Ex-Gonzales Aide Testifies She ‘Crossed the Line’
By DAVID STOUT
Published: May 23, 2007
WASHINGTON, May 23 — The Justice Department’s former liaison to the White House testified before Congress today that she improperly weighed political factors in considering applicants for
But the former liaison, Monica M. Goodling, told the House Judiciary Committee that, contrary to public impressions, she did not play a major role in the controversial dismissals of United States attorneys last year.
And she said that former Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty had misled Congress, intentionally or otherwise, in his testimony about the firings by minimizing the role of the White House.
Mr. McNulty testified in February that most of those dismissed had been let go for performance reasons, and that Ms. Goodling had not given him all the pertinent information about the dismissals.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/washington/23cnd-monica.html?hp
Nominee to Head Consumer Agency Withdraws
By STEPHEN LABATON
Published: May 23, 2007
WASHINGTON, May 23 — President Bush’s nominee to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission withdrew his name from consideration today, as a growing number of senators questioned both his suitability and a $150,000 departure payment that the National Association of Manufacturers was preparing to pay him. The nominee, Michael E. Baroody, is a senior lobbyist for the association.
Administration officials and Congressional leaders said that Mr. Baroody decided to withdraw after it became increasingly clear that his nomination would be rejected by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee. The committee was scheduled to hold a confirmation hearing on Thursday.
After he was nominated by President Bush last March, Mr. Baroody came under heavy criticism from consumer groups, as well as trial lawyers, medical doctors and firefighters. They said that Mr. Baroody’s record, and that of the association, in opposing safety regulations demonstrated that he was not qualified for the job.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/washington/23cnd-baroody.html?hp
Looking for Inlaws
Continuing his journey across China, Nicholas D. Kristof visits his wife's ancestral village.
http://video.on.nytimes.com/?tkt=1179957604&tki=48603826&tks=8FJ1ukirXbLi6h8clipzkQ&fr_chl=33f3a3599adcefcb24440bcf1e5f999e838f6043&fr_story=288ccf768b976fec50cf661648058c32598ea085
Worth a Lot, but Are Hedge Funds Worth It?
By DAVID LEONHARDT
Published: May 23, 2007
When Institutional Investor’s Alpha magazine released its annual list of the highest paid hedge fund managers last month, it allowed the rest of us to play an entertaining little parlor game: what could you buy if you made as much money as those guys?
Skip to next paragraph James Simons, a 69-year-old mathematician who was at the top of the list, earned $1.7 billion, which equaled the amount of money that the federal government spent last year running its vast network of national parks. Down at No. 3 on the list, Edward S. Lampert of Greenwich, Conn., the investor who owns a large chunk of Sears, made $1.3 billion, which, if you forget about taxes, would have allowed him to buy the entire economic output of Sierra Leone. We’re talking about real money here.
Today, Alpha magazine will release another big list, and this one offers a chance to answer another, arguably more important, question: Are these billionaire hedge fund managers really worth it?
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/business/23leonhardt.html
Female Shark Reproduced Without Male DNA, Scientists Say
By HENRY FOUNTAIN
Published: May 23, 2007
A hammerhead shark that gave birth in a Nebraska aquarium reproduced without mating, a genetic analysis shows. Skip to next paragraph
This form of asexual reproduction, called parthenogenesis, has been found in other vertebrate species, including some snakes and lizards. But this is the first time it has been documented in a shark.
Researchers from the Guy Harvey Research Institute at Nova Southeastern University in Florida and Queen’s University Belfast in Northern Ireland found no male DNA in the female baby shark, which was born in December 2001 and died shortly after birth, apparently killed by another fish. The mother was one of three female bonnetheads, a small hammerhead species, that had been captured in Florida and kept without male sharks for three years in the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.
At the time of the birth, many scientists thought that the female had mated with another species, or that it had used sperm obtained years before. Female sharks are capable of storing sperm, although none have been known to store it as long as these sharks had been isolated.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/science/23shark.html
Propping Up the General
Published: May 23, 2007
It seems the more unpopular Pakistan’s military dictator, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, becomes at home and the less he is willing to fight the Taliban, the more the Bush administration clings to him.
Washington is afraid, and entirely not without reason, that nuclear armed Pakistan’s next ruler could be even worse. The answer is not to stand by while the general cranks up his repression. That only feeds the fundamentalist and anti-American passions that Washington fears.
Instead of propping up the general, Washington should use the leverage it gets from roughly $2 billion a year in aid to encourage an early return to democratic rule.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, the United States has been paying about half that amount each year to reimburse Pakistan’s military for fighting Taliban and Al Qaeda forces along the Afghan border. Eight months ago, General Musharraf radically pared back those efforts, but the lavish American payments have continued. Cutting back on those patrols makes it easier for the Taliban and Al Qaeda to kill American and NATO troops. Congress must insist that future payments be linked to actual counterterrorist activity and results, as some American military officials now recommend.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/opinion/23wed1.html
Settlement on Ground Zero Insurance Claims
The Spitzer administration announced this afternoon the settlement of insurance claims at ground zero, ensuring that $4.55 billion will be available for rebuilding the World Trade Center site and ending an often bitter, five-year battle with insurers over payouts related to the terrorist attack.Skip to next paragraph
The settlement with seven of the two dozen insurers — Allianz Global Risk, Travelers Companies, Zurich American, Swiss Re, Employers Insurance, Industrial Risk Insurers and Royal Indemnity — that provided coverage for the World Trade Center is the culmination of a two-month campaign by the state insurance superintendent, Eric R. Dinallo, involving meetings in Geneva, Paris and Delaware.
In recent weeks, Gov. Eliot Spitzer joined the negotiations, which lasted until the early morning hours today. The other insurers made good on their claims.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/nyregion/23cnd-insure.html?hp
Sarkozy’s New Grip on Anti-Americanism
By JOHN VINOCUR
International Herald Tribune
Published: May 21, 2007
If Nicolas Sarkozy, as he says, really wants to emboss the first 100 days of his presidency with the mark of change, he could publicly consign French anti-Americanism to the national trash heap of failed and hopeless self-indulgences.
On the scale of great notions, this one is not in the same satirical league of excess as Jonathan Swift modestly proposing in 1729 that the Irish deal with famine by eating their children.
But it has its own heavy measure of overkill.
The truth is, if Sarkozy brings to his office none of the reflex aversion concerning America that has often characterized French politics - this is, after all, a guy serially accused of the American-type failings of too much energy and decisiveness - he also carries with him a highly developed sense of caution about where France and the United States can be seen going together.
For his every embrace, there's a quick straightening of the tie.
So, on the night of his election, when Sarkozy made a remarkable gesture in the direction of the United States by saying that France would "always be at its side when it needs her," he quickly coupled it with a reference to America's reluctance to act on global warming.
http://select.nytimes.com/iht/2007/05/21/world/IHT-21politicus.2.html?_r=1&ex=1179892800&en=bde0994f671ee19b&ei=5121&emc=eta1&oref=login
Al Gore Has Big Plans
By JAMES TRAUB
Published: May 20, 2007
One afternoon in February, Al Gore was waiting to board a commercial flight from Nashville to Miami, where he was to deliver the slide show that forms the basis of “An Inconvenient Truth,” his Academy Award-winning documentary on global warming. Gore was telling me about Ilya Prigogine, a Belgian chemist who won a Nobel Prize in 1977 for his insights into the thermodynamics of open systems, an intriguing subject that has very little to do with global warming. Every minute or so he flashed a microgrin at a passer-by without interrupting his oratorical flow. We had moved on to complexity theory, which Gore would really immerse himself in if only he had the time, and then to the concept of nested systems, which of course had been developed by the late psychologist Uri Bronfenbrenner, when a woman in a blazing orange shirt emerged from her flight, did a double take and cried, “Isn’t that AL GORE?!” There was no ignoring this fan. As she came over to thank Gore for trying to save the planet, I saw that my bags were in the way. “I’ll move them,” I said; and Gore, before he could think, said, “No, don’t.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/magazine/20wwln-gore-t.html?ex=1180411200&en=1ca5f3931b574e72&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Why Are They Greener Than We Are?
The headquarters of the federal environment agency in Dessau, Germany, occupies a low-slung building on the edge of an abandoned gasworks. Dessau, a center for munitions production during the war, was virtually obliterated by Allied bombs. Over the next 50 years, East German factories saturated the soil with chemical and industrial waste. Yet both the agency building and its location might be said to embody a new, ecologically sensitive Europe.
Designed by a young Berlin-based firm, Sauerbruch Hutton, the building is touted as one of the most efficient in the world, but it doesn’t wear its sustainability on its sleeve. Four stories high, it wraps around a vast interior courtyard that is cooled and heated by a system of underground pipes. Vents in the glass roof allow hot air to escape, and an occasional breeze passes through the courtyard’s gardens. The sinuous wood structure is clad in horizontal bands of candy-colored, enameled glass panels, in shades of green, red and blue. The pattern, it turns out, is carefully tuned to the surrounding environment: the green reflects a nearby park; the red, the brick facades of an industrial shed; and the blue, the sky.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/magazine/20europe-t.html?ex=1180411200&en=7e24094abc6fa5c4&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Solar Flashlight Lets Africa’s Sun Deliver the Luxury of Light to the Poorest Villages
By WILL CONNORS and RALPH BLUMENTHAL
Published: May 20, 2007
FUGNIDO, Ethiopia — At 10 p.m. in a sweltering refugee camp here in western Ethiopia, a group of foreigners was making its way past thatch-roofed huts when a tall, rail-thin man approached a silver-haired American and took hold of his hands.Skip to next paragraph
The man, a Sudanese refugee, announced that his wife had just given birth, and the boy would be honored with the visitor’s name. After several awkward translation attempts of “Mark Bent,” it was settled. “Mar,” he said, will grow up hearing stories of his namesake, the man who handed out flashlights powered by the sun.
Since August 2005, when visits to an Eritrean village prompted him to research global access to artificial light, Mr. Bent, 49, a former foreign service officer and Houston oilman, has spent $250,000 to develop and manufacture a solar-powered flashlight.
His invention gives up to seven hours of light on a daily solar recharge and can last nearly three years between replacements of three AA batteries costing 80 cents.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/world/africa/20lights.html?ex=1180324800&en=06344e684c3f3a00&ei=5070&emc=eta1
China to Buy $3 Billion Stake in Blackstone
By ANDREW ROSS SORKIN and DAVID BARBOZA
Published: May 20, 2007
The Chinese government said today that it would acquire a $3 billion stake in the Blackstone Group, the private equity firm, in the country’s first effort to diversify its $1.2 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves beyond United States Treasury bills and into commercial enterprise.
The deal, which is set to coincide with Blackstone’s $4 billion initial public offering this year, will give China a roughly 8 percent stake in Blackstone, which owns companies that have 375,000 employees and $83 billion in annual sales.
It would also represent a watershed for the booming private equity industry as it tries to gain a foothold in China.
“It’s a historic change. It’s a paradigm shift in global capital flows,” Stephen A. Schwarzman, a co-founder of Blackstone, said in an interview. He called the Chinese government’s decision “huge” and even “surprising” to him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/20/business/worldbusiness/20cnd-yuan.html?ex=1180324800&en=4fce1dd94ee75ada&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Scientists Back Off Theory of a Colder Europe in a Warming World
By WALTER GIBBS
Published: May 15, 2007
Mainstream climatologists who have feared that global warming could have the paradoxical effect of cooling northwestern Europe or even plunging it into a small ice age have stopped worrying about that particular disaster, although it retains a vivid hold on the public imagination.
The idea, which held climate theorists in its icy grip for years, was that the North Atlantic Current, an extension of the Gulf Stream that cuts northeast across the Atlantic Ocean to bathe the high latitudes of Europe with warmish equatorial water, could shut down in a greenhouse world.
Without that warm-water current, Americans on the Eastern Seaboard would most likely feel a chill, but the suffering would be greater in Europe, where major cities lie far to the north. Britain, northern France, the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway could in theory take on Arctic aspects that only a Greenlander could love, even as the rest of the world sweltered.
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30C13F639550C768DDDAC0894DF404482
Girth and Nudity, a Pictorial Mission
Correction Appended
BEFORE we begin, let’s get one thing out of the way: Yes, Leonard Nimoy is more than happy to do it — the Vulcan salute, the gesture that launched a thousand spaceships. He does so easily, effortlessly: palm outward, fingers extended, the index and middle finger smashed together, the ring finger and pinky touching, the thumb sticking out on its own. Skip to next paragraph
“People ask me all the time,” Mr. Nimoy said, carrying saucers of coffee and tea into his art-filled living room off Central Park West. He placed them next to galleys of his forthcoming photography book, which sat near a copy of “Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West,” by Margaret R. Miles, and a folder of news clippings on obesity.
“You see what I have here, about the health guidelines for models?” he asked, pointing a long, tapered finger toward the file.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/fashion/13nimoy.html?ex=1180065600&en=1f1676e018219d21&ei=5070
As Demand for Donor Eggs Soars, High Prices Stir Ethical Concerns
By RONI CARYN RABIN
Published: May 15, 2007
Samantha Carolan was 23 and fresh out of graduate school when she decided to donate eggs to an infertile couple. Ms. Carolan concedes that she would never have done it if not for the money, $7,000 that she used to pay off some student loans.
She has since had a second egg extraction, for which she was paid $8,000, and she is planning a third before taking a break.
“The first time, it’s frightening,” said Ms. Carolan, now 24, of Winfield Park, N.J. “It is surgery, and I don’t think I would have done it without compensation. But I had very limited pain, and it was a great experience for me. I would have done it the second time for less money or even no compensation.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/health/15cons.html?ex=1180065600&en=c1ee7a6dccca8bf0&ei=5070
Make Money, Save the World
By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: May 6, 2007
ALTRUSHARE SECURITIES is a brokerage firm, engaged in the sort of things you might expect of a Wall Street outfit, like buying and selling stock, and providing research on companies. Unlike its peers, however, the firm is majority-owned by two charities that each control about one-third of it.
So is it a for-profit business? Or a nonprofit fund-raising machine?
In fact, like hundreds of new businesses starting up around the country, it is both. Altrushare is an example of the emerging convergence of for-profit money-making and nonprofit mission.
The practice is even creeping into corporate bluebloods like General Electric, whose $12 billion Ecomagination business promotes its products' minimal environmental impact as well as their positive impact on the bottom line.
''We're a for-profit institutional brokerage, and we have to compete on execution and commissions and do so with the same technology and talent you would expect from a top-tier firm,'' said Peter Drasher, a founder of Altrushare, which is based in Bridgeport, Conn. ''What makes us different is our nonprofit ownership and our mission, which is to support struggling communities with our profits.''
http://select.nytimes.com/search/restricted/article?res=F30810F83A5A0C758CDDAC0894DF404482
Miami Herald
2006 FCAT scores raise concerns about test
BY NIRVI SHAH AND HANNAH SAMPSON
State education officials admitted Wednesday that last year's third-grade FCAT reading scores were flawed, raising questions about the credibility of the state's most important benchmark on student performance.
Last year, a record number of third-graders performed at reading level. This year, 60 out of 67 districts had unexpected plunges in reading.
The results of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) released Wednesday also showed that high school sophomores across the state continue to struggle with reading, with about 30 percent of students working on grade level in South Florida, figures from the state Department of Education showed.
Just 34 percent of sophomores in Broward and 27 percent in Miami-Dade are reading at grade level, results showThe high-stakes FCAT is used to grade, reward and penalize public schools. Third-graders must pass the reading portion to be promoted, and high school students must do so to earn a standard diploma. It also plays a role in determining whether teachers receive merit pay..
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/story/116003.html
Spanish officials defend warmer relations with Cuba
By PABLO BACFHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON --
Spain will ask Cuba to allow the Red Cross and human rights groups greater access to the island, a top Spanish diplomat said Wednesday as she defended Madrid's effort to establish warmer ties with Havana.
Trinidad Jiménez, who runs Latin American affairs for the foreign ministry, also told The Miami Herald that Washington should approve a controversial free trade pact with Colombia and that Madrid has complained privately to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's government about its decision to take RCTV, an opposition TV station, off the airwaves.
The Spanish government's recent decision to improve relations with Havana has angered Washington, some members of the Cuban American community, Cuban dissidents and the Spanish opposition.
''Sometimes we ask ourselves what the U.S. policy of isolation toward Cuba has accomplished,'' Jiménez said. ``Cuba hasn't budged an inch in its position toward the United States. . . . Some people should cast ideological postures aside to try and obtain more effective results.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/416/story/116414.html
Fires force Big Cypress evacuations
BY ERIKA BOLSTAD
ebolstad@MiamiHerald.com
Fire crews battling wildfires in Big Cypress National Preserve have asked people who are staying in fishing and hunting camps in the northwest part of the park to voluntarily evacuate.
The lightning-fueled fire began May 4 and has spread to 26,000 acres north and south of Interstate 75. Firefighters have been setting deliberate fires to contain the blaze, as well as using helicopters to drop water, but the fire is still only about 55 percent contained.
The superintendent of Big Cypress Preserve has asked that people evacuate camps in areas north of Interstate 75 from Turner River Road west to U.S. 29.
The U.S. Park Service has ordered portions of the Florida Scenic Trail to be closed, from U.S. 41 north to the preserve's northern boundary with the Seminole reservation. Over the past few weeks, smoke from the fire has also closed portions of Interstate 75.
Gov. Crist's girlfriend is Palm Beach mom
BY EVAN S. BENN
DWF, 36, possibly the hottest mom in America, no fear of eating worms, seeks DWM. Governor preferred.
OK, so they met through a mutual friend at a swanky charity event, not through a personals ad. But they're a confirmed item: Gov. Charlie Crist and Kelly Crosby Heyniger.
After three months of pestering from friends, strangers and even her kids' teachers, Heyniger acknowledged the relationship this week during an interview in her Palm Beach County home with ABC affiliate WPBF-TV 25.
Heyniger, 36, expected the interview to stick to her upcoming quest to become ''Hottest Mom in America,'' a $25,000 contest sponsored by a company that sells anti-wrinkle cream. Then the reporter asked the $64,000 question about Heyniger's relationship with Crist, 50.
''I didn't know they were going to go there,'' Heyniger told The Miami Herald Tuesday night. ``But, there was nothing to hide. We have been out several times. We enjoy each other's company.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/884/story/115303.html
Girl has successful face-tumor surgery
BY ERIKA BERAS
Milca Rose Kouame, the 11-year-old Ivory Coast girl who arrived in South Florida late last month to have a tumor on her face removed, is recovering at Jackson Memorial Hospital Wednesday after a successful five-hour surgery on Monday.
Milca underwent facial osteoplasty, reconstruction of the bone on the left side of her face. Doctors also opened up her nasal airways to help her breathe easier.
''Later on today we will remove the breathing tube and she'll be moved from the ICU to the floor,'' said Jesus Gomez, the doctor who operated on Milca.
http://www.miamiherald.com/459/story/116036.html
Senate votes to cut guest worker program
By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS
WASHINGTON --
The Senate voted Wednesday to slash the number of foreign workers who could come to the U.S. on temporary visas as part of a broad bipartisan immigration bill.
A new guest worker program would be capped at 200,000 a year under the proposal, which passed 74-24 over strong opposition by the Bush administration.
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said the change, proposed by Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., would interfere with a "central component" of the White House-backed immigration measure. That plan provided for 400,000 worker visas annually, plus an option to increase that number to 600,000 if market conditions demand it.
"The Bingaman amendment would eliminate this critical flexibility and cut the size of the temporary worker program in half," Gutierrez said in a statement.
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/story/116401.html
Memo urges Sen. Clinton to bypass Iowa
By BETH FOUHY and RON FOURNIER
NEW YORK --
Hillary Rodham Clinton's deputy campaign manager wrote a memo this week urging the Democratic front-runner to bypass the Iowa caucuses, in order to spend time and resources in New Hampshire, South Carolina and several larger states hosting primaries next Feb. 5.
The memo emerged days after a new Des Moines Sunday Register poll of likely caucus goers showed Clinton trailing rivals John Edwards and Barack Obama in Iowa, which is scheduled to hold the first voting contests next January 14.
"I believe we need a new approach to winning the Democratic nomination," deputy campaign manager Mike Henry wrote. "This approach involves shifting the focus away from Iowa and running a campaign that is more focused on other early primary states and winning this new national primary."
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/story/116247.html
Liberty student arrested on bomb charges
By SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writer
LYNCHBURG, Va. --
A Liberty University student who told a family member he had made bombs and planned to attend the funeral of the Rev. Jerry Falwell was apparently upset about an anti-gay fringe group that protested at the funeral, authorities said.
Officials were still trying to figure out what Mark David Uhl planned to do with the bombs. Police do not believe he intended to disrupt the funeral Tuesday or harm the Falwell family, Campbell County Sheriff Terry Gaddy said.
Uhl, 19, was being held without bond in the Campbell County Adult Detention Center on charges of manufacturing an explosive device. It was not known if he had a lawyer, and messages seeking comment left at numbers believed to belong to his family were not returned.
Uhl, of Amissville, was arrested Monday night after a family member contacted authorities, who found homemade bombs in the trunk of Uhl's car, Major Steve Hutcherson said.
Gaddy described the five bombs as "sort of like napalm" and about the size of soda cans.
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/story/115522.html
Bush's seat belt usage not locked down
By BEN FELLER
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON --
President Bush encourages people to wear seat belts. Whether he routinely does so himself is not as clear. The question arose Tuesday, Bush's first full day back in town after a weekend at his ranch in Texas - where he was spotted driving a pickup truck without wearing a seat belt.
The timing comes just as Bush's government is sending the opposite message. This week marks the launch of law enforcement's annual seat belt campaign, known as "Click It or Ticket."
In his morning briefing with reporters, White House press secretary Tony Snow was asked whether Bush wears his safety belt while riding in his armored limousine.
"Does he wear a seat belt in the limo?" Snow said in some disbelief. "I don't know."
After starting to field a question on another subject, Snow stopped to amend his answer.
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/story/115357.html
Some US Muslims say suicide attacks OK
By ALAN FRAM
Associated Press Writer
One in four younger U.S. Muslims said in a poll that suicide bombings to defend their religion are acceptable at least in some circumstances, though most Muslim Americans overwhelmingly reject the tactic and are critical of Islamic extremism and al-Qaida.
The survey by the Pew Research Center, one of the most exhaustive ever of the country's Muslims, revealed a community that in many ways blends comfortably into society. Its largely mainstream members express nearly as much happiness with their lives and communities as the general public does, show a broad willingness to adopt American customs, and have income and education levels similar to others in the U.S.
Even so, the survey revealed noteworthy pockets of discontent.
While nearly 80 percent of U.S. Muslims say suicide bombings of civilians to defend Islam can not be justified, 13 percent say they can be, at least rarely.
That sentiment is strongest among those younger than 30. Two percent of them say it can often be justified, 13 percent say sometimes and 11 percent say rarely.
"It is a hair-raising number," said Radwan Masmoudi, president of the Washington-based Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, which promotes the compatibility of Islam with democracy.
He said most supporters of the attacks likely assumed the context was a fight against occupation - a term Muslims often use to describe the conflict with Israel.
http://www.miamiherald.com/889/story/114805.html
Don't encourage uninsured drivers
OUR OPINION: AUTO-INSURANCE LAW SHOULD BE EXTENDED FOR A YEAR
Legislators intent on sunsetting Florida's no-fault auto-insurance law got more than they bargained for: They eliminated mandated auto insurance altogether.
The unintended consequences could raise auto-insurance costs -- not necessarily lower costs, as some legislators suggested. Floridians also will pay the price when emergency rooms see a spike in accident victims who lack health coverage of any kind.
This isn't good policy, nor is it fair to drivers who responsibly insure their vehicles. Lawmakers should use the special session to reverse the unintended effects of the law's expiration. State law requires two types of auto coverage:
• Personal injury protection, or PIP, which pays most medical expenses and lost wages. A minimum of $10,000 coverage is required.
• Property damage liability, with $10,000 minimum coverage. This covers damages to another person's car or other property.
Coverage not required
In the absence of legislative action, as of Oct. 1, Florida drivers no longer will have to buy auto insurance to register their cars. This is an invitation to drop coverage. Meanwhile, drivers who keep their auto insurance will see their rates rise, especially for uninsured-motorist coverage.
Hospitals with trauma centers also can expect to see their unpaid-care costs rise without mandated auto-injury coverage. Jackson Memorial Hospital and the South Broward Hospital District, for example, project more than $22 million in unfunded costs from an increase in auto-accident patients who have no medical insurance.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/115633.html
Scandal won't, shouldn't go away
OUR OPINION: JUSTICE DEPARTMENT NEEDS A NEW, EFFECTIVE LEADER
If Attorney General Alberto Gonzales believes he can hang onto his job by simply ignoring the furor over his controversial tenure and going about business as usual, he is wrong. The proposed vote of no confidence against him in the Senate has been described by the White House as a ''stunt'' -- but that is whistling past the graveyard. His failure to explain clearly and forthrightly why and how eight U.S. attorneys were fired has undermined whatever effectiveness he once had, and that's reason enough for him to surrender his post.
Try as they might, Mr. Gonzales and his backers can't write this off as a partisan political attack designed to embarrass the administration. First of all, Mr. Gonzales doesn't need any help in that department. His performance in the continuing saga over the firing of eight U.S. attorneys has been an embarrassment to the entire government, especially to the corps of career professionals in the Justice Department who have seen the integrity and reputation of their agency sullied by this tawdry episode.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/115632.html
Fund storm center, keep its identity
OUR OPINION: INVESTMENT IN HURRICANE PREDICTION CAN SAVE LIVES
With the start of the 2007 hurricane season only days away, the new director of the National Hurricane Center last week continued his urgent pleas for funding to bolster the center's prediction capabilities. Director Bill Proenza's highly publicized pleas for help may rankle some of the bosses at NOAA (National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration), but the importance of his message -- saving lives -- justifies the directness of his appeal.
Saving lives priority
Indeed, Mr. Proenza and NOAA share that goal. They need only agree on whether NOAA is doing enough to achieve it. A NOAA spokesman said Monday that saving lives is the agency's top priority, and that the agency has increased hurricane-research funding in recent years.
At the National Hurricane Conference in New Orleans last month, Mr. Proenza said that $700,000 in budget reductions over the last few years have hurt the Hurricane Center's ability to improve its prediction of the intensity of storms. Then last week at the Governor's Hurricane Conference in Broward, Mr. Proenza repeated his concerns about funding and storm prediction. He also was critical of the high costs of a NOAA plan to celebrate the agency's 200th birthday with an advertising and marketing campaign.
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/editorials/story/114488.html
NPR
Hurricane Center Weathers Own Storm
by Greg Allen
Morning Edition, May 23, 2007 · The National Hurricane Center's new director says the federal agency that oversees it wasted millions of dollars on a publicity campaign, while cutting $700,000 from hurricane research.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=10344650
New Zealand Herald
Photo: Flash floods hit Taranaki and Nelson
Flash floods hit Nelson and New Plymouth today, sparking scores of emergency calls, sending knee-deep rainwater through residences, and washing a BMW out to sea.
The MetService recorded a total of 98mm of rain fell in Nelson in the 24 hours to 9am today.
Forecaster Oliver Druce said 53mm had fallen in one hour between 8am and 9am.
"That's pretty extreme," he said.
"Fortunately it was just for the one hour, some other major floods in the past have been at that level sustained over several hours."
Nelson deputy chief fire officer Tim Bennion said the fire service had attended 70 calls this morning.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10441347
Soldier imprisoned for selling pistol to gang member
A soldier who sold a pistol stolen from Linton military camp's armoury to a gang member for $1000 has been imprisoned for 90 days and dismissed from the force.
Gunner Levi Shane Haye, 19, yesterday pleaded guilty at a court martial to stealing the pistol, the Manawatu Standard reported.
Haye also pleaded guilty to wilfully damaging service property, by removing the pistol's serial number, and selling a firearm to an unauthorised person.
Prosecutor Major Steve Taylor told the court Haye stole a Sig Sauer P226 pistol from the armoury while checking other weapons for cleaning on October 16 last year.
The hearing was told Haye sold the pistol, worth more than $1500, to Dannevirke man Michael Fiti for $1000.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10441340
Currency: Kiwi at two-week low
6:30PM Wednesday May 23, 2007
The New Zealand dollar fell to its lowest level in nearly two weeks today against a resurgent US dollar.
It was confined to recent ranges, slipping to a low of US72.58c but closing at US72.66c compared to US72.79c yesterday.
Meanwhile, the greenback climbed to three-month highs against the yen on receding expectations of a US interest rate cut later in the year. It closed locally at 121.67 yen, up from 121.49 yen yesterday.
The Kiwi dollar also lost some ground against its Australian cousin, slipping to A88.44c from A88.71c yesterday.
The local currency showed limited reaction to a quarterly Reserve Bank survey showing inflationary expectations for the next two years had steadied in the second quarter.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10441360
Team New Zealand make final
New 2:45AM
Thursday May 24, 2007
By Julie Ash
Team New Zealand shrugged off Valencia's turbulent weather to clinch their Louis Vuitton Cup semifinal early today.
It was as if the weather gods had decided this was Emirates Team New Zealand's day. The sky was blue but the wind was howling.
Desafio Espanol struggled in the churning waves but for the New Zealanders it was just like being at home.
Their 5-2 series over the Spanish means they will line up against Italians Luna Rossa in a best of nine series starting on June 1.
Yachting: De Angelis aiming for third time lucky
5:00AM
Wednesday May 23, 2007
By Julie Ash
Luna Rossa skipper Francesco de Angelis. Photo / Reuters
Luna Rossa skipper Francesco de Angelis will go into the challenger series final in Valencia having learned from his previous two campaigns.
De Angelis and Prada are now in their third campaign. They made their impressive debut in 2000, beating America One in an epic battle to advance to the America's Cup match.
"The first one taught us about enthusiasm and how you approach it for the first time, not knowing much but just having a lot of drive and focus and how that can lead to success," he said.
The Italian syndicate returned in 2003, only to be eliminated in the semifinals. The campaign was marred by dissatisfaction with their boat speed.
"The second one we learned you can sometimes make things complicated by yourself.
"This time I was thinking about that and I tried to make it as simple as I could. Just to have simpler and more clear goals, enjoy the game, keep up your schedule and surround yourself with good people."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10441246
Julie Ash: Oracle didn't see it coming
5:00AM
Tuesday May 22, 2007
By Julie Ash
Software entrepreneur Larry Ellison invested almost $400 million into Oracle's America's challenge - for no return.
America's Cup
Yachting: De Angelis aiming for third time lucky
Bad weather delays racing in America's Cup overnight
They stayed on the boat for a long time ... a very long time ... after arriving back at the base.
BMW Oracle Racing, the team many thought would challenge Alinghi for the America's Cup, had just been tossed out of the Louis Vuitton challengers' series by Luna Rossa. Not lightly tossed either, more like biffed out.
Luna Rossa beat them 5-1 in a best-of-nine series. Not only that, they led Oracle around every single mark in every race.
After what seemed like forever, the Oracle sailors got up and applauded politely as the victorious Luna Rossa crew sailed by.
Among those on the dock was Chris Dickson, the man who had earlier been taken off the boat by syndicate owner Larry Ellison.
Ellison told Dickson of his decision the night before. At 7am, the news had spread through the wives' network. At 10am, Luna Rossa boss Patrizio Bertelli heard. Then came the media statement.
So what went wrong with the team that had everything?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10441013
Guards get prisoners to work on their yachts, cars
6:45PM Wednesday May 23, 2007
More allegations of corruption have been levelled against prison guards, including claims they used prisoners to refit their 40 foot (12.19m) yacht and work on their cars in exchange for steaks and roasts.
National's corrections spokesman Simon Power asked in Parliament today whether there were more allegations on top of recent claims that prisoners had been taken home by guards to do household chores.
"Can he (Corrections Minister Damien O'Connor) confirm allegations that inmates working in the garage at Auckland prison serviced the cars of staff," Mr Power asked.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10441366
Truce lets Palestinians flee Lebanon camp (+video)
Page 1 of 2 11:20AM Wednesday May 23, 2007By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
A family is evacuated from Nahr al-Bared. Photo / Reuters
NAHR AL-BARED, Lebanon - Thousands of Palestinians fled a battered refugee camp in north Lebanon on Tuesday when a fragile truce eased three days of fierce battles between Lebanese army troops and Islamist militants.
Flying white flags from their car windows, up to 10 people crammed into some vehicles as they fled Nahr al-Bared camp. But the truce was interrupted by sporadic gunfire and residents begged visiting reporters to evacuate them.
Two people lay in pools of blood in the street. It was unclear if they were dead or wounded. A man trying to carry a wounded woman to safety left her in the street when bullets began flying.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10441317
Fletcher Building buys US firm for $1 billion
Page 1 of 2 10:10AM
Wednesday May 23, 2007
Fletcher Building said today it would buy United States-based Formica Corporation for US$700 million ($977m) from private equity firms.
It said it would also issue shares to raise around $300m to help fund the acquisition which would be earnings positive in the 2008 fiscal year.
Ohio-based Formica is a global manufacturer and distributor of decorative surfacing products with businesses in Asia, Europe and North America.
It has 12 manufacturing and 33 distribution facilities spread across those regions.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10441305
Fisheries bill delayed after lobbying by Labour's Maori MPs
5:00AM
Wednesday May 23, 2007
By Claire Trevett
Jim Anderton
A bill to give greater protection to fish stocks has been delayed and could be watered down as Labour's Maori caucus fights for a compromise to appease fractious Maori fishing interests.
The Fisheries Amendment Bill favours conservation over commercial interests in cases where scientific information on a fish stock is inconclusive. It is opposed by powerful Maori fishing interests, who fear it would cut catch limits and erode the wealth endowed by the Treaty fisheries settlements of 1992.
Yesterday, the primary production select committee was given until August 31 - instead of June 12 - to consider the bill after concerns that the legislation was pushed into Parliament with little consultation.
The delay is a blow to Fisheries Minister Jim Anderton who wanted it passed in time to apply to the round of decisions due by the start of the fishing season in November.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10441264
Yachting: Team NZ races into Louis Vuitton final
VALENCIA - Team New Zealand beat Desafio Espanol by 1m 18s early today to advance to the final of the Louis Vuitton Cup, finishing the series 5-2.
The New Zealanders had the race won at the start after skipper Dean Barker boxed the Spanish out and powered over the line 14s ahead .
"That boat looks superb," was radio commentator Matthew Sheahan's description of NZL92 as her bow went down and she ploughed through the lumpy Mediterranean Sea.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10441364
Yachting: People, not technology, win America's Cup says Alinghi chief
Alinghi's general manager and design co-ordinator Grant Simmer says the failure of Chris Dickson's Oracle campaign proves the America's Cup is not just a technological game.
Dickson's BMW Oracle Racing were a surprise omission from the challenger series after they were comprehensively beaten by Luna Rossa 5-1 in the semifinals.
The American syndicate, backed by Oracle boss Larry Ellison, were the best-funded team in the competition and with BMW as a sponsor had plenty of engineering and design resources available.
But the issue for Oracle was not their boat but their people and a lack of chemistry between them, especially in the back of the boat with the volatile Dickson.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10441434
Can the Cutty Sark be ship-shape again?
Why are we asking this question now?
The Cutty Sark - the world's most famous clipper ship - was badly damaged following a fire that broke out on Monday. The fire burned for an hour and a half before it was brought under control. During that time the main deck and the 'tween deck were completely destroyed with some 30 tonnes of timber going up in smoke. Some of the ship's ironwork is thought to have buckled as a result of the intense heat. The site has been designated a crime scene because of suspicions that the fire may have been arson.
What would be the main obstacle to rebuilding the Cutty Sark?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10441446
Aucklanders face 8 years of water bill rises
Water bills are set to rise across the Auckland region with the monopoly water supplier planning eight years of price increases to pay for capital works.
First in line to pay higher bills are Auckland City householders and businesses. They face a 9.1 per cent rise after the Citizens & Ratepayers Now group voted in secret with Auckland Mayor Dick Hubbard and his deputy, Bruce Hucker, yesterday to push through the increase.
This will lift the average household water bill from $800 a year to $1000.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10441485
Farmers set for extra $140,000 dairy payout
Dairy farmers look set to get a bumper payout that could boost their incomes by $140,000 next season.
The farmers' marketing co-operative, Fonterra, is forecasting a 27 per cent jump in the price of milk solids next season.
The average Fonterra farmer receives about $490,000 a season, but the higher payout combined with a small expected lift in overall production could increase this to nearly $630,000.
Fonterra chief executive Andrew Ferrier said the record prices were a result of several factors including the continuing impact of reduced exports from the European Union, a surge in consumption in the United States that had absorbed excess production, and the drought in Australia.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10441482
UK wants clean, green and nuclear
LONDON - Britain will today set out plans for a major policy shake-up to secure energy supplies and fight global warming, calling for new nuclear power plants and stressing key roles for businesses and individuals.
Britain's North Sea oil and gas supplies are dwindling and it is keenly aware of what happened when Russia briefly cut gas supplies to Ukraine last year, disrupting supplies to Europe.
It also wants to meet its carbon emission cut targets, which are about to become legally binding.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10441440
Warehouse balloons tint Great Barrier Island red
The Department of Conservation is concerned that hundreds of helium balloons released by The Warehouse to celebrate its 25th birthday have washed up on Great Barrier Island.
Apart from the visual pollution there is concern that wildlife might mistake the balloons for food.
The 13,000 balloons were released two weeks ago from Dairy Flat.
An Auckland woman visiting the island a fortnight ago was shocked to find hundreds of the balloons around the high-tide mark of Kaitoke Beach on the east coast.
DoC yesterday confirmed 10 balloons had been found at Mabey's Beach to the north.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10441480
Rice farmers turn to poppies
BAGHDAD - Farmers in southern Iraq have started for the first time to grow opium poppies in their fields, sparking fears that Iraq might become a serious drugs producer along the lines of Afghanistan.
Rice farmers in the fertile plain along the Euphrates, just to the west of Diwaniyah, south of Baghdad, have stopped cultivating rice and are instead planting poppies, Iraqi sources familiar with the area say.
The shift to opium cultivation is still in its early stages but there is little the Iraqi Government can do about it because rival Shiite militias and their surrogates in the security forces control Diwaniyah. There have been clashes between militias, police, Iraqi Army and US forces in the city over the last two months.
The shift to opium production is taking place in the well-irrigated land west and south of Diwaniyah around the towns of Ash Shamiyah, al Ghammas and Ash-Shinafiyah. The farmers are said to be having problems in growing the poppies because of the intense heat and high humidity.
It is too dangerous for foreign journalists to visit Diwaniyah but the start of opium poppy cultivation is attested by two students from there and a source in Basra familiar with the Iraqi drugs trade.
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10441449
Meat sales gut japan's fish market
TOKYO - Japanese, the world's top fish consumers, may soon be eating more meat than fish because of higher prices and a growing sense that preparing seafood is messy and complicated.
Rising demand from other countries, including China, has helped push fish prices higher in recent years, particularly for higher-end items such as tuna, while quota reductions have added to the pressure.
A Government report released yesterday said for the year to March 31 Japanese consumers bought an average 12.7kg of seafood a person in 2005, compared with 12.6kg of meat.
"It seems clear that fish consumption may soon be overcome by meat consumption unless something is done," a Fisheries Agency official said.
Fish purchases peaked in 1965 at 16kg a person, compared with 6kg of meat, but they have declined steadily since then as meat purchases rose.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10441454
Wall St set for another pay bonanza
On Wall St, the rich are about to get even richer.
Investment bankers and many traders may see bonuses rise 15 per cent from elevated 2006 levels, as profitability grows from international operations, proprietary trading and derivatives, according to a study released yesterday by Johnson Associates, a prominent compensation consultant in New York.
Incentive pay on Wall St for workers in the private equity sphere may rise 20 per cent or more, the study said, as low borrowing costs fuel record buyout activity.
Goldman Sachs in April closed a US$20 billion ($27.5 billion) fund, while Blackstone Group, which is preparing to go public, said it had raised US$19.6 billion for its latest fund.
Not all financial services workers will benefit equally.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10441445
Exchange rate catches up with F&P balance sheet
Promising gains in the snoring sector have not helped Fisher & Paykel Healthcare avoid the choking effect of the high New Zealand dollar.
In its results for the year ended March 31, the New Zealand-based healthcare giant reported an 18 per cent drop in net profit to $57.6 million.
This was despite a 27 per cent rise in revenue from products designed to alleviate obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a breathing condition often associated with snoring.
Other core product groups grew strongly, with a 15 per cent rise in revenue from its humidification products and 25 per cent from its neonatal and warming devices boosting overall trading revenue to a record $349.3 million.
"The aggregate revenue rise was up 20 per cent, in constant currency terms over the prior year," chief executive Michael Daniell said.
But a 79 per cent drop in net foreign exchange hedging gains to $7.9 million didn't help its pre-tax profit, which slumped to $89.6 million from $104.1 million.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10441443
Bogus email tries to fool ATM users
Don't be fooled into thinking there's a cunning way to get police to come to your aid if you are ever forced to withdraw money from an ATM machine.
Internet users are receiving bogus emails that promise banking customers just that - a false sense of security.
The bogus email claims if a robber or kidnapper ever forces you to withdraw money from an ATM machine, police will automatically come to your aid if you enter your pin number in backwards.
However Auckland police have confirmed that the email is a complete fabrication. "It is too far fetched to be believable," a police source said.
The bogus emails have found their way into Work and Income contact centres in Auckland and Hamilton, and the Crime Prevention Unit based in Wellington.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/12/story.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=10441251
Fran O'Sullivan: The new employee super-class is here
Michael Cullen's yellow Lamborghini - the one he admits to salivating over - is getting a lot closer now after his Budget skewed the KiwiSaver tax cuts trade-off in favour of employees.
Well-paid employees like cabinet ministers, company executives, the legions of public servants cluttering up Wellington cafes - and all those who have enough spare cash washing around to fling into a KiwiSaver account - will do well as they take advantage of the implicit tax breaks they will pocket by tucking away 4 per cent of their income into a new range of piggy banks.
Particularly once their employers are compelled to match them dollar for dollar up to 4 per cent of wage or salary levels.
I'm sure the Finance Minister did not set out to create a new employee super-class.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/12/story.cfm?c_id=12&objectid=10440489
Tsunami phone alert system on way
A new high-tech warning phone system will soon be available for residents on Auckland's North Shore to alert them of a tsunami, a move council and civil defence officials hope will save lives in an emergency.
The tsunami alert system, designed to warn 15,000 homes and businesses in a matter of seconds, was approved by North Shore City Council and Civil Defence to prepare for a tsunami. It is expected to be operational by July.
Residents living in coastal areas identified as danger zones will receive a letter next week inviting them to join in the city's new high-tech telephone alert system - one of the first of its kind in New Zealand.
Homes up to 15 metres from the coast along North Shore City will be sent the letter, from Long Bay, through the East Coast Bays to Devonport and the upper harbour suburbs. Lake Pupuke is also identified as high-risk.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10441468
Minister struggles to show where $4b in health cash went
The number of outpatient assessments by public hospital surgeons and physicians is declining, which the National Party says is adding to people's difficulties in getting non-urgent hospital care.
But after fighting to defend his health system in Parliament yesterday, Health Minister Pete Hodgson later produced new figures showing a 6 per cent increase in the number of patients receiving state-paid elective surgery - following two years of declining numbers.
"Wrong again, Mr Ryall," his office crowed after Tony Ryall, National's health spokesman, had asserted that fewer people were getting elective operations.
But Mr Ryall's figures - which report a different aspect of publicly funded elective services - show first assessments and follow-ups declined 1.9 per cent in five years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10441267
New test assesses risk of self-harm
5:00AM
Thursday May 24, 2007
A new behavioural test that does not rely on the patient to express his or her thoughts appears to identify those who are at risk of cutting and other self-injurious behaviours, a new study shows.
"People have engaged in self-injurious behaviour for thousands of years, and a dilemma as old as the problem itself is that the only method we have of assessing thoughts of self-injury is to ask a person if he is thinking about hurting himself," said Dr Matthew K. Nock of Harvard University.
The problem is that people often do not want to tell others about their self-injurious thoughts or plans "because they are embarrassed, they do not want to be stopped, or possibly because they are unaware of the severity of their self-injurious thoughts".
Dr Nock and colleagues tested a new method of assessing peoples' thoughts using their reaction time on a computerised test showing images and words related to self-injury. The test revealed significant differences in the responses of people who had engaged in non-suicidal self-injury compared with those who had not.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10441373
Israeli passenger plane in landing scare
New 7:15AM Thursday May 24, 2007
An Israeli plane with 163 passengers made an emergency landing in Berlin last night.
Smoke was detected in the cabin of the Israir flight 251 during landing at Schoenefeld.
An attack was ruled out.
Tracey Barnett: All the president's sharks
…This isn't just another political shark tale. This story is every American's worst nightmare - when the balance of justice may have tipped because of one man's instinct to turn his car around that night to guard the signature of his ill boss.
This political screenplay now being shown before the American people for the first time is just the tip of the stories that Americans will not want to hear - the consequences of their second vote for George Bush and his Administration's unrelenting drive to concentrate power into the office of the President.
Don't look for a satisfying Hollywood ending just yet. One of the late-night hospital visitors was Gonzales, at present under fire by Congress. He now heads the very Department of Justice he tried to steamroll that night. That's a sequel frightening enough to make American voters keep their eyes wide open in this dark political night,
EU lays out ship dismantling proposals
9:20AM Wednesday May 23, 2007
BRUSSELS - The European Commission has published proposals to tighten rules on ship breaking to make it less dangerous and more environmentally sound.
It said most ship breaking took place in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan, where accident rates were high and pollution from the ships hit the coastline.
The 27-nation European Union could improve checks at its ports to ensure that ships do not leave the EU full of hazardous materials, it said in a report.
It also suggested giving financial aid to countries where ships are dismantled to help them protect their workers against the toxic materials that emerge when a ship is broken up.
It said the EU could also consider increasing its own capacity for ship breaking.
The report, which will now draw comment from EU governments and other interested parties, leaves open the possibility of EU subsidies for clean dismantling facilities in Europe.
Nine US warships in Gulf for show of force
US warships entering the Gulf.
Page 1 of 2
7:40AM
Thursday May 24, 2007
ABOARD USS JOHN C. STENNIS - A large flotilla of US warships sailed through the narrowest point in the Gulf in broad daylight on Wednesday to hold drills off Iran's coast in a major show of force that unnerved oil markets.
US Navy officials said Iran was not notified of plans to sail nine ships, including two aircraft carriers, through the Straits of Hormuz, a narrow channel in international waters off Iran's coast and a major artery for global oil shipments.
The manoeuvre raises pressure on the Islamic Republic, coinciding with the findings of the UN atomic watchdog that Iran had ignored Security Council demands and expanded uranium enrichment, which could lead to tougher sanctions.
Oil climbed towards US$70 ($97.68) as the US ships sailed into the straits, through which 40 per cent of globally traded oil passes.
Rear Admiral Kevin Quinn, who is leading the group, said the ships would conduct exercises as part of a long-planned effort to reassure regional allies of US commitment to Gulf security….
…US and Iranian ambassadors are due to meet on Monday in Baghdad to discuss security in Iraq, where the United States has accused Iran of fomenting violence. Iran denies the accusations.
On the way to the straits, a public announcement called on crew to witness "some of the most powerful ships in the world", whose tight formation against a backdrop of the setting sun created a dramatic image of American naval might.
Last month, the US Fifth Fleet base in Bahrain conducted its biggest crisis response drill and in March, the US navy conducted its biggest war drills in the Gulf since 2003.
Naval officials said the latest training would include air defence exercises and boarding ships posing as suspect vessels.
"If the Straits of Hormuz were to be closed or there were to be some conflict there, the shipping rates would go sky high," Quinn said.
NZ to host international talks on cluster bombs
5:00AM Thursday May 24, 2007
Phil Goff
New Zealand is hoping to build consensus around restrictions on cluster bombs at an international meeting it will host next year.
Disarmament and Arms Control Minister Phil Goff said delegates from more than 100 countries would attend the meeting in Wellington from February 18-22.
"The humanitarian crisis created by more than one million unexploded cluster munitions left in the wake of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict in Southern Lebanon last year demands a response on restricting the use of such munitions," Mr Goff said.
New Zealand had been part of a group of countries working to develop a new international agreement aimed at preventing such a situation happening again.
New York's yellow cabs to go green by 2012
11:55AM Wednesday May 23, 2007By Edith Honan
Hybrid taxis like this one will be a more common sight. Photo / Reuters
NEW YORK - New York City's famed yellow taxi cabs will go green within five years under a plan that could serve as a model for other large cities, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has announced.
He said 1000 hybrid taxis -- powered by petrol and electricity -- would be introduced by October 2008, and that hybrids would gradually replace the rest of the city's 13,000 taxi cabs by 2012.
New York already has 375 hybrid taxis on the road, more than any other US city, Bloomberg said.
"It will be the largest, cleanest fleet of taxis anywhere on the planet," Bloomberg said.
Police losing hope Maddy alive
5:00AM Wednesday May 23, 2007
Robert Murat. Photo / Reuters
LONDON - Police investigating the disappearance of Madeleine McCann are losing hope of finding her alive, the Portuguese media reported yesterday.
The search for the missing 4-year-old is being scaled down amid fears that she may have been murdered, a police source told the newspaper 24 Horas.
"There are strong suspicions that we are dealing with a sexual predator," the source said. "As a rule these individuals abuse their victims, kill them and get rid of the bodies. It is painful to say this but we must be realistic, the chances of finding her alive are getting less and less."
Conservationists want humpbacks off menu
5:00AM Wednesday May 23, 2007
Chris Carter
Japan raises stakes in pro-whaling campaign
Pro-whaling allies press for change
Anti-whaling countries will be relying on Japan's goodwill to drop plans to include 50 humpback whales in its scientific whaling programme, Conservation Minister Chris Carter says.
Mr Carter said conservation-minded countries would hold the whip hand at next week's International Whaling Commission meeting in Alaska but they would not be able to halt Japan adding new species to its scientific programme list.
"There's no way we can stop them listing species on their so-called "Japa 2" - their scientific programme in the Southern Ocean," Mr Carter said yesterday.
However, New Zealand and other countries were lobbying Japan to drop its plans to hunt the endangered species of whale.
"We are trying to persuade the Japanese to drop the humpbacks as a gesture of goodwill."
Aussie faces death in jail
5:00AM Wednesday May 23, 2007
CANBERRA - A Brisbane man is facing a possible death penalty in Sudan after being found guilty of murdering a Ukrainian engineer.
George Forbes, 45, who has been working for a private Kenyan company in southern Sudan, was arrested in March and charged with murder and several other offences.
A Department of Foreign Affairs spokesman said Forbes had been found guilty of murder overnight in a court in the southern city of Rumbek, but has not yet been sentenced.
"We expect Mr Forbes will be discussing his options, including a possible appeal with his lawyers," the spokesman said.
Answers sought on killer crater
5:00AM Thursday May 24, 2007
The inside of the Raoul Island volcano has been mapped by researchers in search of clues to an eruption.
Raoul Island volcano
New volcanoes discovered near Raoul
Raoul rescue team gets humanitarian award
Auckland University researchers have mapped inside the crater of the Raoul Island volcano which erupted in March last year killing Department of Conservation worker Mark Kearney.
"This will give us clues as to how the eruption occurred," said volcanologist Colin Wilson, who led the university team on a joint expedition with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research aboard research vessel Tangaroa.
The small eruption of gas and steam was at its most intense for only five minutes but coincided with Mr Kearney's arrival at the Green Lake inside the crater to take measurements.
The eruption followed a two-day earthquake swarm on the island, 1000km northeast of New Zealand.
Scientists believed the tremors 10km-13km from Green Lake were caused by tectonic plate movement rather than magma moving under the crater.
300 years after his birth, the rigour Carl Linnaeus brought to science matters more than ever
Page 1 of 3 5:00AM
Thursday May 24, 2007
By Michael McCarthy
The work of Carl Linnaeus, who created the system for classifying all living organisms, was one of the West's most important intellectual breakthroughs.
Happy anniversary: the man who gave us the key to the natural world was born 300 years ago yesterday. Carl Linnaeus, who created the system of scientific names that we still use for all living things, began life in a turf-roofed farmstead in southern Sweden on May 23, 1707.
He is the world's most famous Swede, surpassing in renown even the warrior-king Gustavus Adolphus, Strindberg, Ingmar Bergman and Abba. His face has decorated Swedish banknotes since 1894.
Since shortly after his death, Linnaeus' library, letters, papers and specimens, which make up one of the world's great scientific treasure-troves, have been in the care of the Linnean Society of London, at Burlington House, in London. The King of Sweden has just visited them. The Emperor of Japan (a keen marine biologist) is about to do so. Amid many celebratory meetings a recent issue of Nature, the world's leading scientific journal, was given over to Linnaeus' legacy.
Rhinos go missing
6:15AM Monday May 21, 2007
Nepal has begun a census of the endangered great one-horned rhinoceros population in a wildlife reserve where sightings of the animal have become rare, a national parks official says. Rhino experts on elephants will comb the Bardiya National Park and Wildlife Reserve where 83 rhinos from another reserve have been released since 1984.
Officials said dozens of rhinos appeared to have gone missing in recent years.
William Pesek: Time to look far beyond Kyoto
Page 1 of 2 5:00AM
Wednesday May 16, 2007
By
Guest ColumnistsClimate Change
Global warming puts the heat on Costa Rica's frogs
UK wants clean, green and nuclear
At a recent panel discussion in Kyoto, I asked a question that fell flat on an audience keen to hear views on reversing climate change.
The question: Isn't the Kyoto Protocol, which we expend so much time and energy debating, already dead?
You could hear a pin drop in front of the 200-plus audience. The suggestion that the United Nations framework to combat climate change isn't just unworkable, but irrelevant, bordered on heresy.
This column isn't arguing that global warming is a theory.
The scientific evidence that the actions of humans are altering the Earth's balance at an alarming rate is plenty convincing. For all the hand-wringing about the environment, world leaders aren't doing nearly enough.
"We need a revolution," Gerd Leipold, Amsterdam-based international executive director of Greenpeace International, told our audience at the Asian Development Bank's annual meeting, held in the same conference centre in which the treaty was devised in 1997.
Bus company makes eco-friendly move
10:09AM Tuesday May 15, 2007
Listen to Audio: Malcolm Johns, CEO of Intercity Group, with Newstalk ZB's Paul Holmes
Tourism transport operator InterCity Group has pledged to become the first national transport company in New Zealand to make all of its operations carbon neutral by 2010.
"We are on-track to having our operations certified carboNZero this year and the rest of our national tourism and transport operation certified within three years", said the company.
The company has signed up to Landcare Research's CarboNZero monitoring programme.
It can take several years to attain CarboNZero certification and those accredited must keep monitoring and managing their CO2 emissions and reporting their results each year for independent auditing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10439799
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