Morning Papers

Seattle Post Intelligencer

State Supreme Court rules against City Light
Utility can't use ratepayers money for global warming good deeds
By LISA STIFFLERP-I REPORTER
The state Supreme Court today ruled that Seattle City Light could not undo its greenhouse gas pollution by paying others to perform global warming good deeds.
In a 5-4 decision that reversed a King County Superior Court ruling, the justices ruled that the city utility lacked the authority to use ratepayers' money to compensate for its planet warming pollution.
Using ratepayer money in this manner is not "sufficiently related to the purpose of supplying electricity," wrote Chief Justice Gerry Alexander.
In November 2005, City Light had boasted that it was the first publicly owned major utility in the nation to no longer contribute to global warming, that it was "carbon neutral."
For every pound of greenhouse gas released by the utility, its fleet of vehicles or the power plants it buys from, carbon dioxide emissions were reduced elsewhere by paying for an "offset" of an equal amount.
That meant City Light was spending up to $756,000 a year on biodiesel fuel for Metro buses, garbage trucks and city vehicles; helping pay for Princess Cruises' ships to switch from using diesel engines while in port to plug into the grid; and by paying DuPont Fluorochemicals to reduce its emissions of Freon gas.
The four dissenting state Supreme Court justices argued that it was within City Light's authority to pay for greenhouse gas emissions because ratepayers benefit in knowing the utility is environmentally clean and it helps the utility operate more efficiently.
City Light generates the majority of its power from dams fed by streams and melting snowpack. University of Washington researchers have predicted that the snowpack will shrink and melt sooner in the spring as the planet warms due to the build up of heat-trapping pollution.
The Superior Court "found that there was no reason to distinguish between an offset program and reduction of City Light's own emissions because (greenhouse gases) are immediately mixed in the upper atmosphere upon release and distributed globally," stated the dissenting opinion by Justice Susan Owens.
The challenge against the utility offset program was brought by a group of four individuals: two retired assistant city attorneys, a former career engineer for City Light and a community activist.
The group already had successfully sued the utility for other expenditures that they deemed inappropriate and not in line with the utility's fundamental purpose of providing electricity. The so-called "cash-cow claims" included the utility paying for public art displayed in locations not owned by City Light.
"We're of course pleased by the decision," said David Jurca, the attorney for the group, of today's ruling.
"We think that the court got it right," he said. "Even though reducing greenhouse gases is a good thing and we applaud efforts to do that, as a majority (of justices) held, as a general governmental purpose, it should be paid for by the general population instead of utility ratepayers."
Lisa Stiffler can be reached at 206-448-8042 or lisastiffler@seattlepi.com.


N.Korea: Deal reached in U.S. nuke talks
SEOUL, South Korea -- North Korea said it reached an agreement with the U.S. during talks this week on its nuclear program, and the top U.S. nuclear envoy expressed optimism Friday that progress could be made when wider arms negotiations reconvene.
North Korea's Foreign Ministry said three days of talks in Berlin between U.S. envoy Christopher Hill and North Korea's main nuclear negotiator Kim Kye Gwan had been held "in a positive and sincere atmosphere and a certain agreement was reached there." No further details were given.
Hill said the talks laid the foundation for progress when six-nation nuclear negotiations resume and that he had agreed with his North Korean counterpart "on a number of issues." He also declined to elaborate.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1104AP_Koreas_Nuclear.html


Crucial viaduct-tunnel vote todayCouncil to decide what, if anything, to put on ballot
Seattle city officials insisted Thursday that a new plan for a four-lane tunnel will work and that state Department of Transportation staff members agree, despite statements by the governor and legislators that there hasn't been enough time to study the option comprehensively.
The disagreement came at a crucial time -- on the eve of a City Council vote to put a viaduct-replacement measure on the ballot. Council members plan to convene this afternoon to decide what, if anything, should be put to a Seattle vote.
And there was another complication with the new, hybrid tunnel concept -- offered Wednesday to Gov. Chris Gregoire, then promptly shot down the same day -- as two Seattle port commissioners announced they won't approve an expected $200 million port contribution to fund the new plan.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/transportation/300413_viaduct19.html


Herd of cats seen on waterfront
With a high office view out to Seattle's new City Hall, and a low opinion of goings-on inside, an acquaintance recently delivered a "modest proposal" on the future of the Alaskan Way Viaduct: Walk away from it and let God decide.
The proposal was part tongue in cheek: Would God be merciful or wrathful, mused my friend, when it comes to timing the earthquake that brings down the 1950s-vintage viaduct?
But a portion of it was practical: The state would save more than $2 billion to commit at once to a rebuild of state Route 520, the equally earthquake-threatened route across Lake Washington.
My friend sent multiple e-mails the next day, insisting that the "modest proposal" was off the record. "Humor has not been part of the viaduct debate," he argued.
Oh come now!

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/300415_joel19.html


Viaduct tunnel lite backers a disparate group
Olympia has said no to Mayor Greg Nickels' plan to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct with a tunnel.
On Wednesday Nickels was in Olympia pushing his "tunnel lite" idea, a four-lane hybrid option. That same day, the P-I's Neil Modie reports, a chorus of disparate special interests - business, organized labor and environmental - praised "tunnel lite" at a news conference as a bold, effective, aesthetically acceptable and affordable alternative to two unacceptable options, upon which they found a variety of ways to heap scorn.
"Previously we had a choice between two options: one that was ugly and one that was too expensive," Pat Callahan, chairman of the Downtown Business Association, said of the previous choice between a replacement viaduct and the initial tunnel design configuration.Kate Joncas, the association's president, said the downtown business organization never "thought it was productive to see two alternatives that nobody wants - one that was too ugly and one that was too expensive." The DSA had opposed having voters choose between those two options.A "smaller, more efficient tunnel (is) the only proposal that can succeed," said Aaron Ostrom, executive director of the environmental group Futurewise.

http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/seattlepolitics/archives/110604.asp


UPS denies plans to cancel its order for Airbus A380 superjumbo
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS -- Parcel delivery company UPS, the last remaining customer for the cargo version of the Airbus A380, said Friday it hadn't decided whether to cancel its order for the superjumbos.
French business daily Les Echos, citing unidentified sources, reported Friday that United Parcel Service Inc. would cancel its order for 10 A380s next week. Such a move has long been rumored, and would mark the latest defection from the long-delayed superjumbo.
"We continue to talk to Airbus. We haven't changed our order and we haven't made a decision one way or the other, so the order still stands," said Lynnette McIntire, a spokeswoman for UPS in Atlanta.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420AP_France_Airbus.html


Protesters object to Seattle U.'s nursing home plans
By JOHN IWASAKIP-I REPORTER
About 40 protesters held a candlelight vigil outside the Seattle University administration building Thursday, saying the scheduled closure of a campus nursing home contradicts the school's core values.
Forcing 135 residents to find a new home does not uphold the Jesuit tradition of service to others and social justice, said sophomore Matt Salazar, who organized the demonstration attended by students, staff and faculty.
University officials said the Bessie Burton Sullivan Skilled Nursing Residence -- a three-story building with 60,000 square feet -- needs to be converted into dorm rooms, classrooms, science labs and faculty offices for an institution with a growing enrollment and space demands.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/300416_protest19.html


UW gets No. 1 ranking with Peace CorpsIt leads nation in volunteers
By CHRISTINE FREYP-I REPORTER
More alumni from the University of Washington served in the Peace Corps last year than from any other U.S. college or university.
With 110 former UW students volunteering around the world, the university beat out the other UW -- the University of Wisconsin -- for the top spot. It was first time that the University of Washington ranked No. 1 since 1981.
Other colleges in Washington state are also producing a significant number of volunteers.
The University of Puget Sound in Tacoma ranked first among small colleges and universities with 30 alumni volunteers, according to the Peace Corps' annual rankings, released this week. It ranked schools in categories based on size.
"Traditionally we've always been a really good region for recruitment of Peace Corps volunteers," said Maria Lee, spokeswoman for the Northwest regional office in Seattle. "I think it speaks a lot to the legacy of service that has always existed in this region. We've always been a progressive region, very active, very interested in social causes."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/300403_peacecorps19.html


Schell says police did 'excellent job' during WTO
Former mayor commends department's actions
By TRACY JOHNSONP-I REPORTER
Former Mayor Paul Schell said he made a portion of downtown Seattle off-limits to many during the turbulent 1999 World Trade Organization conference, but he left police to decide where to draw the boundaries and whom to arrest for crossing them.
In videotaped testimony played Thursday in U.S. District Court, Schell said he believed police did "an excellent job" of handling the thousands of protesters that converged on the city as the world watched.
"As I look back, Seattle managed -- with a fraction of the force that's available to a lot of other cities," he said. "Nobody got hurt, and the meetings went on."
But he also said he knew little about the issue at the heart of the ongoing civil trial: the arrests of roughly 170 people at Westlake Park on Dec. 1, 1999, inside the limited zone.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/300397_wto19.html


1 dead, 1 hurt in police shooting
By SCOTT GUTIERREZP-I REPORTER
A Seattle police officer was wounded Wednesday night in a shootout that left one suspect dead and closed Aurora Avenue North at North 90th Street for more than two hours.
Two officers reported they came upon a suspect shooting at another person about 10:15 p.m. in the 8800 block of Aurora, said Seattle police spokeswoman Deanna Nolette. The suspect then began shooting at officers, striking one around the abdomen, Nolette said.
The officers, who had been in an unmarked Chevrolet Tahoe, returned fire, striking the suspect on the sidewalk, but one officer also was struck, she said. The wounded officer, a six-year veteran now assigned to the North Precinct's anti-crime team, was taken to Harborview Medical Center, and his condition was unknown late Wednesday.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/300198_shooting17ww.html


Agents raid medical marijuana advocacy officePlants, computers and cash seized in Everett
By CASEY MCNERTHNEY AND CLAUDIA ROWEP-I REPORTERS
Note: This story has been altered. The source of Steve Newman's marijuana was misstated in the original version.
Drug enforcement agents raided the Everett headquarters of an advocacy group for medical marijuana patients, confiscating what police documents say was more than 1,000 plants and computers that the owners say contain personal information of about 200 men and women authorized to use the drug for medicinal purposes.
So far, no one has been arrested or charged with a crime.
Fearful of potential repercussions and unsure of the officers' ultimate aim, patients in the CannaCare network of marijuana users have been "laying low," said one, terrified that they may be prosecuted for using a substance authorized by their physicians.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/300191_potbust18.html


Condom distribution to prisoners advocated
Measure would create plan to reduce sexually transmitted infections
By MELISSA SANTOSP-I REPORTER
OLYMPIA -- With studies showing that U.S. jails can't enforce bans on sex between inmates, lawmakers and AIDS-prevention advocates say it's time to start distributing condoms in Washington prisons.
Legislators are pushing a bill calling for a five-year plan to reduce the number of sexually transmitted infections among inmates.
Though the bill does not specify condom distribution, its prime sponsor, Rep. Jeannie Darneille, D-Tacoma, said she hoped it would rekindle stalled discussions about providing inmates with protection."We have to start somewhere," she said.
An advisory council to Gov. Chris Gregoire recommended in June 2006 that the state prison system look into ways of reducing the spread of sexually transmitted infections among prisoners, including making condoms available. At the time, Department of Corrections officials said they didn't think condoms were the solution.
The governor has yet to weigh in on the issue.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/300173_prison18.html


Flood-control plan backedCounty's next step: How to pay for it
By GREGORY ROBERTSP-I REPORTER
A plan to spend up to $335 million on flood control was approved Tuesday by the King County Council, although a decision on exactly how much to spend on the program -- and how much to tax for it -- won't be made until later.
"I think most of us agree we need to take some action to protect people from flooding, but it needs to be reasonable," Councilman Reagan Dunn, R-Bellevue, said. "This is a game plan."
Under the proposal, put forth by King County Executive Ron Sims in July, the county would spend $179 million to $335 million over 10 years on levees, acquisition of property in flood plains and other projects on rivers and streams in the low-lying parts of the county. The program is designed to catch up after years of inadequate financing of maintenance and repairs, according to Sims' office.
The money would be raised by creating a countywide flood control district and imposing a property tax of $15 to $30 a year for an average home, depending on how much work is undertaken. The tax could be adopted by the council, without voter approval, said Grover Cleveland of the county's Department of Natural Resources and Parks. Property owners in the Green River flood control district already pay a tax, and they would not be assessed an additional amount.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/299969_flood17.html


Border Patrol video shows shooting death
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BISBEE, Ariz. -- A deadly Border Patrol shooting that drew criticism from Mexico's president was recorded by surveillance cameras, but the images are unclear, authorities said.
The Border Patrol is trying to have the tape digitally enhanced to show more detail of the Jan. 12 confrontation east of Bisbee, said Michael Nicley, chief of the agency's Tucson Sector.
"You can't tell anything from the tape at all," he said. "You can barely even make out the bodies."
Francisco Javier Dominguez Rivera, 22, of Puebla, Mexico, was shot and killed by an agent who had responded to a call about a group of seven people crossing the desert.
The agent took six of the people into custody without incident, then started fighting with Dominguez Rivera. The Border Patrol has said the agent thought his life was in danger when he shot the man.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Border_Patrol_Shooting.html


Virus closes Dulles airport Hilton
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
HERNDON, Va. -- A Hilton hotel outside Washington has been closed for a top-to-bottom scrubbing after 15 employees and more than 100 guests were sickened by the highly contagious norovirus, a hotel spokesman said Friday.
Hotel officials first heard reports of sick guests Wednesday and contacted Fairfax County health authorities, said Jim Cree, the director of sales and marketing at the hotel near Dulles International Airport. Officials confirmed it was norovirus Thursday night, he said.
"Yesterday we stopped taking reservations," Cree said. "Today we're actually relocating guests, and we've relocated all of our events to other hotels."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Hilton_Norovirus.html


Student fatally stabbed at Mass. school
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SUDBURY, Mass. -- A 16-year-old student was charged with murder Friday in the fatal stabbing of a classmate at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said.
The name of the student charged in the stabbing was not immediately released. The victim was described as a 15-year-old freshman at the suburban school, about 17 miles west of Boston.
Leone said a fight broke out early Friday between two male students in a school bathroom and spilled out into the hallway, where the stabbing took place.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_School_Stabbing.html


5 found dead in New York house fire
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
FISHKILL, N.Y. -- A house was set on fire to cover the killings of at least two adults and three children in a Hudson Valley home, police said Friday.
The bodies were found after 3 a.m. when a fire ravaged a wood-frame house in the town of Fishkill, 60 miles north of New York City.
State Police Maj. William Carey called it "a fire to cover the killing" of at least five people. It was not clear how the victims were killed.
Police had no other information immediately available about the victims. Neighbors said they were renting the house. "We're just starting the investigation at this point," Carey said.
State police said a burned out car found about a half mile from the house played a part in the homicide, though it was not clear how.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_House_Fire.html


Australian envoy urges MANPAD control
By ALEXANDRA OLSONASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
NEW YORK -- Australia's foreign minister called on all countries to tighten export controls on small portable missiles, warning that terrorists could turn to such weapons as hijacking and bombing aircraft becomes more difficult.
Man-portable air defense systems, known as MANPADs, appeal to terrorist organizations because they are small and relatively cheap, Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Thursday.
The missiles weigh about 33 pounds, can fit into a golf bag and can cost as little as $5,000, he said.
"As hijacking and aircraft bombings become more difficult, given worldwide efforts to strengthen airport security, we believe terrorists might try to find other ways to launch an attack from outside the aircraft," Downer told a seminar sponsored by Australia's U.N. Mission.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Portable_Missiles.html


New try to help dolphins in N.Y. cove
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAG HARBOR, N.Y. -- Rescuers in eight boats returned to the waters off Long Island on Thursday, hoping to coax some wayward dolphins out of a shallow cove and into deeper water where they can find food.
The dolphins, of the common variety, were first seen last week, attracting spectators and marine biologists who feared for their safety. At least six have died in the waters that separate the twin forks of eastern Long Island.
Rescuers had some success Tuesday, luring nine or more to safer waters, but strong winds forced rescuers to remain on shore Wednesday. About eight to 11 dolphins were believed to still be in the cove.
The biggest danger to the dolphins is a lack of food in the cove; they require live fish to survive, said Chuck Bowman, president of the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Dolphin_Rescue.html


Mondale: Cheney cooks up lousy advice
ATHENS, Ga. -- Vice President Dick Cheney has bullied federal agencies and given absurd advice about the nation's risk and Iraq, Walter Mondale said Friday, adding that never would have been tolerated when Mondale was vice president.
"I think that Cheney has stepped way over the line," Mondale said at the opening of a three-day conference about former President Jimmy Carter at the University of Georgia.
Mondale, who served under Carter, said Cheney and his assistants pressured federal agencies as they prepared information for President Bush.
"I think Cheney's been at the center of cooking up farcical estimates of national risks, weapons of mass destruction and the 9/11 connection to Iraq," he said.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Mondale_Cheney.html


Activists condemn Iran Holocaust meeting
NEW YORK -- In a statement to be published next week, more than 100 Iranian activists outside that country have condemned its recent conference questioning the Holocaust.
The activists signed the statement blasting the Iranian government and paying homage to victims of the Nazi regime. The activists expressed frustration over the relative silence on the subject from the Iranian diaspora.
The statement, which began circulating last month, is to be printed next week in The New York Review of Books. The Associated Press recently obtained a copy.
The statement notes that the activists signed notwithstanding their "diverse views on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." The signers include Azar Nafisi, who wrote the best-seller "Reading Lolita in Tehran."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1110AP_Iranians_Holocaust_Denial.html


Dems seek to bar U.S. attacks on Iran
By LAURIE KELLMANASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Democratic leaders in Congress lobbed a warning shot Friday at the White House not to launch an attack against Iran without first seeking approval from lawmakers.
"The president does not have the authority to launch military action in Iran without first seeking congressional authorization," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told the National Press Club.
The administration has accused Iran of meddling in Iraqi affairs and contributing technology and bomb-making materials for insurgents to use against U.S. and Iraqi security forces.
President Bush said last week the U.S. will "seek out and destroy" networks providing that support. While top administration officials have said they have no plans to attack Iran itself, they have declined to rule it out.
This week, the administration sent another aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf - the second to deploy in the region. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the buildup was intended to impress on Iran that the four-year war in Iraq has not made America vulnerable. The U.S. is also deploying anti-missile Patriot missiles in the region.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_US_Iran.html


Pelosi: U.S. not obliged to stay in Iraq
By LOLITA C. BALDORASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
WASHINGTON -- Epitomizing growing pressure in Congress against President Bush's Iraq war buildup, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday that the conflict there "is not an obligation of the American people in perpetuity."
Pelosi said Bush "has dug a hole so deep he can't even see the light on this. It's a tragedy. It's a stark blunder."
Democratic support is building around a resolution that would rebuff Bush's plans for more troops to Iraq, and more Republicans are looking for ways to sign on to the measure.
As the White House scrambled to secure the dwindling backers of Bush's war policies on Capitol Hill, Republican Sen. Gordon Smith of Oregon signaled that a simple wording change could persuade him to join the Democrats.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1153AP_US_Iraq.html


This is a no brainer. The USA military shot and killed an assistant to Cleric al Sadr about a month ago, now this, next they will arrest the cleric himself based on intelligence gained from the aide arrested here and declare a victory for the USA to save face for Bush and leave Iraq as victorious saying they were correct about the violence the entire time, while infact Maliki will be throwing Bush out of Iraq to save his own policitical career. With no due process in Iraq, the cleric may end up on public display and hanging no different than Saddam. Still another insult to the Shi'ites of Islam and more destabilization of the region.

Main aide of Muqtada al-Sadr arrested
BAGHDAD, Iraq -- U.S. and Iraqi forces arrested one of Muqtada al-Sadr's top aides Friday in Baghdad, his office said, as pressure increased on the radical Shiite cleric's militia ahead of a planned security crackdown in the capital.
An adviser to Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, however, denied the government knew in advance about the raid, in which Sheik Abdul-Hadi al-Darraji was captured and said the detention was not part of the new operation aimed at quelling Baghdad's sectarian violence.
"There was no coordination with the Iraqi political leadership and this arrest was not part of the new security plan," the adviser, Sadiq al-Rikabi, told Al-Arabiya. "Coordination with the Iraqi political leadership is needed before conducting such operations that draw popular reactions."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Iraq.html


Israel unfreezes $100M before summit
By STEVE WEIZMANASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
JERUSALEM -- Israel said Friday it had paid $100 million in frozen tax funds to the Palestinians and rescinded a contentious decision for a new West Bank settlement, strengthening the hand of moderate President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of crucial weekend talks in Damascus with his Hamas rivals.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said the payment, the first such transfer since the militant Islamic Hamas won control of the Palestinian government in March 2006, was made Thursday night.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz, meanwhile, ordered plans for the Maskiot settlement frozen indefinitely "in order to look carefully at the implications," ministry officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1107AP_Israel_Palestinians.html


Tunisian court convicts man in terror case
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TUNIS, Tunisia -- A 27-year-old Tunisian was convicted Thursday of belonging to an Algerian terrorist group and sentenced to 11 years in prison, the man's lawyer said.
Zied Ghodhbane was arrested in neighboring Algeria in May 2005. A court in the Tunisian capital, Tunis, found him guilty of belonging to the main insurgency movement in Algeria, the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, lawyer Samir Ben Amor said. The GSPC has links to al-Qaida.
Ghodhbane denied the charges, insisting he had traveled to Algeria for his studies. His lawyer called interrogations by Tunisian police "irregular," alleging that Ghodhbane had been tortured

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1105AP_Tunisia_Terror_Conviction.html


Chavez accuses telecom of spying on him
RIO DE JANIERO, Brazil -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday accused his nation's main telecommunications company of spying on him and suggested it was at the bidding of the United States. Chavez, addressing 10 South American leaders at a summit of the Mercosur trade bloc, gave no additional details. The accusation came less than two weeks after Chavez announced he would nationalize CA Nacional Telefonos de Venezuela, known as CANTV.
"Well I just announced the recovery of the state property of the Venezuelan telephone company," Chavez said. "Who controls it? North American capital. And they've used the Venezuelan telephone company to record the president of the Republic. Brother, it's the empire!"

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Chavez_Spying.html


And onto the next war on terror.

Chavez gets OK to approve laws by decree
CARACAS, Venezuela -- Venezuelan lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill granting President Hugo Chavez the power to rule by decree for 18 months so that he can impose sweeping economic, social and political change.
Emboldened by his landslide re-election last month, the leftist leader has called for "revolutionary laws" to accelerate the country's transformation into a full socialist state.
"This process is unstoppable," lawmaker Juan Montenegro Nunez told the National Assembly Thursday. "This process is a historic necessity."
The vote was unanimous as the National Assembly has been entirely filled with Chavez's allies since opposition parties boycotted 2005 elections.
Chavez began his third term last week by announcing his intent to nationalize key sectors of the economy, rewrite the country's constitution to eliminate presidential term limits, and strip the Central Bank of its autonomy.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Venezuela_Chavez.html


Cuban writers back protest Vs. censor
By ANITA SNOWASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
HAVANA -- The Cuban government's arts union Thursday backed protests against the recent reappearance of a former top censor blamed for Stalinist-type purges on artistic expression in the 1970s.
The statement by the National Union of Cuban Artists and Writers appeared aimed at defusing a fiery debate among Cuban intellectuals both on and off the island about the former top cultural official's appearance on three state television shows this month.
The resurfacing of Luis Pavon Tamayo and others from the period known to writers here as the "gray five years" has raised worries that Cuba's new caretaker government was moving to tighten expression with ailing President Fidel Castro on the sidelines.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Cuba_Censor_Resurfaces.html


Brazil finds 3 more bodies at crater
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Rescue crews recovered three bodies from a minibus entombed under tons of earth and rubble Thursday, bringing to six the number of dead retrieved from a subway station construction site that collapsed last week.
The bodies of bus driver Reinaldo Aparecido Leite, 40, and fare collector Wescley Adriano da Silva, 22, were recovered in the early afternoon, according to the Sao Paulo state government's Web site.
The body of another man was later recovered from inside the vehicle. A Sao Paulo fire department spokesman declined to identify the man, citing departmental policy.
Authorities were still searching for the body of a pedestrian missing since Friday when the 130-foot-wide circular hole lined with concrete gave way without warning. Several nearby homes were damaged and must now be torn down.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1102AP_Brazil_Subway_Crater.html


Michael Moore Today

Group Delivers Appeal For Iraq Withdrawal To Congress
NBC-4
WASHINGTON -- A group of military officers and their families rallied on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, calling for an end to what they call the "occupation of Iraq."
The group hand delivered an appeal to Congress to withdraw all U.S. forces from Iraq from more than 1,000 active-duty troops.
A Bethesda, Md., woman whose son died in Iraq last year was among the protestors who spoke to the crowd.
"We must stop this escalation," Gilda Carbonaro said. "We must bring these children home. They're our children. We must do what we haven't done before. We must pay attention. We must demand that Congress bring them home."
Carbonaro's son Alex is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. He was killed when his Humvee rolled over an explosive device last May. It was his second tour of duty in Iraq.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8996


More than 1,000 active-duty troops tell congress to end the occupation of Iraq
Troops add their voices to chorus calling for reversal of Iraq policy
By Renee Schoof / McClatchy Newspapers
WASHINGTON - Pressure on Congress intensified Tuesday to stop President Bush's plan to increase troops in Iraq, as some 1,000 active-duty soldiers and Marines urged lawmakers to support a quick withdrawal and anti-war groups planned to rally state legislatures.
Although most Democrats and some Republicans oppose Bush's 21,500-member troop increase, Congress isn't moving very fast to try to stop or alter the plan. Democratic leaders in both houses want their first step to be a resolution calling on lawmakers to go on record as being for or against Bush's Iraq plan.
Democrats say they have a solid Senate majority against the plan, including perhaps one dozen Republicans, so the resolution is effectively a symbolic vote of no confidence in Bush's war plan. Only after that vote will they look at ways to use Congress' power over funding as a hammer.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=8997


An Appeal for Redress from the War in Iraq
Many active duty, reserve, and guard service members are concerned about the war in Iraq and support the withdrawal of U.S. troops. The Appeal for Redress provides a way in which individual service members can appeal to their Congressional Representative and US Senators to urge an end to the U.S. military occupation. The Appeal messages will be delivered to members of Congress at the time of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in January 2007.
The wording of the Appeal for Redress is short and simple. It is patriotic and respectful in tone.
As a patriotic American proud to serve the nation in uniform, I respectfully urge my political leaders in Congress to support the prompt withdrawal of all American military forces and bases from Iraq . Staying in Iraq will not work and is not worth the price. It is time for U.S. troops to come home.
If you agree with this message, click here.
The Appeal for Redress is sponsored by active duty service members based in the Norfolk area and by a sponsoring committee of veterans and military family members. The Sponsoring committee consists of Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans For Peace, and Military Families Speak Out.
Members of the military have a legal right to communicate with their member of Congress. To learn more about the rights and restrictions that apply to service members click here.

http://www.appealforredress.org/


Retired Generals Slam Bush's Iraq Plan
(CBS News) WASHINGTON The President's troop build-up -- already taking political fire from both Democrats and Republicans -- came under withering attack on Thursday from a panel of retired generals on Capitol Hill, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports.
"The proposed solution is to send more troops and it won't work. The addition of 21,000 troops is too little and too late," former Marine Gen. Joseph Hoar said.
Hoar once commanded all American forces in the Middle East and has nothing good to say about the war.
"This administration's handling of the war has been characterized by deceit, mismanagement and a shocking failure to understand the social and political forces that influence events in the Middle East," Hoar said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9018


White House tries to avoid Iraq showdown
By Anne Flaherty / Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A Senate resolution opposing President Bush's war plan on Iraq put the White House and Republican leaders on the defensive Wednesday as they scurried to prevent a trickle of GOP support for the measure from swelling into a deluge.
Eager to avoid an embarrassing congressional rebuke of the president's new war strategy, the administration seemed to hint that the effort — led chiefly by Democrats — might somehow be of assistance to terrorists. They also herded GOP skeptics to the White House, where they tried to allay the concerns of Republican lawmakers including Sens. John Warner of Virginia, Sam Brownback of Kansas, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Susan Collins of Maine.
"What message does Congress intend to give?" asked White House spokesman Tony Snow. "And who does it think the audience is? Is the audience merely the president? Is it the voting American public or, in an age of instant communication, is it also al-Qaida?"

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9021


Washington 'snubbed Iran offer'
Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC's Newsnight programme. Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led invasion.
Offers, including making its nuclear programme more transparent, were conditional on the US ending hostility.
But Vice-President Dick Cheney's office rejected the plan, the official said.
The offers came in a letter, seen by Newsnight, which was unsigned but which the US state department apparently believed to have been approved by the highest authorities.
In return for its concessions, Tehran asked Washington to end its hostility, to end sanctions, and to disband the Iranian rebel group the Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and repatriate its members.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9019


Suicide car bomb in Baghdad kills 17
By Kim Gamel / Associated Press
A suicide car bomber killed 17 Shiites at a teeming Sadr City market Wednesday, while gunmen in a predominantly Sunni neighborhood of Baghdad shot up a convoy of democracy workers in an ambush that took the lives of an American woman and three bodyguards.
The attack on the marketplace came one day after car bombings killed scores of university students just two miles away, indicating that al-Qaida-linked fighters are bent on a surge of bloodshed as U.S. and Iraqi forces gear up for a fresh neighborhood-by-neighborhood security sweep through the capital.
Although nobody claimed responsibility for either day's car bombings, such attacks are the hallmark of Sunni militants, who appear to be taking advantage of a waiting period before the security crackdown to step up attacks on Shiites. There had been a relative lull in Baghdad violence since the first of the year.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9011


Two U.S. Soldiers Killed in Anbar Province Attack
By Bill Brubaker / Washington Post
Two U.S. soldiers died this week from an attack in Anbar province in western Iraq, the U.S. military announced today.
One soldier -- assigned to the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division -- died today, a military statement said. The other soldier -- attached to Regimental Combat Team 5 -- died Monday. The names of the soldiers are being withheld by the military until their families can be notified. Yesterday, the military said four U.S. soldiers were killed Monday in Nineveh province in northern Iraq.
On Dec. 31, the military said the number of American service members killed since the start of the war in March 2003 had reached 3,000. Since then, 15 service members have died from enemy action, according to military statements.


Senators denounce Iraq buildup as against US interests
By Stephanie Griffith / AFP
Three top US senators slammed President George W. Bush's plan to send 21,000 extra troops to Iraq in a resolution warning the strategy was "not in the national interest of the United States."
The bipartisan resolution proposed by Democrats Carl Levin and Joseph Biden -- both of whom head powerful senate committees -- and outspoken Republican Iraq war critic Chuck Hagel, is seen as a serious challenge to the administration's Iraq policy even though it is non-binding.
"US strategy and presence on the ground in Iraq can only be sustained with the support of the American people and bipartisan support from Congress," Biden, head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told a press conference.
"Support is not there for the president's policy in Iraq. The sooner he recognizes that reality and acts upon it, the better off all of us will be."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9007


Second Republican opposes Bush Iraq plan
By Anne Flaherty / Associated Press
A second Republican signed onto a Senate resolution on Wednesday opposing President Bush's 21,500-troop buildup in Iraq, setting a marker for a major clash between the White House and Congress over the unpopular war.
Sen. Olympia Snowe, a moderate from Maine, said she would support a nonbinding resolution that would put the Senate on record as saying the U.S. commitment in Iraq can be sustained only with support from the American public and Congress.
Snowe's decision to join the effort came as the White House and GOP leaders struggled to keep Republicans from endorsing the resolution, and raised questions about how many more defections there might be.
"Now is time for the Congress to make its voice heard on a policy that has such significant implications for the nation, the Middle East and the world," Snowe said in a written statement.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9008


Maliki calls on US to better arm Iraqi army
LONDON (AFP) - The United States can "dramatically" cut its troop presence in Iraq within three to six months if it released the necessary weapons to the war-torn country's army, Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said in an interview published in an early edition of The Times.
Maliki said that the violent insurgency in Iraq was bloodier and longer than it should have been because the United States refused to part with arms, and also rejected claims that his government was on "borrowed time" as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said.
"If we succeed in implementing the agreement between us to speed up the equipping and providing weapons to our military forces, I think that within three to six months our need for American troops will dramatically go down," Maliki was quoted as saying by The Times.
"That is on condition that there are real, strong efforts to support our military forces and equipping and arming them."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9010


Lee, Woolsey To Present Bill Seeking Iraq Pullout
(CBS 5) WASHINGTON -- As Congress battles over President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq, two Bay Area congresswomen are set to introduce legislation Wednesday calling for the complete withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq under a six-month deadline.
East Bay Rep. Barbara Lee and North Bay Rep. Lynn Woolsey, both Democrats, will introduce The Bring the Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act, a new bill that they say would force President Bush to "brings troops home within six months."
In a press release, the lawmakers said the bill would also forbid permanent military bases in Iraq and include funding for economic aid to the Iraqi government.
Senate Democrats plan by Thursday to introduce a resolution denouncing the president's plan, with floor debate to begin next week -- around the time Bush delivers his State of the Union speech on Jan. 23.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9015


Lee, Woolsey To Present Bill Seeking Iraq Pullout
(CBS 5) WASHINGTON -- As Congress battles over President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq, two Bay Area congresswomen are set to introduce legislation Wednesday calling for the complete withdrawal of U.S. military forces from Iraq under a six-month deadline.
East Bay Rep. Barbara Lee and North Bay Rep. Lynn Woolsey, both Democrats, will introduce The Bring the Troops Home and Iraq Sovereignty Restoration Act, a new bill that they say would force President Bush to "brings troops home within six months."
In a press release, the lawmakers said the bill would also forbid permanent military bases in Iraq and include funding for economic aid to the Iraqi government.
Senate Democrats plan by Thursday to introduce a resolution denouncing the president's plan, with floor debate to begin next week -- around the time Bush delivers his State of the Union speech on Jan. 23.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9015


Iraqi Refugee Crisis Seen Deepening
Help for Displaced Urged at Hearing Of Judiciary Panel
By Ann Scott Tyson / Washington Post
Iraq is emerging as one of the fastest-growing refugee crises in the world, with an estimated 1.7 million Iraqis displaced from their homes and up to 100,000 fleeing the country to Jordan, Syria and other nations amid intensifying sectarian violence, U.S. officials and experts testified yesterday.
Yet the United States has allowed only 466 Iraqis to immigrate under refugee status since 2003 -- including 202 out of 70,000 slots for refugees last year -- in part because of more stringent security screenings, officials said at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Democratic lawmakers and advocates for refugees called for increased U.S. funding and other initiatives to help the fleeing Iraqis, and in particular those who have risked their lives working with American forces.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9014


Wikileaks – President Bush believes in complete transparency. Stop global warming, war, nuclear proliferation. Now that is what I call a real purpose in life.

http://www.wikileaks.org/index.html


Furor Over Saddam's Execution Continues Unabated
By Dahr Jamail and Ali al-Fadhily / IPS
BAGHDAD - Expressions of outrage over the conduct of the trial and the manner of Saddam Hussein's rushed, chaotic execution are continuing unabated here as lawyers and human rights groups voice their criticism – although some are still cautiously asking the media to withhold their names from publication.
Iraqi and international legal experts appear in agreement that the special court that sentenced the former Iraqi leader to the gallows was illegally set up and failed to meet international recognized standards.
They recalled that former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said on Sept. 16, 2004, that the invasion and occupation of Iraq violated the UN Charter. This made the setting-up of the so-called Iraqi High Tribunal to try Saddam illegal.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=9000


New Zealand Herald

At least 21 killed as storms lash Europe
LONDON/BERLIN - Winds of up to 184 kph swept across northern Europe on Thursday, killing at least 21 people from Britain to the Czech Republic and causing travel havoc.
The German and Dutch railways were practically shut down, Frankfurt airport cancelled half its flights and helicopter rescuers winched 26 sailors to safety as their container ship began to sink in a stormy English Channel.
"Things have ground to a halt - this is unprecedented," said German rail boss Hartmut Mehdorn after hurricane-force winds lashed the network. Eurostar international trains between France, Britain and Belgium were also halted.
In Britain, where winds gusted up to 160 kph, five motorists died, two people were killed in Manchester and a boy died when a wall collapsed in London.
In Ireland, as in other countries, flights were cancelled or delayed. Most ferry sailings to Britain and France were called off.
Germans and Dutch where told to stay indoors and many schools closed early as the worst storm in years moved in.
Falling trees killed two people in a car as well as a motorcyclist in the Netherlands, local media said.
Strong winds damaged the arched roof of Amsterdam's Central Station, which was partly closed due to falling glass.
Shipping was disrupted at Rotterdam's port, Europe's busiest, where the storm caused an oil spill at a terminal when a drifting container ship bumped into an oil jetty.
After leaving a trail of damage in Britain and the Netherlands the storm hit Germany, uprooting trees, battering buildings and bringing flooding and major road and rail delays.
The death toll in Germany rose to seven late on Thursday when a fireman was killed by a falling tree in the northwest.
In the south, doors ripped from their hinges killed a 73-year-old man and an 18-month-old child.
Berlin's brand new central train station was evacuated after winds ripped a steel support weighing several tonnes from the facade and hurled it to the ground, the fire brigade said.
"What's unusual about this storm is that it will affect the whole country and not just certain areas," said Christoph Hartmann, a spokesman for Germany's DWD meteorological service.
After hitting the north and west of Germany the storm was sweeping east into Poland, the Czech Republic and northern Austria, DWD said.
Czech meteorologists reported gusts of wind reaching up to 184 kph. Uprooted trees killed three people in the country.
Around 20,000 households lost electricity as the storm ploughed into the Upper Austria region, in the north-centre of the Alpine republic, APA news agency said late on Thursday.
Fierce gusts tore away most of the roof of a high school in the town of Zwettl and the roofs of several homes in the area. Fallen trees were blocking a number of roads, APA said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419882


Mumbles swims 1300km for a holiday
A penguin may have set a record for long-distance domestic travel after swimming 1300km from Fiordland to Muriwai, in West Auckland.
The Fiordland crested penguin named Mumbles has also been successfully treated by an Auckland veterinarian for blood parasites - something of a medical breakthrough for the species.
A miserable-looking Mumbles was discovered in poor health by a woman walking along the beach about a month ago.
The penguin was taken to SPCA BirdWing in West Auckland and into the hands of bird specialist Lyn MacDonald, who said Mumbles was a bit of a grump at first but was finding his happy feet again after the medical treatment and was eating about 30 freshly caught sprats a day.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10420044


Weather disasters forecast for britain
Saturday January 20, 2007
A local walker is hit by a wave on the sea front at Dover in England. The port was closed when storms battered the country. Photo / Reuters
Britain will regularly be crippled by heatwaves and floods this century, the first results of the world's biggest climate prediction experiment show.
The experiment by the BBC and Oxford University began in February last year with an appeal for people to download a climate prediction programme which would run in the background when their computers were idle.
About 200,000 people from across the world signed up and 50,000 have now run the programme - which plots the global climate from 1920 to 2080 - long enough for the results to be statistically significant.
Each programme was slightly different so that a broad range of possible outcomes was covered.
"This is not a worst-case scenario," said project co-ordinator Nick Faull of Oxford University. "This is what we are increasingly confident will happen in the absence of substantial cuts in greenhouse gas emissions."
The initial results will be presented by broadcaster David Attenborough in a BBC programme, Climate Change: Britain Under Threat, on Monday, giving snapshots of Britain in 2020, 2050 and 2080.
They show flooding will become widespread and regular and heatwaves, like the one that struck Europe in 2003, killing thousands, will become the norm, making conditions in millions of homes and London's creaking underground system unbearable.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10419973


Snow falls in Malibu, first in 20 years
LOS ANGELES - Snow fell briefly in normally sunny Malibu, and west Los Angeles saw hail today in the first sighting in 20 years of a white winter.
The mountains behind Malibu -- a celebrity enclave that hugs the Pacific Ocean -- got a dusting of snow that brought traffic chaos to a region where rainfall is usually headline local news.
Snow plows were sent out to clear a major road through the Malibu mountains and at least one car crashed, highway police said.
"I lived in Malibu in 1978 when snow fell," said California Highway Patrol officer Patrick Kimball.
Rain showers in unusually cold conditions turned to hail and sleet in parts of the beach city of Venice and in inland west Los Angeles, giving cars and rooftops a sprinkling of white.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419760


Cowboy adventure at the end of the Earth
Weatherbeaten and exhausted, Edmund Hillary and his men couldn't stop laughing when they reached the South Pole in 1958 - victory was so sweet.
After devouring a steak dinner cooked by the American military staff, the Kiwis joined their hosts for a movie - a cowboy flick in which the hero climbed a sheer cliff and rescued his fair maiden, before sending the villain plunging to his doom. "Then, with a great clatter of music he and the maiden rode off into the sunset.
"You know my team of five had pulled pretty hard all the way from South Base and been to a degree in constant danger ... and we found this so funny, that the hero should be riding off into the sunset. Our good friends, the Americans, really couldn't understand why we were laughing but we staggered off to bed, still laughing."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10420045


Victoria gripped by one of worst fires, eight homes destroyed
MELBOURNE - Victoria is in the grip of the one of the worst bushfire crises in the state's history, Premier Steve Bracks has warned.
One house was destroyed last night in a fresh blaze sparked by lightning near Steiglitz in the Brisbane Ranges, west of Melbourne, with seven others destroyed by the Tatong bushfire at Toombullup, near Benalla in Victoria's north-east.
The same fire cut the main electricity inter-connector between Victoria and NSW, plunging hundreds of thousands of houses into darkness and affecting hundreds of traffic signals and suburban train services.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419549


Family of slain NZ woman living 'a family's worst nightmare'
The family of a New Zealand woman found slain at her London workplace say they are living "a family's worst nightmare".
Catherine Marlow, from Hawke's Bay, was found dead on Saturday in the offices of Research Now, where she was a finance manager.
In a statement released today, Miss Marlow's immediate family -- her father, mother, sister and brother -- spoke of their grief.
"To learn of the death of a loved and adored daughter and sister is a tragedy in itself but with the circumstances surrounding Catherine's death as a family we are struggling to comprehend what has happened," they said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10419564


Police close motorway to save kitten
An adventurous kitten earned a new name and home today after it wandered into busy traffic on Auckland's airport motorway, alarming motorists and sparking a police call-out.
Police sprang into action to save the stranded cat after a concerned driver alerted emergency services.
Two policemen sped to the kitten's aid on motorbikes, temporarily cordoning off Hugh Watt Drive to carry out the rescue operation.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10419557


Warning against swimming in Lake Tutira lifted
A warning against swimming in Lake Tutira in Hawke's Bay because of contamination has been lifted.
Hawke's Bay District Health Board's medical officer of health, Dr Lester Calder, said water monitoring had shown much lower levels of bacteria.
"The levels are now well within the levels recommended in the Ministries of Health and Environment recreational water guidelines."
The warning was issued last week when monitoring identified high levels of E.coli.
The level of the bacteria indicated excessive amounts of faecal matter, either animal or human was in the lake, 40km north of Napier.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10419574


Currency: NZ dollar dips
5:20PM Wednesday January 17, 2007
The first negative quarterly inflation in nearly six years saw the New Zealand dollar sold off sharply today, although it staged a late partial recovery.
The 0.2 fall in the Consumer Price Index in the December quarter diminished the chance of Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard hiking rates next week, economists and analysts said.
"Given that data, it would be hard to see him moving now," ANZ Investment Bank chief dealer Murray Hindley said.
The kiwi had been trading up around US69.58c shortly before Statistics NZ released the information. It fell as low as US68.87c but recovered to end the session on US69.17c, against US69.55c at 5pm yesterday.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10419585


Claire Harvey on Ice: Ready for the harshest place on earth
Every day reporter, Claire Harvey, will file from Antarctica where she is with Sir Edmund Hillary on his return to Scott Base, which he helped found 50 years ago.
Have you ever had a mental illness or suffered from depression? Has anyone in your family had cancer? How about heart disease? Any chance you could be colour-blind?
No? Alright, just answer another 200 or so questions on your physical and emotional wellbeing, lie still while we stick electrodes to you for a heart examination, step on the scales, stand still to be measured, cough loudly, breathe in deeply, give us a few vials of your blood and confess all the murky details of your medical history, and you're cleared to visit Antarctica.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10419569


Massive winter storm batters US
A massive winter storm has covered swathes of the United States in a mantle of snow, sleet and ice, killing 42 people, threatening millions of dollars in citrus crops and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity, officials said Tuesday.
"This is a big one, affecting all the way from New Mexico to Maine," said Dennis Feltgen, a spokesman for the National Weather Service.
The worst-hit areas were Oklahoma, where freezing rain left behind a sheet of ice, and Missouri, hard hit by sleet, he said.
"With the ice, the trees come down on the power lines, and in Oklahoma it's going to take the rest of the week to get all that restored," he said. "The lines are completely down. It's not like it's a transformer here and there -- it's the whole grid."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419587


Pink admits call to boycott Australian wool was mistake
CANBERRA - US pop singer Pink has backed down from her call to boycott Australian wool over animal cruelty claims, admitting she failed to fully research the issue.
The singer, who has sold around 200,000 tickets for dozens of shows in her upcoming April tour of Australia, appeared in an animal rights group video last year branding the practice of sheep mulesing "sadistic".
But today, Pink admitted she was misinformed about the issue and had failed to do enough research.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419555


Israel military chief quits amid Lebanon war probe
JERUSALEM - The chief of Israel's armed forces has tendered his resignation after internal probes pointing to his responsibility for the setbacks of last year's Lebanon war, a military spokeswoman said today.
She said Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, 58, told Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz that he was quitting "as the investigations have run their course".
"With the echoes of battle having faded, I have decided to act on my responsibility," the spokeswoman quoted Halutz as saying in his resignation letter.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419550


Woolworths seeks bid permission for NZ's Warehouse
Australian retailer Woolworths said today it had lodged an application to bid for the country's largest listed retailer, The Warehouse Group.
Woolworths said in a statement it had posted an application with the Commerce Commission to buy 100 per cent of Warehouse.
Woolworths bought a 10 per cent stake in the company in September.
Woolworths chief executive Michael Luscombe said the company was seeking clearance, but as yet had made no decision on whether it would make a proposal to buy the group.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10419559


Quarterly inflation in negative for first time in almost 6 years
Cheaper petrol was the main factor in the New Zealand Consumers Price Index (CPI) falling 0.2 per cent in the December quarter.
It was the first negative inflation figure in nearly six years.
Figures published today by Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) put the fall in the price of petrol during the December quarter at 15.2 per cent, out of 3.9 per cent fall in combined transport prices.
A 9.7 per cent rise in international air transport prices had partly offset the decrease in petrol prices, SNZ said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10419530


Yachting: Team NZ designers can take a bow
Team New Zealand got further affirmation their black boats are the benchmark yesterday when arch-rivals Oracle Racing took their new yacht USA98 sailing for the first time on the Hauraki Gulf.
Sporting a fuller bow similar to Team New Zealand's boats, the BMW-sponsored USA98 appears a little more slab-sided and narrower than the syndicate's first 2007 generation boat, USA87. Last year, Oracle skipper Chris Dickson described USA87 as the "most innovative America's Cup-class boat built".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10419464


Skype founders unveil free online TV service
The founders of revolutionary internet telephony firm Skype unveiled a test version of an online television service on Tuesday that will be free to users.
Niklas Zennstroem and Janus Friis said they "combined the best of TV and the best of the internet" in a venture called Joost to enable people to watch television online with "choice, control and flexibility."
Joost was a "piracy-proof" internet platform based on the open-source Mozilla web browser and was crafted to guarantee copyright protection for creators and owners of content, according to its founders.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10419542


Bluetooth specialist CSR heads in GPS direction
LONDON - British microchip designer CSR said on Monday it would make an all-in-one GPS (global positioning system) and Bluetooth chip for mobile gadgets after it bought up two GPS specialists.
Bluetooth expert CSR said it would make the single chips after acquiring Swedish firm NordNav for US$40 million ($57 million) and Cambridge Positioning Systems for US$35 million.
It will pay a further US$35 million if NordNav hits agreed targets.
Chief executive John Scarisbrick told reporters the super-sensitive technology would be far more effective than traditional GPS and could be used indoors.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10419348


US arrests 117 alleged members of Colombian drug ring
1:45PM Wednesday January 17, 2007
NEW YORK - A Colombian drug ring that smuggled US$7.5 million ($10.93 million) of cocaine and heroin into the United States was shut down today with the arrest of 117 of its suspected members, the US Drug Enforcement Administration said.
Among the cache seized by drug agents was 55 kilograms of heroin, 173 kilograms of cocaine, US$260,000 in cash, 12 vehicles and nine weapons, said John Gilbride, special agent for the DEA's New York office.
A federal grand jury in Manhattan has charged 10 of the suspects, including alleged ringleader Ismael Jimenez-Sanchez, a Colombian citizen, with conspiracy to import heroin, US Attorney Michael Garcia said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419551


Trapped kangaroos to be freed in Melbourne
11:45AM Wednesday January 17, 2007
MELBOURNE - A mob of kangaroos trapped by development on Melbourne's northern fringe is to be freed.
Up to 50 Eastern Grey Kangaroos have been landlocked for several years on a block of land in Mill Park, surrounded by residential and industrial development.
The Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) today said the mob would be tranquillised and moved in small groups over the next few months to an area outside the city growth area.
The male kangaroos will also be sterilised to control population growth, while the DSE said it was investigating the possibility of sterilising the females.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419540


US and North Korean officials meet in Berlin
7:45AM Wednesday January 17, 2007
WASHINGTON - Senior US and North Korean officials met in Berlin overnight to discuss how to pave the way for a resumption of six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear ambitions, the US State Department said.
US Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill met North Korean negotiator Kim Kye-gwan in Berlin to discuss "how to set the ground work" for the next round of talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States, it said.


Drought-stricken Ugandans receive emergency food
NAWEET, Uganda - The UN World Food Programme launched an emergency food programme today for half a million people in Uganda's northeastern Karamoja region, hit by a devastating third drought in six years.
WFP food trucks rolled into the semi-arid region to dump bags of maize and beans as lean, hungry villagers lined up to receive their rations.
Looyan Kapis, who said she was too old to remember her age, wept as she said she had not eaten for days.
"Look at us -- we are dying," she said, gesturing towards another elderly lady too weak from hunger to lift her head off the ground.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419508


World closer than ever to nuclear Armageddon – scientists
Today the Doomsday Clock, devised by the Chicago-based Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists in 1947 at the dawn of the nuclear age, will make official what most thinking citizens feel in their bones - that the world has edged closer to nuclear Armageddon than at any time since the most precarious moments of the Cold War in the early 1980s.
At 2.30pm, simultaneous events will take place in London and Washington at which the symbolic clock will be moved forward from its present seven minutes to midnight, where it has stood since 2002.
The reasons for the time being advanced five years ago were crumbling arms control treaties and a terrorist threat brought into shattering relief by 9/11. At the start of 2007, not only is the picture darker on both those scores.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419533


Moscow slams Estonian bid to remove Soviet shrine
MOSCOW - Russia on Tuesday attacked a decision by Estonia to remove a monument to Soviet soldiers who fought the German army in the Baltic state during World War 2.
The heroic bronze statue of a Red Army soldier has stood since 1947 in the centre of the capital, Tallinn.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the plan to move it was disrespectful to the men and women of the Soviet army who had died to free Estonia from Nazi rule.
"We think this decision is blasphemous," he told a news briefing.
World War 2 memorials to the Soviet dead are held dear by Russians more than 60 years after the end of the war, which cost the Soviet Union more than 10 million military lives.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419518


Protest ships ready to take on Antarctic whalers
SYDNEY - A formidable battle is looming in the Antarctic seas between Japan's whaling fleet and a small but determined flotilla of eco-warriors.
A fleet of six Japanese whalers plans to kill nearly 1000 whales in the name of scientific research: 935 minke whales and 10 endangered fin whales. Next summer the Japanese will also kill 50 humpbacks.
Confronting them in freezing temperatures and dangerous conditions, starting this week, will be three vessels from the militant Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and Greenpeace.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419439


Slow death of mighty Murray River
CANBERRA - The mighty Murray River, the lifeblood of eastern Australia, is facing a crisis that will continue to deepen even after new emergency measures to keep it alive through the drought are implemented.
The river has been groaning for years under massive demand that has dramatically reduced its flow, led to the closure of its mouth in South Australia, and added to salinity that has killed hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland along its 2500km course.
Relentless and severe drought in New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia has created new urgencies: last year inflows into the river plunged 60 per cent below the previous record lows.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419474


Judge to handle Diana case alone
LONDON - The judge overseeing the inquest into the death of Princess Diana decided yesterday that the case would not be heard by a jury.
Britain's former top woman judge Elizabeth Butler-Sloss, who came out of retirement specially to oversee the sensitive inquiry, has decided instead to handle the case on her own.
Butler-Sloss made her decision after reviewing legal arguments put before her at the High Court in London last week.
At last week's preliminary hearing, she ruled that it would be inappropriate to allow royal officials to sit on a jury deciding how Diana and her lover Dodi al Fayed died in a 1997 Paris crash.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419481


Currency: NZ dollar gains on the yen, steady against other currencies
The New Zealand dollar held steady on major cross rates today. except the yen, where it gained after the Bank of Japan failed to enact a previously signalled rate rise.
It rose to 84.33 yen - a 13-month high - from 83.70 around 5pm yesterday, shortly before the BOJ made its announcement.
The NZ dollar also strengthened slightly against the greenback, despite a raft of generally robust US economic data.
The kiwi was buying US69.48c at 5pm against US69.42c. It is close to Wednesday's level, just before the announcement of a 0.2 per cent fall in quarterly Consumer Price Index that knocked half a cent off its value.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10419933


Charge sheik or ban him from Australia, NSW premier says
SYDNEY - NSW Premier Morris Iemma has urged whatever action is necessary against controversial Sydney cleric Sheik Feiz Mohammed, including criminal charges or a ban from living in Australia.
Australian born Sheik Mohammed, the leader of the Global Islamic Youth Centre in Liverpool, in Sydney's west, sparked outrage with a DVD urging young Muslims to become holy warriors and calling Jewish people pigs.
The Australian Federal Police yesterday announced it was investigating whether the comments constituted a breach of sedition laws by inciting racial hatred or acts of terror.
Mr Iemma welcomed the police probe, saying he was "offended and outraged" by the sheik's comments.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419907


Guantanamo rules worse than before says Hicks' counsel
UNITED STATES - David Hicks' lawyer has blasted new rules for trying Guantanamo Bay prisoners, saying the 31-year-old Australian terrorist suspect would have no chance of a fair trial.
The United States Defence Department has drafted a manual for trying terrorist suspects detained at the American naval base in Cuba that would allow them to be imprisoned, convicted and executed on the basis of hearsay evidence or coerced testimony.
The Pentagon manual says so-called enemy combatants "are prosecuted before regularly constituted courts affording all the judicial guarantees which are recognised by civilised people".
But Hicks' defence counsel, US Marine Corps Major Michael Mori, says the new rules are worse than the military commission system overturned by the Supreme Court after a challenge.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419968


Obama introduces bill capping troops in Iraq
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama, a likely US presidential contender, has introduced legislation that would cap the number of American troops in Iraq, joining the debate over President George W Bush's new war strategy.
Speaking on the floor of the US Senate, Obama said today his plan would also call for the gradual redeployment of US troops from the region "within two to four months".
"This measure would stop the escalation of the war in Iraq," the Democratic senator said, adding that "it's my belief that simply opposing the surge is not enough."
Bush's announcement last week that he would deploy 21,500 additional troops to Iraq has sparked stiff opposition from Democrats, who took control of the Congress on January 4, as well as some politicians of his own Republican Party.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419894


Coup leader's threat to NZ expats 'stupid'
Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has dismissed as stupid Fiji coup leader Frank Bainimarama's threats of retaliation against New Zealand and a veiled threat against expatriates working there.
On a Fiji government website Commodore Bainimarama, the self-appointed Prime Minister of Fiji, said it had been brought to his attention that travel bans imposed on "so-called supporters" of his interim government had been widened to include some civil servants.
The chief executive officer appointed to his office, Parmesh Chand, is one of the senior government officials New Zealand has banned from visiting here.
Mr Chand was to have joined his family for a brief holiday.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10420049


Scramble for supplies as life-saving drug runs out
Hospitals are about to run out of an emergency life-saving drug, drawing condemnation from the country's largest medical group about the Government's emphasis on cost savings.
All stocks of 1:1000 adrenalin solution in New Zealand expire at the end of next month, and a manufacturing problem at supplier Mayne Pharma's German factory means the stock cannot be replaced immediately.
The shortage has sent health officials scrambling for alternative supplies of the drug, which is used in emergencies such as heart attacks and life-threatening allergic reactions.
Late yesterday, drug funding agency Pharmac announced it had signed a contract with AstraZeneca in Australia to get a recently approved version of adrenalin into New Zealand. Deputy medical director Dr Dilky Rasiah said the stock would be available "shortly".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10420005


Impotence related to age may improve over time
Saturday January 20, 2007
NEW YORK - About one-third of older men who are impotent (with erectile dysfunction) will experience natural remission, with symptoms becoming less severe but not necessarily going away completely, researchers suggest.
However, they also estimate another third will experience a worsening of this condition over time.
Erectile dysfunction, which affects more than 150 million men, has received increased attention in recent years due to its high prevalence and the development of effective treatments, such as Viagra, doctors note in the Journal of Urology. However, little is known about the natural course of erectile dysfunction after onset.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10419936


Childhood maltreatment linked to heart disease
Wednesday January 17, 2007By Stuart Dye
Children who are maltreated face more than twice the risk of developing heart problems in later life than those who enjoyed a happy childhood, a groundbreaking New Zealand study reveals.
It shows that stress caused by maltreatment up to the age of 10 shows up physically more than 20 years later.
The University of Otago research found that "maltreatment" could range from extremes such as sexual or physical abuse to relatively minor disruptions such as frequent changes of the primary caregiver, although it was often a combination.
Thirty-three per cent of those who suffered in some way as a child had at the age of 32 "clinically relevant inflammation levels" - swelling caused by stress, which acts as an early indicator of health problems including heart disease, diabetes and lung problems.
Of those who were not maltreated, only 18 per cent had the same levels.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10419493


Engineered chickens make cancer drugs
WASHINGTON - A team at the British institute that cloned Dolly the sheep have made a genetically engineered chicken that produces cancer drugs in its eggs.
The chickens produce the cancer drugs in their egg whites, the team at the Roslin Biocentre in Edinburgh reported.
The drugs include a monoclonal antibody -- themselves lab-engineered immune system proteins -- and a human immune system protein used to treat cancer and other conditions, the researchers report in the upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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Outbreak closes hospital wards
Saturday January 06, 2007
Tauranga Hospital has been forced to shut three wards after an outbreak of gastroenteritis.
Eighteen cases have been recorded and a gastro outbreak is also believed to be happening in the western Bay of Plenty.


Smelling out a weakness with Viagra
Saturday January 20, 2007
Higher doses of Viagra may impair the ability to smell, which is possibly related to an increase in nasal congestion, German researchers say.
A team led by Dr V. Gudziol, of the University of Dresden Medical School, studied 20 healthy, young male volunteers who received Viagra, at 50mg or 100mg doses, or inactive "placebos" and were then exposed to an odour-dispensing device.
The volunteers' odour detection threshold, odour discrimination and odour identification ability were tested to find why the 100mg dose caused a drop in smelling or "olfactory" ability compared with the placebo. The 50mg dose, by contrast, had no effect.
"In our subjects, the most likely reason for impaired olfactory function was nasal congestion" brought on by Viagra, the authors write in the Journal of Urology. They note that, while it was not evaluated in this study, previous reports had linked Viagra with a drop in nasal airflow.


US ends talks with N.Korea in Berlin
7:55AM Friday January 19, 2007By Louis Charbonneau
BERLIN - US and North Korean officials ended three days of discussions in Berlin on Thursday without commenting on the chances of a breakthrough at six-party talks on the communist state's nuclear weapons programme.
A spokeswoman for the US Embassy confirmed US Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, who met North Korean officials for six hours on Tuesday and 1-1/2 hours on Wednesday, held a third round of talks on Thursday.
She said Hill had left the German capital and was en route to Asia. He made no statements following Thursday's informal discussions with his North Korean counterpart, Kim Kye-gwan.
After the first round, Hill described the talks as "useful discussions" but played down any suggestion that they might lead to a breakthrough in the nuclear stand-off with Pyongyang, which detonated its first nuclear device last October.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419877


Just what Mogadishu needs - another vengeful army
Saturday January 20, 2007By Steve Bloomfield
SOMALIA - Standing amid a pile of rubble on a Mogadishu street corner two young men, faces covered by red scarves, loaded their rocket-propelled grenade launchers. Three spare grenades and an AK-47 were slung over their backs.
By their feet lay a box containing a remote-controlled mine similar to the improvised explosive devices that have proved so deadly to British and American soldiers in Iraq. A second pair of similarly armed men stood at another junction 200m down the road; two further pairs were stationed nearby.
Watching the fighters take up position in the Black Sea area of southern Mogadishu, 37-year-old tea shop owner, Nuuro Mohammed Diirive, called for a "resistance" to drive Ethiopian troops out.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419954


Peace, pilgrims and the glowing plastic Buddha
Thursday January 18, 2007By Jim Eagles
The giant statue of the Tian Tan Buddha overlooks parkland and tourist ventures. Photo / Jim Eagles
Upon reflection it seems quite appropriate that when I climbed up to the Wisdom Path on Hong Kong's Lantau Island it was collapsing because of wood rot.
It's hard to imagine a more graphic demonstration of the true nature of most human wisdom.
Indeed, the message carved on the huge logs which make up the path, a famous Buddhist prayer called the Heart Sutra, tells of the futility of becoming attached to things because the world is in a process of constant change. Quite so.
Perhaps the enigmatic smile on the face of the giant statue of the Tian Tan Buddha which looks down on Lantau is a sign that the great teacher is well aware of the irony of it all.
But then Lantau is a place of many entertaining contradictions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10419001


Bush won't reauthorise eavesdropping
WASHINGTON - President Bush has decided not to renew a program of domestic spying on terrorism suspects, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said today, ending an law-enforcement tactic criticised for infringing on civil liberties.
"The president has determined not to reauthorise the Terrorist Surveillance Program when the current authorisation expires," Gonzales wrote in a letter to congressional leaders.
Bush has reauthorised the program every 45 days, and the current authorisation is mid-cycle, a senior Justice Department official said. Gonzales said a recent secret-court approval allowed the government to act effectively without the program.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10419719

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