February 8, 2006
I've always thought Dick Cheney took national security seriously. I don't anymore. It seems that Mr. Cheney is so convinced that we have no choice but to be dependent on crude oil, so convinced that conservation is just some silly liberal hobby, that he will never seriously summon the country to kick its oil habit, never summon it to do anything great.
Indeed, he seems determined to be a drag on any serious effort to make America energy-independent. He presents all this as a tough-guy "realist" view of the world. But it's actually an ignorant and naïve view — one that underestimates what Americans can do, and totally misses how the energy question has overtaken Iraq as the most important issue in U.S. foreign policy. If he persists, Mr. Cheney is going to ensure that the Bush team squanders its last three years — and a lot more years for the country.
Listen to Mr. Cheney's answer when the conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham asked him how he reacted to my urgings for a gasoline tax to push all Americans to drive energy-saving vehicles and make us energy-independent — now.
"Well, I don't agree with that," Mr. Cheney said. "I think — the president and I believe very deeply that, obviously, the government has got a role to play here in terms of supporting research into new technologies and encouraging the development of new methods of generating energy. ... But we also are big believers in the market, and that we need to be careful about having government come in, for example, and tell people how to live their lives. ... This notion that we have to 'impose pain,' some kind of government mandate, I think we would resist. The marketplace does work out there."
What is he talking about? The global oil market is anything but free. It's controlled by the world's largest cartel — OPEC — which sets output, and thereby prices, according to the needs of some of the worst regimes in the world. By doing nothing, we are letting their needs determine the price and their treasuries reap all the profits.
Also, why does Mr. Cheney have no problem influencing the market by lowering taxes to get consumers to spend, but he rejects raising gasoline taxes to get consumers to save energy — a fundamental national interest.
Don't take it from me. Gregory Mankiw of Harvard, who recently retired as chairman of President Bush's Council of Economic Advisers, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Jan. 3 about his New Year's resolutions: "Everyone hates taxes, but the government needs to fund its operations, and some taxes can actually do some good in the process. I will tell the American people that a higher tax on gasoline is better at encouraging conservation than are heavy-handed [mileage standards]. It would not only encourage people to buy more fuel-efficient cars, but it would encourage them to drive less."
Mr. Cheney, we are told, is a "tough guy." Really? Well, how tough is this: We have a small gasoline tax, but Europe and Japan tax their gasoline by $2 and $3 a gallon, or more. They use those taxes to build schools, highways and national health care for their citizens. But they spend very little on defense compared with us.
So who protects their oil supplies from the Middle East? U.S. taxpayers. We spend nearly $600 billion a year on defense, a large chunk in the Persian Gulf. But how do we pay for that without a gas tax? Income taxes and Social Security. Yes, we tax our incomes and raid our children's Social Security fund so Europeans and Japanese can comfortably import their oil from the gulf, impose big gas taxes on it at their pumps and then use that income for their own domestic needs. And because they have high gas taxes, they also beat Detroit at making more fuel-efficient cars. Now how tough is that?
Finally, if Mr. Cheney believes so much in markets, why did the 2005 energy act contain about $2 billion in tax breaks for oil companies? Why does his administration permit a 54-cents-a-gallon tax on imported ethanol — fuel made from sugar or corn — so Brazilian sugar exports won't compete with American sugar? Yes, we tax imported ethanol from Brazil, but we don't tax imported oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela or Russia.
"Everyone says we need a new Marshall Plan," said Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy expert and the author of "The Case for Goliath." "We have a Marshall Plan. It's our energy policy. It's a Marshall plan for terrorists and dictators."
How tough is it, Mr. Cheney, to will the ends — an end to America's oil addiction — but not will the means: a gasoline tax? It's not very tough, it's not very smart, and it's going to end badly for us.

http://select.nytimes.com/mem/tnt.html?emc=tnt&tntget=2006/02/08/opinion/08friedman.html&tntemail0=y


continued ...

Google celebrates "Snowboarding" at the 2006 Olymics.

February 12, 2006.

Ann Abernathy of Australia broke her 52 year old wrist and no longer could compete in the Luge.

Mt. Augustine, Alaska.

Morning Papers - continued ...

RIA Novosti

Microgen proposes four vaccine prototypes for bird flu
MOSCOW, February 8 (RIA Novosti) - Acknowledged Russian leader on the immunobiological drug market Microgen has created four vaccine prototypes against avian flu, the company's director said Wednesday.
"Microgen worked out and proposed for clinical testing four different vaccine prototypes, with two prototypes based on the H5N1 strain of the [bird flu] virus and the other two on the H5N2 strain," Anton Katlinsky said.
He said the company was currently conducting pre-clinical research work on the vaccines and those that proved to be safe for animals would be submitted for clinical testing in March.
"We expect to receive the results from clinical trials by summer this year," Katlinsky said.
Russia registered its first bird flu cases in Siberian fowl last summer and saw the virus spread west of the Urals into its European territory in October. However, no cases of human infection have been reported.
Katlinsky said that if the trials proved positive, Microgen would be ready to produce the necessary number of vaccines for the strain selected by the World Health Organization.
NPO Microgen was founded in 2003, after a merger of 14 leading state enterprises, which were producing traditional and innovational healthcare products.

http://en.rian.ru/science/20060208/43424649.html


First posthumously conceived child born in Russia - NTV
MOSCOW, January 20 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's first posthumously conceived child has been born in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, television station NTV reported Friday.
The baby boy was conceived using the frozen sperm of a man who had died nine years earlier, the station reported.
The man's semen, frozen and stored at a Tel Aviv hospital where he had been treated for cancer, was brought to Yekaterinburg by his mother.
Local reproductive specialists fertilized donor eggs with the sperm using in-vitro techniques and then implanted the embryo into a surrogate mother's womb for gestation.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060120/43105644.html


Israel highlights Hamas links with Chechen terrorism
TEL-AVIV, February 13 (RIA Novosti) - An Israeli non-governmental organization involved with information on terrorism has published a report on the links between Hamas and Chechen terrorist organizations following the Russian president's decision to offer an invitation to the radical Islamic group.
A link to the document, which claims the group that won the Palestinian parliamentary elections in January, identifies ideologically with Chechen terrorist Shamil Basayev, has been published on the Israeli Foreign Ministry's Web site alongside a report on Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni's response to Vladimir Putin's invitation.
The report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center at the Center for Special Studies was published Friday, the day after Putin's invitation, and shows on its front page a poster distributed by Hamas, with pictures of five Chechen terrorist leaders, along with Osama bin Laden.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060213/43510435.html


Hamas could visit Russia by end of February - envoy
MOSCOW, February 11 (RIA Novosti)-A delegation from Hamas, the radical Islamic organization that won the Palestinian elections in January, could visit Russia by the end of the month, a senior diplomat said Saturday.
Alexander Kalugin, Russia's special envoy to the Middle East peace process, said: "Such a probability exists, [and] we are working in that direction."
But Kalugin said that no exact date had yet been set. "Concrete dates have not yet been fixed," he said. "Neither has information about who will lead the delegation."

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060211/43487826.html


Russia's contacts with Hamas will benefit global community - MP
MOSCOW, February 10 (RIA Novosti) - A senior member of Russia's lower house of parliament said Friday that the country's efforts to maintain diplomacy with the radical Palestinian group Hamas were in the best interests of the global community.
Konstantin Kosachev, the chairman of the State Duma's international affairs committee, said that unlike in other Western countries, Russia's laws did not classify Hamas as a terrorist organization, thus providing the Mideast Quartet (Russia, the UN, the EU, and the U.S.) with a unique opportunity to maintain diplomatic contacts with this increasingly influential force following its victory in the Palestinian National Authority's January 25 election.
Kosachev's remarks came a day after President Vladimir Putin extended an invitation for Hamas officials to visit Moscow for talks.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060210/43471397.html


Mideast road map must be supported - Russian diplomat
MOSCOW, February 9 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Foreign Ministry called on Israel and Palestine Thursday to continue to work on the road map peace plan to resolve the conflict in the Middle East.
"Although the road map is a long way from being implemented, it would be counter-productive to abandon it," Ambassador-at-Large Alexander Kalugin told a news conference in Moscow.
The diplomat said Russia's position was to avoid taking any rash steps, to follow events and to prevent any negative developments of the situation.
He said it was necessary to wait until a new government had been formed in Palestine following the election triumph of Hamas, which is widely seen as an extremist organization in the West, and elections had been held in Israel before making any new moves.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20060209/43444457.html


Iran, Russia to discuss uranium enrichment February 14 - official
TEHRAN, February 12 (RIA Novosti) - Iran and Russia will discuss Russia's proposal to enrich uranium on its soil on February 14 at the level of deputy heads of the national Security Councils, an official spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Sunday. Hamid Reza Asefi said Iran still did not view Russia's proposal negatively and would discuss it comprehensively.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov earlier said that Russia's proposal to Iran to enrich uranium on Russian soil remained on the negotiating table.
At the same time, Ivanov said Russia spoke firmly for the strict observance of all the norms of international law on nuclear non-proliferation.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20060212/43494816.html



Iran-Russia 16 February talks postponed indefinitely - Iranian official
TEHRAN, February 13 (RIA Novosti) - A senior Iranian official said Monday that talks with Russia on the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear programs had been postponed indefinitely in a blow to an offer that had been seen as a compromise to end the crisis around the issue.
"Talks between Russia and Iran have not been completed," Gholam Hossein Elham said.
"However, the next round of talks scheduled for February 16 has been postponed indefinitely until an agreement is reached."
The Moscow talks had been expected to focus on a Russian initiative to set up a joint venture on its territory to enrich uranium for nuclear power plants in Iran, in a bid to alleviate Western concerns that the Islamic Republic might be pursing a secret nuclear weapons program. Tehran has consistently rejected that allegation.
Elham said Russia should amend its proposal to heed Iran's determination to enrich uranium on its soil.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20060213/43507354.html



Part of G8 aid to poor countries should be given to CIS - Putin
MOSCOW, February 13 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin said Monday that part of the Group of Eight industrialized nations' assistance to the poorest countries should be given to members of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
"We should from the start agree with our partners that a significant part of these resources should be given to our neighbors in the former Soviet Union," Putin told a Cabinet meeting.
Putin also said negative events in Africa influenced many countries, including Russia.
"But we agreed that we have very urgent problems of a similar nature, connected with the fight against infectious diseases, and poverty both in our country and the closest neighboring states. These are CIS states," the Russian leader said. "Even in objective terms, some of these countries can be ranked among the world's poorest."

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060213/43510454.html


I already know the first reaction if outrage over government involvement in private business. Really? At least this open and above board to know where things stand. Can the USA and the Bush White House say the same thing?

Russia's government nominates candidates for company boards
MOSCOW, February 13 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian government has nominated candidates to sit on the boards of directors (supervisory councils) and auditing commissions of joint stock companies as state representatives, the government's press office said Monday.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov signed the relevant resolution on nominating state representatives for 44 joint stock companies, the press office said.
In accordance with the document, the government nominated candidates to the boards of diamond producer Alrosa, the Ilyushin Finance aircraft leasing company, truck maker Kamaz, Rosneftegaz (a subsidiary of state-run oil company Rosneft), the Ilyushin Aircraft Making Company, the Moscow-based Moskvich auto maker and others.

http://en.rian.ru/business/20060213/43508782.html


Putin: Russia ready to repay $11.9 bln to Paris Club early
(adds details in paragraphs 6-8)
MOSCOW, February 11 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that Russia was ready to repay $11.9 billion to the Paris Club ahead of schedule.
He said this would "contribute to the poorest countries' development."
"It is well known that some creditor countries experience a lack of free financial resources, and they will be able to use funds received from Russia to honor their commitments to the International Development Association on compensating poorest countries' debt write-offs," Putin said.
"In turn, Russia is ready to additionally pay the association up to $587 million to cover the deficit remaining on its balance - the so-called structural gap," the Russian leader said.
Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Monday that Russia was ready to clear the debts of the world's 16 poorest nations, worth around $688 million.
"The implementation of a set of our proposals will secure the financial stability of the International Development Association for at least for five-ten years, depending on the selected scenario," Putin said.
The Russian leader said the initiative would supplement the debt write-off commitments assumed by the G8 members last year and did not run counter to the donor countries' financial and political interests.
"I believe that support for Russia's proposal from our partners will become real proof of the G8's willingness to fulfill its commitments to write off debts and assist the world's poorest countries," Putin said.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060211/43486320.html


Do we need the truth about Hariri's death?
BEIRUT. (RIA Novosti political commentator Marianna Belenkaya.) - February 14 will mark one year since the assassination of Rafiq Hariri, Lebanon's former prime minister and businessman, an event which shocked the country and the entire Middle East. Regional analysts were unanimous describing it as "a political earthquake." Hariri's death changed the balance of forces in the region, but the result of these changes was unexpected.
A year has passed, but the questions - who profited from the assassination of the former and, most probably, future prime minister, and who was behind it - remain unanswered. Each new day brings less hope that the answers will be found. There are also doubts as to whether we need the truth. After all, over the past year Hariri has turned into a myth and his death has become a bargaining chip for different political forces; not all of them want the perpetrators to be found.
Hariri's death upset the already fragile political balance in Lebanon and put Syria in the fire line, as Hariri's allies accused it of organizing the assassination. The international investigative commission has been working for over six months, but has still not found direct and incontestable evidence of Damascus' involvement, although it has been focusing on the Syrian trace, overlooking all other possible versions. Considering Hariri's extraordinary personality and the complicated situation in Lebanon and the entire regions, such versions could be many, both political and economic.

http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060213/43511266.html


GLONASS to have 18 satellites in orbit in 2008 - official
MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti) - The global navigation satellite system GLONASS will operate 18 satellites in orbit in 2008, enough to define a precise location anywhere in the world, the commander of the Russian Space Forces said Wednesday.
"Today the Russian space system [of satellites] corresponds with the state level and was brought to the minimum level necessary for the defense of the country," Colonel General Vladimir Popovkin said.
Popovkin said 17 satellites currently operate in orbit, but that the exploitation terms of some of them may expire soon.
He said six more satellites would be launched as backups to the main satellites.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060118/43065024.html


Russian rocket to orbit Arab satellite February 28
MOSCOW, February 6 (RIA Novosti) - The launch of the Proton-M Russian carrier rocket with
the Arab communications satellite ArabSat 4A has been scheduled for February 28 at 8:10 p.m. GMT at the Baikonur Space Center, the Russian Federal Space Agency said Monday.
A Briz-M booster was delivered to Baikonur, which Russia leases from Kazakhstan, Monday, the agency said in a press release.
"Work to prepare the booster starts February 7," the agency said.
Foreign experts are expected to finish the preparation of the Arabsat 4A this week.
The Arab Satellite Communications Organization was established in 1976 by member-states of the Arab League to serve the telecommunication, information, culture and education sectors.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060206/43376747.html


Russia set to launch communications satellite
MOSCOW, December 19 (RIA Novosti) - A rocket carrying two satellites will be launched from the northern Plesetsk space center Tuesday evening, a spokesperson for the Russian Federal Space Agency said Monday.
"The carrier rocket will orbit the Gonets-1M communications satellite to provide services for security agencies and another satellite ordered by the Defense Ministry whose functions were not specified," the source said.
Gonets-1M will ensure the rapid transmission of brief messages, e-mail and other kinds of communications. The satellite's service life is slated for seven years and its orbit can be corrected if necessary.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20051219/42557489.html


Russia to sign agreement with NASA on ISS development in 2006
MOSCOW, December 27 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Space Agency's main goal in 2006 is to sign an agreement with NASA on the development of the International Space Station (ISS) until 2011, the agency's head said Tuesday.
"The goal for 2006 is to reach a comprehensive agreement with the United States in the first half of the year on the ISS until 2011," Anatoly Perminov said.
He said the agency already has defined its objectives in its partnership with NASA in 2006.

http://en.rian.ru/world/20051227/42732705.html


Clipper spacecraft constructor to be announced in February 2006
MOSCOW, January 17 (RIA Novosti) - The winner of a tender to build a new-generation spacecraft will be announced on February 18, the Russian Space Agency said Tuesday.
Three Russian companies - the Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, the Khrunichev Space Center and the Molniya Research and Production Association - have submitted bids to build the Clipper re-usable space craft.
Agency spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko said: "The results of a closed tender will be announced in the first half of February."
Agency head Anatoly Perminov had said earlier that Russia was also hoping to attract other countries to the Clipper construction project, and the European Space Agency (ESA) expressed interest in the six-man craft, which should eventually designed to replace the workhorse of the Russian space program, the Soyuz carrier rocket.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060117/43045501.html


Los Angles Times

Report: U.S. Is Abusing Captive
A U.N. inquiry says the treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay at times amounts to torture and violates international law.
By Maggie Farley, Times Staff Writer
NEW YORK — A draft United Nations report on the detainees at Guantanamo Bay concludes that the U.S. treatment of them violates their rights to physical and mental health and, in some cases, constitutes torture.
It also urges the United States to close the military prison in Cuba and bring the captives to trial on U.S. territory, charging that Washington's justification for the continued detention is a distortion of international law.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gitmo13feb13,0,3215042.story?coll=la-home-headlines


Just as you suspected: Sommeliers have a stash
These off-list bottles are too good for just anyone. Who gets to play? The knowledgeable and the nice.
By Corie Brown, Times Staff Writer
WHEN interior decorator Steve Ross arrived at Grace on a busy Saturday night, he pressed sommelier Eduardo Porto Carreiro with his usual question: Anything available that isn't on the restaurant's wine list?
Porto Carreiro, knowing Ross to be a Napa Valley Cabernet fan, smiled and whispered that he had six bottles of Bob Foley's 2002 Switchback Ridge Cab, a new wine from the acclaimed winemaker for Pride Mountain Vineyard. The sommelier had kept the unexpected allocation of Foley's wine off the list, stashing the bottles for his favorite regular customers.

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-wine8feb08,1,2015563.story?coll=la-headlines-food



Ex-FEMA Head Says White House Knew About Levees
By Edwin Chen, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's bungled response to Hurricane Katrina came under fresh scrutiny today amid revelations during a Senate hearing that senior White House officials had learned of the disastrous flooding in New Orleans a day earlier than they had previously indicated.
The testimony of Michael D. Brown, the ousted director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, raised questions about whether top White House aides had kept President Bush fully abreast of the fast-breaking catastrophe after a levee breached on Aug. 29, allowing the waters of the Gulf of Mexico to cover huge portions of New Orleans.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-021006katrina_lat,0,785658.story?coll=la-home-headlines


Scathing Katrina Report
Homeland Security's botched management of the emergency is singled out in House findings.
By Johanna Neuman, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — A House select committee examining the federal response to Hurricane Katrina is preparing to issue a report Wednesday that blames the federal government for "an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare" — but the legislators who participated in the study are divided about how to address the lapse.
Assailing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff as being detached from events — when New Orleans residents were clinging to rooftops, he traveled to Atlanta for a conference on bird flu — a draft of the report says he switched on federal response systems "late, ineffectively or not at all."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-katrina13feb13,0,1503010.story?coll=la-home-nation


Libby Says 'Superiors' Authorized Leaks
Cheney's former aide told a jury that classified information he gave to journalists was OKd.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby has told a federal grand jury that his "superiors" authorized him to leak highly sensitive intelligence to journalists, including a New York Times reporter he allegedly tipped off to the name of an undercover CIA operative.
The revelation is contained in a Jan. 23 letter from Special Prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald to lawyers for Libby, who was indicted in late October in connection with the leak of the operative's name. In the letter, Fitzgerald recounts testimony in which Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff admitted circulating portions of the National Intelligence Estimate to reporters in June and July 2003.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-libby10feb10,0,729255.story?coll=la-home-headlines



Olympics Open With 'Rhythm, Passion and Speed'
From Associated Press
TURIN, Italy -- A dazzled, cheering audience danced on their chairs in the winter cold today night and the opening ceremony of the Winter Games became one giant house party.
Passion was the show's theme and passion was what poured from the audience, right up to the arrival of the Olympic torch, carried by skiing hero Alberto "La Bomba" Tomba, who ran up the stage steps and handed it off to a succession of Italian medal winners.

http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/la-021006olyopen_wr,0,6070908.story?coll=la-home-headlines


A $1-Billion Public Land Sale Proposed
By Janet Wilson, Times Staff Writer
The Bush administration today called for selling off more than $1 billion in public lands over the next decade, beginning with the sale this year of $800 million worth of national forestland.
The 300,000 acres of forestland proposed for the auction block includes 85,000 acres in California, scattered across most of the state's 18 national forests, including the Angeles, San Bernardino, Los Padres and Sierra National forests.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-021006forest_lat,0,1030546.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews


8 Killed in Sunni Mosque Bombing in Baghdad
By Richard Boudreaux, Times Staff Writer
BAGHDAD -- A bomb exploded in a car parked 10 yards from a Sunni Muslim mosque today, killing eight worshippers in Iraq's deadliest attack in a week otherwise marked by conciliatory words among leaders of feuding religious sects.
The midday blast hit worshippers leaving the Iskan Shaabi mosque after the main weekly prayer service in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood. Witnesses said bodies flew through the air and nearby cars went up in flames, sending smoke through the mosque's shattered windows. At least 22 people were wounded.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-021006iraq_lat,0,7663384.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews


What would Muhammad do?
History suggests the prophet was more pragmatic than followers rioting in his name.
By Jamil Momand, JAMIL MOMAND is a professor of biochemistry at Cal State Los Angeles.
ON FRIDAY, I sat on the carpet listening to the sermon at an L.A. mosque. The topic was expected and familiar: a denunciation of the publication of the offensive cartoons that have had the Muslim world up in arms. I directed my eyes to the carpet so no one could see the disgusted look on my face. "Not again," I thought. "Don't we Muslims ever get tired of complaining?"
The khateeb (the person delivering the sermon) stated that it was not right that Islam was the target of abuse. He said some will go out of their way to disrespect Islam. He said the Muslim community demands an apology, and (thankfully) he called on Muslims to be peaceful and forgiving.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-momand9feb09,0,352166.story?track=hpmostemailedlink


http://www.hallobay.com/


The Sky Is Falling in Alaska
When a volcano starts spewing ash, tsunami fears sweep over the town of Homer. But for locals, repeated warnings grow old.
By Tomas Alex Tizon, Times Staff Writer
HOMER, Alaska — It is, in the world of volcanoes, one of the little guys — a bump on the sea, a molehill among mountains. Some days, Mt. Augustine barely peeks above the mist that settles across Cook Inlet in south central Alaska.
Residents of this fishing town 70 miles to the east have been keeping an eye on the volcano, which woke up Jan. 11 and dusted the inlet with ash. The mountain has been erupting intermittently ever since. It is the focus of attention for the region and the talk of the town for Homer, the nearest community of any size.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-augustine10feb10,0,5685871.story?coll=la-home-nation


Consensus Grows for Curbs on Surveillance
A Senate panel goes behind closed doors to hear more about Bush's program of warrantless eavesdropping. Call for changes is bipartisan.
By Maura Reynolds, Times Staff Writer
WASHINGTON — Bipartisan support on Capitol Hill for stricter regulation of President Bush's secret spying program grew Thursday, as senators briefed by administration officials about the surveillance termed the information inadequate, and called for more investigation of the eavesdropping.
The 16-member Senate Intelligence Committee met behind closed doors for three hours to hear details on the program, conducted by the National Security Agency. Bush has said the agency intercepted communications between terrorist operatives operating outside U.S. borders and people inside the country.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-spy10feb10,1,4634964.story?coll=la-headlines-nation


Bush Gives New Details About Old Report of L.A. Terror Plot
By Peter Wallsten and Josh Meyer, Times Staff Writers
WASHINGTON — With pressure mounting on the White House to more fully explain its anti-terrorism strategy, President Bush offered new details Thursday of a reported plot against downtown Los Angeles as evidence of success in foiling attacks.
Federal officials had revealed two years ago that they believed Al Qaeda operatives, in a West Coast follow-up to the Sept. 11 attacks, had planned to hijack an airliner and crash it into what was then called the Library Tower.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bush10feb10,1,1895106.story?coll=la-headlines-nation


Peter Benchley, 65; 'Jaws' Author Became Shark Conservationist
By Valerie J. Nelson, Times Staff Writer
Peter Benchley, whose first novel, "Jaws," sold 20 million copies and helped invent the Hollywood summer blockbuster film when Steven Spielberg made the tale of a bloodthirsty shark into a 1975 movie, has died. He was 65.
Benchley, who became a conservationist and expressed regret over portraying sharks as killing machines, died Saturday of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, a progressive and fatal scarring of the lungs, at his home in Princeton, N.J., his wife, Wendy, said.

http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-benchley13feb13,0,652115.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=morenews


Lawmaker Presses Case for Zinfandel
A state senator makes the heady proposal that the fruity varietal be named California's official wine. Some toast the idea; others find it unpalatable.
By Martha Groves, Times Staff Writer
It's not enough for California to have a state bird (valley quail), tree (redwood), flower (golden poppy), reptile (desert tortoise) and even dance (West Coast swing). What the Golden State really needs is an official wine, says state Sen. Carole Migden, and the only wine that fills the bill is zinfandel.
"Zinfandel is the quintessential California wine," the San Francisco Democrat said last week when she introduced legislation that would bestow that status on the wine zippily known as "zin." Zinfandels "go with just about any food" and thus are suited to represent a state with such a rich diversity of cuisines and cultures, she added.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wine13feb13,0,679428.story?coll=la-home-headlines


Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

Photograph Shows Lobbyist at Bush Meeting With Legislators
WASHINGTON, Feb. 11 — After weeks in which the White House has declined to release pictures of President Bush with Jack Abramoff, the disgraced lobbyist, the first photograph to be published of the two men shows a small, partly obscured image of Mr. Abramoff looking on from the background as Mr. Bush greets a Texas Indian chief in May 2001.
By itself, the picture hardly seems worthy of the White House's efforts to keep it out of the public eye. Mr. Abramoff, a leading Republican fund-raiser who pleaded guilty last month to conspiring to corrupt public officials, is little more than a blurry, bearded figure in the background at a gathering of about two dozen people.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5822


State AG questions undercover investigation of peace group
FRESNO – (Associated Press) The Fresno County Sheriff's decision to send an undercover deputy to the meetings of a peace organization raised “serious concerns” with the state attorney general, a spokesman said Friday.
The detective began attending Peace Fresno meetings in 2003. The attorney general's office began investigating the decision in April 2004, when Peace Fresno discovered the his identity and complained to the American Civil Liberties Union.
“We are in active discussions with the sheriff's department about resolving our concerns,” said the attorney general's spokesman Nathan Barankin. He explained that there were particular concerns about the “policies that led to the decision to investigate Peace Fresno in an undercover capacity, and the tension between what they did and the privacy rights guaranteed to Californians.”

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5821


Cheney Accidentally Shoots Fellow Hunter
By Nedra Pickler / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney accidentally shot and wounded a companion during a weekend quail hunting trip in Texas, spraying the fellow hunter in the face and chest with shotgun pellets.
Harry Whittington, a millionaire attorney from Austin, was "alert and doing fine" in a Corpus Christi hospital Sunday after he was shot by Cheney on a ranch in south Texas, said Katharine Armstrong, the property's owner.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5826


Senators: Cheney Should Be Probed in Leak
Associated Press
Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald should investigate Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the CIA leak probe if they authorized an aide to give secret information to reporters, Democratic and Republican senators said Sunday.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., called the leak of intelligence information "inappropriate" if it is true that unnamed "superiors" instructed Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to divulge the material on Iraq.
Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said a full investigation is necessary.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5827


Barbara Bush's Tea Party. An invitation to the nation !

http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/presdayflyer.jpg

http://www.michaelmoore.com/_images/splash/presdayflyer.pdf


For the Love of God, Can't you Make him Stop?!
...a message from Cindy Sheehan
Former President George Bush took a shot at protestor Cindy Sheehan on Friday while speaking to students at the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.
Bush told the audience if she shows up to their church as expected she'll have to deal with his wife Barbara.
--KVET News, Central Texas:
On President's Day (Feb 20th), Gold Star Families for Peace, Veterans for Peace, and Code Pink are sponsoring an action in Houston, Tx. near the elder Bush's estate called, "For the Love of God. Can't you make him stop?"
We will be demonstrating in front of George Sr. and Bar's church, St. Martin's Episcopal Church in Houston from 4pm to 7pm on President's Day on Monday, February 20th. And we have something to say to the Bush family (who apparently send their women to fight their battles): "Bring Her On."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=600


Hundreds march on Statehouse for peace
By David Gram / Associated Press
MONTPELIER, Vt. --A crowd that peaked at about 300 braved temperatures in the teens Saturday to march on the Statehouse and call on state officials to demand an end to the war in Iraq.
"Our Legislature in Vermont seems to think they can't question foreign policy," said Nancy Brown of Rochester, whose son Ryan served 11 months in Iraq with the Vermont National Guard.
Brown, a member of the group Military Families Speak Out, added, "This isn't foreign policy. This is about our families. This is my son."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5824



Ex-C.I.A. Official Says Iraq Data Was Distorted
By Scott Shane / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Feb. 10 — A C.I.A. veteran who oversaw intelligence assessments about the Middle East from 2000 to 2005 on Friday accused the Bush administration of ignoring or distorting the prewar evidence on a broad range of issues related to Iraq in its effort to justify the American invasion of 2003.
The views of Paul R. Pillar, who retired in October as national intelligence officer for the Near East and South Asia, echoed previous criticism from Democrats and from some administration officials, including Richard A. Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism adviser, and Paul H. O'Neill, the former treasury secretary.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5823


White House knew New Orleans levee broke night before George's honky-tonk photo-op

White House Knew of Levee's Failure on Night of Storm
By Eric Lipton / New York Times
WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.
But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency official, Marty Bahamonde, first heard of a major levee breach Monday morning. By late Monday afternoon, Mr. Bahamonde had hitched a ride on a Coast Guard helicopter over the breach at the 17th Street Canal to confirm the extensive flooding. He then telephoned his report to FEMA headquarters in Washington, which notified the Homeland Security Department.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5811



Thursday, February 9, 2006
"This Chamber Reeks of Blood"
Cindy Sheehan announces decision not to run for congress
First of all, I would like to thank everyone for coming today, and send out to my daughter, Carly, a big happy birthday. She is 25 today. She is now older than Casey was when he was killed in Iraq on April 04, 2004.
I would also like to thank everyone from all over the world that has sent me emails of support and encouragement to consider a challenge to Dianne Feinstein's Senate seat. I literally got hundreds of emails. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love.
During the Vietnam War, Senator George McGovern stated the following on the Senate floor in September of 1970:
"Every senator in this chamber is partly responsible for sending 50,000 young Americans to an early grave. This chamber reeks of blood...It does not take any courage at all for a congressman, or a senator, or a president to wrap himself in the flag and say we are staying in Vietnam, because it is not our blood that is being shed. But we are responsible for those young men and their lives and their hopes."
The lack of courage of America's present Senate is partially responsible for my son's death and the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. Dianne Feinstein is one of the Senators who expediently gave her Constitutional obligation to George Bush to invade an innocent country. Dianne Feinstein continues to vote to give George Bush more money to fund what she calls a "mistake." George Bush has been proven to be irresponsible with our young people's lives and with our tax dollars, but the Senator keeps giving him more money and more power to prolong the murder and mayhem in Iraq.
I am standing here today to say "enough." It is not enough to "criticize" the President's policies while you are handing him more money to fund his policies. It is like giving an addict more money to purchase drugs when you would like for him/her to quit.
It is not enough to criticize the President's policies when more and more flag draped coffins are coming home each day and more families are being devastated by these policies while other people are putting food on their tables and becoming fabulously wealthy off of Casey's flesh and blood and the sorrow of scores of others.
I am here today to call on, not only Senator Feinstein, but our other Senator, Senator Boxer, who heroically did not abrogate her responsibility to declare war to the President, to quit "figuring" out ways to bring our troops home and start sponsoring legislation. The last Senate vote for increased funding for the killing was 99-0. How about cutting off the President's means for killing? It is not that difficult. There is not one piece of legislation in the Senate currently in opposition to Iraq.
It is not "enough" to say that one is critical of the war in Iraq. I, and the Nation Magazine, have called on every Democrat of good conscience in America to oppose "pro-war" Democrats in the upcoming elections. If an elected official voted for the war, votes for the funding of the war, and doesn't call for an immediate withdrawal of the troops, then that official is "pro-war" no matter what he or she says. We in America are fed up with rhetoric, and if the actions don't match the rhetoric, then we are not buying what they are selling anymore.
I have been weighing my decision to run for Senate here in California carefully, even before Camp Casey. My entire being since Casey was killed has been immersed in trying to end the occupation of Iraq before any other mothers have to fall on the floor screaming for their child who should not have been in harm's way in the first place. In making my decision whether to run or not, I had to decide which course of action would bring the troops home sooner. Is my being on the outside, putting pressure on the inside more effective, or would a Senate campaign help bring our kids home sooner? If I thought that running for Senate would bring our young people home more quickly, I would do it in a minute, but I am not convinced that that would be so.
I have decided not to run but I am calling on all Californians and Americans to support all anti-war candidates to promote a paradigm of peace in the world and I will be supporting and working for dozens of anti-war candidates all over the country. Our emphasis will be holding all of the pro-war candidates accountable for their tragic mistakes and voting in representatives who will hold George Bush and his administration accountable for all of their mistakes in Iraq and here in America.
We Americans are looking for ways to become involved in our political process. We are tired of being complacent and we are so tired of business as usual.
Gold Star Families for Peace and Code Pink are sponsoring an International Women's Day for Peace on March 8th. We are holding rallies and events all over the world that day. Specifically, we are trying to bring two Iraqi mothers, whose children have been killed over from Iraq, to speak at our event in Washington, DC and they are being denied visas from the State Department. My freedom of speech and my civil rights were violated last week for wearing a t-shirt, now these Iraqi women who have paid the ultimate price for our leaders' stupidity and greed are being denied the right to come to America and tell their stories. We are urging America to call the State Department and demand that these two women be given visas.
We are also encouraging grass roots Americans to demand that the Senate start doing something to end the travesty in Iraq. We believe that it will be the women who lead our nation to peace and we are especially calling on America to put pressure on Hillary Clinton, Dianne Feinstein, and Barbara Boxer to be the leaders that our nation so desperately needs. It is time.
It is too late for me. My life and the lives of nearly 2,300 American families have been tragically altered by the ennui of the Senate and the callousness and incompetence of this administration. I will never get to see my son or hear his voice again. His future was robbed needlessly from him. The complicity of the Senate has guaranteed that my future is one of pain and longing for my son's presence. It is not too late for the millions of people still in harm's way.
I, as an American, and as the mother of a hero, pledge to do what I can as a citizen to end the occupation of Iraq. I am not running against Feinstein, but I will continue to be a thorn in the side of the Senator and anyone who is not stridently working for peace. That is my promise.
To get info to pressure the State Department and our Senators and for info on the International Women's Day for Peace go to: WomenSayNoToWar.org.
Thank you and God Bless America….Please!!!

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=599


Sign-up below to join us in Washington D.C. on March 8! We will be in touch with you during the coming weeks to organize your participation.

http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/codepink/signUp.jsp?key=924&t=WSNTW.dwt



Stopping this particular war in Iraq will be an important moment in creating an international peace movement led by women, that will be able to sustain the struggle for nonviolence for generations to come. The larger picture in organizing for March 8 is to create a connected, sustained way for women to stand against war everywhere. If we can halt the largest military empire in human history, we will know we can stop wars in many places.

http://www.womensaynotowar.org/article.php?id=693

http://www.womensaynotowar.org/article.php?list=type&type=100


An Urgent Appeal: Please Release Our Friends in Iraq

http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/freethecpt



Cheney 'Authorized' Libby to Leak Classified Information
By Murray Waas / National Journal
Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by Cheney and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case to go to war with Iraq, according to attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records.
Libby specifically claimed that in one instance he had been authorized to divulge portions of a then-still highly classified National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein's purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons, according to correspondence recently filed in federal court by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5805



Libby: White House 'Superiors' OK'd Leaks
By Toni Locy / Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney told a federal grand jury that his superiors authorized him to give secret information to reporters as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq, according to court papers.
Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in documents filed last month that he plans to introduce evidence that I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's former chief of staff, disclosed to reporters the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate in the summer of 2003.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5812



Cindy Sheehan Will Not Run for Senate
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 9, 2006
Sheehan Will Focus on Pushing the Senate for Legislation to Bring the Troops Home and Bringing Iraqi Women Who Lost Loves Ones in the War to the US to Tell Their Stories
San Francisco, CA – Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan announced today that she will not challenge California Senator Dianne Feinstein’s Senate seat this November. Sheehan had been considering running against Feinstein because of Feinstein’s lack of leadership in opposing Samuel Alito’s Supreme Court nomination as well as Feinstein’s failure to take action to bring the US troops home from Iraq now. Despite receiving hundreds of calls and emails from Californians and others encouraging her to run, Sheehan has decided that her time would be better spent pushing the Senate for legislation to bring the troops home.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5807



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L.A. Mayor Blindsided by Bush Announcement
By Michael R. Blood / Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as "nonexistent."
"I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the mayor said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't expect a call from the president — but somebody."
The mayor also suggested that some funding from the Iraq war could be redirected to homeland security, including the protection of high-risk targets in Los Angeles. He did not advocate an immediate withdrawal of troops.
"I go to work every day knowing that we are a target," the mayor said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5809



Demonstrators Protest President's Priorities
WMUR
MANCHESTER, N.H. -- While President George W. Bush spoke to a crowd of business and political leaders inside the Radisson Hotel on Wednesday, more than two dozen protestors gathered outside.
The protesters expressed their opinions on the president's budget plan and environmental proposals. They said they knew that their small protest might not change anything, but they still felt compelled to let their signs send a message.
"I'm basically sick of having to yell at the TV and radio every day," protester Brian Nolen said. "All I listen to is a pack of lies, so I figured I'd come out here and express my opinions."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5803



The Land of 10,770 Empty FEMA Trailers
Far from the victims of Katrina for whom they are meant, the furnished shelters crowd an airport, benefiting only the town of Hope, Ark.
By Johanna Neuman / Los Angeles Times
At Uncle Henry's Smokehouse Bar B Que in Hope, Ark., the lunchtime crowd filled every table Thursday — all 10 of them. At City Hall, the phones were ringing off the hook. And out at the airport, a private pilot who just turned 45 said she didn't expect to live long enough to see things get back to normal.
All because of the latest example of how federal, state and local officials have responded to Hurricane Katrina. Time was, Hope was known primarily as the childhood home of President Clinton. Now it's Trailer Town, USA.
After the Aug. 29 storm left thousands homeless on the Gulf Coast, officials in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama began calling for trailers to provide temporary shelter. More than 100,000 were requested, and somebody decided to create holding areas for the trailers outside the hurricane zone.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5817



Lobbyist Told Reporter of Nearly a Dozen Contacts With Bush
By Jim VandeHei / Washington Post
President Bush met lobbyist Jack Abramoff almost a dozen times over the past five years and invited him to Crawford, Tex., in the summer of 2003, according to an e-mail Abramoff wrote to a reporter last month.
Bush "has one of the best memories of any politicians I have ever met," Abramoff wrote to Kim Eisler of Washingtonian magazine. "The guys saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids."
In an interview last night, Eisler confirmed the contents of the e-mail and said he recently provided portions of it to the liberal Web log ThinkProgress because he thought he was dealing with a fellow reporter. The blog posted the contents of the Abramoff-Eisler communication.
In the e-mail, Abramoff scoffs at Bush's public statements that he does not recall ever meeting the disgraced lobbyist and former top Bush fundraiser. "Of course he can't recall that he has a great memory!" Abramoff wrote. Eisler, an editor for Washingtonian, said in the interview that the lobbyist was the source of his exclusive report last month that at least five photographs of Bush with Abramoff exist. Abramoff showed him the pictures, Eisler said. Abramoff has told others he will not release them publicly.
Bush has said he does not recall ever meeting Abramoff or posing for pictures with the Republican lobbyist at official events or parties. The White House has refused to release the pictures or detail Abramoff's contacts with top White House officials over the past five years.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday that "what the president said still stands."
"Mr. Abramoff is someone who was involved in wrongdoing," McClellan said. "He acknowledged that himself. He is being brought to account." Abramoff would not comment last night.
Abramoff pleaded guilty last month in a bribery and corruption scandal that has rocked the Republican Party and threatened the political and professional careers of several lawmakers and aides. No evidence has emerged that Bush or his top White House aides did anything improper to aid Abramoff or his clients, according to people familiar with the investigation. Several lower-level administration officials, however, have been caught up in the scandal, including the top procurement official. The federal probe is expected to zero in on Abramoff's dealing with the Interior Department as it unfolds in the coming months.
In mentioning the invitation to Texas in 2003, Abramoff was apparently referring to a private barbecue Bush hosted for his biggest fundraisers at the Broken Spoke Ranch, down the road from the president's rustic compound near Crawford, on Aug. 9 of that year. About 350 Republicans who had raised at least $50,000 each for Bush were invited.
Abramoff was member of the exclusive group of top Bush fundraisers known as Pioneers, each of whom raised $100,000 or more for Bush. So it would not have been unusual for him to be invited to the barbecue. McClellan said that the photographs are no different from thousands Bush takes each year with visitors, supporters and even reporters and that it would not be unusual for the president to not recall meeting Abramoff.
"Perhaps he has forgotten everything," Abramoff wrote in the e-mail. "Who knows?" Eisler said Abramoff did not grant him permission to release the contents of their e-mail and Abramoff is upset that Eisler did. Eisler, who described himself as sympathetic to Abramoff's situation, was trying to show the ThinkProgress reporter that Abramoff was not exaggerating his relationship with Bush.
Eisler said he has known Abramoff for years and considers the level of vilification "out of proportion."
Eisler's wife, Judy Sarasohn, covers lobbying issues for The Washington Post.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5816



Video Shows Youth's Beating at Boot Camp In Fla. Before He Died
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 9 -- A videotape shows guards brutally beating a teenager at a military-style boot camp for juvenile delinquents not long before he died, two lawmakers said Thursday.
Florida officials will not release the tape to the public.
Martin Lee Anderson, 14, of Panama City, Fla., died Jan. 6 after he complained of breathing problems and collapsed while doing exercises that were part of intake procedures at the camp in the Florida Panhandle's Bay County.
Sheriff's investigators said officers restrained the youth after he became uncooperative.
State Rep. Gustavo A. Barreiro (R) called the videotape "horrific," saying he had "never seen any kid being brutalized . . . the way I saw this young man being brutalized."
Barreiro added: "Even towards the end of the videotape, where you could just see there was pretty much nothing left of Martin, they came out with a couple cups of water and splashed him in the face. When you see stuff like that, you want to go through the TV and say, 'Enough is enough. Please stop hitting this kid.'"
Martin's relatives say they plan to sue Bay County and the state Department of Juvenile Justice, which oversees boot-camp programs.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=5815


New Zealand Herald

Wikipedia - separating fact from fiction
13.02.06 1.00pm
By Martin Hickman and Genevieve Roberts
If your encyclopaedia told you David Beckham was an 18th Century Chinese goalkeeper, that the Duchess of Cornwall carries the title Her Royal Un-Lowness or that Robbie Williams earns his living by eating pet hamsters in pubs "in and around Stoke", you might consider seeking a second opinion.
Despite its breakneck journey toward global internet phenomenon, such questions of accuracy have dogged the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia (see link below) since its launch five years ago.
Fresh concerns about the ease with which Wikipedia's entries can be manipulated have been raised after it was announced that US politicians had been altering their profiles to make them more flattering.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10368068


Northeast US hammered by record blizzard
13.02.06 4.00pm
By Jason Szep
BOSTON - The biggest snowstorm of the season belted north-eastern United States today, sinking New York City into its deepest snow on record, cutting power to thousands of homes, closing airports but bringing joy to ski resorts.
"Make no mistake about it, this is a very dangerous, big storm," New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.
At least 68.3 cm of snow fell in New York's Central Park, topping a powerful blizzard on December 26, 1947, that killed 77 people, according to the National Weather Service and city archives.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10368096



UN calls for $1b to end Congo's 'forgotten crisis'
13.02.06 1.00pm
By Simon Usborne
A United Nations donors' conference in Brussels today will call for international donors to provide $681million ($1 billion) for an "action plan" for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Th UN says the money is needed to end the "forgotten crisis" in the central African country before it holds elections.
The sum is three times the size of the UN appeal for the DRC in preceding years.
With 216,000 lives lost to conflict and poverty in the past six months, Hilary Benn, the International Development Secretary, said the money was crucial to alleviate hunger and disease, and for long-term development in the country where fighting continues in the north and east despite a peace deal.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10368070



The President who cried al Qaeda
13.02.06
By Andrew Gumbel
WASHINGTON - Once again, George W. Bush finds himself in deep political trouble. And, once again, he has chosen to invoke the spectre of a terrorist attack on US soil, only to draw immediate suspicion about his motives at the start of what promises to be a long, bruising mid-term election campaign.
The President's announcement last week that al Qaeda had considered attacking the tallest skyscraper in downtown Los Angeles more than three years ago generated some eye-catching headlines. It may even have helped him to build public support for a once-secret domestic counter-terrorist wire-tapping programme that critics in both parties have denounced as unconstitutional.
But there are also signs that the political strategy that worked so well in the 2002 mid-term elections, helped to sell the war in Iraq and got Bush re-elected in 2004 - that is, appealing to the country to stand by its President as he strives to protect them from outside attack - may be wearing thin.
No sooner had the President spoken than his announcement was greeted with consternation in Los Angeles.
LA mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said he felt "blindsided" to learn from the TV instead of from the White House the details of the 2002 plan to attack the 73-storey Library Tower.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10367995



Five years on, Milosevic still in the dock
13.02.06 1.00pm
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic
BELGRADE - The trial of the former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic, the first sitting head of state to be indicted for war crimes, enters its fifth year this week amid expectations that a verdict will be pronounced by the end of the year.
Mr Milosevic, 64, faces 66 charges stemming from the Balkan wars of the 1990s.
He is accused of genocide against Muslims in Bosnia, war crimes and grave breaches of international conventions in the military offensives that led his forces into Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo.
More than 300 witnesses have taken the stand, including Western politicians and the leaders of the former Yugoslav states torn apart by the war.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10368067



Doctors want children up to 12 in booster seats
11.02.06
By Martin Johnston
Children up to 12 years old should be required to sit in booster seats while travelling in cars, say doctors at the Starship in Auckland.
A study by emergency and intensive care doctors at the Starship found that lap seatbelts can cause life-threatening injuries or permanent disabilities in children.
But the researchers noted that many of the patients would probably have suffered worse injuries if they had not used any seatbelt.
The researchers called for legislation:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10367816



Ol' blue fins
02.02.06 5.20am
Scientists have discovered that whales croon for love.
A team of researchers from the University of Queensland has found proof that male humpback whales spend many hours "singing" in a bid to woo potential partners.
Researchers have for three years tracked and recorded whales during the annual migration season off Peregian Beach, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast, in September and October. They said the songs, which can last up to 23 hours, mainly involve chirps.


http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=1501010&ObjectID=10366416



US boycott costs French wine exporters $165m
13.02.06
Americans boycotting French wine in anger at that country's opposition to the Iraq war probably cut sales by US$112 million ($165 million), says a new study.
This hostility, typified by renaming french fries as "freedom fries" in the US House of Representatives cafeteria, caused a sharp drop in French wine sales in the six months after the invasion, said economists Larry Chavis and Phillip Leslie.
"We conservatively estimate that, at the peak of the boycott, the quantity of French wine sold would have been 26 per cent higher if there was no boycott," they wrote.
"Also, over the six-month period we estimate the boycott lasted for, sales would have been 13 per cent higher."
French wine imports to the United States over this period were worth US$695 million, so the revenue loss was about US$112 million, the two estimated.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10367968



Greece and Italy find killer bird flu in swans
12.02.06 8.30am
By Robin Pomeroy and Valentina Consiglio
ROME - Greece and Italy have said they have found swans with the H5N1 bird flu virus, the first known cases in the European Union of wild birds with the deadly strain of the disease.
As the slow creep of the virus around the globe continued, Romania said more infections were suspected in birds in the Danube delta and Bulgaria said the lethal strain had been confirmed among swans in wetlands close to the Romanian border. The region is a haven and transit point for migrating birds.
Nigeria started testing people who have fallen ill close to where the virus has been found among birds, in the first outbreak in Africa of a disease that has spread seemingly inexorably across the Eurasian landmass from China and Vietnam.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10367910


Haiti faces run-off in presidential election
12.02.06 2.00pm
By Rupert Cornwell
Haiti could be facing a tense run-off ballot, after the release of new figures suggesting that the frontrunner and a former president, Rene Preval, may have failed to secure the outright majority needed to win the presidency at last Tuesday's election.
With some 60 per cent of the votes counted yesterday, Mr Preval's share had shrunk to 50.26 per cent.
His closest challengers among the 33 candidates, another ex-president Leslie Manigat and Charles Baker, the candidate of Haiti's business class, had 11.4 and 8.3 per cent, respectively.
Earlier partial counts had shown Mr Preval cruising to victory with some 61 per cent of the vote.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10367932

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