November 7, 2006
The White River, Orting, Washington
It's not white now.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
November 7, 2006
Between Index and Galena, Washington state
Photographer states :: Around 11:00 pm Nov 6 2006, the Skykomish river crested at nerely 24' or 9' above flood stage. This is one of many homes that suffered damage due to river bank erosion. This house is on the road (Index Galena rd.) to Galena east of Index on the north fork of the Skykomish river.
November 7, 2006
Gold Bar Area, Washington State
Photographer states :: Town of Sultan, flooded by Sultan river.
So much for election results. This building is completely brick and while that is not a do all and end all to protecting from flooding it certainly has a huge advantage. As one can tell it is still raining. The owner of the building has taken all precautions to flooding and placed sandbags (Commerically made rather than military take the form of bags of 'child playbox sand.') in front of the door with the bar stools in the window.
Morning Papers - continued
Haaretz
Democrats win U.S. House of Representatives, on brink of Senate power
By Reuters
Democrats swept Republicans from power in the United States House of Representatives and moved to the brink of control in the Senate, where they led in two tight races. Winning these two races would grant Democrats control of all of Congress.Democrats gained about 30 seats in the House, according to network projections of Tuesday's vote, riding to victory on a wave of public discontent with the Iraq war, corruption and Republican President George W. Bush.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785119.html
IDF: Hamas steps up production of Qassam rockets in Gaza Strip
By Amos Harel
Senior Israel Defense Forces officers believe that Hamas has managed to overcome the technological barrier that has so far prevented it from stockpiling a large number of Qassam rockets.According to the officers, the group succeeded in expediting its production of rockets in an effort to create a new level of deterrence vis-a-vis Israel in the Gaza Strip. IDF forces pulled out of the town of Beit Hanun Tuesday, but in fighting in other parts of the northern Gaza Strip, seven Palestinians were killed. Within several hours of the end of "Operation Autumn Clouds" there, four Qassams struck Ashkelon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785089.html
18 Palestinians killed in IDF shelling in northern Gaza
By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Israel was placed on high security alert Wednesday, hours after Israel Defense Forces artillery shells struck a residential area in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun early Wednesday, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others. Hamas swore to avenge the deaths, and called on all Palestinian groups to renew attacks inside Israel.Palestinians hurled stones and Molotov cocktails Wednesday afternoon towards the Jewish area of Hebron following the strike. An IDF soldier was lightly wounded by a stone, and several Palestinians wounded by rubber bullets.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785380.html
White House urges restraint on both sides after Gaza shelling
By Haaretz Service and Agencies
The White House on Wednesday urged restraint after an Israel Defense Forces strike in Gaza killed 19 Palestinians, and said it hoped for a swift completion of the investigation into the attack."We deeply regret the injuries and loss of life in Gaza today. We have seen the Israeli government's apology and hope their investigation will be completed quickly," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council."We call on all parties to show restraint so as to avoid any harm to innocent civilians," he said.
The European Union executive on Wednesday called the IDF attack "a profoundly shocking event." "The killing this morning of so many civilians in Gaza, including many children, is a profoundly shocking event. Israel has a right to defend itself, but not at the price of the lives of the innocent," EU external relations chief Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.Syria also condemned the attack, and said the international community and United Nations Security Council had a duty to stop such "massacres" and hold Israel accountable.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785505.html
Israel expresses regret for Gaza deaths; IDF chief orders probe
By Amos Harel and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday expressed regret over the deaths of 19 Palestinians in shelling on a northern Gaza town, and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz appointed a general to investigate the incident.Peretz has asked Halutz to present him with the findings of the inquiry by Thursday evening.At least 50 people were wounded when artillery fire struck a residential area in the town of Beit Hanun. Eight children and four women were among the dead.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785473.html
Meshal: Hamas will retaliate for Gaza deaths 'by deed, not words
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies
Hamas political chief in-exile Khaled Meshal said on Wednesday that Hamas will retaliate "by deed, not words" for a botched Israel Defense Forces shelling in northern Gaza, in which 19 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed in their homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun. "The truce [with Israel] ended at the end of 2005," Meshal said. "The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances.""There must be a roaring reaction so that we avenge all those vicitms," Me
Meshal said.Meshal blamed the United States and Arab governments for the Israeli attack, saying the shelling took place "under American cover and aided by a complete Arab silence."He also called for the formation of an international court to try Israeli leaders for war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785407.html
Senior U.S. official: We don't expect Israel to strike Iran
By Aluf Benn
A senior American official expressed doubts that Israel will attack Iran, during a meeting with Israeli reporters yesterday. "I do not think that Israel will attack Iran," the official said. "In all our discussions, the Israelis have emphasized that Iran is an international problem and Israel does not wish it to become an Israeli problem," he added.
The senior U.S. official also cast doubts on Israel's ability to strike at Iran's nuclear facilities.
"It would be significantly more complicated than the [1981] attack against the nuclear reactor in Iraq. That was a single reactor, and in Iran there are approximately 200 nuclear sites. True, some are more important than others, but it is difficult to be certain that all will be destroyed in one strike, and this is understood in Israel. The worst thing would be for you to try and not succeed," he said. "Israel understands this, and it is committed to the diplomatic process led by the international community versus Iran," the senior official added.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785084.html
U.S. said to favor Palestinian government of technocrats
By Aluf Benn
The Bush administration is in favor of the establishment of a "government of technocrats" in the Palestinian Authority in place of the current Hamas government, a senior American official told Israeli reporters yesterday. He said the U.S. is concerned about the lack of a Palestinian partner for peace talks with Israel, and expects a new Palestinian government to accept the conditions set by the Quartet (the United Nations, U.S., Russia and the European Union) - renouncing violence, recognizing the right of Israel to exist and upholding existing agreements. The international community has stood steadfast by the Quartet's conditions, which the Hamas government has refused to accept, the official said. He added that it was a waste to invest time in setting up a new government that would not accept these principles.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785083.html
UN confirms IDF used phosphorus, but not uranium, in Lebanon
By The Associated Press
BEIRUT - A UN team carrying out an environmental assessment of Lebanon after this summer's Israel-Hezbollah war confirmed that the Israeli military used artillery containing white phosphorous, but found no evidence of depleted uranium, a UN official said yesterday. Achim Steiner, UN undersecretary general and executive director of the UN Environment Program, said that samples taken by scientists confirmed "the use of white phosphorous-containing artillery and mortar ammunition" by the Israeli military during the conflict.
Last month, an Israeli cabinet minister acknowledged that the Israel Defense Forces used phosphorous shells against Hezbollah targets during the war, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time. The Geneva Conventions ban using white phosphorous against civilians or civilian areas, but Israel has said that the weapons were used solely against military targets.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785082.html
40 complaints a year to the AG, zero investigations
By Nir Hasson
Twenty-four hours before the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel Defense Forces soldiers broke into the home of Mustafa Abu Ma'amar in Rafah. Special forces soldiers arrested him and his brother in their respective homes. A few weeks later, Abu Ma'amar told an attorney for the Public Committee Against Torture: "One or two days later (I discovered afterward that it was the same morning the soldier had been kidnapped), three interrogators came to where I was held at 6 A.M. [approx. one hour after the abduction - N.H.]. They didn't ask me anything, just started kicking and hitting me while an interrogator named Moti grabbed me by the neck and throttled me until I thought I was going to die. The other two grabbed me and forcibly removed me." The interrogators later used the "exercise technique," as Abu Ma'amar calls it. "They forced me to hold my legs to the chair legs, with the back of the chair to my right and nothing supporting my back. They pushed my back backwards and told me to 'exercise.' It made my stomach muscles cramp up and caused unbearable pain," Abu Ma'amar explained.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785068.html
Missile attack on INS Spear: IDF probe faults navy, ship's crew
By Amos Harel
An investigation carried out by the navy into the incident in which the INS Spear was damaged by an Iranian missile during the Lebanon war concluded that there were problems with the operational conduct of both senior officers and the ship's crew. According to the findings of the investigation, the navy paid only superficial attention to Military Intelligence warnings regarding the presence of such missiles in Hezbollah's arsenal. Furthermore, the ship's officers failed to report problems with various systems on the Spear, a Saar-5 Class missile boat.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785086.html
Mazuz orders review of wiretap procedures
By Yuval Yoaz
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz plans to change police and prosecution procedures for wiretapping, after problems plagued wiretaps in the sexual harassment case against former justice minister Haim Ramon. Mazuz and senior prosecutors and police officers will redraft the rules for transmitting material related to wiretaps conducted during an investigation. According to current regulations, faultily implemented in the Ramon case, when the need for a wiretap arises, the police ask the prosecutor handling the case, or the district prosecutor, to ask the court for an injunction permitting the tap. The police carrying out the wiretap eavesdrop on conversations either from taps on land-line phones or cellular ones, or by bugging a room or site, and determine if the conversations are included in a list of the investigation's targets according to parameters such as the speakers and the subject. If they believe the conversation is relevant, they continue to listen. If they do not believe it is relevant, they stop listening but recording continues.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785081.html
All of the fallen empires
By Shiri Lev-Ari
"Most Americans want 1954 back, with the addition of cappuccino and television," writes Richard Russo in his fifth novel, "Empire Falls," a novel that won him the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. The name of the book may come from a fictional American town in Dexter County, Maine, but it also hints at the social and cultural downfall that can be attributed to American society. "Empire Falls" is written in the style of the great American novel: realist, social, psychological. The novel describes several characters living in a small and godforsaken industrial town in Maine called Empire Falls. Most of Empire Falls' assets are owned by the wealthy Whiting family, or more accurately whoever remains of the family, including the domineering Mrs. Whiting and her handicapped daughter. Miles Roby, the novel's hero, is the manager of the local diner. Twenty years earlier he left the town where he was born, intending never to return, but ended up back there. He is recently divorced, the father of an adolescent daughter, Tick, and has been in love since his youth with a waitress who works at his restaurant.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785118.html
The Syrian-American Rift
By Akiva Eldar
As the U.S. congressional elections approach, thousands of party activists are shuttling between synagogues and Evangelical churches, competing with their pro-Israel declarations to garner votes and money. But as of next Tuesday, the rules of the political game in Washington will change: In come the political advisers seeking to rescue Client Number One from the Iraqi vale of tears. James Baker, Bush Sr.'s secretary of state, is expected to present Bush Jr. with a plan detailing an escape from the quagmire. Edward Djerejian, who heads the James Baker Institute for Public Policy and is involved in drafting the plan, has said in private conversations that the document will recommend
Bush lift the boycott on Syria and advance Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Djerejian, who was American ambassador to both Syria and Israel, has maintained close relations with the regime in Damascus. He wrote in the last issue of Foreign Affairs: "Syria poses both a danger and an opportunity. The [Bashar] Assad regime could undermine security arrangements in southern Lebanon, hinder progress in Iraq and continue to support Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and radicals in Hamas. But it could also play a constructive role in the region - a possibility that has yet to be fully explored. The Bush administration's engagement with the Syrians from 2003 to 2005 left both sides frustrated. Washington felt that Damascus offered too little too late, and Damascus felt that Washington constantly increased its demands and refused to be satisfied.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/781527.html
After reaching 900, where do we go now?
By Ami Ginsburg
The main headline in the capital market section of TheMarker on June 20, 2006, was one that conservative newspapers would consider too daring. "Five reasons to invest in the stock market now," it blared. On that day the Tel Aviv 25 (Maof) Index hit 818 points.The five reasons were: prices recently have not been so high (a month earlier the Maof had reached 900); interest rates have already risen (since then they have been raised once and lowered once); the economic situation has been excellent (and essentially unchanged, although the growth rate has declined slightly); the capital market reforms have reduced the risk of a bubble forming; and the emerging markets have let off a lot of air (which they have in the meantime mostly reinhaled). When that issue was published, obviously no one knew that three weeks later war would erupt in Lebanon. We did not know how heavy a price that war would exact - in human lives, in property, in political upheaval and uncertainty.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785103.html
San Francisco Chronicle
BIG VICTORIES DEMOCRATS SEIZE CONTROL OF THE HOUSE AND CLOSE IN ON THE SENATE Congress: Pelosi set to become speaker after angry voters send firm message to GOP
Carolyn Lochhead, Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 04:00 PST Washington -- Voters angry about the Iraq war and congressional corruption turned out in huge numbers Tuesday to hand Democrats decisive control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years and leave them poised to oust the Republican majority in the Senate.
The historic election ends six years of nearly uninterrupted one-party rule in Washington, with President Bush as weakened today as he was emboldened by his 2004 re-election. Democratic inroads into former Republican bastions of the West and Midwest served as a stinging rebuke to Bush and his party, and an astonishing resurgence for Democrats who just two years ago seemed lost in the wilderness.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNGSMM8CRB1.DTL
ANALYSIS: As voters embrace change, Pelosi vows cooperation
Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 04:00 PST Washington -- The last time a Democrat held the speaker's gavel was in January 1995, when then-party leader Dick Gephardt handed it to Newt Gingrich after an election that Republicans branded a revolution.
The politically turbulent period that followed produced a balanced budget, a welfare reform bill, two government shutdowns, an impeached president and ultimately the election of George W. Bush.
The gavel will now be handed back to a Democrat, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who will become the first woman and first Californian to serve as speaker, following a coast to coast repudiation of Republican leadership.
The anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Congress sentiments that gave Democrats their biggest gains in a quarter-century would seem to set up a titanic clash between the liberal speaker from San Francisco and the conservative president from Texas.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNGSMM8CPH1.DTL
Challenger defeats Pombo in a stunner
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 08:18 PST -- Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney, a relative newcomer to politics, unseated seven-term GOP Congressman Richard Pombo of Tracy on Tuesday in a stunning demonstration of voter disenchantment with the Republican Party leadership nationally.
McNerney, a wind energy consultant from Pleasanton, took Northern California's 11th Congressional District with 53 percent of the vote. Pombo, who held a leadership position in the Republican-held House, received 47 percent. More than 10,000 votes divided the two candidates this morning.
Incumbent GOP Rep. John Doolittle of Rocklin (Placer County), meanwhile, beat his Democratic challenger, Charlie Brown, 45 percent to 40 percent. Libertarian candidate Dan Warren had 5 percent.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG9LM8JDV4.DTL
Is Boxer the next target for Schwarzenegger?
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political rehabilitation and re-election has Democrats wondering whether he'll take on Sen. Barbara Boxer when her term comes up in 2010.
Termed-out state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, has already raised the question, and so has former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
The thinking? "His wife is part of the Kennedy clan, and so it would be natural for a glamorous Kennedy star to elevate himself to the U.S. Senate as the next Barack Obama,'' Brown said.
After all, "here's a guy investing $15 million to $20 million of his own money in the governor's race,'' Brown said. "That can't be what he's after."
Speier said she heard Schwarzenegger recently in San Francisco saying how much he enjoys public service. That convinced her he intends to stay in the game.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/BAG11M872545.DTL
State voters back infrastructure bonds
Greg Lucas and Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 08:36 PST -- California voters approved a package of infrastructure bonds that would launch a record $40.1 billion in public works spending -- from highways and housing to schools and levees.
Propositions 1A , 1B, and 1E all won easily with more than 60 percent of the vote. Propositions 1C, a housing shelter fund, and 1D, a school facilities bond, also surged ahead to win. Proposition 84, a bond for a variety of water and land preservation projects, won with 53 percent of the vote.
"All of them seem to be pretty strong," said state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, who backed the bonds, on Tuesday night. "We put the largest state bond proposal ever on the ballot, and appear to have passed it. It required a two-thirds vote (of the Legislature) to do that, and it proves if everyone works together, you can get things done. And it comes at a perfect time. It could be a wonderful jobs program for California as well."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/BAG9LM8JJE8.DTL
Alternative fuel proposition defeated
Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 08:48 PST SACRAMENTO -- Proposition 87, which would have taxed oil production in California to help fund alternative fuel development in the state, was defeated Tuesday, after a campaign in which both sides spent a total of $156 million.
"I think voters looked carefully at this initiative, and while there is widespread agreement on developing alternative fuels, this measure isn't the way for us to get there," said No on 87 spokesman Bill George.
Beth Willon, a spokeswoman for the yes campaign, said the oil industry's nearly $100 million campaign spending to defeat the measure was tough to overcome.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/BAG9LM8JTC4.DTL
ABORTION: Early returns reject Prop. 85, which requires doctors to notify unwed teen's parents
Rachel Gordon, Carrie Sturrock, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
California voters appeared to be narrowly rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment that would make it harder for teenage girls to get abortions, early election returns showed Tuesday.
Similar to a measure on the fall 2005 ballot, Proposition 85 would have required physicians to notify a parent or guardian when an unmarried girl younger than 18 sought an abortion and would have imposed a 48-hour waiting period before the procedure could be performed.
The law would not have required a parent or guardian to consent to the abortion.
With 31 percent of precincts reporting, Prop. 85 was losing 48 percent to 51 percent.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG4UM89CQ1.DTL
EMINENT DOMAIN: Measure to restrict government power over private land being rejected
Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Voters were poised Tuesday to reject Proposition 90, a measure that supporters said would stop the government from using eminent domain to take private property on behalf of developers, but which critics said would actually hobble land-use regulation.
The "Protect Our Homes Act" -- one among a handful of similar efforts in various states -- had 49.4 percent of the vote with 32.1 percent of precincts reporting.
Proponents said Prop. 90 was a necessary reaction to the June 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed New London, Conn., to seize the home of Susette Kelo and others so a developer could build a hotel, condominiums and commercial space on the site.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG4UM89C81.DTL
60 Iraqis Are Killed or Found Dead Today
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 06:33 PST BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
At least 60 Iraqis were killed or found dead on Wednesday, including seven who died from injuries received in the previous day's suicide bombing of a coffee shop in a Shiite district of Baghdad. Today, Iraqi police said a pair of mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing at least eight players and bystanders.
The mortars struck at just after 4:30 p.m. as a game was in progress between young men from the sprawling slum that is home to about 2.5 million people, a captain with the local police force, Mohammed Ismail, said.
Another 20 people were injured in the attack, Ismail said.
Dozens of people have been killed in recent days in mortar attacks by rival Sunni and Shiite groups on residential areas in Baghdad.
U.S. forces, meanwhile, said they killed 14 suspected insurgents, detained 48, and rescued a kidnapped Iraqi policeman in a pair of raids beginning on Tuesday afternoon. There was no word on U.S. casualties in those actions, although separately, the military said a Marine assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died on Wednesday from wounds sustained in fighting in Anbar province.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/11/08/international/i063319S26.DTL
Real work begins for both sides
David Lazarus
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
In the run-up to Tuesday's election, the Democrats ran largely on President Bush's record and the war in Iraq. Now the real work begins.
It's time for the Democrats to put aside their political posturing and finally show leadership on some of the economic issues that the Republicans, distracted by the urgent need to cut taxes for rich people, have largely ignored for six years.
Here, then, are some helpful reminders for members of both parties who may have forgotten that public service means serving the public, not the public getting repeatedly serviced.
Let's take them in order of magnitude, from relatively fixable to stratospherically difficult.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/BUGT3M7LPS1.DTL
Same-sex marriage: 7 states OK ban -- but it trails in Arizona
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Ballot measures to ban same-sex marriage were winning in seven of eight states late Tuesday, with voters in Arizona poised to be the first in the nation to turn down such a measure.
The measures, all constitutional amendments to limit marriage to heterosexuals and some to ban domestic partnerships, passed in Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee and were winning in Colorado, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Idaho. A proposal to create domestic partnerships in Colorado appeared headed to defeat with just 45 percent of the vote when more than half of the state's precincts had reported their results.
The votes came at the end of a campaign season marked by important developments in the arenas of same-sex marriage and gay politics.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG82M8A501.DTL&type=politics
God Hates Gay Evangelicals Will Pastor Ted's love of hot man sex open the narrow mind of the religious right?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Let's assume it's all true. Let's assume that Ted Haggard is just deliriously, stupidly, crazyjuicy gay. I know, not much of a stretch, but let's go with it.
Yes, Pastor Ted, disgraced former leader of 30 million blithely homophobic evangelical Christians, yet another of those flamboyant semi-insane Liberace-with-a-Bible megachurch preachers, a man who had weekly conference calls with George W. Bush, a man who lobbied Congress on behalf of homophobic Supreme Court nominees, Ted has had so much gay sex with a male prostitute it makes Mark Foley look like child's play (so to speak). Fair enough?
Furthermore, let's assume the reaction of Haggard's stunned flock is also true, that many of his devout Christian set are "devastated" and "shocked" and "pulverized" and "beaten with God's own giant rod of icky homo scariness" (note: quotes not verified) about Ted's utter obvious gayness.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/11/08/notes110806.DTL
Blue wave of change
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
THE MESSAGE from American voters in Tuesday's midterm elections was ... change the course.
That national mood was evident from the earliest returns. Americans were angry about the war in Iraq and the corruption and scandals that have enveloped Capitol Hill.
As a result, the Democrats regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since 1994 and, as the counting went on late into the night, were inching within striking distance of claiming a majority in the U.S. Senate.
It was a historic night for the House and one of pride and elevated clout for San Francisco. "Speaker Nancy Pelosi" is about to become a reality. After two decades in Congress, the nation's first female speaker has all the qualities for the job -- the right blend of toughness and compassion, the knack for building and rewarding loyalties. Last night, she set the right tone by promising to bring "civility and bipartisanship" to Washington and to lead with integrity and honesty.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/08/EDG8LM7A2I1.DTL
EDITORIAL
Hussein's trial
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
IT WAS a sham trial with rulings, evidence and compliant judges all tilted toward a guilty verdict, say critics. No, it was a judicial milestone ushering in new era of Iraqi law, according to President Bush.
In truth, the trial and conviction of Saddam Hussein was neither. His months in the dock were no model of impartial justice. But the testimony and facts more than justified the outcome. A tyrant was found guilty of crimes against his people.
Only Hussein's ultra-loyalists would argue his innocence. The real measure of this trial is whether it can inspire confidence in a fledgling Iraqi judiciary.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/08/EDG6PKE1EO1.DTL
New Zealand Herald
Our disappearing heritage, under threat from climate change
Thursday November 9, 2006
From archaeological ruins in Scotland to 13th century mosques in the Sahara, climate change could destroy some of the world's most important natural and cultural heritage sites.
Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, says sites that have existed for thousands of years "may, by virtue of climate change, very well not be available to future generations".
Rising sea levels and increased temperatures threaten seaside cities that have lasted for centuries, some of the world's most important national parks, and a coral reef in Belize that Charles Darwin once described as "the most remarkable reef in the West Indies".
Tom Downing, co-author of a newly released study called The Atlas of Climate Change says: "Our world is changing, there is no going back."
The study cites damage already done to wildlife parks such as the Donana National Park in southern Spain, a 50,000ha wetland that has lost more than 100 plant species in the past century because of increased water use.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409795
Sunday drive fuels greenhouse gases
Thursday November 9, 2006By Simon Collins
Forget the work commute, it's the weekend escape to the outdoors that has been found to be driving Kiwis' greenhouse gas emissions.
A $2.7 million Opus and Massey University study shows social and recreational trips account for 30 per cent of all private, non-business-owned vehicle kilometres travelled, against only 25 per cent for commuting.
And most people buy their cars with a view to getting away at weekends - even if they actually use it mainly around town.
Research leader Darren Walton says this combination will make it much harder to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from private transport than in countries where cars are used mainly for commuting.
"All the public transport in the world is not going to address the issue if in the weekend they hop in a four-litre Land Rover and go down to Taupo," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409880
Nuclear power 'will slow climate change'
Thursday November 9, 2006
LONDON - The International Energy Agency has urged governments to build more nuclear plants to slow climate change and increase energy security, throwing its weight behind the push for atomic power.
In its annual World Energy Outlook, a 596-page response to a G8 call for a sustainable energy blueprint, the agency said unless leaders took action world demand for fossil fuels would rise by more than 50 per cent, with carbon emissions.
Energy conservation and investment in nuclear power could cut consumption by 10 per cent by 2030, the IEA said, equivalent to China's energy use today. Carbon emissions would drop by 16 per cent, what the United States and Canada emit between them.
"We are on course for an energy system that will evolve from crisis to crisis," said Claude Mandil, executive director of the adviser to 26 industrialised nations. "That may mean skyrocketing prices, or more frequent blackouts."
By 2030, oil could soar to US$130.30 ($197) a barrel if energy investment and government policies fall short, the IEA warned.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10409787
'Silent pandemic' poisoning our children
Thursday November 9, 2006By Jeremy Laurance
Chemical pollution may have harmed the brains of millions of children around the globe in what scientists are calling a "silent pandemic".
The world is bathed in a soup of industrial chemicals which are damaging the intellectual potential of the next generation and may increase the incidence of degenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease, they say.
One in every six children has a developmental disability, such as autism, attention deficit disorder or cerebral palsy, the effects of which may be lifelong.
The role of low-level pollutants such as lead and mercury on the developing brain have been recognised for decades and measures taken to reduce exposure to a minimum.
But scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston say there are at least 202 chemicals with the capacity to damage the human brain whose effect at low levels of exposure are unknown.
They say limits for exposure to chemicals should be set for pregnant women and young children, recognising the unique sensitivity of the developing brain.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409779
Tax likely to doom coal-fired Marsden B, says minister
Thursday November 9, 2006
A state-imposed carbon tax could end plans for a coal-fired Marsden B power station, Energy Minister David Parker says.
Mr Parker, who is also the Minister for Climate Change Issues, said the Government favoured renewable energy sources over fossil fuels such as coal, and had already signalled a cost on carbon emissions for electricity generators.
"So on that basis, Marsden B is unlikely to go ahead," he said.
Mighty River Power, the state-owned enterprise behind the Marsden B scheme, said the project would only proceed if it were economically viable.
The company was granted resource consent to fire up the mothballed station using coal last year, but this has been appealed against in the Environment Court.
Mighty River's external affairs general manager, Neil Williams, said the consent application was only one step of the process and did not necessarily mean the station would be built.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409814
Builder's collapse devastates homebuyers
Thursday November 9, 2006By Wayne Thompson
A company that builds houses from Waiuku to Whangarei has gone into liquidation, leaving customers wondering whether they will get back their deposits of $25,000 to $50,000.
Meridian Homes Ltd of Orewa had 30 contracts for homes, with half under construction, said joint liquidator Paul Sargison.
Managing director Dean Hopper blamed the collapse of the six-year-old company mainly on significant delays in getting building consents for homes.
By the time the council gave consent, he said, the cost of the building had exceeded the original contract price and profit was lost.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10409886
Tasers seen by police as valuable addition to crime-fighting arsenal
Thursday November 9, 2006
Frontline police report that Taser stun guns have been a valuable addition to their crime-fighting arsenal and officers are keen to see them widely deployed, Commissioner Howard Broad says.
The stun guns were introduced on September 1 for a one-year trial for use in parts of greater Auckland and Wellington before a decision is made on whether they will become a mainstream crimefighting tool.
At a parliamentary select committee meeting yesterday, Mr Broad denied suggestions Tasers were a stepping stone to eventually having an armed police force.
"I do not believe at this point that the circumstances in New Zealand warrant the general arming of police," he said.
But Mr Broad said there was "overwhelming" support for Tasers from those carrying them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409890
Violent video games banned in jail
Thursday November 9, 2006
Criminals can blame National for no longer being able to play violent video games in prison.
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor confirmed in Parliament yesterday that PlayStation and Xbox games were taken off prisoners after the National Party asked questions about them.
"Most of those PlayStations were in the youth units. The question did prompt the department to look at its policy," Mr O'Connor said.
"We do not have a policy covering this area and management decided to withdraw those PlayStations until an appropriate policy could be developed."
National Party Corrections spokesman Simon Power said there had been 11 PlayStation and Xbox game consoles at Rimutaka, Waikeria and Ngawha prisons that cost $5000. The 58 games the prisons had available included violence and use of weapons ranging from guns to chainsaws.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409883
Breast cancer delays slammed
Thursday November 9, 2006
National MP Jackie Blue says mastectomy rates in New Zealand are high because women choose surgery rather than face delays getting radiation therapy.
Dr Blue, a former breast cancer doctor, was questioning Health Minister Pete Hodgson in Parliament yesterday.
She asked: "When will the Government realise that, despite its own rhetoric, staff shortages and growing waiting lists are making some women choose to have their breast removed rather than wait and wait for radiation therapy?"
Mr Hodgson said he did not know if women were choosing mastectomies because of waiting times.
"The member is suggesting that, because there is a shortage of radiation therapy, that women are proactively changing their choice as to the type of treatment they have.
"I can't say if that is or is not happening. What I can say is that about 2000 or 2500 people in Auckland each year receive radiation therapy and 30 have been offered radiation therapy in Australia."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409877
America votes: Democrats win control of the US House
6.15pm Wednesday November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON - A disappointed President George W. Bush is to urge his opponents to work with him after the Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives today.
Democrats swept Republicans out of power in the US House of Representatives today riding public doubts about the war in Iraq and President George W Bush's leadership to victory.
The win is likely to slam the brakes on Bush's legislative agenda in his final two years, make Democrat Nancy Pelosi the first female Speaker of the House and give Democrats a chance to investigate his administration's most controversial policy decisions such as the war in Iraq.
Two years after a decisive election victory for Bush and his Republicans, Democrats picked up the 15 seats they needed to recapture control of the 435-seat House for the first time since 1994.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the outcome of the elections was "not what we would've hoped."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409757
Keeping a NZ blip on US radar
Thursday November 9, 2006
Foreign Minister Winston Peters last night put forward a case for improving relations with the United States, saying New Zealand could not work alone to achieve international peace, prosperity and security.
"The reality is that it's just not possible to get very far on these goals without the United States on board," he said in a speech to a business awards dinner in Auckland organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand.
"By the same token, the United States cannot do everything itself, either. It also needs friends and partners, both on big global issues and on tricky regional concerns."
Mr Peters has made improving the relationship with the US a priority since he became Foreign Minister.
"It is not about sudden, big breakthroughs but about making solid, sustainable, cumulative progress over time," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409836
Pardon for NZ soldier executed as a coward
Thursday November 9, 2006By Martin Johnston and Agencies
Fred Ryan proudly wears the military medals of his relative Private Victor Manson Spencer, who has been pardoned by the British Government after being executed during World War I.
Private Spencer, born in Otautau, Southland, faced a firing squad in France in February 1918 for desertion.
Two other New Zealanders, Jack Braithwaite and Frank Hughes, executed in the 1914-18 war for mutiny and desertion respectively, were also pardoned, the British Government confirmed yesterday.
The pardon, enacted by legislation announced in August, covers 306 men shot at dawn. The British Defence Ministry said that as well as British troops it applied to three from New Zealand, 23 from Canada, two from the West Indies, two from Ghana and one each from Sierra Leone, Egypt and Nigeria.
No Australian soldiers were executed for cowardice or desertion during the war although 121 were found guilty of offences punishable by death.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409821
Interpreters executed for 'turning their back on Iraq'
Thursday November 9, 2006By Phil Sands
AMMAN - Iraqi interpreters working with the British Army in Basra are being systematically hunted down and executed.
At least 16 have been kidnapped and shot in the head over the last fortnight, their bodies dumped in different parts of the city. Another three are still missing. In a single mass killing, 12 interpreters were murdered.
"This is not a general threat against Iraqi security forces, interpreters are specifically being killed," an Iraqi police officer familiar with the case said.
"It has been happening at a low level for the last year, but the campaign is getting worse.
"First they get letters warning them to stop co-operating with the occupation forces, then they are killed. The interpreters are the major target now.
"Word spreads about who is working with the British - neighbours, people in the street, police officers all see the interpreters. Their identities don't remain very secret and someone is going around trying to kill them and they're succeeding."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10409863
Pakistani soldiers die in bombing
Thursday November 9, 2006
ISLAMABAD - A suicide bomber killed 35 Pakistani soldiers at an Army training ground last night in a northwestern area known to be a stronghold of an Islamist militant group.
The blast, the most serious militant attack against the Pakistani military, took place in the town of Dargai, in North West Frontier Province.
Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law) ran a school that security forces attacked in a nearby tribal area late last month, killing 80 people.
"It was a suicide attack. The bomber wrapped a chadar [cloak] around his body and came running into the training area and exploded himself where recruits had gathered for training," a military official said.
The group, which backs Afghanistan's Taleban, was banned by the Government in 2002.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409866
Doctor pushes drug therapy for marijuana addiction
Thursday November 9, 2006
Drugs are needed to treat cannabis addiction because standard therapies are not working, a United States drug expert says.
Heavy marijuana users wanting to stop are commonly directed towards cognitive behavioural therapy because no medication exists. These psycho-therapies aim to change addictive behaviour by addressing people's attitudes, thoughts and beliefs.
But Dr Francis Vocci, from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, says only 35 per cent of addicts who use these therapies are successfully treated.
Speaking to the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs Conference in Cairns, he said the poor results strengthened the case for medications to supplement treatment.
Research was under way in several countries to develop approved drugs to manage the withdrawal, help with abstinence and prevent relapse.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409777
US votes: First woman US Speaker a Bush nightmare
6.30pm Wednesday November 8, 2006By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON - Nancy Pelosi spearheaded the Democratic takeover of the US House of Representatives today positioning herself to become the first woman to lead the chamber - and President George W. Bush's worst political nightmare.
House Democratic leader since 2003, the California liberal framed the elections as a referendum on Bush, his unpopular Iraq war and the scandal-rocked, Republican-led House.
"Democrats support change," Pelosi told a victory party in Washington. "Democrats propose a new direction for all Americans, not just the privileged few."
Pelosi, 66, appears certain to be elected House speaker by fellow Democrats when the new 110th Congress convenes in January, replacing Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409797
US votes: Bush faces lame duck presidency
7.00pm Wednesday November 8, 2006By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON - By taking the US House of Representatives, Democrats may hasten President George W. Bush's lame-duck status and pressure him into changing his Iraq policy, analysts said.
But Bush, facing strong opposition in the US Congress for the first time since taking office in 2001, can help himself and his legacy by reaching out to Democrats for some legislative accomplishments as he did when he was Texas governor from 1995 to 2000, they said.
"It makes it possible for him to be more than a lame duck," said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas political scientist who watched Bush work with Democrats in Texas. "If he plays hard ball, he won't get a thing."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409800
US Votes: Schwarzenegger wins but Republican Governors fall
6.00pm Wednesday November 8, 2006
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back but many of his fellow Republican Governors, will not.
The action-star-turned-politician won a second and final term today, easily turning aside a challenge from Democrat Phil Angelides in the populous California state.
But elsewhere Democrats took governors' seats from Republicans in five states, nearing a majority of the offices for the first time since 1994 and giving them a potential advantage in 2008 presidential battlegrounds.
Governorships in New York, Ohio, Maryland, Massachusetts and Arkansas all fell into Democratic hands, according to media projections.Republicans retained power in Florida, California and Texas, three of the four most populous states and all crucial players in presidential elections.
``We are 99 percent sure we will have a majority of 26 (of the 50) states, possibly more,'' said Brian Namey, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409786
Lawmakers among those snagged by US voting problems
1.00pm Wednesday November 8, 2006
CINCINNATI - Late poll openings and malfunctions with some new electronic voting machines hampered balloting today in US congressional elections, and even some lawmakers encountered problems.
Election officials and experts reported machine malfunctions in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, but they said many of the problems were minor and temporary.
An estimated 10,000 lawyers working for the Republican and Democratic parties were standing by across the country to intervene if problems arise, while the US Justice Department dispatched more than 850 observers to 22 states.
Ohio Rep. Jean Schmidt, one of many Republicans who could lose her seat because of voter anger over the war in Iraq, was among the first in line to vote at 6.30am but her paper ballot was rejected by the machine at her suburban polling station. Election officials put it aside to be counted later.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409745
Pernod's $2000 bottle of champagne
5.40am Thursday November 9, 2006
French wines and spirits group Pernod Ricard says it will soon offer the world's most expensive champagne, which will cost about $2000.
Alcohol tax discussed by the EU
Thursday November 9, 2006
Raising taxes on beer and other favourite tipples raised hackles at European Union finance ministers' talks yesterday, the debate ending without any deal on increasing tax rates in line with inflation.
Fearing a backlash from beer drinkers back home, Germany was one of several countries foaming over an EU plan to push up minimum tax rates on alcohol by 31 per cent.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10409803
Fedex cancels Airbus A380 order
11.40am Wednesday November 8, 2006
US freight giant FedEx said today it had become the first airline to cancel its order for Airbus' troubled A380 superjumbo, ordering instead 15 new Boeing 777 Freighters.
FedEx Express, a unit of FedEx Corp, said it had pulled out of an order for 10 freighter versions of the European superjumbo "after Airbus announced significant delays in delivery of the A380", news agency AFP reported.
Instead, FedEx Express said it was buying 15 Boeing 777 Freighter planes with options to purchase another 15.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10409708
Oil: Opec offers support
8.40am Wednesday November 8, 2006
Oil prices slid below US$60 a barrel on Tuesday but drew support from Gulf producers, including leading Opec exporter Saudi Arabia, who held out the prospect of deeper output cuts to remove excess supply.
US crude was trading 53 cents lower at US$59.50 a barrel by 1552 GMT. London Brent was 52 cents down at US$59.23.
Prices rose 88 cents on Monday after Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would take action when it meets on Dec. 14 if world markets remained imbalanced.
Naimi, oil minister of the world's top exporter, noted "very high" stockpiles of fuel worldwide.
Traders said the news flow was keeping prices in a range between US$59 and US$60.
"When it's above US$60, it's sold into. It's quite well supported by the prospect of Opec cuts when it gets below US$59," said Christopher Bellew of Bache Financial brokerage.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10409707
continued …
Democrats win U.S. House of Representatives, on brink of Senate power
By Reuters
Democrats swept Republicans from power in the United States House of Representatives and moved to the brink of control in the Senate, where they led in two tight races. Winning these two races would grant Democrats control of all of Congress.Democrats gained about 30 seats in the House, according to network projections of Tuesday's vote, riding to victory on a wave of public discontent with the Iraq war, corruption and Republican President George W. Bush.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785119.html
IDF: Hamas steps up production of Qassam rockets in Gaza Strip
By Amos Harel
Senior Israel Defense Forces officers believe that Hamas has managed to overcome the technological barrier that has so far prevented it from stockpiling a large number of Qassam rockets.According to the officers, the group succeeded in expediting its production of rockets in an effort to create a new level of deterrence vis-a-vis Israel in the Gaza Strip. IDF forces pulled out of the town of Beit Hanun Tuesday, but in fighting in other parts of the northern Gaza Strip, seven Palestinians were killed. Within several hours of the end of "Operation Autumn Clouds" there, four Qassams struck Ashkelon.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785089.html
18 Palestinians killed in IDF shelling in northern Gaza
By Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Israel was placed on high security alert Wednesday, hours after Israel Defense Forces artillery shells struck a residential area in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun early Wednesday, killing at least 19 Palestinians and wounding dozens of others. Hamas swore to avenge the deaths, and called on all Palestinian groups to renew attacks inside Israel.Palestinians hurled stones and Molotov cocktails Wednesday afternoon towards the Jewish area of Hebron following the strike. An IDF soldier was lightly wounded by a stone, and several Palestinians wounded by rubber bullets.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785380.html
White House urges restraint on both sides after Gaza shelling
By Haaretz Service and Agencies
The White House on Wednesday urged restraint after an Israel Defense Forces strike in Gaza killed 19 Palestinians, and said it hoped for a swift completion of the investigation into the attack."We deeply regret the injuries and loss of life in Gaza today. We have seen the Israeli government's apology and hope their investigation will be completed quickly," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council."We call on all parties to show restraint so as to avoid any harm to innocent civilians," he said.
The European Union executive on Wednesday called the IDF attack "a profoundly shocking event." "The killing this morning of so many civilians in Gaza, including many children, is a profoundly shocking event. Israel has a right to defend itself, but not at the price of the lives of the innocent," EU external relations chief Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.Syria also condemned the attack, and said the international community and United Nations Security Council had a duty to stop such "massacres" and hold Israel accountable.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785505.html
Israel expresses regret for Gaza deaths; IDF chief orders probe
By Amos Harel and Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday expressed regret over the deaths of 19 Palestinians in shelling on a northern Gaza town, and Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz appointed a general to investigate the incident.Peretz has asked Halutz to present him with the findings of the inquiry by Thursday evening.At least 50 people were wounded when artillery fire struck a residential area in the town of Beit Hanun. Eight children and four women were among the dead.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785473.html
Meshal: Hamas will retaliate for Gaza deaths 'by deed, not words
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent and Agencies
Hamas political chief in-exile Khaled Meshal said on Wednesday that Hamas will retaliate "by deed, not words" for a botched Israel Defense Forces shelling in northern Gaza, in which 19 Palestinians, mostly women and children, were killed in their homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun. "The truce [with Israel] ended at the end of 2005," Meshal said. "The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances.""There must be a roaring reaction so that we avenge all those vicitms," Me
Meshal said.Meshal blamed the United States and Arab governments for the Israeli attack, saying the shelling took place "under American cover and aided by a complete Arab silence."He also called for the formation of an international court to try Israeli leaders for war crimes in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785407.html
Senior U.S. official: We don't expect Israel to strike Iran
By Aluf Benn
A senior American official expressed doubts that Israel will attack Iran, during a meeting with Israeli reporters yesterday. "I do not think that Israel will attack Iran," the official said. "In all our discussions, the Israelis have emphasized that Iran is an international problem and Israel does not wish it to become an Israeli problem," he added.
The senior U.S. official also cast doubts on Israel's ability to strike at Iran's nuclear facilities.
"It would be significantly more complicated than the [1981] attack against the nuclear reactor in Iraq. That was a single reactor, and in Iran there are approximately 200 nuclear sites. True, some are more important than others, but it is difficult to be certain that all will be destroyed in one strike, and this is understood in Israel. The worst thing would be for you to try and not succeed," he said. "Israel understands this, and it is committed to the diplomatic process led by the international community versus Iran," the senior official added.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785084.html
U.S. said to favor Palestinian government of technocrats
By Aluf Benn
The Bush administration is in favor of the establishment of a "government of technocrats" in the Palestinian Authority in place of the current Hamas government, a senior American official told Israeli reporters yesterday. He said the U.S. is concerned about the lack of a Palestinian partner for peace talks with Israel, and expects a new Palestinian government to accept the conditions set by the Quartet (the United Nations, U.S., Russia and the European Union) - renouncing violence, recognizing the right of Israel to exist and upholding existing agreements. The international community has stood steadfast by the Quartet's conditions, which the Hamas government has refused to accept, the official said. He added that it was a waste to invest time in setting up a new government that would not accept these principles.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785083.html
UN confirms IDF used phosphorus, but not uranium, in Lebanon
By The Associated Press
BEIRUT - A UN team carrying out an environmental assessment of Lebanon after this summer's Israel-Hezbollah war confirmed that the Israeli military used artillery containing white phosphorous, but found no evidence of depleted uranium, a UN official said yesterday. Achim Steiner, UN undersecretary general and executive director of the UN Environment Program, said that samples taken by scientists confirmed "the use of white phosphorous-containing artillery and mortar ammunition" by the Israeli military during the conflict.
Last month, an Israeli cabinet minister acknowledged that the Israel Defense Forces used phosphorous shells against Hezbollah targets during the war, confirming Lebanese allegations for the first time. The Geneva Conventions ban using white phosphorous against civilians or civilian areas, but Israel has said that the weapons were used solely against military targets.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785082.html
40 complaints a year to the AG, zero investigations
By Nir Hasson
Twenty-four hours before the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit, Israel Defense Forces soldiers broke into the home of Mustafa Abu Ma'amar in Rafah. Special forces soldiers arrested him and his brother in their respective homes. A few weeks later, Abu Ma'amar told an attorney for the Public Committee Against Torture: "One or two days later (I discovered afterward that it was the same morning the soldier had been kidnapped), three interrogators came to where I was held at 6 A.M. [approx. one hour after the abduction - N.H.]. They didn't ask me anything, just started kicking and hitting me while an interrogator named Moti grabbed me by the neck and throttled me until I thought I was going to die. The other two grabbed me and forcibly removed me." The interrogators later used the "exercise technique," as Abu Ma'amar calls it. "They forced me to hold my legs to the chair legs, with the back of the chair to my right and nothing supporting my back. They pushed my back backwards and told me to 'exercise.' It made my stomach muscles cramp up and caused unbearable pain," Abu Ma'amar explained.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785068.html
Missile attack on INS Spear: IDF probe faults navy, ship's crew
By Amos Harel
An investigation carried out by the navy into the incident in which the INS Spear was damaged by an Iranian missile during the Lebanon war concluded that there were problems with the operational conduct of both senior officers and the ship's crew. According to the findings of the investigation, the navy paid only superficial attention to Military Intelligence warnings regarding the presence of such missiles in Hezbollah's arsenal. Furthermore, the ship's officers failed to report problems with various systems on the Spear, a Saar-5 Class missile boat.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785086.html
Mazuz orders review of wiretap procedures
By Yuval Yoaz
Attorney General Menachem Mazuz plans to change police and prosecution procedures for wiretapping, after problems plagued wiretaps in the sexual harassment case against former justice minister Haim Ramon. Mazuz and senior prosecutors and police officers will redraft the rules for transmitting material related to wiretaps conducted during an investigation. According to current regulations, faultily implemented in the Ramon case, when the need for a wiretap arises, the police ask the prosecutor handling the case, or the district prosecutor, to ask the court for an injunction permitting the tap. The police carrying out the wiretap eavesdrop on conversations either from taps on land-line phones or cellular ones, or by bugging a room or site, and determine if the conversations are included in a list of the investigation's targets according to parameters such as the speakers and the subject. If they believe the conversation is relevant, they continue to listen. If they do not believe it is relevant, they stop listening but recording continues.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785081.html
All of the fallen empires
By Shiri Lev-Ari
"Most Americans want 1954 back, with the addition of cappuccino and television," writes Richard Russo in his fifth novel, "Empire Falls," a novel that won him the Pulitzer Prize in 2002. The name of the book may come from a fictional American town in Dexter County, Maine, but it also hints at the social and cultural downfall that can be attributed to American society. "Empire Falls" is written in the style of the great American novel: realist, social, psychological. The novel describes several characters living in a small and godforsaken industrial town in Maine called Empire Falls. Most of Empire Falls' assets are owned by the wealthy Whiting family, or more accurately whoever remains of the family, including the domineering Mrs. Whiting and her handicapped daughter. Miles Roby, the novel's hero, is the manager of the local diner. Twenty years earlier he left the town where he was born, intending never to return, but ended up back there. He is recently divorced, the father of an adolescent daughter, Tick, and has been in love since his youth with a waitress who works at his restaurant.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785118.html
The Syrian-American Rift
By Akiva Eldar
As the U.S. congressional elections approach, thousands of party activists are shuttling between synagogues and Evangelical churches, competing with their pro-Israel declarations to garner votes and money. But as of next Tuesday, the rules of the political game in Washington will change: In come the political advisers seeking to rescue Client Number One from the Iraqi vale of tears. James Baker, Bush Sr.'s secretary of state, is expected to present Bush Jr. with a plan detailing an escape from the quagmire. Edward Djerejian, who heads the James Baker Institute for Public Policy and is involved in drafting the plan, has said in private conversations that the document will recommend
Bush lift the boycott on Syria and advance Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Djerejian, who was American ambassador to both Syria and Israel, has maintained close relations with the regime in Damascus. He wrote in the last issue of Foreign Affairs: "Syria poses both a danger and an opportunity. The [Bashar] Assad regime could undermine security arrangements in southern Lebanon, hinder progress in Iraq and continue to support Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and radicals in Hamas. But it could also play a constructive role in the region - a possibility that has yet to be fully explored. The Bush administration's engagement with the Syrians from 2003 to 2005 left both sides frustrated. Washington felt that Damascus offered too little too late, and Damascus felt that Washington constantly increased its demands and refused to be satisfied.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/781527.html
After reaching 900, where do we go now?
By Ami Ginsburg
The main headline in the capital market section of TheMarker on June 20, 2006, was one that conservative newspapers would consider too daring. "Five reasons to invest in the stock market now," it blared. On that day the Tel Aviv 25 (Maof) Index hit 818 points.The five reasons were: prices recently have not been so high (a month earlier the Maof had reached 900); interest rates have already risen (since then they have been raised once and lowered once); the economic situation has been excellent (and essentially unchanged, although the growth rate has declined slightly); the capital market reforms have reduced the risk of a bubble forming; and the emerging markets have let off a lot of air (which they have in the meantime mostly reinhaled). When that issue was published, obviously no one knew that three weeks later war would erupt in Lebanon. We did not know how heavy a price that war would exact - in human lives, in property, in political upheaval and uncertainty.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/785103.html
San Francisco Chronicle
BIG VICTORIES DEMOCRATS SEIZE CONTROL OF THE HOUSE AND CLOSE IN ON THE SENATE Congress: Pelosi set to become speaker after angry voters send firm message to GOP
Carolyn Lochhead, Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 04:00 PST Washington -- Voters angry about the Iraq war and congressional corruption turned out in huge numbers Tuesday to hand Democrats decisive control of the House of Representatives for the first time in 12 years and leave them poised to oust the Republican majority in the Senate.
The historic election ends six years of nearly uninterrupted one-party rule in Washington, with President Bush as weakened today as he was emboldened by his 2004 re-election. Democratic inroads into former Republican bastions of the West and Midwest served as a stinging rebuke to Bush and his party, and an astonishing resurgence for Democrats who just two years ago seemed lost in the wilderness.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNGSMM8CRB1.DTL
ANALYSIS: As voters embrace change, Pelosi vows cooperation
Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 04:00 PST Washington -- The last time a Democrat held the speaker's gavel was in January 1995, when then-party leader Dick Gephardt handed it to Newt Gingrich after an election that Republicans branded a revolution.
The politically turbulent period that followed produced a balanced budget, a welfare reform bill, two government shutdowns, an impeached president and ultimately the election of George W. Bush.
The gavel will now be handed back to a Democrat, Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco, who will become the first woman and first Californian to serve as speaker, following a coast to coast repudiation of Republican leadership.
The anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-Congress sentiments that gave Democrats their biggest gains in a quarter-century would seem to set up a titanic clash between the liberal speaker from San Francisco and the conservative president from Texas.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNGSMM8CPH1.DTL
Challenger defeats Pombo in a stunner
Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 08:18 PST -- Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney, a relative newcomer to politics, unseated seven-term GOP Congressman Richard Pombo of Tracy on Tuesday in a stunning demonstration of voter disenchantment with the Republican Party leadership nationally.
McNerney, a wind energy consultant from Pleasanton, took Northern California's 11th Congressional District with 53 percent of the vote. Pombo, who held a leadership position in the Republican-held House, received 47 percent. More than 10,000 votes divided the two candidates this morning.
Incumbent GOP Rep. John Doolittle of Rocklin (Placer County), meanwhile, beat his Democratic challenger, Charlie Brown, 45 percent to 40 percent. Libertarian candidate Dan Warren had 5 percent.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG9LM8JDV4.DTL
Is Boxer the next target for Schwarzenegger?
Phillip Matier, Andrew Ross
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political rehabilitation and re-election has Democrats wondering whether he'll take on Sen. Barbara Boxer when her term comes up in 2010.
Termed-out state Sen. Jackie Speier, D-Hillsborough, has already raised the question, and so has former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.
The thinking? "His wife is part of the Kennedy clan, and so it would be natural for a glamorous Kennedy star to elevate himself to the U.S. Senate as the next Barack Obama,'' Brown said.
After all, "here's a guy investing $15 million to $20 million of his own money in the governor's race,'' Brown said. "That can't be what he's after."
Speier said she heard Schwarzenegger recently in San Francisco saying how much he enjoys public service. That convinced her he intends to stay in the game.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/BAG11M872545.DTL
State voters back infrastructure bonds
Greg Lucas and Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 08:36 PST -- California voters approved a package of infrastructure bonds that would launch a record $40.1 billion in public works spending -- from highways and housing to schools and levees.
Propositions 1A , 1B, and 1E all won easily with more than 60 percent of the vote. Propositions 1C, a housing shelter fund, and 1D, a school facilities bond, also surged ahead to win. Proposition 84, a bond for a variety of water and land preservation projects, won with 53 percent of the vote.
"All of them seem to be pretty strong," said state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata, D-Oakland, who backed the bonds, on Tuesday night. "We put the largest state bond proposal ever on the ballot, and appear to have passed it. It required a two-thirds vote (of the Legislature) to do that, and it proves if everyone works together, you can get things done. And it comes at a perfect time. It could be a wonderful jobs program for California as well."
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/BAG9LM8JJE8.DTL
Alternative fuel proposition defeated
Matthew Yi, Chronicle Sacramento Bureau
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 08:48 PST SACRAMENTO -- Proposition 87, which would have taxed oil production in California to help fund alternative fuel development in the state, was defeated Tuesday, after a campaign in which both sides spent a total of $156 million.
"I think voters looked carefully at this initiative, and while there is widespread agreement on developing alternative fuels, this measure isn't the way for us to get there," said No on 87 spokesman Bill George.
Beth Willon, a spokeswoman for the yes campaign, said the oil industry's nearly $100 million campaign spending to defeat the measure was tough to overcome.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/BAG9LM8JTC4.DTL
ABORTION: Early returns reject Prop. 85, which requires doctors to notify unwed teen's parents
Rachel Gordon, Carrie Sturrock, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
California voters appeared to be narrowly rejecting a proposed constitutional amendment that would make it harder for teenage girls to get abortions, early election returns showed Tuesday.
Similar to a measure on the fall 2005 ballot, Proposition 85 would have required physicians to notify a parent or guardian when an unmarried girl younger than 18 sought an abortion and would have imposed a 48-hour waiting period before the procedure could be performed.
The law would not have required a parent or guardian to consent to the abortion.
With 31 percent of precincts reporting, Prop. 85 was losing 48 percent to 51 percent.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG4UM89CQ1.DTL
EMINENT DOMAIN: Measure to restrict government power over private land being rejected
Patrick Hoge, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Voters were poised Tuesday to reject Proposition 90, a measure that supporters said would stop the government from using eminent domain to take private property on behalf of developers, but which critics said would actually hobble land-use regulation.
The "Protect Our Homes Act" -- one among a handful of similar efforts in various states -- had 49.4 percent of the vote with 32.1 percent of precincts reporting.
Proponents said Prop. 90 was a necessary reaction to the June 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that allowed New London, Conn., to seize the home of Susette Kelo and others so a developer could build a hotel, condominiums and commercial space on the site.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG4UM89C81.DTL
60 Iraqis Are Killed or Found Dead Today
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
(11-08) 06:33 PST BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) --
At least 60 Iraqis were killed or found dead on Wednesday, including seven who died from injuries received in the previous day's suicide bombing of a coffee shop in a Shiite district of Baghdad. Today, Iraqi police said a pair of mortar rounds slammed into a soccer field in Baghdad's Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City, killing at least eight players and bystanders.
The mortars struck at just after 4:30 p.m. as a game was in progress between young men from the sprawling slum that is home to about 2.5 million people, a captain with the local police force, Mohammed Ismail, said.
Another 20 people were injured in the attack, Ismail said.
Dozens of people have been killed in recent days in mortar attacks by rival Sunni and Shiite groups on residential areas in Baghdad.
U.S. forces, meanwhile, said they killed 14 suspected insurgents, detained 48, and rescued a kidnapped Iraqi policeman in a pair of raids beginning on Tuesday afternoon. There was no word on U.S. casualties in those actions, although separately, the military said a Marine assigned to 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division died on Wednesday from wounds sustained in fighting in Anbar province.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/11/08/international/i063319S26.DTL
Real work begins for both sides
David Lazarus
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
In the run-up to Tuesday's election, the Democrats ran largely on President Bush's record and the war in Iraq. Now the real work begins.
It's time for the Democrats to put aside their political posturing and finally show leadership on some of the economic issues that the Republicans, distracted by the urgent need to cut taxes for rich people, have largely ignored for six years.
Here, then, are some helpful reminders for members of both parties who may have forgotten that public service means serving the public, not the public getting repeatedly serviced.
Let's take them in order of magnitude, from relatively fixable to stratospherically difficult.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/BUGT3M7LPS1.DTL
Same-sex marriage: 7 states OK ban -- but it trails in Arizona
Wyatt Buchanan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Ballot measures to ban same-sex marriage were winning in seven of eight states late Tuesday, with voters in Arizona poised to be the first in the nation to turn down such a measure.
The measures, all constitutional amendments to limit marriage to heterosexuals and some to ban domestic partnerships, passed in Virginia, South Carolina and Tennessee and were winning in Colorado, South Dakota, Wisconsin and Idaho. A proposal to create domestic partnerships in Colorado appeared headed to defeat with just 45 percent of the vote when more than half of the state's precincts had reported their results.
The votes came at the end of a campaign season marked by important developments in the arenas of same-sex marriage and gay politics.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG82M8A501.DTL&type=politics
God Hates Gay Evangelicals Will Pastor Ted's love of hot man sex open the narrow mind of the religious right?
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
Let's assume it's all true. Let's assume that Ted Haggard is just deliriously, stupidly, crazyjuicy gay. I know, not much of a stretch, but let's go with it.
Yes, Pastor Ted, disgraced former leader of 30 million blithely homophobic evangelical Christians, yet another of those flamboyant semi-insane Liberace-with-a-Bible megachurch preachers, a man who had weekly conference calls with George W. Bush, a man who lobbied Congress on behalf of homophobic Supreme Court nominees, Ted has had so much gay sex with a male prostitute it makes Mark Foley look like child's play (so to speak). Fair enough?
Furthermore, let's assume the reaction of Haggard's stunned flock is also true, that many of his devout Christian set are "devastated" and "shocked" and "pulverized" and "beaten with God's own giant rod of icky homo scariness" (note: quotes not verified) about Ted's utter obvious gayness.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2006/11/08/notes110806.DTL
Blue wave of change
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
THE MESSAGE from American voters in Tuesday's midterm elections was ... change the course.
That national mood was evident from the earliest returns. Americans were angry about the war in Iraq and the corruption and scandals that have enveloped Capitol Hill.
As a result, the Democrats regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since 1994 and, as the counting went on late into the night, were inching within striking distance of claiming a majority in the U.S. Senate.
It was a historic night for the House and one of pride and elevated clout for San Francisco. "Speaker Nancy Pelosi" is about to become a reality. After two decades in Congress, the nation's first female speaker has all the qualities for the job -- the right blend of toughness and compassion, the knack for building and rewarding loyalties. Last night, she set the right tone by promising to bring "civility and bipartisanship" to Washington and to lead with integrity and honesty.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/08/EDG8LM7A2I1.DTL
EDITORIAL
Hussein's trial
Wednesday, November 8, 2006
IT WAS a sham trial with rulings, evidence and compliant judges all tilted toward a guilty verdict, say critics. No, it was a judicial milestone ushering in new era of Iraqi law, according to President Bush.
In truth, the trial and conviction of Saddam Hussein was neither. His months in the dock were no model of impartial justice. But the testimony and facts more than justified the outcome. A tyrant was found guilty of crimes against his people.
Only Hussein's ultra-loyalists would argue his innocence. The real measure of this trial is whether it can inspire confidence in a fledgling Iraqi judiciary.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/08/EDG6PKE1EO1.DTL
New Zealand Herald
Our disappearing heritage, under threat from climate change
Thursday November 9, 2006
From archaeological ruins in Scotland to 13th century mosques in the Sahara, climate change could destroy some of the world's most important natural and cultural heritage sites.
Achim Steiner, head of the United Nations Environment Programme, says sites that have existed for thousands of years "may, by virtue of climate change, very well not be available to future generations".
Rising sea levels and increased temperatures threaten seaside cities that have lasted for centuries, some of the world's most important national parks, and a coral reef in Belize that Charles Darwin once described as "the most remarkable reef in the West Indies".
Tom Downing, co-author of a newly released study called The Atlas of Climate Change says: "Our world is changing, there is no going back."
The study cites damage already done to wildlife parks such as the Donana National Park in southern Spain, a 50,000ha wetland that has lost more than 100 plant species in the past century because of increased water use.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409795
Sunday drive fuels greenhouse gases
Thursday November 9, 2006By Simon Collins
Forget the work commute, it's the weekend escape to the outdoors that has been found to be driving Kiwis' greenhouse gas emissions.
A $2.7 million Opus and Massey University study shows social and recreational trips account for 30 per cent of all private, non-business-owned vehicle kilometres travelled, against only 25 per cent for commuting.
And most people buy their cars with a view to getting away at weekends - even if they actually use it mainly around town.
Research leader Darren Walton says this combination will make it much harder to cut carbon-dioxide emissions from private transport than in countries where cars are used mainly for commuting.
"All the public transport in the world is not going to address the issue if in the weekend they hop in a four-litre Land Rover and go down to Taupo," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409880
Nuclear power 'will slow climate change'
Thursday November 9, 2006
LONDON - The International Energy Agency has urged governments to build more nuclear plants to slow climate change and increase energy security, throwing its weight behind the push for atomic power.
In its annual World Energy Outlook, a 596-page response to a G8 call for a sustainable energy blueprint, the agency said unless leaders took action world demand for fossil fuels would rise by more than 50 per cent, with carbon emissions.
Energy conservation and investment in nuclear power could cut consumption by 10 per cent by 2030, the IEA said, equivalent to China's energy use today. Carbon emissions would drop by 16 per cent, what the United States and Canada emit between them.
"We are on course for an energy system that will evolve from crisis to crisis," said Claude Mandil, executive director of the adviser to 26 industrialised nations. "That may mean skyrocketing prices, or more frequent blackouts."
By 2030, oil could soar to US$130.30 ($197) a barrel if energy investment and government policies fall short, the IEA warned.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10409787
'Silent pandemic' poisoning our children
Thursday November 9, 2006By Jeremy Laurance
Chemical pollution may have harmed the brains of millions of children around the globe in what scientists are calling a "silent pandemic".
The world is bathed in a soup of industrial chemicals which are damaging the intellectual potential of the next generation and may increase the incidence of degenerative conditions such as Parkinson's disease, they say.
One in every six children has a developmental disability, such as autism, attention deficit disorder or cerebral palsy, the effects of which may be lifelong.
The role of low-level pollutants such as lead and mercury on the developing brain have been recognised for decades and measures taken to reduce exposure to a minimum.
But scientists from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston say there are at least 202 chemicals with the capacity to damage the human brain whose effect at low levels of exposure are unknown.
They say limits for exposure to chemicals should be set for pregnant women and young children, recognising the unique sensitivity of the developing brain.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409779
Tax likely to doom coal-fired Marsden B, says minister
Thursday November 9, 2006
A state-imposed carbon tax could end plans for a coal-fired Marsden B power station, Energy Minister David Parker says.
Mr Parker, who is also the Minister for Climate Change Issues, said the Government favoured renewable energy sources over fossil fuels such as coal, and had already signalled a cost on carbon emissions for electricity generators.
"So on that basis, Marsden B is unlikely to go ahead," he said.
Mighty River Power, the state-owned enterprise behind the Marsden B scheme, said the project would only proceed if it were economically viable.
The company was granted resource consent to fire up the mothballed station using coal last year, but this has been appealed against in the Environment Court.
Mighty River's external affairs general manager, Neil Williams, said the consent application was only one step of the process and did not necessarily mean the station would be built.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409814
Builder's collapse devastates homebuyers
Thursday November 9, 2006By Wayne Thompson
A company that builds houses from Waiuku to Whangarei has gone into liquidation, leaving customers wondering whether they will get back their deposits of $25,000 to $50,000.
Meridian Homes Ltd of Orewa had 30 contracts for homes, with half under construction, said joint liquidator Paul Sargison.
Managing director Dean Hopper blamed the collapse of the six-year-old company mainly on significant delays in getting building consents for homes.
By the time the council gave consent, he said, the cost of the building had exceeded the original contract price and profit was lost.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10409886
Tasers seen by police as valuable addition to crime-fighting arsenal
Thursday November 9, 2006
Frontline police report that Taser stun guns have been a valuable addition to their crime-fighting arsenal and officers are keen to see them widely deployed, Commissioner Howard Broad says.
The stun guns were introduced on September 1 for a one-year trial for use in parts of greater Auckland and Wellington before a decision is made on whether they will become a mainstream crimefighting tool.
At a parliamentary select committee meeting yesterday, Mr Broad denied suggestions Tasers were a stepping stone to eventually having an armed police force.
"I do not believe at this point that the circumstances in New Zealand warrant the general arming of police," he said.
But Mr Broad said there was "overwhelming" support for Tasers from those carrying them.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409890
Violent video games banned in jail
Thursday November 9, 2006
Criminals can blame National for no longer being able to play violent video games in prison.
Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor confirmed in Parliament yesterday that PlayStation and Xbox games were taken off prisoners after the National Party asked questions about them.
"Most of those PlayStations were in the youth units. The question did prompt the department to look at its policy," Mr O'Connor said.
"We do not have a policy covering this area and management decided to withdraw those PlayStations until an appropriate policy could be developed."
National Party Corrections spokesman Simon Power said there had been 11 PlayStation and Xbox game consoles at Rimutaka, Waikeria and Ngawha prisons that cost $5000. The 58 games the prisons had available included violence and use of weapons ranging from guns to chainsaws.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409883
Breast cancer delays slammed
Thursday November 9, 2006
National MP Jackie Blue says mastectomy rates in New Zealand are high because women choose surgery rather than face delays getting radiation therapy.
Dr Blue, a former breast cancer doctor, was questioning Health Minister Pete Hodgson in Parliament yesterday.
She asked: "When will the Government realise that, despite its own rhetoric, staff shortages and growing waiting lists are making some women choose to have their breast removed rather than wait and wait for radiation therapy?"
Mr Hodgson said he did not know if women were choosing mastectomies because of waiting times.
"The member is suggesting that, because there is a shortage of radiation therapy, that women are proactively changing their choice as to the type of treatment they have.
"I can't say if that is or is not happening. What I can say is that about 2000 or 2500 people in Auckland each year receive radiation therapy and 30 have been offered radiation therapy in Australia."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409877
America votes: Democrats win control of the US House
6.15pm Wednesday November 8, 2006
WASHINGTON - A disappointed President George W. Bush is to urge his opponents to work with him after the Democrats seized control of the House of Representatives today.
Democrats swept Republicans out of power in the US House of Representatives today riding public doubts about the war in Iraq and President George W Bush's leadership to victory.
The win is likely to slam the brakes on Bush's legislative agenda in his final two years, make Democrat Nancy Pelosi the first female Speaker of the House and give Democrats a chance to investigate his administration's most controversial policy decisions such as the war in Iraq.
Two years after a decisive election victory for Bush and his Republicans, Democrats picked up the 15 seats they needed to recapture control of the 435-seat House for the first time since 1994.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said the outcome of the elections was "not what we would've hoped."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409757
Keeping a NZ blip on US radar
Thursday November 9, 2006
Foreign Minister Winston Peters last night put forward a case for improving relations with the United States, saying New Zealand could not work alone to achieve international peace, prosperity and security.
"The reality is that it's just not possible to get very far on these goals without the United States on board," he said in a speech to a business awards dinner in Auckland organised by the American Chamber of Commerce in New Zealand.
"By the same token, the United States cannot do everything itself, either. It also needs friends and partners, both on big global issues and on tricky regional concerns."
Mr Peters has made improving the relationship with the US a priority since he became Foreign Minister.
"It is not about sudden, big breakthroughs but about making solid, sustainable, cumulative progress over time," he said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409836
Pardon for NZ soldier executed as a coward
Thursday November 9, 2006By Martin Johnston and Agencies
Fred Ryan proudly wears the military medals of his relative Private Victor Manson Spencer, who has been pardoned by the British Government after being executed during World War I.
Private Spencer, born in Otautau, Southland, faced a firing squad in France in February 1918 for desertion.
Two other New Zealanders, Jack Braithwaite and Frank Hughes, executed in the 1914-18 war for mutiny and desertion respectively, were also pardoned, the British Government confirmed yesterday.
The pardon, enacted by legislation announced in August, covers 306 men shot at dawn. The British Defence Ministry said that as well as British troops it applied to three from New Zealand, 23 from Canada, two from the West Indies, two from Ghana and one each from Sierra Leone, Egypt and Nigeria.
No Australian soldiers were executed for cowardice or desertion during the war although 121 were found guilty of offences punishable by death.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10409821
Interpreters executed for 'turning their back on Iraq'
Thursday November 9, 2006By Phil Sands
AMMAN - Iraqi interpreters working with the British Army in Basra are being systematically hunted down and executed.
At least 16 have been kidnapped and shot in the head over the last fortnight, their bodies dumped in different parts of the city. Another three are still missing. In a single mass killing, 12 interpreters were murdered.
"This is not a general threat against Iraqi security forces, interpreters are specifically being killed," an Iraqi police officer familiar with the case said.
"It has been happening at a low level for the last year, but the campaign is getting worse.
"First they get letters warning them to stop co-operating with the occupation forces, then they are killed. The interpreters are the major target now.
"Word spreads about who is working with the British - neighbours, people in the street, police officers all see the interpreters. Their identities don't remain very secret and someone is going around trying to kill them and they're succeeding."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10409863
Pakistani soldiers die in bombing
Thursday November 9, 2006
ISLAMABAD - A suicide bomber killed 35 Pakistani soldiers at an Army training ground last night in a northwestern area known to be a stronghold of an Islamist militant group.
The blast, the most serious militant attack against the Pakistani military, took place in the town of Dargai, in North West Frontier Province.
Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (Movement for the Implementation of Mohammad's Sharia Law) ran a school that security forces attacked in a nearby tribal area late last month, killing 80 people.
"It was a suicide attack. The bomber wrapped a chadar [cloak] around his body and came running into the training area and exploded himself where recruits had gathered for training," a military official said.
The group, which backs Afghanistan's Taleban, was banned by the Government in 2002.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409866
Doctor pushes drug therapy for marijuana addiction
Thursday November 9, 2006
Drugs are needed to treat cannabis addiction because standard therapies are not working, a United States drug expert says.
Heavy marijuana users wanting to stop are commonly directed towards cognitive behavioural therapy because no medication exists. These psycho-therapies aim to change addictive behaviour by addressing people's attitudes, thoughts and beliefs.
But Dr Francis Vocci, from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, says only 35 per cent of addicts who use these therapies are successfully treated.
Speaking to the Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and Other Drugs Conference in Cairns, he said the poor results strengthened the case for medications to supplement treatment.
Research was under way in several countries to develop approved drugs to manage the withdrawal, help with abstinence and prevent relapse.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409777
US votes: First woman US Speaker a Bush nightmare
6.30pm Wednesday November 8, 2006By Thomas Ferraro
WASHINGTON - Nancy Pelosi spearheaded the Democratic takeover of the US House of Representatives today positioning herself to become the first woman to lead the chamber - and President George W. Bush's worst political nightmare.
House Democratic leader since 2003, the California liberal framed the elections as a referendum on Bush, his unpopular Iraq war and the scandal-rocked, Republican-led House.
"Democrats support change," Pelosi told a victory party in Washington. "Democrats propose a new direction for all Americans, not just the privileged few."
Pelosi, 66, appears certain to be elected House speaker by fellow Democrats when the new 110th Congress convenes in January, replacing Dennis Hastert, an Illinois Republican.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409797
US votes: Bush faces lame duck presidency
7.00pm Wednesday November 8, 2006By Steve Holland
WASHINGTON - By taking the US House of Representatives, Democrats may hasten President George W. Bush's lame-duck status and pressure him into changing his Iraq policy, analysts said.
But Bush, facing strong opposition in the US Congress for the first time since taking office in 2001, can help himself and his legacy by reaching out to Democrats for some legislative accomplishments as he did when he was Texas governor from 1995 to 2000, they said.
"It makes it possible for him to be more than a lame duck," said Bruce Buchanan, a University of Texas political scientist who watched Bush work with Democrats in Texas. "If he plays hard ball, he won't get a thing."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409800
US Votes: Schwarzenegger wins but Republican Governors fall
6.00pm Wednesday November 8, 2006
Arnold Schwarzenegger will be back but many of his fellow Republican Governors, will not.
The action-star-turned-politician won a second and final term today, easily turning aside a challenge from Democrat Phil Angelides in the populous California state.
But elsewhere Democrats took governors' seats from Republicans in five states, nearing a majority of the offices for the first time since 1994 and giving them a potential advantage in 2008 presidential battlegrounds.
Governorships in New York, Ohio, Maryland, Massachusetts and Arkansas all fell into Democratic hands, according to media projections.Republicans retained power in Florida, California and Texas, three of the four most populous states and all crucial players in presidential elections.
``We are 99 percent sure we will have a majority of 26 (of the 50) states, possibly more,'' said Brian Namey, a spokesman for the Democratic Governors Association.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409786
Lawmakers among those snagged by US voting problems
1.00pm Wednesday November 8, 2006
CINCINNATI - Late poll openings and malfunctions with some new electronic voting machines hampered balloting today in US congressional elections, and even some lawmakers encountered problems.
Election officials and experts reported machine malfunctions in Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee and Texas, but they said many of the problems were minor and temporary.
An estimated 10,000 lawyers working for the Republican and Democratic parties were standing by across the country to intervene if problems arise, while the US Justice Department dispatched more than 850 observers to 22 states.
Ohio Rep. Jean Schmidt, one of many Republicans who could lose her seat because of voter anger over the war in Iraq, was among the first in line to vote at 6.30am but her paper ballot was rejected by the machine at her suburban polling station. Election officials put it aside to be counted later.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10409745
Pernod's $2000 bottle of champagne
5.40am Thursday November 9, 2006
French wines and spirits group Pernod Ricard says it will soon offer the world's most expensive champagne, which will cost about $2000.
Alcohol tax discussed by the EU
Thursday November 9, 2006
Raising taxes on beer and other favourite tipples raised hackles at European Union finance ministers' talks yesterday, the debate ending without any deal on increasing tax rates in line with inflation.
Fearing a backlash from beer drinkers back home, Germany was one of several countries foaming over an EU plan to push up minimum tax rates on alcohol by 31 per cent.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10409803
Fedex cancels Airbus A380 order
11.40am Wednesday November 8, 2006
US freight giant FedEx said today it had become the first airline to cancel its order for Airbus' troubled A380 superjumbo, ordering instead 15 new Boeing 777 Freighters.
FedEx Express, a unit of FedEx Corp, said it had pulled out of an order for 10 freighter versions of the European superjumbo "after Airbus announced significant delays in delivery of the A380", news agency AFP reported.
Instead, FedEx Express said it was buying 15 Boeing 777 Freighter planes with options to purchase another 15.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10409708
Oil: Opec offers support
8.40am Wednesday November 8, 2006
Oil prices slid below US$60 a barrel on Tuesday but drew support from Gulf producers, including leading Opec exporter Saudi Arabia, who held out the prospect of deeper output cuts to remove excess supply.
US crude was trading 53 cents lower at US$59.50 a barrel by 1552 GMT. London Brent was 52 cents down at US$59.23.
Prices rose 88 cents on Monday after Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would take action when it meets on Dec. 14 if world markets remained imbalanced.
Naimi, oil minister of the world's top exporter, noted "very high" stockpiles of fuel worldwide.
Traders said the news flow was keeping prices in a range between US$59 and US$60.
"When it's above US$60, it's sold into. It's quite well supported by the prospect of Opec cuts when it gets below US$59," said Christopher Bellew of Bache Financial brokerage.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10409707
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