April 19, 2006. Rare Cheetah found in Canberra.
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Morning Papers - continued ...
The Australian
US media drive to undercut Zarqawi
Correspondents in Washington
April 11, 2006
THE US military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the threat posed by al-Qa'ida leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an effort to turn Iraqis against the Jordanian-born terrorist.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the propaganda effort may have overstated Zarqawi's importance to the Iraq insurgency and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the terror network responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Military documents show that for the past two years US military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicise Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "US home audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign, the Post said.
As a result, senior military intelligence officers believe the importance of Zarqawi may have been exaggerated.
According to the newspaper, Colonel Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq, told a US Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will - made him more important than he really is, in some ways.
"The long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former regime types and their friends."
Colonel Harvey said at the meeting that while Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have carried out deadly bombing attacks they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers".
Largely aimed at Iraqis, the Zarqawi campaign began two years ago and was believed to be continuing.
It has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts and at least one leak to an American journalist, the newspaper said.
The documents state that the US propaganda campaign aims to turn Iraqis against the Jordanian by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners.
Officers familiar with the propaganda program were cited as saying that one goal was to drive a wedge into the insurgency by emphasising Zarqawi's terrorist acts and foreign origins.
"Villainise Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," a US military briefing document from 2004 states. US authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.
The military's propaganda program largely has been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the US media, the report said. One briefing about US "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for the top US commander in Iraq, GeorgeW. Casey, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets.
The report said that a "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a reporter for The New York Times, based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page on February 9, 2004.
The Post said leaks to reporters from US officials in Iraq were common but official evidence of a propaganda operation using an American reporter was rare.
Filkins told the newspaper that he was not told at the time that there was a psychological operations campaign aimed at Zarqawi but said he assumed that the military was releasing the letter "because it had decided it was in its best interest to have it publicised".
US military chief spokesman Mark Kimmitt told The Post that "there was no attempt to manipulate the press".
"We trusted Dexter to write an accurate story, and we gave him a good scoop," General Kimmitt said.
Colonel James A. Treadwell, who commanded the military's psychological operations unit in Iraq in 2003, told the paper that it was military policy not to aim "psyops" at Americans.
"It is ingrained in us: you don't psyop Americans. We just don't do it," Colonel Treadwell said.
He added that he left Iraq before the Zarqawi program began but was later told about it.
With satellite television, email and the internet, it was impossible to prevent some carryover from propaganda campaigns overseas into the US media, Colonel Treadwell said. Such carryover was "not blowback, it's bleed-over", he said.
Zarqawi has a $US25 million ($34.5 million) bounty on his head.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778053-2703,00.html
Nepal plunges deeper into chaos
April 11, 2006
KATHMANDU: Nepal's political crisis deepened yesterday as pro-democracy protests against the king sparked further violence, with mobs rampaging and a crackdown by security forces leaving three people dead.
The Nepalese Government declared a daytime curfew and kept shoot-on-sight orders in place for the third consecutive day as it battled to contain the wave of protests.
Despite the curfew, about 1500 people gathered in the Kirtipur area of Kathmandu during the morning and blocked a major road with boulders.
The crackdown by security forces in recent days left three protesters dead and more than 800 people in jail, and the Government threatened more force could be used to restore order, saying Maoist rebels had infiltrated the protests and fired on security forces.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778322-2703,00.html
Berlusconi may lead united opposition
Natasha Bita, Rome
April 11, 2006
FACING defeat in Italy's election today, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is planning to forge a single party in opposition.
The billionaire media tycoon who swept to power five years ago with another party of his own invention, Forza Italia, now wants to meld his Centre-Right House of Freedoms coalition into a unified People's Party.
But a key ally, National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini - a reformed fascist who is Italy's Foreign Minister - warned that he would take control of the House of Freedoms coalition from Mr Berlusconi if his right-wing party wins more votes than the moderate Forza Italia.
"If we win the most votes, I will be leader," he said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778328-2703,00.html
Albanian gangs running Kosovo
Tom Walker, Pristina
April 11, 2006
KOSOVO, the former Yugoslav province, is falling into the grip of Albanian organised crime gangs, casting a shadow over attempts by the international community to turn it into a fully fledged independent state by the end of this year.
Participants in talks in Vienna, sponsored by the UN, on the "final status" of Kosovo, are concerned that the mafia networks that smuggled guns into the disputed province from Albania in 1997 and 98 are using the same channels for a burgeoning trade in illicit petrol, cigarettes and cement. Prostitution and drugs are also popular staples of the black economy.
The profits are ploughed into shopping centres and hotels, which are going up as part of a building boom in the province. Petrol stations are especially popular - there are more than 2000 of them catering for a population of two million.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778323-2703,00.html
Gaza ceasefire shot down within hours
Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem
April 11, 2006
ISLAMIC Jihad, the most aggressive of the Palestinian militias, blinked briefly yesterday under Israeli pressure when its armed wing in the Gaza Strip said it would stop firing rockets into Israel for a week.
A statement issued by the group said the halt in rocket attacks was intended to ease the suffering of the Palestinian population and to test Israel's claim that its shelling of the strip was only in retaliation for the firing of rockets from Gaza.
"We want to show the world that we are only defending ourselves and that we don't love bloodshed," the statement said.
But it was overridden within hours by the organisation's political wing.
"Islamic Jihad is going to escalate its attacks on the Zionist entity by all possible means," said Khader Habib, a senior official. "We are going to teach the Government of Tel Aviv a lesson that they are not going to forget."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778052-2703,00.html
It would be nuts to bomb Iran, says Britain
Tom Baldwin, Washington
April 11, 2006
BRITAIN has tried to silence renewed sabre-rattling from within the US administration for military action against Iran, saying the idea that the White House wants a nuclear strike is "completely nuts".
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted that Britain would not support pre-emptive military action against Tehran, adding: "I'm as certain as I can be sitting here that neither would the United States."
Many analysts in the West suspect Tehran is attempting to build its own nuclear weapons. Over the weekend, Iran allowed UN inspectors to examine some of the atomic plants which, it maintains, are designed solely for production of electricity.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Straw said: "There is no smoking gun, there is no casus belli. We can't be certain about Iran's intentions and that is, therefore, not a basis on which anybody would gain authority to go for military action."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778062-2703,00.html
Jaafari's term blocked
April 11, 2006
BAGHDAD: The Sunni Arab bloc in Iraq's parliament has rejected a new term for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and will ask the Shi'ites to present new names for consideration for the top government post.
Iraqi Accordance Front spokesman Dhafir al-Ani said the Sunnis would deliver a letter to Shia leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim saying that they "still have reservations about Jaafari".
"We will ask the Shi'ite alliance to present names for other candidates so that discussions and decisions can be made on the names," Mr Ani said.
His statement came as Kurdish politicians reaffirmed their opposition to Mr Jaafari. That leaves the Shi'ites little choice but to reconsider their nominee to overcome the deadlock on the new government.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778049-2703,00.html
Gaza ceasefire shot down within hours
Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem
April 11, 2006
ISLAMIC Jihad, the most aggressive of the Palestinian militias, blinked briefly yesterday under Israeli pressure when its armed wing in the Gaza Strip said it would stop firing rockets into Israel for a week.
A statement issued by the group said the halt in rocket attacks was intended to ease the suffering of the Palestinian population and to test Israel's claim that its shelling of the strip was only in retaliation for the firing of rockets from Gaza.
"We want to show the world that we are only defending ourselves and that we don't love bloodshed," the statement said.
But it was overridden within hours by the organisation's political wing.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778052-2703,00.html
Vaile points finger at Alexander Downer
Caroline Overington
April 11, 2006
DEPUTY Prime Minister Mark Vaile has tried to shift most of the blame for the wheat scandal on to cabinet colleague Alexander Downer, repeatedly telling the Cole inquiry yesterday he did not have "ministerial responsibility" for issues involving the UN.
During a tense 87 minutes in the witness stand, Mr Vaile was forced to admit he put Australia's good name at risk to defend rogue wheat trader AWB, without ever trying to find out whether it was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime.
During his testimony - and in his written statement - Mr Vaile used the terms "I don't know" and "I have no recollection" more than 20 times.
The Trade Minister also conceded he did not know why the Government never investigated allegations against AWB, the former Australian Wheat Board.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778673-601,00.html
Howard's ratings slip on IR laws
Dennis Shanahan, Political editor
April 11, 2006
SUPPORT for John Howard appears to be suffering because of his new industrial relations laws but Kim Beazley is not capitalising on the concern and confusion among Coalition voters.
While the Prime Minister's voter satisfaction has fallen markedly in the past two weeks, support for Labor and the Opposition Leader has also fallen.
Mr Beazley's satisfaction level has fallen to a record low as the Greens appear to have taken support from Labor over uranium sales to China, uranium mining in Australia and the rights of West Papuans.
According to the latest Newspoll survey, taken exclusively for The Australian last weekend, the Coalition's primary vote remained unchanged on 41 per cent while Labor support is down three percentage points to 39 per cent.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778672-601,00.html
Nurses to do more GP work: Abbott
Patricia Karvelas and Adam Cresswell
April 11, 2006
MEDICARE will be widened to allow nurses to do more work traditionally done by GPs under plans being developed by Health Minister Tony Abbott to solve the nation's health workforce crisis.
It means the existing $10.40 Medicare rebate, which at present can only be claimed when nurses carry out immunisations and wound management on behalf of a GP, could be claimed for a wider range of services to patients.
The Government has not decided what these extra services might be, but potentially they could include assessing the lung function of patients with asthma and the blood glucose level for patients with diabetes.
Other options include funding nurses under Medicare to visit patients in their own homes to assess whether the case is an emergency requiring an ambulance or a GP visit.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778668-601,00.html
The Seattle Times
Police arrest five in deaths of eight men
Police arrested five people on murder charges Monday in one of Canada's worst mass killings and said the deaths of eight men found on an isolated farm were part of "an internal cleansing" of a motorcycle gang.
Police said they made the arrests at a two-story farmhouse about six miles from where the eight were found shot to death in four vehicles scattered in a wooded field in Shedden, Ontario.
Police said investigators do not believe a biker gang war was imminent.
Asadabad, Afghanistan
Rocket hits school, killing 6 children
A rocket exploded in the middle of a packed school in eastern Afghanistan today, killing six children, police said.
The rocket landed in the yard of Salabagh School in Asadabad, close to a U.S.-led coalition base, said Mohammed Hasan, a police commander. He blamed Taliban insurgents for the attack.
At least 14 people were wounded, including one teacher and the school janitor, Hasan said.
Afghan market goods include U.S. secrets, data on troops
By Paul Watson
Los Angeles Times
BAGRAM, Afghanistan — No more than 200 yards from the main gate of the sprawling U.S. base here, stolen computer drives containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, naming corrupt Afghan officials and describing American defenses are on sale in the local bazaar.
Shop owners at the bazaar say Afghan cleaners, garbage collectors and other workers from the base arrive each day offering purloined goods, including knives, watches, refrigerators, packets of Viagra and flash-memory drives taken from military laptops. The drives, smaller than a pack of chewing gum, are sold as used equipment.
The thefts of computer drives have the potential to expose military secrets as well as Social Security numbers and other identifying information of military personnel.
A reporter recently obtained several drives at the bazaar that contained documents marked "Secret." The contents included documents that were potentially embarrassing to Pakistan, a U.S. ally; presentations that named suspected militants targeted for "kill or capture," and discussions of U.S. efforts to "remove" or "marginalize" Afghan government officials considered "problem makers" by the U.S. military.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002923948_intel11.html
Resistance grows to proposed deal on Enron charges
By Alicia Mundy
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — The backlash is gaining momentum against a proposed federal settlement between Enron and the Snohomish County Public Utility District over the bankrupt energy company's disputed electricity charges.
On Monday, Snohomish County PUD officials said they will fight a proposal to seal certain Enron files, which they say would prohibit the utility from using hundreds of hours of unreleased Enron tapes and e-mails against the company in any federal litigation.
Utility officials and their allies in Congress also complained about the size of the offer to settle claims of excessive charges by Enron to the PUD, the Port of Seattle and the Grays Harbor Public Utility District.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002923867_enron11m.html
Space probe to crash into moon in search of water
By ALICIA CHANG
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — NASA plans to crash a space probe into the moon in 2009, a collision so violent it will be visible on Earth through a telescope, the space agency said Monday.
The moon crash, part of a larger mission that includes a lunar orbiter, is a quest for ice. Water is the key ingredient for supporting future human outposts on the moon.
NASA scientists say the collision should excavate a hole about a third the size of a football field and hurl a plume of debris into space. After the crash of the space probe, the mother ship that released it will fly through the plume and look for traces of water ice or vapor, similar to NASA's Deep Impact mission last July, which blasted into a comet.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002923834_moon11.html
Online poll on state coin hijacked
By Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter
The online poll for the state's new quarter will start anew after robotic computer programs hijacked the voting system over the weekend.
All earlier votes are being tossed out.
Votes generated by computers, not people, pushed the tally over 1 million.
State technicians stopped the voting Monday and reworked the poll's computer code to keep participants from voting more than once from the same computer.
The voting was expected to be up and running today.
The "robotic" computer programs — in which votes were cast repeatedly for one of the choices — put one of the three examples — a Northwest Native-American-style depiction of an orca whale — way out front.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002923874_quarter11m.html
Sydney Morning Herald
Zarqawi used in US propaganda blitz
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By Thomas Ricks in WashingtonApril 11, 2006
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THE US military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program.
The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush Administration tie the war to the organisation responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The documents say that the US campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. US authorities claim some success with the effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.
For the past two years US military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicise Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "US home audience" as a target of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role might have been overemphasised by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist.
Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers", Colonel Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq, told an army meeting in Kansas last year.
In a transcript of the meeting, Colonel Harvey said, "Our own focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will - made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
There has been a running argument among specialists in Iraq about how much significance to assign to Zarqawi, who spent seven years in prison in Jordan for attempting to overthrow the government there. After his release he spent time in Pakistan and Afghanistan before moving his base of operations to Iraq. He has been sentenced to death in his absence for planning the assassination of a US diplomat, Lawrence Foley, in Jordan in 2002. US authorities have said he is responsible for dozens of deaths in Iraq and have placed a $US25 million ($34 million) bounty on him.
The military's propaganda program has largely been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the US media. One "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page in February, 2004. The report also ran in The Sydney Morning Herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/zarqawi-used-in-us-propaganda-blitz/2006/04/10/1144521269057.html
Sharon's era formally comes to an end
April 11, 2006 - 7:01PM
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Ariel Sharon's tenure as Israel's prime minister came to a symbolic end on Tuesday at a cabinet meeting that formally designated Ehud Olmert to replace the comatose stroke victim.
Under Israeli law, Sharon will be categorised as permanently incapacitated and unable to serve as prime minister on Friday, 100 days after suffering his stroke.
Olmert, deputy prime minister when Sharon fell ill, was named interim prime minister at the time.
At a special session, the cabinet designated Olmert acting prime minister, an appointment which Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon said would go into effect on Friday. The title change will have no effect on his powers of office.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/sharons-era-formally-comes-to-an-end/2006/04/11/1144521328111.html
9-11 impact tape brings tears
US prosecutors at the death penalty hearing for Zacarias Moussaoui numbed jurors today with a tape recording of a final mobile phone call by one of the thousands of people killed in the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre.
Kevin Cosgrove, who was working on the 99th floor of the south tower, screamed out to an emergency dispatcher on the other end of the line: "Oh My God ... Aaaaarrggggghhhh .... " as the building collapsed in a vast cloud of smoke, flame and debris on September 11, 2001.
Cosgrove's voice faded, amid crashing sounds, before the line went dead.
Those in the courtroom in Virginia wiped away tears.
Many seemed deeply disturbed by the call, played with a synchronised video tape, recreating the exact moment the tower fell.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/911-impact-tape-brings-tears/2006/04/11/1144521317324.html
The Washington Post
'We Decided Not to Be Invisible Anymore'
Pro-Immigration Rallies Are Held Across Country
By Dan Balz and Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff WritersTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A01
Hundreds of thousands of pro-immigration demonstrators mobilized on the Mall and in scores of cities across the country yesterday in a powerful display of grass-roots muscle-flexing that organizers said could mark a coming-of-age for Latino political power in the United States.
Calling for legal protection for illegal immigrants, the demonstrators -- the overwhelming majority of them Hispanic -- streamed past the White House in Washington, jammed streets near City Hall in Lower Manhattan, marched in Atlanta, held a small candlelight vigil in Los Angeles and, in Mississippi, sang the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" in Spanish.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001759.html
Pressure, Frustration Mount
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A12
The immigrant demonstrators who flooded the streets of America's cities yesterday ratcheted up pressure on lawmakers to complete an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, while raising Republicans' frustration with President Bush for what they see as a muddled stand on the issue.
Bush, a former Texas governor, made immigration reform a signature issue after winning the presidency, advocating a guest-worker program that would offer illegal immigrants and foreign workers access to the U.S. labor market. But for months he has refused to get involved in the legislative details while Republicans in the House and Senate fought among themselves and took very different approaches.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001750.html
Challenger Claims Win in Italy
Slim Margin Over Berlusconi May Give Prodi Leadership of Divided Government
By William Magnuson
Special to The Washington PostTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A14
ROME, April 11 -- Opposition leader Romano Prodi won control of Italy's lower house of Parliament, leading by only 25,000 votes out of 38 million cast but blocking flamboyant Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's hopes for a surprise comeback, according to official results announced early Tuesday morning.
Berlusconi's coalition appeared headed for victory in the Senate. A confidence vote in both houses is needed to confirm a new prime minister and cabinet. As a result, it is not certain that Prodi will become prime minister, but almost surely Berlusconi will not get a new term in the job, analysts said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041000316.html
Bush Dismisses Talk of Using Force Against Iran
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A02
President Bush dismissed yesterday talk of military action against Iran as "wild speculation" and emphasized that his doctrine of preempting threats does not necessarily mean the United States has to use force to stop other countries from developing weapons of mass destruction.
Bush did not deny reports that his administration has studied airstrikes as an option if Iran does not agree to abandon its alleged nuclear-weapon development program. He said he still considers the country part of an "axis of evil." But he emphasized that he wants to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Tehran and played down his policy of reserving the right to launch first strikes against potential enemies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041000422.html
Modern Mind-Set Pays In Out-of-Date Market
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A14
PARIS -- As teenagers in a middle-class suburb of Paris, Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet and Nicolas Dhelft shared the same circle of friends, attended the same parties and watched the same movies.
Today, seven years out of business school, Kosciusko-Morizet, 28, is president of one of the fastest-growing online sales companies in France. At a time when youth unemployment here is more than 22 percent, the young French executive, who started his career at a bank in Richmond, has added 50 workers to his payroll in the past six months -- most of them English-speaking engineers and technicians.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001443.html
Government Authenticates Photos From Abu Ghraib
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A16
Nearly two years after graphic photographs of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were published worldwide, the U.S. government yesterday for the first time authenticated 74 of the images as being part of the original compact disc that was turned over to Army investigators in January 2004.
Responding to a federal court order as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, Justice Department lawyers wrote in court papers that the previously published images "are identical" to those that investigators have used to look into abuse at the prison. Included among the images are such photos as Pvt. Lynndie R. England holding a leash attached to a naked detainee's neck, a detainee with female underwear placed on his head, detainees shackled to cell doors and beds in painful positions, and others piled in a naked pyramid. The iconic photograph of a detainee standing on a cardboard box, cloaked and hooded with wires coming from his hands, is also among the pictures.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001392.html
European Space Probe Reaches Venus Orbit
By MELISSA EDDY
The Associated PressTuesday, April 11, 2006; 5:02 AM
DARMSTADT, Germany -- After a 250 million-mile journey, a European space probe reached orbit around Venus on Tuesday on a mission to explore the planet's dense, hot atmosphere.
Mission controllers at the European Space Agency control center in Darmstadt cheered, applauded and embraced as they picked up the signal from the Venus Express craft indicating it had completed the orbital maneuver.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041100255.html
In Canada, A Cautious Debate on Afghan Role
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A16
TORONTO, April 10 -- Canadian lawmakers joined Monday in a show of patriotic support for the nation's troops in Afghanistan, tiptoeing around public opinion polls that show deep division over the increase in the force there and distrust of involvement with the U.S. military operations.
Canada's first open parliamentary debate on Afghanistan, which the government had feared would undercut backing for the military's growing role, turned instead into a parade of support for Canada's efforts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001503.html
New Zealand Herald
Ice invasion under discussion
11.04.06 3.00pm
Biosecurity issues in Antarctica have been the focus of an international meeting in Christchurch. Delegates from France, the UK, Australia and America have met with their New Zealand colleagues at the Antarctica Non-Native Species Workshop which opened yesterday. Under scrutiny is the growing threat being posed to the Antarctic environment by invasions from outside species and what options can be considered to mitigate them. Delegates will develop a report which will be presented to the Antarctic Treaty meeting in Scotland in June
Bush admits he declassified intelligence
11.04.06 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush has acknowledged he ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq to respond to critics who alleged he manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Bush offered his first comment on a prosecutor's disclosure last week that he authorized Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to declassify Iraq intelligence. The disclosure prompted a firestorm of criticism from Democrats who charged Bush was a hypocrite who denounces leaks of information while becoming the "leaker-in-chief." A Republican ally, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, urged Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened." At issue is the administration's release in July 2003 of parts of an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that alleged Iraq under Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Bush said he declassified parts of the document to answer questions raised about why the United States invaded Iraq. "I wanted people to see what some of those statements were based on. I wanted people to see the truth. I thought it made sense for people to see the truth. That's why I declassified the document," he said. Bush, answering questions from an audience after a speech in Washington, would not comment on the allegation that he authorized Libby to release the information to reporters. But a senior administration official said Bush did not designate Libby or anyone else to release the information, trying to distance Bush from any tactical decisions made on how to release the information. The White House release of the parts of the National Intelligence Estimate came in response to charges from former ambassador Joe Wilson that Bush had manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Wilson later accused the White House of leaking the identity of his wife, who was then a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to retaliate against him. Libby is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked Plame's name. White House officials have stressed that Bush was well within his legal authority to declassify the document. The new controversy erupted as Bush seeks to rebound from weak poll numbers and tries to bolster sagging American support for the Iraq war. Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush owed "a specific explanation to the American people" of what happened. "The president has the authority to declassify information. So in a technical sense, if he looked at it, he could say this is declassified, and make a disclosure of it," he said. Wilson, speaking on ABC's "This Week," called on Bush to release transcripts of his and Cheney's testimony to the prosecutor. "It seems to me it is long past time for the White House to come clean on all of this," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10377008
Petrol price hike sees 6c rise
11.04.06 3.10pm
Petrol and diesel prices have been raised another six cents at three of the major oil companies, taking them close to record highs. BP raised its prices this morning to 161.9c per litre for 91 octane, 166.9c for 95 octane and 122.9c for diesel. Spokeswoman Diana Stretch said the price rise was due to significant increases in the international cost of product. "Over the last two weeks we've seen a 15 per cent increase in the New Zealand dollar cost of petrol," she said. Shell followed suit just before lunch, matching BP's increase. Spokeswoman Jackie Maitland said there had been an increasing rise in the cost of both the crude and finished product. Mobil matched BP and Shell this afternoon, increasing its prices six cents per litre across 91, 95 and diesel. Prices peaked on Monday last week when BP raised its price for 91 octane to 162.7 cents, then lowered it again the same day.
Sun may be misleading northern hemisphere tramper
11.04.06 1.00pm
Missing English tourist Robert Atkin may be disorientated because he is used to tramping in the northern hemisphere. David Park, who has been running the Kauaeranga Valley Christian Camp in the area for several years, said the tramper from the northern hemisphere may be using the sun to get a wrong steer as he tried to find his way out of some of the most inhospitable bush areas on the Coromandel. He said "everything may be backwards to him" because he was used to tramping in the northern hemisphere and not the southern hemisphere and he may be heading in the wrong direction. Searchers headed out for the sixth day looking for Mr Atkin, 26, today as fears for his safety grow.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10376974
Italian general election too close to call
11.04.06 1.00pm
ROME - Italy's election is still too close to call, with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his rival Romano Prodi neck-and-neck in a race that has split the nation and raised the specter of chronic political instability. More than 10 hours after voting stations closed, Italy's two main political blocks both claimed to be ahead in the race for the upper house (Senate), while Prodi's center-left alliance was slightly ahead in the lower house count. However, a leading pollster declined to declare a winner, saying the vote in both houses was balanced on a knife's edge. "The exceptional draw in both the upper and lower house does not enable us to give an indication on the final outcome of the election," said the Nexus research institute, which had earlier declared first Prodi winner and later Berlusconi.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10377015
Wheat probe pulls Howard and ministers further into scandal
11.04.06By Greg Ansley
CANBERRA - The deepening scandal over Australian wheat kickbacks to the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yesterday reached the highest political office in the land, with Prime Minister John Howard asked to explain himself to the inquiry into the affair. Howard, who has agreed to provide a statement and to appear before the commission of inquiry if required, follows yesterday's appearance by Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Mark Vaile and evidence to be given today by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Howard, who could appear as early as Thursday, would be the first Prime Minister to be called before such an inquiry since Labor's Bob Hawke in 1983. Vaile and Downer are the first Cabinet ministers to face an inquiry since then-Labor Health Minister Carmen Lawrence in 1995.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10376913
Blair unveils peers list after sleaze row
11.04.06 1.00pm
LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair today unveiled the names of 23 people appointed by him and other party leaders for life to the House of Lords, the culmination of a process that sparked a "cash for honours" row. The new peers will pack the benches of all political parties in parliament's upper chamber, which has increasingly frustrated Blair's plans by amending or delaying key pieces of legislation. Four men Blair had originally nominated were absent from the list after they withdrew their names amid allegations the ruling Labour Party was awarding peerages in return for funding. Facing claims of sleaze, Labour said last month it had received nearly £14 million pounds in previously undeclared loans from 12 businessmen, some of whom were nominated as Lords after lending the money.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10376993
120 feared dead in Ghana boat capsize
11.04.06 9.30am
ACCRA - About 120 people were feared drowned after a boat packed with passengers and goods capsized on Ghana's Lake Volta, one of the world's largest reservoirs, police in the West African country said on Monday. "There were 150 passengers on board but only 30 have been rescued. The rest are feared dead," police spokesman Kwesi Ofori said. He said the accident happened on Saturday and a search party was still looking for survivors. "Police, fishermen and the fire service are involved in the search." Ofori said the boat was probably overloaded. He said it hit a stump as it travelled across the lake, which covers 8,500 square km.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10376978
Whale 1, Japanese ferry 0
11.04.06
Japan's coastguard searched for a giant whale that it suspects collided with a passenger ferry, injuring 97 people. The ferry was on its way to Kagoshima from Tanegashima Island off Kyushu. Whales are common in the area.
German shop worker finds cocaine instead of bananas
11.04.06 2.20pm
MUNICH - A supermarket worker's discovery of 20kg of cocaine hidden in a case of fruit had German police going bananas. A spokesman for Bavarian state police said officers dug through 4600 cartons of bananas after a man working at a Munich grocery store found the drugs in a shipment of fruit from Colombia. "A worker unloading a case saw that there weren't any bananas under the first layer," a spokesman for Bavarian state police said on Monday. In their place, he said was 20KG of drugs. Around 30 police officers were set to search through the remainder of the shipment but found no more suspicious packages.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10377018
Belarussian president banned from EU
11.04.06 5.20am
The European Union last night banned Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and 30 ministers, prosecutors and regional election officials from entering the bloc. EU foreign ministers took the move after a March 19 poll they considered rigged.
Rare cheetah in Canberra
11.04.06 8.20am
Canberra's National Zoo and Aquarium has shown off a rare king cheetah, one of fewer than 30 in existence. The 10-month-old cheetah is the first and only one of its type in Australia. The king has stripes on its spine, as opposed to the normal cheetah dot pattern.
continued …
US media drive to undercut Zarqawi
Correspondents in Washington
April 11, 2006
THE US military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the threat posed by al-Qa'ida leader in Iraq Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in an effort to turn Iraqis against the Jordanian-born terrorist.
The Washington Post reported yesterday that the propaganda effort may have overstated Zarqawi's importance to the Iraq insurgency and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the terror network responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001.
Military documents show that for the past two years US military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicise Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "US home audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign, the Post said.
As a result, senior military intelligence officers believe the importance of Zarqawi may have been exaggerated.
According to the newspaper, Colonel Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq, told a US Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas: "Our own focus on Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will - made him more important than he really is, in some ways.
"The long-term threat is not Zarqawi or religious extremists, but these former regime types and their friends."
Colonel Harvey said at the meeting that while Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have carried out deadly bombing attacks they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers".
Largely aimed at Iraqis, the Zarqawi campaign began two years ago and was believed to be continuing.
It has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts and at least one leak to an American journalist, the newspaper said.
The documents state that the US propaganda campaign aims to turn Iraqis against the Jordanian by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners.
Officers familiar with the propaganda program were cited as saying that one goal was to drive a wedge into the insurgency by emphasising Zarqawi's terrorist acts and foreign origins.
"Villainise Zarqawi/leverage xenophobia response," a US military briefing document from 2004 states. US authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.
The military's propaganda program largely has been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the US media, the report said. One briefing about US "strategic communications" in Iraq, prepared for the top US commander in Iraq, GeorgeW. Casey, describes the "home audience" as one of six major targets.
The report said that a "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a reporter for The New York Times, based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page on February 9, 2004.
The Post said leaks to reporters from US officials in Iraq were common but official evidence of a propaganda operation using an American reporter was rare.
Filkins told the newspaper that he was not told at the time that there was a psychological operations campaign aimed at Zarqawi but said he assumed that the military was releasing the letter "because it had decided it was in its best interest to have it publicised".
US military chief spokesman Mark Kimmitt told The Post that "there was no attempt to manipulate the press".
"We trusted Dexter to write an accurate story, and we gave him a good scoop," General Kimmitt said.
Colonel James A. Treadwell, who commanded the military's psychological operations unit in Iraq in 2003, told the paper that it was military policy not to aim "psyops" at Americans.
"It is ingrained in us: you don't psyop Americans. We just don't do it," Colonel Treadwell said.
He added that he left Iraq before the Zarqawi program began but was later told about it.
With satellite television, email and the internet, it was impossible to prevent some carryover from propaganda campaigns overseas into the US media, Colonel Treadwell said. Such carryover was "not blowback, it's bleed-over", he said.
Zarqawi has a $US25 million ($34.5 million) bounty on his head.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778053-2703,00.html
Nepal plunges deeper into chaos
April 11, 2006
KATHMANDU: Nepal's political crisis deepened yesterday as pro-democracy protests against the king sparked further violence, with mobs rampaging and a crackdown by security forces leaving three people dead.
The Nepalese Government declared a daytime curfew and kept shoot-on-sight orders in place for the third consecutive day as it battled to contain the wave of protests.
Despite the curfew, about 1500 people gathered in the Kirtipur area of Kathmandu during the morning and blocked a major road with boulders.
The crackdown by security forces in recent days left three protesters dead and more than 800 people in jail, and the Government threatened more force could be used to restore order, saying Maoist rebels had infiltrated the protests and fired on security forces.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778322-2703,00.html
Berlusconi may lead united opposition
Natasha Bita, Rome
April 11, 2006
FACING defeat in Italy's election today, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is planning to forge a single party in opposition.
The billionaire media tycoon who swept to power five years ago with another party of his own invention, Forza Italia, now wants to meld his Centre-Right House of Freedoms coalition into a unified People's Party.
But a key ally, National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini - a reformed fascist who is Italy's Foreign Minister - warned that he would take control of the House of Freedoms coalition from Mr Berlusconi if his right-wing party wins more votes than the moderate Forza Italia.
"If we win the most votes, I will be leader," he said.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778328-2703,00.html
Albanian gangs running Kosovo
Tom Walker, Pristina
April 11, 2006
KOSOVO, the former Yugoslav province, is falling into the grip of Albanian organised crime gangs, casting a shadow over attempts by the international community to turn it into a fully fledged independent state by the end of this year.
Participants in talks in Vienna, sponsored by the UN, on the "final status" of Kosovo, are concerned that the mafia networks that smuggled guns into the disputed province from Albania in 1997 and 98 are using the same channels for a burgeoning trade in illicit petrol, cigarettes and cement. Prostitution and drugs are also popular staples of the black economy.
The profits are ploughed into shopping centres and hotels, which are going up as part of a building boom in the province. Petrol stations are especially popular - there are more than 2000 of them catering for a population of two million.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778323-2703,00.html
Gaza ceasefire shot down within hours
Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem
April 11, 2006
ISLAMIC Jihad, the most aggressive of the Palestinian militias, blinked briefly yesterday under Israeli pressure when its armed wing in the Gaza Strip said it would stop firing rockets into Israel for a week.
A statement issued by the group said the halt in rocket attacks was intended to ease the suffering of the Palestinian population and to test Israel's claim that its shelling of the strip was only in retaliation for the firing of rockets from Gaza.
"We want to show the world that we are only defending ourselves and that we don't love bloodshed," the statement said.
But it was overridden within hours by the organisation's political wing.
"Islamic Jihad is going to escalate its attacks on the Zionist entity by all possible means," said Khader Habib, a senior official. "We are going to teach the Government of Tel Aviv a lesson that they are not going to forget."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778052-2703,00.html
It would be nuts to bomb Iran, says Britain
Tom Baldwin, Washington
April 11, 2006
BRITAIN has tried to silence renewed sabre-rattling from within the US administration for military action against Iran, saying the idea that the White House wants a nuclear strike is "completely nuts".
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw insisted that Britain would not support pre-emptive military action against Tehran, adding: "I'm as certain as I can be sitting here that neither would the United States."
Many analysts in the West suspect Tehran is attempting to build its own nuclear weapons. Over the weekend, Iran allowed UN inspectors to examine some of the atomic plants which, it maintains, are designed solely for production of electricity.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Straw said: "There is no smoking gun, there is no casus belli. We can't be certain about Iran's intentions and that is, therefore, not a basis on which anybody would gain authority to go for military action."
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778062-2703,00.html
Jaafari's term blocked
April 11, 2006
BAGHDAD: The Sunni Arab bloc in Iraq's parliament has rejected a new term for Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and will ask the Shi'ites to present new names for consideration for the top government post.
Iraqi Accordance Front spokesman Dhafir al-Ani said the Sunnis would deliver a letter to Shia leader Abdul-Aziz al-Hakim saying that they "still have reservations about Jaafari".
"We will ask the Shi'ite alliance to present names for other candidates so that discussions and decisions can be made on the names," Mr Ani said.
His statement came as Kurdish politicians reaffirmed their opposition to Mr Jaafari. That leaves the Shi'ites little choice but to reconsider their nominee to overcome the deadlock on the new government.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778049-2703,00.html
Gaza ceasefire shot down within hours
Abraham Rabinovich, Jerusalem
April 11, 2006
ISLAMIC Jihad, the most aggressive of the Palestinian militias, blinked briefly yesterday under Israeli pressure when its armed wing in the Gaza Strip said it would stop firing rockets into Israel for a week.
A statement issued by the group said the halt in rocket attacks was intended to ease the suffering of the Palestinian population and to test Israel's claim that its shelling of the strip was only in retaliation for the firing of rockets from Gaza.
"We want to show the world that we are only defending ourselves and that we don't love bloodshed," the statement said.
But it was overridden within hours by the organisation's political wing.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778052-2703,00.html
Vaile points finger at Alexander Downer
Caroline Overington
April 11, 2006
DEPUTY Prime Minister Mark Vaile has tried to shift most of the blame for the wheat scandal on to cabinet colleague Alexander Downer, repeatedly telling the Cole inquiry yesterday he did not have "ministerial responsibility" for issues involving the UN.
During a tense 87 minutes in the witness stand, Mr Vaile was forced to admit he put Australia's good name at risk to defend rogue wheat trader AWB, without ever trying to find out whether it was paying kickbacks to Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime.
During his testimony - and in his written statement - Mr Vaile used the terms "I don't know" and "I have no recollection" more than 20 times.
The Trade Minister also conceded he did not know why the Government never investigated allegations against AWB, the former Australian Wheat Board.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778673-601,00.html
Howard's ratings slip on IR laws
Dennis Shanahan, Political editor
April 11, 2006
SUPPORT for John Howard appears to be suffering because of his new industrial relations laws but Kim Beazley is not capitalising on the concern and confusion among Coalition voters.
While the Prime Minister's voter satisfaction has fallen markedly in the past two weeks, support for Labor and the Opposition Leader has also fallen.
Mr Beazley's satisfaction level has fallen to a record low as the Greens appear to have taken support from Labor over uranium sales to China, uranium mining in Australia and the rights of West Papuans.
According to the latest Newspoll survey, taken exclusively for The Australian last weekend, the Coalition's primary vote remained unchanged on 41 per cent while Labor support is down three percentage points to 39 per cent.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778672-601,00.html
Nurses to do more GP work: Abbott
Patricia Karvelas and Adam Cresswell
April 11, 2006
MEDICARE will be widened to allow nurses to do more work traditionally done by GPs under plans being developed by Health Minister Tony Abbott to solve the nation's health workforce crisis.
It means the existing $10.40 Medicare rebate, which at present can only be claimed when nurses carry out immunisations and wound management on behalf of a GP, could be claimed for a wider range of services to patients.
The Government has not decided what these extra services might be, but potentially they could include assessing the lung function of patients with asthma and the blood glucose level for patients with diabetes.
Other options include funding nurses under Medicare to visit patients in their own homes to assess whether the case is an emergency requiring an ambulance or a GP visit.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,18778668-601,00.html
The Seattle Times
Police arrest five in deaths of eight men
Police arrested five people on murder charges Monday in one of Canada's worst mass killings and said the deaths of eight men found on an isolated farm were part of "an internal cleansing" of a motorcycle gang.
Police said they made the arrests at a two-story farmhouse about six miles from where the eight were found shot to death in four vehicles scattered in a wooded field in Shedden, Ontario.
Police said investigators do not believe a biker gang war was imminent.
Asadabad, Afghanistan
Rocket hits school, killing 6 children
A rocket exploded in the middle of a packed school in eastern Afghanistan today, killing six children, police said.
The rocket landed in the yard of Salabagh School in Asadabad, close to a U.S.-led coalition base, said Mohammed Hasan, a police commander. He blamed Taliban insurgents for the attack.
At least 14 people were wounded, including one teacher and the school janitor, Hasan said.
Afghan market goods include U.S. secrets, data on troops
By Paul Watson
Los Angeles Times
BAGRAM, Afghanistan — No more than 200 yards from the main gate of the sprawling U.S. base here, stolen computer drives containing classified military assessments of enemy targets, naming corrupt Afghan officials and describing American defenses are on sale in the local bazaar.
Shop owners at the bazaar say Afghan cleaners, garbage collectors and other workers from the base arrive each day offering purloined goods, including knives, watches, refrigerators, packets of Viagra and flash-memory drives taken from military laptops. The drives, smaller than a pack of chewing gum, are sold as used equipment.
The thefts of computer drives have the potential to expose military secrets as well as Social Security numbers and other identifying information of military personnel.
A reporter recently obtained several drives at the bazaar that contained documents marked "Secret." The contents included documents that were potentially embarrassing to Pakistan, a U.S. ally; presentations that named suspected militants targeted for "kill or capture," and discussions of U.S. efforts to "remove" or "marginalize" Afghan government officials considered "problem makers" by the U.S. military.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002923948_intel11.html
Resistance grows to proposed deal on Enron charges
By Alicia Mundy
Seattle Times Washington bureau
WASHINGTON — The backlash is gaining momentum against a proposed federal settlement between Enron and the Snohomish County Public Utility District over the bankrupt energy company's disputed electricity charges.
On Monday, Snohomish County PUD officials said they will fight a proposal to seal certain Enron files, which they say would prohibit the utility from using hundreds of hours of unreleased Enron tapes and e-mails against the company in any federal litigation.
Utility officials and their allies in Congress also complained about the size of the offer to settle claims of excessive charges by Enron to the PUD, the Port of Seattle and the Grays Harbor Public Utility District.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002923867_enron11m.html
Space probe to crash into moon in search of water
By ALICIA CHANG
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — NASA plans to crash a space probe into the moon in 2009, a collision so violent it will be visible on Earth through a telescope, the space agency said Monday.
The moon crash, part of a larger mission that includes a lunar orbiter, is a quest for ice. Water is the key ingredient for supporting future human outposts on the moon.
NASA scientists say the collision should excavate a hole about a third the size of a football field and hurl a plume of debris into space. After the crash of the space probe, the mother ship that released it will fly through the plume and look for traces of water ice or vapor, similar to NASA's Deep Impact mission last July, which blasted into a comet.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2002923834_moon11.html
Online poll on state coin hijacked
By Susan Gilmore
Seattle Times staff reporter
The online poll for the state's new quarter will start anew after robotic computer programs hijacked the voting system over the weekend.
All earlier votes are being tossed out.
Votes generated by computers, not people, pushed the tally over 1 million.
State technicians stopped the voting Monday and reworked the poll's computer code to keep participants from voting more than once from the same computer.
The voting was expected to be up and running today.
The "robotic" computer programs — in which votes were cast repeatedly for one of the choices — put one of the three examples — a Northwest Native-American-style depiction of an orca whale — way out front.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002923874_quarter11m.html
Sydney Morning Herald
Zarqawi used in US propaganda blitz
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By Thomas Ricks in WashingtonApril 11, 2006
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President ordered release of Iraq file
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THE US military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program.
The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush Administration tie the war to the organisation responsible for the September 11 terrorist attacks.
The documents say that the US campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. US authorities claim some success with the effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.
For the past two years US military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicise Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "US home audience" as a target of a broader propaganda campaign.
Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role might have been overemphasised by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist.
Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers", Colonel Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq, told an army meeting in Kansas last year.
In a transcript of the meeting, Colonel Harvey said, "Our own focus on al-Zarqawi has enlarged his caricature, if you will - made him more important than he really is, in some ways."
There has been a running argument among specialists in Iraq about how much significance to assign to Zarqawi, who spent seven years in prison in Jordan for attempting to overthrow the government there. After his release he spent time in Pakistan and Afghanistan before moving his base of operations to Iraq. He has been sentenced to death in his absence for planning the assassination of a US diplomat, Lawrence Foley, in Jordan in 2002. US authorities have said he is responsible for dozens of deaths in Iraq and have placed a $US25 million ($34 million) bounty on him.
The military's propaganda program has largely been aimed at Iraqis, but seems to have spilled over into the US media. One "selective leak" about Zarqawi was made to Dexter Filkins, a New York Times reporter based in Baghdad. Filkins's resulting article, about a letter supposedly written by Zarqawi and boasting of suicide attacks in Iraq, ran on the Times front page in February, 2004. The report also ran in The Sydney Morning Herald.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/zarqawi-used-in-us-propaganda-blitz/2006/04/10/1144521269057.html
Sharon's era formally comes to an end
April 11, 2006 - 7:01PM
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Ariel Sharon's tenure as Israel's prime minister came to a symbolic end on Tuesday at a cabinet meeting that formally designated Ehud Olmert to replace the comatose stroke victim.
Under Israeli law, Sharon will be categorised as permanently incapacitated and unable to serve as prime minister on Friday, 100 days after suffering his stroke.
Olmert, deputy prime minister when Sharon fell ill, was named interim prime minister at the time.
At a special session, the cabinet designated Olmert acting prime minister, an appointment which Cabinet Secretary Yisrael Maimon said would go into effect on Friday. The title change will have no effect on his powers of office.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/sharons-era-formally-comes-to-an-end/2006/04/11/1144521328111.html
9-11 impact tape brings tears
US prosecutors at the death penalty hearing for Zacarias Moussaoui numbed jurors today with a tape recording of a final mobile phone call by one of the thousands of people killed in the attacks on New York's World Trade Centre.
Kevin Cosgrove, who was working on the 99th floor of the south tower, screamed out to an emergency dispatcher on the other end of the line: "Oh My God ... Aaaaarrggggghhhh .... " as the building collapsed in a vast cloud of smoke, flame and debris on September 11, 2001.
Cosgrove's voice faded, amid crashing sounds, before the line went dead.
Those in the courtroom in Virginia wiped away tears.
Many seemed deeply disturbed by the call, played with a synchronised video tape, recreating the exact moment the tower fell.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/911-impact-tape-brings-tears/2006/04/11/1144521317324.html
The Washington Post
'We Decided Not to Be Invisible Anymore'
Pro-Immigration Rallies Are Held Across Country
By Dan Balz and Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff WritersTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A01
Hundreds of thousands of pro-immigration demonstrators mobilized on the Mall and in scores of cities across the country yesterday in a powerful display of grass-roots muscle-flexing that organizers said could mark a coming-of-age for Latino political power in the United States.
Calling for legal protection for illegal immigrants, the demonstrators -- the overwhelming majority of them Hispanic -- streamed past the White House in Washington, jammed streets near City Hall in Lower Manhattan, marched in Atlanta, held a small candlelight vigil in Los Angeles and, in Mississippi, sang the civil rights anthem "We Shall Overcome" in Spanish.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001759.html
Pressure, Frustration Mount
By Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A12
The immigrant demonstrators who flooded the streets of America's cities yesterday ratcheted up pressure on lawmakers to complete an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, while raising Republicans' frustration with President Bush for what they see as a muddled stand on the issue.
Bush, a former Texas governor, made immigration reform a signature issue after winning the presidency, advocating a guest-worker program that would offer illegal immigrants and foreign workers access to the U.S. labor market. But for months he has refused to get involved in the legislative details while Republicans in the House and Senate fought among themselves and took very different approaches.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001750.html
Challenger Claims Win in Italy
Slim Margin Over Berlusconi May Give Prodi Leadership of Divided Government
By William Magnuson
Special to The Washington PostTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A14
ROME, April 11 -- Opposition leader Romano Prodi won control of Italy's lower house of Parliament, leading by only 25,000 votes out of 38 million cast but blocking flamboyant Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's hopes for a surprise comeback, according to official results announced early Tuesday morning.
Berlusconi's coalition appeared headed for victory in the Senate. A confidence vote in both houses is needed to confirm a new prime minister and cabinet. As a result, it is not certain that Prodi will become prime minister, but almost surely Berlusconi will not get a new term in the job, analysts said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041000316.html
Bush Dismisses Talk of Using Force Against Iran
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A02
President Bush dismissed yesterday talk of military action against Iran as "wild speculation" and emphasized that his doctrine of preempting threats does not necessarily mean the United States has to use force to stop other countries from developing weapons of mass destruction.
Bush did not deny reports that his administration has studied airstrikes as an option if Iran does not agree to abandon its alleged nuclear-weapon development program. He said he still considers the country part of an "axis of evil." But he emphasized that he wants to find a diplomatic solution to the standoff with Tehran and played down his policy of reserving the right to launch first strikes against potential enemies.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041000422.html
Modern Mind-Set Pays In Out-of-Date Market
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A14
PARIS -- As teenagers in a middle-class suburb of Paris, Pierre Kosciusko-Morizet and Nicolas Dhelft shared the same circle of friends, attended the same parties and watched the same movies.
Today, seven years out of business school, Kosciusko-Morizet, 28, is president of one of the fastest-growing online sales companies in France. At a time when youth unemployment here is more than 22 percent, the young French executive, who started his career at a bank in Richmond, has added 50 workers to his payroll in the past six months -- most of them English-speaking engineers and technicians.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001443.html
Government Authenticates Photos From Abu Ghraib
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff WriterTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A16
Nearly two years after graphic photographs of detainee abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq were published worldwide, the U.S. government yesterday for the first time authenticated 74 of the images as being part of the original compact disc that was turned over to Army investigators in January 2004.
Responding to a federal court order as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in New York, Justice Department lawyers wrote in court papers that the previously published images "are identical" to those that investigators have used to look into abuse at the prison. Included among the images are such photos as Pvt. Lynndie R. England holding a leash attached to a naked detainee's neck, a detainee with female underwear placed on his head, detainees shackled to cell doors and beds in painful positions, and others piled in a naked pyramid. The iconic photograph of a detainee standing on a cardboard box, cloaked and hooded with wires coming from his hands, is also among the pictures.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001392.html
European Space Probe Reaches Venus Orbit
By MELISSA EDDY
The Associated PressTuesday, April 11, 2006; 5:02 AM
DARMSTADT, Germany -- After a 250 million-mile journey, a European space probe reached orbit around Venus on Tuesday on a mission to explore the planet's dense, hot atmosphere.
Mission controllers at the European Space Agency control center in Darmstadt cheered, applauded and embraced as they picked up the signal from the Venus Express craft indicating it had completed the orbital maneuver.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041100255.html
In Canada, A Cautious Debate on Afghan Role
By Doug Struck
Washington Post Foreign ServiceTuesday, April 11, 2006; Page A16
TORONTO, April 10 -- Canadian lawmakers joined Monday in a show of patriotic support for the nation's troops in Afghanistan, tiptoeing around public opinion polls that show deep division over the increase in the force there and distrust of involvement with the U.S. military operations.
Canada's first open parliamentary debate on Afghanistan, which the government had feared would undercut backing for the military's growing role, turned instead into a parade of support for Canada's efforts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001503.html
New Zealand Herald
Ice invasion under discussion
11.04.06 3.00pm
Biosecurity issues in Antarctica have been the focus of an international meeting in Christchurch. Delegates from France, the UK, Australia and America have met with their New Zealand colleagues at the Antarctica Non-Native Species Workshop which opened yesterday. Under scrutiny is the growing threat being posed to the Antarctic environment by invasions from outside species and what options can be considered to mitigate them. Delegates will develop a report which will be presented to the Antarctic Treaty meeting in Scotland in June
Bush admits he declassified intelligence
11.04.06 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush has acknowledged he ordered the declassification of parts of a prewar intelligence report on Iraq to respond to critics who alleged he manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Bush offered his first comment on a prosecutor's disclosure last week that he authorized Vice President Dick Cheney's former top aide, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to declassify Iraq intelligence. The disclosure prompted a firestorm of criticism from Democrats who charged Bush was a hypocrite who denounces leaks of information while becoming the "leaker-in-chief." A Republican ally, Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, urged Bush on Sunday to "tell the American people exactly what happened." At issue is the administration's release in July 2003 of parts of an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate that alleged Iraq under Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was trying to develop a nuclear weapon. Bush said he declassified parts of the document to answer questions raised about why the United States invaded Iraq. "I wanted people to see what some of those statements were based on. I wanted people to see the truth. I thought it made sense for people to see the truth. That's why I declassified the document," he said. Bush, answering questions from an audience after a speech in Washington, would not comment on the allegation that he authorized Libby to release the information to reporters. But a senior administration official said Bush did not designate Libby or anyone else to release the information, trying to distance Bush from any tactical decisions made on how to release the information. The White House release of the parts of the National Intelligence Estimate came in response to charges from former ambassador Joe Wilson that Bush had manipulated intelligence to justify the war. Wilson later accused the White House of leaking the identity of his wife, who was then a CIA officer, Valerie Plame, to retaliate against him. Libby is accused of obstruction of justice and perjury in an investigation designed to discover who leaked Plame's name. White House officials have stressed that Bush was well within his legal authority to declassify the document. The new controversy erupted as Bush seeks to rebound from weak poll numbers and tries to bolster sagging American support for the Iraq war. Specter, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday" that Bush owed "a specific explanation to the American people" of what happened. "The president has the authority to declassify information. So in a technical sense, if he looked at it, he could say this is declassified, and make a disclosure of it," he said. Wilson, speaking on ABC's "This Week," called on Bush to release transcripts of his and Cheney's testimony to the prosecutor. "It seems to me it is long past time for the White House to come clean on all of this," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10377008
Petrol price hike sees 6c rise
11.04.06 3.10pm
Petrol and diesel prices have been raised another six cents at three of the major oil companies, taking them close to record highs. BP raised its prices this morning to 161.9c per litre for 91 octane, 166.9c for 95 octane and 122.9c for diesel. Spokeswoman Diana Stretch said the price rise was due to significant increases in the international cost of product. "Over the last two weeks we've seen a 15 per cent increase in the New Zealand dollar cost of petrol," she said. Shell followed suit just before lunch, matching BP's increase. Spokeswoman Jackie Maitland said there had been an increasing rise in the cost of both the crude and finished product. Mobil matched BP and Shell this afternoon, increasing its prices six cents per litre across 91, 95 and diesel. Prices peaked on Monday last week when BP raised its price for 91 octane to 162.7 cents, then lowered it again the same day.
Sun may be misleading northern hemisphere tramper
11.04.06 1.00pm
Missing English tourist Robert Atkin may be disorientated because he is used to tramping in the northern hemisphere. David Park, who has been running the Kauaeranga Valley Christian Camp in the area for several years, said the tramper from the northern hemisphere may be using the sun to get a wrong steer as he tried to find his way out of some of the most inhospitable bush areas on the Coromandel. He said "everything may be backwards to him" because he was used to tramping in the northern hemisphere and not the southern hemisphere and he may be heading in the wrong direction. Searchers headed out for the sixth day looking for Mr Atkin, 26, today as fears for his safety grow.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10376974
Italian general election too close to call
11.04.06 1.00pm
ROME - Italy's election is still too close to call, with Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his rival Romano Prodi neck-and-neck in a race that has split the nation and raised the specter of chronic political instability. More than 10 hours after voting stations closed, Italy's two main political blocks both claimed to be ahead in the race for the upper house (Senate), while Prodi's center-left alliance was slightly ahead in the lower house count. However, a leading pollster declined to declare a winner, saying the vote in both houses was balanced on a knife's edge. "The exceptional draw in both the upper and lower house does not enable us to give an indication on the final outcome of the election," said the Nexus research institute, which had earlier declared first Prodi winner and later Berlusconi.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10377015
Wheat probe pulls Howard and ministers further into scandal
11.04.06By Greg Ansley
CANBERRA - The deepening scandal over Australian wheat kickbacks to the regime of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein yesterday reached the highest political office in the land, with Prime Minister John Howard asked to explain himself to the inquiry into the affair. Howard, who has agreed to provide a statement and to appear before the commission of inquiry if required, follows yesterday's appearance by Deputy Prime Minister and Trade Minister Mark Vaile and evidence to be given today by Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. Howard, who could appear as early as Thursday, would be the first Prime Minister to be called before such an inquiry since Labor's Bob Hawke in 1983. Vaile and Downer are the first Cabinet ministers to face an inquiry since then-Labor Health Minister Carmen Lawrence in 1995.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10376913
Blair unveils peers list after sleaze row
11.04.06 1.00pm
LONDON - British Prime Minister Tony Blair today unveiled the names of 23 people appointed by him and other party leaders for life to the House of Lords, the culmination of a process that sparked a "cash for honours" row. The new peers will pack the benches of all political parties in parliament's upper chamber, which has increasingly frustrated Blair's plans by amending or delaying key pieces of legislation. Four men Blair had originally nominated were absent from the list after they withdrew their names amid allegations the ruling Labour Party was awarding peerages in return for funding. Facing claims of sleaze, Labour said last month it had received nearly £14 million pounds in previously undeclared loans from 12 businessmen, some of whom were nominated as Lords after lending the money.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10376993
120 feared dead in Ghana boat capsize
11.04.06 9.30am
ACCRA - About 120 people were feared drowned after a boat packed with passengers and goods capsized on Ghana's Lake Volta, one of the world's largest reservoirs, police in the West African country said on Monday. "There were 150 passengers on board but only 30 have been rescued. The rest are feared dead," police spokesman Kwesi Ofori said. He said the accident happened on Saturday and a search party was still looking for survivors. "Police, fishermen and the fire service are involved in the search." Ofori said the boat was probably overloaded. He said it hit a stump as it travelled across the lake, which covers 8,500 square km.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10376978
Whale 1, Japanese ferry 0
11.04.06
Japan's coastguard searched for a giant whale that it suspects collided with a passenger ferry, injuring 97 people. The ferry was on its way to Kagoshima from Tanegashima Island off Kyushu. Whales are common in the area.
German shop worker finds cocaine instead of bananas
11.04.06 2.20pm
MUNICH - A supermarket worker's discovery of 20kg of cocaine hidden in a case of fruit had German police going bananas. A spokesman for Bavarian state police said officers dug through 4600 cartons of bananas after a man working at a Munich grocery store found the drugs in a shipment of fruit from Colombia. "A worker unloading a case saw that there weren't any bananas under the first layer," a spokesman for Bavarian state police said on Monday. In their place, he said was 20KG of drugs. Around 30 police officers were set to search through the remainder of the shipment but found no more suspicious packages.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10377018
Belarussian president banned from EU
11.04.06 5.20am
The European Union last night banned Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko and 30 ministers, prosecutors and regional election officials from entering the bloc. EU foreign ministers took the move after a March 19 poll they considered rigged.
Rare cheetah in Canberra
11.04.06 8.20am
Canberra's National Zoo and Aquarium has shown off a rare king cheetah, one of fewer than 30 in existence. The 10-month-old cheetah is the first and only one of its type in Australia. The king has stripes on its spine, as opposed to the normal cheetah dot pattern.
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