The Rooster
"Okeydoke"
Friday, January 05, 2007
A little odd to see a desert with snow cover. Significant, too. Inches even.
December 31, 2006
Sante Fe, New Mexico
Photographer states :: Taken near the Waldo Canyon exit off I25.
Santa Fe is cradled at the base of 12,000 foot mountains at an altitude of 7,000 feet.
We have four very distinct but temperate seasons, get an average of 14 inches of rain a year which is heaviest in July and August and enjoy 300 days of sunshine a year and an average relative humidity of less than 50 percent.
One way to cope with sea level rise. I don't think it's immune to waterspouts however.
January 4, 2006
Middle Bay Lighthouse
Mobile, Alabama
2 killed after storms, tornadoes
NEW IBERIA, La. (AP) - At least two people were killed and 15 others were taken to hospitals after reports of tornadoes touching down during a strong cluster of storms in southern Louisiana.
A meteorologist was to check the area to see whether the winds were tornadoes or microbursts, National Weather Service Kent Kuyper said Friday.
The storm front had moved into Mississippi and Alabama, but the storm-free period will be brief, he said.
"More showers and thunderstorms are on the way Saturday afternoon and evening as we get another cold front coming through. We're in a progressive pattern - almost like clockwork, every three days we'll get a front through," Kuyper said.
However, he said, the next round does not appear likely to spawn any storms like Thursday's.
In the New Iberia area, the winds tore off roofs and ripped seven mobile homes from their foundation, Sheriff Sid Hebert said.
Yevette Williams, 37, and Ruby Mouton, 65, were killed in their home, according to a spokesman for the Iberia Parish Coroner's Office.
Steven Bruno said he flipped over twice while furniture and broken glass flew around his mobile home. Steven was interviewed outside the hospital where he was checked out, he said the gown he was wearing was now the only thing he owned. His girlfriend, who is six months pregnant, was still in the hospital for fetal monitoring, he said.
But, he said, they were lucky to get out alive.
Damage was less serious as the storm continued through the state. Possible tornadoes reportedly blew out windows Thursday in New Roads and tore the roofs from two houses in Jarreau, five miles away, and trees were reported down on at least two Tangipahoa Parish roads, weather service meteorologist Jim Vasilj said.
Joyce Firmin, a resident of New Iberia's Belaire subdivision, which also received major storm damage, said, "We were just sitting and watching a movie, and then all of a sudden the wind started blowing and it got really bad.
"We moved into the pantry where it was safer, and it just sounded like a bunch of trucks or an airplane or something was coming toward the house."
Firmin's daughter, 14-year-old Jaci, said she could hear branches snapping and power lines popping during the storm. "My ears were popping a lot," she said. "Then we came out, everything was down."
As the Firmins stood in the neighborhood Thursday evening to survey the damage, they saw dozens of tree limbs and power lines littering the roadways. The storm destroyed a home in the area and severely damaged several others, including tearing the roofs off at least two houses.
The tornado reports came in as a severe band of storms hit the parish. The storms flooded roads and Gov. Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency in the parishes of Acadia, Allen, Sabine and Vermillion.
Although at least three people, possibly children, were reported missing, everyone had been accounted for by 7 p.m., Hebert said.
Mike Marcotte, a meteorologist with the National Weather Services Lake Charles office, said Thursday that radar images indicated that one tornado may have through the area.
In New Orleans, crews were dispatched to clean drains and prepare for possible flooding ahead of a weather system that could drop several inches of rain on an area that has been drenched in the past two weeks.
While stormy weather this time of year isn't unusual, this latest system comes after two storms that helped bring December's rainfall total in New Orleans to more than 10 inches, nearly twice the normal average.
One of the storms, just before Christmas, caused widespread flooding in parts of the city and neighboring Jefferson Parish, and raised concerns about how well the area, hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, would fare in another hurricane.
The Jakarta Post
Set up special court to hear environmental crimes, govt told
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The government should set up a special court to hear environmental crimes because suspects in illegal logging cases are evading justice in the regular courts, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) says.
Speaking from Medan, North Sumatra on Thursday, executive director Chalid Muhammad said dozens of suspects had been freed by courts in the past year despite compelling evidence they were involved in illegal logging.
An example was former Southeast Aceh regent Armen Desky's son, Marzuki Desky, who Walhi had evidence was involved in logging. He was freed by Southeast Aceh district court four months ago but the prosecutors were appealing the case.
"That's only one case. There are many other illegal logging suspects in this country who are going unpunished, like those responsible for the logging in Aceh, North Sumatra, Papua and West Kalimantan," Chalid said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.G02&irec=1
Bad weather, air accident fail to stop travelers
Slamet Susanto and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta, Medan
Extreme weather warnings and the continued uncertainty over an Adam Air plane carrying 102 people have helped push up train passenger numbers in some areas.
In Yogyakarta, there has been a decline in the number of passengers at Adi Sucipto airport, but the city's trains have experienced a surge in passenger numbers over the past week.
"Our executive-class trains have seen a significant rise of about 30 percent in passenger numbers since Jan. 1," Mochtadi, a spokesman for state train company PT KAI in Yogyakarta, said Thursday.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has issued bad weather warnings for air and sea traffic for at least the next three days. Most of these warnings concern eastern Indonesia.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.G01&irec=0
Is Indonesia ready to welcome Chinese and Indian tourists?
Rudijanto, Jakarta
At the end of 2006, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik revised the country's target for foreign tourist arrivals from 5.5 million to 5 million. But even this lower target seems to be more an expectation of pure luck than solid data.
After hitting 5.32 million in 2004, tourist arrivals have been on the decline, dropping to 5 million in 2005 and 2.8 million as of the end of September 2006. Only if there was a windfall during the December peak season can the country reach the revised target.
Meanwhile, Singapore enjoyed a 15 percent growth in tourist arrivals as of October 2006, or a total of 857,000 visitors. Malaysia recorded a 5.9 percent increase as of August 2006, or a total of 11,518,288 visitors. This is in spite of the damaging impact of Indonesian forest fires that spread choking haze over the two neighboring countries.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20070105.E03&irec=2
Lampung's Chinese still singled out
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung
The new Citizenship Law has taken effect, but Chinese-Indonesians in Lampung remain subject to discrimination.
They are still required to show their Indonesian Citizenship Certificate (SBKRI) when applying for passports, business licenses and other documents.
The chairman of the Chinese-Indonesian Social Association (PSMTI), Kencana Sukma, blamed the continued discrimination on ineffective efforts to publicize the law, which was approved by the House of Representatives in July.
He said in addition to the new law, Bandarlampung Mayor Eddy Sutrisno had abolished the requirement for the SBKRI during the recent Chinese New Year celebrations.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.G04&irec=3
No clue yet of jetliner wreckage after five-day missing
MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (Antara): Search and rescue team has not found any clue about the location of the wreckage of an Adam Air plane, which has gone missing since Monday when it was on its way from East Java to North Sulawesi.
Commander of Makassar Air Base First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto said Friday that rescuers would search wider areas in trying to find the ill-fated plane, which was carrying 102 people.
The expanded search has been based on factors ranging from late-arriving reports of other emergency signals to calculations of possible alternate courses the pilot of the 17-year-old Boeing 737-400 might have chosen to take to avoid bad weather.
Meanwhile, Communication and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil Friday urged operators of telecommunications to help locate the wreckage.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20070105153023&irec=0
Singapore, U.S. join search for jetliner
Andi Hajramurni, Jonger Rumteh and Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, Manado, Surabaya
Singapore has joined the search for an Adam Air jetliner that went missing Monday with 102 people on board, as relatives gathered at the Makassar airport began the painful process of returning home with no news of their loved ones.
A Singaporean air force plane carrying 27 members of the force arrived in Indonesia to take part in the massive land and sea search for the missing Boeing 737-400. The Singaporean plane joined Indonesian Air Force and Navy aircraft in the search, as well as a police helicopter. The search also involves four Indonesian Navy warships with divers using sonar equipment to detect underwater wreckage.
Despite the intensive nature of the operation, the Adam Air plane had not been located as of late Thursday. Officials said search operations would resume Friday.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.@01&irec=0
U.S. Embassy assists family of missing three
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta is providing consular help to the family of the three Americans on board the Adam Air jetliner that went missing over Sulawesi on Monday.
Assistant press attache Shannon Quinn said Thursday the embassy was assisting family members in Jakarta and Makassar.
The Associated Press, quoting Portland's Oregonian newspaper identified the missing Americans as Scott Jackson, 54, and his daughters, 21-year-old Stephanie and 18-year-old Lindsay. Jackson is a wood-products executive.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.@03&irec=2
Only 40% of pharmacies ready for free trade
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Only 40 percent of local pharmaceutical firms comply with the "current good manufacturing practices" (CGMP), which promote standardized product quality, required under the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) that takes effect in 2008, an association says.
At present, the industry boasts 206 manufacturers, including 35 multinational firms.
"All of our members are trying to comply with these requirements in the run-up to AFTA, which will come into effect in January 2008," Anthony C.H. Sunarjo, the chairman of the Pharmaceutical Producers Association, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
AFTA -- which groups the members of ASEAN, excluding its three newest members, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar -- requires all pharmaceutical products traded in the region to comply with current good manufacturing practices.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.@02&irec=1
Dollar drops sharply vs yen in Asia on falling oil
TOKYO (AP): The dollar dropped sharply against the yen in AsiaFriday as short-term investors locked in profits and commodityprices fell.
The dollar rose against other Asian currencies. It rose to35.95 Thai baht from 35.77 late Thursday and to Rp 9,015 Rp8,995.
The dollar bought 118.36 yen on the Tokyo foreign exchangemarket at mid-afternoon, down from 119.10 yen late Thursday inNew York. The euro fell to US$1.3078, from $1.3087.
The yen will likely continue rising during the global session,though U.S. jobs data could roil the market later in the day,traders said.
"Players sold the yen too much toward the end of last year,"said Tsutomu Soma, a senior trader at Okasan Securities. "So theyare adjusting their positions back."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillbus.asp?fileid=20070105144927&irec=0
Waves on car deck blamed for passenger ferry sinking
Suherdjoko and Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Semarang, Surabaya
High waves washing into the Senopati Nusantara's car deck probably caused the ferry to sink last Friday, a top government investigator says.
Similar accidents involving "roll-on, roll-off" ferries have occurred elsewhere around the world, leading experts to call for design changes in the doors and ramps that allow vehicles to drive directly on board, AP reported.
Government investigator Ruth Simatupang suspected high waves washing into the ship's car deck caused the ship to capsize.
"I suspect waves entered the car deck over the doors ... making the vessel too heavy and unstable," she said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.A04&irec=3
Safety standards on ship questioned
Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Passengers on the ill-fated Senopati Nusantara were probably not informed about safety equipment on board or told how to save themselves in an emergency, a senior official said Thursday.
The passenger ferry sank in the Java Sea last Friday, carrying more than 600 people. About 220 people have been found alive and more than 400 are still missing.
"We have learned a lot from the tragedy; that we must review our onboard safety instructions for passengers before any ship leaves a seaport," sea transport director general Harijogi said.
"Just like an airline's in-flight announcements, ships must have instructions that people can follow in times of emergency to save themselves," he said.
Harijogi believed the sunken vessel already met standard safety requirements.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.A06&irec=5
Jakarta may ban bikers from main thoroughfares
Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After raising on-street parking fares and directing motorcyclists to drive in the "slow" left lanes, the Jakarta administration is now planning to ban bikers from using main roads altogether during peak hours.
"It is very uncomfortable (for car drivers) having so many motorcycles on city streets. We must regulate them," said Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall after meeting the city-sanctioned Jakarta Transportation Board on Thursday.
The two bodies are planning to encourage motorcyclists to leave their motorbikes outside main thoroughfares and take the busway instead. Cheaper fares would help attract motorists, Sutiyoso said.
This opened the opportunity for developers to construct off-street parking sites around these main streets, he said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.A05&irec=4
Last chance for President to deliver on promises
Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Whatever expectations we have of our elected leaders in 2007, one thing we should realize is that this will be the last chance for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Cabinet to make good on his 2004 election promises.
This being a coalition government, 2008 will see just about everybody, from the President and Vice President down to most of the Cabinet members, busy preparing for the 2009 general elections.
By then, the National Unity Cabinet, the term the President coined for his new team at the start of his government, may as well be called the National Divided Cabinet.
The forces that divide them will outweigh those that bring them together. Vice President Jusuf Kalla, for example, will most likely be one of the main contenders challenging Yudhoyono in 2009, instead of being the running mate that he was in 2004.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.A07&irec=6
Survey finds autonomy doing little to improve governance
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The introduction of regional autonomy in 2001 has increased corruption more than it has improved public services, according to the results of a survey announced Thursday.
The Governance Assessment Survey, conducted by Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, in collaboration with the Partnership for Governance Reform, found that regional autonomy has done little to improve access to public services for the poor or to professionalize the bureaucracy.
More than 1,800 people, including members of non-governmental organizations and the press, politicians and civil servants, were interviewed across 10 provinces for the survey.
Only 20 percent of respondents believe that human resources at health offices are of good quality. The majority of respondents also say the bureaucracy is more concerned with its own needs than those of the public.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.H05&irec=4
Fundamentalism still major danger in 2007
Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government failed to address a range of rights abuses related to religious fundamentalism last year and its inaction means sectarian violence will likely remain a threat to national development, a rights watchdog says.
In its annual human rights report, Imparsial said Thursday that in the past year the government did little to anticipate or respond to local bylaws that discriminated against women and militant groups that targeted religious minorities.
"It failed in part to understand the dangers posed by religious fundamentalism to human rights and democracy," Imparsial executive director Rachlan Nashidik said. "It also underestimated (fundamentalism's) revival," he said.
The group recorded at least 14 major cases of rights violations triggered by religious intolerance in 2006.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.H06&irec=5
Jambi Red Cross runs out of blood
JAMBI, Jambi: The supply of plasma at Jambi Red Cross' Blood Transfusion Unit has fallen short for several days due to a lack of blood donors for the past month.
The Red Cross is having trouble meeting the city's needs, especially during the current rainy season when the spread of dengue fever is at its height.
The head of the blood transfusion unit, Dian Agustina, said the agency was trying to uphold its commitment to serve members of the public in need of plasma.
"We have made efforts to look for blood supplies but demands are too high," she said. Residents have been forced to find their own blood donors due to the lack of volunteer donors.
Dian said her office was at the moment making efforts to contact its routine donors, or those who could be called on to donate blood from time to time.
Of the total blood demand in Jambi thus far, only 40 percent comes from the Red Cross, while the rest is supplied by patients' relatives. -- JP
Several countries give aid to Sumatra flood response
Sascha Zastiral, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Several nations have offered financial aid to the Indonesian Red Cross, after torrential rains last week caused flooding throughout North Sumatra and Aceh provinces.
More than 140 people were killed and 400,00 forced to flee their homes in the flooding, including more than 360,000 displaced in Aceh. Hundreds are still missing.
Spain, the U.S., Australia and China have announced immediate financial aid to assist emergency relief in effected areas.
Spain has donated 250,000 euros (US$329,800) to flood victims from a 12 million euro emergency relief fund set up by Spain's International Cooperation Agency, the Spanish foreign minister told Associated Press.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailworld.asp?fileid=20070105.I01&irec=0
Japan hands over training center and rebuilt road in Aceh
Sascha Zastiral, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta, Satoru Satoh, recently handed over a Japanese-funded vocational training center in Banda Aceh to Indonesian officials, the embassy announced in a press release.
Harry Heriawan Saleh, secretary-general of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, and several other dignitaries were present at the handover ceremony.
Separately, the West Coast Road, extending 130 kilometers between Calang and Meulaboh in Aceh, was officially opened in another ceremony. The construction of this road was funded by the Japanese government.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailworld.asp?fileid=20070105.I02&irec=1
BI cuts rate further to spur higher growth
Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point Thursday to 9.5 percent, a 16-month low, with faster economic growth and a stable macroeconomic environment expected to characterize 2007.
"We expect this year to be a promising one for the country's economy," BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said after a monthly meeting of the central bank's board of governors.
Burhanuddin said the economy proved itself resilient in 2006, with inflation ending up lower than the target of approximately 8 percent, despite the fuel-price hikes at the end of 2005, which resulted in inflation at the start of 2006 rising to 17 percent.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailbusiness.asp?fileid=20070105.L01&irec=0
The Los Angeles Times
U.S.-Iraqi forces launch assault on Sunni haven
The joint offensive targets Diyala province, where violence is on the rise.
AL SHAMS, IRAQ — About 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive at dawn Thursday in Diyala province, an increasingly violent zone east of Baghdad that has become a haven and training ground for Sunni Arab insurgents.The target of the strike is an isolated landscape of farms and irrigation canals riddled with weapons caches, safe houses and training ranges, U.S. military officials said.The insurgents, however, appeared to be well prepared for the slow-moving assault. Smoke signals and flares arced into the sky as a column of tanks and Humvees from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, pressed into an insurgents' redoubt. U.S. military officials said spotters used those techniques to warn guerrillas in the area that the U.S. and Iraqi forces were approaching.Insurgents also had dug deep trenches into the roadways and sabotaged canal bridges to slow the troops' advance. U.S. commanders said they suspected that the obstacles were designed to divert approaching vehicles toward roadside bombs.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-baqubah5jan05,0,2747135.story?coll=la-home-headlines
American sailor rescued after three days adrift at sea
After a three-day race to rescue an injured Newport Beach sailor stranded in the storm-whipped Pacific, a fishing trawler plucked Ken Barnes Jr. this morning from his crippled sailboat near the tip of South America.At about 2:45 this morning, Barnes' family received word that the rescue had been made and that the sailor was in "good shape."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sailor6jan06,0,5513115.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Ancient global warming was jarring, not subtle, study finds
…After five years, they had compiled the first carefully dated and cross-referenced archive of the period's primeval soils and fossil plant matter, they reported. Geochemical analysis of iron oxides and isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen revealed telling evidence of temperature variation, rainfall patterns and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels through 40 million years of the Paleozoic, covering the period of major climate warming. They correlated those findings with an analysis of shellfish fossil remains, to compare those findings against marine carbon levels."It is an extraordinary improvement on past estimates," said Yale paleoclimate expert Mark Pagani, who was not involved in the research. Instead of a relatively gradual transition from a cold world to a warm one, as many scientists had believed occurred, Montanez and her colleagues found fever spikes of climate change correlated with fluctuating levels of carbon dioxide, like a seismometer graph of the myriad tremors before and after a major earthquake. "CO2 goes up and temperature goes up. It drops and temperature drops," Montanez said. "It suggests," she said, "that the normal behavior in major climate transitions is instability, erratic temperature behavior and carbon dioxide changes."
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-climate5jan05,0,1965037.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Bush reaches out to skeptical Democrats
The president has been making conciliatory gestures to his old foes, the new power brokers.
WASHINGTON — A few years ago, when President Bush announced plans to dump nuclear waste in Sen. Harry Reid's state, it was a political insult so stinging that the Nevada Democrat responded by calling the nation's commander in chief a liar.Now Reid, the new Senate majority leader, is getting the red-carpet treatment. The administration treated Reid to two military plane rides in one week. He was invited to an intimate White House party, where Bush politely asked what books Reid had been reading lately.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bipartisan5jan05,0,2989753.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Tijuana police abandon posts
After federal agents confiscate the force's weapons, officers decide going back on patrol would be too risky.
TIJUANA — The municipal police force in this troubled border city walked off the job Thursday after soldiers and federal agents ordered its members to turn over their weapons in connection with homicide investigations.The surprising turn of events came two days after Mexican President Felipe Calderon dispatched 3,300 federal troops and police to the city in an effort to combat violence linked to drug cartels.Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon acknowledged in a radio interview Thursday that local and state police were being compromised by narco-traffickers, and he said government salaries could not compete with the financial rewards offered by drug dealers.Members of the 2,300-strong police force turned over more than 2,100 guns and semiautomatic assault rifles at police headquarters. But police officials decided it would be too dangerous to patrol unarmed, especially because more than a dozen officers have been killed recently in drug-related attacks.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-tijuana5jan05,0,6682782.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Recovering governor wants to be seen as a 'centrist'
By Peter Nicholas, Times Staff Writer3:56 AM PST, January 5, 2007
Sacramento -- Opening his second term, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will proudly proclaim himself a centrist and eschew the partisanship that he says is the root of political paralysis and voter disenchantment, according to excerpts of the inaugural address that he is to give this morning."Centrist does not mean weak. It does not mean watered down or watered over," according to a portion of the speech released Thursday by the governor's office. "It means well-balanced and well-grounded. The American people are instinctively centrist … so should be our government."Recovering from a broken leg, Schwarzenegger, 59, is to deliver the speech at his inauguration ceremony at the Memorial Auditorium in downtown Sacramento beginning at 11 a.m.It will be the governor's first public appearance since he tripped and fell on an Idaho ski slope on Dec. 23, fracturing his right femur. Schwarzenegger had surgery on his leg three days later and is expected to fully recover.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-speech6jan06,0,6697346.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Guilty verdict in Thompson murder case
Former business partner Michael Goodwin faces life without parole in the deaths of the racing legend and his wife.
By John Spano and Tami Abdollah, Times Staff WritersJanuary 5, 2007
Collene Campbell arrived in court Thursday wearing the St. Christopher medal her brother, slain racing legend Mickey Thompson, wore during his races. It lay over a diamond necklace her mother gave her on her deathbed 11 years ago, asking Campbell not to take it off until her brother's killer was brought to justice.On Thursday, after nearly 19 years, 74-year-old Campbell was released from those mystic bonds.A Pasadena jury convicted Michael Goodwin of murdering his former racing-promoter partner and Thompson's wife, Trudy, in 1988, thus writing the climactic chapter in one of Los Angeles County's most enduring murder mysteries."I wish I could look up and touch Mickey and Trudy and say, 'We won!' " Campbell said after the verdict, her eyes welling with tears. Later she waved a black-and-white checkered racing flag in triumph.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-thompson5jan05,0,7497617.story?coll=la-home-local
Negroponte shift is ruffling feathers
Some say that his assignment to the State Department will leave the national intelligence office in a lurch.
By Greg Miller, Times Staff WriterJanuary 5, 2007
WASHINGTON — The abrupt departure of John D. Negroponte as the nation's spy chief prompted angry responses from Capitol Hill and triggered new debate Thursday over whether a position created to fix the nation's intelligence problems is itself fundamentally flawed.President Bush is expected to announce today that Negroponte will become the top deputy at the State Department. Bush also is set to nominate retired Navy Vice Adm. J. Michael McConnell to be the next director of national intelligence.The shuffle comes 18 months into Negroponte's tenure at the job. And though he has received mixed reviews for his reform efforts, lawmakers and senior intelligence officials said the switch was a significant setback for the office, which oversees the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel5jan05,0,5285785.story?coll=la-home-nation
A two-pronged approach in Ramadi neighborhood
Iraqi forces search for insurgents as U.S. troops build a police station.
By Tony Perry, Times Staff WriterJanuary 5, 2007
RAMADI, IRAQ — Several hundred Iraqi soldiers and police officers conducted a house-to-house search Thursday through the dangerous Tamim neighborhood of this western city while U.S. forces feverishly began building an Iraqi police station in the onetime insurgent stronghold.U.S. and Iraqi commanders said the effort, dubbed Operation Casablanca, was a sign of the growing competency of the Iraqi forces in this provincial capital of sprawling Al Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency.The Iraqi forces searched apartment buildings and businesses for suspected insurgents. Few were found, which officials said was because the militants might have anticipated the offensive. The 2,000-square-foot police station, near the mosque, market and elementary school, is set to be completed by Sunday and will be staffed by Iraqi forces and their U.S. Army trainers.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ramadi5jan05,0,5421441.story?coll=la-home-world
Bush to Replace 2 Top Generals in Iraq
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer5:14 AM PST, January 5, 2007
WASHINGTON -- President Bush is putting the finishing touches on his new Iraq plan, reshuffling his national security team and military leadership in the wartorn country and scheduling private briefings at home with key lawmakers. The president plans to replace his two top generals in Iraq, a defense official, speaking on grounds of anonymity, told The Associated Press. Bush next week will unveil his strategy, which is expected to entail new political, military and economic steps to win the war. The military approach, which has attracted the most attention and skepticism from Congress, is expected to include an increase in U.S. forces, possibly 9,000 additional troops deployed to the Baghdad capital alone. "One thing is for certain: I will want to make sure the mission is clear and specific and can be accomplished," Bush said Thursday.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top11jan05,0,3463380.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlines
U.S.-Iraqi forces launch assault on Sunni haven
The joint offensive targets Diyala province, where violence is on the rise.
By Alexandra Zavis, Times Staff WriterJanuary 5, 2007
AL SHAMS, IRAQ — About 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive at dawn Thursday in Diyala province, an increasingly violent zone east of Baghdad that has become a haven and training ground for Sunni Arab insurgents.The target of the strike is an isolated landscape of farms and irrigation canals riddled with weapons caches, safe houses and training ranges, U.S. military officials said.The insurgents, however, appeared to be well prepared for the slow-moving assault. Smoke signals and flares arced into the sky as a column of tanks and Humvees from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, pressed into an insurgents' redoubt. U.S. military officials said spotters used those techniques to warn guerrillas in the area that the U.S. and Iraqi forces were approaching.Insurgents also had dug deep trenches into the roadways and sabotaged canal bridges to slow the troops' advance. U.S. commanders said they suspected that the obstacles were designed to divert approaching vehicles toward roadside bombs.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-baqubah5jan05,0,2747135.story?coll=la-home-world
Haaretz
U.S. to provide Abbas' forces with $86 million
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
The Bush administration will provide $86.4 million to strengthen security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, expanding U.S. involvement in Abbas' power struggle with Hamas, U.S. documents showed on Friday.Fighting between Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas has surged since talks on forming a unity government collapsed and Abbas called for early parliamentary and presidential elections. Hamas accused Abbas of mounting a coup.The U.S. money will be used to "assist the Palestinian Authority presidency in fulfilling PA commitments under the road map to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and establish law and order in the West Bank and Gaza," a U.S. government document obtained by Reuters said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809845.html
French president calls for Middle East peace conference
By Reuters
French President Jacques Chirac on Friday renewed a call for an international conference to help restore Middle East stability, saying that, "At the gates of Europe, the Middle East has become theepicentre of international tensions." Chirac, in what is likely to be one of his last major foreign policy addresses before April presidential elections, repeated his criticism of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He told diplomats in Paris that the situation risked spilling over into wider conflict.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/810037.html
MKs slam Ramallah raid, which cast pall over PM-Mubarak meet
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Knesset members on Friday debated the wisdom of the timing of an Israel Defense Forces raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday that cast a pall over a meeting in Egypt between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the same day.Four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded on Thursday when IDF undercover troops entered the West Bank town of Ramallah on an arrest raid, setting off protests and gunbattles in the center of town. When the leaders' summit in Sharm el-Sheikh ended, Mubarak told reporters at his joint press conference with Olmert: "I expressed to the prime minister our indignation at what happened today in Ramallah and said that Israel and all the people in the region will achieve peace only by refraining from all practices which obstruct its course."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809795.html
Ahmadinejad: International sanctions won't stop uranium enrichment
By Associated Press
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday said international sanctions won't stop Iran from enriching uranium, vowing not to give into 'coercion,' state-run television reported.'Iran will stand up to coercion. ... All Iranians stand united to defend their nuclear rights,' state-run TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.Iran has refused to comply with international demands that it suspend uranium enrichment. It also has condemned as 'invalid' and 'illegal' a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last month that imposes sanctions against the Islamic Republic for refusing to halt enrichment.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/810045.html
El Al, ultra-Orthodox sign deal to end dispute over Shabbat flights
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent
El Al CEO Haim Romano and attorney Yaakov Weinrot, representing the ultra-Orthodox rabbinical committee for Shabbat, signed a deal Friday to end a dispute over Sabbath flights. The agreement signals an end to an unofficial boycott of El Al, which has led to losses of about NIS 1 million a day, according to an official at Israel's national carrier.The agreement stipulates that El Al will appoint a rabbi to rule on instances of a perceived need for flights on the Sabbath. El Al has also committed to adhere to its general policy of not flying on the Sabbath.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/810030.html
U.S. seeks asset freeze on Syrian entities linked to WMD development
By Reuters
Stepping up pressure on Damascus, the United States administration on Thursday moved to freeze the U.S. assets of three Syrian government entities that it accuses of helping to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.The U.S. Treasury Department said it designated the Syrian Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology, the Electronics Institute and the National Standards and Calibration Laboratory as proliferators under an executive order aimed at combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction proliferation.The designation freezes any U.S. assets the entities may have and prohibits Americans from any financial transactions with them.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809844.html
Defense rests after hearing from torture expert at U.S. Hamas trial
By Reauters
Attorneys for one of two men accused of furnishing thousands of dollars (euros) and fresh recruits to a Palestinian terrorist network rested their casein Chicago on Thursday following testimony from an expert on torture.Closing arguments were set for Monday at the racketeering trial of former Chicago grocer Muhammad Salah, 53, and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, a former assistant professor of business at Washington's Howard University.Federal prosecutors say the two men were members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and helped to bankroll a wave of terror that included bombings, kidnappings and murder aimed at toppling the Israeli government.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809846.html
Palestinians: IDF raids W. Bank village in search for Jihad man
By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies
Israel Defense Forces troops raided a village near the West Bank town of Tul Karm on Friday in a search for a wanted Palestinian militant, Palestinian witnesses said.The raid came one day after four Palestinians were killed and at least 20 wounded when Israeli forces pushed into the center of the West Bank city of Ramallah.Witnesses near Tul Karm said IDF soldiers searched houses in the village of Attil, looking for Abdel-Mo'ti Hassan, an Islamic Jihad militant.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/810036.html
Be a Jew at home
By Yitzhak Laor
On Christmas eve, many Hebrew-speaking Jewish couples could be seen coming out of church in Jaffa after midnight mass. It is highly unlikely that you would find their counterparts in the West, i.e., non-Jews of the same social standing and educational level, going to any church on Christmas. Midnight mass in the churches of the West, at least in those countries that pride themselves on being secular, is only meant for the religious, specifically religious Christians. For everyone else, Christmas is a family event characterized by a mixture of semi-bourgeois and age-old semi-religious customs. This has nothing to do with loving the music of Bach or rushing into the arms of Jesus, the son of Mary, as born-again Christians. The Israeli eagerness to embrace Christian culture, as part of Western life, is not something sudden. It has been creeping slowly into Israeli culture, with a kind of historical cunning. It is enough to think about funeral rites in Europe, presided over by priests, while secular Jews in Israel stubbornly refuse to be buried in a Jewish service that includes the mourner's kaddish and traditional graveside prayers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809821.html
Jerusalem Post
Kassam strikes Sderot neighborhood
One of two Kassam rockets launched by northern Gaza terrorists slammed into a Sderot residential building Friday morning, causing extensive damage to two homes.
The Islamic Jihad claimed resonsibility.
Two women suffering from high shock were evacuated to area hospitals by Magen David Adom medics.
Sderot's "color red" warning system was activated between 10-15 seconds before the loud explosion rocked the residential area, said Noam Bedein of the Sderot Information Center, who lives a block away from where the missile fell.
Bedein said the rocket struck the side of a residential building, causing severe damage to two adjacent homes. A balcony was destroyed, and a large section of the roof had collapsed. Shrapnel and broken glass shredded the walls in the living rooms of the two homes, and a kitchen was demolished.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467667948&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Pelosi looks to tighten nuclear controls
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to lose no time ushering in change at the Congress of which she became the first-ever female House speaker on Thursday, vowing to push though Democratic priorities via an accelerated legislative process during the first 100 hours of the new legislature.
Though none deals directly with Israel, several have implications for the Jewish state, among them efforts to further clamp down on black market nuclear transfers, to wean the US from foreign energy dependence and to axe congressional trips abroad sponsored by special interest groups.
The last issue was expected to be taken up almost immediately by the 110th Congress, which convened for the first time Thursday. It's part of a host of ethics reforms Democrats are pushing in the face of lobbying scandals in the last term.
The new rules would bar lobbyists from taking representatives on trips abroad. That has left many Jewish groups scrambling to find ways to continue visits to Israel, with some bemoaning that their most experienced staffer won't be able to accompany delegations.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1167467665841&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Legality of W. Bank building reassessed
Israel is conducting a widespread evaluation of the legal status of settlement construction to come up with "carrots and sticks" to use in convincing settlement leaders to voluntarily evacuate illegal settlement outposts, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Committees have been set up in the Defense Ministry and the Civil Administration to map out all construction in the settlements. The overriding idea is to define whether construction in existing settlements is legal.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467665717&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel expected to relax W. Bank visa restrictions
The government plans to grant 27-month entry visas for the West Bank to bearers of foreign passports who do not come from enemy countries, Coordinator of Activities in the Territories spokesman Shlomo Dror said Thursday.
"The matter is being looked into," he told The Jerusalem Post. "It looks like it will be approved."
Over the past few months, Israel has changed its long-standing policy toward foreign-passport holders from countries not considered to be enemies. In the past, tourist visas were automatically renewed after three months without the applicant having to leave the West Bank.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467664897&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Senior Hamas official: Shalit alive
A senior Hamas official said Thursday his group was ready to give Israel a videotape of the soldier if it agreed to release Palestinian women prisoners and other detainees.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau in Damascus, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that Shalit was alive.
He said his group would be willing to trade the videotape for the freedom of "Palestinian women and a considerable number of detainees." He did not give a specific figure.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467656424&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Saudi King holds talks with Hizbullah
A Saudi diplomat said Thursday that Saudi King Abdullah made his first-ever personal contact with Lebanon's Hizbullah in a bid to ease the Lebanese political crisis.
The meeting was held in the kingdom on Dec. 27 between Hizbullah's deputy leader Sheik Naim Kassem and the Saudi monarch and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the talks.
The Saudi and Hizbullah leaders discussed ways to end the internal conflict in Lebanon that pits Hizbullah against the Saudi- and US-backed government of President Fouad Siniora.
The Saudi King invited Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah to the kingdom to perform the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage, but Nasrallah turned down the invitation, the diplomat said.
Talks between Hizbullah and the Saudi government are continuing through the Saudi embassy in Beirut, the diplomat said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467663151&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Analysis: Egypt hedges its bets in Gaza
Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 has prompted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to deepen his country's involvement in Palestinian affairs.
Egypt, which controlled the Strip from 1948 to 1967, has always shown interest in what's happening in this tiny area, home to some 1.3 million Palestinians - most of them refugees.
Following the Israeli pullout, Mubarak decided to dispatch Egyptian security officials to keep a close eye on developments there.
Those security officials have found themselves playing roles ranging from advising and training Palestinian Authority policemen to mediating between Fatah and Hamas.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467665724&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Most Jews ever set to enter Congress
A record number of Jewish members will enter Congress Thursday, but more remarkable are the unparalleled positions of power they will hold on committees related to Israel, many local Jewish activists say.
Six new Jewish legislators will be joining 37 familiar faces as the 110th Congress convenes, making the total the highest-ever, according to Doug Bloomfield, a former legislative director for AIPAC.
"It's unprecedented that there have been so many [Jews] in so many positions of leadership in both houses," Bloomfield said, using a Jewish simile for how that fact will affect support for Israel: Like chicken soup, it won't hurt.
Other political analysts went further, saying that congressional backing of Israel would remain at least as strong it has been, if not stronger.
Among the familiar House faces on key committees will be Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) as chairman of the International Relations Committee (HIRC) and Gary Ackerman (D-NY) is set to be chair of the HIRC Middle East subcommittee. Nita Lowey (D-NY) should be chairing the appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations. Ackerman's and Lowey's appointments are expected to be officially announced within the next few days.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467657033&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A modern Cassandra
Much has been written over the last couple of years of the exodus of Jews from France. In the face of a wave of violent anti-Semitism, thousands have left Paris, Strasbourg and Marseilles for Israel.
In certain middle-class neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Netanya and Ashdod, it's impossible not to notice them. Last week's aliya figures from the Jewish Agency disclosed another trend: Quietly, without fanfare, another community seems to be on the move.
Immigration from Britain was up by 45 percent in 2006. In absolute numbers this might not be a high figure - 720 new olim, up from 480 in 2005. Perhaps it's just a statistical blip, but all the same, it's the highest number of British olim in decades, and when it's added to unknown numbers of young British Jews who reportedly are leaving for other shores, such as the US, a worrisome trend begins to emerge. Are the Jews of one of the most successful outposts of the Diaspora beginning to leave?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467659752&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Obama's audacity
…Since law is a codification of morality, Obama - who as an adult was baptized in the Trinity United Church of Christ - asserts that it "is a practical absurdity" to demand that religious views not inform public debate. A sense of proportion should guide Christian activists as well as guardians of the provision against establishments of religion in the US Constitution. In a pluralistic democracy, Obama insists, sectarian values must be translated into universal terms and subjected to reasoned argument. Thus zealous Christians do not have the right to rely on the Bible to deny rights to homosexuals. But it is acceptable to ask students to recite the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, use school property for meetings of religious organizations, and spend public funds on some faith-based social programs….
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467660753&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Koch's Comments: NY needs change
Ed Koch, former legendary Jewish mayor of New York City, continues his JPost blog.
The people have spoken, and two new political phenomena have occurred, one for New York -- Eliot Spitzer, Democrat, now governor, and another for the country -- Democrats now control both Houses of Congress. In his campaign for governor, Eliot Spitzer made clear that he intends to be an agent for change. He promised change would begin on Day One of his administration.
I believe him, and so do millions of New Yorkers who are tired of being represented by a dysfunctional state legislature that is the butt of jokes throughout the state. The legislature in Albany simply cannot get things done for the people of New York. In the past, the Empire State enjoyed a reputation for electing legislators and governors who were on the cutting edge of social progress. But those illustrious names are from long ago -- F.D.R. and Al Smith.
While we have had a number of good governors since those earlier times, they did not make their mark as giants in the field of social progress. For me, in the modern era, the governor who stands tallest is Hugh Carey. His great achievement was saving both the City and State of New York -- both near collapse -- from bankruptcy in the mid 70s. I served as mayor for 12 years, 1978 through 1989, overlapping almost completely Carey's two terms as governor from 1975 through 1982. I, together with Congressman Charles Rangel, had the privilege to serve in the House of Representatives at the same time as Carey, and Charlie and I were his first two Congressional supporters. Hugh Carey has never been given the full credit due him for his brilliant service as governor.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467662806&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Editor's Notes: Mourning Teddy Kollek
It was to Teddy Kollek's Jerusalem that I came as a new immigrant in the early 1980s. The city was the heart of the revived Jewish nation, and it was the mayor who kept it pumping.
It was a capital of seemingly impossible contradictions - "unified" for a decade and a half but patently divided - that only the confidence of a truly visionary mayor could reconcile.
I studied in the rarefied air of the university on Mount Scopus, ate Richie's pizza downtown, went to movies in a dilapidated hall with broken seats in Kiryat Hayovel where they provided free tea to help compensate for the absent heating, spent most evenings working here at the Post and occasional others guzzling watermelon and watching martial arts movies at the outdoor stalls facing Damascus Gate. Up the hill was the bullet-pocked exterior of Kollek's municipal headquarters, watching over the improbable mix.
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continued …
Set up special court to hear environmental crimes, govt told
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
The government should set up a special court to hear environmental crimes because suspects in illegal logging cases are evading justice in the regular courts, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) says.
Speaking from Medan, North Sumatra on Thursday, executive director Chalid Muhammad said dozens of suspects had been freed by courts in the past year despite compelling evidence they were involved in illegal logging.
An example was former Southeast Aceh regent Armen Desky's son, Marzuki Desky, who Walhi had evidence was involved in logging. He was freed by Southeast Aceh district court four months ago but the prosecutors were appealing the case.
"That's only one case. There are many other illegal logging suspects in this country who are going unpunished, like those responsible for the logging in Aceh, North Sumatra, Papua and West Kalimantan," Chalid said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.G02&irec=1
Bad weather, air accident fail to stop travelers
Slamet Susanto and Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Yogyakarta, Medan
Extreme weather warnings and the continued uncertainty over an Adam Air plane carrying 102 people have helped push up train passenger numbers in some areas.
In Yogyakarta, there has been a decline in the number of passengers at Adi Sucipto airport, but the city's trains have experienced a surge in passenger numbers over the past week.
"Our executive-class trains have seen a significant rise of about 30 percent in passenger numbers since Jan. 1," Mochtadi, a spokesman for state train company PT KAI in Yogyakarta, said Thursday.
The Meteorology and Geophysics Agency has issued bad weather warnings for air and sea traffic for at least the next three days. Most of these warnings concern eastern Indonesia.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.G01&irec=0
Is Indonesia ready to welcome Chinese and Indian tourists?
Rudijanto, Jakarta
At the end of 2006, Culture and Tourism Minister Jero Wacik revised the country's target for foreign tourist arrivals from 5.5 million to 5 million. But even this lower target seems to be more an expectation of pure luck than solid data.
After hitting 5.32 million in 2004, tourist arrivals have been on the decline, dropping to 5 million in 2005 and 2.8 million as of the end of September 2006. Only if there was a windfall during the December peak season can the country reach the revised target.
Meanwhile, Singapore enjoyed a 15 percent growth in tourist arrivals as of October 2006, or a total of 857,000 visitors. Malaysia recorded a 5.9 percent increase as of August 2006, or a total of 11,518,288 visitors. This is in spite of the damaging impact of Indonesian forest fires that spread choking haze over the two neighboring countries.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaileditorial.asp?fileid=20070105.E03&irec=2
Lampung's Chinese still singled out
Oyos Saroso H.N., The Jakarta Post, Bandarlampung
The new Citizenship Law has taken effect, but Chinese-Indonesians in Lampung remain subject to discrimination.
They are still required to show their Indonesian Citizenship Certificate (SBKRI) when applying for passports, business licenses and other documents.
The chairman of the Chinese-Indonesian Social Association (PSMTI), Kencana Sukma, blamed the continued discrimination on ineffective efforts to publicize the law, which was approved by the House of Representatives in July.
He said in addition to the new law, Bandarlampung Mayor Eddy Sutrisno had abolished the requirement for the SBKRI during the recent Chinese New Year celebrations.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.G04&irec=3
No clue yet of jetliner wreckage after five-day missing
MAKASSAR, South Sulawesi (Antara): Search and rescue team has not found any clue about the location of the wreckage of an Adam Air plane, which has gone missing since Monday when it was on its way from East Java to North Sulawesi.
Commander of Makassar Air Base First Air Marshal Eddy Suyanto said Friday that rescuers would search wider areas in trying to find the ill-fated plane, which was carrying 102 people.
The expanded search has been based on factors ranging from late-arriving reports of other emergency signals to calculations of possible alternate courses the pilot of the 17-year-old Boeing 737-400 might have chosen to take to avoid bad weather.
Meanwhile, Communication and Information Minister Sofyan Djalil Friday urged operators of telecommunications to help locate the wreckage.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailgeneral.asp?fileid=20070105153023&irec=0
Singapore, U.S. join search for jetliner
Andi Hajramurni, Jonger Rumteh and Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Makassar, Manado, Surabaya
Singapore has joined the search for an Adam Air jetliner that went missing Monday with 102 people on board, as relatives gathered at the Makassar airport began the painful process of returning home with no news of their loved ones.
A Singaporean air force plane carrying 27 members of the force arrived in Indonesia to take part in the massive land and sea search for the missing Boeing 737-400. The Singaporean plane joined Indonesian Air Force and Navy aircraft in the search, as well as a police helicopter. The search also involves four Indonesian Navy warships with divers using sonar equipment to detect underwater wreckage.
Despite the intensive nature of the operation, the Adam Air plane had not been located as of late Thursday. Officials said search operations would resume Friday.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.@01&irec=0
U.S. Embassy assists family of missing three
Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The U.S. Embassy in Jakarta is providing consular help to the family of the three Americans on board the Adam Air jetliner that went missing over Sulawesi on Monday.
Assistant press attache Shannon Quinn said Thursday the embassy was assisting family members in Jakarta and Makassar.
The Associated Press, quoting Portland's Oregonian newspaper identified the missing Americans as Scott Jackson, 54, and his daughters, 21-year-old Stephanie and 18-year-old Lindsay. Jackson is a wood-products executive.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.@03&irec=2
Only 40% of pharmacies ready for free trade
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Only 40 percent of local pharmaceutical firms comply with the "current good manufacturing practices" (CGMP), which promote standardized product quality, required under the ASEAN Free Trade Agreement (AFTA) that takes effect in 2008, an association says.
At present, the industry boasts 206 manufacturers, including 35 multinational firms.
"All of our members are trying to comply with these requirements in the run-up to AFTA, which will come into effect in January 2008," Anthony C.H. Sunarjo, the chairman of the Pharmaceutical Producers Association, told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
AFTA -- which groups the members of ASEAN, excluding its three newest members, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar -- requires all pharmaceutical products traded in the region to comply with current good manufacturing practices.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.@02&irec=1
Dollar drops sharply vs yen in Asia on falling oil
TOKYO (AP): The dollar dropped sharply against the yen in AsiaFriday as short-term investors locked in profits and commodityprices fell.
The dollar rose against other Asian currencies. It rose to35.95 Thai baht from 35.77 late Thursday and to Rp 9,015 Rp8,995.
The dollar bought 118.36 yen on the Tokyo foreign exchangemarket at mid-afternoon, down from 119.10 yen late Thursday inNew York. The euro fell to US$1.3078, from $1.3087.
The yen will likely continue rising during the global session,though U.S. jobs data could roil the market later in the day,traders said.
"Players sold the yen too much toward the end of last year,"said Tsutomu Soma, a senior trader at Okasan Securities. "So theyare adjusting their positions back."
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detaillbus.asp?fileid=20070105144927&irec=0
Waves on car deck blamed for passenger ferry sinking
Suherdjoko and Indra Harsaputra, The Jakarta Post, Semarang, Surabaya
High waves washing into the Senopati Nusantara's car deck probably caused the ferry to sink last Friday, a top government investigator says.
Similar accidents involving "roll-on, roll-off" ferries have occurred elsewhere around the world, leading experts to call for design changes in the doors and ramps that allow vehicles to drive directly on board, AP reported.
Government investigator Ruth Simatupang suspected high waves washing into the ship's car deck caused the ship to capsize.
"I suspect waves entered the car deck over the doors ... making the vessel too heavy and unstable," she said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.A04&irec=3
Safety standards on ship questioned
Alvin Darlanika Soedarjo, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Passengers on the ill-fated Senopati Nusantara were probably not informed about safety equipment on board or told how to save themselves in an emergency, a senior official said Thursday.
The passenger ferry sank in the Java Sea last Friday, carrying more than 600 people. About 220 people have been found alive and more than 400 are still missing.
"We have learned a lot from the tragedy; that we must review our onboard safety instructions for passengers before any ship leaves a seaport," sea transport director general Harijogi said.
"Just like an airline's in-flight announcements, ships must have instructions that people can follow in times of emergency to save themselves," he said.
Harijogi believed the sunken vessel already met standard safety requirements.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.A06&irec=5
Jakarta may ban bikers from main thoroughfares
Adisti Sukma Sawitri, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
After raising on-street parking fares and directing motorcyclists to drive in the "slow" left lanes, the Jakarta administration is now planning to ban bikers from using main roads altogether during peak hours.
"It is very uncomfortable (for car drivers) having so many motorcycles on city streets. We must regulate them," said Governor Sutiyoso at City Hall after meeting the city-sanctioned Jakarta Transportation Board on Thursday.
The two bodies are planning to encourage motorcyclists to leave their motorbikes outside main thoroughfares and take the busway instead. Cheaper fares would help attract motorists, Sutiyoso said.
This opened the opportunity for developers to construct off-street parking sites around these main streets, he said.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.A05&irec=4
Last chance for President to deliver on promises
Endy M. Bayuni, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Whatever expectations we have of our elected leaders in 2007, one thing we should realize is that this will be the last chance for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Cabinet to make good on his 2004 election promises.
This being a coalition government, 2008 will see just about everybody, from the President and Vice President down to most of the Cabinet members, busy preparing for the 2009 general elections.
By then, the National Unity Cabinet, the term the President coined for his new team at the start of his government, may as well be called the National Divided Cabinet.
The forces that divide them will outweigh those that bring them together. Vice President Jusuf Kalla, for example, will most likely be one of the main contenders challenging Yudhoyono in 2009, instead of being the running mate that he was in 2004.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailheadlines.asp?fileid=20070105.A07&irec=6
Survey finds autonomy doing little to improve governance
M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The introduction of regional autonomy in 2001 has increased corruption more than it has improved public services, according to the results of a survey announced Thursday.
The Governance Assessment Survey, conducted by Yogyakarta's Gadjah Mada University, in collaboration with the Partnership for Governance Reform, found that regional autonomy has done little to improve access to public services for the poor or to professionalize the bureaucracy.
More than 1,800 people, including members of non-governmental organizations and the press, politicians and civil servants, were interviewed across 10 provinces for the survey.
Only 20 percent of respondents believe that human resources at health offices are of good quality. The majority of respondents also say the bureaucracy is more concerned with its own needs than those of the public.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.H05&irec=4
Fundamentalism still major danger in 2007
Ary Hermawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The government failed to address a range of rights abuses related to religious fundamentalism last year and its inaction means sectarian violence will likely remain a threat to national development, a rights watchdog says.
In its annual human rights report, Imparsial said Thursday that in the past year the government did little to anticipate or respond to local bylaws that discriminated against women and militant groups that targeted religious minorities.
"It failed in part to understand the dangers posed by religious fundamentalism to human rights and democracy," Imparsial executive director Rachlan Nashidik said. "It also underestimated (fundamentalism's) revival," he said.
The group recorded at least 14 major cases of rights violations triggered by religious intolerance in 2006.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailnational.asp?fileid=20070105.H06&irec=5
Jambi Red Cross runs out of blood
JAMBI, Jambi: The supply of plasma at Jambi Red Cross' Blood Transfusion Unit has fallen short for several days due to a lack of blood donors for the past month.
The Red Cross is having trouble meeting the city's needs, especially during the current rainy season when the spread of dengue fever is at its height.
The head of the blood transfusion unit, Dian Agustina, said the agency was trying to uphold its commitment to serve members of the public in need of plasma.
"We have made efforts to look for blood supplies but demands are too high," she said. Residents have been forced to find their own blood donors due to the lack of volunteer donors.
Dian said her office was at the moment making efforts to contact its routine donors, or those who could be called on to donate blood from time to time.
Of the total blood demand in Jambi thus far, only 40 percent comes from the Red Cross, while the rest is supplied by patients' relatives. -- JP
Several countries give aid to Sumatra flood response
Sascha Zastiral, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Several nations have offered financial aid to the Indonesian Red Cross, after torrential rains last week caused flooding throughout North Sumatra and Aceh provinces.
More than 140 people were killed and 400,00 forced to flee their homes in the flooding, including more than 360,000 displaced in Aceh. Hundreds are still missing.
Spain, the U.S., Australia and China have announced immediate financial aid to assist emergency relief in effected areas.
Spain has donated 250,000 euros (US$329,800) to flood victims from a 12 million euro emergency relief fund set up by Spain's International Cooperation Agency, the Spanish foreign minister told Associated Press.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailworld.asp?fileid=20070105.I01&irec=0
Japan hands over training center and rebuilt road in Aceh
Sascha Zastiral, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The deputy chief of mission at the Japanese Embassy in Jakarta, Satoru Satoh, recently handed over a Japanese-funded vocational training center in Banda Aceh to Indonesian officials, the embassy announced in a press release.
Harry Heriawan Saleh, secretary-general of the Manpower and Transmigration Ministry, and several other dignitaries were present at the handover ceremony.
Separately, the West Coast Road, extending 130 kilometers between Calang and Meulaboh in Aceh, was officially opened in another ceremony. The construction of this road was funded by the Japanese government.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailworld.asp?fileid=20070105.I02&irec=1
BI cuts rate further to spur higher growth
Andi Haswidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The central bank cut its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point Thursday to 9.5 percent, a 16-month low, with faster economic growth and a stable macroeconomic environment expected to characterize 2007.
"We expect this year to be a promising one for the country's economy," BI governor Burhanuddin Abdullah said after a monthly meeting of the central bank's board of governors.
Burhanuddin said the economy proved itself resilient in 2006, with inflation ending up lower than the target of approximately 8 percent, despite the fuel-price hikes at the end of 2005, which resulted in inflation at the start of 2006 rising to 17 percent.
http://www.thejakartapost.com/detailbusiness.asp?fileid=20070105.L01&irec=0
The Los Angeles Times
U.S.-Iraqi forces launch assault on Sunni haven
The joint offensive targets Diyala province, where violence is on the rise.
AL SHAMS, IRAQ — About 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive at dawn Thursday in Diyala province, an increasingly violent zone east of Baghdad that has become a haven and training ground for Sunni Arab insurgents.The target of the strike is an isolated landscape of farms and irrigation canals riddled with weapons caches, safe houses and training ranges, U.S. military officials said.The insurgents, however, appeared to be well prepared for the slow-moving assault. Smoke signals and flares arced into the sky as a column of tanks and Humvees from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, pressed into an insurgents' redoubt. U.S. military officials said spotters used those techniques to warn guerrillas in the area that the U.S. and Iraqi forces were approaching.Insurgents also had dug deep trenches into the roadways and sabotaged canal bridges to slow the troops' advance. U.S. commanders said they suspected that the obstacles were designed to divert approaching vehicles toward roadside bombs.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-baqubah5jan05,0,2747135.story?coll=la-home-headlines
American sailor rescued after three days adrift at sea
After a three-day race to rescue an injured Newport Beach sailor stranded in the storm-whipped Pacific, a fishing trawler plucked Ken Barnes Jr. this morning from his crippled sailboat near the tip of South America.At about 2:45 this morning, Barnes' family received word that the rescue had been made and that the sailor was in "good shape."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-sailor6jan06,0,5513115.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Ancient global warming was jarring, not subtle, study finds
…After five years, they had compiled the first carefully dated and cross-referenced archive of the period's primeval soils and fossil plant matter, they reported. Geochemical analysis of iron oxides and isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen revealed telling evidence of temperature variation, rainfall patterns and atmospheric carbon dioxide levels through 40 million years of the Paleozoic, covering the period of major climate warming. They correlated those findings with an analysis of shellfish fossil remains, to compare those findings against marine carbon levels."It is an extraordinary improvement on past estimates," said Yale paleoclimate expert Mark Pagani, who was not involved in the research. Instead of a relatively gradual transition from a cold world to a warm one, as many scientists had believed occurred, Montanez and her colleagues found fever spikes of climate change correlated with fluctuating levels of carbon dioxide, like a seismometer graph of the myriad tremors before and after a major earthquake. "CO2 goes up and temperature goes up. It drops and temperature drops," Montanez said. "It suggests," she said, "that the normal behavior in major climate transitions is instability, erratic temperature behavior and carbon dioxide changes."
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-climate5jan05,0,1965037.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Bush reaches out to skeptical Democrats
The president has been making conciliatory gestures to his old foes, the new power brokers.
WASHINGTON — A few years ago, when President Bush announced plans to dump nuclear waste in Sen. Harry Reid's state, it was a political insult so stinging that the Nevada Democrat responded by calling the nation's commander in chief a liar.Now Reid, the new Senate majority leader, is getting the red-carpet treatment. The administration treated Reid to two military plane rides in one week. He was invited to an intimate White House party, where Bush politely asked what books Reid had been reading lately.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-bipartisan5jan05,0,2989753.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Tijuana police abandon posts
After federal agents confiscate the force's weapons, officers decide going back on patrol would be too risky.
TIJUANA — The municipal police force in this troubled border city walked off the job Thursday after soldiers and federal agents ordered its members to turn over their weapons in connection with homicide investigations.The surprising turn of events came two days after Mexican President Felipe Calderon dispatched 3,300 federal troops and police to the city in an effort to combat violence linked to drug cartels.Tijuana Mayor Jorge Hank Rhon acknowledged in a radio interview Thursday that local and state police were being compromised by narco-traffickers, and he said government salaries could not compete with the financial rewards offered by drug dealers.Members of the 2,300-strong police force turned over more than 2,100 guns and semiautomatic assault rifles at police headquarters. But police officials decided it would be too dangerous to patrol unarmed, especially because more than a dozen officers have been killed recently in drug-related attacks.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-fg-tijuana5jan05,0,6682782.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Recovering governor wants to be seen as a 'centrist'
By Peter Nicholas, Times Staff Writer3:56 AM PST, January 5, 2007
Sacramento -- Opening his second term, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will proudly proclaim himself a centrist and eschew the partisanship that he says is the root of political paralysis and voter disenchantment, according to excerpts of the inaugural address that he is to give this morning."Centrist does not mean weak. It does not mean watered down or watered over," according to a portion of the speech released Thursday by the governor's office. "It means well-balanced and well-grounded. The American people are instinctively centrist … so should be our government."Recovering from a broken leg, Schwarzenegger, 59, is to deliver the speech at his inauguration ceremony at the Memorial Auditorium in downtown Sacramento beginning at 11 a.m.It will be the governor's first public appearance since he tripped and fell on an Idaho ski slope on Dec. 23, fracturing his right femur. Schwarzenegger had surgery on his leg three days later and is expected to fully recover.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-speech6jan06,0,6697346.story?coll=la-home-headlines
Guilty verdict in Thompson murder case
Former business partner Michael Goodwin faces life without parole in the deaths of the racing legend and his wife.
By John Spano and Tami Abdollah, Times Staff WritersJanuary 5, 2007
Collene Campbell arrived in court Thursday wearing the St. Christopher medal her brother, slain racing legend Mickey Thompson, wore during his races. It lay over a diamond necklace her mother gave her on her deathbed 11 years ago, asking Campbell not to take it off until her brother's killer was brought to justice.On Thursday, after nearly 19 years, 74-year-old Campbell was released from those mystic bonds.A Pasadena jury convicted Michael Goodwin of murdering his former racing-promoter partner and Thompson's wife, Trudy, in 1988, thus writing the climactic chapter in one of Los Angeles County's most enduring murder mysteries."I wish I could look up and touch Mickey and Trudy and say, 'We won!' " Campbell said after the verdict, her eyes welling with tears. Later she waved a black-and-white checkered racing flag in triumph.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-thompson5jan05,0,7497617.story?coll=la-home-local
Negroponte shift is ruffling feathers
Some say that his assignment to the State Department will leave the national intelligence office in a lurch.
By Greg Miller, Times Staff WriterJanuary 5, 2007
WASHINGTON — The abrupt departure of John D. Negroponte as the nation's spy chief prompted angry responses from Capitol Hill and triggered new debate Thursday over whether a position created to fix the nation's intelligence problems is itself fundamentally flawed.President Bush is expected to announce today that Negroponte will become the top deputy at the State Department. Bush also is set to nominate retired Navy Vice Adm. J. Michael McConnell to be the next director of national intelligence.The shuffle comes 18 months into Negroponte's tenure at the job. And though he has received mixed reviews for his reform efforts, lawmakers and senior intelligence officials said the switch was a significant setback for the office, which oversees the 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, including the CIA.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-intel5jan05,0,5285785.story?coll=la-home-nation
A two-pronged approach in Ramadi neighborhood
Iraqi forces search for insurgents as U.S. troops build a police station.
By Tony Perry, Times Staff WriterJanuary 5, 2007
RAMADI, IRAQ — Several hundred Iraqi soldiers and police officers conducted a house-to-house search Thursday through the dangerous Tamim neighborhood of this western city while U.S. forces feverishly began building an Iraqi police station in the onetime insurgent stronghold.U.S. and Iraqi commanders said the effort, dubbed Operation Casablanca, was a sign of the growing competency of the Iraqi forces in this provincial capital of sprawling Al Anbar province, the heart of the Sunni Arab insurgency.The Iraqi forces searched apartment buildings and businesses for suspected insurgents. Few were found, which officials said was because the militants might have anticipated the offensive. The 2,000-square-foot police station, near the mosque, market and elementary school, is set to be completed by Sunday and will be staffed by Iraqi forces and their U.S. Army trainers.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-ramadi5jan05,0,5421441.story?coll=la-home-world
Bush to Replace 2 Top Generals in Iraq
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer5:14 AM PST, January 5, 2007
WASHINGTON -- President Bush is putting the finishing touches on his new Iraq plan, reshuffling his national security team and military leadership in the wartorn country and scheduling private briefings at home with key lawmakers. The president plans to replace his two top generals in Iraq, a defense official, speaking on grounds of anonymity, told The Associated Press. Bush next week will unveil his strategy, which is expected to entail new political, military and economic steps to win the war. The military approach, which has attracted the most attention and skepticism from Congress, is expected to include an increase in U.S. forces, possibly 9,000 additional troops deployed to the Baghdad capital alone. "One thing is for certain: I will want to make sure the mission is clear and specific and can be accomplished," Bush said Thursday.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/ats-ap_top11jan05,0,3463380.story?coll=la-ap-topnews-headlines
U.S.-Iraqi forces launch assault on Sunni haven
The joint offensive targets Diyala province, where violence is on the rise.
By Alexandra Zavis, Times Staff WriterJanuary 5, 2007
AL SHAMS, IRAQ — About 1,000 U.S. and Iraqi troops launched a major offensive at dawn Thursday in Diyala province, an increasingly violent zone east of Baghdad that has become a haven and training ground for Sunni Arab insurgents.The target of the strike is an isolated landscape of farms and irrigation canals riddled with weapons caches, safe houses and training ranges, U.S. military officials said.The insurgents, however, appeared to be well prepared for the slow-moving assault. Smoke signals and flares arced into the sky as a column of tanks and Humvees from the 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division, pressed into an insurgents' redoubt. U.S. military officials said spotters used those techniques to warn guerrillas in the area that the U.S. and Iraqi forces were approaching.Insurgents also had dug deep trenches into the roadways and sabotaged canal bridges to slow the troops' advance. U.S. commanders said they suspected that the obstacles were designed to divert approaching vehicles toward roadside bombs.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-baqubah5jan05,0,2747135.story?coll=la-home-world
Haaretz
U.S. to provide Abbas' forces with $86 million
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies
The Bush administration will provide $86.4 million to strengthen security forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, expanding U.S. involvement in Abbas' power struggle with Hamas, U.S. documents showed on Friday.Fighting between Abbas's Fatah faction and Hamas has surged since talks on forming a unity government collapsed and Abbas called for early parliamentary and presidential elections. Hamas accused Abbas of mounting a coup.The U.S. money will be used to "assist the Palestinian Authority presidency in fulfilling PA commitments under the road map to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism and establish law and order in the West Bank and Gaza," a U.S. government document obtained by Reuters said.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809845.html
French president calls for Middle East peace conference
By Reuters
French President Jacques Chirac on Friday renewed a call for an international conference to help restore Middle East stability, saying that, "At the gates of Europe, the Middle East has become theepicentre of international tensions." Chirac, in what is likely to be one of his last major foreign policy addresses before April presidential elections, repeated his criticism of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. He told diplomats in Paris that the situation risked spilling over into wider conflict.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/810037.html
MKs slam Ramallah raid, which cast pall over PM-Mubarak meet
By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Agencies
Knesset members on Friday debated the wisdom of the timing of an Israel Defense Forces raid in the West Bank city of Ramallah on Thursday that cast a pall over a meeting in Egypt between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak the same day.Four Palestinians were killed and 20 wounded on Thursday when IDF undercover troops entered the West Bank town of Ramallah on an arrest raid, setting off protests and gunbattles in the center of town. When the leaders' summit in Sharm el-Sheikh ended, Mubarak told reporters at his joint press conference with Olmert: "I expressed to the prime minister our indignation at what happened today in Ramallah and said that Israel and all the people in the region will achieve peace only by refraining from all practices which obstruct its course."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809795.html
Ahmadinejad: International sanctions won't stop uranium enrichment
By Associated Press
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday said international sanctions won't stop Iran from enriching uranium, vowing not to give into 'coercion,' state-run television reported.'Iran will stand up to coercion. ... All Iranians stand united to defend their nuclear rights,' state-run TV quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.Iran has refused to comply with international demands that it suspend uranium enrichment. It also has condemned as 'invalid' and 'illegal' a U.N. Security Council resolution passed last month that imposes sanctions against the Islamic Republic for refusing to halt enrichment.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/810045.html
El Al, ultra-Orthodox sign deal to end dispute over Shabbat flights
By Yair Ettinger, Haaretz Correspondent
El Al CEO Haim Romano and attorney Yaakov Weinrot, representing the ultra-Orthodox rabbinical committee for Shabbat, signed a deal Friday to end a dispute over Sabbath flights. The agreement signals an end to an unofficial boycott of El Al, which has led to losses of about NIS 1 million a day, according to an official at Israel's national carrier.The agreement stipulates that El Al will appoint a rabbi to rule on instances of a perceived need for flights on the Sabbath. El Al has also committed to adhere to its general policy of not flying on the Sabbath.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/810030.html
U.S. seeks asset freeze on Syrian entities linked to WMD development
By Reuters
Stepping up pressure on Damascus, the United States administration on Thursday moved to freeze the U.S. assets of three Syrian government entities that it accuses of helping to proliferate weapons of mass destruction.The U.S. Treasury Department said it designated the Syrian Higher Institute of Applied Science and Technology, the Electronics Institute and the National Standards and Calibration Laboratory as proliferators under an executive order aimed at combating the spread of weapons of mass destruction proliferation.The designation freezes any U.S. assets the entities may have and prohibits Americans from any financial transactions with them.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809844.html
Defense rests after hearing from torture expert at U.S. Hamas trial
By Reauters
Attorneys for one of two men accused of furnishing thousands of dollars (euros) and fresh recruits to a Palestinian terrorist network rested their casein Chicago on Thursday following testimony from an expert on torture.Closing arguments were set for Monday at the racketeering trial of former Chicago grocer Muhammad Salah, 53, and Abdelhaleem Ashqar, 48, a former assistant professor of business at Washington's Howard University.Federal prosecutors say the two men were members of the Palestinian militant group Hamas and helped to bankroll a wave of terror that included bombings, kidnappings and murder aimed at toppling the Israeli government.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809846.html
Palestinians: IDF raids W. Bank village in search for Jihad man
By Amos Harel, Avi Issacharoff and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies
Israel Defense Forces troops raided a village near the West Bank town of Tul Karm on Friday in a search for a wanted Palestinian militant, Palestinian witnesses said.The raid came one day after four Palestinians were killed and at least 20 wounded when Israeli forces pushed into the center of the West Bank city of Ramallah.Witnesses near Tul Karm said IDF soldiers searched houses in the village of Attil, looking for Abdel-Mo'ti Hassan, an Islamic Jihad militant.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/810036.html
Be a Jew at home
By Yitzhak Laor
On Christmas eve, many Hebrew-speaking Jewish couples could be seen coming out of church in Jaffa after midnight mass. It is highly unlikely that you would find their counterparts in the West, i.e., non-Jews of the same social standing and educational level, going to any church on Christmas. Midnight mass in the churches of the West, at least in those countries that pride themselves on being secular, is only meant for the religious, specifically religious Christians. For everyone else, Christmas is a family event characterized by a mixture of semi-bourgeois and age-old semi-religious customs. This has nothing to do with loving the music of Bach or rushing into the arms of Jesus, the son of Mary, as born-again Christians. The Israeli eagerness to embrace Christian culture, as part of Western life, is not something sudden. It has been creeping slowly into Israeli culture, with a kind of historical cunning. It is enough to think about funeral rites in Europe, presided over by priests, while secular Jews in Israel stubbornly refuse to be buried in a Jewish service that includes the mourner's kaddish and traditional graveside prayers.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/809821.html
Jerusalem Post
Kassam strikes Sderot neighborhood
One of two Kassam rockets launched by northern Gaza terrorists slammed into a Sderot residential building Friday morning, causing extensive damage to two homes.
The Islamic Jihad claimed resonsibility.
Two women suffering from high shock were evacuated to area hospitals by Magen David Adom medics.
Sderot's "color red" warning system was activated between 10-15 seconds before the loud explosion rocked the residential area, said Noam Bedein of the Sderot Information Center, who lives a block away from where the missile fell.
Bedein said the rocket struck the side of a residential building, causing severe damage to two adjacent homes. A balcony was destroyed, and a large section of the roof had collapsed. Shrapnel and broken glass shredded the walls in the living rooms of the two homes, and a kitchen was demolished.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467667948&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Pelosi looks to tighten nuclear controls
Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) wants to lose no time ushering in change at the Congress of which she became the first-ever female House speaker on Thursday, vowing to push though Democratic priorities via an accelerated legislative process during the first 100 hours of the new legislature.
Though none deals directly with Israel, several have implications for the Jewish state, among them efforts to further clamp down on black market nuclear transfers, to wean the US from foreign energy dependence and to axe congressional trips abroad sponsored by special interest groups.
The last issue was expected to be taken up almost immediately by the 110th Congress, which convened for the first time Thursday. It's part of a host of ethics reforms Democrats are pushing in the face of lobbying scandals in the last term.
The new rules would bar lobbyists from taking representatives on trips abroad. That has left many Jewish groups scrambling to find ways to continue visits to Israel, with some bemoaning that their most experienced staffer won't be able to accompany delegations.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1167467665841&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Legality of W. Bank building reassessed
Israel is conducting a widespread evaluation of the legal status of settlement construction to come up with "carrots and sticks" to use in convincing settlement leaders to voluntarily evacuate illegal settlement outposts, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Committees have been set up in the Defense Ministry and the Civil Administration to map out all construction in the settlements. The overriding idea is to define whether construction in existing settlements is legal.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467665717&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Israel expected to relax W. Bank visa restrictions
The government plans to grant 27-month entry visas for the West Bank to bearers of foreign passports who do not come from enemy countries, Coordinator of Activities in the Territories spokesman Shlomo Dror said Thursday.
"The matter is being looked into," he told The Jerusalem Post. "It looks like it will be approved."
Over the past few months, Israel has changed its long-standing policy toward foreign-passport holders from countries not considered to be enemies. In the past, tourist visas were automatically renewed after three months without the applicant having to leave the West Bank.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467664897&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Senior Hamas official: Shalit alive
A senior Hamas official said Thursday his group was ready to give Israel a videotape of the soldier if it agreed to release Palestinian women prisoners and other detainees.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau in Damascus, said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press that Shalit was alive.
He said his group would be willing to trade the videotape for the freedom of "Palestinian women and a considerable number of detainees." He did not give a specific figure.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467656424&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Saudi King holds talks with Hizbullah
A Saudi diplomat said Thursday that Saudi King Abdullah made his first-ever personal contact with Lebanon's Hizbullah in a bid to ease the Lebanese political crisis.
The meeting was held in the kingdom on Dec. 27 between Hizbullah's deputy leader Sheik Naim Kassem and the Saudi monarch and Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, the diplomat said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the talks.
The Saudi and Hizbullah leaders discussed ways to end the internal conflict in Lebanon that pits Hizbullah against the Saudi- and US-backed government of President Fouad Siniora.
The Saudi King invited Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah to the kingdom to perform the Muslim Hajj pilgrimage, but Nasrallah turned down the invitation, the diplomat said.
Talks between Hizbullah and the Saudi government are continuing through the Saudi embassy in Beirut, the diplomat said.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467663151&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Analysis: Egypt hedges its bets in Gaza
Israel's unilateral disengagement from the Gaza Strip in August 2005 has prompted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to deepen his country's involvement in Palestinian affairs.
Egypt, which controlled the Strip from 1948 to 1967, has always shown interest in what's happening in this tiny area, home to some 1.3 million Palestinians - most of them refugees.
Following the Israeli pullout, Mubarak decided to dispatch Egyptian security officials to keep a close eye on developments there.
Those security officials have found themselves playing roles ranging from advising and training Palestinian Authority policemen to mediating between Fatah and Hamas.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467665724&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Most Jews ever set to enter Congress
A record number of Jewish members will enter Congress Thursday, but more remarkable are the unparalleled positions of power they will hold on committees related to Israel, many local Jewish activists say.
Six new Jewish legislators will be joining 37 familiar faces as the 110th Congress convenes, making the total the highest-ever, according to Doug Bloomfield, a former legislative director for AIPAC.
"It's unprecedented that there have been so many [Jews] in so many positions of leadership in both houses," Bloomfield said, using a Jewish simile for how that fact will affect support for Israel: Like chicken soup, it won't hurt.
Other political analysts went further, saying that congressional backing of Israel would remain at least as strong it has been, if not stronger.
Among the familiar House faces on key committees will be Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) as chairman of the International Relations Committee (HIRC) and Gary Ackerman (D-NY) is set to be chair of the HIRC Middle East subcommittee. Nita Lowey (D-NY) should be chairing the appropriations subcommittee on foreign operations. Ackerman's and Lowey's appointments are expected to be officially announced within the next few days.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467657033&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
A modern Cassandra
Much has been written over the last couple of years of the exodus of Jews from France. In the face of a wave of violent anti-Semitism, thousands have left Paris, Strasbourg and Marseilles for Israel.
In certain middle-class neighborhoods in Jerusalem, Netanya and Ashdod, it's impossible not to notice them. Last week's aliya figures from the Jewish Agency disclosed another trend: Quietly, without fanfare, another community seems to be on the move.
Immigration from Britain was up by 45 percent in 2006. In absolute numbers this might not be a high figure - 720 new olim, up from 480 in 2005. Perhaps it's just a statistical blip, but all the same, it's the highest number of British olim in decades, and when it's added to unknown numbers of young British Jews who reportedly are leaving for other shores, such as the US, a worrisome trend begins to emerge. Are the Jews of one of the most successful outposts of the Diaspora beginning to leave?
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467659752&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Obama's audacity
…Since law is a codification of morality, Obama - who as an adult was baptized in the Trinity United Church of Christ - asserts that it "is a practical absurdity" to demand that religious views not inform public debate. A sense of proportion should guide Christian activists as well as guardians of the provision against establishments of religion in the US Constitution. In a pluralistic democracy, Obama insists, sectarian values must be translated into universal terms and subjected to reasoned argument. Thus zealous Christians do not have the right to rely on the Bible to deny rights to homosexuals. But it is acceptable to ask students to recite the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, use school property for meetings of religious organizations, and spend public funds on some faith-based social programs….
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467660753&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Koch's Comments: NY needs change
Ed Koch, former legendary Jewish mayor of New York City, continues his JPost blog.
The people have spoken, and two new political phenomena have occurred, one for New York -- Eliot Spitzer, Democrat, now governor, and another for the country -- Democrats now control both Houses of Congress. In his campaign for governor, Eliot Spitzer made clear that he intends to be an agent for change. He promised change would begin on Day One of his administration.
I believe him, and so do millions of New Yorkers who are tired of being represented by a dysfunctional state legislature that is the butt of jokes throughout the state. The legislature in Albany simply cannot get things done for the people of New York. In the past, the Empire State enjoyed a reputation for electing legislators and governors who were on the cutting edge of social progress. But those illustrious names are from long ago -- F.D.R. and Al Smith.
While we have had a number of good governors since those earlier times, they did not make their mark as giants in the field of social progress. For me, in the modern era, the governor who stands tallest is Hugh Carey. His great achievement was saving both the City and State of New York -- both near collapse -- from bankruptcy in the mid 70s. I served as mayor for 12 years, 1978 through 1989, overlapping almost completely Carey's two terms as governor from 1975 through 1982. I, together with Congressman Charles Rangel, had the privilege to serve in the House of Representatives at the same time as Carey, and Charlie and I were his first two Congressional supporters. Hugh Carey has never been given the full credit due him for his brilliant service as governor.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467662806&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Editor's Notes: Mourning Teddy Kollek
It was to Teddy Kollek's Jerusalem that I came as a new immigrant in the early 1980s. The city was the heart of the revived Jewish nation, and it was the mayor who kept it pumping.
It was a capital of seemingly impossible contradictions - "unified" for a decade and a half but patently divided - that only the confidence of a truly visionary mayor could reconcile.
I studied in the rarefied air of the university on Mount Scopus, ate Richie's pizza downtown, went to movies in a dilapidated hall with broken seats in Kiryat Hayovel where they provided free tea to help compensate for the absent heating, spent most evenings working here at the Post and occasional others guzzling watermelon and watching martial arts movies at the outdoor stalls facing Damascus Gate. Up the hill was the bullet-pocked exterior of Kollek's municipal headquarters, watching over the improbable mix.
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