The Mail and Guardian
75 000 abducted by LRA
Samuel Okiror Egadu in Gulu
21 June 2007 11:25
A former child soldier at the World Vision's Children of War centre in Gulu, Uganda. (Photograph: Paul Botes )
A new report documenting violence in the 21-year-long conflict between Ugandan government forces and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army indicates that as many as 38 000 children and 37 000 adults have been abducted and forced to join the insurgents.
“Many of these children and adults are still unaccounted for, and more work is needed to identify the whereabouts of those still missing,” said Patrick Vinck, who led the study conducted by two American universities.
The report, “Abduction: the Lord’s Resistance Army and Forced Conscription in Northern Uganda”, was compiled by researchers from the University of California Berkeley’s Human Rights Centre and Tulane University’s Centre for International Development.
It is the result of a project launched in December 2005 to set up a database and provide better documentation about the phenomenon of abduction in northern Uganda. The researchers also trained local leaders at eight reception centres in Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, Apac and Lira districts to collect and analyse information on former LRA abductees.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312024&area=/insight/insight__africa/
Sierra Leone court delivers first war-crimes verdicts
Christo Johnson Freetown, Sierra Leone
20 June 2007 04:34
Sierra Leone's special war-crimes court handed down its first verdicts on Wednesday, finding three leaders of a militia guilty of war crimes that include killing, raping and mutilating civilians.
The verdicts against Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu stem from charges relating to Sierra Leone's 1991 to 2002 civil war that also target former Liberian president Charles Taylor, facing a separate trial in The Hague.
The three men were commanders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), former government soldiers who split from the army and sided with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels during the conflict that devastated the former British colony.
"They were found guilty but not on all counts," said Peter Andersen, a spokesperson for the Special Court for Sierra Leone.
The United Nations-backed tribunal found them guilty on 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity, which covered terrorising the civilian population, unlawful killings, rape, the use of child soldiers, abductions and forced labour, and looting.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311938&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Court stops police officers joining strike
Johannesburg, South Africa
22 June 2007 12:46
Police officers are not allowed to go on strike, the Johannesburg Labour Court ruled on Friday.
Meanwhile, protesters barged through the gates of the Public Service Coordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), in Centurion, ahead of further public-service wage talks between government and union negotiators.
Police called for reinforcements and cordoned off the street in front of the PSCBC after the few hundred protesters barged their way in. Negotiators were forced to park their cars blocks away and walk to the building.
At the Labour Court, acting Judge Vuyani Ngalwana confirmed an interim order granted last Friday preventing South African Police Service members from striking and the Police and Prison Civil Rights Union (Popcru) from encouraging its members to do so.
Ngalwana, however, amended the order to read that only officers employed under the South African Police Act cannot strike.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312120&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/
ANC: To the left, to the left?
Rapule Tabane and Vicki Robinson Johannesburg, South Africa
22 June 2007 07:22
Zwelinzima Vavi does not seem to run out of hyperbole to illustrate what is wrong with the government’s economic policies. "It is like a doctor saying an operation has been successful when the patient is dead," he said to great laughter when addressing a youth rally in Mangaung in the Free State last Saturday.
Vavi and many of his left-leaning comrades hope to use the policy conference starting on Wednesday June 27 at Gallagher Estate, Midrand, not only to save the patient, but also to remind the doctor that without the patient, there would be no need for a doctor.
The battle next week seems set to revolve around the party’s strategy and tactics document, which deals with the identity and visions of the ANC.
The left believes the current draft of the document will continue the economic growth trajectory, the potential of which the government lauds, but which the left believes has mostly benefited the elite, failing to make a dent in the conditions of the poor.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312049&area=/insight/insight__national/
The congress of paranoid minds
Vicki Robinson: COMMENT
11 June 2007 11:59
In the Free Republic of Aburiria, the fabled subject of Ngugi wa’Thiongo’s latest novel Wizard of the Crow, a nationwide queuing epidemic symbolic of a poverty-stricken nation whose basic needs are never met is fatally misinterpreted by The Ruler as a nefarious political conspiracy to usurp his power.
In the democratic Republic of South Africa, on his way to relieve himself during a football match at Ellis Park three weeks ago, Young Communist League national secretary Buti Manamela was jumped by a gunman. The YCL immediately suggested this could be part of a political conspiracy, not the crime his impoverished constituency faces every day.
All this raises the perennial question: is truth stranger than fiction?
“After a long tussle, the national secretary managed to escape unharmed,” a YCL press release declared. “This accident happens in the midst of growing sinister accidents (sic) attempts (sic) directed at senior leaders of the ANC and the SACP, namely the Deputy President of the ANC, comrade Jacob Zuma, and the general secretary of the SACP, comrade Blade Nzimande (pictured below left).”
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=310928&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/
ANC gears up for policy wars
Rapule Tabane, Vicki Robinson and Niren Tolsi
Johannesburg, South Africa
15 June 2007 07:19
Like the African National Congress's (ANC) national general council two years ago, the party's national policy conference in two weeks' time looks set to be an explosive affair.
In the run-up to the summit, to be held at Gallagher Estate in Midrand from June 27 to 30, some ANC provinces and regions are making an early bid to eliminate President Thabo Mbeki from the leadership race.
Several provinces are planning to propose the rejection of two centres of power in an attempt to dissuade Mbeki from standing for the ANC presidency. Under the Constitution, he is precluded from serving a third term as president of South Africa.
Debate over this matter is likely to pit the big regions, such as KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo -- both of which reject the two-term scenario -- against Western Cape, North West and the leadership of the Eastern Cape, which believe the debate is unnecessary and should therefore not preclude Mbeki from contesting the presidency.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311363&area=/insight/insight__national/
Mbeki to attend launch of new book on his presidency
Johannesburg, South Africa
22 June 2007 07:22
President Thabo Mbeki will attend the launch of a book on his governance by Ronald Suresh Roberts at the presidential guest house in Pretoria on Friday.
The book, Fit to Govern: The Native Intelligence of Thabo Mbeki, will be launched at 7pm.
An online advertising blurb for the book states that "this illuminating examination ... provides unprecedented access to the man and his ideas".
On Thursday, the Star columnist Max du Preez wrote: "It is little more than a diatribe and a hatchet job on Mbeki's critics."
Xolela Mangcu in Business Day said: "I bought the book thinking I would discover something about the political and intellectual influences of Mbeki's upbringing. Instead I am faced with a regurgitation of the same old hackneyed historical facts ... "
Last month author Rian Malan said Roberts had written "a load of impenetrable academic hooey".
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312050&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
The low ground
15 June 2007 07:59
Public servants who went on strike on June 1 risk losing the moral high ground with intimidation tactics that have diluted high levels of public sympathy.
President Thabo Mbeki’s decision to turn down a 55% increase for government ministers, proposed by the Moseneke Commission on the remuneration of public officers, has removed a key dynamic from the dispute; until now, unions have juxtaposed Mbeki’s mooted increase against government’s paltry offer to their members.
Where to now? Trade union leaders must surely acknowledge that in terms of South Africa’s highly progressive labour laws, procedural strikers are protected from dismissal.
But with these rights come responsibilities. There is no excuse for union members who deny others’ right of free association. The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union’s tactic of closing private schools, in some cases with threats, is unacceptable.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=311373&area=/insight/insight__editorials/
Mbeki bodyguard appears in court on murder charge
Cape Town, South Africa
22 June 2007 11:19
One of President Thabo Mbeki's VIP protection-unit bodyguards has appeared in court in Cape Town after allegedly shooting a man dead in a shebeen on the weekend.
The Western Cape head of the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), Thabo Leholo, confirmed on Friday that Sergeant Sabata Vula faced charges of murder and attempted murder.
He would be back in the Blue Downs Magistrate's Court on Tuesday for a bail application, which the ICD would oppose, Leholo said.
He said Vula was being charged with the murder of Reginald Mofemela, and the attempted murder of Ncebekazi Booi, who was shot in the right arm.
The Cape Argus has reported that Booi is believed to be Vula's girlfriend. -- Sapa
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/&articleid=312094
Zimbabwe currency crashes
Angus Shaw Harare, Zimbabwe
22 June 2007 07:22
The value of the Zimbabwean dollar suffered its worst crash in memory, dealers said, sparking a run on dollars and forcing stores to close early to put new prices on what little they could afford to stock.
Black market exchange rates -- fuelled by the central bank buying at the illegal rates to pay the mounting debts of crumbling state fuel and power utilities -- rose to upward of Z$300 000 to one United States dollar in large offshore deals, one trader said on Thursday.
The official exchange rate is 15 000 to one.
"It's gone crazy," said the trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his dealings are illegal. "People are holding out for the highest bidder and mentioning as much as 400 000 to one which could be tomorrow's price. It's changing by the hour."
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312051&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/
Fire guts Zim's sole newsprint producer
Harare, Zimbabwe
21 June 2007 05:35
A fire that broke out this week at Zimbabwe's only newsprint producer has crippled production, the official Herald daily said on Thursday.
Newsprint for the handful of newspapers still operating in Zimbabwe comes from the eastern border city of Mutare, which lies close to a number of timber plantations.
But in a dire blow for the struggling newspaper industry, firefighters had to be called in to Mutare Board and Paper Mills on Tuesday night to douse the flames of the freak fire, the report said.
"An alert worker on duty noticed the fire and tried to put it out, but failed. He then raised the fire alarm, said police spokesperson Brian Makomeke.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=312043
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http://www.amagama.com/
Make media accountable -- KZN
Niren Tolsi
22 June 2007 07:22
ANC delegates from KwaZulu-Natal will go to the party's national policy conference at Gallagher Estate on June 27 armed with a clutch of resolutions seeking, among other things, greater state control of the media and the abolition of the position of ANC national chairperson.
Other resolutions reflect disenchantment with government deployees and sympathy for ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma.
The KwaZulu-Natal ANC notes the lack of diversity in the media, a tendency to "propagate views contrary to the goals of the development of the country" and an "unsatisfactory" level of media accountability.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312065&area=/insight/insight__national/
Radio Gaga
21 June 2007 11:59
The Auckland Park top brass are quick to impute sinister motives when anyone suggests that the SABC behaves like a state broadcaster rather than the independent public service institution it is supposed to have become.
But they keep on giving us good reasons to do just that.
First, they lost the right to broadcast local club football, largely because they acted as if they were inherently entitled to it, rather than required to compete in the marketplace.
The SABC is a public broadcaster, but one which relies on advertising and sponsorship revenue. Because of this it is duty-bound to pitch for soccer rights in open procedures.
In losing the rights in the manner it did, the SABC arguably breached its public broadcasting mandate. The board should put in place an investigation into the acquisition of sports rights by the broadcaster and see what it paid for events like the A1 Grand Prix and the Winter Olympics.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312031&area=/insight/insight__editorials/
Nigerian troops kill militants at oil facility
Segun Owen Yengoa, Nigeria
21 June 2007 03:49
Nigerian troops killed 12 suspected militants and freed an unspecified number of hostages in a dawn raid on an Italian-operated oil facility in the Niger Delta on Thursday, the army said.
Italian oil giant Eni had said 16 Nigerian oil workers and 11 soldiers were being held hostage at the Ogbainbiri flow station since Sunday, but the army said they found only 11 oil workers there.
"We launched a dawn attack, took over the flow station intact and rescued some hostages. The militants sustained casualties, 12 of them," said Brigadier General Lawrence Ngubane, who commands the military in the region.
The casualty figure was preliminary, he added, because troops were still "mopping up" the area, located deep in the swamps of Bayelsa state in southern Nigeria.
A spokesperson for Eni subsidiary Agip, which operates the oilfield station, was not immediately available for comment.
There have been conflicting reports about the number of hostages being held at the platform. A company official initially said there were 12, but Eni headquarters in Italy issued a statement saying there were 27, including 11 soldiers.
Ngubane said there were no soldiers there when his troops attacked and they found only 11 oil workers on the facility. He did not say how many were freed unharmed.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=312020
Somalia imposes curfew as killings mount
Guled Mohamed Mogadishu, Somalia
21 June 2007 02:49
Somali authorities have announced plans to impose a curfew on the capital, Mogadishu, where at least five people were killed on Thursday in the latest violence to undermine government attempts to restore law.
Two police officers died when hand grenades were lobbed at officers patrolling Mogadishu's Bakara market, witnesses said.
The police opened fire in the direction of the attackers, scattering the crowds and killing at least three civilians.
"Everybody is running away. I am now closing my shop. Business has come to a standstill," shopkeeper Mohammed Abdi told Reuters.
Another trader, Ibrahim Hussein, was also going home to escape the chaos. "I saw one dead police officer while another one was lying writhing in pain. He was very seriously wounded. I don't think he will survive," he said.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=312009
Overnight violence claims lives in Kenya
Tom Odula Nairobi, Kenya
22 June 2007 12:29
Eleven people were killed in and around the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, during a surge in violence overnight, including two people found beheaded and eight killed in a shootout, police said on Friday.
Three people -- including the two who were beheaded -- were found slain in Banana Hill on the outskirts of Nairobi, where police have been cracking down on a banned sect called Mungiki, which is accused of a string of beheadings.
Kiplimo Rugut, the Provincial Commissioner of Central Province, confirmed the three were found dead. A police officer at the scene, who didn't want to be named because he was not authorised to speak to the press, said two were beheaded.
In a separate incident, police shot eight suspects who were trying to rob a warehouse of the Kenya Electricity Generating Company, said Julius Muthuri, police official in the industrial area of Nairobi.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=312117
Libya to supply Kenya with cheaper oil
Stephanie Nieuwoudt Nairobi, Kenya
22 June 2007 11:19
Kenya is set to receive oil from Libya at preferential rates according to a bilateral agreement signed earlier this month between the leaders of the two countries.
Insiders in the oil industry say this makes it likely that Kenya will award the contract for the establishment of a petroleum facility of $45-million and a truck and rail loading project worth $22-million to a Libya-connected investor.
The projects will be subjected to competitive bidding by foreign investors but the two countries have already entered into discussions about the projects.
Libya has also shown interest in upgrading Kenya's outdated and badly maintained petroleum refinery. The cost of the upgrade is estimated at $322-million.
According to a memorandum of understanding between the two countries, Libya may supply up to 60% of the 1,6-million tons of crude oil that Kenya needs to make its refinery commercially viable. In total, the country needs 2,8-million tons of both crude and refined oil.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/&articleid=312093
Kenya jails ex-leader of killer sect
Nairobi, Kenya
21 June 2007 12:41
A Kenyan court on Thursday jailed the former leader of a banned sect blamed for a string of beheadings and murders in recent months, judicial sources said.
Amid a nationwide crackdown on the Mungiki gang in which thousands were detained, Nairobi principal magistrate Rosemary Mutoka slapped a five-year prison sentence on Maina Njenga for illegal possession of arms.
"I find that the prosecution has proved its case beyond reasonable doubt to sustain a conviction. The offence of being in possession of a firearm without a licence is serious," Mutoka said.
Njenga, who was arrested in February 2006, was also handed a two-year term for possessing cannabis, but both sentences will run concurrently.
After his remand, Njenga relinquished the leadership of the Mungiki, a sect that was banned after deadly violence in Nairobi slums.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__africa/&articleid=311997
More must be done to empower women, says report
Johannesburg, South Africa
22 June 2007 11:42
South Africa lacks women in high positions, the Public Service Commission (PSC) has found.
A lot still needed to be done to empower women, the PSC said in a report released on Friday.
"Critical in this endeavour is the creation of an enabling environment to ensure that women's talents and potential are harnessed and nurtured for the benefit of the South African society as a whole," it said.
"The challenge to institutions in the public service is to change their organisational culture in order to be more responsive to the needs of women civil servants," it said.
Policies and programmes that allowed for gender inequalities had to be reshaped.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__business/&articleid=312108
Tense calm returns to Lebanon camp after battle
Yara Bayoumy Nahr al-Bared, Lebanon
22 June 2007 11:42
An uneasy calm settled over a Palestinian refugee camp in north Lebanon on Friday after the Lebanese army declared victory in 33 days of fighting against al-Qaeda-inspired militants.
The battle for Nahr al-Bared camp in which 172 people were killed was Lebanon's worst outbreak of internal violence since a 1975 to 1990 civil war.
Smoke curled from buildings shattered by shelling at one entrance to the camp, but only a few explosions and a brief rattle of gunfire after dawn broke the silence. Security sources said the blasts were caused by soldiers blowing up booby trapped buildings and mines laid by the militants.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=312099
North Korea ready to shut reactor -- US envoy
Jon Herskovitz Seoul, South Korea
22 June 2007 09:49
The top United States nuclear envoy, just returned from a rare visit to North Korea, said on Friday that Pyongyang was ready to promptly disable its nuclear reactor and live up to pledges it made in a February disarmament agreement.
Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the highest-ranking State Department official to visit the reclusive state in nearly five years, said talks during his some-24-hour surprise trip to Pyongyang were detailed and positive.
"The DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] indicated that they are prepared, promptly, to shut down the Yongbyon facility as called for in the February agreement," Hill told a news conference in Seoul.
The Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the communist state's full name, has long sought direct contact with Washington.
The Soviet-era Yongbyon reactor -- the North's source for weapons-grade plutonium -- and nearby reprocessing facility are at the heart of its nuclear arms programme.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=312095
Nader considers 2008 bid for White House
22 June 2007 09:49
Ralph Nader, the independent candidate blamed by many Americans for United States President George Bush's election victory in 2000, says he is considering a run for the White House next year -- even at the risk of dishing the Democrats again.
The left-of-centre Nader, who made his name as a consumer rights campaigner, won only 2,74% of the national popular vote seven years ago. But his 97 448 tally in Florida is widely believed to have thwarted the Democrat Al Gore, who lost the state -- and the presidency -- to Bush by 537 votes.
Nader said he knew he would be accused of acting as spoiler again if he decided to run. But it was essential that the country be offered a real choice in 2008 and it would be the Democrats' own fault if they did not win, he said.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=312089
Standing ovation for Blair at final Cabinet meeting
Phil Hazlewood London, United Kingdom
21 June 2007 02:04
British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday received a standing ovation and ringing praise from his senior ministers as he chaired an emotional last Cabinet meeting before leaving office.
Among the tributes paid was one from incoming premier Gordon Brown, who told Blair that his achievements in office had transformed the country in the last 10 years.
"Whatever we achieve in the future will be because we are standing on your shoulders," the finance minister said, according to Blair's official spokesperson.
Blair (54) officially leaves office on June 27, three days after handing over the leadership of the governing Labour Party to 56-year-old Brown.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=312004
Pakistani traders offer reward for Rushdie beheading
Islamabad, Pakistan
21 June 2007 04:13
Pakistani traders on Thursday announced a reward of 10-million rupees (%165 000) for anyone who beheads Salman Rushdie following Britain's decision to award the novelist a knighthood.
The announcement came during a protest by 200 traders at Aabpara market, one of the main bazaars in the capital, Islamabad, an Agence France-Presse photographer said.
"We will give 10-million rupees to anyone who beheads Rushdie," the secretary general of the Islamabad Traders' Association, Ajmal Baluch, told the cheering crowd.
He also called on Islamic countries to boycott British products in protest at the honour to Rushdie, the author of The Satanic Verses, which some Muslims consider blasphemous.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/&articleid=312028
Lights out in London -- for a good cause
London, United Kingdom
21 June 2007 04:05
Some of London's key landmarks and top hotels are to go dark for an hour on Thursday evening as the British capital does its bit for the fight against global warming and turns off its lights.
The Houses of Parliament, luxury hotels like the Ritz, and key businesses have confirmed they will take part in the "Lights Out" campaign from 9pm to 10pm local time on Thursday.
The initiative, spearheaded by a local radio station and backed by mayor Ken Livingstone, comes on the longest day of the year in Britain when the sun is due to set in the British capital at 9.21pm local time.
"Excessive illumination contributes to climate change and you may like to join in, if you are in London tonight, the London Lights Out campaign," said Ben Bradshaw, Minister of State for the Environment, in Parliament.
Also participating are the Canary Wharf financial district and the 175m tall BT Tower.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=312019
Indian cops charge three-year-old for rioting, shooting
Patna, India
21 June 2007 02:04
Police in India have charged a three-year-old boy for allegedly leading a group of rioters and firing at security personnel, the toddler's uncle said on Thursday.
The incident dates back to a clash in the eastern state of Bihar between villagers and police in January, when officers were pelted with stones and shot at, Dhruv Kumar Jha said.
Shortly afterwards, the young Raj Kumar was "charged with throwing stones at the police and firing at them", he said.
The family ignored three summonses, prompting uniformed police to turn up at their house and tell the dumbfounded parents to produce the child before the authorities.
But hope is not lost, with the family insisting the boy has a rock-solid alibi.
"He was at his grandmother's house on the day of the clash. So the question of him being there does not arise," Jha asserted.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=312006
SA police detain horse in stolen-car swoop
Johannesburg, South Africa
20 June 2007 11:41
A horse was detained by police on Tuesday during an arrest operation over the theft of a vehicle in South Africa's Soweto township.
"We have apprehended a horse and two suspects for being in possession of a suspected stolen vehicle," police spokesperson Captain Lindiwe Mbatha said.
"Cops patrolling the township pulled over a cart carrying a stripped body of a brand new car, a Corolla Conquest, suspected to have been stolen.
"The cart was drawn by a horse with two suspects on board. They were locked [up] for being in possession of a suspected stolen vehicle and will appear in court within 48 hours," Mbatha said.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=311870
Bears starve as poachers pillage wealth of salmon
22 June 2007 09:49
Sitting in his snug log cabin next to the swirling Bystraya river, Alexander explained when he went fishing.
"Sometimes we do in the day. Sometimes we do it at night. There's no set time," he admitted, passing round a tub of mouth-wateringly delicious wild salmon and a chunk of brown bread.
"In the winter we dig holes in the ice and fish. We also shoot geese," he said, showing photos of himself cradling his rifle in a large snow hole, next to his floppy-eared retriever Bzhik.
Alexander is a poacher. Not a solitary amateur but part of a professional gang, equipped with boats and a four-wheel drive jeep. In an outbuilding, poachers in green fatigues were carefully repairing their nets. His workplace is Kamchatka, a remote volcanic peninsula on Russia's Pacific coast, 12 000km and nine time zones east of Moscow.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312080&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Doggone! It's online networking for canines
Helene Labriet-Gross San Francisco, United States
21 June 2007 03:31
Teenagers have online cliques at MySpace; students star in Facebook; LinkedIn is an internet networking stage for professionals; and dogs and their human counterparts run with the pack at Dogster.
San Francisco-based Dogster is a flourishing social-networking website for canines, referred to as "animal companions" instead of "pets" in the politically correct City by the Bay.
Among the furry friends featured on the website is Annie, an 11-month-old female beagle from the American state of Tennessee. Annie loves carrots, belongs to a group called "Beagles R Us" and is humbly described as "nice with large ears".
Her roster of friends includes Tank, a Shar Pei in South Africa; a New York City golden retriever named Copper; and Beanie, a poodle living in Malaysia.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=312013&area=/insight/insight_tech/
San Francisco Chronicle
OSHA: SF Zoo at fault for tiger attack
Patricia Yollin, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, June 21, 2007
(06-21) 21:01 PDT -- The San Francisco Zoo is at fault for last December's gruesome tiger attack on a keeper, according to a probe by the state's workplace safety agency.
"It was obvious that any of the cats could reach through or under the bars and that a potential hazard zone extended approximately 18 inches from the cage face," concluded the report by California's Division of Occupation Safety and Health.
Lori Komejan was mauled by Tatiana, a 350-pound Siberian tiger, on the afternoon of Dec. 22 -- exactly six months ago -- as dozens of horrified visitors watched. The incident occurred inside the Lion House after a routine public feeding of the big cats.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/21/BAG43QJSON44.DTL
US Military: 14 Troops Killed in 2 Days
By HAMID AHMED, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, June 21, 2007
(06-21) 07:04 PDT BAGHDAD, (AP) --
The U.S. military said 14 American troops have died in several attacks in the past 48 hours, including five slain Thursday in a single roadside bombing that also killed four Iraqis in Baghdad.
Elsewhere, a suicide truck bomber struck the Sulaiman Bek city hall in a predominantly Sunni area of northern Iraq, killing at least 16 people and wounding 67, an Iraqi commander said.
The latest U.S. deaths raised to at least 3,545 the number of American troops who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
The deadliest attack was a roadside bomb that struck a convoy in northeastern Baghdad on Thursday, killing five U.S. soldiers, three Iraqi civilians and one Iraqi interpreter, the military said.
A rocket-propelled grenade struck a vehicle in northern Baghdad about 12:30 p.m. Thursday, killing one soldier and wounding three others, another statement said.
Four other U.S. soldiers were killed and one was wounded Wednesday when their convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in a western neighborhood in the capital, the military said separately.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/21/international/i070409D30.DTL
General Pace today in The Washington Post - The Post is getting to be very sad by the way. It dare not 'take on' the Bush White House or it's readship will disappear, evidently. The formerly brave Washington Post, considering it's readership, has resorted to following up on all the exposes' of The New York Times, which tell all the wrong deeds of Bush. The Washington Post has found it can follow up on all these 'established' concerns while still pandering to the inner beltway.
Iraq Deaths Don't Mean Failure, Pace Says
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 22, 2007; Page A13
The recent rise in U.S. troop deaths in Iraq is the "wrong metric" to use in assessing the effectiveness of the new security strategy for Baghdad, Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the outgoing chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday in a news conference with Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates.
Despite military reports to Congress that use numbers of attacks and overall levels of violence as an important gauge of Iraq's security status, Gates and Pace told reporters at the Pentagon yesterday that violence is not a useful measure of progress. Setting the stage for mandatory reports to Congress in September, both officials said violence could go up in the summer months as troops try to give the Iraqi government time to set the country on the right track.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/21/AR2007062101204.html?hpid=topnews
Well, what does mean failure? Lossing the army but winning the war? That is success? What exactly is success in Pace's reality? Killing everyone in sight while the same happens to the USA military? Dear God, man, how many people, innocent people will die because he doesn't even care about the deaths of your own people?
A Neocon miltiary for the USA is nothing short of a horror. These people are murderous. The priorities they have for this nation decries decency. It has nothing to do with the security of this country. Pace is a puppet to Bush and Gates, it's just that simple. Iraq has nothing to do with the well being of the USA. Previous to the invasion into Iraq there was no so called al Qaeda in Iraq. They followed the USA there. We leave, they leave and they will follow the USA straight back to Afghanistan where NATO and the Brits are having one miserable time stemming the resurgence of the Taliban. This country needs to get it's head screwed back on straight and The Washington Post isn't helping. The Washington Post is endangering all chances of peace and exit from the Middle East for it's pandering to the Neocons.
Marketing health
Friday, June 22, 2007
DON'T CRY for Froot Loops.
Ads for an icon of the sugary-cereal kingdom will soon disappear from Saturday morning television programming intended for children.
It's part of a growing, and most welcome, acceptance by the food industry that food advertising directed at children can be bad for their health.
In a remarkable agreement, the Kellogg Co., the giant of the U.S. cereal industry, has pledged to phase out advertising of Froot Loops and other food products that don't meet agreed-upon nutrition standards on media intended mostly for children under the age of 12.
It's less significant that the agreement came in response to a threatened lawsuit filed by two advocacy organizations, the Center of Science in the Public Interest and Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/06/22/EDGKOP3GPI1.DTL
School system fails English Learners
Jennifer Nelson
Friday, June 22, 2007
REMEMBER when California voters tossed out the traditional bilingual education program in 1998? Proposition 227, which won with 61 percent of the vote, ended the old "separate but equal" bilingual education programs by requiring the state's public schools to instruct children in English. After Prop. 227's passage, children who are not proficient in English moved from the old segregated programs into mainstream classrooms. Accounting for 1 in 4 students in the public schools, English Learner students now learn alongside their peers.
Nine years later, how are the English Learners -- or EL's as they are dubbed in the education policy world -- faring? The good news is that children who gain English proficiency do as well or better than their English-only counterparts. The bad news is that many children are not qualifying as English proficient as quickly as they could, which means they are not successfully mastering their studies.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/06/22/EDGKOP3GP61.DTL
BART'S NEW VISION: MORE, BIGGER, FASTER
Michael Cabanatuan, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 22, 2007
Fifty years from now, BART riders might commute to San Francisco through a second Transbay Tube and travel down a new rail line along Geary Boulevard or take trains along Interstate 680 from Fremont to Martinez.
They could ride on driverless trains with cars featuring six doors, more standing room and flat-panel video screens that show maps, news and weather reports. Trains running closer together could serve new stations in places such as Jack London Square in Oakland, 30th and Mission streets in San Francisco, and Solano Avenue in Albany. Some trains might skip stops, quickly speeding commuters from distant stations to Oakland and San Francisco.
Those possibilities are part of the vision that BART and regional transportation officials have for the Bay Area's transportation backbone decades into the future. It was 50 years ago this month that the Legislature formed the Bay Area Rapid Transit District. BART officials figure now is a good time to plot a big-picture vision for the next 50. That effort coincides with a regional rail plan being prepared by a variety of Bay Area transportation agencies.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/22/MNGJQQJVSD1.DTL
Senate OKs major boost in fuel-economy standards
But mandate for first significant increase in 3 decades faces rough road in House
Zachary Coile, Chronicle Washington Bureau
Friday, June 22, 2007
(06-22) 04:00 PDT Washington -- The Senate voted Thursday night for the first major increase in fuel-economy standards on cars, pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles in a generation as part of an energy bill that seeks to dramatically reduce the nation's addiction to gasoline.
California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who has been seeking to improve fuel efficiency for more than a decade, brokered the deal with an unlikely ally, Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens, a longtime champion of the oil industry.
The measure would require automakers to raise fuel economy for cars, pickup trucks and SUVs to 35 miles per gallon by 2020, marking the first time pickups and SUVs would be subject to the same standards as cars.
Currently, automakers must meet a Corporate Average Fuel Economy standard of 27.5 mpg for cars and 22.2 mpg for pickups and SUVs.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/22/ENERGY.TMP
Halberstam's driver to be charged with misdemeanor in fatal crash
John Coté, Chronicle Staff Report
Thursday, June 21, 2007
(06-21) 18:16 PDT REDWOOD CITY -- San Mateo County prosecutors will file a misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter charge against the UC Berkeley graduate student who was driving David Halberstam to an interview when their car allegedly ran a red light and was struck by another vehicle, killing the Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, authorities said today.
Kevin Jones, 26, will be arraigned next month on the misdemeanor charge in the April 23 crash at Bayfront Expressway and Willow Road in Menlo Park, near the Dumbarton Bridge, District Attorney James Fox said.
"The evidence made it very clear to us that Mr. Jones went through a red light," Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said. "This was not a light turning from green to yellow to red. This was a red light, and he drove through it into oncoming traffic."
Prosecutors will not seek to have Jones arrested, Wagstaffe said. The journalism graduate student faces up to a year in county jail and a $1,000 fine if convicted.
Halberstam, 73, was riding in Jones' Toyota Camry, which was broadsided by an Infiniti as the Camry turned left onto Willow Road.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/21/BAGJ8QJM3A4.DTL
Political talk turns nasty and brutish
Daly's blast at mayor reflects new age of acrimony
John Wildermuth, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, June 22, 2007
An Antioch Chamber of Commerce executive is heckled for backing a plan to expand a Wal-Mart in the city. Visitors to a popular progressive Web site call President Bush a "sociopath," a "despicable cretin" and "scumbag in charge" for vetoing a stem cell research bill. Oakland Council President Ignacio De La Fuente is jeered and told to "go back where you came from" by a crowd in the City Council chambers.
In the new world of hot-talk politics, San Francisco Supervisor Chris Daly's City Hall suggestion that Mayor Gavin Newsom had used cocaine fits right in.
When state Sen. Leland Yee was first elected to the San Francisco school board in the late 1980s, there were plenty of disagreements, he said, but when people came up to talk to the board, "individuals were courteous and respectful,'' he said.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/22/MNGJQQJVRR1.DTL
W.H. Decision Near to Close Guantanamo
By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, June 21, 2007
(06-21) 16:43 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move its terror suspects to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.
Senior administration officials said Thursday a consensus is building for a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum-security military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where they could face trial.
President Bush's national security and legal advisers had been scheduled to discuss the move at a meeting Friday, the officials said, but after news of it broke, the White House said the meeting would not take place that day and no decision on Guantanamo Bay's status is imminent.
"It's no longer on the schedule for tomorrow," said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the National Security Council. "Senior officials have met on the issue in the past, and I expect they will meet on the issue in the future."
Three senior administration officials spoke about the discussions on condition of anonymity because they were internal deliberations.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2007/06/21/national/w150410D88.DTL
PORTLAND, ORE.
Family joins search for missing priest and his friend
Relatives of a Jesuit priest who is missing with a veteran Alameda County coroner's supervisor searched the area around Portland, Ore., Thursday in hopes of finding the pair, who disappeared two weeks ago during a vacation through five states.
They remain optimistic that Cheryl Gibbs, 61, of Union City and her longtime friend David Schwartz, 52, a Jesuit priest from Garden Grove (Orange County), could have simply gotten lost during a day hike around Portland.
"We hope that we'll find both of them well and able to get out of the predicament they're in," Schwartz's mother, Margarette Schwartz of Sacramento, said by phone Thursday from Portland.
Their itinerary had Gibbs flying on May 17 from Oakland to Las Vegas to meet Schwartz. From there, the two drove in his 2005 Toyota Corolla from Nevada to Death Valley and Mammoth Lakes in Northern California. The route then took them to Boise and Coeur d'Alene in Idaho and to Spokane, Wash., before going to the Hood River and Portland by June 5.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/06/22/MISSING.TMP
Please Don't Retch On My Tent
Escape to nature with drunk dudes, boom boxes, and bawling kids! Welcome to your local campground.
As I happily tinkered with the fire at our cozy campsite at Samuel P. Taylor State Park in West Marin, all was quiet and tranquil. Afternoon had slipped into dusk, Steller's Jays trolled our picnic table for crumbs, the kids were frolicking in the stump of a fallen redwood. It was kind of like Walden, the stressed-out parent's version.
And then came a palpable rumble of approaching footsteps. Lots of them. Then the whooping. And there they were, swarms of college-age kids bounding toward us. Five of them. Five more, 10 more, soon 30, then 50!
Within minutes, we were surrounded by a busload of amped-up Canadian geography students touring the American West. So much for getting away from it all, eh?
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/06/21/camping.DTL
Swingin' Swimwear Summer's Sexiest Suits
http://personalshopper.sfgate.com/SS/Page.aspx?sstarg=&facing=true&secid=30333&pagenum=1
A Sexy Pride Guide
10 Ways to Get Lubed in SF
San Francisco is a sexual wrinkle in the space-time continuum. There are many theories on why we seem to be the epicenter of all things bawdy, naughty, dirty and just plain sexy. Some cite history: the famed Barbary Coast days, when the streets boasted ladies in breeches and inexpensive company of all flavors, and sailors were, um, sailors. We had the biggest red-light district in the world for at least a decade. The term "mack" even originated here: French pimps brought girls here by the literal boatload, and the French word for pimp (or "broker") -- maquereau -- became shortened on our fine shores to "mack." As in, San Francisco is your Mack Daddy this weekend.
Theories also abound on why we're a sexual vortex: those good ol' maritime ways, how sweaty we all get walking up and down those hills, the weather (fog's ability to make the Castro into a continual, hard-nipped wet T-shirt contest), the infestation of sex educators, those damn beatniks, those damn hippies, liberal mayors, conservative papers, too much fresh air … oh, and those damn homos. Definitely related to the homos.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/06/21/violetblue062107.DTL
Sydney Morning Herald
Pentagon hit by cyber attack
June 22, 2007 - 7:05AM
The US Defence Department took as many as 1500 computers off line because of a cyber attack, Pentagon officials said on Thursday.
Few details were released about the attack, which happened on Wednesday, but Defence Secretary Robert Gates said the computer systems would be working again soon.
Gates said the Pentagon sees hundreds of attacks a day, and this one had no adverse impact on department operations. Employees whose computers were affected could still use their handheld BlackBerries.
During a press briefing Gates said, "We obviously have redundant systems in place. ... There will be some administrative disruptions and personal inconveniences."
He said the Pentagon shut the computers down when a penetration of the system was detected, and the cause is still being investigated.
When asked if his own email account was affected, Gates revealed, "I don't do email. I'm a very low-tech person."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/security/pentagon-hit-by-cyber-attack/2007/06/22/1182019315625.html
Australians repel Iran navy
June 22, 2007 - 7:57AM
The Defence Department has confirmed a report Iranian naval forces in the Persian Gulf tried to capture an Australian navy boarding team but were repelled in the face of machine guns and "highly colourful language".
According to the BBC, the incident took place before Iranian Revolutionary Guards seized 15 British sailors and marines in March, setting off a tense two-week diplomatic stand-off that might have been avoided if Britain had learned from the Australian encounter.
The Britons were captured over a boundary dispute while they were searching a cargo boat.
Quoting a "military source", BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner reports Iranian forces made a concerted attempt to seize a boarding party from the Royal Australian Navy and that the
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/aussies-repel-iran-navy/2007/06/22/1182019309654.html
I suppose Pace, Gates and Bush don't consider this a loss either. It's simply an attack into the Green Zone. No worries. A few dozen people have died, some of them American soldiers, that's all. The Washington Post mentions nothing about the cyber attacks or Green Zone today either ! Hush, hush there goes the image of the Republican Party.
Explosions strike Green Zone
June 21, 2007 - 5:35PM
A series of mortars or rockets slammed into the US-controlled Green Zone today, and an official said at least one round struck a parking lot used by the Iraqi Prime Minister and his security detail.
The compound houses many Iraqi Government ministries as well as the Australian, US, British and other Western embassies.
The barrage occurred a day after the US military acknowledged "an increasing pattern of attacks" against the sprawling complex on the west bank of the Tigris River despite a security crackdown now in its fifth month.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/explosions-strike-green-zone/2007/06/21/1182019269618.html
Born to a life in N Korean gulag for sins of unknown ancestor
David Blair in London
June 22, 2007
AS A BOY, Shin Dong-hyok believed everyone in the world inhabited a North Korean prison. He was born in Camp 14 in South Pyongan province and expected to die behind its razor wire.
Mr Shin, now 24, was innocent of any crime. The world's last Stalinist state not only jails anyone suspected of opposing its "Dear Leader", Kim Jong-il, but also locks up the next three generations of their family. Because an unknown ancestor had been a suspected dissident, Mr Shin was born a prisoner to inmate parents.
But at the age of 22, Mr Shin managed to escape and make his way to South Korea. His experience provides a rare glimpse of life inside the world's most isolated, repressive state, where a chain of labour camps comparable to the Soviet Gulags holds perhaps 200,000 people.
When he was 13 his mother and brother acted without his knowledge and made a failed attempt to escape.
"After that my life began to fall apart," Mr Shin said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/born-to-a-life-in-n-korean-gulag-for-sins-of-unknown-ancestor/2007/06/21/1182019286590.html
Spying fears lead to Blackberry ban for government workers
June 22, 2007
PARIS: French Government officials have been ordered not to use handheld BlackBerry devices amid fears that Britain or the US might spy on them.
The French General Secretariat for Defence is worried because all BlackBerry emails are transmitted from servers in Britain and the US, and are at risk of being picked up by agents at the US National Security Agency or their British counterparts. "The risks of interception are real; it's economic warfare," said Alain Juillet, France's head of economic intelligence.
To drive home the point, Mr Juillet pointed out that during meetings US bankers and businessmen placed their BlackBerrys on the table with the batteries removed to avoid suspicion of foul play.
Government workers are reportedly deeply frustrated about the ban, which they say is taking them back to the dark ages of French bureaucracy. Some are flouting the ban and using their BlackBerrys in secret.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/spying-fears-lead-to-blackberry-ban-for-government-workers/2007/06/21/1182019286605.html
Higher dam levels be damned: state pushes desalination
Wendy Frew and AAP
June 22, 2007
SYDNEY'S dams hit the half-full mark yesterday, but the State Government has vowed to push ahead with a controversial desalination plant, while maintaining water restrictions.
As of 3pm, the city's dams were 50 per cent full, up 10.8 percentage points on the previous week thanks to heavy rainfall that added about 7½ months' worth of water to the drinking supply.
The dams are now at their highest since May 2004 with about 180 millimetres of rain falling across the Warragamba catchment since June 7.
"Over the past two weeks up to 320 millimetres of rain has fallen on Sydney's catchment areas, boosting the dams by 336 billion litres of water," said the Premier, Morris Iemma. "This is some of the best rain we've had in more than eight years.".
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/21/1182019286767.html
I'm seizing control, says PM
THE Prime Minister has cited a "national emergency" to justify a radical takeover of indigenous affairs that will give the Federal Government control over almost every aspect of Aboriginal life in the Northern Territory.
The unprecedented seizure of federal control will involve draconian measures - including bans on alcohol sales and cuts to welfare payments - to tackle an epidemic of child sexual abuse in the territory. The scale of the problem was revealed in a report released last week, and John Howard challenged the states yesterday to follow his sweeping changes to tackle the crisis.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/21/1182019286734.html
Tidal wave of debt engulfing the young
Jacob Saulwick
June 22, 2007
MOUNTING piles of small but unpaid debts are swamping consumers at an increasingly young age.
Half of borrowers who defaulted on loans last year were under 32, the credit agency Dun & Bradstreet said yesterday. That is a 25 per cent increase on the previous year.
The agency, which monitors the credit reliability of people and companies, said many young people were defaulting on small loans and jeopardising their future access to credit.
Households are still feeling the pinch of last year's three interest rate rises. Interest payments hit a record high of 11.9 per cent of disposable income in the first three months of 2007, Reserve Bank figures showed yesterday.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/21/1182019286746.html
Anger escaltes over Rushdie knighthood
Muslim anger flared on Thursday after Britain defended Salman Rushdie's knighthood, with fresh protests against the novelist and Pakistani traders offering a big reward for his beheading.
Hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Indian Kashmir and Pakistan, while Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, criticised the timing of the honour.
The Indian-born Rushdie was given the award on Saturday, 18 years after he was sentenced to death by Iran's hardline clerical regime for writing what it said was a blasphemous book, The Satanic Verses.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/cut-off-the-head-of-salman-rushdie/2007/06/22/1182019314903.html
First-born never give up their advantage
WHEN it comes to being bright, it pays to be first in the family.
New research shows eldest children tend to be more intelligent than their younger brothers and sisters, because of the way they are raised.
Important influences may include the benefits of having a younger sibling to explain things to, or extra one-on-one attention from parents early in life
The study, of almost 250,000 Norwegians, was able to resolve the nature-versus-nurture debate over intelligence and birth order because of its unusual design: it included young people whose older siblings had died as babies.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/06/22/1182019311372.html
US envoy resumes nuclear mission
David Sanger and Norimitsu Onishi in Washington
June 22, 2007
IN A sharp reversal of strategy, the Bush Administration has dispatched its top North Korea negotiator to Pyongyang for one-on-one talks about the North giving up its nuclear arsenal.
The visit is the first in five years by a senior US official.
Christopher Hill left for Pyongyang from Tokyo just hours after the US found a way to return to the North $US25 million ($30 million) in funds that had been frozen in a bank in Macau for several years.
The US had frozen the money, saying it came from counterfeiting and trade in missiles and nuclear equipment.
Mr Hill was met upon his arrival in Pyongyang yesterday by Ri Gun, the vice-director of the North Korean Foreign Ministry's US affairs department.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-envoy-resumes-nuclear-mission/2007/06/21/1182019286584.html
The guts to confront a brutal truth
Peter Hartcher
June 22, 2007
Page 1 of 2 Single page
Caroline Atkinson-Ryan interviewed 58 Aboriginal prisoners from around Australia who'd been jailed for sexual or physical assault, or both, for her PhD thesis. Of those 58 subjects, 22 had themselves been sexually abused.
"I suppose the biggest part in my life was the sexual abuse," one told her. "You know that happened from not long after the old man grabbed me, a friend of the family, and I put up with it till the age of 14, when I said no, enough's enough.
"It started about four or five years old. Now, like with my crime now [rape], like when I see these programs mob and they say: 'Hang on, you talk about empathy. Now let's put on your shoes, putting yourself in the shoes of the victim.' And I said: 'Hang on, woo, pull up, I was a victim. So I've seen both sides of the fence and I can comment to you as a victim and as a perpetrator of the crime."'
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/the-guts-to-confront-a-brutal-truth/2007/06/21/1182019279684.html
New Zealand Herald
Snowy blast sees festival put on ice
Page 1 of 2 View as a single page 6:50PM Friday June 22, 2007
By Edward Gay
Snow and wintry conditions have forced the cancellation of Queenstown Winter Festival events.
The MetService has warned of more heavy snow heading for Southland, with gale force winds and Civil Defence has urged farmers to get out their generators and start charging telecommunication batteries.
Organisers announced this afternoon that the Lindauer Party in the Park - due to start at 6pm - had been cancelled due to safety concerns.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10447244
Draft report slams treatment of veterans
4:00PM Friday June 22, 2007
By Derek Cheng
A damning draft report has found that the Government organisation representing the interests of veterans is poorly governed and fails to listen to many of those whose interests it represents.
The draft report, commissioned by the NZ Defence Force, noted that the overall service quality to veterans had improved since the inception of Veterans' Affairs NZ (Vanz).
But it said Vanz - a body within the Defence Force that advises on and attends to the needs of veterans through entitlements and care - would struggle to cope with future needs without urgent change.
Vanz is semi-autonomous and is funded through the Veterans' Affairs portfolio, which has total appropriations of $259.8 million.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10447298
Bread to be fortified with folic acid
7:00PM Friday June 22, 2007
Organic and non-year leavened breads are exempt from mandatory fortification. Photo / Herald on Sunday
The Government has decided to go ahead with mandatory fortification of bread with folic acid.
Food Safety Minister Annette King said the decision, jointly made with Australia, was "a triumph for humanity and common sense".
In New Zealand the acid would be added as the bread was made and Australia had decided to add it to flour.
"New Zealand women do not get enough natural folate in the diet to prevent a large number of babies being born with devastating neural tube defects, the most common of which are spina bifida and hydrocephalus," Ms King said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10447345
Top jockey tests positive for ecstasy
6:45PM Friday June 22, 2007
Top New Zealand jockey Leith Innes has been suspended for six months after testing positive to the drug ecstasy, Queensland Racing said today.
A urine sample taken from Innes at a Brisbane race meeting at Eagle Farm on June 2 tested positive to methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), better known as ecstasy, Queensland Racing (QR) said.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10447341
Ship listing in heavy seas
12:52PM Friday June 22, 2007
The bulk carrier Taharoa Express is listing in heavy seas after its load of iron sand shifted overnight.
Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) said it is closely tracking the progress of the vessel but it is making steady progress towards Tasman Bay to seek shelter.
The 140,000 tonne bulk carrier was at the centre of a maritime incident in 2004 when it lost power and drifted towards a beach on the west coast south of Auckland.
MNZ said that at 2.30am today the vessel reported that it had a problem after its load of iron sand shifted while in rough sea about 78km south west of Cape Egmont. Its normal run is from New Zealand to China.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10447283
Tests wanted into Tasers' effect on mentally ill
10:15AM Friday June 22, 2007
By Edward Gay
The Mental Health Foundation is calling for research to be carried out on the effects of Tasers on people suffering mental health issues.
The foundation's chief executive Judi Clements said of the 101 times the Taser has been used by police, 14 of the incidents have involved people with mental health problems.
"We're not happy about the Taser being used because we don't know the long-term effects or how it affects people on medication," Ms Clements said.
The foundation is not dismissing the problems front-line police officers face but Ms Clements said there are other methods the police are trained to use, including talking.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10447259
Giant pylon power project may be sped up
5:00AM Friday June 22, 2007
By Simon O'Rourke
The Minister for the Environment is considering fast-tracking Transpower's proposal to build giant pylons from South Waikato to Auckland.
David Benson-Pope's office would not comment yesterday because nothing had been decided and the Electricity Commission had not released its decision on whether the grid upgrade could go ahead.
"As you know, we've been talking to local councils and Transpower about possible options," said a spokeswoman for Mr Benson-Pope.
Environment Waikato special projects manager Dennis Crequer confirmed yesterday that "things were moving quickly".
All district councils had been asked for their views on the upgrade being "called in" for fast-track consideration by a board of inquiry or the Environment Court.
But council views may be irrelevant because it remained the minister's decision.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10447220
What is New Zealand doing with high power lines among homes like that? It causes cancer. I don’t' care what country power lines are in, they belong underground.
DO HIGH-VOLTAGE POWER LINES CAUSE CANCER
Studies link Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) To Illness
http://www.midtod.com/9603/voltage.phtml
...A growing body of scientific evidence suggests that invisible electromagnetic fields (EMFs) -- created by everything from high-voltage utility company lines to personal computers, microwave ovens, TVs and even electric blankets -- are linked to a frightening array of cancers and other serious health problems in children and adults.
Though it received scant attention from the mainstream press, a report leaked last October from the U.S. National Council on Radiation Protection said there is a powerful body of impressive evidence showing that even very low exposure to electromagnetic radiation has long-term effects on health.
The report cited studies that show EMFs can disturb the production of the hormone melatonin, which is linked with sleep patterns. It said there was strong evidence that children exposed to EMFs had a higher risk of leukemia.
This follows on the heels of three epidemiological reports released in 1994. One indicated a tie between occupational exposure to EMFs and Alzheimer' s disease. Another suggested a link with Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). The third study indicated a tie with Amyotrophic lateralsclerosis.
Now a surprising new report released in February by physicists at Britain's University of Bristol shows that power lines attract particles of radon -- a colorless, odorless gas irrefutably linked with cancer….
New defence personnel bound for Lebanon
New 8:00PM Friday June 22, 2007
Middle East conflict
Lebanon declares victory in camp war on militants
Abbas pushes for 'final status' talks on future of Palestinian state
A team of 10 New Zealand Defence Force personnel is making final preparations to depart for Lebanon on Monday .
Led by a navy officer the team, comprising three navy operational divers and six New Zealand army engineers, will replace the team now based in Tyre in southern Lebanon.
Working as a battlefield area clearance team they will plan for, locate and dispose of unexploded munitions remaining in the region after the conflict between Israel and Hizbollah in July last year.
Team leader Lieutenant Commander Trevor Leslie said today the job they were going to do was very serious.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10447309
Lebanon declares victory in camp war on militants
11:40AM Friday June 22, 2007
BEIRUT - Lebanon has declared victory in its 33-day war against an al Qaeda-inspired militant group at a Palestinian refugee camp and said its military operation there was over.
The fighting between the army and militants holed up in the Nahr al-Bared camp was the worst outbreak of violence in Lebanon since the end its civil war 17 years ago and cost the lives of at least 166 people.
"I can tell the Lebanese that as of now the military operation in Nahr al-Bared is finished," Defence Minister Elias al-Murr told Lebanon's LBC television.
"All the positions of the terrorists have been crushed," he said adding that the surviving members of Fatah al-Islam had pulled back from the edges of Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon into civilian areas deep in the camp.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447270
Abbas pushes for 'final status' talks on future of Palestinian state
9:00AM Friday June 22, 2007
By Donald Macintyre
JERUSALEM - Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, is demanding that Monday's scheduled summit with Ehud Olmert, the Israeli Prime Minister, discuss a process leading to "final status" talks on a future Palestinian state, Palestinian officials said yesterday.
The two leaders are scheduled to meet in Sharm el Sheikh on Monday at an Arab-Israel summit designed to boost the Western backed strategy of shoring up Mr Abbas in the West Bank while isolating Hamas in Gaza.
Mr Abbas is reportedly insisting that the summit, hosted by Egypt's president Hosni Mubarak, will be fruitless if it does not set in train a process aimed at final resolution of the key issues in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447249
Space shuttle landing delayed by weather
10:10AM Friday June 22, 2007
The space shuttle Atlantis is seen from a camera aboard the International Space Station. Photo / Reuters
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - Nasa will try again tomorrow to bring the US space shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts home after clouds and rain at its Florida landing site prevented a touchdown today.
The shuttle has been in orbit for 13 days to install a pair of solar power wings on the International Space Station and prepare the outpost for new laboratories built by Europe and Japan.
Touchdown at one of the Kennedy Space Centre's seaside runways in central Florida had been scheduled for 1.55pm EDT (5.55am NZ time), but the Kennedy Space Center was socked in by thick clouds and threatened by thunderstorms -- typical summer weather for the sultry subtropical Florida peninsula.
"We looked at it as hard and long as we think is reasonable," astronaut Tony Antonelli radioed from mission control to Atlantis commander Frederick Sturckow, explaining the decision to skip today's landing opportunities.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447256
Prince William gets $650,000 birthday gift from Diana
10:20AM Friday June 22, 2007
Photo / Reuters
Prince William, the man that would be King, turned 25 yesterday and became entitled to part of the inheritance left to him by his late mother, Diana, Princess of Wales.
William, second in line to the throne, now has access to interest - estimated by financial experts to be between £250,000 (NZD$654,000) to £300,000 ($NZD$785,000) a year - accrued on the £6.5 million (NZD$16.9 million) he was left in the Princess's will after she died in 1997.
Details on when he will be able to access the entire inheritance are unclear.
According to British newspaper The Guardian, the Prince, for now at least, won't be touching any of the money he has inherited.
Similarly, William's brother Harry, 22, will gain access to his inheritance - a similar amount - according to their mother's will.
When Diana died a decade ago, she left an estate of £21 million (NZD$54.8 million). Of that amount, nearly £8 million (NZD$20.8 million) was paid in inheritance tax. The remaining funds were split between William and Harry.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447260
Blair puts his success down to 'lucky shoes'
11:37AM Friday June 22, 2007
Tony Blair puts his success at Prime Minister's Questions down to his lucky leather shoes. Photo / Reuters
Outgoing British Prime Minister Tony Blair revealed yesterday that he had worn the same pair of shoes to every question-and-answer session in parliament since he became the country's leader 10 years ago.
"I know it's ridiculous, but I've worn them for every PMQs (Prime Minister's Questions)," he told the Times.
Blair said he believed cheap shoes were a false economy, adding that he had owned the handmade leather shoes for 18 years and they had only been resoled once.
The lucky pair of Chetwynd brogues were made by Church's in Northampton, central England.
A spokesperson for the 134-year-old company said the shoes would have cost Blair approximately 150 pounds ($391) when he bought them. They now retail at about 290 pounds.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447269
Alcohol, pornography ban for Aborigines
5:00AM Friday June 22, 2007
By Greg Ansley
Aboriginal children are 'exposed to the most terrible abuse from the time of their birth', says Prime Minister John Howard. Photo / Reuters
CANBERRA - Alcohol and pornography will be banned in indigenous communities in Australia's Northern Territory as part of a dramatic response to widespread child abuse, which was yesterday labelled a "national emergency".
Australian Prime Minister John Howard yesterday invoked sweeping constitutional powers to thrust the Northern Territory Government aside and impose harsh new rules in a bid to end horrific abuse of Aboriginal children.
Mr Howard's move, likened to emergency measures for national disasters, followed federal dismay at the Territory's response to an inquiry, whose report was released yesterday, detailing appalling alcohol and drug-fuelled sexual assaults on children and juvenile prostitution throughout its indigenous communities.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447230
Explosives found in Spain, tourist attacks feared
9:10AM Friday June 22, 2007
A car containing explosives and detonators is towed away in Ayamonte, Spain. Photo / Reuters
MADRID - Spanish police on Thursday found a car packed with explosives near seaside resorts on Spain's southern coast and said ETA Basque separatists could be planning summer attacks against the tourist industry.
It was the first explosives find in Spain since ETA formally called off a ceasefire two weeks ago.
Spain's Civil Guard found 130kg of bomb making chemicals as well as timers and detonators in a car near the town of Ayamonte, 2km from the Portuguese border.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447250
Ode to Guantanamo
7:15AM Friday June 22, 2007
Poems written by Guantanamo prisoners about their lives as captives of the US have been compiled in a book that will be published with an endorsement from a former US poet laureate, Robert Pinsky.
Poems From Guantanamo: The Detainees Speak is set to hit the shelves in the US by August.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447234
Four killed as Israel attacks Hamas
5:00AM Friday June 22, 2007
GAZA - Israel attacked Islamist fighters in Gaza yesterday for the first time since Hamas seized the territory, and ended an embargo of the Palestinian Authority by opening contacts with a new government in the West Bank.
Israeli soldiers killed four Palestinian fighters in a pre-dawn incursion into the Gaza Strip to hunt for wanted militants. Israel also carried out airstrikes against rocket launch sites after one rocket fired from Gaza struck Israel.
Hamas Islamist militias overran President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah faction and seized control of the territory a week ago. Abbas, who responded by severing ties with Hamas, denounced his Islamist rivals in his first public remarks on the crisis.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447216
Drug find abandoned near Laos
5:15AM Friday June 22, 2007
Thai police yesterday found almost 800kg of cannabis worth at least 24 million baht ($970,000) abandoned on the banks of the Mekong river near the Laos border.
Police made no arrests after finding 796 compressed 1kg bars of the drug.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10447232
Bush has no basis for his opposition to Stem Cell Research. The majority of the country demands it. Bush is simply holding on to his political cronies. He is incompetent and does nothing with every aspect of the presidency except send political volleys to the press. All this mess is facilitated by a Republican House and Senate that won't override vetos even while the country demands it. American healthcare and it's potenital to find cures is being held hostage. It's a human rights issue !
Survey challenges stem cell stance
5:00AM Friday June 22, 2007
By Will Dunham
George W. Bush has vetoed legislation to expand stem-cell research. Photo / Reuters
About 60 per cent of people with frozen embryos stored at United States fertility clinics would be willing to donate them for use in human stem-cell research, a survey shows.
The survey, made public on the day US President George W. Bush vetoed legislation to expand federal funding for human embryonic stem-cell research, tracked the attitudes of the people in a position to donate these embryos to create stem-cell batches, or lines, for research.
The researchers at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore said the findings indicated perhaps 10 times as many embryos might be available for research as previously estimated and that they could yield 2000 to 3000 usable stem celllines.
That would be 100 times the number of these cell lines now available for use in federally funded studies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10447225
New study supports existence of Mars ocean shoreline
9:25AM Thursday June 14, 2007
An illustration shows how Mars might have appeared more than 2 billion years ago, with an ocean filling the lowland basin. Photo / Reuters
WASHINGTON - Long, undulating features on the northern plains of Mars probably are remnants of shorelines of an ocean that covered a third of the planet's surface at least 2 billion years ago, scientists said today.
The geological features, stretching thousands of kilometres, were first revealed in the 1980s in Viking spacecraft images. But topographical data collected by Nasa's Mars Global Surveyor in the 1990s cast doubt on whether the features truly marked a long-gone sea coast.
The Global Surveyor found big, mountain-sized variations in elevation along the suspected shorelines, whereas a shoreline should be a constant elevation matching sea level.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10445632
Mysterious bird in a league of its own
5:00AM Thursday June 21, 2007
By Angela Gregory
DNA analysis has proved the stitchbird is not related to tui and bellbirds, as originally thought.
A new family of indigenous New Zealand birds has been created after a crucial discovery aided by the curator of Auckland Museum.
Curator Dr Brian Gill and an international team of scientists have discovered that the stitchbird or "hihi" belongs to a family of its own and has no close relatives.
For years it was widely held that the stitchbird was part of the tui and bellbird family of honeyeaters.
It was given the name Notiomystis cincta when discovered in 1908, derived from Greek words meaning "southern mystery" because even then it was thought a somewhat strange little bird.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10446953
Nuclear doesn't have power to halt global warming
5:00AM Saturday June 16, 2007
WASHINGTON: Nuclear power would only curb climate change by expanding worldwide at the rate it grew from 1981 to 1990, its busiest decade, and keep up that rate for half a century, a report said this week.
That would require adding on average 14 plants each year for the next 50 years, all the while building an average of 7.4 plants to replace those that will be retired, the report by environmental leaders, industry executives and academics said.
Currently, the United States, the world's top nuclear power producer, has 104 plants that generate 20 per cent of the country's electricity.
Nuclear power, which has near-zero emissions of carbon dioxide, has recently come back into fashion as an alternative to generating electricity from coal and other carbon-based sources that contribute to global warming.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10446073
Eastwood planned to axe 15,000 rare trees to build golf course
9:50AM Friday June 15, 2007
By Leonard Doyle
Clint Eastwood, the Hollywood actor turned small-town mayor and a cast of celebrity backers, have been denied permission to cut down more than 15,000 rare pine trees and build a private golf course on California's Monterey peninsula.
One of America's most loved natural landscapes, where ocean breakers roll onto a shoreline dotted with windblown pines, the peninsula is the backdrop of countless photographs and tourist postcards. Windblown and often mist shrouded it is a highlight for many visitors to the West Coast of America.
Seen from a distance it is an apparently pristine primeval forest, one of only five stands of Monterey pine left in existence. But appearances are deceptive, as the forest, which is accessible only by a 17-mile private toll road around the rugged coastline, already been chopped up by development, including some 3,000 expansive homes, country clubs with no less than eight private golf courses.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10445863
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