Antarctia Iceberg

It's showing a lot of melting. The surface is nearly gone. When they hit warmer waters they will melt in the water as well, currently it's not near any shipping channels.

Boston Globe has a video

Antarctica Iceberg spotted off coast of New Zealand

Fewer polar bear cubs survive in Alaska

This undated photo released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a sow polar bear resting with her cubs on the pack ice in the Beaufort Sea in northern Alaska. A government report released Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006, has concluded that fewer polar bears cubs are surviving off Alaska's northern coast. (AP Photo/U.S. Fish and Wild Life Service, Steve Amstrup)

Hurricane season is NOT over - click on for 12 hour loop

It is a result of a large vortex over the eastern North American continent. If enough energy oscillates into the Gulf of Mexico there could be a storm there as well. The storms that rumbled through North Carolina last night were not the ususal. The thunder alone lasted in excess of sixty seconds. The lightning lit the entire sky as if daylight. Notable is the huge heat transfer at the Bering Strait crossing into the Arctic Ocean where ice is melting at increased rates.

Tropical Storm Sergio forms off Mexican Pacific

12.20pm Wednesday November 15, 2006

MEXICO CITY - Tropical storm Sergio formed in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico today and weather forecasters warned it could become a major hurricane in the next three days.

Sergio was approximately 600km south of the tourist town of Manzanillo and expected to move slowly northward, although it has so far not been forecast to make landfall.

Predictions are divided on whether Sergio will reach hurricane strength or remain a tropical storm.
The Miami-based National Hurricane Centre said that one forecast "makes Sergio a major hurricane in three days. On the other hand... is more conservative."

Mexico's Pacific coast has been blitzed with hurricanes and storms this year, whereas its Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico coasts have seen little activity.

In October, Hurricane Paul killed two people in northwestern Mexico. In September, Hurricane Lane cost three lives along the Pacific coast and Hurricane John killed at least three people on the Baja California peninsula.

- REUTERS

Morning Papers - continued ...

Haaretz

PA lauds European draft for Mideast peace plan
By The Associated Press
Spain will sponsor a new Middle East peace initiative along with France and Italy, the Spanish prime minister said Thursday, stressing that the international community cannot remain idle as violence rages between Israel and the Palestinians.
Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Rudineh said Thursday that his government welcomed the initiative, particularly its emphasis on international intervention.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced the initiative at a summit with President Jacques Chirac of France. "Peace between Israel and the Palestinians means to a large extent peace on the international scene," Zapatero told a news conference.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789009.html


Peretz vows to continue pressure on Gaza to wipe out Qassams
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
Defense Minister Amir Peretz on Wednesday vowed that Israel would continue its pressure on the Gaza Strip to alleviate Qassam fire, a day after one person was killed and two others seriously wounded in multiple strikes on Sderot.
Peretz asked the defense establishment to present him with a new operational plan for targeting rocket launchers.
He said that Israel would hit terror with "hard and painful" strength if moderate Palestinian elements did not exert more strength.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/788947.html



Hamas official: Abbas and Meshal to meet on unity government
By Reuters
Hamas leader Khaled Meshal and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas plan to meet this month to iron out problems preventing the formation of a Palestinian unity government, a senior Hamas official said on Thursday.
The Islamist group wants guarantees from Abbas, who heads the rival Fatah faction, that the West will recognize the next administration and sanctions will be lifted.
"Both sides have agreed to seek a meeting in an Arab country this month, probably under Arab League auspices and with European representation," Izzat a-Rishq told Reuters.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789096.html



Auschwitz-Birkenau 'face-lift' plan raises survivors' ire
By Amiram Barkat
An initiative to refurbish the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp has sparked a storm among Holocaust survivors in Israel.
The initiative was announced last month by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum's new director, who claimed that the current exhibits were outdated and insufficiently attractive to visitors. A detailed refurbishing plan has yet to be drawn up, but participants at a recent meeting of Holocaust survivors' organizations warned against moves to "beautify" the site, as has been done with other Nazi concentration camps. "Dachau and Sachsenhausen have already become well-kept gardens; we won't allow the same to happen to Auschwitz," they said.
In September, historian Dr. Piotr Cywinski, 34, replaced Jerzy Wroblewski as director of the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum. Shortly after taking up his new position, the energetic young director announced that it was time for the site to get a "face-lift."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/786901.html



Sderot residents board buses en route to rocket respite
By Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondent and AP
Residents of the southern town of Sderot elbowed and shoved their way on to a fleet of buses Thursday, taking advantage of a free weekend away from the shadow of Palestinian rockets, compliments of business tycoon Arkady Gaydamak.
About 800 people from the impoverished town, where a woman was killed and a youth gravely injured by rocket-fire the day before, flocked to the town hall and a local community center to sign up for the free ride and hotel accommodation in the Red Sea resort of Eilat.
Known for his generous donations -particularly after paying for temporary accommodation for northerners who fled their homes during the Lebanon War- the Russian-born billionaire announced earlier on Thursday he would charter some 17 buses and rent some 1,600 rooms in the southern resort city of Eilat for the benefit of Sderot residents.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789038.html


Palestinian FM: Iran donated $120M to Hamas-led government
By News Agencies
Iran has donated $120 million to the Palestinian Hamas-led government and has said it is ready to give more, Palestinian Foreign Minister Mahmoud al-Zahar said on Thursday.
Tehran said in April it would donate $50 million to help make up a shortfall left when the West cut off aid to the government led by the Palestinian Islamic group, which seeks to destroy Israel.
"Iran has so far given $120 million to the Palestinain government and they have told us that they will provide more financial help," Zahar told reporters in Tehran after
talks.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789026.html



State to compensate families of those killed in October 2000 riots
By Jack Khoury and Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondents and Itim
The Nazareth District Court on Thursday approved a settlement reached between the State of Israel and the families of eleven Israeli Arabs killed by police during riots in northern Israel October 2000.
Under the terms of the out-of-court settlement, the state will pay an undisclosed sum of money agreed upon by the parties. The families of two others killed in the riots did not participate in the legal proceedings, and will therefore not be parties to the settlement.
In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs demanded a payout for each family of NIS 50,000 for burial expenses, and compensations of NIS 418,000 for loss of income. They asked the court to rule on the amount to be paid in compensation for their suffering and grief as a result of the loss of their loved ones.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/788977.html



Bush gives go-ahead for 'Bush Center' in Israel
WASHINGTON - U.S. President George Bush was informed on Tuesday of an initiative to establish a center under his name in Israel, as a sign of gratitude for his support for the country and its security. Outgoing Israeli Ambassador to the United States Daniel Ayalon asked Bush for the go-ahead to establish such a center during a farewell meeting with the president and his deputy, Dick Cheney.
Bush told Ayalon that "freedom" would be a worthy subject for the center to focus on.
Ayalon has yet to approach donors with a request to finance the establishment of the "Bush Center" in Israel, but does not expect to encounter difficulties when it comes to raising the funds. The outgoing ambassador will continue to work on the matter with White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/rosnerBlog.jhtml?itemNo=788626&contrassID=25&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=1&listSrc=Y&art=1



Two miserable towns
By Haaretz Editorial
Residents of Beit Hanun are not born holding Qassam rockets in their hands. Until a few years ago, they used to work in Sapir College, near Sderot - the neighboring town at which they now launch Qassams every day. One of these rockets killed Faina (Fatima) Slutzker, 57, who moved to Israel with her husband and two children three years ago. At that time, residents of Beit Hanun were already completely cut off from their jobs in Israel, leaving them unemployed, as she was. Slutzker was killed on her way to one of the training centers set up under the Wisconsin Plan, whose goal is to encourage people to join the work force. Beit Hanun does not even have a recourse like that for the economic distress.
Sderot residents cannot tolerate daily Qassam fire on their city, even when no one is physically hurt. It is not possible to expect people to live under permanent threat, and the solution cannot be fortifying and refortifying rooms and roofs and emergency shelters.
People also want to be able to live their lives outside such protected spaces - in the street, in coffee shops, in their gardens, or going to and from their houses. Had Sderot been a city with wealthier residents, people who have the money to move elsewhere, it is doubtful that most Sderot residents would still live there.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/788606.html


Sarit Hadad - Tour for 2006 in USA

http://www.singwithsarit.com/


The Boston Globe

At least 6 dead as storms pound N.C.
RALEIGH, N.C. --A tornado struck a tiny riverside community early Thursday, killing at least five people as thunderstorms continued a path of destruction across the South. Another person died earlier in Louisiana, and a car crash death near Charlotte was also blamed on the storms.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts Dozens of homes were destroyed in Riegelwood, on the Cape Fear River about 20 miles west of the coastal city of Wilmington, according to Gov. Mike Easley's office.
"You see one that's standing still. It's not touched," said Columbus County Commissioner Sammie Jacobs. "And you'll see four or five others that are demolished, and houses on top of cars and cars on top of houses."
"We've stepped across bodies to get (to) debris and search for other bodies here this morning," he said.
Jennifer Long, the county's tourism director who was helping emergency management officials Thursday, said Sheriff Chris Batten and County Commissioner Kip Godwin had confirmed five deaths. Jacobs said Batten told him there were at least six "and quite a few people with various injuries here and there who have been taken to various hospitals." Long said an earlier report the tornado killed nine people was wrong.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/16/storms_maybe_a_twister_hit_nc_3_dead/



Harvard biologist extends olive branch to evangelicals
By Jeff Barnard, Associated Press Writer November 16, 2006
Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson might normally arouse suspicion among evangelicals, given his faith in science over Scripture.
Alerts But in his latest book, "The Creation, An Appeal to Save Life on Earth," the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner extends an olive branch to Christian believers in hopes of saving the Earth from the biggest mass extinction since the dinosaurs.
Wilson's book is the latest attempt to bridge the gap between evolutionary science and a literal interpretation of the Bible, a rift dating back to Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection.
"Pastor, we need your help. The Creation -- living Nature -- is in deep trouble," Wilson writes in this letter to an imaginary Southern Baptist pastor. "You might well ask at this point, Why me? Because religion and science are the two most powerful forces in the world today."
R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is a longtime reader of Wilson's work on sociobiology, and was initially impressed by Wilson's honesty in the book, but has since grown skeptical of Wilson's motives after not seeing any concrete contacts with evangelicals since the book came out in September -- contacts Wilson says are coming.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/11/16/harvard_biologist_extends_olive_branch_to_evangelicals/



Profiles of new Democratic leaders
By The Associated Press November 16, 2006
Profiles of House Democratic leaders elected Thursay for the next Congress:
Speaker of the House-nominee: Nancy Pelosi of California has led House Democrats since 2002 and will be the party's nominee for speaker when the new Congress convenes Jan. 4. She will be breaking one glass ceiling for women with only one or two more above it yet to be shatterd, U.S. president and vice president. A self-confident leader and power broker, Pelosi, 66, has demanded party loyalty on key Democratic issues such as health care and education. As speaker, the liberal Democrat from San Francisco has said she will work to curb the power of lobbyists and to roll back GOP tax cuts for higher-income Americans.
House majority whip: James Clyburn of South Carolina will be the highest ranking black member of the new Congress. He also is reaching the highest office in Congress ever held by a black. Former Oklahoma quarterback J.C. Watts Jr. previously held the title, serving as House Republicans' conference chairman from 1998 until to his retirement in 2002. Clyburn was elected in 1992 as the first black congressman from South Carolina since Reconstruction. In 1998 he served as the chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus. His leadership roles have made him a power broker for Democratic presidential candidates seeking black support in South Carolina's early primaries. Clyburn, 66, helped organize a nonprofit group to help those who fled from the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/16/profiles_of_new_democratic_leaders/



Storm knocks out power in Wash. state
November 16, 2006
SUMNER, Wash. --Tens of thousands of people remained without power Thursday morning after rainstorms again battered coastal Washington, just a week after warm-weather storms caused flooding that killed two people and damaged hundreds of homes.
The new storms hit Wednesday as state and federal emergency management officials began touring areas hit hard by last week's flooding.
This time, the storms packed less rain but stronger winds, blowing down trees, closing roads and bridges and leaving roughly 150,000 homes and businesses without electricity at one point.
With rainfall largely ending by daybreak Thursday, National Weather Service flood warnings remained in effect for mostly minor overflows of the Skagit River.
Puget Sound Energy, the state's largest utility, reported 30,000 customers still in the dark early Thursday, mostly in the northwest part of the state, and spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken said some might not get power again until Saturday.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/16/storm_knocks_out_power_in_wash_state/



Homeless exempt from part of registry
November 16, 2006
ANNAPOLIS, Md. --Homeless sex offenders are exempt from laws requiring them to register a change of address with state officials, Maryland's high court has ruled.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts The Maryland Court of Appeals said Wednesday in a pair of unanimous rulings that it would be impossible for the homeless to comply with that provision of the state sex offender registry.
The rulings overturned the convictions of two sex offenders in Montgomery County for failing to update their addresses.
Attorneys for the government said they would seek a new state law to address the issue.
"Let's go back and have the General Assembly define what they mean by residence, or maybe ask for special requirements," said Montgomery County Assistant State's Attorney Laura L. Chase. She said lawmakers did not intend to exempt homeless sex offenders from registry requirements.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/16/homeless_exempt_from_part_of_registry/



Housing slide may deepenNew forecast sees bottom in 2008
By Robert Gavin, Globe Staff November 15, 2006
The housing downturn in Massachusetts will last longer, and prices will fall further than first projected, according to an economic forecast released yesterday.
A year ago the nonprofit research group forecast prices would decline less than 3 percent, bottom at the end of 2006, and regain their peaks in early 2008.
The new forecast is more pessimistic than others, which see the housing market near the bottom and turning soon. In a recent analysis, Moody's Economy.com, the West Chester, Pa., consulting firm, cited improving job growth in Massachusetts and recent declines in mortgage rates as evidence the worst is almost over for the local housing market. Lawrence Yun, senior economist at the National Association of Realtors, agreed, predicting prices here should begin "perking up" in the spring.
"It's very difficult for me to see prices continuing to fall in a job-creating environment," Yun said.

http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2006/11/15/housing_slide_may_deepen/



Foreclosure filings surging in state1st nine months of 2006 top all of '05
By Kimberly Blanton, Globe Staff November 15, 2006
Foreclosure filings against Massachusetts homeowners surged to nearly 13,000 through September, already surpassing 2005's count, and were prevalent in rural towns in Central and Western Massachusetts and in working-class cities with large minority populations across the state.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts Filings increased 54 percent in the first nine months of 2006, compared to the same period last year, according to a monthly report yesterday from ForeclosuresMass.com, which collects data in state Land Court.
"I don't think we have hit the peak yet," predicted Jeremy Shapiro, the president of ForeclosuresMass.com.
Foreclosure filings do not mean the imminent loss of property for a homeowner. Once they receive notice from a bank or mortgage company, homeowners may be able to work out a refinancing plan with their financial institution or sell the home and pay off the loan, averting foreclosure.

http://www.boston.com/realestate/news/articles/2006/11/15/foreclosure_filings_surging_in_state/



Europeans unveil Middle East peace plan
By Ciaran Giles, Associated Press Writer November 16, 2006
GERONA, Spain --Spain, France and Italy unveiled a five-point Middle East peace initiative Thursday, calling Israeli-Palestinian violence intolerable and saying that Europe must take a lead role in ending the conflict.
The plan has five components: an immediate cease-fire; formation of a national unity government by the Palestinians that can gain international recognition; a prisoner exchange -- including the Israeli soldiers whose kidnapping sparked the war in Lebanon and fighting in Gaza this summer; talks between Israel's prime minister; and the Palestinian president and an international mission in Gaza to monitor a cease-fire.
"We cannot remain impassive in the face of the horror that continues to unfold before our eyes," Zapatero told a news conference in this coastal city near the border with France. The initiative largely overlaps with a package the Palestinians have offered to Israel.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2006/11/16/europeans_unveil_middle_east_peace_plan/



Cancer struggle different for young people
By Hilary Waldman, The Hartford Courant November 16, 2006
TOLLAND, Conn. --Casey Decoteau didn't wear lipstick to her mastectomy -- she's more a gloss kind of girl.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts But she certainly felt a kinship with Geralyn Lucas, the 27-year-old woman who put a face on the alarming reality of life as a young adult with breast cancer in her recent book, "Why I Wore Lipstick to my Mastectomy."
Decoteau, 25, lives with her mother in Tolland and works at a day-care center. She was a college student with a dream of teaching elementary school when she found a lump in her breast in July.
Last month, Decoteau had a mastectomy, and found that along with her breast she had lost her place in the nation's 20-something culture, in which show-every-curve camisoles define the female form and sex is peddled everywhere from TV sitcoms to MySpace.com.

http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2006/11/16/cancer_struggle_different_for_young_people/



Black student faces hate crime charge
November 16, 2006
SEYMOUR, Conn. --A black student at Seymour High School is facing a hate crime charge for writing "whites only" on a wall near a water fountain.
Alerts Police said the 17-year-old senior was arrested Wednesday and charged with breach of peace for a separate incident at the high school.
Police said that while the student was in custody, he confessed to writing the message, which was found during the homecoming dance on Saturday.
Police will apply for an arrest warrant for a separate charge of breach of peace and possible other charges, including vandalism and bigotry, Capt. Paul Beres said.
Under Connecticut law, a person is guilty of third-degree bigotry when they, with the intent to intimidate or harass because of race, religion, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or gender identity, damage or deface property or threaten by word or act.
The student, whose name has not been released, has been disciplined at the school for the incident, according to Richard Kearns, Director of Security for Public Schools.



Report: Scarlet fever spreads in N.Korea
November 15, 2006
SEOUL, South Korea --Scarlet fever has been spreading in North Korea and threatens to become a full-blown epidemic despite efforts by authorities to contain the disease, a news report said Wednesday.
The disease, which broke out in the North's northern Ryanggang Province last month, is rapidly spreading to other parts of the communist state, including the capital, Pyongyang, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported, citing unnamed sources.
South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Unification Ministry, which handles inter-Korean affairs, said they didn't have information to confirm the media report.
Lack of medicine coupled with poor sanitary conditions are to blame for the rapid spread of the fever in the impoverished communist country, leading to the deaths among the aged and infants, Yonhap said.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2006/11/15/report_scarlet_fever_spreads_in_nkorea/



Correction: Pakistan-Kidney-Bazaar story
November 14, 2006
JANDALA, Pakistan --In a Nov. 12 story about kidney donations in Pakistan, The Associated Press erroneously reported that the Belgium-based International Society of Nephrology has suggested expanding the pool of kidney donors by legalizing payment of about $40,000 to donors.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/other/articles/2006/11/14/correction_pakistan_kidney_bazaar_story/



Urban students do worse than nation in science
By Nancy Zuckerbrod
AP Education Writer
November 15, 2006
WASHINGTON --Children in major U.S. cities perform worse than other students around the country on science tests given in elementary and middle school, a snapshot released by the government Wednesday shows.
Ten urban school districts, including Boston, volunteered to take the tests and have their scores compared to public school students nationwide for the first time.
Fourth-graders in nine of the 10 city districts had lower average scores than public school students nationally. The only exception was Austin, Texas, where they performed at the national average.
In eighth grade, all 10 urban districts had average scores below the national average.
The science scores are from the 2005 National Assessment of Educational Progress, a test given nationwide periodically on a range of subjects. It is viewed as the best way to compare student achievement across state and district lines.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/11/15/urban_students_do_worse_than_nation_in_science/



N.J. launches campaign for better health A man drives his tiny motorcycle in this April 29, 2004 file photo. Rapidly increasing obesity rates in Greece are prompting officials to offer education programs in local schools and hold forums to mark events such as World Diabetes Day, on Tuesday, Nov. 14, 2006. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)
By Angela Delli Santi, Associated Press Writer November 14, 2006
TRENTON, N.J. --A statewide campaign promoting healthier diets and exercise kicked off Tuesday, as educators and nutritionists attempt to counteract an obesity epidemic among New Jersey children and adults.
The new campaign, "Get Moving, Get Healthy New Jersey," is a multiyear effort intended to change the way New Jerseyans think about diet and exercise in much the same way public perceptions about cigarette smoking and using seat belts progressed over time, said Kathleen Morgan, who chairs a family and community health program at Rutgers University and is spearheading the project.
Though they are still figuring out how to deliver their message, the gist is clear: Motivate children and adults to eat better and exercise more.
Americans are growing heavier every year, and New Jerseyans are no exception, evidence shows. More than half of all New Jersey adults are overweight or obese, as defined by their amount of body fat, and the state has the highest incidence of obesity in low-income 2-to 5-year-olds in the country, according to statistics presented by Morgan.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2006/11/14/nj_launches_campaign_for_better_health/



The war after the war
They were an Army of Three — fun-loving, young, courageous, afraid. And when the bomb went off outside Baghdad, killing New Hampshire's Jeremy Regnier, the survivors of the squad found their lives upended. What they suffer has a name — post-traumatic stress — but a label can't describe it. This is a story of a death and its descendants.By Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff October 29, 2006
First of Four Parts
It was circled on his calendar, a day he'd looked forward to for months. But as Andy Wilson stood on the wind-swept airfield and the chartered plane glided out of a leaden Texas sky, he was anything but upbeat.
An unsettling cocktail of emotions swirled inside. The balloons and marching bands, the confetti and welcome-home banners were not for him, though they could have been. Should have been.
As a noncommissioned officer, Wilson had sworn to stick by the men he led in combat, no matter what. And to bring them all home....
...In their headsets, Eminem was rapping profanely about death and dying.
Jolly steered the Bradley, making a right-hand turn into a housing project. Then he heard Regnier say, "Oh."
A split-second later, a deafening explosion rocked the war machine.
"What the [expletive] was that, Jolly?" Wilson asked.
"I don't know, sir!" Jolly yelled into his headset.
"Jeremy, what did you see?" Wilson shouted. "Are you all right up there?"
The Bradley began to fill with thick acrid smoke. Jolly's eyes were burning. Wilson began to scream.
He called again for Regnier. And then called again, reaching up to tug at his gunner's sleeve.
"I pull at him and he falls," Wilson remembers. "And I just [expletive] flipped. I tried my best to come across as calm. My voice was normally kind of deep. I sounded like a little girl."
Regnier, his body now slumped against Wilson, had taken a devastating hit from the jaw up. He was barely recognizable.
By now, Jolly had spun the 72,000-pound Bradley furiously around and over a median strip. Through his periscope, he spotted a man in a white shirt, walking through the adjacent housing project in violation of curfew.
"Right there the [expletive] is!' Jolly shouted, suspicious because the man looked away when their spotlights found him. "Let's get him!"
But their battle was done. Military radio traffic was already ablaze with calls for a swift medical response. There were orders to retrieve the Chaos 4 crew and get them back to the relative safety of "Camp Victory" at nearby Baghdad International Airport. And when officers and medical crews arrived on the scene, there was little to do but to place Regnier gently into a body bag.
He was gone.
Jolly, who drove the damaged Bradley back to base, did not want members from other platoons to see the grisly evidence of the attack. Working with two sergeants, he used newspapers to clean the gore from the turret.
Following standard procedure after the death of a soldier, military commanders cut off telephone service and Internet traffic back to the states.
Hours later -- and a half a world away -- a black sedan carrying a two-man military notification team crept slowly down a sloping driveway toward Kevin and Shawn Regnier's home on a small hillside in Littleton, N.H.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/10/29/the_war_after_the_war/



Romney hires ex-Bush ad manProducer noted for tough tactics
By Scott Helman
Globe Staff
November 16, 2006
Governor Mitt Romney, who continues to sign up big-name political consultants for a probable presidential run, has hired bare-knuckles GOP ad man Alex Castellanos, a veteran of presidential campaigns known for his tough ads against Democratic candidates.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts Widely considered one of the country's more influential Republican image-makers, Castellanos has produced television spots for President Bush, presidential candidate Bob Dole, and former senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. Romney's move to recruit him sends a strong signal that the governor plans to mount a serious national campaign for 2008, political observers say.
"Alex is one of two or three people in the country who you don't run a presidential campaign without," said Dan Schnur, who was communication director for Senator John McCain of Arizona during McCain's run for president in 2000. Schnur added, "You don't hire Alex Castellanos unless you're committed to this."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/11/16/romney_hires_ex_bush_ad_man/



Wal-Mart expands $4 generic drugs to 11 more states
November 16, 2006
BENTONVILLE, Ark. --Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced Thursday a rollout of its $4 offer on some generic prescription drugs to 11 more states, including Rhode Island.
Wal-Mart added 502 stores to those offering the discounted medications, and added 17 prescriptions to the offering, bringing the total to 331 generic prescriptions available. The $4 price is for up to a 30-day supply of the drugs.
Other states added Thursday were Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Utah, Washington and West Virginia. In all, Wal-Mart is offering the program in 3,009 stores in 38 states.
The company began the program in September, offering the low-cost drugs in Florida and had plans to expand the offering in January. But the company said it moved up its timetable.

http://www.boston.com/help/email/breaking_news/


House Democrats name Hoyer to No. 2 post
Democratic House Leader Nancy Pelosi of Calif., right, and Rep. John Larson, D-Conn. arrive at the Library of Congress in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 15, 2006 to attend the orientation meeting for new Democratic elected members of Congress. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
By Andrew Taylor, Associated Press Writer November 16, 2006
WASHINGTON --Democrats picked Rep. Steny Hoyer to be House majority leader on Thursday, spurning Rep. Nancy Pelosi's handpicked choice moments after unanimously backing her election as speaker when Congress convenes in January.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts A Marylander and 25-year veteran of Congress, Hoyer defeated Rep. John Murtha of Pennsylvania in a vote of 149-86.
His election to the No. 2 job came just a short time after the Democratic caucus put Pelosi in line to become the first woman to be speaker, a position which is second in line of succession to the presidency. It marked a personal triumph for Hoyer.
Earlier, an ebullient Pelosi declared: "We made history and now we will make progress for the American people."
In remarks after being chosen for speaker, the Californian vowed that after 12 years in the minority, "we will not be dazzled by money and special interests." Pelosi also called for unity in the party, but within moments she put her prestige on the line by nominating Murtha.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/16/pelosi_faces_no_win_outcome_over_murtha/


Rogue sea lion bites at least 14 in S.F.
November 16, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO --A California sea lion has bitten at least 14 people and chased 10 others out of the water this week at a public park's lagoon, prompting the city to temporarily close the area to swimmers.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts No serious injuries have been reported, but officials decided to ban swimming at the Aquatic Park Lagoon on Wednesday until the testy marine mammal has moved on.
Experts say the rogue sea lion could be protecting his harem of mates or might have brain damage from toxic algae.
Celeste McMullin, who was bitten Monday, said she saw the animal lurking nearby but didn't think much of it.
"I was swimming along, and I felt a brush under my feet. And I thought, 'These feel like whiskers.' So I stopped, and the animal popped up. He/she looked at me."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/11/16/rogue_sea_lion_bites_at_least_14_in_sf/?p1=MEWell_Pos2



U.S. avoids Hezbollah in aiding Lebanon
By Barry Schweid, AP Diplomatic Writer
November 16, 2006
WASHINGTON --More than a third of the financial aid that the United States promised to help Lebanon rebuild from last July's Israeli war against Hezbollah has been spent, and Washington is steering clear of Hezbollah as it helps, the director of U.S. foreign assistance said Thursday.
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail Breaking News Alerts About $100 million of a $250-million U.S. aid commitment already has been "put to work" on projects from clearing bombs to helping dairy farmers, Randall L. Tobias told reporters.
Much of the reconstruction is centered on Beirut and in southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by the State Department, is virtually a state-within-a-state. Already popular and with two ministers in the central government, Hezbollah spurred postwar reconstruction by offering initial cash payments of up to $12,000 for Christian as well as Muslim families who lost their homes.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/11/16/us_avoids_hezbollah_in_aiding_lebanon/


The New Zealand Herald

US rejects Annan plea to cut greenhouse gases
10.00am Thursday November 16, 2006By Alister Doyle and Daniel Wallis
NAIROBI - Washington rejected pleas by UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan today to cut emissions of greenhouse gases and dismissed his charge that there was a "frightening lack of leadership" in combating global warming.
"We think that the United States has been leading in terms of its ground-breaking initiatives," Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, told a news conference during November 6-17 UN climate talks.
Annan had urged rich countries at the 189-nation talks in Nairobi to be more "courageous" in cutting greenhouse gases and urged Washington to reconsider opposition to the UN's Kyoto Protocol that binds 35 nations to cut emissions by 2012.
Dobriansky said the United States was sticking to policies focused on braking -- rather than cutting -- the rise of emissions while investing heavily in green technologies such as hydrogen or new technologies for cleaner burning of coal.
"We seek to slow, reverse and really curb emissions," she said. The United States is the world's number one source of heat-trapping emissions from burning fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars ahead of China, Russia and India.
Annan said "while the Kyoto Protocol is a crucial step forward, that step is far too small. And as we consider how to go further still, there remains a frightening lack of leadership".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10411040




Large icebergs head north
Sunday November 5, 2006By Miles Erwin
The flotilla of 100 icebergs drifting towards New Zealand could come within a few kilometres of the coast - but they might be too small to be seen.
Dr Paul Augustinus, Auckland University glacial geomorphology lecturer, said that given the right conditions, the icebergs, currently 260km from the coast and up to 2km long, could land against the sea floor just a few kilometres from the coast.
"Judging by the size of them, there's a good chance [they could be seen], but it depends on the currents. I don't think they will hit land. But given their size, and if the currents are right, they could ground on the continental shelf."
That's because the major icebergs are more than one kilometre deep.
But Mike Williams, physical oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said the icebergs are melting rapidly and are likely to be too small to be seen when they get closer to New Zealand. He said there was about a 5 per cent chance of them making it. "Maybe something the size of a canoe would make it, but that's about it. I wouldn't bother staying up nights to see it."
He said they would most likely come within 50km of the coast.
The icebergs are believed to have broken off the Ross or Amery ice shelves in Antarctica. While they raise the spectre of global warming, Augustinus said, it's impossible to link the icebergs with climate change. "We've been monitoring these things for such a short time, it's impossible to see. To say this is unusual and related to global warming is just not possible. It's a fairly frequent occurrence; it's just unusual for such large bergs to get so far north."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0611160152nov16,1,7819443.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed



100 icebergs only 260km off the South Island
Saturday November 4, 2006By Maggie McNaughton
A giant flotilla of 100 icebergs is passing just 260km off the coast of the South Island - the closest the glacial masses have been to this country for 70 years.
Dramatic pictures taken yesterday show the largest of the icebergs stretches 2km and towers 150 metres above the sea.
Mike Williams, physical oceanographer at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, said it was the closest recorded iceberg to New Zealand since 1931.
"It's very rare for them to be in a place where they might come close to the South Island," he said.
An Air Force crew on a routine fisheries patrol saw the icebergs, concentrated in two large groups, in the Southern Ocean.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&ObjectID=10409158



New evidence climate change melting Antarctic ice shelf, say scientists
1.00pm Tuesday October 17, 2006By Alister Doyle
OSLO - Scientists believe they have found the first direct evidence linking the collapse of an ice shelf in Antarctica to global warming widely blamed on human activities.
Shifts in winds whipping around the southern Ocean, tied to human emissions of greenhouse gases, had warmed the Antarctic peninsula jutting up toward South America and contributed to the break-up of the Larsen B ice shelf in 2002, they said.
"This is the first time that anyone has been able to demonstrate a physical process directly linking the break-up of the Larsen Ice Shelf to human activity," said Gareth Marshall, lead author of the study at the British Antarctic Survey.
The chunk that collapsed into the Weddell Sea in 2002 was 3250sqkm, bigger than Luxembourg. Stewart Island, by comparison, is 1746sqkm.
Most climate experts say greenhouse gases, mainly from fossil fuels burnt in power plants, factories and cars, are warming the globe and could bring more erosion, floods or rising seas.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10406302



Arctic sea ice disappearing
Saturday September 16, 2006By Michael McCarthy and David Usborne
The melting of the sea ice in the Arctic, the clearest sign so far of global warming, has taken a sudden and enormous leap forward, in one of the most ominous developments yet in the onset of climate change.
Two separate studies by Nasa, using different satellite monitoring technologies, both show a great surge in the disappearance of Arctic ice cover in the last two years.
One, from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, shows that Arctic perennial sea ice, which normally survives the summer melt season and remains year-round, shrank by 14 per cent in just 12 months between 2004 and 2005.
The overall decrease in the ice cover was 720,000 sq km - an area almost the size of Turkey - gone in a single year.
The other study, from the Goddard Space Flight Centre in Maryland, shows that the perennial ice melting rate, which has averaged 0.15 per cent a year since satellite observations began in 1979, has suddenly accelerated hugely. In the past two winters the rate has increased to 6 per cent a year - that is, it has got more than 30 times faster.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10401578



Alaskan storm cracks iceberg in Antarctica
Wednesday October 4, 2006
A bad storm in Alaska last October generated an ocean swell that broke apart a giant iceberg near Antarctica six days later, US researchers say.
The waves travelled 13,500km to destroy the iceberg, said Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago and Emile Okal at Northwestern University.
Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers said their study showed how weather in one region could affect events far away.
"One of the things we're debating in the world right now is whether global warming might increase the storminess in the oceans," MacAyeal said.
"The question we then pose is: Could global storminess have an influence on the Antarctic ice sheet that had never been thought of?"

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10404143



Climate change wreaking ecological havoc on globe
1.00pm Friday September 15, 2006By Daniel Howden, Andrew Buncombe and Justin Huggler
In Greenland, barley is growing for the first time since the Middle Ages.
In Britain, gardeners were warned this week that the English country garden will be a thing of the past within the next 20 years.
In Italy, skiers were told yesterday that melting glaciers will mean an end to their pastime unless they can get above 2,000 metres.
Even those enjoying the warmer temperatures in unpredictable bursts by venturing into the sea have been confronted by swarms of jellyfish, who have flourished in record numbers in Europe in the warmer waters.
Those same waters are rising in Venice, prompting arguments over costly plans to seal off the lagoon from the sea.
The prospect of flooded squares on the scale of Venice's Piazza San Marco is driving plans to expand and reinforce the Thames flood barrier.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10401423



Antarctic holds clues to future
Monday October 9, 2006By Derek Cheng
How much and how quickly will the ice shelves in Antarctica melt as the global warming noose tightens, and with what consequences?
These are the core questions that a New Zealand-led group of 50 scientists leaving for the icy continent tomorrow hopes to answer.
The team, co-led by GNS scientist Tim Naish, will use a Wellington-developed drill rig to tap into Antarctica's 100m-thick Ross Ice Shelf, to retrieve a 1000m-long core of sediment and rock from beneath the seabed.
"The reason is to find out how the ice sheets behaved in the past, and particularly during times when global temperatures - and Antarctic temperatures - were a few degrees more than they are today, times similar to where we're heading with global warming," Dr Naish said.
The team - part of the Andrill (Antarctic geological drilling) programme - expects the results to show the history of the ice from 5 million to 10 million years ago, and more detailed results for the past million years.
"We know there are some super-warm periods of global warmth - warmer than present - about 125,000, 250,000 and 400,000 years ago. We will drill to these periods and see some direct evidence of the Ross Ice Shelf collapsing or significantly retreating, and maybe even the West Antarctic ice sheet collapsing," he said.
"The idea is to understand how fast [it happened], the nature of the collapse and under what temperature conditions it happened."
Dr Naish said there was plenty of information on how climate change could affect the polar north, but no research about the polar south, a void the team aimed to fill.
Scientists predict global temperatures to rise between 1C and 6C by the end of the century, with disastrous consequences for even a 2C to 3C rise.
But even in a worst-case scenario, Dr Naish said, the effects would only be felt at a snail's pace.
"We expect it to be in the order of hundreds of years to thousands of years. Though it is starting to accelerate now, we still don't expect sea level to rise by more than a metre in the next century," he said.
Drilling at the shelf, 15km west of Scott Base, will last until the end of December, with initial results expected next year. The drill will pass through 100m of floating ice in McMurdo Sound, then through 900m of water and into 1000m of sediment and rock.
Samples will go to the US-run McMurdo Station for analysis. A second drill site, 25km east of Scott Base, is planned for summer 2007-08.
The drill
* The Antarctic drilling project will have to bore through 100m of ice before it can begin drilling into the seabed 1km below the ice to recover a 1km core.
* The core will reveal climatic events stretching back 400,000 years.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10404929



Ozone hole kills sea life, says scientist
Thursday July 20, 2006
The ozone hole over Antarctica is having a bigger impact on life than realised, scientists believe.
The layer, 24km above Earth, acts as a shield against ultraviolet (UV) radiation.
An annual thinning of the ozone over Antarctica allows significantly more UV light to reach the ocean and damage DNA.
New Scientist magazine reported yesterday that an analysis of east Antarctic waters had shown that high levels of UV light could significantly reduce phytoplankton blooms.
These microscopic plant cells at the bottom of the food chain provide food for zooplankton, tiny marine animals that are eaten by more than 50 species of seabirds and by fish and sea mammals ranging from sardines to whales.
"If you have a substantial reduction in the amount of plant material, that's going to have all sorts of knock-on effects for the rest of the food web," said Andrew Davidson, of the Australian Antarctic Division in Kingston, Tasmania.
His team studied the marginal ice zone around Antarctica, which produces between a quarter and two-thirds of the Southern Ocean's phytoplankton.
The team used satellite data to study levels of chlorophyll, an indicator of phytoplankton levels, and ozone concentration in five regions during November and December, from 1997 to 2000.
They considered only data for periods when there were at least six cloudless days out of 10.
Total chlorophyll increased, as expected, but when ozone levels thinned, chlorophyll accumulation fell.
Dr Davidson said it had been difficult to pinpoint the effect of UV, because the amount of plant material in Antarctic waters varied by up to 25 per cent from year to year.
The findings have been challenged by an American scientist, who said average chlorophyll concentrations in Antarctic waters under the ozone hole had not changed since the late 1970s.
Kevin Arrigo, associate professor of geophysics at Stanford University in California, said: "This suggests to me that the ozone hole is having very little impact on overall chlorophyll concentrations in the Antarctic."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10392054



Crab invasion in Antarctica highlights biosecurity crisis
1.00pm Sunday June 25, 2006
Scientists are calling for action to prevent foreign species from taking hold in Antarctica and wrecking the continent's unique ecosystems.
"I think we can say with some confidence that the (Antarctic Treaty Consultative) meeting has recognised this as a really important issue, that there is a need for research," Neil Gilbert, environmental manager at Antarctica New Zealand, told BBC News.
A paper on the issue tabled at this week's Antarctic Treaty Consultative meeting in Edinburgh met with "good agreement".
"We don't know much about what species are in the marine environment around Antarctica. We've got to get a better handle on what is there, so that we know what is native and non-native.
"Secondly, we need to know what are the vectors by which all this material is being brought in."
Despite Antarctica's inhospitable environment, non-native species introduced by tourists, scientists and explorers were gaining a foothold, he said. Species could hitch a ride on ships and planes carrying visitors and supplies.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10388248



NZ experts call for South Pole road study
Sunday June 4, 2006
New Zealand scientists will join a lobby to get an environmental impact study done regarding a 1600km road in the South Pole developed by the United States.
The track goes from McMurdo Base to the polar plateau and is commonly used by tractor and trailer combinations.
A global coalition of environmental groups will lobby the 28 consultative parties to the Antarctic Treaty in Scotland next week for the study, it was reported yesterday. A report from the coalition warns of pollution from the activities and a possible increase in demand for tourism as a result of increased access.
One of two New Zealanders involved, Barry Weeber, said there were concerns the road and scientific work at the South Pole was coming at too high a price.
Others have said the area is becoming less and less of a natural environment. Sir Edmund Hillary, who drove 2000 kilometres from Scott Base to the South Pole on a tractor in 1957, wouldn't comment this week, but on an Antarctic visit in 2004 said that the road was "terrible".
Peter West, spokesman for the US Antarctic Programme, would not comment on the treaty submission or the road.
- NZPA

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10384923


Increase in 'glacial earthquakes' recorded
24.03.06 1.00pmBy Steve Connor
Dramatic new evidence has emerged of the speed of climate change in the polar regions which scientists fear is causing huge volumes of ice to melt far faster than predicted. Scientists have recorded a significant and unexpected increase in the number of "glacial earthquakes" caused by the sudden movement of Manhattan-sized blocks of ice in Greenland. A second study has found that higher temperatures caused by global warming could melt the Arctic and Antarctic ice sheets much sooner than previously thought with a corresponding rise in sea levels. Both studies - along with a series of findings from other scientists over the past year - point to a disturbing change in the polar climate which is causing the disappearance of glaciers, ice sheets and floating sea ice. The rise in the number of glacial earthquakes over the past four years lends further weight to the idea that Greenland's glaciers and its ice sheet are beginning to move and melt on a scale not seen for perhaps thousands of years.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10374217



No progress on tighter Antarctic protection measures
12.45pm Saturday June 24, 2006By Ian MacKenzie
EDINBURGH - Antarctic Treaty countries have failed to agree on tighter environmental measures to protect the continent amid a boom in tourism.
The growing number of tourists landing in Antarctica, mainly from cruise ships, has raised fears over the impact it could have on the continent's fragile ecology.
Another major issue is the size and type of vessels operating in dangerous southern waters and the potential for an environmental and human disaster if a large ship should sink in Antarctic seas.
Some delegates said there had been a lively debate during the annual 10-day meeting of the treaty nations, which include New Zealand
The United States and some other nations had been unwilling to adopt new environmental measures without further study.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10388184



Panicked whale vanishes as storms close in
Thursday July 6, 2006By Anne Beston
A humpback whale entangled in craypot lines thrashed around for four hours trying to free itself before slowly swimming on up the coast.
The Department of Conservation's ranger at Kaikoura, Mike Morrissey, said the animal would have panicked once entangled and done everything it could to get free.
"They're very sensitive to anything on their skin, if you even touch one it will react," he said.
The adult whale had now disappeared, as stormy weather closed in yesterday around the Kaikoura coast where it was last seen.
"Whether it's gone east or west we don't know. It could be unseen for weeks but then pop up."
A team based at Kaikoura spent four hours in inflatable boats trying to disentangle the whale on Sunday, without success.
A search for it the next day was also unsuccessful.
The Department of Conservation had received dozens of calls and offers of help.
"Boats, planes, you name it," Mr Morrissey said, "but there are huge seas and strong winds. You wouldn't see any whales out there."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/location/story.cfm?l_id=2&objectid=10389990



More rain and gales expected
9.00am Thursday November 16, 2006
Despite a "tempest" having passed, the country remains immersed in a soggy northwest flow which will bring more heavy rain and gales, the MetService has said.
Moderate snowfalls in the High Country later on Thursday would also affect farmers in the deep south, it said.
MetService has issued a severe weather warning for heavy rain in Fiordland, Westland and the headwaters of Otago and Canterbury rivers tomorrow, and for heavy rain over Mt Taranaki, the Tararua Ranges, Nelson and the Marlborough Sounds today and Friday.
Possible severe northwest gales would affect Marlborough Sounds, Wellington and Wairarapa today and Friday.
In Otago and Southland, moderate snowfalls were expected down to 1000m and possibly lower today.
A cooler change across the country is expected at the weekend.
- NZPA



Experienced American tramper fell to death
10.00am Thursday November 16, 2006
An American tramper who died after falling 200m down a bluff in the Southern Alps was experienced, confident and well-equipped, an inquest was told yesterday.
Westland coroner Tony Sullivan reserved his findings into the death of Christopher Brent Clarke, 34, of Ohio.
Mr Sullivan was told Mr Clarke set on out March 1 intending to complete the Three Passes route from Hokitika to arrive at Arthur's Pass Village on March 5.
On March 14, Mr Clarke's parents contacted the United States consulate when he failed to return home and the consulate called New Zealand police.
A search and rescue helicopter sent out the following day found Mr Clarke's body at the bottom of steep bluffs below Browning Pass -- the main divide of the Southern Alps, 9km north of Hokitika.
Tramper Gary Morrison, who overnighted with Mr Clarke at a hut, said he had an appropriate map for the area.
"He was confident and capable," he said in a statement read out at the inquest. "He had the right equipment and had researched the route well."
At the request of the coroner, MetService delivered a report of the weather conditions on the Browning Pass on the afternoon and evening of March 2, when Mr Clarke would have been crossing the pass solo.
Meteorologists said south-westerly winds of near gale force speeds of 60km/h were blowing and increased to storm force 90km/h speed around midnight.
Visibility would have been very poor in patches of mist or cloud below the level of the peaks but moderate to good in breaks in the cloud.
Browning Pass could well have been in cloud or mist by the time he arrived.
- NZPA

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10411030




Search resumes for missing glider
8.05am Thursday November 16, 2006
Rscue teams resumed their search this morning for a powered glider which went missing with two people on board during a competition in the lower South Island yesterday.
A spokesman for the Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) said four planes and a helicopter took to the skies at first light to search for the glider which was last heard from at about 5.30pm yesterday four hours after taking off from Omarama.
The glider was reported overdue by race organisers at about 8.30pm.
The glider's flight path would have covered the Twizel, Lake Pukaki and Lindis Pass areas, the spokesman said.
RCCNZ launched a communications search yesterday, focusing on the area's numerous airstrips.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10411020



Clark discusses formal links with Europe
11.30am Thursday November 16, 2006By Andy Macdonald
LONDON - Prime Minister Helen Clark today said she has discussed formalising New Zealand's closeness with the European Union (EU) in talks with the leaders of France and Germany.
Overnight in Paris she met with France president Jacques Chirac and OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) secretary general Angel Gurria.
Building New Zealand's relationship with the EU had been touched on in those talks, Helen Clark told NZPA, adding the relationship required support from the big member countries like France and Germany.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10411025



Another Enron executive imprisoned
4.00pm Thursday November 16, 2006
HOUSTON, Texas - Former Enron chief accounting officer Richard Causey was today sentenced to five and a half years in prison for approving the bogus bookkeeping that led to the company's 2001 collapse.
Causey, 46, the last of the top-tier Enron executives to be sentenced, pleaded guilty to securities fraud in December 2005, weeks before he was scheduled to go on trial with former Enron chief executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling, both of whom were found guilty in May. Lay died of a heart attack July 5.
"Improper things were done at Enron," Causey told US District Judge Sim Lake at his sentencing hearing. "Some things were done by me and for that I am profoundly sorry."
Causey, who faced more than 20 years in prison if convicted on three dozen original charges, agreed to a maximum sentence of seven years in jail and forfeit US$1.25 million ($1.92 million) under a plea deal.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=3&ObjectID=10411072



Iraq government at odds over missing hostages
10.00am Thursday November 16, 2006By Claudia Parsons and Alastair Macdonald
BAGHDAD - A day after a mass kidnap from a Baghdad ministry raised fears Iraq's sectarian militias are out of control, government leaders gave sharply differing accounts today of whether dozens of hostages were still missing.
The minister whose staff were targeted said up to 80 were still unaccounted for, possibly held by Shi'ite militia, and said he would boycott the government until they were released.
But the spokesman for the government, which appears keen to play down the incident, said only two to five were missing.
"I have suspended my participation as a minister with the government until those people who have been kidnapped are released," Higher Education Minister Abd Dhiab told Reuters.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10411037



'Hoodies' bad for your health - doctor
Thursday November 16, 2006By Simon Collins
"Hoodies" may be depriving Kiwi youngsters of the sunlight they need to build their bones and stay energised.
A doctor who works at Child, Youth and Family Services' youth justice centre at Wiri, Dr Glenn Twentyman, said yesterday that every young person he had tested at the centre had deficient vitamin D, which helps the body absorb vital minerals into the bones.
"It's the hoodies and the hats and the downward glance of the teenagers, shading your face all the time," he said.
"A lot of these kids stay away from sunshine. They don't hang out at the beach or in the bush. Some are into drugs and alcohol and a lot of it is indoor activity and night-time activity. They sleep during the day. They are wearing those hoods and literally they don't get out in the sun."
His comments add to mounting evidence of increasing vitamin D deficiency in Australasia, partly caused by "covering up" to avoid skin cancer. Ozone depletion has exposed the region to higher ultra-violet radiation, giving New Zealand the world's highest rate of skin cancer.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10411011



Make-up box sparks Auckland bomb scare
UPDATED 2.40pm Thursday November 16, 2006
An unattended box of make-up today brought the bomb squad out to downtown Auckland.
The large silver box, found unattended on a park bench in Shortland St, was blown up by the Defence Force Bomb Squad at 1.11pm, shortly after some people arrived saying it was their make-up box.
Later examinations showed the contents of the container were no risk.
Police cordoned off Shortland St, which connects to Queen St, after a passerby spotted the silver box at 11.28am.
Emergency services were on standby and occupants of a carpark building, NZ Post Shop and apartment building nearby were evacuated, and traffic in the busy area was held up.
Senior Sergeant Donovan Clark of Auckland Police said it was hard to imagine why anyone would leave a box unattended on a public bench seat for two hours.
"The owners' absentmindedness has caused a huge amount of disruption to motorists, pedestrians, staff in local businesses and residents of a nearby apartment block, not to mention the demands this placed on emergency services," Mr Clark said.
"People who leave their belongings lying around in public places or where they raise concerns about why something is where it is, need to have a good look at themselves in terms of their responsibilities to public safety."
Mr Clark said the people who brought the unattended container to the Police's attention did the right thing.
"In all such cases, we have to take matters seriously until we can determine the nature of the situation we're dealing with."
- NZPA


Army sells M113 fleet for scrap
8.00am Thursday November 16, 2006
The Army has sold its Vietnam-era fleet of 48 armoured personnel carriers and they will all be melted down for scrap before Christmas.
The M113 tracked carriers have been sold to a New Zealand company for $500,000, half the price the Army would have got in a deal last year with an Australian military collector.
That deal was stopped when the US State Department stepped in and vetoed the sale.
- NZPA / NZHERALD STAFF


Labour shortage threatening fruit and vegetables
2.00pm Thursday November 16, 2006
Vegetable growers are being forced to either pick their own crops or mulch crops back into the ground because of a lack of workers.
There are now fears the prices of some fresh produce could sky rocket.
One of those affected, Harjit Singh of Hamilton fruit and vegetable store Vege King, says something has to be done and soon.
He said he does not care where the labour comes from or who they are, as long as they are prepared to work hard.
Mr Singh said it was a real problem which was affecting growers' livelihoods. He said asparagus and strawberries are two crops which are at threat.
- NEWSTALK ZB


Tonga's CBD razed in wake of looting
UPDATED 11.20pm Thursday November 16, 2006
Nearly 80 per cent of the shops in Tonga's capital appear to been destroyed after fires set by youths targeting Chinese-owned shops spread to raze the city centre, correspondents report.
Groups of youths roamed the streets, overturning cars, smashing windows and setting fires while police stood by watching the violence, Mary Fonua of the Matangi Tonga news website told The Associated Press by telephone from the capital, Nuku'alofa.
And late tonight, Radio New Zealand International's correspondent, Mateni Tapueluelu, reported the fires spread quickly because the shops were built close together.
"Fires quickly spread to places not intended to be burned, including businesses owned by Western investors, and Tongan businesspeople," he said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10411108



Bush, Putin agree to sign Russia WTO deal
1.20pm Thursday November 16, 2006By Michael Stott
MOSCOW - US President George W. Bush and Russia's Vladimir Putin confirmed at an airport meeting today their plan to sign a bilateral deal next week for Russia's accession to the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the presidents confirmed that they would sign a protocol paving the way for Russia to join the WTO on the sidelines of an Asian economic summit in Hanoi next week.
Bush and Putin also discussed Iran and its nuclear programme during an "extraordinarily positive and friendly" meeting, Peskov added without giving further details.
Putin greeted Bush warmly as the US leader stepped off Air Force One under chilly grey Moscow skies, and handed a bouquet of yellow and red flowers to US First Lady Laura Bush.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10411053



Child abuse is your fault, public told
Thursday November 16, 2006By Paula Oliver
The head of the country's social services has lashed out at adult New Zealanders, saying it is time they took responsibility for child abuse and stopped blaming Government departments for events like the death of the Kahui twins.
Peter Hughes, chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development, said no department could have prevented the deaths of 3-month-old South Auckland infants Chris and Cru Kahui.
Until adults accepted responsibility for situations like those Child, Youth and Family encountered, "we will not solve this problem", Mr Hughes said.
"Those children were killed by an adult New Zealander - they were not murdered by a Government department." The Kahui twins died in the Starship hospital on June 18 of serious head injuries.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10411015




Pakistan votes to roll back Islamic law on rape
UPDATED 10.30am Thursday November 16, 2006By Zeeshan Haider
ISLAMABAD - Pakistan's lower house of parliament voted today to put the crime of rape under the civil penal code, curtailing the scope of Islamic laws that rights groups have long criticised as unfair to women.
The Women's Protection Bill was seen as a barometer of President Pervez Musharraf's commitment to his vision of "enlightened moderation" and a major battle in a struggle between progressive forces and religious conservatives over the Muslim nation's course.
Musharraf said in a television address to the nation the bill was part of a government campaign to empower women launched in 2000, soon after he seized power in a bloodless coup.
"We should be proud of it," Musharraf said. "The time has come for the moderate elements in Pakistan to come forward and show their real force to these extremists and tell the extremists they will have no more say in Pakistan," he said.
The Islamic laws, known as the Hudood Ordinances, were introduced by a military ruler, President Zia-ul-Haq, in 1979. They made a rape victim liable to prosecution for adultery if she could not produce four male witnesses to the assault.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410978



Aid keeps flowing from South to North Korea
Thursday November 16, 2006
SEOUL - North Korea may be facing UN sanctions for the nuclear test it conducted last month, but goats and milk cows are still coming across the border.
Private aid from South Korean groups in the form of medicine, food and livestock has increased steadily in recent years. Donors see it as a way of giving direct help to the people of the impoverished Stalinist state.
"The contributions from South Korean civic and religious groups are not that big, but they are very practical," said Lee Keum-soon, a senior research fellow for South's Korea Institute for National Unification.
"Many South Koreans see it as their responsibility to keep North Koreans alive."
Civic and religious group leaders say many South Koreans are angry with the leaders of the communist North for the nuclear test and July's missile launches, but their sense of fraternity with its citizens is undiminished.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410920




Renaissance masterpieces found behind bedroom door
3.20pm Wednesday November 15, 2006
LONDON - Two lost paintings by Italian Renaissance master Fra Angelico have turned up in a modest house in Oxford in a discovery hailed as one of the most exciting art finds for a generation.
The works -- two panels each painted with the standing figure of a Dominican saint in tempera on a gold background -- are expected to fetch more than 1 million pounds at auction.
They were discovered behind a bedroom door in a terraced house when art auctioneer Guy Schwinge was called in to carry out a valuation after the owner of the house. librarian Jean Preston, died in July.
They were commissioned by Florentine ruler Cosimo de' Medici and his brother Lorenzo, major Renaissance art patrons, in the late 1430s for the high altar at the Church and Convent of San Marco in Florence, where Fra Angelico, a Dominican monk, lived.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410874



Kabila wins Congo poll, rival rejects result
12.20pm Thursday November 16, 2006By David Lewis
KINSHASA - Congo's President Joseph Kabila won a presidential election with 58.05 per cent of the votes, according to provisional results today, but the coalition of his rival Jean-Pierre Bemba rejected the result.
International peacekeepers stepped up patrols in the capital, and UN armoured vehicles and jeeps from a European Union force raced round the streets of Kinshasa where supporters of the candidates have fought twice in the past three months.
"Therefore, having garnered the absolute majority of votes in the second round, Mr Joseph Kabila Kabange is declared president of Democratic Republic of Congo," election commission chief Apollinaire Malu Malu said in a broadcast announcing the results of the October 29 run-off poll.
The result, giving Bemba 41.95 per cent, has to be confirmed by the Supreme Court.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10411054



Nepali King blamed for killings
5.40am Thursday November 16, 2006
KATHMANDU - A Nepali panel investigating the shooting and killing of pro-democracy protesters in April has held King Gyanendra responsible for the bloody crackdown.
At least 22 people were killed and more than 5000 wounded in the actions of security forces against anti-king demonstrators who forced the monarch to relinquish absolute power and restore democracy.
"Since he [the king] was the chairman of the council of ministers, we found him responsible for all the decisions taken by the Cabinet," the Himalayan Times quoted an unnamed source in the inquiry panel as saying.
The panel is headed by Krishna Jung Rayamajhi, a retired Supreme Court judge, and was appointed by the multi-party Government that took power in May.
Rayamajhi declined to comment on the newspaper article, saying the commission had not finalised its report.
- REUTERS



Frozen embryos have no right to life, Irish court rules
11.20am Thursday November 16, 2006By Paul Hoskins
DUBLIN - A woman lost her fight to have a child without the consent of her estranged husband today when an Irish judge ruled frozen embryos did not enjoy the same constitutional right to life as those carried in the womb.
Justice Brian McGovern said most agreed frozen embryos resulting from infertility treatment deserved special respect but ruled "the right to life of the unborn" in the Irish constitution did not extend to them.
"I have come to the conclusion that the three frozen embryos are not 'unborn'," the judge said in a landmark High Court ruling complicated by the fact that existing legislation does not define "unborn".
"There has been no evidence ... to establish that it was ever in the mind of the people voting on the Eight Amendment to the Constitution that 'unborn' meant anything other than a foetus or child within the womb," McGovern added.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10411044



Serb guilty of wartime rapes, torture
7.40am Thursday November 16, 2006
SARAJEVO - Bosnia's war crimes court yesterday sentenced a former Bosnian Serb soldier to 16 years in prison for the serial rape, enslavement and torture of civilians in the 1992-95 Bosnia war.
Radovan Stankovic was the first defendant from the United Nations war crimes court in The Hague to be tried in Bosnia. He was found guilty of running a brutal detention camp near the eastern town of Foca and of encouraging and assisting in the capture, torture, rape and killing of non-Serb civilians.
Stankovic was found to have repeatedly raped, tortured and beaten two girls, 12 at the time, for months, presiding judge Davorin Jukic said. He offered other girls to Bosnian Serb soldiers, who raped and humiliated them.
After Bosnian Serb forces took control of Foca, they detained thousands of Muslim and Croat civilians, locking up women and pre-teen girls. The Hague court has already convicted three former Bosnian Serb commanders for war crimes in Foca.
- REUTERS



Apec 'shelves plans' for free trade zone
Thursday November 16, 2006
HANOI - Cabinet ministers from the 21-member Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum decided on Wednesday to shelve plans for an ambitious Pacific rim free trade area for another year, officials said.
A US proposal for a vast free trade area sparked robust debate at Apec's opening session in Vietnam's capital, Japan's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mitsuo Sakaba told reporters.
"After lengthy debate, the chair concluded that it should be studied as a long-term objective and report the result of that study to the next meeting in Australia," he said.
Business leaders had supported an Asia-Pacific Free Trade Agreement as a way of consolidating the dozens of bilateral and regional free trade agreements that have proliferated in recent years in the region.
An Apec vision of a vast free trade area along the Pacific rim, which accounts for nearly half of world trade and generates 70 per cent of economic growth, had lost considerable momentum to a plethora of mini-deals.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410981




Tasmania has devil of a job to get rid of island's foxes
Thursday November 16, 2006By Nick Squires
Tasmania hopes to become the largest island in the world to eradicate foxes after biologists revealed that several hundred could be breeding on the island.
Rumours that the island had been invaded by the unwelcome predators have circulated for years but it was only confirmed earlier this year that they have established a breeding population.
There are fears they will devastate rare native mammals which have already been driven close to extinction on the Australian mainland, such as bandicoots, bettongs and quolls.
Frogs, blue-tongue lizards, pademelons (a type of small wallaby), and penguins are among the 80 other species which would also be at grave risk.
This week the Tasmanian Government launched a A$56 million ($64.8 million), 10-year campaign to eradicate foxes. It says a fox population could cost farmers and the eco-tourism industry A$20 million a year.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410917



Launch of al Jazeera will bring new perspective to TV news
1.00pm Wednesday November 15, 2006By Guy Adams
Lights, cameras, salaam.
In the heart of old London, a stone's throw from Buckingham Palace, the inhabitants of a state-of-the-art TV studio are preparing to make broadcasting history.
Today, the Arabic television network al-Jazeera launches one of the most ambitious TV ventures of recent times: an English-language channel, to bring rolling news, from a Middle Eastern perspective, to a global audience of millions.
The new channel, al-Jazeera International, already boasts star quality.
A host of big names, from Sir David Frost to former BBC and ITV stalwarts Rageh Omaar and Darren Jordon have been poached from rival British broadcasters.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410880/



Blair under new pressure to announce war inquiry
1.00pm Wednesday November 15, 2006By Colin Brown
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair will face fresh criticism today for refusing to give Parliament an independent inquiry on Iraq after giving evidence by video link to US President George Bush's Iraq Study Group.
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said Mr Blair had repeated the co-ordinated warning by himself and President Bush yesterday to Iran and Syria to become part of the solution to the Middle East, or face isolation.
Iran and Syria, which have offered dialogue to the US in the past, reacted swiftly to the proposal to engage constructively on Iraq and the broader Middle East.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410881



Che at centre of display
4.40am Thursday November 16, 2006
SANTIAGO - New photographs of the corpse of Ernesto "Che" Guevara, taken shortly after the Latin American revolutionary was executed in Bolivia in 1967, have gone on public display for the first time.
The photographs were taken by Freddy Alborta, one of a handful of photographers allowed to see Che's corpse as it lay in a hospital in the Bolivian village of Vallegrande in October, 1967, following his capture by United States-backed Bolivian soldiers.
Alborta, a Bolivian, took dozens of photographs of Che's body but only ever published a few.
- REUTERS


Saudi women might vote but not drive
Thursday November 16, 2006
KUWAIT - A key Saudi royal put a damper on hopes that Saudi women might soon be allowed to drive in the Islamic state but said yesterday they could gain some voting rights.
The right of women to drive has been a key demand of reformers in United States-allied Saudi Arabia, which follows an austere form of Islam, and has been backed by some Government ministers.
But Interior Minister Prince Nayef's support would be key to any reform.
"It is regrettable that this has become an issue, since it doesn't deserve to be. I am surprised it has been brought up," Prince Nayef, a half-brother to King Abdullah, told Kuwait's al-Anbaa newspaper.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410921



Death sentence from the toilet
Thursday November 16, 2006By Andrew Gumbel
The religious ascetics believed to have written the Dead Sea Scrolls were killed off by their own scrupulous toilet habits, research by an international team of biblical scholars suggest.
The Essenes, who established a community at Qumran on the north-western shores of the Dead Sea, rejected the common Bedouin practice of relieving themselves in the open.
Instead, they assigned a dumping ground about 800m from their community and buried their waste there, believing this to be more hygienic.
But the Essenes' efforts appear to have worked against them.
The parasites and harmful bacteria associated with human waste would have been quickly killed by the desert sun had they remained above ground.
Buried, they could survive and thrive, creating a toxic environment that infected members of the Essene sect as they walked to and from their toilet area.
The parasites almost certainly bred in a cistern used in religious cleansing ceremonies, giving a compelling reason for the early deaths of many Essenes.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10410970

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