October 3, 2006.
No insurance payment and no EQC cover.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Morning Papers - continued ...
A word about the Florida Republican Foley discoveries.
I find the most egregious statement by Mr. Foley's attorney as bad as the crime itself. He stated, 'Mr. Foley (I am paraphrasing.) is sufficiently ashamed of his revelations.'
You'll excuse me but that is exactly the issue with the Republican Christian Conservatives and their oppression of the Gay Community. There is NO SHAME in being gay, lesbian, homosexual or bisexual. It is a sexual orientation. That is all it is. Being Gay is not a fetish. Seeking minors for sex is !
The Washington Post
Politics Put Status Of Snake at Risk
By Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A02
The slender brown-and-yellow Butler's garter snake is a mild-mannered creature that spends its time sheltering in burrows and eating earthworms. But it has sparked a heated dispute between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and state legislators.
State Sen. Glenn Grothman wants to see the snake removed from the state's register of threatened species, because, he says, the snakes are plentiful and their protected status has cramped economic development and community projects such as a high school sports field and an aquatic complex in Milwaukee suburbs.
If the Department of Natural Resources does not significantly reduce the amount of protected snake habitat and set in motion the garter snake's removal from the list by the end of the month, a joint legislative committee that reviews administrative rules will, legislators have said, invoke a law to suspend the protected status.
Department of Natural Resources officials and conservationists say that would be nationally unprecedented and could set the stage for attacks on state protected-species listings nationwide.
"This sets a slippery-slope precedent," said Natural Resources spokeswoman Erin Celello. "If they can delist the garter snake, they can delist other species. It's pretty clear this is politically motivated and not in the interest of good science."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901619.html
E. Coli Found Near 2 Calif. Spinach Farms
By Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page D02
E. coli similar to that linked to a recent deadly outbreak has been found in eight fecal samples collected near two California farms that may have been a source of contaminated spinach.
It will be several more days, however, before investigators know whether the type of E. coli found matches the strain of the bacteria that since the end of August has sickened 193 people in 26 states and Canada, and killed at least one elderly woman in Wisconsin.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last week rescinded its mid-September warning to consumers to avoid all fresh spinach and declared it safe to eat, with the exception of spinach recalled by Natural Selection Foods LLC, a processor linked to the outbreak, and four other packers Natural Selection supplied.
Investigators narrowed the potential source of the outbreak to 12 fields on nine farms in California's Salinas Valley and have collected hundreds of water, soil, plant and animal waste samples, which are still being analyzed.
The eight samples that tested positive for E. coli 0157:H7 were taken from cattle feces collected from pastures adjacent to spinach fields on two of the farms, Kevin Reilly, a top California food safety official, said yesterday.
The discovery of this particularly toxic strain of E. coli in cattle feces "was not a big surprise," Reilly said.
E. coli is normally found in the digestive system of humans and other warm-blooded animals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301364.html
Border Security, Job Market Leave Farms Short of Workers
Growers Frustrated by Delay in Agriculture Legislation
By Sonya Geis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A06
CLOVIS, Calif. -- Bins of Granny Smith apples towered over two conveyor belts at P-R Farms' packing plant. But only one belt moved. P-R Farms, like farms up and down California and across the nation, does not have enough workers to process its fruit.
"We're short by 50 to 75 people," said Pat Ricchiuti, 59, the third-generation owner of P-R Farms. "For the last three weeks, we're running at 50 percent capacity. We saw this coming a couple years ago, but last year and this year has really been terrible."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301254.html
Pa. Killer Had Prepared for 'Long Siege'
By Tamara Jones and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 9:48 AM
BART TOWNSHIP, Pa., Oct. 4 -- Haunted by an ugly secret he claimed to have kept since childhood and recurring dreams of molesting young girls, Charles C. Roberts IV clearly "planned to dig in for the long siege" and torment his young victims in an Amish schoolhouse before executing them and killing himself, investigators said Tuesday.
Five suicide notes the 32-year-old gunman left behind also describe his anguish over the loss of a premature baby nine years ago, police said, and a checklist found in his milk truck offered a sordid blueprint for the mayhem that left five girls dead and five more fighting for life after Roberts stormed into their classroom Monday morning.
Neighbors watched tearfully Tuesday as horse-drawn buggies filled with Amish mourners began to converge on the houses where simple funerals were expected to be held in the coming days for the girls killed in a barrage of bullets that left the county coroner too shaken to keep counting the wounds.
Roberts called his wife, Marie, after barricading himself inside the school with the terrified children, and said that he had molested two young, female relatives when he was 12 and that he had been dreaming about doing it again, Pennsylvania State Police Col. Jeffrey Miller said at a news conference.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400331.html
Rice Under Pressure on Mideast Peace Efforts
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 9:32 AM
JERUSALEM, Oct. 4 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jerusalem Wednesday morning under pressure from Arab allies to jumpstart the Middle East peace process -- even as a Hamas official was gunned down by masked assailants and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas declared that efforts to forge a unity government between Hamas and his own Fatah party had ground to a halt.
"There is no dialogue now," Abbas said at a joint news conference in Ramallah with the visiting foreign minister of Bahrain.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400497.html
American Wins Nobel Chemistry Prize
By MATTIAS KAREN and MATT MOORE
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 9:50 AM
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- American Roger D. Kornberg, whose father won a Nobel Prize a half-century ago, was awarded the prize in chemistry Wednesday for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins.
The work is important for medicine, because disturbances in that process are involved in illnesses like cancer, heart disease and various kinds of inflammation. And learning more about the process is key to using stem cells to treat disease.
Kornberg, 59, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said medical benefits from his research have taken root.
"There are ... already many therapies, many drugs that are in development in trials or already available and there will be many more," he said. "Significant benefits to human health are already forthcoming. I think there will be many many more."
Kornberg's award, following the Nobels for medicine and physics earlier this week, completes the first American sweep of the Nobel science prizes since 1983.
Americans have won or shared in all the chemistry Nobels since 1992. The last time the chemistry Nobel was given to just one person was in 1999.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400280.html
Iraqi Police Unit Linked to Militias
By DAVID RISING
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 9:11 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi authorities have taken a police brigade out of service and returned them to training because of "complicity" with death squads in the wake of a mass kidnapping in Baghdad this week, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.
The kidnapping took place on Sunday, when gunmen stormed into a frozen meats factory in the Amil district and snatched 24 workers, shooting two others. The bodies of seven of the workers were found later but the fate of the others remains unknown.
Sunni leaders blamed Shiite militias and suggested security forces had turned a blind eye to the attack.
The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said the Iraqi police brigade in the area had been ordered to stand down and was undergoing re-training.
"There was some possible complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely when they should have been impeding them," he told a Baghdad press conference.
"The forces in the unit have not put their full allegiance to the government of Iraq and gave their allegiance to others," he said.
The suspended brigade has about 650-700 policemen, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Karim Mohammedawi said.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the commander of the unit, a lieutenant colonel, had been detained and was being investigated, and that the major general who commands the battalion that includes the suspended brigade has been suspended temporarily and ordered transferred.
Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the chief ministry spokesman, said a random selection of troops in the suspended unit were being investigated for ties to militias.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400490.html
Solana Says Iran Must Decide on Talks
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 10:10 AM
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday that Iran must decide whether it wants to continue negotiations about suspending uranium enrichment in its disputed nuclear program.
"Today, Iran has made no commitment to suspend," Solana told the European Parliament. "This dialogue I am maintaining cannot last forever and it is up to Iranians now to decide whether its time has come to end."
Iran's deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi, top, and Russian ambassador to Iran Alexander Sadovnikov, center, listen to Russia's security council chief Igor Ivanov, bottom right, as he attends in a news conference with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, unseen, after their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian) (Hasan Sarbakhshian - AP)
He said if that was the case, he suggested that the standoff over Iran's nuclear program be moved to the U.N. Security Council.
Solana said his "endless hours" of talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, have not made any progress.
"We have reached common ground only on a number of issues, an important number of issues, but we have not agreed in what is the key point, which is the question of suspension of activities before the start of the negotiations" with the West on Iran's use of nuclear technology.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400233.html
Some Say They Felt Uneasy About Representative's Attention
By James V. Grimaldi, Juliet Eilperin and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A01
In 1995, male House pages were warned to steer clear of a freshman Republican from Florida, who was already learning the names of the teenagers, dashing off notes, letters and e-mails to them, and asking them to join him for ice cream, according to a former page.
Mark Beck-Heyman, now a graduate student in clinical psychology at George Washington University, and more than a dozen other former House pages said in interviews and via e-mail that Rep. Mark Foley was known to be extraordinarily friendly in a way that made some of them uncomfortable.
Beck-Heyman, who was a Republican page and is now a Democrat, said the attention was "weird," and he provided a handwritten letter that Foley sent him after the page left Washington to return home to California. The note suggested that they get together during the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1996.
The e-mail exchanges that have become public in recent days are between Foley and male former pages. None of those interviewed said they had received a sexual or suggestive overture from him during their time on Capitol Hill. Yet many of them said they were uneasy about Foley's actions and felt awkward complaining to anyone about them.
"Mark Foley knew that he could get away with this type of behavior with male pages because he was a congressman," said Beck-Heyman, who later worked in the Clinton White House and on Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. "But many people on Capitol Hill," including many Republican staffers, "have known for over 11 years about what was going on and chose to do nothing," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301633.html
The Open And Closeted Lives of a Gay Congressman
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page C01
Mark Foley had secrets.
First, there was whispering about the Republican congressman's sexual orientation, beginning in 1994 during his first House campaign. He was almost outed two years later when he voted against gay marriage. In 2003, Foley dropped a Senate bid after the rumor mill again started churning. He dismissed the speculation as "revolting and unforgivable."Although publicly unacknowledged, Foley's homosexuality gradually became known in Washington and Florida political circles. Over time, it became a defining force in his career. Foley was restlessly ambitious, but as a Republican from a state with lots of social conservatives, his prospects for higher office were dim.He hit the gay glass ceiling in Congress, too. Foley served nearly 12 years in Congress and was regarded as an energetic and capable lawmaker. But he barely registered on the senior GOP leadership's radar screen. "I've never had a conversation with him," said Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. "Other than his vote on a tariff matter at one time or another, I think."But as Foley attempted to navigate the tricky path of being a gay Republican, there was yet another, darker secret that he proved unable to handle: He was making sexual advances toward teenagers. For all his caution about his sexual orientation, it wasn't that but his pursuit of underage former congressional pages that wrecked his career.Hastert and other senior GOP leaders are now battling fierce criticism that they failed to act forcefully upon learning of inappropriate e-mails between Foley and a 16-year-old boy. The speaker's office asked a Republican colleague to warn Foley to back off, but GOP leaders did not officially alert the full page board, which included one Democrat, or the bipartisan ethics committee.Foley's fate was sealed when transcripts surfaced late last week of lurid instant-message exchanges between the congressman and other former pages. To some people who have known Foley for years, the sordid details were both shocking and somewhat ironic, given his painstaking efforts to shield his private life.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301492.html
N. Korea Pledges Nuclear Test
Need Cited to Deter Threat From U.S., But No Date Is Set
By Anthony Faiola and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 6:02 AM
TOKYO, Oct. 4 -- North Korea declared Tuesday that it would conduct a nuclear test to bolster its defenses against the United States, raising tensions in the region and marking the communist government's first unambiguous pledge to prove it has become a nuclear power.
Though North Korea has previously said it possesses nuclear bombs -- U.S. intelligence officials have estimated it could have as many as 11 -- a test detonation would dramatically change the region's power dynamics. Analysts have said the United States and area neighbors including China, Japan and South Korea would be forced to deal far more harshly with the North Koreans.
A test would be a "very provocative act," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a visit to Cairo. It would create a "qualitatively different situation on the Korean Peninsula" that would spill over into the entire region, she said. Rice declined to predict what the U.S. response might be.
The North Korean statement added urgency to upcoming meetings between Japan's new prime minister Shinzo Abe and the leaders of China and South Korea. Abe's office confirmed on Wednesday that he will hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Sunday and with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun in Seoul on Monday in an effort to improve relations with the two countries.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400278.html
Briton Cites 'Divergence' With U.S.
Senior Official Critical of Going 'Beyond the Law' to Fight Terror
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A12
LONDON, Sept. 29 -- Charles Falconer, one of the highest-ranking justice officials in Britain, said Friday that there is a "great divergence" in how Britain and the United States are handling the fight against terrorists, describing the U.S. approach as a willingness "to do things beyond the law."
Falconer said in an interview that the practices of holding terrorism suspects without charge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and interrogating them in secret CIA prisons have made it "harder to identify to the world what your values are."
Holding the posts of lord chancellor and secretary of state for constitutional affairs, Falconer is widely seen as a spokesman for the British government, the closest U.S. ally in the war in Iraq. He is scheduled to visit Washington next week, where he will meet with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and deliver a speech at Georgetown University.
His visit will come shortly after Congress approved legislation to establish new policies for dealing with terrorism suspects and set rules for their legal rights. The U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down the Bush administration's program for trying suspects before military commissions.
Falconer recently called Guantanamo Bay "an affront to the principles of democracy." In a lengthy interview Friday, he said Britain had learned hard lessons in the 1970s when it pursued a hard-line course in response to the bombing campaign of the Irish Republican Army. Police got new leeway in interrogation, while suspects' civil protections were reduced. In multiple cases, innocent people were convicted and sentenced.
"We suffered badly in the '70s and '80s," Falconer said, adding that the United States was among those criticizing the British approach at the time. He also noted that IRA fundraising "shot up" during this period.
Among the examples of miscarriages of justice that he mentioned were the Guildford Four, four men wrongly convicted in 1975 for a pub bombing that killed five people. They were imprisoned for 15 years before being exonerated; they said at their trial that they had been tortured by police into signing false confessions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901405.html
Brazil plane crashes over Amazon with 155 aboard
By Terry Wade
Reuters
Saturday, September 30, 2006; 3:00 AM
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian airline passenger plane with 155 people on board disappeared over the Amazon jungle and was believed to have crashed, local officials and news reports said.
The brand-new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol disappeared Friday afternoon after losing radar contact during a flight from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the national capital, Brasilia, the company said.
The mayor of a remote town in the central state of Mato Grosso said the plane had crashed on a farm in Peixoto de Azevedo municipality. The report could not immediately be confirmed by other authorities.
"From the information we have, the plane fell on Jarina farm," Mayor Valter Mioto said in an interview. "Hospitals in the region are ready to receive the injured."
The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol aircraft collided with another, smaller plane, Globo news agency reported. The report could not be confirmed.
"It will be hard to find something at this time of night but it is not impossible. The search continues," said Cosette Castro, spokesman for the Brazilian aviation agency.
Five Brazilian air force jets were searching for the missing plane into the evening, Infraero said.
Gol said Flight 1907 was carrying 149 passengers and six crew members.
The plane had been received new from Boeing on September 12 and had only 200 flight hours, the company said.
Brazil's civil aviation authority said the plane lost contact around the town of Sao Felix do Xingu. The flight left Manaus at 2:36 p.m. (1836 GMT).
At Brasilia airport, dozens of friends and relatives, many weeping, gathered anxiously to await news.
Gol is a low-cost carrier that has expanded rapidly since its founding in 2001 to become Brazil's No. 2 airline and to offer flights to neighboring countries.
With its orange and white colors and stylized casual uniforms based on U.S. no-frills carriers, it is an instantly recognizable brand in Brazil and one of its most successful new businesses.
Manaus is host to a number of foreign-owned manufacturing plants making motorcycles, computers and other goods in its duty free zone. It is also a base for tourism in the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, and a headquarters for several environmental groups.
In the last major airline crash in Brazil, 33 people were killed when a plane belonging to regional carrier Rico Linhas Aereas crashed in the Amazon flying from Sao Paulo de Olivenca to Manaus on May 14, 2004.
(Additional reporting by Raymond Colitt, Vladimir Goitia, Denise Luna and Jonas da Silva)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000183.html
Report Says Rove Aide Accepted Abramoff Gifts
By James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A03
A top aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove passed along inside White House information to superlobbyist Jack Abramoff at a time when she was also accepting his tickets to nine sports and entertainment events, according to e-mails released yesterday in a bipartisan congressional report.
The e-mails, released by the House Government Reform Committee, show that Susan Ralston also on occasion discussed possible business ventures with Abramoff. Ralston had worked for Abramoff before joining Rove in the White House in 2001.
White House contacts with Abramoff have been the focus of heated interest in Washington since he pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges earlier this year. Although the committee report documents that Abramoff's lobbying team billed their clients for more than 400 contacts with White House officials over three years, it remains unclear what results Abramoff obtained.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) seized on the report yesterday: "A disgraced lobbyist traded perks and campaign contributions for special access to the Bush White House."
But White House press secretary Tony Snow disagreed.
"Jack Abramoff was an exuberant practitioner of sleaze to the point that it's very difficult within the report itself to figure out how many actual contacts there are," Snow said.
The report identified 66 Abramoff contacts with the White House, more than half of them with Ralston. Members of Abramoff's lobbying team at Greenberg Traurig LLP contacted Ralston 69 times.
Ralston has declined to comment on the report.
The report indicates that Abramoff was largely ineffective at placing people in key positions in the administration, apparently failing to win any of the appointments he sought.
When Ralston came through for Abramoff, it often was in relatively minor ways. On Oct. 21, 2001, Ralston e-mailed Abramoff that Rove had read an Abramoff memo about a political endorsement in an obscure race in the Mariana Islands. Ralston reported back to Abramoff that Rove had agreed, writing in an e-mail the next day: "You win :)"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901434.html
Bush Cites Progress in Pakistan, Afghanistan
In Speech, President Tries to Mend Relations
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A06
President Bush highlighted anti-terrorism efforts of Afghanistan and Pakistan yesterday, calling the nations invaluable allies despite a surge of violence in southern Afghanistan that has provoked deep suspicions about their ability -- and appetite -- to battle extremists.
Speaking before a Washington audience that included members of the Reserve Officers Association and both countries' ambassadors to the United States, Bush said that 41,000 American and NATO troops in Afghanistan are making progress toward securing and rebuilding the war-torn nation, although significant hurdles remain. While more than 30,000 newly trained Afghan soldiers are working alongside Western troops to secure the country, Bush said, Afghan police "have faced problems with corruption and substandard leadership."
Those difficulties have undermined confidence in the police, "and we've made our concerns known to our friends in the Afghan government," Bush said, adding that the police now have new leadership.
Bush made his remarks as a resurgent Taliban is leading a spike in violence in southern Afghanistan, a development that has resulted in increasing friction between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused his Pakistani counterpart, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, of tolerating the presence of extremists in Pakistan's remote western regions, from where they launch attacks into southern Afghanistan. Musharraf, in turn, has accused Karzai of being an ineffective leader whose policies create sympathy for the Taliban and other extremists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900453.html
Dispute Between Georgia, Russia Escalates
Moscow Alleges Provocation as Court Extends Detention of Officers Facing Espionage Charges
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A11
TBILISI, Georgia, Sept. 29 -- A Georgian court on Friday ordered four Russian military intelligence officers to be held for two months on espionage charges in a pretrial detention center, a decision that could prolong and deepen the heated dispute over alleged spying here.
"Russia cannot comprehend this court ruling," Russian Vice Consul Viktor Kortenov told reporters after the court hearing, which was closed to the news media. "It is unclear why a Russian lawyer was not admitted to the proceedings."
Russia's ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, left the country Friday after being recalled by his government to protest the arrest of the Russian officers. He departed with more than 80 diplomats and their families, who were flown home by two Russian Emergency Ministry planes. Russia advised its citizens not to travel to Georgia, citing safety reasons.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who held talks with ministers from the NATO alliance Friday in Slovenia, complained bitterly about Georgia's actions. Ivanov charged that Georgia was provoking a conflict to try to oust Russian forces from two breakaway parts of Georgia that pledge loyalty to Moscow.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901451.html
Unswayed by West, Russia Continues Georgia Blockade
Mail, Transportation Links Still Cut
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A21
MOSCOW Oct. 3 -- Russia signaled Tuesday that it would not lift a transportation blockade on Georgia despite the release of four Russian officers detained on espionage charges and calls from the European Union and the United States for the two countries to find ways to ease tensions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that his country had "no plans for the time being" to restore postal and transportation links, including commercial flights and train service, that were severed Monday as the four military officers were about to be released.
"One must not feed off Russia and insult it," Lavrov said at a media briefing Tuesday that was marked by harsh language. "The Georgian leadership must understand this."
Relations between the two countries have worsened since Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in early 2004 on the promise of taking his country into the NATO military alliance and out of Russia's sphere of influence. Tensions are also heightened by two breakaway regions in Georgia -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- that receive support from Moscow.
Saakashvili has said he is determined to reassert Georgian sovereignty over the two areas, which are patrolled by Russian peacekeepers.
In Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja of Finland, which holds the rotating E.U. presidency, said Moscow's sanctions seemed disproportionate and warned against "more acute measures." On Monday, the U.S. State Department also called on Russia and Georgia to take steps to "de-escalate tensions in the days and weeks ahead."
"We think that hot rhetoric on either side or sanctions is not a good idea," Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said in a telephone interview. "This is a time for reflection and for both sides to work together. . . . It's too bad Russia is not taking the opportunity to de-escalate."
But Lavrov was not in a charitable mood. "There are attempts by some figures to say that the Russian officers have been released, the situation has calmed down and let's do things as before," he said. "We don't want to do things as before."
The Russian foreign minister accused Georgia of illegally acquiring Soviet- or Russian- made arms in Europe, and he said the sellers, whom he did not identify, were violating a ban on transferring those weapons to third parties.
He said Russia was "seriously worried by total militarization in Georgia," noting a call-up of reservists by the government.
"The Georgian budget is not very big," Lavrov said. "Money is coming via different channels, including illegally from Russia, where this money is largely made by criminal methods. These channels will be blocked, too."
Lavrov provided no details, but the statement appeared to be a reference to remittances sent back to Georgia by some of the estimated 300,000 Georgian immigrants here; some estimates put the number of Georgians in Russia, many of them here illegally, closer to 1 million. The population of Georgia is 4.6 million.
Russian lawmakers scheduled a debate on a bill that would bar Georgians from transferring money home.
"These measures will not give the desired results and in the end will hurt Russia itself," Georgia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Lavrov also noted that Georgia had arrested the Russians after Saakashvili had visited Washington and NATO had agreed to an intensive dialogue with the country on membership.
"We certainly make note of the assurances of our U.S. colleagues that they have constantly tried to keep the Georgian leadership from abrupt moves," Lavrov said. "But the chronology was the way I have just explained -- a visit to Washington, NATO's decision, hostage-taking -- and the charges were laughable and groundless."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301423.html
Wal-Mart Launches Employee Voter Drive
Activists Question Retailer's Motives
By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A02
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. yesterday launched a voter registration drive aimed at its 1.3 million U.S. employees in what it describes as the largest such effort by a private company.
The kickoff was held in Iowa, a key battleground in the upcoming midterm elections. Workers at Wal-Mart's roughly 3,800 other facilities across the country also received registration forms yesterday. Although the world's largest retailer said it does not want to influence how its workers vote, David Tovar, director of media relations, said the drive was prompted by recent criticism of the company by politicians.
Wal-Mart workers "read the newspapers and see the headlines, just like you and I do," Tovar said. "They recognize there were some elected officials that were saying some things that didn't really represent the company. They wanted to have an opportunity to have their voice heard."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901318.html
Congress Told of Persistent Pretexting
Hearing Looks Beyond Hewlett-Packard Scandal
By Yuki Noguchi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page D08
Someone impersonating journalist Christopher Byron called AT&T's customer service 46 times over 2 1/2 months until a company representative finally divulged details of his phone calls.
"This is known as dialing for dummies," an animated Byron told lawmakers yesterday, complaining that the 2002 disclosure led to the identification of two of his confidential sources.
Gaining unauthorized access to such records is far more common than the recent Hewlett-Packard Co. case suggests, members of a House subcommittee were told at a hearing yesterday, the day after HP executives, former executives and investigators were called to testify on the tactics used to spy on communications between journalists and members of the company's board of directors.
Representatives of a private investigation firm, six wireless companies, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission testified yesterday. An investigator, Doug Atkin of Anglo-American Investigations Inc. of Playa Del Rey, Calif., invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions.
Compared with the previous day's standing-room-only session, the hearing yesterday had far fewer spectators. Committee members focused their questions on the mechanics of how phone companies verify the identities of people with whom their customer service agents speak and tried to determine the frequency with which impostors seek private information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901320.html
Dell Recalls 100,000 More Battery Packs
The Associated Press
Friday, September 29, 2006; 7:31 AM
ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Dell Inc., the world's largest personal computer maker, said Friday that it is increasing the recall of Sony Corp. battery packs used in its systems to 4.2 million units from 4.1 million units.
The batteries can short-circuit and have been blamed for causing some computers in which they are used to overheat.
Separately, Toshiba Corp. said Friday that it is recalling 830,000 batteries made by Sony for its laptops at Sony's request. It was the latest in a growing global recall involving Sony batteries, bringing the tally of recalled batteries to about 7 million worldwide.
Earlier Friday, Sony asked manufacturers using its problem batteries to carry out a recall.
Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Omori said Toshiba's recall was in response to Sony's request, and Toshiba had not found any cases in which the laptops were at risk of catching fire.
"But we wanted to assure and satisfy our customers," he said.
Dell said Friday that the increase in its battery recall was made due to additional information received about the affected battery packs containing cells manufactured by Sony.
Dell and the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the agency's largest-ever electronics recall on Aug. 15, blaming battery cells supplied by Sony. During production in Japan, tiny shards of metal were left in the cells, which can cause a short-circuit. The recall was issued after six confirmed instances of overheating or fire involving Dell systems with batteries made by Sony.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900296.html
Ex-D.C. Worker Says Scheming Began Early
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page B04
Within a few months of taking a key D.C. government job, a financially strapped Michael A. Lorusso was already scheming for ways to turn his city position and new acquaintance with downtown developer Douglas Jemal into personal profit.
Just days after meeting Jemal in April 2001, the former D.C. leasing official testified yesterday, he agreed to travel to Las Vegas, stay at the sumptuous Bellagio hotel on Jemal's tab and hide the trip from his city bosses. Over drinks in the Bellagio bar with his host, Lorusso said, he hurriedly struck a deal for the city to pay Jemal's company, Douglas Development Corp., the eye-popping fee of $120,000-an-acre to rent land for a vehicle impound lot for one year -- three times what Jemal had recently paid to buy the land outright.
And with that, the much-anticipated government witness in Jemal's bribery trial said, he began to put in 10- and 12-hour days -- officially on the city payroll but secretly working for Jemal. Lorusso, the former deputy director of D.C. property management, admitted concocting a string of frauds so the city would pay Jemal exorbitant prices for his properties and even for work the company never did.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301459.html
Rocket Monopoly Approved
Boeing-Lockheed Alliance Likely to Increase Costs
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page D01
U.S. antitrust authorities yesterday approved a plan by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. to merge their government rocket businesses, creating a monopoly in a multibillion-dollar market that the Federal Trade Commission acknowledged will probably lead to higher prices and lower quality.
The decision came 16 months after the plan was announced, several months longer than both firms expected, signaling the concern within the Defense Department and FTC about eliminating competition in yet another part of the military market. Defense industry consolidation has already squeezed competition out of various parts of the market -- since the 1990s the number of aircraft makers has fallen to three from eight, for example.
"Monopolies almost always lead to higher prices, lower quality and inferior services," Michael R. Moiseyev, assistant director of the FTC's bureau of competition, said in a July letter that was made public yesterday. "Here, the competition that would be lost is significant, and the economic benefits that may materialize are unlikely to trump the transaction's harm to competition."
The Defense Department has expressed concerns that with only a few rocket launches each year, one of the two companies could have been pushed out of business. Loath to be dependent on one type of rocket, the Defense Department argued for the joint venture, to be known as the United Launch Alliance.
Under the agreement, both Boeing's Delta and Lockheed's Atlas rockets will still be produced. The companies will consolidate production at Boeing's Decatur, Ala., facility, while Lockheed's Denver office will serve as the headquarters and house the engineering and administrative functions. Some jobs will be eliminated.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301365.html
R.I. Club Owners Plead in Fire Deaths
By ERIC TUCKER
The Associated Press
Friday, September 29, 2006; 6:01 PM
WARWICK, R.I. -- Relatives of the 100 people killed in a nightclub fire vented their grief and fury at the judge and the legal system Friday but were unable to derail a plea bargain in which one of the club's owners received four years behind bars and the other got no prison time at all.
Michael Derderian, who received the prison sentence, and his brother, Jeffrey, pleaded no contest to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the 2003 blaze, which was sparked by a rock group's pyrotechnics and quickly engulfed The Station nightclub because the Derderians had installed highly flammable foam on the walls to ease neighbors' noise concerns.
David Kane, who lost his 18-year-old son Nicholas O'Neill in The Station nightclub fire, arrives for court proceedings for Michael and Jeffrey Derderian at Kent County Superior Court in Warwick, R.I., Friday, Sept. 29, 2006. The brothers, owners of The Station nightclub, plan to plead no contest to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the Feb. 20, 2003, blaze at the club. (AP Photo/Stew Milne) (Stew Milne - AP)
Judge Francis Darigan admonished the victims' relatives not to try to talk him out of approving a plea bargain for the Derderians. But many of them bitterly ignored the warning in a sentencing so turbulent that the judge abruptly recessed the proceedings at one point to defuse the tension in the room.
"Lady Justice in Rhode Island is blind, but she's also deaf," Jay McLaughlin, the brother-in-law of two of the victims, told the judge. Other family members applauded as he returned to his seat.
"Before I read my statement, I'd like to just say I will address you, but I will not say `Your Honor.' I don't think you're an honorable man. I don't respect you," said Annmarie Swidwa, the mother of 25-year-old Bridget Sanetti.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900142.html
Viva la Difference
What Happens in Paris, Stays in Paris. What a Pity.
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page C01
PARIS, Oct. 3 At Tuesday morning's runway presentation by Balenciaga, the models balanced atop platform heels that seemed to be composed of layers of shiny cogs and widgets. They wore breastplates of loosely looped bands of wool, and cropped blazers that looked almost like wings. Leggings were constructed with articulated joints, rivets and metallic patches. The models -- stoical behind clear safety glasses -- were exquisite cyborgs: daring, superhuman, beyond compare.
Creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere's collection was the most compelling presentation since the spring showings began unfolding last month in New York. As his models moved briskly and confidently through the room, they sparked the desire that fuels luxury high design. For a moment, suspended in the vacuum of a dark gray loft on this city's Left Bank, one wanted to look just like those models: women as all-conquering machines.
As glorious as the collection was on the runway, it was also a perfect example of the power and subterfuge of the Paris mystique. An invisible vapor seeps into the mind and makes the outlandish seem acceptable. The illogical becomes perfectly reasonable. Yes! Metal leggings, how splendid! Beauty requires suffering!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301050.htm
Musharraf's Book Tour
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's promotion of his new memoir, "In the Line of Fire," has to be among the most unusual and successful book tours ever.
While visiting Washington and London, Musharraf managed to get a plug from President Bush and cracked wise on Jon Stewart's "Daily Show." The round of appearances ahead of the book's Sept. 25 release generated a steady stream of headlines that has yet to abate, but the reviews have not always been kind.
"The book reveals that he's a military dictator, a mediocre man, and intellectually of low calibre," Mohammed Ziauddin, Islamabad editor for the Dawn newspaper, told the BBC. One reviewer for Outlook, the Indian newsweekly, likened Musharraf's book to "Mein Kampf," Adolf Hitler's autobiography.
But sales are strong -- "In the Line of Fire" is already a best-seller in the U.S., Pakistan and India.
Musharraf's book, says the Financial Times in London, "is a manifesto for 2007, when he will need to renew such legitimacy as he currently enjoys through the ballot box. Its publication marks the start of his twin-track campaign: to the domestic audience he plays up his ambivalence over US foreign policy, while to the White House he stresses his commitment, as a target of two breathlessly described assassination attempts, to rooting out terror."
In the United States, Musharraf's claim that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage told him the U.S. would bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age" if it didn't cooperate in the war on terror after 9/11. Armitage denies making the threat.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/
China Daily
China calls for calm over nuke issue
(Agencies Via Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-04 08:23
China urged North Korea on Wednesday to act with calm and restraint, the day after the country announced that it planned to carry out a nuclear test.
"We hope that North Korea will exercise necessary calm and restraint over the nuclear test issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Chinese spokesman also urged other countries not to deepen tensions.
"We also hope that all parties will make the necessary efforts to peacefully resolve their mutual concerns through dialogue and consultation, and not take actions that escalate tensions," Liu said.
China's statement came after North Korea said on Tuesday it would conduct its first-ever nuclear test, blaming a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions" for forcing its hand.
Pyongyang's announcement caused alarm in many capitals.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/04/content_701535.htm
Turk surrenders after hijacking plane
Updated: 2006-10-04 06:40
BRINDISI- A Turkish man hijacked a jetliner carrying 113 people from Albania to Istanbul on Tuesday and forced it to land in southern Italy, where he surrendered and released all the passengers unharmed, officials said.
Two senior Turkish officials said the hijacker was seeking political asylum. An Italian security official said the hijacker had a message for the pope, but he said he did not know what it was.
Candan Karlitekin, chairman of Turkish Airlines' board of directors, initially said the Boeing 737-400 had been hijacked by two Turks, and that they were protesting Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Turkey next month.
Transport Minister Binali Yildirim told The Associated Press that the hijacker, whom he identified as Hakan Ekinci, was seeking to evade military service in his native Turkey. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler also said the hijacker was an army deserter who had fled to Albania.
"It has nothing to do with the pope's visit; it was a simple attempt of seeking political asylum under the influence of psychological problems," Yildirim said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/04/content_701493.htm
ROK President, Japanese PM to visit China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-04 11:19
Beijing -- President Roh Moo-hyun of the Republic of Korea (ROK) will pay a working visit to China on October 13 at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao announced Wednesday.
South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun (L) and his wife Kwon Yang-sook wave the national flag at a ceremony, marking the end of World War Two and Japanese rule 61 years ago, in Seoul August 15, 2006. [Reuters]
This is the second time for Roh to visit China since he took office in 2003. Roh paid a state visit to China for the first time in July, 2003, during which China and the ROK agreed to build an all-round cooperative partnership.
China and ROK have maintained smooth cooperation in politics, economy, trade, culture, education, science and technology, environment protection and the military fields. They have had good coordination in international and regional issues, observers said.
The smooth cooperation between China and the ROK has made important contributions to regional peace and development, Chinese President Hu Jintao said upon his state visit to the ROK in November 2005, when the ROK recognized China's market economy status.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/04/content_701591.htm
Abe pledges to improve ties with China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-29 14:24
Japan's newly-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Friday in his policy speech to improve relations of trust with China, South Korea, calling them "important neighbors."
Newly-elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) poses with his Foreign Minister Taro Aso (L) and other cabinet members during an official group photo at the premier's official residence in Tokyo September 26, 2006. [Reuters]
"China and South Korea are important neighbors, with which Japan has established unprecedentedly close relations in economic and other areas," Abe said in his first policy address to the parliament.
"It was extremely important, to Asia as well as to the international society, to strengthen trust with China and South Korea," said Japan's first premier born after World War II.
Japan has strained ties with its Asian neighbors largely due to its prime minister's visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, where top war criminals are honored.
"I think it is important for all sides to make efforts so we can have forward-looking and frank discussions," Abe added.
On Japan-U.S. alliance, Abe said that Japan will strengthen its relations of trust with the United States, which is the basis of their alliance. "The Cabinet will communicate with the White House regularly to strengthen the ties," he said.
The 52-year-old premier, who took office Tuesday, also pledged to advance steadily in implementing an agreed plan to reorganize the U.S. military presence in Japan.
In the diplomacy part of his speech, Abe also said that Japan will cooperate with the United States in solving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue within the six-party talks frameworks.
The premier also touched on relations with Russia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), India and Australia as well as Iraq's reconstruction and Japan's aim to win a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council.
The premier aimed to build a powerful premier's office. "I aim to reorganize and strengthen capabilities at the prime minister's office, so that it will be the control tower with strong political leadership and enable quick decision-making on national strategies regarding diplomacy and national security," Abe said.
On domestic issues, the new premier said he will place priority on rebuilding the state finances through cutting fiscal expenditure before considering tax hikes. He also mentioned plans to revitalize local economies and provide more economic opportunities for disadvantaged people and minimize disparities.
Abe said he wanted to have a legislation passed for revising Japan's pacifist Constitution. He also vowed to reform education, which included such measures as improving public schooling, requiring teachers to renew their licenses periodically to ensure qualifications, and have schools evaluated by third parties.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699721.htm
RMB breaches 7.9 barrier against dollar
By Zheng Lifei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-29 07:31
The renminbi yesterday strengthened to below 7.90 against the US dollar, partially because of growing speculation that the government will soon expand the band within which the currency is allowed to fluctuate.
*US Senators drop bid for punitive tariffs on China
The daily benchmark, or the central parity rate for the US dollar, was set at 7.8998 yuan yesterday, the first time that the currency crossed the psychological barrier of 7.90 since last July's revaluation, according to the Shanghai-based China Foreign Exchange Trade System.
China discarded the renminbi's decade-old direct peg to the US dollar in July last year, switching to a mechanism that sets the exchange rate on a basket of world currencies such as the greenback, the euro and the Korean won.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699182.htm
China carries out test of fusion reactor
Updated: 2006-09-29 07:50
BEIJING - Scientists on Thursday carried out China's first successful test of an experimental fusion reactor, powered by the process that fuels the sun, a research institute spokeswoman said.
China, the United States and other governments are pursuing fusion research in hopes that it could become a clean, potentially limitless energy source. Fusion produces little radioactive waste, unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear reactors.
Beijing is eager for advances, both for national prestige and to reduce its soaring consumption of imported oil and dirty coal.
The test by the government's Institute of Plasma Physics was carried out on a Tokamak fusion device in the eastern city of Hefei, said Cheng Yan, a spokeswoman at the institute.
Cheng said the test was considered a success because the reactor produced plasma, a hot cloud of supercharged particles. She wouldn't give other details.
"This represents a step for humankind in the study of nuclear reaction," she said.
U.S. and other scientists have been experimenting with fusion for decades but it has yet to be developed into a viable energy alternative.
"I think it is a considerable step ahead for China," said Karl Heinz Finken, a senior scientist at the Institute for Plasma Physics in Juelich, Germany, who had no role in the Chinese research.
"China is speeding up with the development of nuclear fusion and I think at the moment they are making considerable progress," he said.
The Chinese facility is similar to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, being built by a seven-nation consortium in Cadarache in southern France, according to state media. That reactor is due to be completed in 2015.
China is a partner in the ITER reactor, along with the European Union, the United States, Japan, Russia, India and South Korea.
A Tokamak reactor uses a doughnut-shaped magnetic field to contain the hot gas.
Several countries have produced plasma using a Tokamak or similar device, said Gabriel Marbach, deputy head of fusion research at the ITER facility. He said producing plasma was only one step toward the fusion that ITER aims to perform, and that the project could be helped by the Chinese experiments.
"It was important for China to show that it is part of the club, and that adds value to its participation in ITER," Marbach said.
"That is not to say that it is at the level of the Europeans or Americans," he said. However, he added, "We are rather admiring of the Chinese for conducting this test. It was conducted well, and they constructed (the machine) rather quickly."
China is the world's No. 2 oil consumer and its No. 3 importer, consuming at least 3.5 million barrels of foreign oil per day last year.
China plans to build dozens of nuclear power plants and is trying to promote use of cleaner alternative energy sources such as natural gas, wind power and methanol made from corn.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699224.htm
Giving lecture, professor strips off
By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-29 07:30
An art teacher has caused a stir by taking all his clothes off in front of a class to make a point while giving a lecture.
Mo Xiaoxin
Mo Xiaoxin, an assistant professor of art at the Teachers' University of Technology in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, stunned 30 students by stripping naked.
The teacher said he wanted to emphasis the power of the body and "confront taboos."
Mo was teaching a class on physical art and humanity culture studies, the first course of its kind to be approved by the Ministry of Culture. It has been running for six years.
Mo's action, which was not expected by his students, stunned all those present, and has led to heated debate after being reported on Tuesday by a local newspaper.
"Mo's nudity might have disgusted many students who weren't prepared to see the unattractive body of an old man," said Wang Xiongjun, a college student in Beijing.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699176.htm
Japan's remark of 'China threat' refuted
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-28 20:47
BEIJING -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang refuted on Thursday a Japanese remark that China's "growing military spending" has posed a threat to Japan.
Qin said China had stated its stance on the military spending issue many times.
"China follows the policy of 'building friendship and partnership with neighboring countries' and its development will pose no threat to any country," said Qin.
A journalist asked Qin to comment the remark made by Japan's new Defense Agency director general Kyuma Fumio that China's growing military spending posed a threat to Japan.
Qin said China was opposed to the use of China's military spending to play up "China threat" remark.
"We hope the Japanese side will do more things and make more remarks that are conducive to the improvement and development of China-Japan relations," said Qin.
Qin also noted a report that Kyuma Fumio said the military alliance between Japan and the United States was to check China and prepare for any contingency concerning the Taiwan Strait.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/28/content_699065.htm
Call to overhaul Security Council heard
Updated: 2006-09-29 08:54
UNITED NATIONS - Amid the vitriol and accusations, leaders at this year's General Assembly meeting sounded the same note: The U.N. Security Council doesn't represent our interests anymore, and it must be reshaped to reflect the world of 2006, not 1945, the year it was created.
The demand was not new, but the insistence was. Reform of the Security Council had been given up for dead last year, suffocated by bitter national rivalries and a refusal to compromise. But with this year's General Assembly session, it's been resurrected.
Many speakers in the General Assembly suggested a new anger toward the council had fueled their call. The Security Council took more than a month to respond to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a delay that was largely blamed on the United States.
Iran was also dragged before the council under European and American urging, though many poor nations don't share their concern about its suspect nuclear program.
"The Security Council has not only to be more representative but also to be more effective if it is to be able to satisfactorily perform the role mandated to it by the charter," Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Assembly debate.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-09/29/content_699270.htm
2 relatives of new Saddam judge killed
(AP)
Updated: 2006-09-29 19:41
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The brother-in-law and nephew of the new judge presiding over Saddam Hussein's genocide trial were fatally shot Friday morning in Baghdad, police said. Kadhim Abdul-Hussein and his son Karrar were attacked in their car by unidentified assailants in the capital's mostly Sunni western Ghazaliya neighborhood, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting was related to Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, who took over the Saddam trial last week, or if it was another of the sectarian attacks that have been plaguing Baghdad.
Abul-Hussein and his son were Shiites.
Al-Khalifa was the deputy of the original chief judge in the trial, Abdullah al-Amiri. Al-Amiri was removed after he was accused of being too soft on Saddam.
Among other things, al-Amiri had angered Kurdish politicians by declaring in court that Saddam was "not a dictator."
Saddam's nine lawyers walked out of the trial on Monday, boycotting the proceedings to protest al-Amiri's removal.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-09/29/content_699899.htm
China's spending for research outpaces the US
By GAUTAM NAIK (WSJ)
Updated: 2006-09-29 15:06
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115949196271377533-vEXPMj4hv_90SRdiOV5_e8pIn0Q_20061006.html?mod=regionallinks
An unprecedented surge in research and development spending is helping China catch up with the two longstanding leaders in the field, the US and Japan, a new study found.
R&D spending in China has been growing at an annual rate of about 17%, and is far higher than the 4% to 5% annual growth rates reported for the US, Japan and the European Union over the past dozen years. China's massive investments in education are also bearing fruit. In 2002, its industrial-research work force was 42% the size of the equivalent US work force, up from 16% in 1991.
China is increasingly making its mark with scientific discoveries and patents held by its scientists. In 2003 China became only the third country, after the US and Russia, to put a person into orbit on its own. Yesterday, Michael Griffin, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, returned to the US after a visit to China -- the first time a NASA administrator has visited that country -- to explore and expand space-program cooperation.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-09/29/content_699775.htm
China lets yuan rise a bit on dollar
(NYtimes)
Updated: 2006-09-29 11:34
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/business/worldbusiness/29yuan.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=asia
HONG KONG -- It's been just days since Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. returned from China, but already the Chinese government has sharply stepped up the appreciation of its currency, allowing it to push through an important level against the dollar on Thursday for the first time.
The recent climb - less than a full percentage point since the beginning of September - is still modest and perhaps will not last. But it is producing cautious hope in the Bush administration that the Chinese government may be lifting its opposition to a revaluation that could ease China's huge trade surplus with the United States.
And partly in response to the currency lift in China, two influential senators in Washington announced Thursday that they were pulling back legislation that would punish China with tariffs if it did not allow the value of its currency to rise, a step that would make exports to the United States more expensive and imports from America more competitive.
Though modest, the rise this month in the value of China's currency, the yuan, has been at a rate more than four times the currency's appreciation for most of the past year.
On Thursday, China's government let the yuan push through 7.9 to the dollar, the latest in a series of daily highs that for the last two weeks has proceeded at an annualized rate of 17 percent.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699615.htm
Thialand coup leader ban 'political activities'
http://pub1.chinadaily.com.cn/slideshow/weekzine/Sept22/movie_1.htm
Czech teenager wins Miss World 2006
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-01 10:03
Winner of Miss World 2006 and Miss Czech Republic Tatana Kucharova (C) poses with Miss Australia Sabrina Houssami (L) and Miss Romania Ioana Valentina Boitor after the 56th Miss World contest in Warsaw September 30, 2006. [Reuters]
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2006-10/01/content_700740.htm
Wang Lei wins gold at World Fencing Championship
Updated: 2006-10-03 14:16
China's Wang Lei (R) competes with Portugal's Joaquim Videira in their men's fencing individual epee final at the World Fencing Championship in Turin October 2, 2006. [Reuters]
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/2006-10/03/content_701320.htm
College graduates find job market discriminatory
By Lin Lin (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-03 06:33
Zhu Yan, when asked to reflect on his job hunt after graduating this year from Jiangsu University in East China, shook his head.
"It was torture," Zhu, 22, said with a sigh.
"Some employers simply toss your CV into the dustbin when they find out you're a recent graduate. No one cares enough to talk to you."
In the past six months, Zhu, a marketing major, said he has sent out more than 300 CVs, but fewer than 10 per cent of the companies have even responded.
"The public job fairs have shut the door on us new graduates," he said. "Most jobs require at least two years' experience."
Zhu said he thinks the reason he has failed to find a job related to his major is "simply a lack of contacts," something that is more usually gained through work experience and therefore beyond the reach of someone fresh out of college.
Another story: A 25-year-old woman surnamed Xiao was expecting to find a decent job after completing her master's degree at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. She believed she had learnt the lessons of three years ago when lack of experience had counted against her. To her astonishment, she has found she is still unqualified this year.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/03/content_701231.htm
Citizens urged not to embarrass nation when abroad
(Agencies)
Updated: 2006-10-04 11:09
Beijing - With suggestions to speak quietly, respect queues and put litter in bins, China has released a list of "dos and don'ts" for citizens intending to travel abroad.
Chinese tourists visit Kuala Lumpur. China has released a list of "dos and don'ts" for citizens intending to travel abroad.[AFP]
The country's main tourism body and the central government's Spiritual Civilization Committee issued guidelines this week to tell travelers how to behave when overseas, the Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.
"The move aims to promote civilized behavior among Chinese travelers and restore the country's image, which has been tarnished by the behavior of some Chinese tourists," Xinhua said.
"Uncivilized behavior is becoming a real embarrassment for China."
Among the guidelines for Chinese travelers are to not litter, not talk loudly, respect queuing rules, be polite in public places and observe the rule of "ladies first", according to Xinhua.
Spitting is another habit at the top of the "don't" list.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/04/content_701590.htm
Two environmental officials sacked for toxic spill
Xinhua news agency has said.
Chen Lin, director of the Linxiang City Environmental Protection Bureau, and Liu Yushu, a deputy director, were sacked for failing to inspect two chemical plants responsible for the September 8 spill along the Xinqiang river in Hunan province, Xinhua said Tuesday.
Investigators said the two plants had severely violated environmental laws when dumping arsenide, a highly toxic arsenic compound, into the river.
The pollution forced the local government to suspend drinking water supplies to 80,000 people for four days. No casualties were reported.
A chronic intake of arsenide could cause liver and kidney damage or lung and skin cancer.
The local environmental protection bureau also violated rules when issuing pollutant discharge permits and were lax in their supervision, the report said.
Top managers at the two chemical plants were arrested shortly after the spill and the plants were shut down.
The two companies had discharged waste water with arsenide content of more than 1,000 times the national standard, previous reports said.
The Chinese government has vowed to crackdown on ecological destruction as it acknowledges the need to adjust the nation's growth model after 25 years of rapid economic growth.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/04/content_701578.htm
Promising future for west despite economic woes
By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-04 09:33
About 60 per cent of adults in China's west are confident they will have a promising future despite current heath and education woes, international researchers have revealed.
About 20 per cent cannot afford hospital treatment and more than one-third of families cannot afford tuition and college fees. However, about two-thirds of people living in rural areas and more than half of city residents, say they are better off than they were five years ago.
The findings were released last week by a Chinese-Norwegian team, which has been researching living conditions in western China for the past five years.
The survey, conducted by Norwegian research foundation FAFO and the National Research Centre for Science and Technology Development, interviewed 44,000 families in China's western regions except the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Jon Pedersen, head of research of FAFO, said despite major socio-economic differences, there was a confidence among the people surveyed.
"The differences in development within the western regions are very large, from modern cities like Chengdu with an important high-tech industry, to poor, traditional farming communities high in the mountains of Qinghai," he told China Daily yesterday.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/04/content_701572.htm
US sex scandal puts pressure on Republicans
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-04 10:36
Washington - US House of Representatives Republican leaders faced growing pressure over a congressional sex scandal on Tuesday, with Speaker Dennis Hastert rejecting calls to step down amid Republican fears about the potential fallout in November's fight for control of Congress.
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., right, addresses the media with Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Ill., at the Capitol in this 2003 file photo in Washington. [AP Photo]
The conservative Washington Times newspaper accused Hastert of barely pursuing warnings about Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexual messages to teenage boys and said in an editorial he "must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once."
Hastert has denied any knowledge of Foley's overtly sexual Internet messages to male congressional pages until they were made public on Friday, and he rejected calls for his resignation.
"I'm not going to do that," he said in an interview with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, adding he was trying "to do the right thing."
US President George W. Bush did not respond to questions in California over whether Hastert should resign, but said he was "confident he will provide whatever leadership he can to law enforcement" in its investigation of Foley.
"He's a father, teacher, coach who cares about the children of this country," said Bush, adding he was "dismayed and shocked" by Foley's behavior.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/04/content_701581.htm
Etiquette guide offers sleaze tips for posh girls
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-04 09:49
London: For hundreds of years, Debrett's has guided Britain's aristocracy through the niceties of meeting royalty, going to the races and eating soup in the correct way.
Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage are straying into previously unmentionable areas of the life of a modern girl -- with a new book offering guidance on adultery, toplessness and celebrity gossip. [Reuters]
But now the publisher of the bible of blue-blooded behaviour is straying into the previously unmentionable areas of the life of a modern girl with a new book offering guidance on adultery, toplessness and celebrity gossip.
The first edition of Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage known in Britain as the "toff's bible" was published in 1769, and its tome on manners, Debrett's Correct Form, has guided high society for decades.
But according to its editor, Jo Aitchison, the new book "Etiquette for Girls" is a sign that the traditional arbiters of civility are catching up with the times.
"It's a nod to the modern day," she said. "We're pulling Debrett's out of Victorian times and trying to make it relevant to today."
The book's advice ranges from how to conduct a sleaze-free office fling or a disease-free one night stand, to how to smoke at social occasions and what to do when you meet a celebrity.
"Avoid dark-alley gropery and unlady-like fumbling in the back of a cab," the guide says on the subject of one night stands. "Discuss the necessaries to avoid planting any love children or disease, and you're away."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/04/content_701576.htm
New Zealand Herald
Alaskan storm cracks iceberg in Antarctica
Wednesday October 4, 2006
A bad storm in Alaska last October generated an ocean swell that broke apart a giant iceberg near Antarctica six days later, US researchers say.
The waves travelled 13,500km to destroy the iceberg, said Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago and Emile Okal at Northwestern University.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers said their study showed how weather in one region could affect events far away.
"One of the things we're debating in the world right now is whether global warming might increase the storminess in the oceans," MacAyeal said.
"The question we then pose is: Could global storminess have an influence on the Antarctic ice sheet that had never been thought of?"
The researchers were watching icebergs using satellite images, and saw that on a clear, calm day last October, a big iceberg known as B15A broke into half a dozen pieces.
MacAyeal and colleagues had put seismometers and other instruments on the 96km-long iceberg and on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf.
When they saw B15A break up, they persuaded other researchers in Antarctica to fly over to the berg and get their instruments.
The seismometer record showed that although it was mild and clear, the iceberg had been moving up and down and from side to side.
"I was surprised at the level of amplitude that we were recording," Okal said. The researchers figured a storm somewhere may have generated waves, which are known to travel long distances.
They did some calculations and saw the swell must have come from more than 13,500km away.
"Our jaws dropped," MacAyeal said. "We looked in the Pacific Ocean and there, 13,500km away, six days earlier, was the winter season's first really big, nasty storm that ... lasted for about a day and a half in the Gulf of Alaska."
Records from wave buoys in between showed that the waves in Alaska were about 10m high and then two days later they were down to 4.5m as they passed Hawaii on their way south. And three days later, a sensitive seismometer on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific recorded the waves' passage.
"We think that B15A was in the right position where these waves would be fatal to it," MacAyeal said. "The iceberg shattered like a gracile wine glass being sung to by a heavy soprano."
The findings come as concern about the impact of global warming in the Arctic intensify.
Melting sea ice in the Arctic has taken a sudden and enormous leap forward in one of the most ominous developments yet in the onset of climate change. Two studies by Nasa show a great surge in the disappearance of Arctic ice, including Greenland, over the last two years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404143
Global warming will threaten millions say climate scientists
1.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Michael McCarthy
Drought threatening the lives of millions will spread across half the land surface of the earth in the coming century because of global warming, according to new predictions from Britain's leading climate scientists.
Extreme drought, in which agriculture is effectively impossible, will affect nearly a third of the planet, according to the study from the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research.
It is one of the direst forecasts so far of the potential effects of rising temperatures around the world - yet it may be an underestimate, the scientists involved said yesterday.
The findings, released at the Climate Clinic at the Conservative party conference in Bournemouth, drew astonished and dismayed reactions from aid agencies and development specialists, who fear that the poor of developing countries will be worst hit.
"This is genuinely terrifying," said Andrew Pendleton of Christian Aid. "It is a death sentence for many millions of people. It will mean huge migration off the land at levels we have not seen before, and at levels poor countries cannot cope with. It will mean huge conflict."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404255
Heat on top polluters to reduce global costs of climate change
Wednesday October 4, 2006
The world's top 20 polluting nations are under new pressure to attack the global costs of climate change.
Delegates from the G8 group of nations meeting in Mexico are discussing possible ways to meet future energy demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern is expected to present findings from his review into the economic effect of climate change.
An outline of his report will be presented to a closed-door meeting of G8 environment ministers today. The full report is expected to be published this month.
"The central message is that the problem is urgent, we have the technology to start addressing it now, we need to start addressing it now and there is no excuse for delay," said Greenpeace climate change campaigner Steve Sawyer.
Climate campaigners said Stern's outline report to the third follow-up meeting after the July 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles in Scotland was expected to lay out a range of climate options but leave the choice of action to political leaders.
Campaigners say early drafts of Stern's report suggest he will make the case for urgent global action to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404142
Second quake shakes Mt Cook
11.00pm Monday October 2, 2006
The Mount Cook region was shaken by two earthquakes in just over an hour tonight.
A quake measuring 4.6 on the richter scale struck at 10.02pm at a depth of 8km, 30km northeast of Mount Cook.
It followed a 4.3 quake at 8.48pm, at a depth of 5km, also 30km northwest of Mount Cook.
GNS Science said the second quake, like the first, may have been felt in the central South Island.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404021
North Shore land-slip hits landmark
UPDATED 12.15pm Monday October 2, 2006
By Elizabeth Binning and NZPA
A slip in the Auckland suburb of Beach Haven is threatening a house and may have damaged a popular local landmark.
The slip, which follows a day of very heavy rain, rumbled about 15 metres down the hillside at Larkings Landing carrying an estimated 20 tonnes of soil and trees.
Engineers were inspecting a 30m-high cliff face to assess if any more of it would fall as the heavy rain continued.
One of the owners, who did not want to be named, said they evacuated the house as a precaution.
She said until the engineers had completed their report, they did not know the future of the land or the two houses closest to the cliff edge.
North Shore City Council spokesman Paul O'Brien said the site would also be inspected by Earthquake Commission engineers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403897
Wild weather with more to come [+pictures]
UPDATED 8.25am Monday October 2, 2006
By James Ihaka, Elizabeth Binning and Lee Rowberry
The MetService is warning more wild weather could hit northern regions today after a mini tornado yesterday which swept through West Auckland damaging roofs, uprooting trees and causing widespread flooding.
A heavy rain warning was issued last night, with thunderstorms and up to 100mm of rain expected to fall in Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula by this afternoon.
Yesterday's tornado struck in Martin Jugum Lane about 3.30pm, heralding a severe electric storm that caused flooding, landslips and damage throughout West Auckland, the North Shore and central city.
Firefighters have now been called to around 200 incidents since yesterday afternoon. The AA is warning this morning that surface flooding is particularly deep at the end of the North-Western Motorway at Westgate where State Highways 16 and 18 meet.
Further north, police says there are still concerns about flooding on the Kaipara Coast Highway. International and domestic flights were also affected at Auckland airport.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403876
Wellington Airport again closed by fog
UPDATED 6.55pm Monday October 2, 2006
Fog has again closed Wellington Airport.
An airport spokesman said the fog had rolled in about 3pm and no flights had been able to land since.
"Lots of cancellations and no arrivals at this stage. They would be able to take off but we don't have any aircraft here to take off."
Air New Zealand spokeswoman Pam Wong said four 737s were diverted to Palmerston North and another four such flights cancelled by 6pm.
Smaller aircraft flights were also cancelled meaning at least 1000 passengers were affected.
She said all the Air New Zealand flights affected so far were domestic but international flights expected after 11pm could also be diverted.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403955
Schwab says US and EU alone can't make trade deal
1.00pm Wednesday September 27, 2006
WASHINGTON - The United States and European Union can't make their own deal to save world trade talks, the top US trade official has said, two days before meeting with her European Union counterpart.
"It would be terrific if he showed up with interesting proposals in his pockets," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters after signing a textile trade agreement with Indonesian Trade Minister Marie Elka Pangestu.
"(But) when you have 149 members of the WTO, the success or failure of the Doha round rests with more than one or two or a handful of countries," Schwab said, referring to her talks on Thursday with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
Mandelson, who arrives on Wednesday, will be in Washington for the first time since nearly five-year-old world trade talks were put on hold in July after negotiators failed to resolve disagreements over how far to cut farm subsidies and tariffs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403201
Bush polarises aspiring leaders
Thursday September 28, 2006
By Catherine Field
PARIS - True to his right-or-wrong approach to life, George W. Bush is polarising the next generation of political leaders in France and Britain, who are shunning or embracing the US President as they prepare their run at power.
With elections due next year in France and Britain's ruling Labour Party gripped by a leadership struggle, would-be presidents and prime ministers are staking out radical positions on the Oval Office's controversial incumbent.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose bid for the presidency in elections due in April and May is considered a certainty, has stirred a fierce storm by styling himself as pro-American and staging a chummy photo-call handshake with Bush at the White House.
Sarkozy, a conservative, won warm praise from parts of the US media for a speech in which he paid tribute to the United States, blasted his own country for arrogance and attacked President Jacques Chirac's decision to block UN approval for the US-led war on Iraq in 2003. "I'm not a coward. I'm proud of this friendship and I'm happy to proclaim it," said Sarkozy.
The leading left-wing contender for head of state, Segolene Royal, lacerated Sarkozy for his stance.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403361
Mobil backs off petrol price rise
9.15pm Monday October 2, 2006
Mobil increased petrol and diesel prices by six cents today, and lowered them again within hours when other petrol companies declined to follow suit.
"It went up and went down again," Mobil spokesman Peter Thornbury said.
He presumed this was because other petrol companies did not follow Mobil's lead.
"It was what we thought was an appropriate price based on factors we consider when we make pricing decisions."
One of those factors was rising product costs, he said.
"But obviously it's a competitive market...so we adjusted our price."
Mobil prices have returned to $1.43.9 for 91, $1.48.9 for 95 and 1.03.9 for diesel.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10403994
PM taking advice on spy claims
8.30pm Monday October 2, 2006
Prime Minister Helen Clark says she has not ruled out taking legal action following claims by private investigators hired by the Exclusive Brethren to follow her, her husband and Cabinet ministers.
Private detective Lew Proctor claimed at the weekend he was paid by the Exclusive Brethren to spy on Miss Clark and her husband Peter Davis.
He told the Herald on Sunday the investigation was continuing, and hinted that politically explosive information would be revealed this week.
Another private investigator, Wayne Idour, sub-contracted by Mr Proctor, said today he was still investigating "certain people".
He told TV3 the main focus of his inquiries was "corruption" but he did not want to specify what he meant by that.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403983
NZ students perform well compared with others
4.00pm Monday October 2, 2006
New Zealand students continue to perform well compared with those in similar societies and better than most in reading, mathematics and science, a report released today says.
Education Minister Steve Maharey's New Zealand Schools 05 report is an annual overview of the compulsory education sector.
It said although general achievement is high, many schools continue to face the challenge that some students do not do as well as others - particularly Maori and Pacific Island students.
Several initiatives were introduced to deal with this and gains were being made, the report said.
The report measured the impact of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), introduced between 2002 and 2004.
It said that during 2005, 62 per cent of Year 11 candidates, 74 per cent of Year 12 candidates and 67 per cent of Year 13 candidates gained an NCEA qualification.
"By the time they leave school, the majority of students have gained a qualification or significant credits towards one," it said.
"In 2005, only 13 per cent of school leavers left with little or not attainment.
"This is an improvement since 2002, when 18 per cent of school leavers had little or no attainment."
In 2005, 80 per cent of 16-year-olds stayed on at school but this reduced to 60 per cent of 17-year-olds and only 13 per cent of 18-year-olds.
However, 79 per cent of school leavers became involved in tertiary studies within five years of leaving.
Over the past 10 years, the proportion of students going directly from school to a tertiary education increased, from 47 per cent in 1998 to 58 per cent in 2004.
During 2005, more than 3500 students had difficulty engaging with schools and were involved in alternative education.
"About 75 per cent were aged 14 or less, about two-thirds were male and some 60 per cent were Maori," the report said.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403939
Chemical spill alert in Christchurch
10.00am Monday October 2, 2006
A damaged container sparked a chemical spill alert in Christchurch today after workers discovered a leaking container of sodium hydroxide.
A Fire Service spokeswoman said workers unloading containers from a railway wagon at Matipo St, in Riccarton, found the damaged container at 2.45am.
Four fire crews attended the scene along with police while the container was removed, she said.
Emergency services remained at the scene until 5.30am while the clean-up was been carried out, she said.
The scene was now safe, she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403903
Taser used once in first month of trial
12.25pm Monday October 2, 2006
Tasers have been drawn by police 13 times during the first month of a one-year trial, but used just once.
The 50,000 volt electrical charge of the Taser was used at an incident in Western Springs on September 8.
On nine occasions police have drawn the weapon, using a tactic called "laser painting" to calm the situation down.
Tasers were taken out of their holster as a precaution on three occasions, police said.
They have been drawn twice in recent incidents involving people known to have access to weapons.
On September 20 a Taser was taken out of its holster as a precaution after a woman had been threatened with a knife in New Lynn.
On September 27 a man armed with a knife in Counties Manukau was safely disarmed using "laser painting" after threatening to kill himself.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10403924
Landslip house may be largest EQC section payout [+pictures]
5.45pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
The house teetering on the edge of a collapsing cliff on Auckland's North Shore could become the largest single payout by the Earthquake Commission for a dwelling and section.
The $1 million house was declared uninhabitable yesterday after its backyard and part of its deck with a spectacular harbour view, disappeared into Auckland's Waitemata Harbour.
The owners were overseas and Earthquake Commission engineers said it would be no surprise if more of the cliff tumbled into the harbour, probably taking the house with it.
EQC insurance manager Lance Dixon said if the land and house were written off and the owners were paid the $1 million value, it would beat the EQC's previous largest payout for a house and section by $300,000.
Today EQC engineers monitored the house and section but more cracks surrounding land painted a grim picture for the Awanui Street house's future.
The owners had yet to lodge a claim but EQC said it had made initial contact with them to discuss the future of the house.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404319
Southerlies cause transport chaos in Wellington
UPDATED 4.45pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
Severe southerly winds have been creating havoc in Wellington today, causing the cancellation of all Cook Strait ferry crossings and severely disrupting flights.
Toll Shipping spokeswoman Sue Foley said Interislander passenger ferries were halted this afternoon because of 5.8m swells in the Cook Strait.
She said crossings would resume tomorrow morning if the bad weather had eased.
Wellington Airport duty manager Stephen Ryvinsky said Air New Zealand had suspended domestic operations at the airport because of the wind.
However, other domestic carriers hadn't followed suit, and international flights were still going out, Mr Ryvinsky said.
Air New Zealand spokeswoman Andrea Dale said by late afternoon the suspension had affected 80 flights and about 4000 passengers .
At least two lightning strikes in the central city caused power blackouts, each lasting a few seconds.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404290
NZ houses damp and need repairs, survey finds
2.25pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
New Zealand houses are often built in such a way they will end up damp, and most homeowners know they need to fix up their houses but usually do not, a building research study has found.
Of the 565 owner-occupied houses inspected by researchers from the Building Research Association of New Zealand (Branz), each house needed an average of $3700 worth of repairs.
When interviewed, homeowners said they spent an average of less than $1300 a year home maintenance, which researchers said was not enough to maintain the houses.
This was, however, an improvement on previous years.
In 1999, houses needed about $4900 worth of serious repairs, and researchers said the average overall condition of houses was better than in previous surveys.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404307
Kiwis create website that pays you to save energy
1.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
A New Zealand company has applied to patent Celsias.com, the world's first online community that allows regions, businesses or community groups to be paid for reducing the carbon emissions from their everyday energy use.
Celsias.com is based upon a fast growing global economy that recognises energy savings, or carbon credits, as a form of currency.
Celsias director Nick Gerritsen said with Celsias it was possible to track, create and trade carbon credits on the internet.
"We believe it very much has the potential to follow in the footsteps of eBay, Google and Skype," Mr Gerritsen said.
"Up till now no-one else has provided an end-to-end solution where you can get paid to play your part in solving the climate change crisis," he said.
"Our core goal is to assist our members to create as many carbon credits as possible. Celsias.com will, in effect, pay them to save the world," Mr Gerritsen said.
Celsias.com is expected to go live in early 2007.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404280
United Nations to consider deep sea trawling ban
9.20am Wednesday October 4, 2006
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations needs to stop the destruction of deep sea ecosystems by banning fishermen from trawling nets on the ocean floor, Australia, New Zealand and Palau, joined by actress Sigourney Weaver, said today.
The 192-member United Nations General Assembly is due to begin debating this week an Australian-led plan to ban deep sea bottom trawling in unmanaged high seas and impose tougher regulation of other destructive fishing practices.
The European Commission, executive of the 25-member European Union, has said it would support a ban on deep sea trawling. UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, but they reflect the will of the international community.
About 64 per cent of the world's ocean is in international waters, of which about three-quarters is unmanaged, according to the Pew Institute for Ocean Science.
"The world's oceans are facing a crisis," Weaver told a news conference, adding that deep sea bottom trawling was "raping these oceans beyond site and beyond regulation".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10404246
Police dragged into election spending row
UPDATED 1.10pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
National Party leader Don Brash has been accused of intimidating police after writing to them to complain about "glaring inadequacies" in its inquiry into Labour Party election spending
In a letter to Police Commissioner Howard Broad, Dr Brash - who has accused Labour of corruption - said the police had failed to live up to the public's expectations in its investigation.
But Police Minister Annette King said the letter amounted to initimidation of the police and this was a breach of the convention that politicians kept out of police decisions about who should be prosecuted.
She said Dr Brash's attack was taking New Zealand on a dangerous path -- "down the road of a police state".
National claims Labour could owe more than $800,000, most of it from its $447,000 pledge card.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10404270
Man linked to Rainbow Warrior sinking gets away scot free
Monday October 2, 2006
By Catherine Field
PARIS - The Government will not seek extradition of the man believed to have planted the limpet mines that sank the Rainbow Warrior.
Prime Minister Helen Clark's office said yesterday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had advised that in 1991 then Attorney-General Paul East stayed "all outstanding charges", in the country's national interest.
"This followed a Cabinet decision to not seek extradition of an agent with alleged involvement who had been arrested in Switzerland. The Government of the day accepted that the Rainbow Warrior bombing was resolved," the Prime Minister's office said.
The decision comes after weekend revelations that Frenchman Gerard Royal - the brother of France's likely next President, Segolene Royal - was a prime suspect in the 1985 bombing of the Greenpeace ship in Auckland.
Greenpeace executive director Bunny McDiarmid - a Rainbow Warrior crew member the day it was bombed - said it was not worthwhile pursuing extradition. She believed there was little hope the French secret agents who carried out the bombing would be brought to justice.
She said whoever did the bombing was getting away with murder.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403867
Seoul gravely concerned at North Korea's test threat
6.05pm Thursday October 5, 2006
By Jack Kim
SEOUL - South Korea voiced grave concern on Wednesday over North Korea's plans to test a nuclear bomb and China urged restraint after the United States said the move would be "an unacceptable threat" to world peace.
Reclusive North Korea announced on Tuesday it planned its first nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions".
The United States, France and Japan pressed for a UN response while Beijing, the nearest Pyongyang has to an ally, said the issue should be handled by the six-country forum involved in long-standing talks over the North's nuclear ambitions.
"This government reaffirms the position that North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons will never be allowed," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho told reporters.
He said his government was gravely concerned by North Korea's statement and urged Pyongyang to scrap its plans, which would ratchet up tensions even further on the Cold War's last frontier.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404331
Israel and Hizbollah broke human rights law, say UN envoys
1.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Richard Waddington
GENEVA - Israel and Hizbollah committed serious violations of international humanitarian law during the month-long Lebanon war, four UN human rights envoys said today.
Israel did not distinguish between military and civilian targets during the July 12-August 14 conflict, failed to apply the principle of proportionality and did not take all precautions to limit injury and damage to civilians, they said.
According to the investigators, Hizbollah guerrillas, whose seizing of two Israeli soldiers triggered the fighting, violated human rights law by firing rockets loaded with anti-personnel ball bearings at civilian areas in northern Israel.
Violations by both sides led to many deaths and injuries, caused widespread destruction and forced large numbers of people to flee their homes, the investigators said in a 40-page report to be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
"The mission concludes that serious violations of both human rights and humanitarian law have been committed by Israel," the four envoys said following a visit to Israel and Lebanon.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404292
Iran warned could face sanctions
1.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN - The United States and Britain said today Iran could soon face sanctions because it showed no sign of halting sensitive nuclear work, while the EU said the latest talks had been helpful but had brought no breakthrough.
A senior Iranian atomic official said suspending uranium enrichment, which the West says Iran wants to use to build atomic bombs, would not solve the nuclear standoff.
The deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, instead suggested France could invest in Iran's nuclear industry, enabling it to supervise Tehran's work.
Similar proposals for foreign investment in the past found no takers. The West has opposed plans that would keep enrichment on Iranian soil and allow Tehran to master the technology, which Iran says it wants so that it can generate electricity.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has been trying to coax Iran into halting enrichment, said a telephone conversation yesterday with Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was constructive but had not broken the impasse.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404282
Gunman may have planned sex assault at Amish school
UPDATED 12.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Jon Hurdle
NICKEL MINES, Pennsylvania - The man who stormed an Amish school and killed five girls had confessed to his wife he molested two girls 20 years ago, and police said he may have planned to sexually abuse his 10 hostages.
Charles Carl Roberts, a 32-year-old dairy truck driver, was also haunted by the death of his daughter who died 20 minutes after her premature birth nine years ago, police said after examining suicide notes he left before yesterday's rampage.
After Roberts dropped his older children off at a school bus stop yesterday morning, he armed himself with three guns, 600 rounds of ammunition and an array of tools and headed for the Amish school.
He apparently chose the Georgetown School because it was an easy target rather than out of any grudge against the Amish, police said.
Roberts had planned for a long siege by preparing to barricade himself and his hostages inside the one-room school in rural Lancaster County, about 100km west of Philadelphia.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404238
Turkish hijacker gives up in Italy
UPDATED 9.25am Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Fabio Serino
BRINDISI, Italy - A Turkish hijacker seeking to communicate with Pope Benedict seized an airliner flying from Albania to Istanbul this morning and diverted it to Italy before surrendering.
All 107 passengers and six crew left the Turkish Airlines plane at Brindisi airport after brief negotiations, Italy's aviation authority ENAC said, adding that police were checking to see if other hijackers were among those on board.
"At the moment one person has given himself up. We are trying to verify whether there was a second hijacker on the aircraft," Antonio Lattarulo, head of ENAC for Brinidisi in southern Italy, told Reuters.
Turkish TV initially quoted police sources as saying the plane had been hijacked in protest at a planned November visit to Turkey by the Pope, who offended many Muslims with a speech last month linking the spread of the Islamic faith to violence.
But Turkish media later identified the hijacker as Hakan Ekinci, a convert to Christianity who had written to the Pope in late August, asking for his help to avoid compulsory military service in Turkey.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404235
Brazil's scandal-hit Lula faces run-off
UPDATED 8.50pm Monday October 2, 2006
By Andrea Welsh
BRASILIA, Brazil - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must fight his main challenger in a run-off vote after many Brazilians turned against him in Sunday's presidential election and punished the former union leader for a string of corruption scandals.
Brazil's electoral court said that Lula just failed to garner the 50 per cent of votes needed to be re-elected in the first round and he would face a run-off against Geraldo Alckmin of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party.
"I'm going into the second round with a great chance of winning ... We're going to have an ethical, honest and efficient government," Alckmin, the former governor of Sao Paulo state who is close to the business elite, told cheering supporters.
Lula was just shy
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10403890
Putin 'overreacted' to spy row, Georgian leader says
4.00pm Monday October 2, 2006
BATUMI, Georgia - Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has shrugged off Moscow's harsh reaction to the arrest of four Russian army officers for spying.
Saakashvili, a strong US ally whose drive to bring the small Caucasus state to NATO irks Moscow, also rejected suggestions that his actions were guided by Washington.
Russia recalled its ambassador from Tbilisi, evacuated much of its diplomatic and military staff from Georgia and stopped issuing visas in protest against the detention last week of its four army officers charged with spying.
In harsh remarks unusual even for chronically strained ties between the two states, President Vladimir Putin on Sunday accused Georgia on Sunday of "state terrorism with hostage-taking".
"I don't think this is serious," Saakashvili said in a late night interview to Western journalists in the Black Sea port of Batumi. "It is an overreaction caused by nervousness that they have created by themselves."
"They have become hostages of their own propaganda," he added speaking in English.
Georgia suspects Russia of seeking to change its pro-Western government, which came to power in the 2003 "Revolution of Roses", and blames it for backing separatists in its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403944
Thailand opens Asia's largest airport
9.55am Monday October 2, 2006
BANGKOK - Thailand's new international airport - the largest in Asia - has opened for flights in a bid to rival Hong Kong and Singapore as a transport hub.
Most things ran smoothly at the giant US$4bn ($6bn) airport, Suvarnabhumi, on its first days of operation last week although a computer glitch did strand some cargo and baggage.
The computer system was unable to link to the Thai Customs Department meaning some cargo and baggage could not clear customs, leaving shippers and some travellers frustrated.
The man in charge of the new airport, which will handle 45 million passengers a year, is Chotisak Asapaviriya.
As head of Airports of Thailand and the man ultimately responsible for the move from the tired arrival halls of Bangkok's Don Muang to Suvarnabhumi he headed the move which saw 1.8 million pieces of equipment - much of it the space of a few hours - shifted across Bangkok.
It was billed as one of the largest logistical operations in aviation history.
"Busy? I'll show you busy," he said at a recent business lunch before removing six mobile phones from his pockets and lining them up on the table.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403904
Dam collapse washes away 1000 homes in Nigeria
10.20am Monday October 2, 2006
GUSAU, Nigeria - Flood water from a burst reservoir dam in northern Nigeria has made 1000 families homeless, but about 40 people earlier feared dead have been found alive, the state governor said on Sunday.
Local media had reported Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani saying that at least 40 people died after heavy rainfall swelled the reservoir to critical levels, causing the dam to collapse and send a barrage of water through villages.
"All those missing were later found safe and alive," Sani said.
"We have over 1000 families affected and property over 3 billion naira ($35.45 million), but there is no loss of life."
The reservoir was the main source of drinking water for Zamfara state capital Gusau.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403895
Diplomats focus on enhancing African force for Darfur
1.00pm Monday October 2, 2006
By Stephen Castle
A beefed-up African peacekeeping force has emerged as the best hope of averting humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur after the Sudanese president defiantly brushed aside pressure to admit UN troops.
In almost two hours of talks on Sunday, Omar al-Bashir told the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, that he feared his country would suffer the same fate as Iraq if UN soldiers intervened.
Diplomats are now concentrating on the possibility of strengthening a 7000-strong African Union force already on the ground in Darfur.
They believe Mr Bashir might allow the addition of some UN components - possibly including European troops - providing there is no American involvement and that command and control remains in African hands.
The search for a solution was given added urgency by warnings from the World Food Programme that, because of an upsurge in violence, 155,000 people have been given no food for four months.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403899
US to resume some military aid to Latin America
11.20am Monday October 2, 2006
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Some US military aid kept from Latin American nations that did not agree to exempt American troops from the International Criminal Court will start flowing again when President Bush signs waivers, a senior defence official has said.
Those waivers, now on Bush's desk, are seen as critical to Pentagon officials including US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who arrived in Nicaragua on Sunday to meet with regional Defence ministers.
"There's going to be probably no nation on Earth that's going to agree with us all the time," Rumsfeld said.
"That being the case, it has been and is today and would be in the future unfortunate if our immediate reaction to some disagreement or difference as to a policy issue were to have the automatic effect of severing military-to-military relationships."
Bush is expected to sign waivers for nine countries in the region including Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, but not Venezuela, a senior Defence official said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403914
Zambia's Mwanawasa vows crackdown amid poll unrest
9.20am Monday October 2, 2006
LUSAKA - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa appealed for calm on Sunday as protesters blocked roads and burned tyres amid charges he rigged national elections, but said police would deal firmly with those trying to "sabotage" the vote.
"I want to appeal for calm and peace," he said in an address to the nation on state television.
"The law enforcement agencies will deal firmly with all trouble makers and those who want to sabotage the elections."
Mwanawasa, who has surged ahead in an election count, spoke as protesters blocked streets with burning tyres and hurled stones at police, after officials delayed announcing final results in a presidential election for "security reasons".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403894
New Thai prime minister promises ethical government
3.20pm Monday October 2, 2006
The newly-appointed interim prime minister of Thailand, General Surayud Chulanont, has promised his government will be based on good ethics.
General Surayud's appointment has been endorsed by King Bhumipol and he will spend the next week deciding on the 35 men and women who will make up his cabinet.
Radio Australia's South East Asia correspondent, Karen Percy, said General Surayud, a former army chief, was already trying to differentiate his government from that of the deposed prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Mr Shinawatra had been accused of corruption and interfering with public institutions.
In a nationally televised address following his acceptance of the job on Sunday, General Surayud stressed that he was only expecting to be in power for a short period of time.
The Council for Democratic Reform, which staged the coup almost two weeks ago, has promised to hold elections within a year.
Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a bloodless, late-night coup on September 19.
Thailand's military used allegations of corruption in the government of Thaksin Shinawatra to justify the first coup in 15 years.
The ousted premier, who was at the UN General Assembly in New York when he was turfed out, is now living in London where he has a residence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10403937
North Korea says it will conduct nuclear test
Wednesday October 4, 2006
SEOUL - Reclusive North Korea says it will conduct its first-ever nuclear test, blaming a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions" for forcing its hand.
The statement by North Korea's foreign ministry, which was carried on the official KCNA News Agency, was immediately condemned by Japan as called "totally unforgivable".
Its announcement capped weeks of rumors that the Stalinist state was planning a test and came amid increasingly bitter relations with the outside world after it test-fired missiles in July.
"The US extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK (North Korea) to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defence," the statement said.
But it added that North Korea would never use nuclear weapons first and would "do its utmost to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula and give impetus to the worldwide nuclear disarmament and the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons".
Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make 6 to 8 nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to make one small enough to mount on a missile.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso was quoted by Kyodo News Agency as calling the planned test "totally unforgivable" and warning that the international community would respond harshly.
Officials in North Korea's two other major neighbors -- China and South Korea -- gave no immediate reaction to the report.
All are members of six-nation talks trying to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. The other two countries are Russia and the United States.
North Korea walked out of the talks almost a year ago and has refused to return until the United States ends a financial crackdown on its offshore bank accounts, which analysts say has begun to pinch the government of the impoverished country.
A nuclear test is certain to be seen as an attempt by North Korea to force the United States into direct negotiations, something it has long pushed for but which Washington has rejected until Pyongyang returns to the six-party talks.
"North Korea thinks it has no other option but to press the United States to have bilateral negotiations with them. North Korea has nothing to lose by conducting a nuclear test," Chang Myung-soon, an expert on North Korea's military, said.
"It wouldn't care if its people will starve due to toughened economic sanctions, and a military attack on North Korea will be really difficult considering opposition from South Korea, China and Russia," he said.
"I don't think this will end up just as blackmail. I see the possibility of an actual nuclear test as high."
North blames US
North Korea blamed the United States for the latest ratcheting up of tension on the Korean peninsula, which has been divided for more than 50 years after a war over which no formal peace treaty has ever been signed.
It accused Washington over trying to topple its government with the financial crackdown.
"The US daily increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure have caused a grave situation on the Korean peninsula in which the supreme interests and security of our state are seriously infringed upon and the Korean nation stands at the crossroads of life and death," the North Korean statement said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404218
Two Koreas agree to resume military talks
12.20pm Monday October 2, 2006
North and South Korea have agreed to resume military talks for the first time in almost five months as Seoul seeks to ease tensions over Pyongyang's July missile tests.
Officials in Seoul said the one-day talks would be held on Monday local time.
It will be the first military contact since both sides met in May to discuss ways to reduce tensions on the world's last Cold War frontier.
The North called for a working-level military meeting on July 3, just two days before its missile tests which sparked international concern, UN Security Council condemnation and weapons-related sanctions.
The South rejected that meeting in protest against the launches, its first boycott of talks with the North since a landmark summit in 2000 that launched a series of peace and reconciliation initiatives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10403921
Fiery 30-vehicle accident in South Korea
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Eleven people were killed and 50 injured in a fiery 30-vehicle pile-up on a South Korean highway. Two trucks collided on a bridge 70km southwest of Seoul, blocking the road.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404208
Austria's Schuessel congratulates victorious rival
8.55am Monday October 2, 2006
VIENNA - Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said on Sunday the country's main opposition Social Democrats "presumably" won the election and congratulated their leader Alfred Gusenbauer in an interview on state TV ORF.
"We have to go step by step. The first step is the question who won the election - and that is presumably Dr Gusenbauer," Schuessel said in the live interview. "I congratulate him wholeheartedly," he added.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403893
Eight killed in clashes between rival Palestinian forces
9.40am Monday October 2, 2006
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - Rival Palestinian forces clashed across the Gaza Strip overnight, killing eight people and injuring at least 100 in the biggest outbreak of internal fighting in months over unpaid wages and stalled unity talks.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, called on Palestinians to stop the violence. President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not allow it to escalate to a civil war and vowed to punish those responsible.
"What happened in Gaza, the bloody confrontations went beyond all limits," Abbas said in a speech from the Jordanian capital, Amman, aired via Arabic televisions.
"From my position I instruct the attorney general to begin an investigation and those who will prove to be involved will be prosecuted," he said
Gunmen in Gaza and the West Bank, loyal to either Hamas or Abbas' Fatah group, set ablaze government offices and stormed hospitals, schools and other buildings affiliated with one of the groups, destroying or removing office equipment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403901
Pakistan accused of train bombing
Monday October 2, 2006
NEW DELHI - In a dramatic accusation which will raise the spectre of a new stand-off between two nuclear-armed neighbours, India said that Pakistani intelligence was behind the July Mumbai bombings in which at least 186 people were killed.
The Mumbai police accused Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency of planning and masterminding the attacks, and said they were carried out by a militant Islamic group based in Pakistan. Islamabad denied the accusation and demanded that India produce evidence to back it up.
"India has always chosen this path of pointing fingers at Pakistan without evidence," Pakistan's Information Minister, Tariq Azim Khan, said. "If they have any evidence, they should provide us evidence and we will carry out our investigations."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403830
Two soldiers' deaths highlight crisis in US morale
Monday October 2, 2006
By Cole Moreton
The troops are exhausted. They need reinforcements. Tanks are broken and there is no money to repair them. Fighting is fierce, morale low.
These sound like the complaints of British soldiers in Afghanistan - only last week an officer there declared he was quitting in disgust after his men had to borrow bullets from Canadians during a battle.
But the loudest complaints are not from the British. It is the US Army that is now in revolt. General Peter Schoomaker, its leader, is refusing to submit a budget to the Pentagon because he says his troops need billions of extra dollars to go on doing what is expected of them.
The news has shocked British squaddies, who are used to seeing the Americans as better equipped, better supported and better paid. If even the Yanks are in trouble, what hope can the Brits have?
Lance Corporal Jon Hetherington and Specialist Andrew Velez were both 22 when they died in Afghanistan this northern summer. They held similar ranks. Their lives and deaths reveal the differences between the allies, and puncture the myths.
The British Army says its soldiers are better equipped now than ever. The Ministry of Defence says troops on the frontline "have all got everything they need". Extra helicopters have been sent and the Army has spent $1.4 billion on new Mastiff vehicles to replace its ageing Land-Rovers.
The gear is arriving, even as the fighting has eased. But when troops like Lance Corporal Hetherington were deployed to Afghanistan this year, they were equipped to keep the peace and rebuild schools.
They coped, heroically, with the unexpected ferocity of the Taleban, some units fighting night and day for a month. But when equipment broke down under extreme use, roads became impassable and air support failed, they were in trouble. Reports suggest some ran out of ammunition, food and water.
Hetherington died in Musa Qala in the early hours of August 27. He had served his country for six years, a length of service which earns a British corporal $67,293 a year. A US equivalent, such as Specialist Velez, is paid around $70,246. The difference is that the US soldier in a war zone pays no tax. He may also have received up to $71,680 for enlisting, enough to lift a family from poverty. The British get no such payment, but the idea is being considered as recruiting levels fall.
The two forces have very different attitudes. British troops are now experienced peacekeepers, but those serving alongside Americans complain their allies believe "peacekeeping is for wimps". This has led to claims of excessive force.
The British Army has been based on regimental tradition, but some disgruntled soldiers say it is being dismantled by a reorganisation that has seen famous regiments such as the Black Watch absorbed into others.
Links with areas of the country where sons followed fathers into service were being broken, said a former Black Watch officer, along with the sense of belonging. "The Americans think, 'God, if only we had that system'. But now everything we value is under attack."
Few US soldiers can fault the immense investment in their kit, but the psychological demands on them appear greater. The British spend six months in action before returning to their home base to rest and train.
This has been eroded lately, but the intention remains. Americans must complete a two-year tour of duty before a year off. Some returning from Iraq have been stopped and told to go back.
The pressure got to Velez. In 2004 his brother, a corporal, was killed in the battle of Fallujah. He escorted the body home to Texas, asking his father, "Do you know how hard it was to talk to Fred when he was in a box of ice?" Despite hallucinations, he returned to the frontline. But on July 25, in camp in Sharon, he shot himself.
"Poor sod," said a British infantryman when told the story.
"We get bollock-all support from home, from the politicians and you lot in the media, but at least we get to come home, if we're lucky.
"What the Yanks expect from their boys, frankly, it shocks me."
THE GI v THE SQUADDIE - WHOSE KIT IS BEST?
Helmet
The M6 worn by British troops (right) weighs 1.4kg, so is marginally lighter than the US version. But the 1.6kg Modular Integrated Communications Helmet is newer. Both British and US soldiers (below) wear an earpiece and microphone.
Body armour
The Ministry of Defence says British supply problems have now been solved. The US spent $460 million on its more advanced boron carbide ceramic system, which weighs 16kg. Both suits can stop 9mm bullets at 400m.
Load-carrying equipment
British belt, yoke and pouches have been used since 1988, but are tried and trusted. US kit is only five years old, but Marines say it falls apart in battle, so a new version is being researched.
Rifle
After a disastrous start and costly refit, the British SA80A2 is seen as among the best, though stories persist of it failing in heat. The US M4 is a reliable compact version of M16.
Accessories
One in four British infantry soldiers has under-slung grenade launcher fitted to the rifle barrel as replacement for cumbersome mortars. Trusted US M6 bayonet is also a hand weapon, field knife and saw.
Fatigues
British Soldier 2000 is traditional combat gear. Expensive new loose US uniform features "visual white noise" of shapeless pixellations that blends with desert or city, and flag that can be seen with infrared sights.
Boots
Britain bought thousands of new pairs from Spain after previous issue disintegrated in the heat in 2003. Tougher rubber soles can withstand up to 300C. US has replaced all black leather footwear in the frontline military with light tan suede that requires no spit-and-polish.
Truck
The British Land-Rover was not designed for the desert. It is vulnerable to roadside bombs and ambushes, but is slowly being replaced. Some crews bolt on their own improvised armour.
All of which also applies to the US M998 Humvee.
Pay
A British corporal with six years' service, operating in a war zone, will be paid $67,293. A US specialist of equal rank and service, also in battle, can receive $70,510 including bonuses for combat and family separation. But, unlike his ally, he will pay no tax.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403835
Defenceless as US closes airbase
Monday October 2, 2006
KEFLAVIK - The United States withdrew its last 30 military personnel from Iceland as it shut a naval air base that in its Cold War heyday was the sixth largest town in the island nation.
The closure leaves Iceland without home-based defences and ends a US military presence that has continued, with a brief late-1940s hiatus, since World War II.
The island nation of 300,000 has no army of its own and while most residents sounded unworried about the lack of visible defences, some expressed concern at the swift US withdrawal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403831
Five hurt in Canadian overpass collapse
10.00am Sunday October 1, 2006
At least five people were injured earlier today (NZ time) after an expressway overpass collapsed in a Montreal suburb, and others could be trapped underneath a tangle of concrete debris, emergency officials said.
Andre Champagne, a spokesman for ambulance service Urgence Sante, said that three of the victims had serious injuries.
Live video images taken by helicopter and broadcast on LCN showed a large section of the overpass had collapsed, with three vehicles jammed among concrete beams and slabs of asphalt roadbed.
A motorcycle also lay atop the massive fallen slab.
Emergency officials could not immediately say whether vehicles were also trapped under the collapsed overpass.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403790
Crash site of passenger jet found in Amazon
9.10am Sunday October 1, 2006
BRASILIA, Brazil - Airborne searchers today found the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger plane that crashed a day earlier in Amazon jungle with 155 people on board and the chances of anyone surviving were slight, officials said.
The brand-new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol probably plunged into the ground nose first after colliding with a smaller plane, the head of Brazil's airport authority Infraero said.
"All rational logic shows there is a high probability that a collision occurred," Infraero head Brigadier Jose Carlos Pereira told reporters.
The small size of the wreckage area indicated that the chances of survivors among the 149 passengers and six crew members on board were slim.
"Imagine the velocity at which it hit the ground coming from an altitude of 11,000 metres," Pereira told reporters.
Authorities lost radar contact with Gol flight 1907 on Friday afternoon during its journey from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the capital Brasilia, the airline said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403786
Al Qaeda No 2 has message for 'lying failure' Bush
Sunday October 1, 2006
DUBAI - Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called US President George W. Bush a lying failure for talking of progress in the war on terrorism, according to a video posted on the internet on Friday.
In the 18-minute tape posted by al Qaeda's media arm al-Sahab, the Egyptian militant leader referred to the arrest of al Qaeda figures such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"Bush, you are a lying failure and a charlatan. It has been three-and-a-half years [since the arrests]... What happened to us? We have gained more strength and we are more insistent on martyrdom," he declared.
"Bush, O failure and liar, why don't you be courageous for once and confront your people and tell them the truth about your losses in Iraq and Afghanistan?" said Zawahri, wearing a black turban and sitting in front of a banner with Islam's statement of faith: "There is no god but Allah, Mohammad is his prophet."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403783
Principal killed in week's 2nd US school shooting
12.00pm Saturday September 30, 2006
MADISON, Wisconsin- A 15-year-old student shot his school's principal in southwestern Wisconsin today after telling another student "you better run," in the second fatal US school shooting this week, authorities said.
The student shot principal John Klang, 49, when confronted, before being subdued by a teacher and other students until police took him into custody. No others were hurt.
Klang, 49, who oversees the Weston school district near Cazenovia, was shot three times and died later at a hospital, authorities said.
"At this time it would appear he acted independently," Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett said of the gunman.
"He did not disclose his plans to anybody else," she said, though the boy had confided to a friend at least two days earlier "that he didn't believe Mr Klang would make it through homecoming."
The school cancelled its homecoming ceremony and football game scheduled for Friday afternoon.
Barrett said the suspect would be charged with murder and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Meanwhile, Colorado authorities offered scant details from a 14-page handwritten letter from a drifter who on Wednesday took six female high school students hostage, molested them and then shot one to death and killed himself as police closed in.
In the letter to a relative mailed the day of the assault, Duane Morrison discussed his pending death and apologised for his actions in advance, though he did not spell out his intentions or mention the school he invaded, Platte High School in Bailey, Colorado.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403722
Warmest September on record in Britain
9.50pm Monday October 2, 2006
LONDON - Britain looks to have experienced the warmest September on record, with average temperatures beating the 14.7 degrees Celsius recorded in 1949, the Meteorological Office said.
"It certainly looks like the record has been broken," a Met Office spokesman said.
Final confirmation is not expected until tomorrow, but temperatures for the month up to Friday morning had reached an average of 15.4C, 3.1 degrees Celsius above the long-term average.
Minimum night-time temperatures, at 11.5C, also look likely to have passed the previous September record of 10.6C, set in 1949.
The year has already seen other weather records broken as Britain sweltered in a heatwave over the summer.
July was the warmest on record, with temperatures peaking at 36.5C at Wisley in Surrey on July 19.
Such heatwaves occur in Britain approximately every 20 years but Met Office scientists predict that by 2100 they are likely to occur almost every year, and even several times each summer.
They base their forecast on an expected doubling in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the century, which would affect North and South America and east Asia as well as Europe.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404007
Two US scientists win Nobel medicine prize
10.50pm Monday October 2, 2006
STOCKHOLM - Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello won the 2006 Nobel prize for medicine for gene silencing by double-stranded RNA, the Nobel Assembly of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute said today.
They discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information, it said, announcing the
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404020
Rifts emerge in Iraq govt after 'bomb plot' foiled
7.20pm Monday October 2, 2006
BAGHDAD - Sunni and Shi'ite political leaders in Iraq clashed publicly today over US allegations a bodyguard for a top Sunni politician may have plotted an al Qaeda suicide attack on the vast Green Zone government compound.
Rifts between parties in the four-month-old unity government broke the surface as data indicated sectarian violence may have claimed a record number of victims last month and a new mass kidnap saw 26 meat factory workers seized by gunmen in Baghdad.
Police found a total of 50 bodies in the city over 24 hours.
Iraq's national security adviser said security forces were closing in on the al Qaeda leader in Iraq who took over from the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June. But the US ambassador said the main threat to Iraq was now from sectarian violence and that the government had just two more months to start containing it.
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki renewed his pledge to stamp out militias, many linked to allied Shi'ite parties and blamed for violence: "We are between two realities. There is no third way. Either we have a completely sovereign state ... or we have militias running the state," he told Hurriya television.
He planned meetings to "quieten sectarian tension", he said.
US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad praised Maliki's efforts but, echoing US generals' warnings last week, said he stuck by his view expressed after the government was formed in late May that it must, in its first six months, curb the danger of civil war:
"That is a fair assessment. I stand by that," Khalilzad told CNN. "The government, in the course of the next two months, has to make progress in terms of containing sectarian violence."
As Baghdad returned to nervous normality after a 24-hour curfew imposed to contain bomb threats, a leading parliamentary supporter of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr accused the government of being "infiltrated by terrorists".
Bahaa al-Araji was responding to the arrest of a bodyguard to Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Sunni Accordance Front. US officials said the man may have plotted car bombings but were at pains to stress Dulaimi was innocent and still a valued partner.
Araji demanded Maliki reshuffle his cabinet and hinted that Shi'ite leaders no longer trusted Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie, from the Sunni minority, who oversees security.
Reshuffle plan
That drew a sharp response from allies of Dulaimi: "All this talk about car bombs and so on in Adnan Dulaimi's house is fabricated," the Accordance Front's Hussein al-Falluji said.
An ally of Maliki said the premier was sticking to a plan to reshuffle his cabinet and expected to do so this month: "There is strong support for change ... from the Alliance," he said.
"The prime minister is strong but his cabinet is weak."
Among those named as possible targets for ejection from the government in a reshuffle have been supporters of Sadr. Some of his supporters say they would be better off in opposition.
Cajoled under US pressure following a December election to form a government involving Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds, Maliki faces a delicate job in adjusting the balance of his cabinet.
In the background lurks growing speculation about whether any group might make a bid to seize power in Baghdad by force.
Partial statistics released by the Health and Interior Ministries indicated the number of civilians killed in September leapt by over 40 per cent to a record high. Though not complete, the series of data is an early indicator of trends.
It showed 1,089 civilians died violently, up from 769 in August and more than the record of 1,065 in July. The United Nations estimates that more than 100 people are dying every day.
In addition to 50 bodies found around Baghdad over the day, many tortured, and most bound and shot, five corpses were pulled from the Tigris downstream at Suwayra, including that of a girl.
National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie played a video at a news conference that he said showed al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, rigging up a car bomb near Baghdad.
"I tell him 'Your days are numbered'," Rubaie said, adding that security forces were closing in. "We are very close." A man resembling Masri was seen unrolling wire inside a car.
Khalilzad said al Qaeda had diminished in importance: "The importance of the sectarian violence has increased. While the insurgency, ... the al Qaeda terrorists are weakened."
However, with President George W. Bush's Republicans under pressure in congressional elections next month, he warned against a hasty withdrawal of the 140,000 US troops.
Just west of Baghdad, in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, a car bomb killed four people in a vegetable market. In the same region, two US soldiers were shot dead on Saturday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10403970
Proof that former smokers breathe easier
Monday October 2, 2006
WASHINGTON DC - Researchers report another benefit from quitting smoking: beneficial bacteria in the nose and throat soon return to normal levels.
Harmless microbes that reside in the nasal passages and throat help resist respiratory infections.
Researchers from Georgetown University in Washington DC found that former smokers enjoyed restored levels of "interfering bacteria".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403817
One small word puts 37-year-old argument to rest
Monday October 2, 2006
TEXAS - That's one small word for astronaut Neil Armstrong, one giant revision for grammar sticklers everywhere.
An Australian computer programmer says he found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words from the Moon in 1969, when the world heard the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Some historians and critics have dogged Armstrong for not saying the more dramatic and grammatically correct, "One small step for a man ..." in the version he transmitted to Nasa's Mission Control. Without the missing "a", Armstrong essentially said, "One small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind."
The astronaut has maintained he intended to say it properly and believes he did. Thanks to some high-tech sound-editing software, computer programmer Peter Shann Ford might have proved Armstrong right, the Houston Chronicle newspaper in Texas reported at the weekend.
Mr Ford said he downloaded the audio recording of Armstrong's words from a Nasa website and analysed the statement with software that allows disabled people to communicate through computers using their nerve impulses.
In a graphical representation of the famous phrase, he said he found evidence that the missing "a" was spoken and transmitted to Nasa.
"I have reviewed the data and Peter Ford's analysis of it, and I find the technology interesting and useful," Armstrong said. "I also find his conclusion persuasive. Persuasive is the appropriate word."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403819
Young girls asking for weight-loss pill Xenical
11.20am Wednesday October 4, 2006
There are fears in Australia that teenagers are being targeted by advertisements for the weight-loss pill Xenical.
Girls as young as 13 have been asking pharmacists for the drug after seeing ads for it during the screening of Australian Idol.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404266
About 50 bodies found at Brazil plane crash site
10.20am Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Andrei Khalip
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Searchers have found about 50 bodies scattered around the Amazon site of Brazil's worst airplane crash and were keeping wild animals away from the corpses, air force officials said today.
Two US pilots were being questioned in an investigation to find out how their smaller jet collided with a passenger plane. The executive jet landed safely but all 155 people on Boeing 737-800, owned by low-cost Brazilian airline Gol, died in Saturday's crash.
"Parts of the plane and many bodies are scattered over an area of some 20 square kilometers in the forest and searchers have to scare away wild animals, especially at night, by burning large fires," an air force spokesman said.
He said the remains of about 50 bodies have been collected, including those of the two pilots.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404253
'We've been hit' - survivor recounts Brazil air collision
Wednesday October 4, 2006
NEW YORK - A loud bang and "we've been hit" began the most harrowing 30 minutes of Joe Sharkey's life after an executive jet and a Boeing 737 apparently clipped wings, sending the Boeing spiralling into Brazil's rainforest.
In the country's worst airline disaster, all 155 people on the Gol Boeing 737-800 died when it crashed into dense jungle about 1,000km northwest of Brasilia on Friday.
Writing in The New York Times on Tuesday, Sharkey said he was to hear many times that no one survives a midair collision. Yet he and his four fellow passengers, and the two pilots of the ExcelAire Embraer Legacy 600 jet, landed safely at a military base in the jungle at Cachimbo.
Sharkey, who contributes to the newspaper's travel section, was on an assignment for Business Jet Traveler magazine. Also on the plane were executives of Embraer and ExcelAire.
"Hit? By what? I wondered. I lifted the shade. The sky was clear; the sun low in the sky. The rainforest went on forever. But there, at the end of the wing, was a jagged ridge, perhaps a foot high, where the five-foot tall winglet was supposed to be."
Sharkey said no one panicked and, as the minutes passed and the plane lost speed "I wondered how badly ditching -- an optimistic term for crashing -- was going to hurt".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404214
Vatican says plans for Pope Turkey trip go ahead
8.20am Wednesday October 4, 2006
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict has been informed of the hijack of a Turkish Airlines plane in which the hijackers reportedly want to deliver a message to him in protest at his planned trip to Turkey, the Vatican said today.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Holy See was following developments closely and that preparations for the November 28-December 1 trip were going ahead.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404244
Boat people head to Australia
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Ten months after 43 boat people arrived in Australian waters, Papuan leaders say another group is on its way.
In April, Canberra granted protection visas to the boat people, who claimed they were fleeing persecution in the province.
Papuan dissident Edison Warom said that group had been carefully vetted over a three-year period to ensure their chances of getting a visa were high, and another group could arrive soon.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404210
High anxiety means big business
Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Ellen Wulfhors
NEW YORK - Sarah Kugelman once suffered so much work-related stress her doctor told her to change her lifestyle or risk dying before 40.
Taking that advice, she launched a line of anti-stress skincare products as well - part of the booming so-called stress industry that experts say is worth more than US$11 billion ($17.2 billion) a year.
With overworked, overwrought consumers seeking cures ranging from aromatherapy to Zen meditation, the industry is predicted to grow to almost US$14 billion in the next two years.
Job-related stress alone affects as many as two in five workers at any given time and has caused one in five people to quit a job at some time in their career. Research shows it costs business US$300 billion a year.
"Like any type of problem, there's an industry around it, trying to solve it," said David Lee, an expert on workplace issues based in Bar Mills, Maine.
Consumers are trying lots of tactics to battle stress such as exercise, counselling, company wellness programmes, massage services, self-help books, spas, stress balls, potpourri and products from laundry detergent to bedroom slippers to oral sprays treated with scents designed to calm them down.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404138
Louis Vuitton unveils plan for museum in Paris
Wednesday October 4, 2006
PARIS - France's biggest fashion group presented plans on Monday for a futuristic museum built out of glass to promote the heritage of its brands, promising the new Paris landmark would be a celebration of creativity.
French tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, said the 100 million euro ($193m) museum would show the art that has influenced its designers from Christian Dior to Marc Jacobs.
The "Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation" will be housed in a glass-clad building soaring over the trees in the Bois de Boulogne park on the city's western edge that Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry said was intended to resemble a cloud.
Critics immediately drew parallels between Arnault's project and the museum plans of his arch rival in business, Francois Pinault, owner of the luxury Gucci Group.
Pinault, who also owns Christie's auction house, unveiled his modern art collection earlier this year in Venice after attempts to build a museum on an island in the river Seine in Paris were thwarted by bureaucracy.
"It won't be a purely contemporary art foundation," said Arnault, knocking down comparisons with Pinault's collection.
"Comparisons with other initiatives are not pertinent."
Gehry, who designed the titanium-clad Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, said the commission for the Louis Vuitton building was like a dream.
"As I experienced the world, Paris became my favourite city," said Gehry, 77. "So when a man who leads in fashion, who collects art that I love, invited me to Paris to do a building it was a heavenly assignment."
Gehry said when he saw the site he thought of the writings of Marcel Proust and "wanted to cry with happiness".
Arnault said the cost of the building to LVMH, which spends billions each year on advertising, would be spread over five years. He hoped construction could start next year and end before 2009.
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said: "This is an enormous present for Paris, and for France's image in the world."
French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres promised the foundation would get favourable tax treatment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404219
Blind spots raise danger of accidents in off-roaders
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Drivers of 4x4s have been warned that some of their off-roaders have blind spots twice as large as those of a normal-sized family saloon, representing a major safety hazard to other road users and pedestrians.
Tests undertaken by MIRA - formerly the Motor Industry Research Association - found popular SUVs like the Land Rover Discovery and Freelander, Grand Jeep Cherokee and Hyundai Santa Fe, had the largest blind spots of 24 vehicles tested.
"Because of their size, 4x4 vehicles require thicker A-pillars [the columns which separate the windscreen from the front passenger windows] than smaller vehicles in order to maintain their structural strength," said Nigel Doggett of Autoglass - the company which commissioned the research.
"It is of particular concern considering the high volume of 4x4 vehicles used to pick children up from school, and parent-drivers must take extra care to ensure they've seen all of the hazards around them before setting off," the managing director of the company said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404139
American duo wins Nobel physics prize
Wednesday October 4, 2006
STOCKHOLM - Americans John Mather and George Smoot have won the 2006 Nobel prize for physics for their work with a satellite which provided increased support for the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awarded the 10 million Swedish crown (NZ$2.07m) prize, said the two men were instrumental in the success of the COBE satellite programme launched by Nasa in 1989.
Measurements by the satellite offered insights into the age of the universe, galaxies and stars by calculating the temperature of cosmic microwave background radiation, a relic of the universe's earliest phase, the Academy said.
Mather, of the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, coordinated the entire COBE satellite programme while Smoot, of the University of California, Berkeley, had the main responsibility for measuring small temperature variations in the radiation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404216
Teenage woman charged over failed London bombings
1.20pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
LONDON - An 18-year-old woman was charged today in connection with an alleged failed attempt to bomb London in July last year, two weeks after the July 7 attacks on the capital's transport network, police said.
The teenager, who was not named, is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court tomorrow, the Metropolitan Police said.
She is charged with "knowing or believing" one of the men alleged to have been behind the July 21 plot, Yassin Omar, had been involved, a police statement said.
She is also accused of having information that may have helped in Omar's arrest but failing to tell the authorities "as soon as reasonably practicable".
Two men aged 19 and 24, who were arrested along with the woman last Wednesday, were released yesterday without charge, police added.
Six men are due to face trial charged with planning to kill commuters on three subway trains and bus on July 21, mimicking the suicide attacks a fortnight earlier by four British Muslims.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404298
continued …
I find the most egregious statement by Mr. Foley's attorney as bad as the crime itself. He stated, 'Mr. Foley (I am paraphrasing.) is sufficiently ashamed of his revelations.'
You'll excuse me but that is exactly the issue with the Republican Christian Conservatives and their oppression of the Gay Community. There is NO SHAME in being gay, lesbian, homosexual or bisexual. It is a sexual orientation. That is all it is. Being Gay is not a fetish. Seeking minors for sex is !
The Washington Post
Politics Put Status Of Snake at Risk
By Kari Lydersen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A02
The slender brown-and-yellow Butler's garter snake is a mild-mannered creature that spends its time sheltering in burrows and eating earthworms. But it has sparked a heated dispute between the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and state legislators.
State Sen. Glenn Grothman wants to see the snake removed from the state's register of threatened species, because, he says, the snakes are plentiful and their protected status has cramped economic development and community projects such as a high school sports field and an aquatic complex in Milwaukee suburbs.
If the Department of Natural Resources does not significantly reduce the amount of protected snake habitat and set in motion the garter snake's removal from the list by the end of the month, a joint legislative committee that reviews administrative rules will, legislators have said, invoke a law to suspend the protected status.
Department of Natural Resources officials and conservationists say that would be nationally unprecedented and could set the stage for attacks on state protected-species listings nationwide.
"This sets a slippery-slope precedent," said Natural Resources spokeswoman Erin Celello. "If they can delist the garter snake, they can delist other species. It's pretty clear this is politically motivated and not in the interest of good science."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901619.html
E. Coli Found Near 2 Calif. Spinach Farms
By Annys Shin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page D02
E. coli similar to that linked to a recent deadly outbreak has been found in eight fecal samples collected near two California farms that may have been a source of contaminated spinach.
It will be several more days, however, before investigators know whether the type of E. coli found matches the strain of the bacteria that since the end of August has sickened 193 people in 26 states and Canada, and killed at least one elderly woman in Wisconsin.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration late last week rescinded its mid-September warning to consumers to avoid all fresh spinach and declared it safe to eat, with the exception of spinach recalled by Natural Selection Foods LLC, a processor linked to the outbreak, and four other packers Natural Selection supplied.
Investigators narrowed the potential source of the outbreak to 12 fields on nine farms in California's Salinas Valley and have collected hundreds of water, soil, plant and animal waste samples, which are still being analyzed.
The eight samples that tested positive for E. coli 0157:H7 were taken from cattle feces collected from pastures adjacent to spinach fields on two of the farms, Kevin Reilly, a top California food safety official, said yesterday.
The discovery of this particularly toxic strain of E. coli in cattle feces "was not a big surprise," Reilly said.
E. coli is normally found in the digestive system of humans and other warm-blooded animals.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301364.html
Border Security, Job Market Leave Farms Short of Workers
Growers Frustrated by Delay in Agriculture Legislation
By Sonya Geis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A06
CLOVIS, Calif. -- Bins of Granny Smith apples towered over two conveyor belts at P-R Farms' packing plant. But only one belt moved. P-R Farms, like farms up and down California and across the nation, does not have enough workers to process its fruit.
"We're short by 50 to 75 people," said Pat Ricchiuti, 59, the third-generation owner of P-R Farms. "For the last three weeks, we're running at 50 percent capacity. We saw this coming a couple years ago, but last year and this year has really been terrible."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301254.html
Pa. Killer Had Prepared for 'Long Siege'
By Tamara Jones and Joshua Partlow
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 9:48 AM
BART TOWNSHIP, Pa., Oct. 4 -- Haunted by an ugly secret he claimed to have kept since childhood and recurring dreams of molesting young girls, Charles C. Roberts IV clearly "planned to dig in for the long siege" and torment his young victims in an Amish schoolhouse before executing them and killing himself, investigators said Tuesday.
Five suicide notes the 32-year-old gunman left behind also describe his anguish over the loss of a premature baby nine years ago, police said, and a checklist found in his milk truck offered a sordid blueprint for the mayhem that left five girls dead and five more fighting for life after Roberts stormed into their classroom Monday morning.
Neighbors watched tearfully Tuesday as horse-drawn buggies filled with Amish mourners began to converge on the houses where simple funerals were expected to be held in the coming days for the girls killed in a barrage of bullets that left the county coroner too shaken to keep counting the wounds.
Roberts called his wife, Marie, after barricading himself inside the school with the terrified children, and said that he had molested two young, female relatives when he was 12 and that he had been dreaming about doing it again, Pennsylvania State Police Col. Jeffrey Miller said at a news conference.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400331.html
Rice Under Pressure on Mideast Peace Efforts
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 9:32 AM
JERUSALEM, Oct. 4 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jerusalem Wednesday morning under pressure from Arab allies to jumpstart the Middle East peace process -- even as a Hamas official was gunned down by masked assailants and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas declared that efforts to forge a unity government between Hamas and his own Fatah party had ground to a halt.
"There is no dialogue now," Abbas said at a joint news conference in Ramallah with the visiting foreign minister of Bahrain.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400497.html
American Wins Nobel Chemistry Prize
By MATTIAS KAREN and MATT MOORE
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 9:50 AM
STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- American Roger D. Kornberg, whose father won a Nobel Prize a half-century ago, was awarded the prize in chemistry Wednesday for his studies of how cells take information from genes to produce proteins.
The work is important for medicine, because disturbances in that process are involved in illnesses like cancer, heart disease and various kinds of inflammation. And learning more about the process is key to using stem cells to treat disease.
Kornberg, 59, a professor at the Stanford University School of Medicine, said medical benefits from his research have taken root.
"There are ... already many therapies, many drugs that are in development in trials or already available and there will be many more," he said. "Significant benefits to human health are already forthcoming. I think there will be many many more."
Kornberg's award, following the Nobels for medicine and physics earlier this week, completes the first American sweep of the Nobel science prizes since 1983.
Americans have won or shared in all the chemistry Nobels since 1992. The last time the chemistry Nobel was given to just one person was in 1999.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400280.html
Iraqi Police Unit Linked to Militias
By DAVID RISING
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 9:11 AM
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- Iraqi authorities have taken a police brigade out of service and returned them to training because of "complicity" with death squads in the wake of a mass kidnapping in Baghdad this week, a U.S. military spokesman said Wednesday.
The kidnapping took place on Sunday, when gunmen stormed into a frozen meats factory in the Amil district and snatched 24 workers, shooting two others. The bodies of seven of the workers were found later but the fate of the others remains unknown.
Sunni leaders blamed Shiite militias and suggested security forces had turned a blind eye to the attack.
The top U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell, said the Iraqi police brigade in the area had been ordered to stand down and was undergoing re-training.
"There was some possible complicity in allowing death squad elements to move freely when they should have been impeding them," he told a Baghdad press conference.
"The forces in the unit have not put their full allegiance to the government of Iraq and gave their allegiance to others," he said.
The suspended brigade has about 650-700 policemen, Interior Ministry spokesman Lt. Col. Karim Mohammedawi said.
The Iraqi Interior Ministry said Tuesday that the commander of the unit, a lieutenant colonel, had been detained and was being investigated, and that the major general who commands the battalion that includes the suspended brigade has been suspended temporarily and ordered transferred.
Brig. Abdul-Karim Khalaf, the chief ministry spokesman, said a random selection of troops in the suspended unit were being investigated for ties to militias.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400490.html
Solana Says Iran Must Decide on Talks
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 10:10 AM
BRUSSELS, Belgium -- European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday that Iran must decide whether it wants to continue negotiations about suspending uranium enrichment in its disputed nuclear program.
"Today, Iran has made no commitment to suspend," Solana told the European Parliament. "This dialogue I am maintaining cannot last forever and it is up to Iranians now to decide whether its time has come to end."
Iran's deputy nuclear chief Mohammad Saeedi, top, and Russian ambassador to Iran Alexander Sadovnikov, center, listen to Russia's security council chief Igor Ivanov, bottom right, as he attends in a news conference with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, unseen, after their meeting in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Oct. 3, 2006. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian) (Hasan Sarbakhshian - AP)
He said if that was the case, he suggested that the standoff over Iran's nuclear program be moved to the U.N. Security Council.
Solana said his "endless hours" of talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, have not made any progress.
"We have reached common ground only on a number of issues, an important number of issues, but we have not agreed in what is the key point, which is the question of suspension of activities before the start of the negotiations" with the West on Iran's use of nuclear technology.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400233.html
Some Say They Felt Uneasy About Representative's Attention
By James V. Grimaldi, Juliet Eilperin and Jonathan Weisman
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A01
In 1995, male House pages were warned to steer clear of a freshman Republican from Florida, who was already learning the names of the teenagers, dashing off notes, letters and e-mails to them, and asking them to join him for ice cream, according to a former page.
Mark Beck-Heyman, now a graduate student in clinical psychology at George Washington University, and more than a dozen other former House pages said in interviews and via e-mail that Rep. Mark Foley was known to be extraordinarily friendly in a way that made some of them uncomfortable.
Beck-Heyman, who was a Republican page and is now a Democrat, said the attention was "weird," and he provided a handwritten letter that Foley sent him after the page left Washington to return home to California. The note suggested that they get together during the Republican National Convention in San Diego in 1996.
The e-mail exchanges that have become public in recent days are between Foley and male former pages. None of those interviewed said they had received a sexual or suggestive overture from him during their time on Capitol Hill. Yet many of them said they were uneasy about Foley's actions and felt awkward complaining to anyone about them.
"Mark Foley knew that he could get away with this type of behavior with male pages because he was a congressman," said Beck-Heyman, who later worked in the Clinton White House and on Sen. John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. "But many people on Capitol Hill," including many Republican staffers, "have known for over 11 years about what was going on and chose to do nothing," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301633.html
The Open And Closeted Lives of a Gay Congressman
By Shailagh Murray
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page C01
Mark Foley had secrets.
First, there was whispering about the Republican congressman's sexual orientation, beginning in 1994 during his first House campaign. He was almost outed two years later when he voted against gay marriage. In 2003, Foley dropped a Senate bid after the rumor mill again started churning. He dismissed the speculation as "revolting and unforgivable."Although publicly unacknowledged, Foley's homosexuality gradually became known in Washington and Florida political circles. Over time, it became a defining force in his career. Foley was restlessly ambitious, but as a Republican from a state with lots of social conservatives, his prospects for higher office were dim.He hit the gay glass ceiling in Congress, too. Foley served nearly 12 years in Congress and was regarded as an energetic and capable lawmaker. But he barely registered on the senior GOP leadership's radar screen. "I've never had a conversation with him," said Speaker J. Dennis Hastert. "Other than his vote on a tariff matter at one time or another, I think."But as Foley attempted to navigate the tricky path of being a gay Republican, there was yet another, darker secret that he proved unable to handle: He was making sexual advances toward teenagers. For all his caution about his sexual orientation, it wasn't that but his pursuit of underage former congressional pages that wrecked his career.Hastert and other senior GOP leaders are now battling fierce criticism that they failed to act forcefully upon learning of inappropriate e-mails between Foley and a 16-year-old boy. The speaker's office asked a Republican colleague to warn Foley to back off, but GOP leaders did not officially alert the full page board, which included one Democrat, or the bipartisan ethics committee.Foley's fate was sealed when transcripts surfaced late last week of lurid instant-message exchanges between the congressman and other former pages. To some people who have known Foley for years, the sordid details were both shocking and somewhat ironic, given his painstaking efforts to shield his private life.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301492.html
N. Korea Pledges Nuclear Test
Need Cited to Deter Threat From U.S., But No Date Is Set
By Anthony Faiola and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; 6:02 AM
TOKYO, Oct. 4 -- North Korea declared Tuesday that it would conduct a nuclear test to bolster its defenses against the United States, raising tensions in the region and marking the communist government's first unambiguous pledge to prove it has become a nuclear power.
Though North Korea has previously said it possesses nuclear bombs -- U.S. intelligence officials have estimated it could have as many as 11 -- a test detonation would dramatically change the region's power dynamics. Analysts have said the United States and area neighbors including China, Japan and South Korea would be forced to deal far more harshly with the North Koreans.
A test would be a "very provocative act," Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a visit to Cairo. It would create a "qualitatively different situation on the Korean Peninsula" that would spill over into the entire region, she said. Rice declined to predict what the U.S. response might be.
The North Korean statement added urgency to upcoming meetings between Japan's new prime minister Shinzo Abe and the leaders of China and South Korea. Abe's office confirmed on Wednesday that he will hold talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao in Beijing on Sunday and with South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun in Seoul on Monday in an effort to improve relations with the two countries.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/04/AR2006100400278.html
Briton Cites 'Divergence' With U.S.
Senior Official Critical of Going 'Beyond the Law' to Fight Terror
By Mary Jordan
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A12
LONDON, Sept. 29 -- Charles Falconer, one of the highest-ranking justice officials in Britain, said Friday that there is a "great divergence" in how Britain and the United States are handling the fight against terrorists, describing the U.S. approach as a willingness "to do things beyond the law."
Falconer said in an interview that the practices of holding terrorism suspects without charge at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and interrogating them in secret CIA prisons have made it "harder to identify to the world what your values are."
Holding the posts of lord chancellor and secretary of state for constitutional affairs, Falconer is widely seen as a spokesman for the British government, the closest U.S. ally in the war in Iraq. He is scheduled to visit Washington next week, where he will meet with Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and deliver a speech at Georgetown University.
His visit will come shortly after Congress approved legislation to establish new policies for dealing with terrorism suspects and set rules for their legal rights. The U.S. Supreme Court in June struck down the Bush administration's program for trying suspects before military commissions.
Falconer recently called Guantanamo Bay "an affront to the principles of democracy." In a lengthy interview Friday, he said Britain had learned hard lessons in the 1970s when it pursued a hard-line course in response to the bombing campaign of the Irish Republican Army. Police got new leeway in interrogation, while suspects' civil protections were reduced. In multiple cases, innocent people were convicted and sentenced.
"We suffered badly in the '70s and '80s," Falconer said, adding that the United States was among those criticizing the British approach at the time. He also noted that IRA fundraising "shot up" during this period.
Among the examples of miscarriages of justice that he mentioned were the Guildford Four, four men wrongly convicted in 1975 for a pub bombing that killed five people. They were imprisoned for 15 years before being exonerated; they said at their trial that they had been tortured by police into signing false confessions.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901405.html
Brazil plane crashes over Amazon with 155 aboard
By Terry Wade
Reuters
Saturday, September 30, 2006; 3:00 AM
SAO PAULO, Brazil (Reuters) - A Brazilian airline passenger plane with 155 people on board disappeared over the Amazon jungle and was believed to have crashed, local officials and news reports said.
The brand-new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol disappeared Friday afternoon after losing radar contact during a flight from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the national capital, Brasilia, the company said.
The mayor of a remote town in the central state of Mato Grosso said the plane had crashed on a farm in Peixoto de Azevedo municipality. The report could not immediately be confirmed by other authorities.
"From the information we have, the plane fell on Jarina farm," Mayor Valter Mioto said in an interview. "Hospitals in the region are ready to receive the injured."
The head of Brazil's airports authority, Infraero, said the Gol aircraft collided with another, smaller plane, Globo news agency reported. The report could not be confirmed.
"It will be hard to find something at this time of night but it is not impossible. The search continues," said Cosette Castro, spokesman for the Brazilian aviation agency.
Five Brazilian air force jets were searching for the missing plane into the evening, Infraero said.
Gol said Flight 1907 was carrying 149 passengers and six crew members.
The plane had been received new from Boeing on September 12 and had only 200 flight hours, the company said.
Brazil's civil aviation authority said the plane lost contact around the town of Sao Felix do Xingu. The flight left Manaus at 2:36 p.m. (1836 GMT).
At Brasilia airport, dozens of friends and relatives, many weeping, gathered anxiously to await news.
Gol is a low-cost carrier that has expanded rapidly since its founding in 2001 to become Brazil's No. 2 airline and to offer flights to neighboring countries.
With its orange and white colors and stylized casual uniforms based on U.S. no-frills carriers, it is an instantly recognizable brand in Brazil and one of its most successful new businesses.
Manaus is host to a number of foreign-owned manufacturing plants making motorcycles, computers and other goods in its duty free zone. It is also a base for tourism in the Amazon, the world's largest rain forest, and a headquarters for several environmental groups.
In the last major airline crash in Brazil, 33 people were killed when a plane belonging to regional carrier Rico Linhas Aereas crashed in the Amazon flying from Sao Paulo de Olivenca to Manaus on May 14, 2004.
(Additional reporting by Raymond Colitt, Vladimir Goitia, Denise Luna and Jonas da Silva)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/30/AR2006093000183.html
Report Says Rove Aide Accepted Abramoff Gifts
By James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt
Washington Post Staff Writers
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A03
A top aide to presidential adviser Karl Rove passed along inside White House information to superlobbyist Jack Abramoff at a time when she was also accepting his tickets to nine sports and entertainment events, according to e-mails released yesterday in a bipartisan congressional report.
The e-mails, released by the House Government Reform Committee, show that Susan Ralston also on occasion discussed possible business ventures with Abramoff. Ralston had worked for Abramoff before joining Rove in the White House in 2001.
White House contacts with Abramoff have been the focus of heated interest in Washington since he pleaded guilty to fraud and conspiracy charges earlier this year. Although the committee report documents that Abramoff's lobbying team billed their clients for more than 400 contacts with White House officials over three years, it remains unclear what results Abramoff obtained.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) seized on the report yesterday: "A disgraced lobbyist traded perks and campaign contributions for special access to the Bush White House."
But White House press secretary Tony Snow disagreed.
"Jack Abramoff was an exuberant practitioner of sleaze to the point that it's very difficult within the report itself to figure out how many actual contacts there are," Snow said.
The report identified 66 Abramoff contacts with the White House, more than half of them with Ralston. Members of Abramoff's lobbying team at Greenberg Traurig LLP contacted Ralston 69 times.
Ralston has declined to comment on the report.
The report indicates that Abramoff was largely ineffective at placing people in key positions in the administration, apparently failing to win any of the appointments he sought.
When Ralston came through for Abramoff, it often was in relatively minor ways. On Oct. 21, 2001, Ralston e-mailed Abramoff that Rove had read an Abramoff memo about a political endorsement in an obscure race in the Mariana Islands. Ralston reported back to Abramoff that Rove had agreed, writing in an e-mail the next day: "You win :)"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901434.html
Bush Cites Progress in Pakistan, Afghanistan
In Speech, President Tries to Mend Relations
By Michael A. Fletcher
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A06
President Bush highlighted anti-terrorism efforts of Afghanistan and Pakistan yesterday, calling the nations invaluable allies despite a surge of violence in southern Afghanistan that has provoked deep suspicions about their ability -- and appetite -- to battle extremists.
Speaking before a Washington audience that included members of the Reserve Officers Association and both countries' ambassadors to the United States, Bush said that 41,000 American and NATO troops in Afghanistan are making progress toward securing and rebuilding the war-torn nation, although significant hurdles remain. While more than 30,000 newly trained Afghan soldiers are working alongside Western troops to secure the country, Bush said, Afghan police "have faced problems with corruption and substandard leadership."
Those difficulties have undermined confidence in the police, "and we've made our concerns known to our friends in the Afghan government," Bush said, adding that the police now have new leadership.
Bush made his remarks as a resurgent Taliban is leading a spike in violence in southern Afghanistan, a development that has resulted in increasing friction between Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan President Hamid Karzai has accused his Pakistani counterpart, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, of tolerating the presence of extremists in Pakistan's remote western regions, from where they launch attacks into southern Afghanistan. Musharraf, in turn, has accused Karzai of being an ineffective leader whose policies create sympathy for the Taliban and other extremists.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900453.html
Dispute Between Georgia, Russia Escalates
Moscow Alleges Provocation as Court Extends Detention of Officers Facing Espionage Charges
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A11
TBILISI, Georgia, Sept. 29 -- A Georgian court on Friday ordered four Russian military intelligence officers to be held for two months on espionage charges in a pretrial detention center, a decision that could prolong and deepen the heated dispute over alleged spying here.
"Russia cannot comprehend this court ruling," Russian Vice Consul Viktor Kortenov told reporters after the court hearing, which was closed to the news media. "It is unclear why a Russian lawyer was not admitted to the proceedings."
Russia's ambassador to Georgia, Vyacheslav Kovalenko, left the country Friday after being recalled by his government to protest the arrest of the Russian officers. He departed with more than 80 diplomats and their families, who were flown home by two Russian Emergency Ministry planes. Russia advised its citizens not to travel to Georgia, citing safety reasons.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, who held talks with ministers from the NATO alliance Friday in Slovenia, complained bitterly about Georgia's actions. Ivanov charged that Georgia was provoking a conflict to try to oust Russian forces from two breakaway parts of Georgia that pledge loyalty to Moscow.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901451.html
Unswayed by West, Russia Continues Georgia Blockade
Mail, Transportation Links Still Cut
By Peter Finn
Washington Post Foreign Service
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page A21
MOSCOW Oct. 3 -- Russia signaled Tuesday that it would not lift a transportation blockade on Georgia despite the release of four Russian officers detained on espionage charges and calls from the European Union and the United States for the two countries to find ways to ease tensions.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that his country had "no plans for the time being" to restore postal and transportation links, including commercial flights and train service, that were severed Monday as the four military officers were about to be released.
"One must not feed off Russia and insult it," Lavrov said at a media briefing Tuesday that was marked by harsh language. "The Georgian leadership must understand this."
Relations between the two countries have worsened since Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili came to power in early 2004 on the promise of taking his country into the NATO military alliance and out of Russia's sphere of influence. Tensions are also heightened by two breakaway regions in Georgia -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia -- that receive support from Moscow.
Saakashvili has said he is determined to reassert Georgian sovereignty over the two areas, which are patrolled by Russian peacekeepers.
In Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja of Finland, which holds the rotating E.U. presidency, said Moscow's sanctions seemed disproportionate and warned against "more acute measures." On Monday, the U.S. State Department also called on Russia and Georgia to take steps to "de-escalate tensions in the days and weeks ahead."
"We think that hot rhetoric on either side or sanctions is not a good idea," Daniel Fried, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, said in a telephone interview. "This is a time for reflection and for both sides to work together. . . . It's too bad Russia is not taking the opportunity to de-escalate."
But Lavrov was not in a charitable mood. "There are attempts by some figures to say that the Russian officers have been released, the situation has calmed down and let's do things as before," he said. "We don't want to do things as before."
The Russian foreign minister accused Georgia of illegally acquiring Soviet- or Russian- made arms in Europe, and he said the sellers, whom he did not identify, were violating a ban on transferring those weapons to third parties.
He said Russia was "seriously worried by total militarization in Georgia," noting a call-up of reservists by the government.
"The Georgian budget is not very big," Lavrov said. "Money is coming via different channels, including illegally from Russia, where this money is largely made by criminal methods. These channels will be blocked, too."
Lavrov provided no details, but the statement appeared to be a reference to remittances sent back to Georgia by some of the estimated 300,000 Georgian immigrants here; some estimates put the number of Georgians in Russia, many of them here illegally, closer to 1 million. The population of Georgia is 4.6 million.
Russian lawmakers scheduled a debate on a bill that would bar Georgians from transferring money home.
"These measures will not give the desired results and in the end will hurt Russia itself," Georgia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
Lavrov also noted that Georgia had arrested the Russians after Saakashvili had visited Washington and NATO had agreed to an intensive dialogue with the country on membership.
"We certainly make note of the assurances of our U.S. colleagues that they have constantly tried to keep the Georgian leadership from abrupt moves," Lavrov said. "But the chronology was the way I have just explained -- a visit to Washington, NATO's decision, hostage-taking -- and the charges were laughable and groundless."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301423.html
Wal-Mart Launches Employee Voter Drive
Activists Question Retailer's Motives
By Ylan Q. Mui
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page A02
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. yesterday launched a voter registration drive aimed at its 1.3 million U.S. employees in what it describes as the largest such effort by a private company.
The kickoff was held in Iowa, a key battleground in the upcoming midterm elections. Workers at Wal-Mart's roughly 3,800 other facilities across the country also received registration forms yesterday. Although the world's largest retailer said it does not want to influence how its workers vote, David Tovar, director of media relations, said the drive was prompted by recent criticism of the company by politicians.
Wal-Mart workers "read the newspapers and see the headlines, just like you and I do," Tovar said. "They recognize there were some elected officials that were saying some things that didn't really represent the company. They wanted to have an opportunity to have their voice heard."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901318.html
Congress Told of Persistent Pretexting
Hearing Looks Beyond Hewlett-Packard Scandal
By Yuki Noguchi
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, September 30, 2006; Page D08
Someone impersonating journalist Christopher Byron called AT&T's customer service 46 times over 2 1/2 months until a company representative finally divulged details of his phone calls.
"This is known as dialing for dummies," an animated Byron told lawmakers yesterday, complaining that the 2002 disclosure led to the identification of two of his confidential sources.
Gaining unauthorized access to such records is far more common than the recent Hewlett-Packard Co. case suggests, members of a House subcommittee were told at a hearing yesterday, the day after HP executives, former executives and investigators were called to testify on the tactics used to spy on communications between journalists and members of the company's board of directors.
Representatives of a private investigation firm, six wireless companies, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission testified yesterday. An investigator, Doug Atkin of Anglo-American Investigations Inc. of Playa Del Rey, Calif., invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and refused to answer questions.
Compared with the previous day's standing-room-only session, the hearing yesterday had far fewer spectators. Committee members focused their questions on the mechanics of how phone companies verify the identities of people with whom their customer service agents speak and tried to determine the frequency with which impostors seek private information.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092901320.html
Dell Recalls 100,000 More Battery Packs
The Associated Press
Friday, September 29, 2006; 7:31 AM
ROUND ROCK, Texas -- Dell Inc., the world's largest personal computer maker, said Friday that it is increasing the recall of Sony Corp. battery packs used in its systems to 4.2 million units from 4.1 million units.
The batteries can short-circuit and have been blamed for causing some computers in which they are used to overheat.
Separately, Toshiba Corp. said Friday that it is recalling 830,000 batteries made by Sony for its laptops at Sony's request. It was the latest in a growing global recall involving Sony batteries, bringing the tally of recalled batteries to about 7 million worldwide.
Earlier Friday, Sony asked manufacturers using its problem batteries to carry out a recall.
Toshiba spokesman Keisuke Omori said Toshiba's recall was in response to Sony's request, and Toshiba had not found any cases in which the laptops were at risk of catching fire.
"But we wanted to assure and satisfy our customers," he said.
Dell said Friday that the increase in its battery recall was made due to additional information received about the affected battery packs containing cells manufactured by Sony.
Dell and the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced the agency's largest-ever electronics recall on Aug. 15, blaming battery cells supplied by Sony. During production in Japan, tiny shards of metal were left in the cells, which can cause a short-circuit. The recall was issued after six confirmed instances of overheating or fire involving Dell systems with batteries made by Sony.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900296.html
Ex-D.C. Worker Says Scheming Began Early
By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page B04
Within a few months of taking a key D.C. government job, a financially strapped Michael A. Lorusso was already scheming for ways to turn his city position and new acquaintance with downtown developer Douglas Jemal into personal profit.
Just days after meeting Jemal in April 2001, the former D.C. leasing official testified yesterday, he agreed to travel to Las Vegas, stay at the sumptuous Bellagio hotel on Jemal's tab and hide the trip from his city bosses. Over drinks in the Bellagio bar with his host, Lorusso said, he hurriedly struck a deal for the city to pay Jemal's company, Douglas Development Corp., the eye-popping fee of $120,000-an-acre to rent land for a vehicle impound lot for one year -- three times what Jemal had recently paid to buy the land outright.
And with that, the much-anticipated government witness in Jemal's bribery trial said, he began to put in 10- and 12-hour days -- officially on the city payroll but secretly working for Jemal. Lorusso, the former deputy director of D.C. property management, admitted concocting a string of frauds so the city would pay Jemal exorbitant prices for his properties and even for work the company never did.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301459.html
Rocket Monopoly Approved
Boeing-Lockheed Alliance Likely to Increase Costs
By Renae Merle
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page D01
U.S. antitrust authorities yesterday approved a plan by Lockheed Martin Corp. and Boeing Co. to merge their government rocket businesses, creating a monopoly in a multibillion-dollar market that the Federal Trade Commission acknowledged will probably lead to higher prices and lower quality.
The decision came 16 months after the plan was announced, several months longer than both firms expected, signaling the concern within the Defense Department and FTC about eliminating competition in yet another part of the military market. Defense industry consolidation has already squeezed competition out of various parts of the market -- since the 1990s the number of aircraft makers has fallen to three from eight, for example.
"Monopolies almost always lead to higher prices, lower quality and inferior services," Michael R. Moiseyev, assistant director of the FTC's bureau of competition, said in a July letter that was made public yesterday. "Here, the competition that would be lost is significant, and the economic benefits that may materialize are unlikely to trump the transaction's harm to competition."
The Defense Department has expressed concerns that with only a few rocket launches each year, one of the two companies could have been pushed out of business. Loath to be dependent on one type of rocket, the Defense Department argued for the joint venture, to be known as the United Launch Alliance.
Under the agreement, both Boeing's Delta and Lockheed's Atlas rockets will still be produced. The companies will consolidate production at Boeing's Decatur, Ala., facility, while Lockheed's Denver office will serve as the headquarters and house the engineering and administrative functions. Some jobs will be eliminated.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301365.html
R.I. Club Owners Plead in Fire Deaths
By ERIC TUCKER
The Associated Press
Friday, September 29, 2006; 6:01 PM
WARWICK, R.I. -- Relatives of the 100 people killed in a nightclub fire vented their grief and fury at the judge and the legal system Friday but were unable to derail a plea bargain in which one of the club's owners received four years behind bars and the other got no prison time at all.
Michael Derderian, who received the prison sentence, and his brother, Jeffrey, pleaded no contest to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the 2003 blaze, which was sparked by a rock group's pyrotechnics and quickly engulfed The Station nightclub because the Derderians had installed highly flammable foam on the walls to ease neighbors' noise concerns.
David Kane, who lost his 18-year-old son Nicholas O'Neill in The Station nightclub fire, arrives for court proceedings for Michael and Jeffrey Derderian at Kent County Superior Court in Warwick, R.I., Friday, Sept. 29, 2006. The brothers, owners of The Station nightclub, plan to plead no contest to 100 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the Feb. 20, 2003, blaze at the club. (AP Photo/Stew Milne) (Stew Milne - AP)
Judge Francis Darigan admonished the victims' relatives not to try to talk him out of approving a plea bargain for the Derderians. But many of them bitterly ignored the warning in a sentencing so turbulent that the judge abruptly recessed the proceedings at one point to defuse the tension in the room.
"Lady Justice in Rhode Island is blind, but she's also deaf," Jay McLaughlin, the brother-in-law of two of the victims, told the judge. Other family members applauded as he returned to his seat.
"Before I read my statement, I'd like to just say I will address you, but I will not say `Your Honor.' I don't think you're an honorable man. I don't respect you," said Annmarie Swidwa, the mother of 25-year-old Bridget Sanetti.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/29/AR2006092900142.html
Viva la Difference
What Happens in Paris, Stays in Paris. What a Pity.
By Robin Givhan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 4, 2006; Page C01
PARIS, Oct. 3 At Tuesday morning's runway presentation by Balenciaga, the models balanced atop platform heels that seemed to be composed of layers of shiny cogs and widgets. They wore breastplates of loosely looped bands of wool, and cropped blazers that looked almost like wings. Leggings were constructed with articulated joints, rivets and metallic patches. The models -- stoical behind clear safety glasses -- were exquisite cyborgs: daring, superhuman, beyond compare.
Creative director Nicolas Ghesquiere's collection was the most compelling presentation since the spring showings began unfolding last month in New York. As his models moved briskly and confidently through the room, they sparked the desire that fuels luxury high design. For a moment, suspended in the vacuum of a dark gray loft on this city's Left Bank, one wanted to look just like those models: women as all-conquering machines.
As glorious as the collection was on the runway, it was also a perfect example of the power and subterfuge of the Paris mystique. An invisible vapor seeps into the mind and makes the outlandish seem acceptable. The illogical becomes perfectly reasonable. Yes! Metal leggings, how splendid! Beauty requires suffering!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/03/AR2006100301050.htm
Musharraf's Book Tour
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's promotion of his new memoir, "In the Line of Fire," has to be among the most unusual and successful book tours ever.
While visiting Washington and London, Musharraf managed to get a plug from President Bush and cracked wise on Jon Stewart's "Daily Show." The round of appearances ahead of the book's Sept. 25 release generated a steady stream of headlines that has yet to abate, but the reviews have not always been kind.
"The book reveals that he's a military dictator, a mediocre man, and intellectually of low calibre," Mohammed Ziauddin, Islamabad editor for the Dawn newspaper, told the BBC. One reviewer for Outlook, the Indian newsweekly, likened Musharraf's book to "Mein Kampf," Adolf Hitler's autobiography.
But sales are strong -- "In the Line of Fire" is already a best-seller in the U.S., Pakistan and India.
Musharraf's book, says the Financial Times in London, "is a manifesto for 2007, when he will need to renew such legitimacy as he currently enjoys through the ballot box. Its publication marks the start of his twin-track campaign: to the domestic audience he plays up his ambivalence over US foreign policy, while to the White House he stresses his commitment, as a target of two breathlessly described assassination attempts, to rooting out terror."
In the United States, Musharraf's claim that then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage told him the U.S. would bomb Pakistan "back to the Stone Age" if it didn't cooperate in the war on terror after 9/11. Armitage denies making the threat.
http://blog.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/
China Daily
China calls for calm over nuke issue
(Agencies Via Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-04 08:23
China urged North Korea on Wednesday to act with calm and restraint, the day after the country announced that it planned to carry out a nuclear test.
"We hope that North Korea will exercise necessary calm and restraint over the nuclear test issue," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in a statement on Wednesday.
The Chinese spokesman also urged other countries not to deepen tensions.
"We also hope that all parties will make the necessary efforts to peacefully resolve their mutual concerns through dialogue and consultation, and not take actions that escalate tensions," Liu said.
China's statement came after North Korea said on Tuesday it would conduct its first-ever nuclear test, blaming a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions" for forcing its hand.
Pyongyang's announcement caused alarm in many capitals.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/04/content_701535.htm
Turk surrenders after hijacking plane
Updated: 2006-10-04 06:40
BRINDISI- A Turkish man hijacked a jetliner carrying 113 people from Albania to Istanbul on Tuesday and forced it to land in southern Italy, where he surrendered and released all the passengers unharmed, officials said.
Two senior Turkish officials said the hijacker was seeking political asylum. An Italian security official said the hijacker had a message for the pope, but he said he did not know what it was.
Candan Karlitekin, chairman of Turkish Airlines' board of directors, initially said the Boeing 737-400 had been hijacked by two Turks, and that they were protesting Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Turkey next month.
Transport Minister Binali Yildirim told The Associated Press that the hijacker, whom he identified as Hakan Ekinci, was seeking to evade military service in his native Turkey. Istanbul Gov. Muammer Guler also said the hijacker was an army deserter who had fled to Albania.
"It has nothing to do with the pope's visit; it was a simple attempt of seeking political asylum under the influence of psychological problems," Yildirim said.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/04/content_701493.htm
ROK President, Japanese PM to visit China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-10-04 11:19
Beijing -- President Roh Moo-hyun of the Republic of Korea (ROK) will pay a working visit to China on October 13 at the invitation of Chinese President Hu Jintao, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao announced Wednesday.
South Korea's President Roh Moo-hyun (L) and his wife Kwon Yang-sook wave the national flag at a ceremony, marking the end of World War Two and Japanese rule 61 years ago, in Seoul August 15, 2006. [Reuters]
This is the second time for Roh to visit China since he took office in 2003. Roh paid a state visit to China for the first time in July, 2003, during which China and the ROK agreed to build an all-round cooperative partnership.
China and ROK have maintained smooth cooperation in politics, economy, trade, culture, education, science and technology, environment protection and the military fields. They have had good coordination in international and regional issues, observers said.
The smooth cooperation between China and the ROK has made important contributions to regional peace and development, Chinese President Hu Jintao said upon his state visit to the ROK in November 2005, when the ROK recognized China's market economy status.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/04/content_701591.htm
Abe pledges to improve ties with China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-29 14:24
Japan's newly-elected Prime Minister Shinzo Abe vowed Friday in his policy speech to improve relations of trust with China, South Korea, calling them "important neighbors."
Newly-elected Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (C) poses with his Foreign Minister Taro Aso (L) and other cabinet members during an official group photo at the premier's official residence in Tokyo September 26, 2006. [Reuters]
"China and South Korea are important neighbors, with which Japan has established unprecedentedly close relations in economic and other areas," Abe said in his first policy address to the parliament.
"It was extremely important, to Asia as well as to the international society, to strengthen trust with China and South Korea," said Japan's first premier born after World War II.
Japan has strained ties with its Asian neighbors largely due to its prime minister's visits to the war-linked Yasukuni Shrine, where top war criminals are honored.
"I think it is important for all sides to make efforts so we can have forward-looking and frank discussions," Abe added.
On Japan-U.S. alliance, Abe said that Japan will strengthen its relations of trust with the United States, which is the basis of their alliance. "The Cabinet will communicate with the White House regularly to strengthen the ties," he said.
The 52-year-old premier, who took office Tuesday, also pledged to advance steadily in implementing an agreed plan to reorganize the U.S. military presence in Japan.
In the diplomacy part of his speech, Abe also said that Japan will cooperate with the United States in solving the Korean Peninsula nuclear issue within the six-party talks frameworks.
The premier also touched on relations with Russia, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), India and Australia as well as Iraq's reconstruction and Japan's aim to win a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council.
The premier aimed to build a powerful premier's office. "I aim to reorganize and strengthen capabilities at the prime minister's office, so that it will be the control tower with strong political leadership and enable quick decision-making on national strategies regarding diplomacy and national security," Abe said.
On domestic issues, the new premier said he will place priority on rebuilding the state finances through cutting fiscal expenditure before considering tax hikes. He also mentioned plans to revitalize local economies and provide more economic opportunities for disadvantaged people and minimize disparities.
Abe said he wanted to have a legislation passed for revising Japan's pacifist Constitution. He also vowed to reform education, which included such measures as improving public schooling, requiring teachers to renew their licenses periodically to ensure qualifications, and have schools evaluated by third parties.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699721.htm
RMB breaches 7.9 barrier against dollar
By Zheng Lifei (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-29 07:31
The renminbi yesterday strengthened to below 7.90 against the US dollar, partially because of growing speculation that the government will soon expand the band within which the currency is allowed to fluctuate.
*US Senators drop bid for punitive tariffs on China
The daily benchmark, or the central parity rate for the US dollar, was set at 7.8998 yuan yesterday, the first time that the currency crossed the psychological barrier of 7.90 since last July's revaluation, according to the Shanghai-based China Foreign Exchange Trade System.
China discarded the renminbi's decade-old direct peg to the US dollar in July last year, switching to a mechanism that sets the exchange rate on a basket of world currencies such as the greenback, the euro and the Korean won.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699182.htm
China carries out test of fusion reactor
Updated: 2006-09-29 07:50
BEIJING - Scientists on Thursday carried out China's first successful test of an experimental fusion reactor, powered by the process that fuels the sun, a research institute spokeswoman said.
China, the United States and other governments are pursuing fusion research in hopes that it could become a clean, potentially limitless energy source. Fusion produces little radioactive waste, unlike fission, which powers conventional nuclear reactors.
Beijing is eager for advances, both for national prestige and to reduce its soaring consumption of imported oil and dirty coal.
The test by the government's Institute of Plasma Physics was carried out on a Tokamak fusion device in the eastern city of Hefei, said Cheng Yan, a spokeswoman at the institute.
Cheng said the test was considered a success because the reactor produced plasma, a hot cloud of supercharged particles. She wouldn't give other details.
"This represents a step for humankind in the study of nuclear reaction," she said.
U.S. and other scientists have been experimenting with fusion for decades but it has yet to be developed into a viable energy alternative.
"I think it is a considerable step ahead for China," said Karl Heinz Finken, a senior scientist at the Institute for Plasma Physics in Juelich, Germany, who had no role in the Chinese research.
"China is speeding up with the development of nuclear fusion and I think at the moment they are making considerable progress," he said.
The Chinese facility is similar to the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, or ITER, being built by a seven-nation consortium in Cadarache in southern France, according to state media. That reactor is due to be completed in 2015.
China is a partner in the ITER reactor, along with the European Union, the United States, Japan, Russia, India and South Korea.
A Tokamak reactor uses a doughnut-shaped magnetic field to contain the hot gas.
Several countries have produced plasma using a Tokamak or similar device, said Gabriel Marbach, deputy head of fusion research at the ITER facility. He said producing plasma was only one step toward the fusion that ITER aims to perform, and that the project could be helped by the Chinese experiments.
"It was important for China to show that it is part of the club, and that adds value to its participation in ITER," Marbach said.
"That is not to say that it is at the level of the Europeans or Americans," he said. However, he added, "We are rather admiring of the Chinese for conducting this test. It was conducted well, and they constructed (the machine) rather quickly."
China is the world's No. 2 oil consumer and its No. 3 importer, consuming at least 3.5 million barrels of foreign oil per day last year.
China plans to build dozens of nuclear power plants and is trying to promote use of cleaner alternative energy sources such as natural gas, wind power and methanol made from corn.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699224.htm
Giving lecture, professor strips off
By Wu Jiao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-09-29 07:30
An art teacher has caused a stir by taking all his clothes off in front of a class to make a point while giving a lecture.
Mo Xiaoxin
Mo Xiaoxin, an assistant professor of art at the Teachers' University of Technology in Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, stunned 30 students by stripping naked.
The teacher said he wanted to emphasis the power of the body and "confront taboos."
Mo was teaching a class on physical art and humanity culture studies, the first course of its kind to be approved by the Ministry of Culture. It has been running for six years.
Mo's action, which was not expected by his students, stunned all those present, and has led to heated debate after being reported on Tuesday by a local newspaper.
"Mo's nudity might have disgusted many students who weren't prepared to see the unattractive body of an old man," said Wang Xiongjun, a college student in Beijing.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699176.htm
Japan's remark of 'China threat' refuted
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-28 20:47
BEIJING -- Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang refuted on Thursday a Japanese remark that China's "growing military spending" has posed a threat to Japan.
Qin said China had stated its stance on the military spending issue many times.
"China follows the policy of 'building friendship and partnership with neighboring countries' and its development will pose no threat to any country," said Qin.
A journalist asked Qin to comment the remark made by Japan's new Defense Agency director general Kyuma Fumio that China's growing military spending posed a threat to Japan.
Qin said China was opposed to the use of China's military spending to play up "China threat" remark.
"We hope the Japanese side will do more things and make more remarks that are conducive to the improvement and development of China-Japan relations," said Qin.
Qin also noted a report that Kyuma Fumio said the military alliance between Japan and the United States was to check China and prepare for any contingency concerning the Taiwan Strait.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/28/content_699065.htm
Call to overhaul Security Council heard
Updated: 2006-09-29 08:54
UNITED NATIONS - Amid the vitriol and accusations, leaders at this year's General Assembly meeting sounded the same note: The U.N. Security Council doesn't represent our interests anymore, and it must be reshaped to reflect the world of 2006, not 1945, the year it was created.
The demand was not new, but the insistence was. Reform of the Security Council had been given up for dead last year, suffocated by bitter national rivalries and a refusal to compromise. But with this year's General Assembly session, it's been resurrected.
Many speakers in the General Assembly suggested a new anger toward the council had fueled their call. The Security Council took more than a month to respond to the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a delay that was largely blamed on the United States.
Iran was also dragged before the council under European and American urging, though many poor nations don't share their concern about its suspect nuclear program.
"The Security Council has not only to be more representative but also to be more effective if it is to be able to satisfactorily perform the role mandated to it by the charter," Indian Defense Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Assembly debate.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-09/29/content_699270.htm
2 relatives of new Saddam judge killed
(AP)
Updated: 2006-09-29 19:41
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The brother-in-law and nephew of the new judge presiding over Saddam Hussein's genocide trial were fatally shot Friday morning in Baghdad, police said. Kadhim Abdul-Hussein and his son Karrar were attacked in their car by unidentified assailants in the capital's mostly Sunni western Ghazaliya neighborhood, police 1st Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said.
It was not immediately clear if the shooting was related to Judge Mohammed Oreibi al-Khalifa, who took over the Saddam trial last week, or if it was another of the sectarian attacks that have been plaguing Baghdad.
Abul-Hussein and his son were Shiites.
Al-Khalifa was the deputy of the original chief judge in the trial, Abdullah al-Amiri. Al-Amiri was removed after he was accused of being too soft on Saddam.
Among other things, al-Amiri had angered Kurdish politicians by declaring in court that Saddam was "not a dictator."
Saddam's nine lawyers walked out of the trial on Monday, boycotting the proceedings to protest al-Amiri's removal.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-09/29/content_699899.htm
China's spending for research outpaces the US
By GAUTAM NAIK (WSJ)
Updated: 2006-09-29 15:06
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB115949196271377533-vEXPMj4hv_90SRdiOV5_e8pIn0Q_20061006.html?mod=regionallinks
An unprecedented surge in research and development spending is helping China catch up with the two longstanding leaders in the field, the US and Japan, a new study found.
R&D spending in China has been growing at an annual rate of about 17%, and is far higher than the 4% to 5% annual growth rates reported for the US, Japan and the European Union over the past dozen years. China's massive investments in education are also bearing fruit. In 2002, its industrial-research work force was 42% the size of the equivalent US work force, up from 16% in 1991.
China is increasingly making its mark with scientific discoveries and patents held by its scientists. In 2003 China became only the third country, after the US and Russia, to put a person into orbit on its own. Yesterday, Michael Griffin, administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, returned to the US after a visit to China -- the first time a NASA administrator has visited that country -- to explore and expand space-program cooperation.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-09/29/content_699775.htm
China lets yuan rise a bit on dollar
(NYtimes)
Updated: 2006-09-29 11:34
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/29/business/worldbusiness/29yuan.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&ref=asia
HONG KONG -- It's been just days since Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. returned from China, but already the Chinese government has sharply stepped up the appreciation of its currency, allowing it to push through an important level against the dollar on Thursday for the first time.
The recent climb - less than a full percentage point since the beginning of September - is still modest and perhaps will not last. But it is producing cautious hope in the Bush administration that the Chinese government may be lifting its opposition to a revaluation that could ease China's huge trade surplus with the United States.
And partly in response to the currency lift in China, two influential senators in Washington announced Thursday that they were pulling back legislation that would punish China with tariffs if it did not allow the value of its currency to rise, a step that would make exports to the United States more expensive and imports from America more competitive.
Though modest, the rise this month in the value of China's currency, the yuan, has been at a rate more than four times the currency's appreciation for most of the past year.
On Thursday, China's government let the yuan push through 7.9 to the dollar, the latest in a series of daily highs that for the last two weeks has proceeded at an annualized rate of 17 percent.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-09/29/content_699615.htm
Thialand coup leader ban 'political activities'
http://pub1.chinadaily.com.cn/slideshow/weekzine/Sept22/movie_1.htm
Czech teenager wins Miss World 2006
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-01 10:03
Winner of Miss World 2006 and Miss Czech Republic Tatana Kucharova (C) poses with Miss Australia Sabrina Houssami (L) and Miss Romania Ioana Valentina Boitor after the 56th Miss World contest in Warsaw September 30, 2006. [Reuters]
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/photo/2006-10/01/content_700740.htm
Wang Lei wins gold at World Fencing Championship
Updated: 2006-10-03 14:16
China's Wang Lei (R) competes with Portugal's Joaquim Videira in their men's fencing individual epee final at the World Fencing Championship in Turin October 2, 2006. [Reuters]
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/sports/2006-10/03/content_701320.htm
College graduates find job market discriminatory
By Lin Lin (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-03 06:33
Zhu Yan, when asked to reflect on his job hunt after graduating this year from Jiangsu University in East China, shook his head.
"It was torture," Zhu, 22, said with a sigh.
"Some employers simply toss your CV into the dustbin when they find out you're a recent graduate. No one cares enough to talk to you."
In the past six months, Zhu, a marketing major, said he has sent out more than 300 CVs, but fewer than 10 per cent of the companies have even responded.
"The public job fairs have shut the door on us new graduates," he said. "Most jobs require at least two years' experience."
Zhu said he thinks the reason he has failed to find a job related to his major is "simply a lack of contacts," something that is more usually gained through work experience and therefore beyond the reach of someone fresh out of college.
Another story: A 25-year-old woman surnamed Xiao was expecting to find a decent job after completing her master's degree at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou. She believed she had learnt the lessons of three years ago when lack of experience had counted against her. To her astonishment, she has found she is still unqualified this year.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/03/content_701231.htm
Citizens urged not to embarrass nation when abroad
(Agencies)
Updated: 2006-10-04 11:09
Beijing - With suggestions to speak quietly, respect queues and put litter in bins, China has released a list of "dos and don'ts" for citizens intending to travel abroad.
Chinese tourists visit Kuala Lumpur. China has released a list of "dos and don'ts" for citizens intending to travel abroad.[AFP]
The country's main tourism body and the central government's Spiritual Civilization Committee issued guidelines this week to tell travelers how to behave when overseas, the Xinhua news agency said Tuesday.
"The move aims to promote civilized behavior among Chinese travelers and restore the country's image, which has been tarnished by the behavior of some Chinese tourists," Xinhua said.
"Uncivilized behavior is becoming a real embarrassment for China."
Among the guidelines for Chinese travelers are to not litter, not talk loudly, respect queuing rules, be polite in public places and observe the rule of "ladies first", according to Xinhua.
Spitting is another habit at the top of the "don't" list.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/04/content_701590.htm
Two environmental officials sacked for toxic spill
Xinhua news agency has said.
Chen Lin, director of the Linxiang City Environmental Protection Bureau, and Liu Yushu, a deputy director, were sacked for failing to inspect two chemical plants responsible for the September 8 spill along the Xinqiang river in Hunan province, Xinhua said Tuesday.
Investigators said the two plants had severely violated environmental laws when dumping arsenide, a highly toxic arsenic compound, into the river.
The pollution forced the local government to suspend drinking water supplies to 80,000 people for four days. No casualties were reported.
A chronic intake of arsenide could cause liver and kidney damage or lung and skin cancer.
The local environmental protection bureau also violated rules when issuing pollutant discharge permits and were lax in their supervision, the report said.
Top managers at the two chemical plants were arrested shortly after the spill and the plants were shut down.
The two companies had discharged waste water with arsenide content of more than 1,000 times the national standard, previous reports said.
The Chinese government has vowed to crackdown on ecological destruction as it acknowledges the need to adjust the nation's growth model after 25 years of rapid economic growth.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/04/content_701578.htm
Promising future for west despite economic woes
By Zhao Huanxin (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-04 09:33
About 60 per cent of adults in China's west are confident they will have a promising future despite current heath and education woes, international researchers have revealed.
About 20 per cent cannot afford hospital treatment and more than one-third of families cannot afford tuition and college fees. However, about two-thirds of people living in rural areas and more than half of city residents, say they are better off than they were five years ago.
The findings were released last week by a Chinese-Norwegian team, which has been researching living conditions in western China for the past five years.
The survey, conducted by Norwegian research foundation FAFO and the National Research Centre for Science and Technology Development, interviewed 44,000 families in China's western regions except the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Jon Pedersen, head of research of FAFO, said despite major socio-economic differences, there was a confidence among the people surveyed.
"The differences in development within the western regions are very large, from modern cities like Chengdu with an important high-tech industry, to poor, traditional farming communities high in the mountains of Qinghai," he told China Daily yesterday.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-10/04/content_701572.htm
US sex scandal puts pressure on Republicans
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-04 10:36
Washington - US House of Representatives Republican leaders faced growing pressure over a congressional sex scandal on Tuesday, with Speaker Dennis Hastert rejecting calls to step down amid Republican fears about the potential fallout in November's fight for control of Congress.
Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., right, addresses the media with Rep. Jerry Weller, R-Ill., at the Capitol in this 2003 file photo in Washington. [AP Photo]
The conservative Washington Times newspaper accused Hastert of barely pursuing warnings about Florida Rep. Mark Foley's sexual messages to teenage boys and said in an editorial he "must do the only right thing, and resign his speakership at once."
Hastert has denied any knowledge of Foley's overtly sexual Internet messages to male congressional pages until they were made public on Friday, and he rejected calls for his resignation.
"I'm not going to do that," he said in an interview with conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, adding he was trying "to do the right thing."
US President George W. Bush did not respond to questions in California over whether Hastert should resign, but said he was "confident he will provide whatever leadership he can to law enforcement" in its investigation of Foley.
"He's a father, teacher, coach who cares about the children of this country," said Bush, adding he was "dismayed and shocked" by Foley's behavior.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/04/content_701581.htm
Etiquette guide offers sleaze tips for posh girls
(Reuters)
Updated: 2006-10-04 09:49
London: For hundreds of years, Debrett's has guided Britain's aristocracy through the niceties of meeting royalty, going to the races and eating soup in the correct way.
Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage are straying into previously unmentionable areas of the life of a modern girl -- with a new book offering guidance on adultery, toplessness and celebrity gossip. [Reuters]
But now the publisher of the bible of blue-blooded behaviour is straying into the previously unmentionable areas of the life of a modern girl with a new book offering guidance on adultery, toplessness and celebrity gossip.
The first edition of Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage known in Britain as the "toff's bible" was published in 1769, and its tome on manners, Debrett's Correct Form, has guided high society for decades.
But according to its editor, Jo Aitchison, the new book "Etiquette for Girls" is a sign that the traditional arbiters of civility are catching up with the times.
"It's a nod to the modern day," she said. "We're pulling Debrett's out of Victorian times and trying to make it relevant to today."
The book's advice ranges from how to conduct a sleaze-free office fling or a disease-free one night stand, to how to smoke at social occasions and what to do when you meet a celebrity.
"Avoid dark-alley gropery and unlady-like fumbling in the back of a cab," the guide says on the subject of one night stands. "Discuss the necessaries to avoid planting any love children or disease, and you're away."
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/world/2006-10/04/content_701576.htm
New Zealand Herald
Alaskan storm cracks iceberg in Antarctica
Wednesday October 4, 2006
A bad storm in Alaska last October generated an ocean swell that broke apart a giant iceberg near Antarctica six days later, US researchers say.
The waves travelled 13,500km to destroy the iceberg, said Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago and Emile Okal at Northwestern University.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers said their study showed how weather in one region could affect events far away.
"One of the things we're debating in the world right now is whether global warming might increase the storminess in the oceans," MacAyeal said.
"The question we then pose is: Could global storminess have an influence on the Antarctic ice sheet that had never been thought of?"
The researchers were watching icebergs using satellite images, and saw that on a clear, calm day last October, a big iceberg known as B15A broke into half a dozen pieces.
MacAyeal and colleagues had put seismometers and other instruments on the 96km-long iceberg and on Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf.
When they saw B15A break up, they persuaded other researchers in Antarctica to fly over to the berg and get their instruments.
The seismometer record showed that although it was mild and clear, the iceberg had been moving up and down and from side to side.
"I was surprised at the level of amplitude that we were recording," Okal said. The researchers figured a storm somewhere may have generated waves, which are known to travel long distances.
They did some calculations and saw the swell must have come from more than 13,500km away.
"Our jaws dropped," MacAyeal said. "We looked in the Pacific Ocean and there, 13,500km away, six days earlier, was the winter season's first really big, nasty storm that ... lasted for about a day and a half in the Gulf of Alaska."
Records from wave buoys in between showed that the waves in Alaska were about 10m high and then two days later they were down to 4.5m as they passed Hawaii on their way south. And three days later, a sensitive seismometer on Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific recorded the waves' passage.
"We think that B15A was in the right position where these waves would be fatal to it," MacAyeal said. "The iceberg shattered like a gracile wine glass being sung to by a heavy soprano."
The findings come as concern about the impact of global warming in the Arctic intensify.
Melting sea ice in the Arctic has taken a sudden and enormous leap forward in one of the most ominous developments yet in the onset of climate change. Two studies by Nasa show a great surge in the disappearance of Arctic ice, including Greenland, over the last two years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404143
Global warming will threaten millions say climate scientists
1.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Michael McCarthy
Drought threatening the lives of millions will spread across half the land surface of the earth in the coming century because of global warming, according to new predictions from Britain's leading climate scientists.
Extreme drought, in which agriculture is effectively impossible, will affect nearly a third of the planet, according to the study from the Met Office's Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research.
It is one of the direst forecasts so far of the potential effects of rising temperatures around the world - yet it may be an underestimate, the scientists involved said yesterday.
The findings, released at the Climate Clinic at the Conservative party conference in Bournemouth, drew astonished and dismayed reactions from aid agencies and development specialists, who fear that the poor of developing countries will be worst hit.
"This is genuinely terrifying," said Andrew Pendleton of Christian Aid. "It is a death sentence for many millions of people. It will mean huge migration off the land at levels we have not seen before, and at levels poor countries cannot cope with. It will mean huge conflict."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404255
Heat on top polluters to reduce global costs of climate change
Wednesday October 4, 2006
The world's top 20 polluting nations are under new pressure to attack the global costs of climate change.
Delegates from the G8 group of nations meeting in Mexico are discussing possible ways to meet future energy demand while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern is expected to present findings from his review into the economic effect of climate change.
An outline of his report will be presented to a closed-door meeting of G8 environment ministers today. The full report is expected to be published this month.
"The central message is that the problem is urgent, we have the technology to start addressing it now, we need to start addressing it now and there is no excuse for delay," said Greenpeace climate change campaigner Steve Sawyer.
Climate campaigners said Stern's outline report to the third follow-up meeting after the July 2005 G8 summit at Gleneagles in Scotland was expected to lay out a range of climate options but leave the choice of action to political leaders.
Campaigners say early drafts of Stern's report suggest he will make the case for urgent global action to mitigate and adapt to climate change.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404142
Second quake shakes Mt Cook
11.00pm Monday October 2, 2006
The Mount Cook region was shaken by two earthquakes in just over an hour tonight.
A quake measuring 4.6 on the richter scale struck at 10.02pm at a depth of 8km, 30km northeast of Mount Cook.
It followed a 4.3 quake at 8.48pm, at a depth of 5km, also 30km northwest of Mount Cook.
GNS Science said the second quake, like the first, may have been felt in the central South Island.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404021
North Shore land-slip hits landmark
UPDATED 12.15pm Monday October 2, 2006
By Elizabeth Binning and NZPA
A slip in the Auckland suburb of Beach Haven is threatening a house and may have damaged a popular local landmark.
The slip, which follows a day of very heavy rain, rumbled about 15 metres down the hillside at Larkings Landing carrying an estimated 20 tonnes of soil and trees.
Engineers were inspecting a 30m-high cliff face to assess if any more of it would fall as the heavy rain continued.
One of the owners, who did not want to be named, said they evacuated the house as a precaution.
She said until the engineers had completed their report, they did not know the future of the land or the two houses closest to the cliff edge.
North Shore City Council spokesman Paul O'Brien said the site would also be inspected by Earthquake Commission engineers.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403897
Wild weather with more to come [+pictures]
UPDATED 8.25am Monday October 2, 2006
By James Ihaka, Elizabeth Binning and Lee Rowberry
The MetService is warning more wild weather could hit northern regions today after a mini tornado yesterday which swept through West Auckland damaging roofs, uprooting trees and causing widespread flooding.
A heavy rain warning was issued last night, with thunderstorms and up to 100mm of rain expected to fall in Northland, Auckland and the Coromandel Peninsula by this afternoon.
Yesterday's tornado struck in Martin Jugum Lane about 3.30pm, heralding a severe electric storm that caused flooding, landslips and damage throughout West Auckland, the North Shore and central city.
Firefighters have now been called to around 200 incidents since yesterday afternoon. The AA is warning this morning that surface flooding is particularly deep at the end of the North-Western Motorway at Westgate where State Highways 16 and 18 meet.
Further north, police says there are still concerns about flooding on the Kaipara Coast Highway. International and domestic flights were also affected at Auckland airport.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403876
Wellington Airport again closed by fog
UPDATED 6.55pm Monday October 2, 2006
Fog has again closed Wellington Airport.
An airport spokesman said the fog had rolled in about 3pm and no flights had been able to land since.
"Lots of cancellations and no arrivals at this stage. They would be able to take off but we don't have any aircraft here to take off."
Air New Zealand spokeswoman Pam Wong said four 737s were diverted to Palmerston North and another four such flights cancelled by 6pm.
Smaller aircraft flights were also cancelled meaning at least 1000 passengers were affected.
She said all the Air New Zealand flights affected so far were domestic but international flights expected after 11pm could also be diverted.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403955
Schwab says US and EU alone can't make trade deal
1.00pm Wednesday September 27, 2006
WASHINGTON - The United States and European Union can't make their own deal to save world trade talks, the top US trade official has said, two days before meeting with her European Union counterpart.
"It would be terrific if he showed up with interesting proposals in his pockets," US Trade Representative Susan Schwab told reporters after signing a textile trade agreement with Indonesian Trade Minister Marie Elka Pangestu.
"(But) when you have 149 members of the WTO, the success or failure of the Doha round rests with more than one or two or a handful of countries," Schwab said, referring to her talks on Thursday with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson.
Mandelson, who arrives on Wednesday, will be in Washington for the first time since nearly five-year-old world trade talks were put on hold in July after negotiators failed to resolve disagreements over how far to cut farm subsidies and tariffs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403201
Bush polarises aspiring leaders
Thursday September 28, 2006
By Catherine Field
PARIS - True to his right-or-wrong approach to life, George W. Bush is polarising the next generation of political leaders in France and Britain, who are shunning or embracing the US President as they prepare their run at power.
With elections due next year in France and Britain's ruling Labour Party gripped by a leadership struggle, would-be presidents and prime ministers are staking out radical positions on the Oval Office's controversial incumbent.
French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, whose bid for the presidency in elections due in April and May is considered a certainty, has stirred a fierce storm by styling himself as pro-American and staging a chummy photo-call handshake with Bush at the White House.
Sarkozy, a conservative, won warm praise from parts of the US media for a speech in which he paid tribute to the United States, blasted his own country for arrogance and attacked President Jacques Chirac's decision to block UN approval for the US-led war on Iraq in 2003. "I'm not a coward. I'm proud of this friendship and I'm happy to proclaim it," said Sarkozy.
The leading left-wing contender for head of state, Segolene Royal, lacerated Sarkozy for his stance.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403361
Mobil backs off petrol price rise
9.15pm Monday October 2, 2006
Mobil increased petrol and diesel prices by six cents today, and lowered them again within hours when other petrol companies declined to follow suit.
"It went up and went down again," Mobil spokesman Peter Thornbury said.
He presumed this was because other petrol companies did not follow Mobil's lead.
"It was what we thought was an appropriate price based on factors we consider when we make pricing decisions."
One of those factors was rising product costs, he said.
"But obviously it's a competitive market...so we adjusted our price."
Mobil prices have returned to $1.43.9 for 91, $1.48.9 for 95 and 1.03.9 for diesel.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10403994
PM taking advice on spy claims
8.30pm Monday October 2, 2006
Prime Minister Helen Clark says she has not ruled out taking legal action following claims by private investigators hired by the Exclusive Brethren to follow her, her husband and Cabinet ministers.
Private detective Lew Proctor claimed at the weekend he was paid by the Exclusive Brethren to spy on Miss Clark and her husband Peter Davis.
He told the Herald on Sunday the investigation was continuing, and hinted that politically explosive information would be revealed this week.
Another private investigator, Wayne Idour, sub-contracted by Mr Proctor, said today he was still investigating "certain people".
He told TV3 the main focus of his inquiries was "corruption" but he did not want to specify what he meant by that.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403983
NZ students perform well compared with others
4.00pm Monday October 2, 2006
New Zealand students continue to perform well compared with those in similar societies and better than most in reading, mathematics and science, a report released today says.
Education Minister Steve Maharey's New Zealand Schools 05 report is an annual overview of the compulsory education sector.
It said although general achievement is high, many schools continue to face the challenge that some students do not do as well as others - particularly Maori and Pacific Island students.
Several initiatives were introduced to deal with this and gains were being made, the report said.
The report measured the impact of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), introduced between 2002 and 2004.
It said that during 2005, 62 per cent of Year 11 candidates, 74 per cent of Year 12 candidates and 67 per cent of Year 13 candidates gained an NCEA qualification.
"By the time they leave school, the majority of students have gained a qualification or significant credits towards one," it said.
"In 2005, only 13 per cent of school leavers left with little or not attainment.
"This is an improvement since 2002, when 18 per cent of school leavers had little or no attainment."
In 2005, 80 per cent of 16-year-olds stayed on at school but this reduced to 60 per cent of 17-year-olds and only 13 per cent of 18-year-olds.
However, 79 per cent of school leavers became involved in tertiary studies within five years of leaving.
Over the past 10 years, the proportion of students going directly from school to a tertiary education increased, from 47 per cent in 1998 to 58 per cent in 2004.
During 2005, more than 3500 students had difficulty engaging with schools and were involved in alternative education.
"About 75 per cent were aged 14 or less, about two-thirds were male and some 60 per cent were Maori," the report said.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403939
Chemical spill alert in Christchurch
10.00am Monday October 2, 2006
A damaged container sparked a chemical spill alert in Christchurch today after workers discovered a leaking container of sodium hydroxide.
A Fire Service spokeswoman said workers unloading containers from a railway wagon at Matipo St, in Riccarton, found the damaged container at 2.45am.
Four fire crews attended the scene along with police while the container was removed, she said.
Emergency services remained at the scene until 5.30am while the clean-up was been carried out, she said.
The scene was now safe, she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403903
Taser used once in first month of trial
12.25pm Monday October 2, 2006
Tasers have been drawn by police 13 times during the first month of a one-year trial, but used just once.
The 50,000 volt electrical charge of the Taser was used at an incident in Western Springs on September 8.
On nine occasions police have drawn the weapon, using a tactic called "laser painting" to calm the situation down.
Tasers were taken out of their holster as a precaution on three occasions, police said.
They have been drawn twice in recent incidents involving people known to have access to weapons.
On September 20 a Taser was taken out of its holster as a precaution after a woman had been threatened with a knife in New Lynn.
On September 27 a man armed with a knife in Counties Manukau was safely disarmed using "laser painting" after threatening to kill himself.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10403924
Landslip house may be largest EQC section payout [+pictures]
5.45pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
The house teetering on the edge of a collapsing cliff on Auckland's North Shore could become the largest single payout by the Earthquake Commission for a dwelling and section.
The $1 million house was declared uninhabitable yesterday after its backyard and part of its deck with a spectacular harbour view, disappeared into Auckland's Waitemata Harbour.
The owners were overseas and Earthquake Commission engineers said it would be no surprise if more of the cliff tumbled into the harbour, probably taking the house with it.
EQC insurance manager Lance Dixon said if the land and house were written off and the owners were paid the $1 million value, it would beat the EQC's previous largest payout for a house and section by $300,000.
Today EQC engineers monitored the house and section but more cracks surrounding land painted a grim picture for the Awanui Street house's future.
The owners had yet to lodge a claim but EQC said it had made initial contact with them to discuss the future of the house.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404319
Southerlies cause transport chaos in Wellington
UPDATED 4.45pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
Severe southerly winds have been creating havoc in Wellington today, causing the cancellation of all Cook Strait ferry crossings and severely disrupting flights.
Toll Shipping spokeswoman Sue Foley said Interislander passenger ferries were halted this afternoon because of 5.8m swells in the Cook Strait.
She said crossings would resume tomorrow morning if the bad weather had eased.
Wellington Airport duty manager Stephen Ryvinsky said Air New Zealand had suspended domestic operations at the airport because of the wind.
However, other domestic carriers hadn't followed suit, and international flights were still going out, Mr Ryvinsky said.
Air New Zealand spokeswoman Andrea Dale said by late afternoon the suspension had affected 80 flights and about 4000 passengers .
At least two lightning strikes in the central city caused power blackouts, each lasting a few seconds.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404290
NZ houses damp and need repairs, survey finds
2.25pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
New Zealand houses are often built in such a way they will end up damp, and most homeowners know they need to fix up their houses but usually do not, a building research study has found.
Of the 565 owner-occupied houses inspected by researchers from the Building Research Association of New Zealand (Branz), each house needed an average of $3700 worth of repairs.
When interviewed, homeowners said they spent an average of less than $1300 a year home maintenance, which researchers said was not enough to maintain the houses.
This was, however, an improvement on previous years.
In 1999, houses needed about $4900 worth of serious repairs, and researchers said the average overall condition of houses was better than in previous surveys.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404307
Kiwis create website that pays you to save energy
1.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
A New Zealand company has applied to patent Celsias.com, the world's first online community that allows regions, businesses or community groups to be paid for reducing the carbon emissions from their everyday energy use.
Celsias.com is based upon a fast growing global economy that recognises energy savings, or carbon credits, as a form of currency.
Celsias director Nick Gerritsen said with Celsias it was possible to track, create and trade carbon credits on the internet.
"We believe it very much has the potential to follow in the footsteps of eBay, Google and Skype," Mr Gerritsen said.
"Up till now no-one else has provided an end-to-end solution where you can get paid to play your part in solving the climate change crisis," he said.
"Our core goal is to assist our members to create as many carbon credits as possible. Celsias.com will, in effect, pay them to save the world," Mr Gerritsen said.
Celsias.com is expected to go live in early 2007.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10404280
United Nations to consider deep sea trawling ban
9.20am Wednesday October 4, 2006
UNITED NATIONS - The United Nations needs to stop the destruction of deep sea ecosystems by banning fishermen from trawling nets on the ocean floor, Australia, New Zealand and Palau, joined by actress Sigourney Weaver, said today.
The 192-member United Nations General Assembly is due to begin debating this week an Australian-led plan to ban deep sea bottom trawling in unmanaged high seas and impose tougher regulation of other destructive fishing practices.
The European Commission, executive of the 25-member European Union, has said it would support a ban on deep sea trawling. UN General Assembly resolutions are non-binding, but they reflect the will of the international community.
About 64 per cent of the world's ocean is in international waters, of which about three-quarters is unmanaged, according to the Pew Institute for Ocean Science.
"The world's oceans are facing a crisis," Weaver told a news conference, adding that deep sea bottom trawling was "raping these oceans beyond site and beyond regulation".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10404246
Police dragged into election spending row
UPDATED 1.10pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
National Party leader Don Brash has been accused of intimidating police after writing to them to complain about "glaring inadequacies" in its inquiry into Labour Party election spending
In a letter to Police Commissioner Howard Broad, Dr Brash - who has accused Labour of corruption - said the police had failed to live up to the public's expectations in its investigation.
But Police Minister Annette King said the letter amounted to initimidation of the police and this was a breach of the convention that politicians kept out of police decisions about who should be prosecuted.
She said Dr Brash's attack was taking New Zealand on a dangerous path -- "down the road of a police state".
National claims Labour could owe more than $800,000, most of it from its $447,000 pledge card.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10404270
Man linked to Rainbow Warrior sinking gets away scot free
Monday October 2, 2006
By Catherine Field
PARIS - The Government will not seek extradition of the man believed to have planted the limpet mines that sank the Rainbow Warrior.
Prime Minister Helen Clark's office said yesterday the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had advised that in 1991 then Attorney-General Paul East stayed "all outstanding charges", in the country's national interest.
"This followed a Cabinet decision to not seek extradition of an agent with alleged involvement who had been arrested in Switzerland. The Government of the day accepted that the Rainbow Warrior bombing was resolved," the Prime Minister's office said.
The decision comes after weekend revelations that Frenchman Gerard Royal - the brother of France's likely next President, Segolene Royal - was a prime suspect in the 1985 bombing of the Greenpeace ship in Auckland.
Greenpeace executive director Bunny McDiarmid - a Rainbow Warrior crew member the day it was bombed - said it was not worthwhile pursuing extradition. She believed there was little hope the French secret agents who carried out the bombing would be brought to justice.
She said whoever did the bombing was getting away with murder.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10403867
Seoul gravely concerned at North Korea's test threat
6.05pm Thursday October 5, 2006
By Jack Kim
SEOUL - South Korea voiced grave concern on Wednesday over North Korea's plans to test a nuclear bomb and China urged restraint after the United States said the move would be "an unacceptable threat" to world peace.
Reclusive North Korea announced on Tuesday it planned its first nuclear test, saying its hand had been forced by a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions".
The United States, France and Japan pressed for a UN response while Beijing, the nearest Pyongyang has to an ally, said the issue should be handled by the six-country forum involved in long-standing talks over the North's nuclear ambitions.
"This government reaffirms the position that North Korea's possession of nuclear weapons will never be allowed," South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Choo Kyu-ho told reporters.
He said his government was gravely concerned by North Korea's statement and urged Pyongyang to scrap its plans, which would ratchet up tensions even further on the Cold War's last frontier.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404331
Israel and Hizbollah broke human rights law, say UN envoys
1.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Richard Waddington
GENEVA - Israel and Hizbollah committed serious violations of international humanitarian law during the month-long Lebanon war, four UN human rights envoys said today.
Israel did not distinguish between military and civilian targets during the July 12-August 14 conflict, failed to apply the principle of proportionality and did not take all precautions to limit injury and damage to civilians, they said.
According to the investigators, Hizbollah guerrillas, whose seizing of two Israeli soldiers triggered the fighting, violated human rights law by firing rockets loaded with anti-personnel ball bearings at civilian areas in northern Israel.
Violations by both sides led to many deaths and injuries, caused widespread destruction and forced large numbers of people to flee their homes, the investigators said in a 40-page report to be presented to the United Nations Human Rights Council.
"The mission concludes that serious violations of both human rights and humanitarian law have been committed by Israel," the four envoys said following a visit to Israel and Lebanon.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404292
Iran warned could face sanctions
1.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Parisa Hafezi
TEHRAN - The United States and Britain said today Iran could soon face sanctions because it showed no sign of halting sensitive nuclear work, while the EU said the latest talks had been helpful but had brought no breakthrough.
A senior Iranian atomic official said suspending uranium enrichment, which the West says Iran wants to use to build atomic bombs, would not solve the nuclear standoff.
The deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, instead suggested France could invest in Iran's nuclear industry, enabling it to supervise Tehran's work.
Similar proposals for foreign investment in the past found no takers. The West has opposed plans that would keep enrichment on Iranian soil and allow Tehran to master the technology, which Iran says it wants so that it can generate electricity.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has been trying to coax Iran into halting enrichment, said a telephone conversation yesterday with Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was constructive but had not broken the impasse.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404282
Gunman may have planned sex assault at Amish school
UPDATED 12.00pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Jon Hurdle
NICKEL MINES, Pennsylvania - The man who stormed an Amish school and killed five girls had confessed to his wife he molested two girls 20 years ago, and police said he may have planned to sexually abuse his 10 hostages.
Charles Carl Roberts, a 32-year-old dairy truck driver, was also haunted by the death of his daughter who died 20 minutes after her premature birth nine years ago, police said after examining suicide notes he left before yesterday's rampage.
After Roberts dropped his older children off at a school bus stop yesterday morning, he armed himself with three guns, 600 rounds of ammunition and an array of tools and headed for the Amish school.
He apparently chose the Georgetown School because it was an easy target rather than out of any grudge against the Amish, police said.
Roberts had planned for a long siege by preparing to barricade himself and his hostages inside the one-room school in rural Lancaster County, about 100km west of Philadelphia.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404238
Turkish hijacker gives up in Italy
UPDATED 9.25am Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Fabio Serino
BRINDISI, Italy - A Turkish hijacker seeking to communicate with Pope Benedict seized an airliner flying from Albania to Istanbul this morning and diverted it to Italy before surrendering.
All 107 passengers and six crew left the Turkish Airlines plane at Brindisi airport after brief negotiations, Italy's aviation authority ENAC said, adding that police were checking to see if other hijackers were among those on board.
"At the moment one person has given himself up. We are trying to verify whether there was a second hijacker on the aircraft," Antonio Lattarulo, head of ENAC for Brinidisi in southern Italy, told Reuters.
Turkish TV initially quoted police sources as saying the plane had been hijacked in protest at a planned November visit to Turkey by the Pope, who offended many Muslims with a speech last month linking the spread of the Islamic faith to violence.
But Turkish media later identified the hijacker as Hakan Ekinci, a convert to Christianity who had written to the Pope in late August, asking for his help to avoid compulsory military service in Turkey.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404235
Brazil's scandal-hit Lula faces run-off
UPDATED 8.50pm Monday October 2, 2006
By Andrea Welsh
BRASILIA, Brazil - President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva must fight his main challenger in a run-off vote after many Brazilians turned against him in Sunday's presidential election and punished the former union leader for a string of corruption scandals.
Brazil's electoral court said that Lula just failed to garner the 50 per cent of votes needed to be re-elected in the first round and he would face a run-off against Geraldo Alckmin of the centrist Brazilian Social Democracy Party.
"I'm going into the second round with a great chance of winning ... We're going to have an ethical, honest and efficient government," Alckmin, the former governor of Sao Paulo state who is close to the business elite, told cheering supporters.
Lula was just shy
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10403890
Putin 'overreacted' to spy row, Georgian leader says
4.00pm Monday October 2, 2006
BATUMI, Georgia - Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili has shrugged off Moscow's harsh reaction to the arrest of four Russian army officers for spying.
Saakashvili, a strong US ally whose drive to bring the small Caucasus state to NATO irks Moscow, also rejected suggestions that his actions were guided by Washington.
Russia recalled its ambassador from Tbilisi, evacuated much of its diplomatic and military staff from Georgia and stopped issuing visas in protest against the detention last week of its four army officers charged with spying.
In harsh remarks unusual even for chronically strained ties between the two states, President Vladimir Putin on Sunday accused Georgia on Sunday of "state terrorism with hostage-taking".
"I don't think this is serious," Saakashvili said in a late night interview to Western journalists in the Black Sea port of Batumi. "It is an overreaction caused by nervousness that they have created by themselves."
"They have become hostages of their own propaganda," he added speaking in English.
Georgia suspects Russia of seeking to change its pro-Western government, which came to power in the 2003 "Revolution of Roses", and blames it for backing separatists in its breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403944
Thailand opens Asia's largest airport
9.55am Monday October 2, 2006
BANGKOK - Thailand's new international airport - the largest in Asia - has opened for flights in a bid to rival Hong Kong and Singapore as a transport hub.
Most things ran smoothly at the giant US$4bn ($6bn) airport, Suvarnabhumi, on its first days of operation last week although a computer glitch did strand some cargo and baggage.
The computer system was unable to link to the Thai Customs Department meaning some cargo and baggage could not clear customs, leaving shippers and some travellers frustrated.
The man in charge of the new airport, which will handle 45 million passengers a year, is Chotisak Asapaviriya.
As head of Airports of Thailand and the man ultimately responsible for the move from the tired arrival halls of Bangkok's Don Muang to Suvarnabhumi he headed the move which saw 1.8 million pieces of equipment - much of it the space of a few hours - shifted across Bangkok.
It was billed as one of the largest logistical operations in aviation history.
"Busy? I'll show you busy," he said at a recent business lunch before removing six mobile phones from his pockets and lining them up on the table.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403904
Dam collapse washes away 1000 homes in Nigeria
10.20am Monday October 2, 2006
GUSAU, Nigeria - Flood water from a burst reservoir dam in northern Nigeria has made 1000 families homeless, but about 40 people earlier feared dead have been found alive, the state governor said on Sunday.
Local media had reported Zamfara State Governor Ahmed Sani saying that at least 40 people died after heavy rainfall swelled the reservoir to critical levels, causing the dam to collapse and send a barrage of water through villages.
"All those missing were later found safe and alive," Sani said.
"We have over 1000 families affected and property over 3 billion naira ($35.45 million), but there is no loss of life."
The reservoir was the main source of drinking water for Zamfara state capital Gusau.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403895
Diplomats focus on enhancing African force for Darfur
1.00pm Monday October 2, 2006
By Stephen Castle
A beefed-up African peacekeeping force has emerged as the best hope of averting humanitarian catastrophe in Darfur after the Sudanese president defiantly brushed aside pressure to admit UN troops.
In almost two hours of talks on Sunday, Omar al-Bashir told the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, that he feared his country would suffer the same fate as Iraq if UN soldiers intervened.
Diplomats are now concentrating on the possibility of strengthening a 7000-strong African Union force already on the ground in Darfur.
They believe Mr Bashir might allow the addition of some UN components - possibly including European troops - providing there is no American involvement and that command and control remains in African hands.
The search for a solution was given added urgency by warnings from the World Food Programme that, because of an upsurge in violence, 155,000 people have been given no food for four months.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403899
US to resume some military aid to Latin America
11.20am Monday October 2, 2006
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - Some US military aid kept from Latin American nations that did not agree to exempt American troops from the International Criminal Court will start flowing again when President Bush signs waivers, a senior defence official has said.
Those waivers, now on Bush's desk, are seen as critical to Pentagon officials including US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who arrived in Nicaragua on Sunday to meet with regional Defence ministers.
"There's going to be probably no nation on Earth that's going to agree with us all the time," Rumsfeld said.
"That being the case, it has been and is today and would be in the future unfortunate if our immediate reaction to some disagreement or difference as to a policy issue were to have the automatic effect of severing military-to-military relationships."
Bush is expected to sign waivers for nine countries in the region including Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay, but not Venezuela, a senior Defence official said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403914
Zambia's Mwanawasa vows crackdown amid poll unrest
9.20am Monday October 2, 2006
LUSAKA - Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa appealed for calm on Sunday as protesters blocked roads and burned tyres amid charges he rigged national elections, but said police would deal firmly with those trying to "sabotage" the vote.
"I want to appeal for calm and peace," he said in an address to the nation on state television.
"The law enforcement agencies will deal firmly with all trouble makers and those who want to sabotage the elections."
Mwanawasa, who has surged ahead in an election count, spoke as protesters blocked streets with burning tyres and hurled stones at police, after officials delayed announcing final results in a presidential election for "security reasons".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403894
New Thai prime minister promises ethical government
3.20pm Monday October 2, 2006
The newly-appointed interim prime minister of Thailand, General Surayud Chulanont, has promised his government will be based on good ethics.
General Surayud's appointment has been endorsed by King Bhumipol and he will spend the next week deciding on the 35 men and women who will make up his cabinet.
Radio Australia's South East Asia correspondent, Karen Percy, said General Surayud, a former army chief, was already trying to differentiate his government from that of the deposed prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Mr Shinawatra had been accused of corruption and interfering with public institutions.
In a nationally televised address following his acceptance of the job on Sunday, General Surayud stressed that he was only expecting to be in power for a short period of time.
The Council for Democratic Reform, which staged the coup almost two weeks ago, has promised to hold elections within a year.
Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted in a bloodless, late-night coup on September 19.
Thailand's military used allegations of corruption in the government of Thaksin Shinawatra to justify the first coup in 15 years.
The ousted premier, who was at the UN General Assembly in New York when he was turfed out, is now living in London where he has a residence.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10403937
North Korea says it will conduct nuclear test
Wednesday October 4, 2006
SEOUL - Reclusive North Korea says it will conduct its first-ever nuclear test, blaming a US "threat of nuclear war and sanctions" for forcing its hand.
The statement by North Korea's foreign ministry, which was carried on the official KCNA News Agency, was immediately condemned by Japan as called "totally unforgivable".
Its announcement capped weeks of rumors that the Stalinist state was planning a test and came amid increasingly bitter relations with the outside world after it test-fired missiles in July.
"The US extreme threat of a nuclear war and sanctions and pressure compel the DPRK (North Korea) to conduct a nuclear test, an essential process for bolstering nuclear deterrent, as a corresponding measure for defence," the statement said.
But it added that North Korea would never use nuclear weapons first and would "do its utmost to realize the denuclearization of the peninsula and give impetus to the worldwide nuclear disarmament and the ultimate elimination of nuclear weapons".
Analysts say North Korea probably has enough fissile material to make 6 to 8 nuclear bombs but probably does not have the technology to make one small enough to mount on a missile.
Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso was quoted by Kyodo News Agency as calling the planned test "totally unforgivable" and warning that the international community would respond harshly.
Officials in North Korea's two other major neighbors -- China and South Korea -- gave no immediate reaction to the report.
All are members of six-nation talks trying to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. The other two countries are Russia and the United States.
North Korea walked out of the talks almost a year ago and has refused to return until the United States ends a financial crackdown on its offshore bank accounts, which analysts say has begun to pinch the government of the impoverished country.
A nuclear test is certain to be seen as an attempt by North Korea to force the United States into direct negotiations, something it has long pushed for but which Washington has rejected until Pyongyang returns to the six-party talks.
"North Korea thinks it has no other option but to press the United States to have bilateral negotiations with them. North Korea has nothing to lose by conducting a nuclear test," Chang Myung-soon, an expert on North Korea's military, said.
"It wouldn't care if its people will starve due to toughened economic sanctions, and a military attack on North Korea will be really difficult considering opposition from South Korea, China and Russia," he said.
"I don't think this will end up just as blackmail. I see the possibility of an actual nuclear test as high."
North blames US
North Korea blamed the United States for the latest ratcheting up of tension on the Korean peninsula, which has been divided for more than 50 years after a war over which no formal peace treaty has ever been signed.
It accused Washington over trying to topple its government with the financial crackdown.
"The US daily increasing threat of a nuclear war and its vicious sanctions and pressure have caused a grave situation on the Korean peninsula in which the supreme interests and security of our state are seriously infringed upon and the Korean nation stands at the crossroads of life and death," the North Korean statement said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404218
Two Koreas agree to resume military talks
12.20pm Monday October 2, 2006
North and South Korea have agreed to resume military talks for the first time in almost five months as Seoul seeks to ease tensions over Pyongyang's July missile tests.
Officials in Seoul said the one-day talks would be held on Monday local time.
It will be the first military contact since both sides met in May to discuss ways to reduce tensions on the world's last Cold War frontier.
The North called for a working-level military meeting on July 3, just two days before its missile tests which sparked international concern, UN Security Council condemnation and weapons-related sanctions.
The South rejected that meeting in protest against the launches, its first boycott of talks with the North since a landmark summit in 2000 that launched a series of peace and reconciliation initiatives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10403921
Fiery 30-vehicle accident in South Korea
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Eleven people were killed and 50 injured in a fiery 30-vehicle pile-up on a South Korean highway. Two trucks collided on a bridge 70km southwest of Seoul, blocking the road.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404208
Austria's Schuessel congratulates victorious rival
8.55am Monday October 2, 2006
VIENNA - Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel said on Sunday the country's main opposition Social Democrats "presumably" won the election and congratulated their leader Alfred Gusenbauer in an interview on state TV ORF.
"We have to go step by step. The first step is the question who won the election - and that is presumably Dr Gusenbauer," Schuessel said in the live interview. "I congratulate him wholeheartedly," he added.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403893
Eight killed in clashes between rival Palestinian forces
9.40am Monday October 2, 2006
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - Rival Palestinian forces clashed across the Gaza Strip overnight, killing eight people and injuring at least 100 in the biggest outbreak of internal fighting in months over unpaid wages and stalled unity talks.
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a leader of the Islamic militant group Hamas, called on Palestinians to stop the violence. President Mahmoud Abbas said he would not allow it to escalate to a civil war and vowed to punish those responsible.
"What happened in Gaza, the bloody confrontations went beyond all limits," Abbas said in a speech from the Jordanian capital, Amman, aired via Arabic televisions.
"From my position I instruct the attorney general to begin an investigation and those who will prove to be involved will be prosecuted," he said
Gunmen in Gaza and the West Bank, loyal to either Hamas or Abbas' Fatah group, set ablaze government offices and stormed hospitals, schools and other buildings affiliated with one of the groups, destroying or removing office equipment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403901
Pakistan accused of train bombing
Monday October 2, 2006
NEW DELHI - In a dramatic accusation which will raise the spectre of a new stand-off between two nuclear-armed neighbours, India said that Pakistani intelligence was behind the July Mumbai bombings in which at least 186 people were killed.
The Mumbai police accused Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency of planning and masterminding the attacks, and said they were carried out by a militant Islamic group based in Pakistan. Islamabad denied the accusation and demanded that India produce evidence to back it up.
"India has always chosen this path of pointing fingers at Pakistan without evidence," Pakistan's Information Minister, Tariq Azim Khan, said. "If they have any evidence, they should provide us evidence and we will carry out our investigations."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403830
Two soldiers' deaths highlight crisis in US morale
Monday October 2, 2006
By Cole Moreton
The troops are exhausted. They need reinforcements. Tanks are broken and there is no money to repair them. Fighting is fierce, morale low.
These sound like the complaints of British soldiers in Afghanistan - only last week an officer there declared he was quitting in disgust after his men had to borrow bullets from Canadians during a battle.
But the loudest complaints are not from the British. It is the US Army that is now in revolt. General Peter Schoomaker, its leader, is refusing to submit a budget to the Pentagon because he says his troops need billions of extra dollars to go on doing what is expected of them.
The news has shocked British squaddies, who are used to seeing the Americans as better equipped, better supported and better paid. If even the Yanks are in trouble, what hope can the Brits have?
Lance Corporal Jon Hetherington and Specialist Andrew Velez were both 22 when they died in Afghanistan this northern summer. They held similar ranks. Their lives and deaths reveal the differences between the allies, and puncture the myths.
The British Army says its soldiers are better equipped now than ever. The Ministry of Defence says troops on the frontline "have all got everything they need". Extra helicopters have been sent and the Army has spent $1.4 billion on new Mastiff vehicles to replace its ageing Land-Rovers.
The gear is arriving, even as the fighting has eased. But when troops like Lance Corporal Hetherington were deployed to Afghanistan this year, they were equipped to keep the peace and rebuild schools.
They coped, heroically, with the unexpected ferocity of the Taleban, some units fighting night and day for a month. But when equipment broke down under extreme use, roads became impassable and air support failed, they were in trouble. Reports suggest some ran out of ammunition, food and water.
Hetherington died in Musa Qala in the early hours of August 27. He had served his country for six years, a length of service which earns a British corporal $67,293 a year. A US equivalent, such as Specialist Velez, is paid around $70,246. The difference is that the US soldier in a war zone pays no tax. He may also have received up to $71,680 for enlisting, enough to lift a family from poverty. The British get no such payment, but the idea is being considered as recruiting levels fall.
The two forces have very different attitudes. British troops are now experienced peacekeepers, but those serving alongside Americans complain their allies believe "peacekeeping is for wimps". This has led to claims of excessive force.
The British Army has been based on regimental tradition, but some disgruntled soldiers say it is being dismantled by a reorganisation that has seen famous regiments such as the Black Watch absorbed into others.
Links with areas of the country where sons followed fathers into service were being broken, said a former Black Watch officer, along with the sense of belonging. "The Americans think, 'God, if only we had that system'. But now everything we value is under attack."
Few US soldiers can fault the immense investment in their kit, but the psychological demands on them appear greater. The British spend six months in action before returning to their home base to rest and train.
This has been eroded lately, but the intention remains. Americans must complete a two-year tour of duty before a year off. Some returning from Iraq have been stopped and told to go back.
The pressure got to Velez. In 2004 his brother, a corporal, was killed in the battle of Fallujah. He escorted the body home to Texas, asking his father, "Do you know how hard it was to talk to Fred when he was in a box of ice?" Despite hallucinations, he returned to the frontline. But on July 25, in camp in Sharon, he shot himself.
"Poor sod," said a British infantryman when told the story.
"We get bollock-all support from home, from the politicians and you lot in the media, but at least we get to come home, if we're lucky.
"What the Yanks expect from their boys, frankly, it shocks me."
THE GI v THE SQUADDIE - WHOSE KIT IS BEST?
Helmet
The M6 worn by British troops (right) weighs 1.4kg, so is marginally lighter than the US version. But the 1.6kg Modular Integrated Communications Helmet is newer. Both British and US soldiers (below) wear an earpiece and microphone.
Body armour
The Ministry of Defence says British supply problems have now been solved. The US spent $460 million on its more advanced boron carbide ceramic system, which weighs 16kg. Both suits can stop 9mm bullets at 400m.
Load-carrying equipment
British belt, yoke and pouches have been used since 1988, but are tried and trusted. US kit is only five years old, but Marines say it falls apart in battle, so a new version is being researched.
Rifle
After a disastrous start and costly refit, the British SA80A2 is seen as among the best, though stories persist of it failing in heat. The US M4 is a reliable compact version of M16.
Accessories
One in four British infantry soldiers has under-slung grenade launcher fitted to the rifle barrel as replacement for cumbersome mortars. Trusted US M6 bayonet is also a hand weapon, field knife and saw.
Fatigues
British Soldier 2000 is traditional combat gear. Expensive new loose US uniform features "visual white noise" of shapeless pixellations that blends with desert or city, and flag that can be seen with infrared sights.
Boots
Britain bought thousands of new pairs from Spain after previous issue disintegrated in the heat in 2003. Tougher rubber soles can withstand up to 300C. US has replaced all black leather footwear in the frontline military with light tan suede that requires no spit-and-polish.
Truck
The British Land-Rover was not designed for the desert. It is vulnerable to roadside bombs and ambushes, but is slowly being replaced. Some crews bolt on their own improvised armour.
All of which also applies to the US M998 Humvee.
Pay
A British corporal with six years' service, operating in a war zone, will be paid $67,293. A US specialist of equal rank and service, also in battle, can receive $70,510 including bonuses for combat and family separation. But, unlike his ally, he will pay no tax.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403835
Defenceless as US closes airbase
Monday October 2, 2006
KEFLAVIK - The United States withdrew its last 30 military personnel from Iceland as it shut a naval air base that in its Cold War heyday was the sixth largest town in the island nation.
The closure leaves Iceland without home-based defences and ends a US military presence that has continued, with a brief late-1940s hiatus, since World War II.
The island nation of 300,000 has no army of its own and while most residents sounded unworried about the lack of visible defences, some expressed concern at the swift US withdrawal.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403831
Five hurt in Canadian overpass collapse
10.00am Sunday October 1, 2006
At least five people were injured earlier today (NZ time) after an expressway overpass collapsed in a Montreal suburb, and others could be trapped underneath a tangle of concrete debris, emergency officials said.
Andre Champagne, a spokesman for ambulance service Urgence Sante, said that three of the victims had serious injuries.
Live video images taken by helicopter and broadcast on LCN showed a large section of the overpass had collapsed, with three vehicles jammed among concrete beams and slabs of asphalt roadbed.
A motorcycle also lay atop the massive fallen slab.
Emergency officials could not immediately say whether vehicles were also trapped under the collapsed overpass.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403790
Crash site of passenger jet found in Amazon
9.10am Sunday October 1, 2006
BRASILIA, Brazil - Airborne searchers today found the wreckage of a Brazilian passenger plane that crashed a day earlier in Amazon jungle with 155 people on board and the chances of anyone surviving were slight, officials said.
The brand-new Boeing 737-800 operated by Brazilian low-cost carrier Gol probably plunged into the ground nose first after colliding with a smaller plane, the head of Brazil's airport authority Infraero said.
"All rational logic shows there is a high probability that a collision occurred," Infraero head Brigadier Jose Carlos Pereira told reporters.
The small size of the wreckage area indicated that the chances of survivors among the 149 passengers and six crew members on board were slim.
"Imagine the velocity at which it hit the ground coming from an altitude of 11,000 metres," Pereira told reporters.
Authorities lost radar contact with Gol flight 1907 on Friday afternoon during its journey from the principal Amazon city of Manaus to the capital Brasilia, the airline said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403786
Al Qaeda No 2 has message for 'lying failure' Bush
Sunday October 1, 2006
DUBAI - Al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri called US President George W. Bush a lying failure for talking of progress in the war on terrorism, according to a video posted on the internet on Friday.
In the 18-minute tape posted by al Qaeda's media arm al-Sahab, the Egyptian militant leader referred to the arrest of al Qaeda figures such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.
"Bush, you are a lying failure and a charlatan. It has been three-and-a-half years [since the arrests]... What happened to us? We have gained more strength and we are more insistent on martyrdom," he declared.
"Bush, O failure and liar, why don't you be courageous for once and confront your people and tell them the truth about your losses in Iraq and Afghanistan?" said Zawahri, wearing a black turban and sitting in front of a banner with Islam's statement of faith: "There is no god but Allah, Mohammad is his prophet."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403783
Principal killed in week's 2nd US school shooting
12.00pm Saturday September 30, 2006
MADISON, Wisconsin- A 15-year-old student shot his school's principal in southwestern Wisconsin today after telling another student "you better run," in the second fatal US school shooting this week, authorities said.
The student shot principal John Klang, 49, when confronted, before being subdued by a teacher and other students until police took him into custody. No others were hurt.
Klang, 49, who oversees the Weston school district near Cazenovia, was shot three times and died later at a hospital, authorities said.
"At this time it would appear he acted independently," Sauk County District Attorney Patricia Barrett said of the gunman.
"He did not disclose his plans to anybody else," she said, though the boy had confided to a friend at least two days earlier "that he didn't believe Mr Klang would make it through homecoming."
The school cancelled its homecoming ceremony and football game scheduled for Friday afternoon.
Barrett said the suspect would be charged with murder and faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.
Meanwhile, Colorado authorities offered scant details from a 14-page handwritten letter from a drifter who on Wednesday took six female high school students hostage, molested them and then shot one to death and killed himself as police closed in.
In the letter to a relative mailed the day of the assault, Duane Morrison discussed his pending death and apologised for his actions in advance, though he did not spell out his intentions or mention the school he invaded, Platte High School in Bailey, Colorado.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403722
Warmest September on record in Britain
9.50pm Monday October 2, 2006
LONDON - Britain looks to have experienced the warmest September on record, with average temperatures beating the 14.7 degrees Celsius recorded in 1949, the Meteorological Office said.
"It certainly looks like the record has been broken," a Met Office spokesman said.
Final confirmation is not expected until tomorrow, but temperatures for the month up to Friday morning had reached an average of 15.4C, 3.1 degrees Celsius above the long-term average.
Minimum night-time temperatures, at 11.5C, also look likely to have passed the previous September record of 10.6C, set in 1949.
The year has already seen other weather records broken as Britain sweltered in a heatwave over the summer.
July was the warmest on record, with temperatures peaking at 36.5C at Wisley in Surrey on July 19.
Such heatwaves occur in Britain approximately every 20 years but Met Office scientists predict that by 2100 they are likely to occur almost every year, and even several times each summer.
They base their forecast on an expected doubling in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the century, which would affect North and South America and east Asia as well as Europe.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404007
Two US scientists win Nobel medicine prize
10.50pm Monday October 2, 2006
STOCKHOLM - Americans Andrew Fire and Craig Mello won the 2006 Nobel prize for medicine for gene silencing by double-stranded RNA, the Nobel Assembly of Stockholm's Karolinska Institute said today.
They discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information, it said, announcing the
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404020
Rifts emerge in Iraq govt after 'bomb plot' foiled
7.20pm Monday October 2, 2006
BAGHDAD - Sunni and Shi'ite political leaders in Iraq clashed publicly today over US allegations a bodyguard for a top Sunni politician may have plotted an al Qaeda suicide attack on the vast Green Zone government compound.
Rifts between parties in the four-month-old unity government broke the surface as data indicated sectarian violence may have claimed a record number of victims last month and a new mass kidnap saw 26 meat factory workers seized by gunmen in Baghdad.
Police found a total of 50 bodies in the city over 24 hours.
Iraq's national security adviser said security forces were closing in on the al Qaeda leader in Iraq who took over from the late Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in June. But the US ambassador said the main threat to Iraq was now from sectarian violence and that the government had just two more months to start containing it.
Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki renewed his pledge to stamp out militias, many linked to allied Shi'ite parties and blamed for violence: "We are between two realities. There is no third way. Either we have a completely sovereign state ... or we have militias running the state," he told Hurriya television.
He planned meetings to "quieten sectarian tension", he said.
US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad praised Maliki's efforts but, echoing US generals' warnings last week, said he stuck by his view expressed after the government was formed in late May that it must, in its first six months, curb the danger of civil war:
"That is a fair assessment. I stand by that," Khalilzad told CNN. "The government, in the course of the next two months, has to make progress in terms of containing sectarian violence."
As Baghdad returned to nervous normality after a 24-hour curfew imposed to contain bomb threats, a leading parliamentary supporter of Shi'ite cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr accused the government of being "infiltrated by terrorists".
Bahaa al-Araji was responding to the arrest of a bodyguard to Adnan al-Dulaimi, leader of the Sunni Accordance Front. US officials said the man may have plotted car bombings but were at pains to stress Dulaimi was innocent and still a valued partner.
Araji demanded Maliki reshuffle his cabinet and hinted that Shi'ite leaders no longer trusted Deputy Prime Minister Salam al-Zobaie, from the Sunni minority, who oversees security.
Reshuffle plan
That drew a sharp response from allies of Dulaimi: "All this talk about car bombs and so on in Adnan Dulaimi's house is fabricated," the Accordance Front's Hussein al-Falluji said.
An ally of Maliki said the premier was sticking to a plan to reshuffle his cabinet and expected to do so this month: "There is strong support for change ... from the Alliance," he said.
"The prime minister is strong but his cabinet is weak."
Among those named as possible targets for ejection from the government in a reshuffle have been supporters of Sadr. Some of his supporters say they would be better off in opposition.
Cajoled under US pressure following a December election to form a government involving Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds, Maliki faces a delicate job in adjusting the balance of his cabinet.
In the background lurks growing speculation about whether any group might make a bid to seize power in Baghdad by force.
Partial statistics released by the Health and Interior Ministries indicated the number of civilians killed in September leapt by over 40 per cent to a record high. Though not complete, the series of data is an early indicator of trends.
It showed 1,089 civilians died violently, up from 769 in August and more than the record of 1,065 in July. The United Nations estimates that more than 100 people are dying every day.
In addition to 50 bodies found around Baghdad over the day, many tortured, and most bound and shot, five corpses were pulled from the Tigris downstream at Suwayra, including that of a girl.
National Security Adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie played a video at a news conference that he said showed al Qaeda's leader in Iraq, Abu Ayyub al-Masri, rigging up a car bomb near Baghdad.
"I tell him 'Your days are numbered'," Rubaie said, adding that security forces were closing in. "We are very close." A man resembling Masri was seen unrolling wire inside a car.
Khalilzad said al Qaeda had diminished in importance: "The importance of the sectarian violence has increased. While the insurgency, ... the al Qaeda terrorists are weakened."
However, with President George W. Bush's Republicans under pressure in congressional elections next month, he warned against a hasty withdrawal of the 140,000 US troops.
Just west of Baghdad, in the Sunni stronghold of Falluja, a car bomb killed four people in a vegetable market. In the same region, two US soldiers were shot dead on Saturday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10403970
Proof that former smokers breathe easier
Monday October 2, 2006
WASHINGTON DC - Researchers report another benefit from quitting smoking: beneficial bacteria in the nose and throat soon return to normal levels.
Harmless microbes that reside in the nasal passages and throat help resist respiratory infections.
Researchers from Georgetown University in Washington DC found that former smokers enjoyed restored levels of "interfering bacteria".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403817
One small word puts 37-year-old argument to rest
Monday October 2, 2006
TEXAS - That's one small word for astronaut Neil Armstrong, one giant revision for grammar sticklers everywhere.
An Australian computer programmer says he found the missing "a" from Armstrong's famous first words from the Moon in 1969, when the world heard the phrase, "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Some historians and critics have dogged Armstrong for not saying the more dramatic and grammatically correct, "One small step for a man ..." in the version he transmitted to Nasa's Mission Control. Without the missing "a", Armstrong essentially said, "One small step for mankind, one giant leap for mankind."
The astronaut has maintained he intended to say it properly and believes he did. Thanks to some high-tech sound-editing software, computer programmer Peter Shann Ford might have proved Armstrong right, the Houston Chronicle newspaper in Texas reported at the weekend.
Mr Ford said he downloaded the audio recording of Armstrong's words from a Nasa website and analysed the statement with software that allows disabled people to communicate through computers using their nerve impulses.
In a graphical representation of the famous phrase, he said he found evidence that the missing "a" was spoken and transmitted to Nasa.
"I have reviewed the data and Peter Ford's analysis of it, and I find the technology interesting and useful," Armstrong said. "I also find his conclusion persuasive. Persuasive is the appropriate word."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10403819
Young girls asking for weight-loss pill Xenical
11.20am Wednesday October 4, 2006
There are fears in Australia that teenagers are being targeted by advertisements for the weight-loss pill Xenical.
Girls as young as 13 have been asking pharmacists for the drug after seeing ads for it during the screening of Australian Idol.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404266
About 50 bodies found at Brazil plane crash site
10.20am Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Andrei Khalip
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - Searchers have found about 50 bodies scattered around the Amazon site of Brazil's worst airplane crash and were keeping wild animals away from the corpses, air force officials said today.
Two US pilots were being questioned in an investigation to find out how their smaller jet collided with a passenger plane. The executive jet landed safely but all 155 people on Boeing 737-800, owned by low-cost Brazilian airline Gol, died in Saturday's crash.
"Parts of the plane and many bodies are scattered over an area of some 20 square kilometers in the forest and searchers have to scare away wild animals, especially at night, by burning large fires," an air force spokesman said.
He said the remains of about 50 bodies have been collected, including those of the two pilots.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404253
'We've been hit' - survivor recounts Brazil air collision
Wednesday October 4, 2006
NEW YORK - A loud bang and "we've been hit" began the most harrowing 30 minutes of Joe Sharkey's life after an executive jet and a Boeing 737 apparently clipped wings, sending the Boeing spiralling into Brazil's rainforest.
In the country's worst airline disaster, all 155 people on the Gol Boeing 737-800 died when it crashed into dense jungle about 1,000km northwest of Brasilia on Friday.
Writing in The New York Times on Tuesday, Sharkey said he was to hear many times that no one survives a midair collision. Yet he and his four fellow passengers, and the two pilots of the ExcelAire Embraer Legacy 600 jet, landed safely at a military base in the jungle at Cachimbo.
Sharkey, who contributes to the newspaper's travel section, was on an assignment for Business Jet Traveler magazine. Also on the plane were executives of Embraer and ExcelAire.
"Hit? By what? I wondered. I lifted the shade. The sky was clear; the sun low in the sky. The rainforest went on forever. But there, at the end of the wing, was a jagged ridge, perhaps a foot high, where the five-foot tall winglet was supposed to be."
Sharkey said no one panicked and, as the minutes passed and the plane lost speed "I wondered how badly ditching -- an optimistic term for crashing -- was going to hurt".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404214
Vatican says plans for Pope Turkey trip go ahead
8.20am Wednesday October 4, 2006
VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict has been informed of the hijack of a Turkish Airlines plane in which the hijackers reportedly want to deliver a message to him in protest at his planned trip to Turkey, the Vatican said today.
Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the Holy See was following developments closely and that preparations for the November 28-December 1 trip were going ahead.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404244
Boat people head to Australia
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Ten months after 43 boat people arrived in Australian waters, Papuan leaders say another group is on its way.
In April, Canberra granted protection visas to the boat people, who claimed they were fleeing persecution in the province.
Papuan dissident Edison Warom said that group had been carefully vetted over a three-year period to ensure their chances of getting a visa were high, and another group could arrive soon.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404210
High anxiety means big business
Wednesday October 4, 2006
By Ellen Wulfhors
NEW YORK - Sarah Kugelman once suffered so much work-related stress her doctor told her to change her lifestyle or risk dying before 40.
Taking that advice, she launched a line of anti-stress skincare products as well - part of the booming so-called stress industry that experts say is worth more than US$11 billion ($17.2 billion) a year.
With overworked, overwrought consumers seeking cures ranging from aromatherapy to Zen meditation, the industry is predicted to grow to almost US$14 billion in the next two years.
Job-related stress alone affects as many as two in five workers at any given time and has caused one in five people to quit a job at some time in their career. Research shows it costs business US$300 billion a year.
"Like any type of problem, there's an industry around it, trying to solve it," said David Lee, an expert on workplace issues based in Bar Mills, Maine.
Consumers are trying lots of tactics to battle stress such as exercise, counselling, company wellness programmes, massage services, self-help books, spas, stress balls, potpourri and products from laundry detergent to bedroom slippers to oral sprays treated with scents designed to calm them down.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404138
Louis Vuitton unveils plan for museum in Paris
Wednesday October 4, 2006
PARIS - France's biggest fashion group presented plans on Monday for a futuristic museum built out of glass to promote the heritage of its brands, promising the new Paris landmark would be a celebration of creativity.
French tycoon Bernard Arnault, chairman of luxury goods group LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, said the 100 million euro ($193m) museum would show the art that has influenced its designers from Christian Dior to Marc Jacobs.
The "Louis Vuitton Foundation for Creation" will be housed in a glass-clad building soaring over the trees in the Bois de Boulogne park on the city's western edge that Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry said was intended to resemble a cloud.
Critics immediately drew parallels between Arnault's project and the museum plans of his arch rival in business, Francois Pinault, owner of the luxury Gucci Group.
Pinault, who also owns Christie's auction house, unveiled his modern art collection earlier this year in Venice after attempts to build a museum on an island in the river Seine in Paris were thwarted by bureaucracy.
"It won't be a purely contemporary art foundation," said Arnault, knocking down comparisons with Pinault's collection.
"Comparisons with other initiatives are not pertinent."
Gehry, who designed the titanium-clad Guggenheim museum in Bilbao, Spain, said the commission for the Louis Vuitton building was like a dream.
"As I experienced the world, Paris became my favourite city," said Gehry, 77. "So when a man who leads in fashion, who collects art that I love, invited me to Paris to do a building it was a heavenly assignment."
Gehry said when he saw the site he thought of the writings of Marcel Proust and "wanted to cry with happiness".
Arnault said the cost of the building to LVMH, which spends billions each year on advertising, would be spread over five years. He hoped construction could start next year and end before 2009.
Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said: "This is an enormous present for Paris, and for France's image in the world."
French Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres promised the foundation would get favourable tax treatment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404219
Blind spots raise danger of accidents in off-roaders
Wednesday October 4, 2006
Drivers of 4x4s have been warned that some of their off-roaders have blind spots twice as large as those of a normal-sized family saloon, representing a major safety hazard to other road users and pedestrians.
Tests undertaken by MIRA - formerly the Motor Industry Research Association - found popular SUVs like the Land Rover Discovery and Freelander, Grand Jeep Cherokee and Hyundai Santa Fe, had the largest blind spots of 24 vehicles tested.
"Because of their size, 4x4 vehicles require thicker A-pillars [the columns which separate the windscreen from the front passenger windows] than smaller vehicles in order to maintain their structural strength," said Nigel Doggett of Autoglass - the company which commissioned the research.
"It is of particular concern considering the high volume of 4x4 vehicles used to pick children up from school, and parent-drivers must take extra care to ensure they've seen all of the hazards around them before setting off," the managing director of the company said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404139
American duo wins Nobel physics prize
Wednesday October 4, 2006
STOCKHOLM - Americans John Mather and George Smoot have won the 2006 Nobel prize for physics for their work with a satellite which provided increased support for the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awarded the 10 million Swedish crown (NZ$2.07m) prize, said the two men were instrumental in the success of the COBE satellite programme launched by Nasa in 1989.
Measurements by the satellite offered insights into the age of the universe, galaxies and stars by calculating the temperature of cosmic microwave background radiation, a relic of the universe's earliest phase, the Academy said.
Mather, of the Nasa Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, coordinated the entire COBE satellite programme while Smoot, of the University of California, Berkeley, had the main responsibility for measuring small temperature variations in the radiation.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10404216
Teenage woman charged over failed London bombings
1.20pm Wednesday October 4, 2006
LONDON - An 18-year-old woman was charged today in connection with an alleged failed attempt to bomb London in July last year, two weeks after the July 7 attacks on the capital's transport network, police said.
The teenager, who was not named, is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court tomorrow, the Metropolitan Police said.
She is charged with "knowing or believing" one of the men alleged to have been behind the July 21 plot, Yassin Omar, had been involved, a police statement said.
She is also accused of having information that may have helped in Omar's arrest but failing to tell the authorities "as soon as reasonably practicable".
Two men aged 19 and 24, who were arrested along with the woman last Wednesday, were released yesterday without charge, police added.
Six men are due to face trial charged with planning to kill commuters on three subway trains and bus on July 21, mimicking the suicide attacks a fortnight earlier by four British Muslims.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10404298
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