Photos: Eight-storey building collapses in Istanbul

There wasn't anything substantial in the way of natural disasters. These weren't even in the vacinity. It looks like a 'lift-slab' construction problem. The USA tackled that awhile ago.

Asia:

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 07:59:33 AM - Ankara, Damascus, Riyadh

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 08:29:33 AM - Tehran, Mashhad

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 08:59:33 AM - Baghdad, Muscat

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 09:29:33 AM - Kabul

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 09:59:33 AM - Samara, Baku, Tashkent, Karachi

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 10:29:33 AM - Delhi, Bombay, Calcutta

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 10:59:33 AM - Yekaterinburg, Almaty, Dhaka

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 11:59:33 AM - Novosibirsk, Bangkok, Jakarta

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 12:59:33 PM - Krasnoyarsk, Beijing, Manila, Singapore

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 01:59:33 PM - Irkutsk, Seoul, Tokyo

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 02:59:33 PM - Chita, Guam

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 03:59:33 PM - Vladivostok

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 04:59:33 PM - Magadan

Thursday, April 26, 2007 at 05:59:33 PM - Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy

The worst was in Iran. There were a few minor quakes in Europe, but, nothing that would cause this:

Magnitude 4.5 - SOUTHERN IRAN

There was this though on April 20th.

Magnitude 4.2 - CRETE, GREECE

More or less construction issues. I don't believe Turkey has strict building codes.

New Zealand Herald


US invests $4.7m in NZ firm's gas-to-ethanol process
Auckland-based LanzaTech says a Silicon Valley investor has given it money to make ethanol from an untapped source: carbon monoxide gas.
In a statement from New York the company said it had developed a fermentation process in which bacteria consume carbon monoxide and produce ethanol.
Ethanol can be used as an alternative fuel or an octane-enhancing, pollution-reducing additive to petrol.
Sean Simpson, LanzaTech's co-founder and chief scientific officer, said the company would use the US$3.5 million ($4.7 million) investment from the venture firm, Khosla Ventures, to establish a pilot plant and do the engineering work to prepare for commercial-scale ethanol production.
Vinod Khosla, a co-founder of Sun Microsystems who formed Khosla Ventures in 2004, has invested in more than a dozen start-ups involved in "clean fuel" technologies.
He told the International Herald Tribune that LanzaTech stood out from the scores of proposals he sees each day for its ability to scale up to industrial proportions and the credibility of its founding scientists.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10436171



Lost trade opportunities for NZ in the Pacific
7:00AM Friday April 27, 2007
New Zealand is missing out on lucrative trade deals in the "American Pacific" according to the New Zealand-Pacific Business Council.
Gilbert Ullrich, council chairman, said New Zealand businesses were not taking enough advantage of the markets in places like Hawaii and Guam.
American Samoa and the Federated States of Micronesia were also markets that could be better tapped into, Mr Ullrich said, adding that Australia had, by comparison, done very well in such markets.
"The increased dialogue and expansion of business between our country and the Pacific area can only lead to greater opportunities into the US," he said.
Mr Ullrich made the comments ahead of a Pacific Futures conference in Auckland next week.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436372



Pharmac playing 'Russian roulette' with allergies
5:00AM Friday April 27, 2007By Martin Johnston
Pharmac is gambling with the lives of allergy sufferers by refusing to buy them automatic adrenalin injectors, says an Auckland man who nearly died from his food allergy.
Paul Martin, who buys his own single-use EpiPen auto-injectors - and has been saved by them - spoke out yesterday after the death of Aucklander Grant Freeman.
The Herald reported yesterday that Mr Freeman, aged 38, died last Thursday after his hospital life-support was switched off. He had severe brain damage. His heart had stopped beating for several minutes two days earlier before being treated at the cafe where he had collapsed.
His sister Donna Whittle wonders if his meal was inadvertently contaminated with a trace of one of the foods he was allergic to - peanuts, tree nuts, eggs, seafood and chicken.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436359


Lost spirit returns to arson church
Rangiatea Church was rebuilt after it burned to the ground in 1995, and yesterday it had some of its soul restored.
An arsonist destroyed the historic Kapiti Coast church, but its spirit was not destroyed.
Elders set about building a replica of the oldest surviving Anglican Maori Church, a building commissioned by Te Rauparaha and completed in 1851.
Prayer kneelers, orders of service, papers and a precious kiwi feather kete were among fire and water-damaged objects recovered from the ashes and preserved in freezers.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436355


'Fagin' mother taught four daughters how to shoplift
A judge has likened a woman who coached her daughters in shoplifting to Fagin, the character in Charles Dickens' novel Oliver Twist, who recruits and trains children to steal.
In Tauranga District Court, Judge Thomas Ingram told Maria Ruhia Milina, 32, that he took a dim view of her "bringing her children up to act in a criminal way".
The Katikati woman, whose occupation was given as shop assistant, was accused of getting her four daughters aged 14, 12, 11 and 9 to put on up to three layers of clothing under what they were already wearing, after removing the price tags.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436354



Tip-offs on missing Kiwi after appeals by US police
Florida police have received tips from the public after appealing for information on New Zealand teacher Leonard Taku, 45, who has been missing since Christmas Day.
Fox News yesterday reported Florida police had received tips in the wake of their appeal.
Mr Taku was holidaying in Florida, and was last seen at a car rental counter at Tampa Airport on December 25. He was extending for the third time his contract for a luxury Chrysler Crossfire convertible.
The car has since been found abandoned, undamaged, in the Ocala National Forest, but Tampa Airport Police Sergeant Peter Bright told Fox no clues were recovered because the area around the car had been cleared with a controlled burn.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436381



Boat tragedy father: 'How will I ever get over it?'
The grief-stricken father of two children who died in a boating tragedy has told how their mother battled to save them as the family launch sank quickly in the Hauraki Gulf.
Lindsay Rowles, 53, said his wife Tania rushed to their children - Erina, 8, and Travis, 5 - who were sleeping in the cabin when their 7.3m boat started taking on water early on Anzac Day.
Realising they were sinking, Mr Rowles and two family friends who were on the fishing trip lifted the anchor so they could motor to a rocky outcrop 200m away.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436392



The wickedest experience of my life, says roadside dad
Tim Church got more involved with the birth of his first child than he had expected after a traffic jam meant he delivered his son by the side of the road.
After being held up by half an hour on the way to Tauranga Hospital on Tuesday, Mr Church said he had no option but to pull over in Greerton and deliver the baby himself after his partner, Jodie White, said they would not make it in time.
The couple had left their Mt Maunganui home at 8.30am after Ms White went into labour.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436327



Preschool plan 'dangerous'
The biggest early childhood group in the country is calling for a boycott of the Government's plan for free childcare, saying it is dangerous and "the biggest threat to the quality of early childhood education in our generation".
The Early Childhood Council - whose 1000 centres make up nearly half of the country's preschool facilities - has sent a memo to its members urging a blanket rejection of the policy, under which 3- and 4-year-olds will get 20 hours of free childcare a week.
It says the policy leaves centres reliant on "optional charges" and donations to make up the shortfall between what the funding provided and what they charged.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436368



Child watching cartoons surrounded by weapons
An eight-year-old girl was found watching cartoons with a loaded pistol beneath her and a stun gun and sawn-off shotgun nearby during a police raid on drug dealers in Wellington.
Her father was one of more than 30 people in Wellington city, Kapiti Mana and Upper Hutt arrested during a five-day sting on mid and low-level cannabis dealers this week.
Detective Senior Sergeant Darrin Thomson, head of Wellington metro crime unit, told the Dominion Post the girl was watching television with a loaded pistol beneath the mattress she was sitting on when police arrived to search her father's house.
A pump-action .22 shotgun, a sawn-off shotgun, a semi-automatic pistol, a stun gun and ammunition, as well as methamphetamine, LSD, and cannabis were also found at the house.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=10436406



Government faces defeat over personal records bill
The Government appears headed for an embarrassing defeat over its proposal to tightly restrict access to birth, death and marriage certificates.
An outcry from historians, genealogists and researchers has prompted several of Parliament's smaller parties to revisit their stances on the Government's Births, Deaths, Marriages and Relationships Amendment Bill.
It now seems that the group of smaller parties demanding significant change to the access provisions is large enough, with the National Party, to scuttle the Government bill.
United Future leader Peter Dunne yesterday said he felt that the Government bill in its present form was "sledgehammer to crack a nut stuff".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=30&objectid=10436389



Curriculum plans bring warnings
Education groups caution against giving schools too much independence over the curriculum, saying it could result in wide variations in what students learn at different schools.
Submissions on the draft schools curriculum - due to be introduced in schools next year, were predominantly supportive of it.
However, groups ranging from the teacher unions, the Education Forum and the Office of the Childrens' Commissioner all warned that it was vague and could result in wide disparities.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=35&objectid=10436110



Asthma a factor for pupils with behaviour problems
Children with asthma may be at increased risk of behavioural, emotional and developmental problems, particularly if the asthma is severe, the results of a new study suggest.
Using data from a national health survey, researchers found that of more than 100,000 US children and teenagers, those with asthma were more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, anxiety and learning disabilities.
More severe asthma increased the risk, as did living in a disadvantaged social or economic environment, according to the study, published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioural Paediatrics.
Compared with children whose parents described their asthma as mild, those with severe asthma were three to four times more likely to have ADHD, depression or a behavioural or learning disorder.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436326



Word of God on CDs - with a British accent
A star-studded cast has been assembled to bring the Bible's stories to a digital listening audience
The history of casting Hollywood stars in epic stories from the biblical world has been chequered.
There have been some successes, such as Charlton Heston's towering 1956 portrayal of Moses in The Ten Commandments, but many more performances have had an appeal that is chiefly kitsch - from Liz Hurley's recent Delilah to Dennis Hopper's Samson in Turner Home Entertainment's The Bible Collection.
Now Terence Stamp is to take on the challenging role of God in an epic 20-CD verbatim version of the New Testament being put together in Chicago.
Luke Perry and Marisa Tomei will also be joining a 100-member cast, playing Judas and Mary Magdalene respectively. Former adolescent heart-throb Lou Diamond Phillips will be Mark, and John Heard is cast as Matthew.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436305



Maori groups in High Court challenge to Te Arawa deal
The multimillion-dollar Te Arawa Treaty of Waitangi settlement reached last year headed to the High Court yesterday as several Maori groups argued for the transfer of 50,000ha of land to the iwi to be blocked.
The estimated $200 million settlement the Government reached with Rotorua's Te Arawa involved the return of more than 50,000ha of Crown forest land at Kaingaroa as well as $36 million in cash.
Three Maori groups, supported by several others, asked the High Court in Wellington to block the transfer of the land and strike it from the deed of settlement with Te Arawa.
They are also asking for a declaration the Government had breached a contractual undertaking, breached trust, breached a duty of loyalty, trust and confidence to the groups, and breached a statutory duty.
The groups - the New Zealand Maori Council, the Federation of Maori Authorities, and Ngati Tuwharetoa - began the two-day challenge yesterday, which Justice Warwick Gendall said he would decide by June.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436323



Petrol price up four cents
Like interest rates, petrol and diesel prices were also on the rise today with a four cent per litre price hike across the major oil companies.
The increase takes the price of unleaded 91 octane to 155.9c a litre, 96 octane to 160.9c and diesel to 101.9c.
BP spokeswoman Diana Stretch said the price rise was due to increases in the international cost of refined petrol and diesel.
Caltex and Shell confirmed they had also raised prices by four cents.



Photos: Eight-storey building collapses in Istanbul
ISTANBUL - An eight-storey building collapsed in Istanbul on Thursday and one man was rescued but authorities said they did not expect many casualties as people ran away when they heard the building start to crack.
It was not clear how many people were inside the building in the Sirinevler district on the European side of Istanbul, but most people had left the building before the collapse, Istanbul's governor Muammer Guler said.
A 32-year-old man was rescued from the rubble as teams worked into the night.
"Most of the people left the building when they heard cracking sounds, but a few people re-entered to get their things," Guler said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436401



Taleban video of boy beheading man angers Afghans
SPIN BOLDAK, Afghanistan - A Taleban video of a 12-year-old boy beheading a man accused of spying has angered many Afghans, drawing condemnation from tribal and religious leaders.
"It's very wrong for the Taleban to use a small boy to behead a man," religious teacher Mullah Attullah told Reuters on Thursday.
"I appeal to the Taleban to please stop this because non-Muslims will think Islam is a cruel and terrorist religion.
"The Taleban do not follow the laws of Islam. They are taking advice from foreigners."
The video released this week shows the boy in a camouflage jacket and a white headband using a knife to behead a blindfolded man accused of being a spy for foreign forces as men cry "Allahu Akbar! (God is Great)".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436402


Military denies banning Iraq combat for Prince Harry
LONDON - The military denied newspaper reports that it was banning Prince Harry from serving in combat in Iraq, but acknowledged his deployment was under review.
A decision to cancel his mission would be an embarrassing reversal that could hand a propaganda victory to insurgents, undermine US and British assertions that southern Iraq is becoming safe and anger the prince himself.
Harry, third in line to the throne, is due to head to Iraq with his "A" Squadron of the Blues and Royals regiment in the coming weeks as part of the latest British troop rotation. He would patrol the desert in a Scimitar light reconnaissance tank.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436397


Physicist Hawking gets taste of zero-gravity
APE CANAVERAL, Florida, - British physicist Stephen Hawking took a flight on Thursday that gave the renowned scientist, who is confined to a wheelchair, a taste of the weightlessness of space.
Hawking, 65, and an entourage of caretakers and other thrill-seekers took off from the space shuttle's runway at the Kennedy Space Centre in a specially modified jet that dives through the sky to give passengers an experience of zero gravity.
They returned to the space centre in Florida about two hours later.
Hawking acknowledged before the flight that experiencing weightlessness, even for a few seconds, would be sweet relief from the bondage of a daily life immobilised by a debilitating and irreversible neuromuscular disorder.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436405


It's 20 lightyears away - but still close to Earth
Scientists have discovered a planet not much bigger than Earth that could be covered in oceans and has the right temperature to support life - and it is only 20.5 lightyears away.
By 2020, it should be possible for a telescope to take a close enough look at the discovery, which has yet to be named, to see if there is any sign of life.
The newly found planet is older than our solar system. It is revolving around the star known as Gliese 581, a "red dwarf" in the Libra constellation.
Its "year" lasts only 13 days because it is 14 times closer to its star than the Earth is to the sun.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10436085




US military commander detained
The commander of Camp Cropper, the United States military prison in Iraq, has been detained by military police and is under investigation.
Lieutenant Colonel William Steele will face a hearing before a panel of officers to decide whether he should face a court martial, a spokeswoman said last night.
NBC said Steele could be prosecuted for "aiding the enemy" and having improper relationships with his translator and another Iraqi woman.


The Sarkozy political story the French aren't allowed to read
PARIS - The French media is crammed with election coverage but has published, or broadcast, hardly a word on the topic that most obsesses the Paris media-political village.
Just over a week before the second round of the presidential election, a legally-enforced code of silence surrounds the state of relations between the frontrunner, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his wife, Cecilia.
Cecilia Sarkozy, 49, briefly split with her husband two years ago and then returned amid great public fanfare. She voted with Sarkozy - and presumably for Sarkozy - in the first round of the election.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436346



House sets timeline for Iraqi pullout by March
WASHINGTON - Defying President George W. Bush's veto threat, the House of Representatives yesterday approved a bill providing new war funds while setting a target timeline for the withdrawal of all United States combat troops from Iraq by March 31 next year.
By a mostly partisan vote of 218-208, the Democratic-led House narrowly approved the US$124 billion ($168 billion) emergency spending bill, ignoring Bush's promise to veto any bill that sets deadlines for withdrawing the troops.
The Senate is expected to approve the legislation today, sending it to Bush for what will be only his second veto in more than six years as President.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436341



Hugh Grant arrested over 'baked beans attack'
LONDON - Hugh Grant has been arrested and questioned by police after a photographer accused the British actor of attacking him with a tub of baked beans.
Photographer Ian Whittaker told the Daily Star tabloid that he and Grant, 46, clashed near the home of the Four Weddings and a Funeral star.
Whittaker said Grant abused and kicked him on Tuesday before lobbing the beans. The paper printed photos of Grant with a plastic tub of food raised over his head.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436307



India court orders Gere's arrest for 'obscene' kiss
JAIPUR - An Indian court ordered the arrest of Hollywood star Richard Gere on Thursday for repeatedly kissing Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty at an AIDS campaign event, saying it was an obscene act committed in public.
Gere's kisses on Shetty's cheeks at an event to promote AIDS awareness in New Delhi sparked protests in some parts of India, mostly by Hindu vigilante groups, who saw it as an outrage against her modesty and an affront to Indian culture.
The order by a court in the northern city of Jaipur came in response to a complaint by a local lawyer.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436400



Fire closes trains into south London, 200 evacuated
LONDON - Trains were shut and more than 200 people evacuated today because of a large fire near railway tracks in south London, the fire brigade and Southeastern trains said.
"A range of buildings of one or two floors in an area of 150 by 50 metres, 60 per cent of buildings are alight," a fire brigade spokeswoman said.
The fire took place on Canal Approach, near Deptford Park in Lewisham.
The spokeswoman said a 200 metre exclusion zone had been thrown up around the area and about 200 people evacuated by police. No one was hurt and about 40 firefighting trucks were on the scene.
Southeastern said all trains had been cancelled into busy London Bridge, Cannon Street and Waterloo East stations.
Some services were being diverted to Blackfriars and Victoria, but passengers were advised to delay travel.



EU and Iran report progress in nuclear talks
ANKARA - The EU and Iran said they had made progress at talks designed to end a standoff over Tehran's uranium enrichment programme that the West fears could be used for the manufacture of nuclear weapons.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani plan to hold a joint news conference on Thursday but have already agreed to meet again in two weeks' time. No details of the progress were immediately known.
Wednesday's talks between Solana and Larijani in the Turkish capital Ankara were extended into a dinner where they huddled together without aides for more than an hour, with the Iranian taking copious notes.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436253



Navy's frigates break down at sea
The navy's two warships, the Anzac frigates Te Kaha and Te Mana, both broke down at sea earlier this year, it has been revealed.
Both ships had engine problems and it is also believed the navy's supply ship, the tanker HMNZS Endeavour, had an engine breakdown which left it drifting briefly in the Hauraki Gulf last month.
Te Mana had problems with its diesel engines during exercises as it crossed the Tasman to Sydney with its sister ship.
The navy said Te Mana could not use its diesel engines, designed to allow the ship to cruise at a lower economical speed, and had to run its gas turbine.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10436414



Safer Down syndrome tests on way
The Government is expected to announce a full-scale screening programme for Down syndrome testing because the current tests put unborn babies' lives at risk.
An announcement on the project is expected in or before next month's Budget.
The head of a group set up to advise the Ministry of Health on Down syndrome screening said yesterday that the current form of screening, without a blood test from the woman, was "unsafe, inequitable and should not continue".
The screening now relies mainly on maternal age and an ultra-sound check at 11-14 weeks of pregnancy of the depth of fluid in part of the fetal neck - called nuchal translucency testing.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10436387



New Zealanders keen on frequent internet use
A study released today shows New Zealanders have taken to the world wide web in a big way.
If you're an "average" user, according to the survey by comScore, you went online about every other day, spending a total of 20 and a half hours on the internet during the month.
In March, 1.9 million New Zealanders aged 15 or older used the internet, viewing 3.6 billion pages of content.
The survey indicated that the sites most frequently being visited are:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10436211



China plans online marriage list to tackle bigamy
Worried your husband-to-be is already married?
In China you will soon be able to check on a nationwide registry of marriage details, designed to stamp out bigamy, the official Xinhua agency reported.
The system, recording the date, place and names of every marriage, should be up and running by 2010, Xinhua quoted the Civil Affairs Ministry as saying.
Simplified marriage procedures have led to a rise in bigamy in recent years, Xinhua said.
China is in the middle of a crackdown on official corruption, with those who take extra wives and mistresses being targeted.



You Tube attack leads to expulsion
Four pupils from a Hastings high school have been expelled in the wake of an attack on a schoolmate that was filmed and posted on the internet.
Two boys aged 14 and 16 were charged with assault after the victim was lured to a park and attacked on March 30.
Their principal confirmed yesterday the boys would not be returning to the school.
A board of trustees meeting decided the two accused, a 15-year-old who filmed the attack and a fourth pupil would be expelled.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10436075


Campus shooting puts focus on Facebook
At a moment of great trauma, the students of Virginia Tech - and a wider world of horrified onlookers - have turned to the social networks of the internet to connect, to share their grief, to remember victims, to offer prayers and to debate.
Responses to the massacre by a generation of youngsters have underscored, as if it needed it, how communications have been revolutionised by websites such as Facebook and MySpace, and how quickly these operations have woven themselves into the lives of people on campus and further afield.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10435341



Twisted propaganda tales of US heroes in Iraq
WASHINGTON - Truth, it is famously said, is the first casualty of war.
And thus it has been for two of the most celebrated official heroes of America's campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan.
One was Pat Tillman, the pro-football star who gave up the NFL's riches to serve, and ultimately die for, his country.
The other was a blonde teenage girl from West Virginia whose capture and rescue in the early days of the Iraq conflict inspired the TV drama-documentary 'Saving Jessica Lynch.' Now however the two stories have returned to haunt the Pentagon.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436206



Former US spy chief defends controversial interrogation
NEW YORK - A former US spy chief said tough US interrogation of terrorist suspects had proven more valuable than any of the other intelligence gathered by US authorities, according to the 60 Minutes television show.
In an interview to be broadcast on the CBS network show on Sunday, former CIA director George Tenet defended the agency's interrogation techniques, which human rights groups say border on torture.
"I know that this programme has saved lives. I know we've disrupted plots," Tenet told the programme. "I know this programme alone is worth more than the FBI, the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency put together, have been able to tell us."
Tenet, who was CIA director between 1997 and 2004, would not talk about the techniques used, but said that "enhanced interrogation" was not torture.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436218


April bloodiest month for UK troops in Iraq
BAGHDAD - British troops in Iraq passed a bloody milestone this week with the killing of soldier Alan Joseph Jones, 20, a gunner on a Warrior fighting vehicle, who was shot dead by gunmen in the southern city of Basra.
A total of 11 British soldiers have been killed in Iraq so far this month, the highest number of casualties suffered by British forces in a single month since March 2003, when 27 were killed in the opening days of the US-led invasion.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436222



Executed in US may be awake as they suffocate
MIAMI - Some prisoners executed by lethal injection in the United States may die of suffocation while they are still conscious and in pain, University of Miami researchers have said in a study that concluded the drugs do not work as intended.
The study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Medicine, raised new questions about whether the lethal cocktail violates the US constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.
Lethal injection is the primary method of execution for 37 US states and the federal government, though more than a dozen states have halted or suspended the procedure because of legal or ethical questions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436201



Obama lays siege to Clinton's black support on home patch
NEW YORK - When a cellphone started to ring on the podium as Senator Barack Obama was addressing members of the National Action Network in New York a few days ago, he quickly improvised. "There's something humming down here. Is that Hillary calling?"
The network is mostly black-based and was founded by the Rev Al Sharpton, who was also on the stage. The joke brought the house down because of the truth behind it. Obama is laying siege to the black support in New York state that Hillary Clinton used to be able to take for granted.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436156


Video: Bush shows off his dance moves

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10436260


The New Zealand Herald had this listed under “Terrorism”

Bush ready to veto Democrat bill that calls for Iraq pull-out
WASHINGTON - President George Bush is poised to veto a bill that would require the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq by next spring, after the powerfully symbolic measure was passed yesterday by the Democrat-controlled Congress.
The move came as the US commander in Iraq, referring to the war, said: "This effort may get harder before it gets easier".
The Senate voted 51-46 to pass a funding bill that came with an attachment demanding the start of a troop withdrawal in October.
The House of Representatives passed a similar measure the previous day.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10436409



Oldest tree a palm with crown of fronds
5:00AM Friday April 20, 2007
The branches of Earth's oldest tree probably waved in the breeze like a modern palm, scientists say, based on two intact tree fossils that help explain the evolution of forests and their influence on climate.
The 385-million-year-old fossils, which scientists believe are evidence of Earth's earliest forest trees, put to rest speculation about fossilised tree stumps discovered in Gilboa, New York, in 1870. Scientists believe these early forests absorbed carbon dioxide, cooling the Earth's surface.
Linda VanAller Hernick, a palaeontologist at the New York State Museum, and colleague Frank Mannolini found a crown and part of a trunk in 2004 and a 8.5m trunk portion of the same species in 2005. They represent Wattieza, a tree that looked like a palm with a crown of fronds that grew up to 9m-high and reproduced through spores.
- REUTERS



'Kryptonite' unearthed
5:00AM Wednesday April 25, 2007
Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films. A mineral found by geologists in Serbia has virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero's nemesis Lex Luthor to weaken him.
The mineral will be called jadarite.



Dyslexia about which side of the brain you use to read
Auckland University psychologist Karen Waldie has been carrying out a brain-mapping study that shows dyslexics try to read with the right side of their brains, not the left. Using a new magnetic resonance imaging machine, or MRI, she has mapped the brains of dyslexics and non-dyslexics as they perform verbal and non-verbal tasks.
In the non-verbal tasks, dyslexic brains work in exactly the same way as others, however, the verbal tasks show increased blood flow to the right hemisphere of the dyslexic brain, proving that dyslexics try to read the wrong way with the right side.
Dr Waldie's work is physical proof that dyslexia is a neurological condition and may help us to understand the best way forward in remediation. Her results indicate that the brain may be more flexible than we originally thought.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10435774



Chaos reigns in the star nursery and Nasa has pictures to prove it
A dazzlingly detailed image released by Nasa scientists shows the chaotic conditions in which stars are born and die - in this case in a huge nebula in of our Milky Way galaxy.
The image, made from a series of 48 shots taken by the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope in 2005, depicts star birth in a new level of detail.
It provides a view spanning 50 lightyears across the Carina Nebula. A nebula is an immense cloud of hot interstellar gas and dust.
This messy and chaotic region includes at least a dozen brilliant stars estimated to be 50 to 100 times the mass of the sun, astronomers said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=325&objectid=10436084



Chickens related to T-Rex
CHICAGO - Tiny bits of protein extracted from a 68-million-year-old dinosaur bone have given scientists the first genetic proof that the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex is a distant cousin to the modern chicken.
"It's the first molecular evidence of this link between birds and dinosaurs," said John Asara, a Harvard Medical School researcher, whose results were published in last week's edition of the journal Science.
Scientists have long suspected that birds evolved from dinosaurs based on a study of dinosaur bones, but until recently, no soft tissue had survived to confirm the link.
That all changed in 2005 when Mary Higby Schweitzer of North Carolina State University reported finding soft tissue, including blood vessels and cells, in a T-Rex bone dug out of sandstone from the fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation in Montana.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10434893



Pig cell transplants bring new hope for sick Kiwis
Experimental pig cell transplants into humans with type-1 diabetes are to resume in New Zealand after an 11-year break - raising hopes of better treatment for people with the incurable disease.
"Scientific approval has been given, which is a major breakthrough," the Auckland pioneer of the treatment, Professor Bob Elliott, told the Herald yesterday.
Nicola Zimmerman, a 25-year-old architect and former Elliott patient with diabetes, was ecstatic that the treatment was a step closer to possibly being an option for her.

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Broccoli's anti-cancer trait found
Eating foods like broccoli and soy has been linked to lower cancer rates, and California researchers say they may have discovered the biological mechanism behind the protective effect.
Using cells in a lab dish, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that a compound resulting from digesting vegetables like broccoli, and genistein, which is found in soy, reduce the production of two proteins needed for breast and ovarian cancers to spread. They will next test the theory in mice.
The findings highlight "an entirely unique mechanism ... Preventing the invasion and metastasis of cancer cells is crucial," said Dr Alan Kristal, associate head of the cancer prevention programme at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Centre in Seattle.

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Happy rats give a clue to drug addiction
A surprise finding in rats has given scientists a clue to understanding drug addiction in people.
A single dose of morphine was found to lower the rats' inhibitions, even after the drug left their systems.
The painkiller blocked the brain's ability to strengthen connections, or synapses, that reduce reward or pleasure, researchers from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, reported in the journal Nature.
"What we have found is that the inhibitory synapses can no longer be strengthened 24 hours after treatment with morphine, which suggests that a natural brake has been removed," said Julie Kauer, a professor of molecular pharmacology, physiology and biotechnology at Brown.

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Leatherback turtles in an online race for species survival
Researchers who have made their life's work the study of the Pacific leatherback turtle have come up with a novel way to save it from extinction.
The leatherback, which is as old as the dinosaurs to which it is closely related, and which sailed blithely through the cataclysmic event that wiped out all its earthbound cousins 65 million years ago, is now on the verge of disappearing.
In 1980 there were more than 115,000 adult female leatherback turtles, but today there are fewer than 25,000 worldwide. In 1988, 1367 female leatherbacks came to nest on Playa Grande in Las Baulas, the national park on the coast of Costa Rica, which is their last bolt-hole on that coast. In 2001 there were only 67.

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Massive twist and stretch as Einstein proved right about universe
For decades physicists have been asking the question: did Albert Einstein get it wrong? After half a century, seven cancellations and US$700 million ($927 million), a mission to test his theory about the universe has finally confirmed he was a mastermind - or at least half proved it.
The early results from Gravity Probe B, one of Nasa's most complicated satellites, has confirmed "to a precision of better than 1 per cent" the assertion Einstein made 90 years ago - that an object such as the Earth distorts the fabric of space and time.
But this - what is referred to as the "geodetic" effect - is only half of the theory. The other, "frame-dragging", stated that as the world spins it drags the fabric of the universe behind it.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=82&objectid=10435281



John Duder: More power in our rivers
Much importance is being put on developing renewable energy sources in New Zealand, almost invariably referring to wind, geothermal and even solar.
What is usually overlooked is that New Zealand's electricity supply is predominantly renewable and sustainable in broad terms, principally from hydroelectric plants.
In an average rainfall-snow melt year, about 65 per cent of generation comes from the big dam stations in the South Island and along the Tongariro-Waikato system in the North Island, together with a number of smaller stations run by local power generators such as TrustPower.
It is evident that hydro is often damned because of the "dam" syndrome, with its attendant adverse perceptions of drowned lands and scenic rivers. What appears to be incorrectly presumed is that hydro is fully exploited and cannot be increased.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=39&objectid=10436078


Michael Richardson: China eases hostility over climate crisis
China is rapidly emerging as a key player in climate change politics, both as a major cause of the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet and as a partner in international efforts to curb emissions.
China's role as a leading contributor to global warming was underscored by the recent spurt in growth recorded by its already supercharged economy.
The unexpected rise of just over 11 per cent in gross domestic product for the first quarter means that the world's most populous nation could overtake the United States as the largest emitter of greenhouse gases this year or next - at least a year earlier than the International Energy Agency predicted five months ago.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=244&objectid=10436077



Clean cars on agenda for automotive industry
More stringent vehicle-emissions legislation, plus proper incentives, will play a major role in pushing the introduction of new powertrains and fuels, say automotive industry experts.
"If it hadn't been for US emission regulations in the early 1960s, we would still have carburetors on our cars," said Rinaldo Rinolfi, executive vice president at Fiat Powertrain Technology.
Experts at a powertrain technologies conference in Amsterdam agreed that carmakers, legislators and consumers all have a role to play in moving toward cleaner cars.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/story.cfm?c_id=281&objectid=10435246

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