Ottawa Citizen
National Guard airlifts food, medicine to snowbound U.S. states
Chase Squires, Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
LAMAR, Colo. - Colorado Army National Guard crew chief Nick Cornelius is spending this week doing something he wasn't trained to do: tossing bundles of hay out the back of an attack helicopter.
Bale after bale, about 500 in all, tumbled from choppers above snowbound southeastern Colorado in a battle to save thousands of head of cattle - and the regional economy - from the devastation of a winter storm that has held parts of the plains in a frigid grip.
Rescue and aid operations for people and livestock were to continue Wednesday, while utilities in sections of Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Colorado worked round the clock to restore electricity to tens of thousands of homes and businesses.
Ten traffic deaths were blamed on the latest storm in Colorado, Texas and Minnesota. A tornado spun off by the same weather system killed one person in Texas, and a Kansas sheriff's deputy died in his home after falling down the stairs while tending to a generator.
With rising temperatures, highways were generally clear, but many rural roads remained impassable. National Guard helicopters dropped Meals Ready to Eat, or military rations, outside remote houses, where the nearest neighbour might be kilometres away. The Guard also ferried in food, water and medicine on Humvees and snowmobiles and provided rides out for those in need.
"It's the middle of nowhere. You lose the power, you might as well be in 1885," said Sgt. 1st Class Steve Segin said. "There's no cellphone, no lights, no contact."
The Guard in Colorado reached at least 280 homes Tuesday.
Officials hope the haylift will save thousands of cattle immobilized by drifts as high as three metres. In 1997, a similar storm killed 30,000 in the state.
Getting food to stranded cattle is key to protecting the region's economic lifeblood, said agricultural extension agent Leonard Pruett. Up to $1.8 billion in cattle are on the line, most of them breeding cows that will produce next year's crop of beef cattle.
Trapped by snow, cattle can become dehydrated and gravitate to creeks, where they might stumble into deep drifts and die.
Dropping a 34-kilogram bale of hay 60 metres to a cow struggling in a snowdrift isn't a routine National Guard operation and requires a fair degree of precision, Cornelius said.
"You try not to hit them," he said.
In the Oklahoma Panhandle and western Kansas, National Guard troops and local law enforcement went door to door to check on people who had been without power for several days. People who might have medical problems were a priority, said Oklahoma National Guard spokesman Col. Pat Scully.
Ice in some areas was even more problematic than the snow, snapping trees and bringing down power lines. In Nebraska, big portable generators were set up to maintain water service and keep shelters open.
More than a dozen Kansas radio stations were forced off the air due to equipment icing.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=20fe5c33-cad2-4af1-980c-113780a59af4&k=59538
B.C.'s heavy rainfall prompts landslide risk
CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
VANCOUVER - The Greater Vancouver Regional District has pulled its outdoor staff from the woods in the region's watersheds, citing landslide risks.
Heavy rainfall has exceeded safety limits, according to watershed manager Bob Cavill.
This is not the first time that stormy weather has caused safety concerns. Staff were pulled from the woods Nov. 15, hours before torrential rains triggered landslides that clouded the region's drinking water for weeks. Tuesday marked the 10th day this wet season that the woods have been closed.
Mountains north of Vancouver received 128 millimetres of rain between 6 a.m. Monday and 6 a.m. Tuesday, according to Allan Chapman of B.C.'s River Forecast Centre. Isolated areas on Vancouver Island were hardest hit by storms carrying "sub-tropical moisture," he said. Tofino Creek measured 270 millimetres of rain in the 30 hours ending at 6 a.m.Tuesday.
Lower Mainland rivers are not expected to flood as a result of the latest storm, even though it is just as heavy as the rains that caused flooding and heavy turbidity in the region's drinking water in November.
"The snow pack is saving us this time," Chapman said. "The rain is falling but it is being held by the snow."
Lower elevation watersheds like the Cowichan River on Vancouver Island are experiencing flooding because they don't have snowpack to the hold the heavy rainfall.
Chapman said the two-metre snowpack on the coastal mountains can absorb up to 700 millimetres of rain. Another moist front is expected to deposit heavy rain on southwestern B.C. on Saturday.
Vancouver Sun
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=2f93a782-a08a-4415-909c-92cf43ddd066&k=98327
Global National: Wild weather for 2007
Jas Johal reports that 2007 is starting much the same way 2006 ended, with unusual weather patterns.
http://video.canada.com/VideoContent.aspx?fl=1&popup=1
12 Indonesian ferry accident survivors found alive on oil rig
SEMARANG, Indonesia - Eleven men and a 6-year-old boy who were on an Indonesian ferry that sank last week with more than 600 other people were rescued Wednesday after climbing onto an offshore oil rig, navy officers said.
The survivors, weak after spending more than four days in the Java Sea, were picked up by the Navy from the rig, some 200 kilometres from where the ferry sank after drifting in heavy waves, said Navy spokesman Lt. Col. Tony Syaiful. It was not clear when the 12 reached the unmanned rig or how they managed to stay afloat.
The 12 said little as they arrived at a port in the coastal city of Surabaya before being taken by ambulance to hospital for a checkup, witnesses said.
"I am happy I can save the life of my boy," said Suyatno, the father of the six year old.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=76ad7b4c-9d21-4b7c-a232-dfd91e3733a1&k=20821
Boy who rode in trunk badly hurt as car crashes into Alta Vista house
'There was no room' inside, another rider explains
Maria Kubacki, with files from Andrew Seymour, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
A 16-year-old boy who a brother says was riding in the trunk of a car when it crashed into a house on Kilborn Avenue in Alta Vista early yesterday was fighting for his life in hospital last night.
At about 2:30 a.m. yesterday, Jihad Elmakdah's heart stopped and family and friends were told he was dying, but doctors at the General campus of the Ottawa Hospital managed to revive him, according to Al-Moghira El-Maghrabi, 20. He was one of six males riding in the Chrysler Intrepid that he said was driven by his brother, 19-year-old Mostafa El-Maghrabi.
Police said two of the riders, including Jihad, were in the car's trunk at the time of the crash.
Jihad was in critical condition, suffering from internal bleeding and multiple fractures to his pelvis and ankle, but was stabilizing, said his brother, Hussain Elmakdah. He said doctors planned to send Jihad to the Civic campus for surgery on his pelvis.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=79013a64-b7a1-4eb6-a055-4927b1c05ce5&k=51020
'Trunking' popular among U.S. teens; seems to have made leap to Ottawa
Chris Lackner, The Ottawa Citizen
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
An Ottawa police public safety expert says provincial traffic laws should ban travel in the non-passenger areas of motor vehicles -- such as trunks or pickup truck flats.
Passenger safety was thrust into the spotlight yesterday after 16-year-old Jihad Elmakdah suffered critical injuries riding in the trunk of a car that crashed into a house.
While teenagers riding in car trunks are becoming a dangerous trend in the United States, it seems to be the first time the practice -- known as "trunking" -- has been part of a recent Ottawa police investigation, said Staff Sgt. Rick Lavigne, head of the police public safety unit.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=63a04111-ae66-4b18-8e89-4882e7b28a4d&k=92595
Search resumes for Indonesia jet
Authorities backtrack on finding wreck
POLEWALI, Indonesia - Rescuers expanded their search for a missing jetliner to a triangle-shaped swath of sea and jungle Wednesday, a day after Indonesian officials outraged relatives by wrongly claiming the Boeing 737's wreckage and survivors had been found.
The Adam Air plane carrying 102 people was flying from Indonesia's main island of Java to North Sulawesi's provincial capital of Manado when it disappeared Monday in stormy weather after sending out distress signals - one over mountainous jungles and the other along the coast.
Relatives broke down in tears after high-ranking aviation, military and police officials acknowledged Tuesday that claims the crash site had been found along with a dozen survivors were false, based only on hearsay.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=450d422e-25f0-46f6-ae83-68fa2615d31d&k=62469
Somali PM says major fighting likely over
Islamic fighters scattered
Mohamed Sheikh Nor, Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
MOGADISHU, Somalia - Kenya sent extra troops to its border with Somalia on Wednesday to keep Islamic militants from entering the country after Ethiopian helicopters attacked a Kenyan border post by mistake while pursuing suspected fighters.
Four Ethiopian helicopters apparently mistook a Kenyan border post at Harehare for the Somali town of Dhobley on Tuesday and fired rockets at several small buildings, a security officer said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. There were no reports of casualties, but Kenyan tanks were sent to the area early Wednesday, the officer added.
Residents in Dhobley said they witnessed the Ethiopian military aircraft bombing the area.
"Four military helicopters flew over our town several times and bombarded somewhere on the Kenyan side of the border," Mohamud Ilmi Osman said. Kenyan officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/story.html?id=afddc143-95c0-4559-9a60-30ac22255137&k=5219
Top story of 2006: clearly the War in Afghanistan, says The Canadian Press
Les Perreaux, Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
(CP) - Canadians made a spectacular switch from Liberal to Conservative governing regimes in 2006, but a gritty little war half a world away was the overwhelming choice as the top Canadian news story of the year.
The war in Afghanistan started in 2001 and steadily faded from the world's headlines as the focus shifted to Iraq, but five years later Canada's small part in the fight to calm the country hit home with bloody clarity.
Newspaper editors and broadcasters left no doubt that Canada's mission in Afghanistan was the top news story of the year. In the annual poll by The Canadian Press and Broadcast News, the war in Afghanistan easily outranked the Conservatives' electoral victory by a margin of 91-44. The Canadian Soldier was chosen the Canadian Newsmaker of the Year in poll results announced last week.
"Whereas other stories have come and gone, this one continues and will remain a top story next year as well," said Mel Rothenburger, managing editor of the The Daily News in Kamloops, B.C.
For the first time since the Korean War, Canadian soldiers went into sustained, major combat and suffered hundreds of casualties, including 36 deaths in the last year.
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/story.html?id=71a84c14-8c19-4406-bbb1-c9252b29da8d&k=37938
Canada cautious with Afghan campaign's early success
Brian Hutchinson, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
KANDAHAR AIR FIELD, Afghanistan - While Canada's top military commander based in Afghanistan says the latest campaign to remove Taliban insurgents from Kandahar province has been a success, thanks in part to intelligence reports from village elders, he acknowledges certain areas remain firmly under enemy control.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, Brig.-Gen. Tim Grant said there is still an opportunity to ''either capture or kill'' Taliban in the districts of Panjwaii and Zhari, west of Kandahar city, but added his troops will ''not put an end to them forever.''
His comments come as Canadian soldiers continue to participate in Operation Baaz Tsuka, the NATO-led campaign meant to separate so-called tier two insurgents from more extremist tier one Taliban in Kandahar, and to deliver aid to local villagers.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=4ceed691-3cca-4e78-b820-3138a05178d4&k=32231
Birth of male heir: Japan to drop plans to allow women to inherit the throne
Canadian Press
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
TOKYO (AP) - Japan will drop plans to allow women to inherit the Chrysanthemum Throne following the birth last year of a long-awaited male heir, a news report said Wednesday.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe plans to ditch recommendations by a government panel in 2005 that an emperor's first child - boy or girl - should accede the throne, according to a report by the newspaper Sankei Shimbun.
The reform was designed to defuse a looming succession crisis for the royal family, which had produced no male heir in four decades.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=4b2f288f-fa2c-4ee3-b551-d420658ab082&k=16078
National
Artic Ice Disappearing?
Hi All, There have been some recent disturbing scientific reports that forecast the Artic Summer ice may disappear in less than 40 years. If true, this would spell disaster for many animal and marine species. Check out the article in my Global Warming and Climate Change information directory: http://www.alphatech5.com/cchange/cchange7.htm See the grahic included with this post. The image at left, based on simulations produced by the Community Climate System Model, shows the approximate extent of Arctic sea ice in September. Unless greenhouse gas emissions are significantly curtailed, the Arctic may be nearly devoid of summer sea ice by 2040 (image at right). Spread the word. We all have to care more about the environment or we may not have one. Cheers Allan Barker www.alphatech5.com
arctic_seaice.jpg
http://community.canada.com/webx/.eeb8dbe
Blue Earth - Now ??
The leading Directory on Climate Change and Global Warming. Click on the links below to visit each site (link opens in a new window). Don't forget to bookmark this page or save it in your favourites so you can easily return.
http://www.alphatech5.com/cchange/cchange7.htm
Stern Review final report
The pre-publication edition of the Stern Review Report on the Economics of Climate Change is available to be downloaded below either on a chapter-by-chapter basis or in parts covering broader themes. The report is available in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). If you do not have Adobe Acrobat installed on your computer you can download the software free of charge from theAdobe website. For alternative ways to read PDF documents and further information on website accessibility visit the HM Treasury accessibility page.Hardcopies will be available from January at a charge of c. £29.99 + £3.50 postage and packing (quoting ISBN number: 0-521-70080-9). Copies can be ordered from Cambridge University Press via the website
http://www.cambridge.org/9780521700801,
by fax on +44 (0)1223 315052 or post from the following address: Science Marketing, Freepost, Cambridge University Press, The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge, CB2.
http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/independent_reviews/stern_review_economics_climate_change/stern_review_report.cfm
Bedard likely to return today to Canada
Katherine Wilton, CanWest News Service
Published: Wednesday, January 03, 2007
MONTREAL - Quebec City police will fly to Baltimore, Md., within the next 24 hours to bring Olympic champion Myriam Bedard home after U.S. and Canadian authorities finalized a deal Tuesday over her transfer to Canada to face parental abduction charges.
If police from Quebec don't arrive before this afternoon, Bedard will attend her scheduled court appearance in Baltimore at 3 p.m., where a judge will almost certainly grant her bail, Bedard's lawyer, Kevin McCants, said Tuesday.
Once Bedard returns, she will remain in police custody and will be charged with parental abduction, said Francois Bouchard, a spokesperson for Quebec City police.
''It will be up to the judge to determine if she gets bail,'' Bouchard said.
Bedard, 37, was arrested by U.S. marshals Dec. 22. after her ex-husband, Jean Paquet, accused her of abducting their 12-year-old daughter, Maude.
She's been in custody ever since.
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/story.html?id=a6a46cc3-bea8-4532-a07c-ff142bc3ebb5&k=83964
The Chicago Tribune
Chicagoans saying, who needs Florida?
No cabin fever this year as unbelievably mild winter keeps many right hereBy Michelle S. KellerTribune staff reporterPublished January 3, 2007
Delicate green daffodil tips peeking out of the ground and pleasant 50-degree weather can hint at only one thing: Spring is on the horizon.But in January?
Balmier days are forecast to continue in Illinois over the next few days, a result of warmer air masses flowing in from the west and southwest and the effects of an El Nino year.While no records are being broken--back in 1876 it was 65 degrees on Jan. 2--temperatures in coming days are expected to remain mercifully above the historic average high of about 30 degrees.Scarves and earmuffs? Try sunglasses and flip-flops.But not everyone is celebrating. Ski buffs and snowboarding maniacs have had to find new pastimes, as most ski parks around the state were closed for the holidays.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0701030049jan03,1,20404.story?coll=chi-news-hed
One more death too many
Teen boy's fatal car crash closes out a grim 2006By Carolyn Starks, Tribune staff reporter. Tribune staff reporter Ted Gregory contributed to this reportPublished January 3, 2007
Jerzy Kowalski has replayed the last conversation he had with his 17-year-old son dozens of times, endlessly wondering: What if?"If only I talk with him one minute more," Kowalski of Johnsburg said Tuesday. "Maybe nothing happen."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0701030132jan03,1,5333414.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Guard Arrested in Saddam Hanging Video
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The person believed to have recorded Saddam Hussein's execution on a cell phone camera was arrested Wednesday, an adviser to Iraq's prime minister said.The adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media, did not identify the person. But he said it was "an official who supervised the execution" and who is "now under investigation."
"In the past few hours, the government has arrested the person who made the video of Saddam's execution," the adviser said.Iraqi state television aired an official video of the hanging, which had no audio and never showed Saddam's actual death. But the cell phone video showed the deposed leader being taunted in his final moments, with witnesses shouting "go to hell" before he dropped through the gallows floor and swung dead at the end of a rope.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-iraq-saddam-video,1,920215.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Chicago scores low on disaster readiness
Associated Press; Tribune staff reporters David Heinzmann and Gary Washburn contributed to this reportPublished January 3, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Only six of 75 U.S. metropolitan areas won the highest grades for their emergency agencies' ability to communicate during a disaster, and the Chicago area was ranked among the worst, according to a federal report to be released Wednesday.A draft portion of the Homeland Security Department report gave the best ratings to Washington, San Diego, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Columbus, Ohio, Sioux Falls, S.D., and Laramie County, Wyo.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0701030025jan03,1,5530023.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Stroger loses private elevator
Cook County Board President Todd Stroger has lost his elevator.It hasn't gone missing—but it's now open to the public, just a few weeks after it was set aside for Stroger's private use.
When staff members commandeered the elevator closest to Stroger's fifth-floor office at the County Building last month, they said it was needed to keep the chatty official on schedule."It's really for expediting his schedule so we can get him places and get everything completed," spokesman Bill Figel said at the time. "It's one of many features to modernize county operations, but it also speaks to his inclination to stop and talk to everybody."But spokesman Steve Mayberry now says that the elevator "simply isn't seen as necessary and was stopped not long after it was put in place.""The president takes whatever elevator comes first," Mayberry said.
U.S. won't sell huge stockpile of mercury
One of the nation's largest stockpiles of toxic mercury will remain locked up instead of oozing into the world market.After mulling a potential sale for several months, the U.S. Department of Energy confirmed Tuesday that it will keep nearly 1,300 tons of mercury in storage, increasing pressure on private companies to follow the same policy.
The Tribune reported in November that federal officials were considering selling off the Energy Department's surplus, prompted in part by legislation introduced by U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) that would ban American exports of the silvery metal.Once used to process material for hydrogen bombs, the government's mercury has been in storage since alternative methods were developed in the early 1960s.Some of it has been sold over the years. But as scientists have become more aware of the dangers of mercury exposure, government officials and corporate executives have increasingly faced pressure to keep it out of the environment.Most of the mercury sold today is funneled to loosely regulated industries in developing countries, where it can end up being released into the atmosphere and contaminating lakes and rivers around the world."This should concern all of us, especially parents," Obama said in response to the Energy Department's announcement.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0701030035jan03,1,6054538.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Macy's learning it's what's in a name
By Robert Manor, Tribune staff reporter; Tribune staff reporter Susan Chandler contributed to this reportPublished January 3, 2007
After a tough first Christmas under a new moniker, Macy's is changing leadership at the legendary former Marshall Field's flagship store on State Street.While shifts in retail aren't unusual, the timing of the shake-up at the State Street store is crucial.Wall Street is concerned that the loss this fall of some longstanding retail names such as Field's in the changeover of some 400 stores to Macy's by parent company Federated Department Stores Inc. has hurt sales at some locations.Now the task of getting shoppers into Macy's on State Street falls on Linda Piepho, a veteran retailing executive with rival Lord & Taylor who has spent many years in Chicago.Piepho takes over Feb. 9 as vice president and general manager of the former Field's store.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0701030050jan03,1,3348903.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Slain mom asked for help
Ex-boyfriend charged with murder in her deathBy Hal DardickTribune staff reporterPublished January 3, 2007
Five days before he is alleged to have shot his former girlfriend to death and critically wounded their 1-year-old daughter and the woman's new boyfriend, Jaime Casillas of Joliet battered her and abducted their baby, the woman told the court.Casillas "took my daughter from me and refused to return her," Brenda Greenwood wrote Dec. 27 in a petition for an order of protection, which Will County Judge Robert Brumund granted the next day. Greenwood said Casillas "yanked me around from my arms" and "pinned me down and pushed me some more. ... Now he's refusing to give me my daughter back!"
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0701030105jan03,1,5136806.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Good Samaritan saves man on subway tracks
BY ANDREW STRICKLERNewsday Staff WriterPublished January 2, 2007, 10:17 PM CST
When Wesley Autrey saw a man who had suffered a seizure fall onto the subway tracks, he jumped in to save the stranger.As he tried to pull the man to safety at the Harlem stop, Autrey looked up.
"I saw the two white lights, and said, 'Whoa, you ain't got no time,'" Autrey said.Autrey, 50, grabbed Cameron Hollopeter, 20, in a bear hug and the pair landed in a shallow trough in the track bed, with Autrey on top.The screeching train went right over the pair, missing them by inches."In my mind, I believed, I hoped, the train had enough clearance," Autrey said. "It didn't hit my head; it just nicked my cap."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/am-sub0103,1,1721160.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Wall Street Journal reports positive reaction to new size
Associated PressPublished January 3, 2007
NEW YORK -- The Wall Street Journal introduced a new, smaller design on Tuesday that publisher Dow Jones & Co. hopes will save money and help make the paper more appealing to a wider base of readers, especially young professionals.Dow Jones says the narrower width, which reduced the size of the paper by about one column, or three inches, will save about $18 million a year. Moving to a more standard format used by other newspapers will also allow the Journal to be printed in more places.As part of a promotional campaign, the Journal made about half a million copies of the paper free on newsstands Tuesday and opened up its Web site, WSJ.com, to non-subscribers for the day. Many of the changes are aimed at bringing in younger readers with an easier-to-read presentation of news."Readers told us that the Journal could better tailor its efforts to how, when and where you access news," Gordon Crovitz, the Journal's publisher, said in a letter to readers.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0701030071jan03,0,2884434.story?coll=chi-business-hed
Study: 2 of 5 Bosses Don't Keep Word
By BRENT KALLESTADAssociated Press WriterPublished January 1, 2007, 10:08 PM CST
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- For most people, it's back to work Tuesday after a holiday weekend with family and friends. And for many, a new study shows, it will be under a bad boss. Nearly two of five bosses don't keep their word and more than a fourth bad mouth those they supervise to co-workers, the Florida State University study shows. And those all-too-common poor managers create plenty of problems for companies as well, leading to poor morale, less production and higher turnover.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/sns-ap-bad-bosses,1,1039495.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Ford's pardon of Nixon hurt the GOP
Posted by David Lightman at 8:25 am CST
Like most of official Washington and much of America beyond, Rep. Chris Shays approached the memorial service for President Gerald Ford with boundless respect for his decency.
Yet Shays, a Connecticut Republican, could not help but think of the pardon that Ford granted to his disgraced predecessor, the late President Richard Nixon. "It smacked of a deal,'' Shays said after the memorial service for Ford at the National Cathedral on Tuesday, and it damaged the Republican Party. For more on Shays' mixed emotions of admiration and regret, read this account today:
Shays Praises FordRecalls Pardon's Sting
By DAVID LIGHTMANWashington Bureau Chief
January 3 2007
WASHINGTON -- Rep. Christopher Shays went to the Washington National Cathedral Tuesday to say goodbye to President Ford, a man he deeply admired - but he also recalled how much Ford's pardon of Richard Nixon hurt the Republican Party.
"I always felt the pardon was wrong," the Connecticut Republican said after the state funeral service for the nation's 38th president.
Shays has long been fond of Ford, and he reiterated after the service that the 1976 presidential election, which Ford lost to Jimmy Carter, was one of the two elections that disappointed Shays most.
The other was Sen. Lowell Weicker's unsuccessful 1988 bid for a fourth Senate term. Weicker lost to Sen. Joe Lieberman, a Democrat who won his fourth Senate term in November as an independent - with Shays' support.
Both Ford and Weicker represented the kind of moderate Republican that Shays tries to be.
http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/news_theswamp/2007/01/fords_pardon_of.html#more
Market for Manhattan Apts. Strong
By ADAM GOLDMANAssociated Press WriterPublished January 3, 2007, 4:50 AM CST
NEW YORK -- While home prices plunged elsewhere last year, Manhattan's real estate market was spared a fire-sale decline in the last three months of 2006, new reports show. The average price of a Manhattan apartment rose to more than $1.14 million in the fourth quarter of last year, up 5 percent compared to the same period the year before, according to two reports released Wednesday. The median price for the apartments was a record $760,000, beating the figure from 2005 by 9 percent, said the reports. The median, a common real-estate market measure, is the price at which half the sales are higher and half are lower. With solid job growth in the city, a healthy economy and low interest rates, prices are unlikely to soften in 2007, said Greg Heym, who authored the reports for Manhattan real estate firms Brown Harris Stevens and Halstead Property. "It looks like demand will remain pretty strong," said Heym, the chief economist for Terra Holdings, which owns both firms. He added that record Wall Street bonuses, expected to top nearly $24 billion, also should buoy the housing market.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-ap-manhattan-apartments,0,6411490.story?coll=chi-business-hed
'Wicked' sets Chicago box office record
By Chris JonesTribune theater criticPublished January 2, 2007
The open-ended Chicago production of "Wicked" had a record-breaking holiday, grossing $1,376,478 in ticket sales for the week ending Dec. 31.That not only beat the house record at the Oriental Theatre, where it is showing, but it's the highest-ever weekly gross for a theater production in Chicago, according to statistics compiled by "Variety."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-070102wicked-story,1,6130751.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed
Some good news, and some bad news
Developments that might affect your drinkin' in Land of Lincoln
Video: Illinois wine to go
Published January 3, 2007
With everyone back home after the holidays, what better time to focus on wine developments in our own state of Illinois? Here is what's going on in the Land of Lincoln:You CAN take it with youNo longer do Illinois diners have to drink up or leave a half-full bottle of vino sitting on the restaurant table.A new state law went into effect on Jan. 1 allowing you to bring that baby home, as long as the bottle is recorked and placed in a transparent, tamper-proof bag. You have to have eaten a meal at the restaurant, according to the law, and the staff must provide you with a dated receipt for the wine (just in case you get stopped by the cops on the way home).Illinois is not alone in passing so-called "cork-and-carry" laws. About 40 other states have similar legislation, including Wisconsin, Michigan and Missouri.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-0701020274jan03,1,1561225.column?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed
The cheapening of justice
Published January 3, 2007
WASHINGTON -- Although I oppose the death penalty, I toyed for many years with the notion that all executions should be televised. The video of Saddam Hussein's hanging that has popped up on Internet sites has disabused me of that notion. Too many viewers appear to be enjoying it too much.I found at least one video-sharing Web site that was offering the event as a download in two portable formats. Web-savvy kids can share Hussein's last moments with each other on the video iPods Santa brought.Video originally released to Iraqi television stations shows the rope being looped around Hussein's neck and stops short of the actual hanging. But a second video, apparently shot with a cell phone camera, includes Hussein falling through a trapdoor as he was in the middle of praying.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0701030007jan03,0,6175085.column?coll=chi-ed_opinion_columnists-utl
An attack on `pay-to-play'
Published January 3, 2007
A cursory check of state campaign-disclosure records shows that in the week before the Nov. 7 election, Gov. Rod Blagojevich raked in at least $234,000 in contributions from 38 vendors doing business with the State of Illinois. Challenger Judy Baar Topinka drew almost $79,000 from 33 vendors doing business with the state.Having a competitive product at a competitive price isn't enough in Illinois. Hefty campaign contributions figure into the cost of doing business with the state. Companies accept that.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0701030010jan03,0,3881319.story?coll=chi-newsopinion-hed
The New Zealand Herald
Michael Richardson: Surge in power stations burning world
Should New Zealand worry as China and the United States greatly increase their capacity to produce electricity? It sounds a silly question. But it should not be treated that way.
More and more coal around the world is being burned in power plants to generate electricity. This threatens to have the biggest single impact on the potentially catastrophic rise in global temperatures caused by emissions of gases heating the earth's atmosphere.
Coal is increasingly popular as an industrial-scale fuel because it is abundant, widely distributed, and cheaper than oil, natural gas or renewable energy sources like wind power.
China and the US have vast reserves of coal compared with their limited supplies of domestic oil and gas.
Since electricity demand is soaring, both countries are adding coal-fired plants like crazy. Over 150 new ones are planned or being built in the US.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10417531
2007 set to be hottest year ever, scientists warn
LONDON - A combination of global warming and the El Nino weather system is set to make 2007 the warmest year on record.
The forecast is for extreme global weather patterns which could bring drought to Indonesia and leave California under a deluge.
The warning, from Professor Phil Jones, director of the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia, was one of four sobering predictions from senior scientists and forecasters that this will be a crucial year for determining the response to and effects of global warming.
Professor Jones said the long-term trend of global warming was set to be exacerbated by the arrival of El Nino, the weather phenomenon caused by above-average sea temperatures in the Pacific.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10417473
Norway to show US global warming affect on Arctic islands
OSLO - Norway will invite United States politicians to visit a group of fast-thawing Arctic islands in 2007, hoping to win converts for tougher action against global warming, its Foreign Minister says.
"Climate change may be one of the most serious threats mankind has ever faced," Jonas Gahr Stoere said.
"The Arctic is a clarion call, perhaps more than anywhere else, that things are changing."
Mr Stoere said the Svalbard archipelago, 1000km from the North Pole, where melting glaciers and thawing sea ice is disrupting the lives of people and animals such as polar bears, could be a showcase in 2007 for the effects of warming.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10417161
Michael Richardson: Surge in power stations burning world
Should New Zealand worry as China and the United States greatly increase their capacity to produce electricity? It sounds a silly question. But it should not be treated that way.
More and more coal around the world is being burned in power plants to generate electricity. This threatens to have the biggest single impact on the potentially catastrophic rise in global temperatures caused by emissions of gases heating the earth's atmosphere.
Coal is increasingly popular as an industrial-scale fuel because it is abundant, widely distributed, and cheaper than oil, natural gas or renewable energy sources like wind power.
China and the US have vast reserves of coal compared with their limited supplies of domestic oil and gas.
Since electricity demand is soaring, both countries are adding coal-fired plants like crazy. Over 150 new ones are planned or being built in the US.
In China, some 550 such plants are under construction.
On the positive side, this gives China and the US another productive area in which to co-operate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=26&objectid=10417531
Exhilaration after hellish journey to Pole
Wednesday January 03, 2007By Jarrod Booker
After 52 days of fierce cold, pain, sleep deprivation, hallucinations and doubts, getting to see a barbershop pole in the snow made it all worthwhile for two weary New Zealanders.
"It's very corny, but very satisfying," Antarctic adventurer Kevin Biggar told the Herald from his tent at the South Pole.
Biggar, 37, of Auckland, and Jamie Fitzgerald, 26, of Tauranga, planted their flag next to the landmark yesterday after an 1100km trek from Hercules Inlet, across snow and ice, pulling 160kg of sleds in temperatures as low as -30C.
They can now lay claim to being the first Kiwis to trek to the pole unassisted. Sir Edmund Hillary and his companions completed the journey with tractors 49 years ago, reaching the South Pole on January 3, 1958.
The pair will be flown back by plane after having to abandon a planned return trek because of injury and bad weather.
The feeling of getting to the pole was "utter exhilaration, satisfaction and relief", Biggar said.
"It was worth it in the end, because your mind plays tricks on you. Of the 52 days, your mind blocks out 49 of them. It just shows you a couple of funny moments and some wide-open white fields.
"There are times when you wonder if the body is going to give out. You feel yourself withering away, your clothes start to get baggy.
"You are sleep-deprived because you are trying to maximise the hours on the trail, so the hours in the tent start to go down."
The pair survived on a diet of muesli, hot chocolate, chocolate bars, butter, nuts, salami, soup and cooking oil drunk straight from the bottle.
Biggar lost 23kg during the gruelling journey. "The energy output is unbelievable."
The men would sleep in their tent for about six hours, rise each day at 2.45am and be "on the road" by 5am.
"The mornings are the worst times," said Biggar. "You're sluggish and cold and you have to spend time rolling and folding and putting on cold clothes."
They would then trek for an hour and 25 minutes at a time, with 10 minute breaks. Some days they would trek until 5pm before setting up camp again.
Often they would cover only 1.6km an hour because of the difficult ground and air conditions. On one especially difficult day, they were down to 100m in an hour.
Simple day-to-day activities were "brutal", said Biggar.
"Your hands are always getting cold and warming out and refreezing. The normal things like going to the loo, getting water, sleeping - that kind of thing is slow, painful, cold and it hurts."
The bleak landscape played havoc with their minds. "The scenery changes, but it is only variations on a theme.
"You know you are going uphill and you look back and it's flat. You constantly feel like you are walking in a saucer."
The white-out conditions were the worst. "You take a step and the step might be into a hole. You put down your ski pole and it might be into a fissure."
Fitzgerald endured painful hamstring injuries for most of the trip, while Biggar lost toenails. Otherwise they came through largely unscathed.
Asked if he would do it again, Biggar was doubtful.
"Jamie and I swore to each other that if either one of us did that, we would give the other one a bit of a punch to remind ourselves what it was like."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10417593
Largest fire still blazing out of control
MELBOURNE - Firefighters are celebrating the containment of a bushfire threatening towns in Victoria's north-east, but the state's largest blaze continues to burn out of control.
Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) spokesman Kevin Monk said the Tawonga Gap fire was contained last night at 32,000 hectares.
At its worst, the blaze put residents around Bright and Mount Beauty on high alert.
Mr Monk said the 800,000-hectare fire raging through bushland in the Great Divide remained largely out of control and firefighters were using cooler conditions to strengthen control lines.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10417035
Currency: Kiwi crabs lower after fresh 12-month peak
The New Zealand dollar edged near a one-year high today, boosted by a softer greenback and strong yield demand.
The kiwi dollar closed at US70.90c compared with US70.62c yesterday.
Dealers said the kiwi was one of the stronger currencies overnight, with US markets closed for the funeral of former president Gerald Ford and the British and Japanese markets still on holiday.
The kiwi climbed as high as US70.97c on Tuesday night, its highest level since December 2005.
It found support against the yen, closing at 84.18 yen (84.02 yen yesterday), but eased against most other major trading partners, including the Australian dollar at A88.89c (A89.16c).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10417641
Indonesian officials change mind - crash airliner not found
MAKASSAR, Indonesia - The fate of an Indonesian airliner missing with 102 people on board remained in doubt this morning after senior officials apologised for wrongly stating that its wreckage had been found.
Officials had earlier said what was left of the plane, a Boeing 737-400 operated by budget carrier Adam Air, had been located in the mountains of Sulawesi island where it had crashed in heavy rain. Reports said 12 people had survived the crash.
"The location has not been found. We apologise that the news that we conveyed was not true," First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto, commander of Hasanuddin air base in Makassar, said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10417601
US seeks Kiwi's advice on predicting Iraq attacks
A New Zealand academic who has challenged a widely quoted estimate of the death toll in Iraq has been invited to go to Washington and advise the United States military on ways of predicting attacks.
Dr Sean Gourley, 27, a research fellow at Oxford University in Britain, created a stir in scientific circles when he and a colleague dismissed a claim by other researchers that the American-led invasion of Iraq had led to the deaths of nearly 655,000 Iraqis.
That figure is at least 10 times higher than estimates from Iraq's Government and US authorities.
Dr Gourley and his colleague Professor Neil Johnson believe the figure is 218,000 Iraqi deaths.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10417599
Exporters count cost as chilly weather checks flower growth
The country's most popular wine grape and its flower export industry are feeling the fallout from the cold start to summer.
Records showed temperatures in the main centres were two to three degrees cooler than normal last month, with Auckland recording its coldest December since 1962 and Wellington since 1928. Christchurch and Dunedin had more than twice the normal rainfall.
New Zealand Winegrowers chairman Stuart Smith said the cold conditions cut the expected yield of sauvignon blanc vines - New Zealand's best known grape variety - which flowered during December. The bitter conditions also hit the $50 million flower export industry, limiting supply of temperature sensitive blooms and pushing up prices.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10417594
Ruapehu's crater lake close to bursting
It is only a matter of time until up to one million cubic metres of water - enough to fill 400 Olympic-sized swimming pools - will burst from the Mt Ruapehu crater lake and sweep down the Whangaehu Valley, says the Department of Conservation.
"If that water comes out in half an hour, you can expect quite a sizeable lahar," said DoC scientist Harry Keys.
Local authorities have been watching the lake for years and are prepared for the lahar threat, which is not expected to endanger residential areas.
Dr Keys said the lake was at a record level, 2.8m below the top of a dam that has started leaking up to 10 litres a second. The seepage is eroding the dam, which blocks the lake's usual outlet.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10417590
Bacteria puts Dunedin beaches off limits
Dunedin City Council is warning people not to swim, surf or paddle at St Kilda and Middle beaches after water samples showed elevated levels of bacteria.
Test results yesterday showed increased levels of harmful bacteria in the water, council environmental health officers said in a statement today.
People were urged to keep out of the water until further notice.
Water sampling at St Kilda, St Clair and Middle beaches would be done daily and the public notified when tests showed recreatonal activities could safely resume.
The council statement gave no information on the source of the bacteria.
- NZPA
Abseiling firefighter with chainsaw fights tree fire
A firefighter strapped on a chainsaw and abseiled down a cliff face near Whangarei today to tackle a fire which has burned in a pohutukawa tree for three days.
The tree was set alight by fireworks on New Year's Eve and firefighters have been unable to put out the blaze because of its location on a cliff face at the small coastal settlement of Pataua South near Whangarei.
The fire was burning inside the dead part of a pohutukawa tree, Department of Conservation spokesman Chris Jones said today.
After three days the firefighter to abseiled down the cliff with a chainsaw and cut off the burning part of the tree or cut it open to get water inside.
A series of pumps and a small dam had also been established to provide water to pour onto the tree.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10417617
Wife battles cancer while husband battles the ocean
New Zealand yachtie Graham Dalton thought his wife was on a school camp during the first leg of a round-the-world solo yacht race.
Instead, she was having a mastectomy.
Robbie Dalton was diagnosed with breast cancer in November after returning to New Zealand following the start of the Velux 5 Oceans race in Bilbao, Spain, on October 29.
Dalton made it to Fremantle in Western Australia yesterday after 71 days, 15 hours and 34 minutes at sea. He is the brother of Team New Zealand boss Grant Dalton.
His wife's ordeal during his absence was all the more poignant as the 15m yacht he is racing, A Southern Man AGD, is named for his son, Anthony (Tony) Graham Dalton, who died of cancer aged 23.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10417598
SYDNEY - Australian Prime Minister John Howard may be popular with voters, winning four elections in 10 years, but he has been voted the nation's most embarrassing Aussie in a survey of 10,000 readers of a major men's magazine.
The 2006 "Bloke Awards" in the latest FHM magazine ranged from best real and fake boobs, best beer, movie and punch, biggest sook and most embarrassing Australian.
Howard, who is often ridiculed by cartoonists and comedians for his diminutive stature and bushy eyebrows, picked up most embarrassing Aussie for 2006, narrowly ahead of recently retired Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe.
Thorpe is regularly lampooned by Australian media for his "metrosexual" fashion style.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10417635
Boy shot with airgun still critical
A 13-year-old schoolboy remains in a critical condition after his friend accidentally shot him through his eye socket with an air rifle, the pellet lodging in his brain.
The boy is in Wellington Hospital following the incident in Cheltenham, 13km north east of Feilding, on Sunday afternoon.
He underwent an operation today to relieve pressure in his head after his friend accidentally shot him through his eye socket with an air rifle, the pellet lodging in his brain.
The boy's family said today they wanted to thank to all those who had supported them.
"This was a tragic accident and we are now concentrating our energies on our son and his immediate needs."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10417609
Opening up Windows Vista
What is it?
Microsoft's long-awaited new version of its Windows operating system, the successor to Windows XP, which has seen PC users through for the past five years. Microsoft took a long time to redesign Windows, learning from the likes of competitors Apple and Google and trying to get to grips with the web services revolution.
What makes it tick?
Vista sees Windows redesigned, virtually from the ground up, as Microsoft decided in 2004 to effectively abandon previous work on the operating system and redesign it based on Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 code. That has led to a long delay in Vista's availability but Microsoft claims Vista is now better equipped to handle our demanding computing needs.
What makes it cool?
The most obvious change to Windows is the revamped graphical user interface and a nice feature called Aero, which lets you display open documents and window panes in 3D.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10417540
Tired new year's Spears
Britney Spears finally appears to be acting like a new mum. The pop princess, who recently made headlines for a rash of less-than-motherly hard partying, fell asleep in a Las Vegas nightclub shortly after leading the New Year's Eve countdown.
"By about 1am, she was just done, so we took her out," Spears' manager, Larry Rudolph, said.
"She was not drunk. She was just tired and falling asleep."
Rudolph denied reports that Spears, 25, collapsed shortly after midnight and was carried out by bodyguards.
Tributes paid to Ford at funeral
WASHINGTON - Washington paid tribute to former President Gerald Ford at a state funeral on Tuesday, hailing him as a leader who helped heal America's divisions after the Watergate scandal.
President George Bush headed a list of dignitaries, including former presidents George Bush senior, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who gathered at Washington's National Cathedral to pay last respects to Ford, who died on December 26 at age 93.
"Time and again he would step forward and keep his promise even as the dark clouds of political crisis gathered over America," the elder Bush said in a eulogy.
Ford held office for 2-1/2 years after Richard Nixon resigned on August 9, 1974, having been implicated in a cover-up of a break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters in the Watergate office complex in Washington.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10417616
Iraq government to probe filming of Saddam hanging
BAGHDAD - The Iraqi government yesterday launched an inquiry into how guards filmed and taunted Saddam Hussein on the gallows, turning his execution into a televised spectacle that has inflamed sectarian anger.
A senior Iraqi official told Reuters the US ambassador tried to persuade Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki not to rush into hanging the former president just four days after his appeal was turned down, urging the government two wait another two weeks.
News of the ousted strongman's death on Saturday and of his treatment by officials of the Shi'ite-led government was blamed by one witness for sparking a prison riot among mainly Sunni Arab inmates at a jail near the northern city of Mosul.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10417573
'Soothing' art raised heart patients' blood pressure
Works of art meant to sooth patients at a Canadian cardiac hospital as part of a study have been removed after complaints they made people feel tense and increased their blood pressure.
"The idea was to try to brighten up the place and make it alive," Robert Roberts, head of the Ottawa Heart Institute, said today.
"But our choice of austere paintings instead increased our patients' blood pressure slightly."
"Most people who have a heart attack come here to feel better. But, the paintings made people feel tense and nurses noticed patients were more agitated while waiting to have their blood pressure tested."
The paintings used in the art therapy experiment, believed to be the first of its kind in Canada, included five portraits by artist Shirley Brown called The Queens.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10417615
Road renamed in Steve Irwin's honour
Wednesday January 03, 2007
Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin has been posthumously honoured with a road named after him on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.
On New Year's Day, the road that runs past Irwin's Australia Zoo - Glasshouse Mountains Rd - officially became Steve Irwin Way.
Irwin died in a stingray attack in September last year.
UFO ready for takeoff in Chicago
8:15AM Wednesday January 03, 2007
Federal officials say it was probably just some weird weather phenomenon, but a group of United Airlines employees swear they saw a mysterious, saucer-shaped craft hovering over O'Hare Airport, Chicago, last northern autumn.
The workers, some of them pilots, said the object did not have lights and shot up through the clouds, the Chicago Tribune reported yesterday.
The Federal Aviation Administration said a check of radar found nothing out of the ordinary.
Prostitute murder accused remanded until May
7:15AM Wednesday January 03, 2007
Steve Wright, the man accused of murdering five prostitutes in eastern England last month, appeared in court last night.
Wright, 48, appeared at Ipswich Crown Court charged with the murders of Gemma Adams, 25, Tania Nicol, 19, Anneli Alderton, 24, Paula Clennell, 24, and Annette Nicholls, 29.
He did not enter a plea and was remanded in custody until May 1.
15 die after speed boat capsizes off Borneo
5:15AM Wednesday January 03, 2007
Fifteen people were killed when a speed boat carrying 25 people capsized in the seas off Borneo yesterday. Ten were rescued after the accident in the Java Sea off Central Kalimantan.
A ferry sailing between Borneo and Java sank in rough seas early on Saturday. Search and rescue teams were continuing the search for survivors, with around 200 of the 600 people on board rescued so far.
The holiday's over as Bush faces the Iraqi music
WASHINGTON - Back from a week-long Texas holiday, President George W. Bush wrestles with a decision on a new strategy for Iraq in the face of hostile Democrats and signs of growing unhappiness among some military personnel.
A day after the United States death toll in Iraq passed 3000, the President arrived back in Washington from his Crawford, Texas, ranch. And overtures of a storm to come over a strategy shift on Iraq already were present in a poll published by Military Times, a private newspaper. A questionnaire mailed to subscribers found just 35 per cent of active-duty personnel approved of how Bush is handling Iraq and 42 per cent disapproved.
Although it is not affiliated with the military, the newspaper has a following among the armed services and the poll was widely cited.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=49&objectid=10417572
How to ghost coast your way to being toast ...
NEW YORK - It sounds like a sensationally bad idea, but so might smoking or base-jumping.
This particular sport, so far practised only by disciples of a certain strain of hip-hop music from the American West Coast, involves abandoning the wheel of your car and dancing on the roof while it is moving.
Known as "Ghost riding the whip", it is a fad that apparently is spreading fast across America as young men seek new thrills. Helping to fuel its popularity are scores of home-shot videos of car-roof escapades on the internet, notably on the YouTube website.
But police departments are looking on the new craze with a jaded eye. Two deaths from ghost-riding gone awry have been recorded in the past three months and officials say they are receiving reports of numerous other injuries inflicted both on the riders themselves and bystanders.
"It did not take Einstein to look at this thing and say this was a recipe for disaster," said Pete Smith, a police spokesman in Stockton, California, where ghost riding is said first to have taken hold. "We could see the potential for great injury or death."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10417564
Verizon plans improved network after earthquake
Verizon Communications said yesterday it will build a multiroute network across the Pacific Ocean after an earthquake in Asia disrupted service and highlighted the need for a more robust system.
Verizon Business, part of the No 2 US phone carrier, announced this month plans to build an undersea cable with five Asian partners. It will directly link China with the United States and is due for completion by the third quarter of 2008.
The company said yesterday it would use the Trans-Pacific Express cable to launch a "mesh" communications network to ensure uninterrupted voice and internet service in case of a disruption by rerouting traffic on alternate lines.
Verizon will form the mesh by connecting the consortium's cable with existing fibre lines in which it holds a stake.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10417181
Landmark deal gives Aborigines 'Maori-type' rights
SYDNEY - The rights of Aborigines to hunt, fish and profit from a vast area of pristine rainforest and national parks is to be recognised in one of Australia's largest indigenous land deals.
The Githabul tribe's historic links with a subtropical region of northern New South Wales will be acknowledged in an agreement drawn up with the state Government. The area, which adjoins the border with Queensland, consists of 19 national parks and state forests covering 6000sq km.
Aborigines will be free to gather freshwater turtles, kangaroos, echidnas and witchetty grubs, and will assume a much greater role in the running of the parks.
The native title agreement, the largest on Australia's eastern seaboard, will provide more jobs for indigenous people but will not affect the right of other Australians to access the land.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=49&objectid=10417571
Sydney Morning Herald
Terri Irwin gets footage of death
Steve Irwin's wife Terri has been given footage of her husband's death after Queensland authorities broke with protocol to ensure it did not get into the wrong hands.
Copies of the film, which shows Irwin being stabbed in the heart by a stingray, have been destroyed, Queensland State Coroner Michael Barnes said.
He said footage was normally held in perpetuity but the destruction of the copies would prevent them being sold on the black market, News Limited newspapers report.
The coronial investigation is almost complete and the footage was handed to Terri Irwin just before Christmas, Mr Barnes said.
"When the final police investigation report is received the coroner will, in consultation with Ms Irwin, determine whether an inquest is necessary," Mr Barnes said.
He said police had told him unscrupulous operators would be willing to pay up to $1 million for the footage.
Under usual coronial investigation protocols, a film or audio evidence is handed back to the owners and a copy made for the state to be held in perpetuity.
"I'm not sure whether we will be doing that in this case because of the risk it poses," Mr Barnes said.
He said police had a responsibility to ensure the footage was not leaked.
The findings of the coronial investigation into Irwin's death are expected to be made public within weeks.
AAP
http://www.smh.com.au/news/people/terri-irwin-gets-footage-of-death/2007/01/04/1167777162568.html
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