May 16, 2007
1930z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite GOES West
Never saw anything like that before. There has to be a water spout of some kind there. Shipping lanes, they need to know there is a potential for danger. What next?
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Heads Up. There is a persistent vortex just west of Hawaii. 12 hour loop.
May 16, 2007
1930z
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite GOES West
Never saw anything like that before. There has to be a water spout of some kind there. Shipping lanes, they need to know there is a potential for danger. What next?
15 Cities to Go Green Under Clinton Plan
NEW YORK - Fifteen cities around the world will begin cutting carbon emissions by renovating city-owned buildings with green technology under a program spearheaded by former President Clinton's foundation.
Bill Clinton was to announce the partnership Wednesday, joined by mayors of several of the cities, as part of an international climate summit he is hosting this week in New York City.
Clinton's foundation described details to The Associated Press ahead of the announcement. Major global banking institutions have committed $1 billion to finance the upgrades of municipal buildings in participating cities, which include New York, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Berlin and Tokyo.
The makeovers will include replacing heating, cooling and lighting systems with energy-efficient networks; making roofs white or reflective to deflect more of the sun's heat; sealing windows and installing new models that let more light in; and setting up sensors to control more efficient use of lights and air conditioning.
Clinton's foundation said the planned changes have the potential to reduce energy use by 20 percent to 50 percent in those buildings. The reduction could mean a significant decrease in heat-trapping carbon emissions, as well as cost savings on utility bills....
Bill Clinton was to announce the partnership Wednesday, joined by mayors of several of the cities, as part of an international climate summit he is hosting this week in New York City.
Clinton's foundation described details to The Associated Press ahead of the announcement. Major global banking institutions have committed $1 billion to finance the upgrades of municipal buildings in participating cities, which include New York, Chicago, Houston, Toronto, Mexico City, London, Berlin and Tokyo.
The makeovers will include replacing heating, cooling and lighting systems with energy-efficient networks; making roofs white or reflective to deflect more of the sun's heat; sealing windows and installing new models that let more light in; and setting up sensors to control more efficient use of lights and air conditioning.
Clinton's foundation said the planned changes have the potential to reduce energy use by 20 percent to 50 percent in those buildings. The reduction could mean a significant decrease in heat-trapping carbon emissions, as well as cost savings on utility bills....
Greenpeace builds replica of Noah's Ark
In this picture provided by Greenpeace, a Turkish villager looks at the replica of Noah's Ark as its under being construction near mount Ararat in Agri, eastern Turkey, Saturday, May 12, 2007. Greenpeace activists are building a replica of Noah's Ark on Mount Ararat, the mountain where the original Biblical Ark is said to have landed after the great flood, in an appeal to world leaders to take action against global warming. Turkish and German volunteer carpenters were building the wooden ship on the mountain in eastern Turkey, that sits on the border with Iran. (AP Photo/Manuel Citak, Greenpeace, HO)
Violence rages across Iraq, mortars hit Green Zone
We know for a fact Muslims feel their governments are 'blessed' by Allah. There are very strong ties between religion and government in these countries. When the citizens feel their governments are 'bad' in the face of their well being the people preceive this as a reason to act against the government. Many of these Islamic states have been laced with violence against their citizens such as noted with Saddam Hussein, so there is plenty of reason for citizens to maintain chaos in the face of a government that benefits them.
By Paul Tait
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two people were killed in mortar attacks on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Wednesday, the second serious attack in two days, as a search for three U.S. soldiers held by al Qaeda south of the capital intensified.
Violence raged across Iraq, with police confirming on Wednesday that 45 people had been killed the previous day by a chlorine gas truck bomb in Diyala, one of the most volatile areas since a security crackdown began three months ago.
The truck laden with canisters of the deadly gas was detonated in a market area in Abu Sayda, a mostly Shi'ite town north of Baghdad, police said.
U.S. President George W. Bush is deploying 30,000 more troops in a last-ditch effort to stop a slide into all-out sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs who were dominant under Saddam Hussein.
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Two people were killed in mortar attacks on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone on Wednesday, the second serious attack in two days, as a search for three U.S. soldiers held by al Qaeda south of the capital intensified.
Violence raged across Iraq, with police confirming on Wednesday that 45 people had been killed the previous day by a chlorine gas truck bomb in Diyala, one of the most volatile areas since a security crackdown began three months ago.
The truck laden with canisters of the deadly gas was detonated in a market area in Abu Sayda, a mostly Shi'ite town north of Baghdad, police said.
U.S. President George W. Bush is deploying 30,000 more troops in a last-ditch effort to stop a slide into all-out sectarian civil war between majority Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs who were dominant under Saddam Hussein.
Bush Taps Skeptic of Buildup as 'War Czar' (click here)
Lt. Gen. Lute Accepts Position Others Spurned
By Peter Baker and Robin Wright
Lt. Gen. Lute Accepts Position Others Spurned
By Peter Baker and Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff WritersWednesday, May 16, 2007; Page A01
President Bush tapped Army Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute yesterday to serve as a new White House "war czar" overseeing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, choosing a low-key soldier who privately expressed skepticism about sending more troops to Iraq during last winter's strategy review.
In the newly created position, Lute will coordinate often disjointed military and civilian operations and manage the Washington side of the same troop increase he resisted before Bush announced the plan in January. Bush hopes an empowered aide working in the White House and answering directly to him will be able to cut through bureaucracy that has hindered efforts in Iraq.
President Bush tapped Army Lt. Gen. Douglas E. Lute yesterday to serve as a new White House "war czar" overseeing the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, choosing a low-key soldier who privately expressed skepticism about sending more troops to Iraq during last winter's strategy review.
In the newly created position, Lute will coordinate often disjointed military and civilian operations and manage the Washington side of the same troop increase he resisted before Bush announced the plan in January. Bush hopes an empowered aide working in the White House and answering directly to him will be able to cut through bureaucracy that has hindered efforts in Iraq.
There has not been one military strategy that has worked in that country. Additionally, Bush's generals have all left at one time or another, some before the invasion. The only ones that support any of this are the ones that work for military contractors that sell their wares as consultants on talk shows. There aren't any self respecting generals that stayed in Iraq because they were 'winning.' Bush can't even define winning yet alone POINT TO THE FACT it is burgeoning. Cheney stated on May 31, 2005, NEARLY TWO YEARS AGO, that the war in Iraq is in "in the last throes." He obviously was lying. The basic premise to any OCCUPATION, which is what the USA's actual position is, in Iraq is that leaving would be worse. Can't be. There are huge numbers of people dying. We cannot continue this. Bush even 'dabbles' in interference in Iraqi politics. That is an occupation, not a war.
What also 'blind sides' the American people is the fact Bush and Cheney continue to 'pretend' Iraq is a National Security issue. It is not. It never was. I strongly suggest the Democrats start demanding the defense of the USA over the occupation of Iraq.
We don't belong in Iraq.
We never did.
Attacking the money isn't effective. Bush claims he has a stretegy. The Democrats need to confront the failure of that strategy
In order to end the war in Iraq, the Democrats must confront the fact 'The Bush Surge' is not working. There is every reason to believe there is escalation of violence and death in Iraq because of USA occupation. When Bush/Cheney no longer have a viable strategy that is evident there is reason to end the war. Trying to control the money is simply giving Republicans reason to call Democrats Anti-War. We aren't, we are anti-corruption and anti-death in excess of a successful USA strategy.
The tensions between Sunnis and Shi'ites are throughout the region and not just Iraq. Iraq is where the war is between them. We have to end this. If the USA continues to fuel the violence by escalating war and infusing weapons availability to the region, the region will result in a war that will change it's geography. It has to stop. This isn't going to stop because there is a military victory. Militarization will destroy the Middle East.
Some blame Syria for crisis, others finger US
By Abdo Saad Special to The Daily Star
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
BEIRUT: Shiites and Sunnis see separate causes behind the seeming increase in sectarian tensions in Lebanon, according to a survey conducted by the Beirut Center for Research and Information (BCRI) which was released last week. The survey found that Sunnis ascribe heightened tensions to two main causes: Hizbullah's alliance with Syria, and the conflict over an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri and other crimes.
Shiites in Lebanon gave different reasons for the split, the survey found. Almost 60 percent of Shiite respondents said the alliance of the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora with the United States and France was the main source of sectarian tension in Lebanon.
The BCRI survey showed that 97 percent of Shiites polled were not in favor of the disarmament of Hizbullah in exchange for more political privileges for Shiites.
"Despite the current animosity between Arab countries and Iran," the survey found, a majority of Lebanese Sunni respondents did not perceive the growing influence of Iran as a threat, but rather considered the United States and Israel as "enemies to Arabs."
Around 52 percent of Sunnis endorsed Iran's nuclear program, while 63 percent of them saw the US as the major cause of trouble in Iraq. Just over 20 percent saw Iran as the main source.
BEIRUT: Shiites and Sunnis see separate causes behind the seeming increase in sectarian tensions in Lebanon, according to a survey conducted by the Beirut Center for Research and Information (BCRI) which was released last week. The survey found that Sunnis ascribe heightened tensions to two main causes: Hizbullah's alliance with Syria, and the conflict over an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Premier Rafik Hariri and other crimes.
Shiites in Lebanon gave different reasons for the split, the survey found. Almost 60 percent of Shiite respondents said the alliance of the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora with the United States and France was the main source of sectarian tension in Lebanon.
The BCRI survey showed that 97 percent of Shiites polled were not in favor of the disarmament of Hizbullah in exchange for more political privileges for Shiites.
"Despite the current animosity between Arab countries and Iran," the survey found, a majority of Lebanese Sunni respondents did not perceive the growing influence of Iran as a threat, but rather considered the United States and Israel as "enemies to Arabs."
Around 52 percent of Sunnis endorsed Iran's nuclear program, while 63 percent of them saw the US as the major cause of trouble in Iraq. Just over 20 percent saw Iran as the main source.
Morning Papers - continued ...
Sydney Morning Herald
'There is a suspect'
Portuguese police have identified a suspect in their investigation of the kidnapping of a four-year-old British girl, police said on Tuesday.
"There is a suspect," in the case, said a spokeswoman for the judicial police, without giving any further details.
A British man was on Monday released after being questioned by Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of four-year-old Madeleine McCann as forensic officers search his family's villa, media reports say.
The police spokeswoman did not say on Tuesday whether it was the same man who was a suspect.
Robert Murat, who is in his 30s, was taken to a local police station for an interview, London's Daily Telegraph reported.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/there-is-a-suspect/2007/05/15/1178995105660.html
Hicks's transfer drawing closer
May 15, 2007 - 7:34AM
David Hicks's Australian lawyer, David McLeod, has arrived in Miami ahead of his client's transfer to Australia from his cell at Guantanamo Bay.
Adelaide-born Hicks pleaded guilty to material support for terrorism after spending more than five years at the Cuban prison for enemy combatants of the US war on terrorism.
He will soon be transfered to South Australia to serve a nine-month prison term and will be released at the end of the year.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hickss-transfer-drawing-closer/2007/05/15/1178995110615.html
Hicks won't sell story: Mori
David Hicks has vowed not to sell his story, write a book or profit in any other way after he is released from prison at the end of the year.
Hicks is due home next week from Guantanamo Bay where he has been held prisoner for more than five years.
After being convicted recently for providing material support for terrorism, he will return to Adelaide and serve out his sentence in Yatala Prison.
He is due for release on December 30 and has been banned from talking to the media until March 30.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hicks-wont-sell-story-mori/2007/05/15/1178995120962.html
Gone so long: Tasmanians home among the gumleaves
IT MAY be the skeleton of the 19th century Tasmanian Aborigine Mitaluraparitja, or of his kinsman Pintawtawa. A closer check of the scant records could tell.
Whoever it was, the bones came home to Tasmania yesterday; home from London in two boxes with the remains of 17 other Aborigines, more than a century after they were robbed from their resting place.
The two men were among dozens to die and disappear in unmarked graves at Wybalenna, the place on Flinders Island that the former premier Jim Bacon labelled a concentration camp, a place of genocide.
The body was dug up by George Augustus Robinson, the official colonial protector of Aborigines, who ran the Wybalenna camp in the 1830s.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gone-so-long-tasmanians-home-among-the-gumleaves/2007/05/14/1178995079815.html
Deputies stand by their sheriff
Sure, the resignation of Tony Blair as Prime Minister of Britain means that George Bush and his Administration have lost their closest friend in Europe. However, his predicted replacement does not seem likely to junk the Labour Government's foreign policy.
Last Friday Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that while he accepted mistakes had been made in Iraq, nevertheless Britain "will keep obligations to the Iraqi people". He made the telling point that "these are obligations that are part of UN resolutions; they are in support of a democracy".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/deputies-stand-by-their-sheriff/2007/05/14/1178995072496.html
Dam plan holds water if it's about extra revenue
Sydney's April rainfall was 43 per cent above the long-term average. During these rainy days more than three times our daily water consumption was lost from our roofs and streets, allowed to run straight into our rivers and out to sea. A little fell in the dam catchments, some fell on the Central Coast and raised one dam to 95 per cent full.
In Sydney, dam levels are hovering at about 38 per cent, or 32 per cent in reality, if you ignore Sydney Catchment Authority "fudge-figures" in use since April last year whereby it adds 6 percentage points to storage capacity by accessing deep water at Warragamba Dam.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/dam-plan-holds-water-if-its-about-extra-revenue/2007/05/14/1178995072502.html
Miners and banks drag market lower
The Australian stock market closed lower today as weaker prices for base metals pulled back major mining stocks.The big banks were also lower.ABN Amro Morgans senior client adviser Roger Chandler said the local market was weaker after a mixed performance by United States markets overnight and lower metal prices."The weak stocks were in the banking sector, which have had an enormous run, and the metals prices have put BHP (Billiton), Alumina and Rio (Tinto) down. You take the banks and those three and that accounts for most of the market (pullback),'' Mr Chandler said.He said investors were waiting for some stability to return to metal prices, which fell "savagely'' overnight.At the 4.15pm close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 53.9 points at 6291.2, while the all ordinaries lost 49.4 points to 6297.3.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/miners-and-banks-drag-market-lower/2007/05/15/1178995118326.html
Murdoch vows independent board in Dow Jones bid
Media baron Rupert Murdoch is offering to create "an independent, autonomous editorial board" for The Wall Street Journal if his News Corporation bid for parent company Dow Jones & Co succeeds, a letter released today showed.
The letter addressed to its controlling Bancroft family and published in the Journal was aimed at overcoming resistance to the $US5-billion ($6 billion) hostile takeover offer.
Murdoch wrote in the letter that News Corp would be "an ideal partner for Dow Jones", and that his group "would be dedicated to building upon the more than 100-year heritage of your great company".
In an effort to overcome concerns about maintaining journalistic integrity, Murdoch said he would "establish an independent, autonomous editorial board exactly along the lines of what was established at The Times of London".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/murdoch-vows-independent-board-in-dow-jones-bid/2007/05/15/1178995110998.html
Bancrofts offered seat on News Corp. board
Bloomberg News
Published May 15, 2007
NEW YORK -- Rupert Murdoch wrote to Dow Jones & Co.'s Bancroft family offering them a seat on News Corp.'s board if they accept his company's $5 billion takeover offer. In a 1,200-word letter to the Bancrofts dated May 11, Murdoch also said he would establish an autonomous editorial board for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones' other publications if they approve the deal. Murdoch is seeking to persuade at least some of the Bancrofts to accept his $60-a-share offer. Family members representing 52 percent of the voting power of Dow Jones rejected Murdoch's offer. "Please let me assure you that, first and foremost, I am a newspaper man," Murdoch wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. "I don't apologize for the fact that I have always had strong opinions and strong ideas about newspapers; but I have also always respected the independence and integrity of the news organizations with which I am associated."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0705140537may15,0,5960055.story?coll=chi-business-hed
BBC in shouting match with Scientologists
A BITTER row has erupted between the BBC and the Church of Scientology after an experienced reporter lost his temper on camera and screamed at a senior member of the controversial group for 30 seconds.
The BBC has been forced to defend itself against claims in a Scientology DVD that it orchestrated a demonstration against the group in which a "terrorist death threat" was allegedly made. The group's adherents include the Hollywood actors John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Anne Archer.
John Sweeney, a journalist for Panorama, has also had to apologise for his outburst after he was filmed shouting furiously at Tommy Davis, a Scientologist.
Sandy Smith, the investigative program's editor, has denied that it organised a protest against the group.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/bbc-in-shouting-match-with-scientologists/2007/05/14/1178995077235.html
No Moore mister nice guy
A controversial documentary about Oscar winner Michael Moore, which is creating hot debate in North America, was partly funded by Australian money.
The film, Manufacturing Dissent, explores Moore's life and questions some of his ethical practices during the making of documentaries including Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 911. Although the filmmakers were initially supporters of Moore who simply wanted to explore his remarkable career, the documentary eventually turns nasty, claiming Moore has fudged some facts in his famous docos to drive home his agenda.
Moore, who is considered the most powerful documentary maker in the world, is said to be outraged by the film's emerging profile on the documentary circuit.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/michael-moore-documentary-stirs-controversy/2007/05/13/1178994981636.html
Travel warning for Germany
Australian travellers are being warned to exercise caution if travelling to Germany, which may be at an increased risk of a terrorist attack.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade tonight reviewed its travel advice for Germany, alerting travellers that the German government had warned terrorist attacks might be possible.
"German government public statements continue to note the possibility of terrorist attacks in Germany," DFAT said on its website.
"The German Interior Ministry has said the threat has become more serious.
"On 20 April 2007, the United States Embassy issued a warden message advising that US diplomatic missions and installations are increasing security in response to the heightened terrorist threat.''
Travellers to France also have been advised to be careful following the French presidential election which was won by conservative Nicolas Sarkozy.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/travel-warning-for-germany/2007/05/09/1178390369810.html
New-look train rolls out of Melbourne
The new look Overland Train will roll out of Melbourne today for the first time after a $4 million makeover.
The interstate passenger service connecting Melbourne and Adelaide has been refurbished under a joint project between the South Australian and Victorian governments and Great Southern Railway.
Victorian transport minister Lynne Kosky said passengers could now look forward to a more comfortable journey.
"The refurbishment includes new seating with more leg room in two classes of sit up service, fully refurbished carriage interiors plus a new cafe carriage that will provide passengers with a comfortable and thoroughly modern travel experience," she said.
The Overland is Australia's longest running interstate passenger train.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/newlook-train-rolls-out-of-melbourne/2007/05/08/1178390268049.html
Iraq deemed too dangerous for Harry
Britain's Prince Harry will not be sent to serve in Iraq after military commanders decided it would be too dangerous, Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday.
"I have decided today that Prince Harry will not be deployed to Iraq," General Sir Richard Dannatt told reporters.
Harry, 22, the third in line to the throne and a junior officer in the army, had been due to be deployed to Basra, in southern Iraq, with his Blues and Royals regiment in the coming weeks as part of the latest British troop rotation.
Harry has repeatedly said that he wants to be deployed with his men, but Ministry of Defence officials have expressed concern that he could become a target for Iraqi insurgents, endangering himself and those serving under him.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/iraq-deemed-too-dangerous-for-harry/2007/05/17/1178995248011.html
Climate threat in military's sights
THE Australian Defence Force has identified climate change as a national security threat for the first time, as it predicted the military would become more involved in stabilising failing states than fighting conventional wars.
Outlining its vision for the future of the armed services to 2030, the force has also foreshadowed an era where crises flare more suddenly while its adversaries, including terrorists and insurgents, become more cunning and capable.
Launching the document - Joint Operations for the 21st Century - the Chief of Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the military faced security challenges it had not envisaged before, specifically "climate change and the impacts of global demography".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/climate-threat-in-militarys-sights/2007/05/17/1178995242497.html
Israelis traumatised in Sderot
Schools shut down and residents huddled in bomb shelters as another massive barrage of rockets came crashing down on the terrified border town of Sderot,, threatening to provoke a massive Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.
It hit 20 months after Israeli troops withdrew from the coastal strip.
The attack came a day after rockets injured five residents, including a mother and her children. Several homes have been destroyed as was any remnant of a sense of security.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Israelis-traumatised-in-Sderot/2007/05/16/1178995240984.html
Quit Iraq by March, say Democrats
HILLARY CLINTON and Barack Obama have backed legislation to cut off funding for most combat operations in Iraq by March 2008, the first time the top two Democratic presidential candidates have endorsed a firm deadline to end the war.
The announcements, made separately on Tuesday, underscore the powerful influence of the anti-war movement on the Democratic primaries.
John Edwards, the former vice-presidential candidate who trails senators Clinton and Obama in national polls - but leads in the crucial first caucusing state of Iowa - has called for an immediate withdrawal of US forces.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/quit-iraq-by-march-say-democrats/2007/05/16/1178995237328.html
NASA satellite spots evidence of Antarctic warming event
NEW YORK: Satellite analysis has shown that in 2005 masses of unusually warm air pushed to within 500 kilometres of the South Pole and remained long enough to melt surface snow across 400,000 square kilometres.
The week-long warm spell was detected by scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. Air with a temperature of up to 5 degrees persisted across three broad swathes of West Antarctica long enough to leave a distinctive signature of melting - a layer of ice in the snow.
The evidence of melting was detected by a NASA satellite, the QuickScat, that uses radar to distinguish between snow and ice.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/nasa-satellite-spots-evidence-of-antarctic-warming-event/2007/05/16/1178995237318.html
More Nazi persecutions come to light but secrets remain
BERLIN: Electronic copies of documents from a closely guarded Nazi archive will soon be available for the first time since the end of World War II, following an agreement by the 11 countries that govern the archive.
The decision gives historians access to a vast repository of information - most mundane, some revelatory - about the 17.5 million people who passed through concentration camps or were otherwise victimised during and immediately after Nazi rule.
The archive has long allowed access only to the families of Holocaust victims. Scholars complained they were being denied access to a vital historical record.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/more-nazi-persecutions-come-to-light-but-secrets-remain/2007/05/16/1178995237338.html
Bindi crowned queen of Aussie tourism
Pint-sized entertainer and wildlife warrior Bindi Irwin has been voted the favourite face of Australian tourism.
A survey, conducted over the past five weeks by online travel directory TotalTravel.com, asked 1,609 participants who they thought would make the best ambassador for the industry.
Eight-year-old Bindi, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, was the clear winner, with 38 per cent voting her the queen of Australian tourism.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/bindi-crowned-queen-of-aussie-tourism/2007/05/16/1178995204485.html
Australia ecotourism leader
Australia and Costa Rica are good examples for the multibillion-dollar world ecotourism business, which is growing at about 30 per cent a year and in need of tight quality controls, experts said.
Ecotourist destinations, ranging from environmentally friendly Thai beach resorts to jungle lodges in Kenya, now attract about 15 per cent of the global tourist market, leaders of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/australia-is-ecotourism-leader/2007/05/15/1178995121904.html
Tourism blossoms in Kenya
Lunchtime at an upmarket Kenyan safari lodge in what should be the slow off-season, and the dining room is packed with tourists from all over the world.
Chattering excitedly in many languages as they watch antelope, buffalo and a giraffe grazing just a short distance away across a stone terrace, they are driving an unprecedented boom in a key sector of east Africa's biggest economy.
Kenya made $800 million from tourism in 2006, making the industry its best hard currency earner ahead of horticulture and tea. This year, the tourist board expects revenues to top $1 billion for the first time.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/tourism-blossoms-in-kenya/2007/05/14/1178995040878.html
Asia Pacific tourism expected to rise
Tourism should bring the Asia Pacific region $110 billion in revenues over the next three years, with much of that coming from travellers in the region, according a report released Thursday.
China is expected to lead the way, gaining $36 billion in tourist dollars, according to the report from the Pacific Asia Travel Association or PATA.
American and Canadian tourists numbers to China are projected to rise by 13 per cent, while tourists from India going to China are expected to jump 15 percent.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/asia-pacific-tourism-expected-to-rise/2007/05/11/1178390516558.html
Barrier reef's tourism award 'a major coup'
The Great Barrier Reef has taken out one of world tourism's most coveted awards.
The reef - the world's largest living organism - was voted the best destination by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) as part of its Tourism for Tomorrow awards, at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal, overnight.
Describing the win as a "major coup", Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) chief executive officer Daniel Gschwind said the award was considered the foremost accolade for sustainable tourism.
He said the reef topped more than 130 entries from 40 countries across seven continents.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/barrier-reefs-tourism-award-a-major-coup/2007/05/12/1178899158216.html
Tourism strategy gets thumbs up
An increase in overseas arrival figures are proof that the national tourism strategy is delivering benefits to the industry, experts say.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released yesterday show 3.1 million international tourists visited Australia in the past six months, an increase of 4.7 per cent.
In March 2007 alone, international tourist numbers totalled 524,200, an increase of 10.1 per cent on the same time last year.
Tourists also spent an extra $1.8 billion in Australia in 2006.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/tourism-strategy-gets-thumbs-up/2007/05/10/1178390434100.html
Rare koala twins new ambassadors
They may be Australia's cutest icons, but these twins are 100 per cent made in China. Koala joeys Little Michelle and Little Amanda have captured international attention after finally emerging from their mother's pouch to greet their adoring fans this week at China's Xiangjiang Safari Park in Guangzhou.
Experts say the marsupials are the first twins to be born in captivity since the early 1960s, when twin koalas were born at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/rare-koala-twins-born-in-captivity/2007/05/15/1178995116690.html
The New York Times
QUOTATION OF THE DAY on January 19, 2004"In a perfect world, caucuses would be a very good way of figuring out which of the candidates has been persuasive. But what started out as a person-to-person, humanized event has gotten to be very organized and professionalized."
GARY HART
Scientists Back Off Theory of a Colder Europe in a Warming World
OSLO — Mainstream climatologists who have feared that global warming could have the paradoxical effect of cooling northwestern Europe or even plunging it into a small ice age have stopped worrying about that particular disaster, although it retains a vivid hold on the public imagination.
The idea, which held climate theorists in its icy grip for years, was that the North Atlantic Current, an extension of the Gulf Stream that cuts northeast across the Atlantic Ocean to bathe the high latitudes of Europe with warmish equatorial water, could shut down in a greenhouse world.
Without that warm-water current, Americans on the Eastern Seaboard would most likely feel a chill, but the suffering would be greater in Europe, where major cities lie far to the north. Britain, northern France, the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway could in theory take on Arctic aspects that only a Greenlander could love, even as the rest of the world sweltered.
All that has now been removed from the forecast. Not only is northern Europe warming, but every major climate model produced by scientists worldwide in recent years has also shown that the warming will almost certainly continue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/science/earth/15cold.html?ex=1179892800&en=5ec657d7dca8373b&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Strong Winds May Spread New Jersey Wildfire
A wildfire sparked by a flare that an F-16 jet dropped over southern New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon continued to burn through thousands of acres of brush and pine forest today, fueled by strong gusts of wind that fire officials worried might pick up throughout the day.
The fire ignited more than 20 square miles of brush along the border between Ocean and Burlington Counties, forcing authorities to shut down parts of major highways and evacuate about 2,500 homes. There were no reports of injuries, but several mobile homes were damaged by fire, and heavy smoke permeated the air. Firefighters erected containment lines around the fire and said that as of this afternoon about 30 percent of the blaze had been contained. Forecasts called for rain and thunderstorms this afternoon, but there was also concern that strong winds — reaching as high as 20 miles per hour — might cause the flames to spread.
“We certainly hope for rain but we believe at a minimum that we’re going to get additional winds,” Lisa Jackson, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said at a news conference this afternoon. “The longer the winds are relatively mild, the longer those burns will set in.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/nyregion/16cnd-fire.html?hp
President Intervened in Dispute Over Eavesdropping
WASHINGTON, May 15 — President Bush intervened in March 2004 to avert a crisis over the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after Attorney General John Ashcroft, Director Robert S. Mueller III of the F.B.I. and other senior Justice Department aides all threatened to resign, a former deputy attorney general testified Tuesday.
Mr. Bush quelled the revolt over the program’s legality by allowing it to continue without Justice Department approval, also directing department officials to take the necessary steps to bring it into compliance with the law, according to Congressional testimony by the former deputy attorney general, James B. Comey.
Although a conflict over the program had been disclosed in The New York Times, Mr. Comey provided a fuller account of the 48-hour drama, including, for the first time, Mr. Bush’s role, the threatened resignations and a race as Mr. Comey hurried to Mr. Ashcroft’s hospital sickbed to intercept White House officials, who were pushing for approval of the N.S.A. program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/washington/16nsa.html?hp
Gonzales Pressed Ailing Ashcroft on Spy Plan, Aide Says
WASHINGTON, May 15 — On the night of March 10, 2004, a high-ranking Justice Department official rushed to a Washington hospital to prevent two White House aides from taking advantage of the critically ill Attorney General, John Ashcroft, the official testified today.
One of those aides was Alberto R. Gonzales, who was then White House counsel and eventually succeeded Mr. Ashcroft as Attorney General.
“I was very upset,” said James B. Comey, who was deputy Attorney General at the time, in his testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I was angry. I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15cnd-attorneys.html?ei=5070&en=c81d70b7a98294fe&ex=1179892800&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1179342272-ZokzWjExbUz6RBsBIy7TsA
Bush Opens Door to Wolfowitz’s Resigning
WASHINGTON, May 15 — The Bush administration, shifting strategy in the face of mounting opposition to Paul D. Wolfowitz, opened the door Tuesday to his resigning voluntarily as World Bank president if the bank board dropped its drive to declare him unfit to remain in office.
But the administration’s new approach — outlined in a telephone conference call between the Treasury Department in Washington and economic ministries in Japan, Canada and Europe — appeared to gain few immediate supporters, various officials said.
Indeed, bank officials said the board seemed determined on Tuesday evening to endorse the findings of a special committee that Mr. Wolfowitz broke bank rules, ethics and governance standards in arranging for, and concealing, a pay and promotion package for his companion, Shaha Ali Riza, in 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/washington/16wolfowitz.html
Palestinian Violence in Gaza Kills at Least 16
JERUSALEM, May 16 — The violence among Palestinians in Gaza accelerated today, with at least 16 dead in fighting between forces loyal to the Fatah faction and those of Hamas, both of which sit together in a unity government that appears to be fracturing.
In a fourth day of factional gunfights that have killed more than 40 people, Hamas forces continued to hit symbols of Fatah power in Gaza City before declaring a unilateral cease-fire tonight.
At dawn today, about 200 armed men of the Hamas military wing mortared and then occupied the house of a senior Fatah commander, Gen. Rashid Abu Shbak, who controls three main security services. General Shbak and his family were not at home — most senior factional leaders are not living at home these days in Gaza — but six of his bodyguards were shot dead and part of the lavish house was set on fire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/middleeast/16cnd-mideast.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Poppy Fields Are Now a Front Line in Afghan War
KABUL, Afghanistan — In a walled compound outside Kabul, two members of Colombia’s counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarters combat.
Using wooden mock AK-47 assault rifles, Lt. John Castañeda and Cpl. John Orejuela demonstrate commando tactics to about 20 new members of what is intended to be an elite Afghan drug strike force. The recruits — who American officials say lack even basic law enforcement skills — watch wide-eyed.
“This is kindergarten,” said Vincent Balbo, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration chief in Kabul, whose office is overseeing the training. “It’s Narcotics 101.” Another D.E.A. agent added: “We are at a stage now of telling these recruits, ‘This is a handgun, this is a bullet.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/asia/16drugs.html?hp
In Jihadist Haven, a Goal: To Kill and Die in Iraq
ZARQA, Jordan — Abu Ibrahim considers his dead friends the lucky ones.
Four died in Iraq in 2005. Three more died this year, one with an explosives vest and another at the wheel of a bomb-laden truck, according to relatives and community leaders.
Abu Ibrahim, a lanky 24-year-old, was on the same mission when he left this bleak city north of Amman for Iraq last October. But he made it only as far as the border before he was arrested, and is now back home in a world he thought he had left for good — biding his time, he said, for another chance to hurl himself into martyrdom.
“I am happy for them but I cry for myself because I couldn’t do it yet,” said Abu Ibrahim, who uses this name as a nom de guerre. “I want to spread the roots of God on this earth and free the land of occupiers. I don’t love anything in this world. What I care about is fighting.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/world/middleeast/04bombers.html?ex=1179460800&en=47818f3fd21d9dec&ei=5070
THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: THE INSURGENCY; BLAST IN BAGHDAD KILLS AT LEAST 20 OUTSIDE U.S. POST
By EDWARD WONG; NEELA BANERJEE AND JOHN H. CUSHMAN JR. CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FOR THIS ARTICLE.
Published: January 19, 2004
A powerful truck bomb exploded at the main gate of the American occupation headquarters here on Sunday morning, killing at least 20 people and wounding at least 60 others, military officials said.
It was one of the worst suicide bombings in Iraq since a truck bomber struck the Baghdad headquarters of the United Nations in August, killing 23 people. The United Nations will review the issue of Iraq on Monday, when top American and Iraqi officials will visit officials in New York for an important meeting.
At least 18 of the dead were Iraqi civilians, and it was difficult initially to identify the nationalities of the other two, military officials said. Many of the wounded were Iraqis waiting to enter the compound to go to work. No Americans were killed, though several soldiers received minor wounds.
Though guerrilla fighters have occasionally lobbed mortar rounds into the heavily fortified American headquarters, a wide zone that contains the former Republican Palace and other buildings of Saddam Hussein's deposed government, this was the first car bomb attack in the area.
The attackers appeared to be sending a pointed message by striking at the heart of the American authority in Baghdad one day before senior American and Iraqi officials were to meet at the United Nations about resistance from a powerful Shiite cleric to plans for the scheduled transfer to sovereignty on June 30.
Mainly because of security concerns, the United Nations has not returned to Iraq since it suffered the devastating suicide bombing in August, and it is unclear how the attack will affect the New York talks.
The bomber drove a white Toyota pickup truck loaded with 1,000 pounds of Soviet-made plastic explosives into the line for vehicle inspections, then detonated it at about 8 a.m., just 50 feet from the gate, military officials said.
The blast destroyed six or seven nearby vehicles and set four ablaze. It shook buildings more than a mile away, and the wind carried the acrid smell of smoke across the Tigris River into downtown Baghdad.
Dozens of American soldiers surrounded the wreckage as firefighters struggled to put out the flames. At 8:40 a.m., at least three cars still lay smoldering, and a mangled white bus sat in the middle of the avenue.
Bodies lay on the ground surrounded by debris as ambulances raced in. Most of the dead were Iraqis who had been sitting in cars at the busy intersection outside the gate, said Col. Ralph Baker, commander of the Second Brigade of the First Armored Division. Concrete blast walls helped protect Iraqis standing at the checkpoint, who suffered wounds rather than death in many cases. He added that the fact that the explosion was outside the perimeter was considered a security success.
American officials have used the walled-off area, called the green zone, since the fall of Baghdad in April. Because the compound is so large and the gate is at its very northern perimeter, at the west end of a bridge spanning the Tigris, the attack was obviously aimed at Iraqis working for the Coalition Provisional Authority and its allies rather than at any distinct military target.
The attack ''was clearly timed to claim the maximum number of innocent victims,'' L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator here, said from the United States in a written statement. ''Once again, it is innocent Iraqis who have been murdered by these terrorists in a senseless act of violence.''
People with dazed expressions and blood on their faces and clothing staggered east across the Jumhuriya Bridge. Weesam Kadhum, 22, a civil engineer working in a building just 300 feet outside the main entrance, said he had seen shrapnel flying.
''Suddenly there was this bright light, and small pieces rained down from the sky,'' he said. ''I ran to my house across the street. I didn't want to stop running. I've only now realized that I don't have any blood or injuries on me.''
His 4-year-old son, Wadah, was wounded slightly by flying glass as the blast shattered the windows of Mr. Kadhum's two-story home and those of other nearby buildings.
In Al Karama hospital, Ahmed Ali, lying half-naked in a bed with a shrapnel wound to his torso, said he had been among 200 people standing at the gate to be let into the compound. ''I felt as if a storm had hit,'' said Mr. Ali, 23, who does maintenance for water pumps in the compound. ''There was a huge blast and smoke and fire everywhere. Then the Americans began shooting.''
Colonel Baker disputed his account, though, saying American soldiers did not open fire.
In the meeting on Monday in New York, American and Iraqi officials are expected to try to persuade the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, to send a delegation here to lend legitimacy to caucus-style elections for a transitional assembly. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq, renewed a call for direct elections on Jan. 11, hobbling the plans.
Many United Nations officials have complained, with regard to the coming meeting, that they were deliberately kept at a distance during the planning stage and are now being asked to validate a process from which they were excluded.
The United Nations withdrew from Iraq after the bombing in August, whose victims included Mr. Annan's senior envoy here, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The bombing on Sunday was the deadliest single attack in Baghdad since the attack on the United Nations, which has said it is reluctant to return until security improves.
In Tikrit, a homemade bomb being transported in a white Mercedes-Benz late on Saturday night accidentally exploded and killed two men, one of them a relative of Mr. Hussein, The Associated Press reported, quoting an American commander. A third man was seriously wounded. The men were apparently rushing to attack an American patrol when the bomb went off.
Right after the explosion in Baghdad, soldiers parked a tank in the middle of the Jumhuriya Bridge to seal off one main road leading to the American headquarters.
Jasim Muhammad, a 32-year-old taxi driver with dried blood on his face, gazed vacantly at his shattered red Volkswagen Passat, which sat on the west end of the bridge several hundred feet from the blast site.
Mr. Kadhum, the civil engineer, stared at his home, voicing a sentiment that has become all too familiar among Iraqis. ''Of course we're scared living here,'' he said, ''but where can we go?''
The Battle for Baghdad
Baghdad bureau chief John F. Burns discusses the financing behind the Iraqi insurgency.
http://nytimes.feedroom.com:99/?fr_story=a0e968172769a6b2388f258decdeb0272d201561
At a Film Festival, France Is Again Center of the World
CANNES, France, May 15 — Standing in the lobby of the Hôtel Splendid, just a few blocks from the center of the Cannes Film Festival, Pierre Rissient, a kind of cinematic ambassador without portfolio and something of a local institution, paused to critique the festival’s official souvenir bag.
Every year, the festival gives moviegoers a “gimme” bag to facilitate the schlepping of its sundry guides, catalogs and promotional materials. This year’s version is colorfully printed with dozens of names of past winners of the Palme d’Or, including luminaries of world cinema like Roman Polanski, Akira Kurosawa and Michelangelo Antonioni. But Cannes is traditionally a place of controversy as well as adulation. Mr. Antonioni was booed when he presented “L’Avventura” in 1960, and a gaudy piece of swag can provoke argumentative passion as surely as a jury’s vote or an auteur’s vision. “Roland Joffe should not be here!” Mr. Rissient said, with indignation. Welcome to Cannes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/movies/16cann.html
Girth and Nudity, a Pictorial Mission
BEFORE we begin, let’s get one thing out of the way: Yes, Leonard Nimoy is more than happy to do it — the Vulcan salute, the gesture that launched a thousand spaceships. He does so easily, effortlessly: palm outward, fingers extended, the index and middle finger smashed together, the ring finger and pinky touching, the thumb sticking out on its own.
“People ask me all the time,” Mr. Nimoy said, carrying saucers of coffee and tea into his art-filled living room off Central Park West. He placed them next to galleys of his forthcoming photography book, which sat near a copy of “Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West,” by Margaret R. Miles, and a folder of news clippings on obesity.
“You see what I have here, about the health guidelines for models?” he asked, pointing a long, tapered finger toward the file.
The basso profundo voice was unmistakable, his words occasionally clipped with his native Boston accent. “They now have to have at least a certain weight to qualify,” Mr. Nimoy added. He looked pleased. This is a subject that speaks to him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/fashion/13nimoy.html?ex=1179892800&en=beda4a60a0530309&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Wiccans Keep the Faith With a Religion Under Wraps
DUMFRIES, Va. — Above the woman’s fireplace hangs her wedding picture, taken in a Lutheran church years ago. Below it, on the mantelpiece, is a small Wiccan altar: two candles, a tiny cauldron, four stones to represent the elements of nature and a small amethyst representing her spirit.
The wedding portrait is always there. But whenever someone comes to visit, the woman sweeps the altar away. Raised Southern Baptist in Virginia and now a stay-at-home mother of two in this Washington suburb, she has told almost no one — not her relatives, her friends or the other mothers in her children’s playgroups — that she is Wiccan.
Among the most popular religions to have flowered since the 1960s, Wicca — a form of paganism — still faces a struggle for acceptance, experts on the religion and Wiccans themselves said. In April, Wiccans won an important victory when the Department of Veterans Affairs settled a lawsuit and agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/us/16wiccan.html?ex=1179979200&en=bc8bec94f68a2aef&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Bausch & Lomb Accepts $4.5 Billion Takeover Bid
Bausch & Lomb, a troubled leader in the eye care industry, said today that it had accepted a $4.5 billion takeover offer from investment groups controlled by Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm known for backing a wide range of health care companies.
The offer was for $65 a share in cash. But the structure of the deal, which included a relatively modest $40 million breakup fee if Bausch can find a more attractive offer in the next 50 days, suggested that Bausch believed competing bidders could emerge. So did the early reaction on Wall Street — the shares opened at $67.71, up more than 10 percent from their closing price Tuesday of $61.50.
But analysts warned that the price also reflected the plight of the large number of short-sellers who had gambled in recent weeks that Bausch shares would fall. The buyout offer forced them to race to buy shares to cover their positions to limit their losses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/business/17bauschweb.html
Tyco to Pay $3 Billion to Settle Investor Lawsuits
By FLOYD NORRIS
Published: May 16, 2007
Tyco International, whose two top executives were imprisoned for fraud, has agreed to pay almost $3 billion to settle class-action lawsuits brought by investors, the company announced yesterday.
The settlement, described as the largest payment ever by a company in such litigation, seeks to help put to rest one of the nation’s most notorious cases of fraud. Tyco investors may be in a position to recover even more money because they would also share in any proceeds from litigation still outstanding against L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former Tyco chief executive, and two other former executives, and against the company’s former auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The settlement came as the company, a wide-ranging conglomerate, is seeking to split into three parts and is involved in separate litigation with bondholders who contend that they are not being offered sufficient compensation for the change in corporate structure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/business/16tyco.html
China Urges U.S. Not to Punish All Food Exporters
SHANGHAI, May 16 — China has urged the United States not to take punitive action against this country’s exporters of agricultural goods even though Chinese officials have determined that two Chinese companies intentionally contaminated American pet food ingredients with an industrial chemical.
The government said this week it had shut down the two companies and detained several company officials for their role in setting off one of the largest pet food recalls in United States history.
The announcement, which was released late Monday on the Web site of the country’s quality inspection watchdog, appeared just days after investigators from the federal Food and Drug Administration ended a two-week-long visit to China seeking to determine how an industrial chemical called melamine got mixed into pet food ingredients.
“We hope the American side will accurately and objectively deal with problems among individual companies and not take stringent measures against other Chinese companies producing the same type of products,” the government statement read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/business/worldbusiness/17food.html
The Unkept Promise on Voting
Congress has done a terrible job of regulating electronic voting: It allowed A.T.M.-style voting machines to proliferate without requiring them to produce a paper trail that can be audited to ensure that the results are accurate. That has meant wasted time and money for the states, confusion for voters, and questionable election results. Fortunately, the nation’s delinquent lawmakers have a chance to set things right — through a bill introduced by Representative Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, that would finally impose a paper trail requirement. There are some details that need fine-tuning, but Congress should move quickly to pass it.
After the 2000 election debacle, Congress gave the states large grants to replace faulty voting machines, including the kind that produced hanging chads. But in too many cases, states and localities rushed to buy electronic voting machines that do not produce paper records. Voters have to trust the numbers they spit out on election night, but the numbers cannot be independently verified, and that is unacceptable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/opinion/16wed1.html
Bringing Lobbyists to Heel
It’s crunch time for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to deliver on the Democrats’ vow to rein in power lobbyists who sully Congress by purchasing privileged access with outsized campaign donations. There are worthy remedies, but members are balking. If the House resorts to mere cosmetic changes, the Democrats will risk the same voters’ ire that cost the Republicans control last year.
The keystone of lobbying reform has already been passed by the Senate: the requirement that lobbyists disclose details of how they buy insiders’ clout — think Jack Abramoff — by soliciting donations from countless clients and delivering them to grateful lawmakers in eye-popping megabundles. The House must match the Senate in requiring full disclosure of these bundling operations and full details of who gives what to whom at pay-per-view fundraising galas that are the staple of Washington’s social life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/opinion/16wed3.html
Failing by Example
If you want to know why we are losing in Iraq, go back and read this story that ran on the front page of The Times on Saturday. It began like this:
“Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion was no longer hers. ‘You have a Monica problem,’ Ms. Ashton was told. Referring to Monica M. Goodling, a 31-year-old, relatively inexperienced lawyer who had only recently arrived in the office, the boss added, ‘She believes you’re a Democrat and doesn’t feel you can be trusted.’ Ms. Ashton’s ouster — she left for another Justice Department post two weeks later — was a critical early step in a plan that would later culminate in the ouster of nine United States attorneys last year.
“Ms. Goodling would soon be quizzing applicants for civil service jobs at Justice Department headquarters with questions that several United States attorneys said were inappropriate, like who was their favorite president and Supreme Court justice. One department official said an applicant was even asked, ‘Have you ever cheated on your wife?’ Ms. Goodling also moved to block the hiring of prosecutors with résumés that suggested they might be Democrats, even though they were seeking posts that were supposed to be nonpartisan.”
What does this have to do with Iraq? A lot. One benchmark the Bush team has been urging the Iraqi government to meet is to rescind its broad “de-Baathification” program — the wholesale purging of Baathists after the fall of Saddam — which has alienated many Sunnis and hampered national reconciliation.
But while the Bush team has been lecturing the Iraqi Shiites to limit de-Baathification in Baghdad, it was carrying out its own de-Democratization in the Justice Department in Washington. We would feel that we had failed in Iraq if we read that Sunnis were being purged from Iraq’s Ministry of Justice by Shiite hard-liners loyal to Moktada al-Sadr — but the moral equivalent of that is exactly what the Bush administration was doing here. What kind of example does that set for Iraqis?
And this wasn’t only a Washington problem. Read Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s outstanding “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” which details the extent to which Americans recruited to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad were chosen, at times, for their loyalty toward Republicanism rather than expertise on Islamism. “Two C.P.A. staffers said that they were asked if they supported Roe v. Wade and if they had voted for George W. Bush,” he wrote.
But this degree of partisanship — loyalty over competence — was destructive in a much bigger way. It also deprived the Bush team of the support it needed when things in Iraq didn’t turn out to be as easy as it expected.
Only a united America could have the patience and fortitude to heal a divided Iraq — and we simply don’t have that today. Why? Because George Bush and Dick Cheney asked everyone to check their politics at the door when it came to Iraq, because victory there was so important — everyone but themselves. They argued that the war in Iraq was the central front of the central struggle of our age — an unusual war, a war against terrorism and the pathologies that produce it — but then they indulged in the most rancid politics as usual at home.
They actually thought they could unite Iraq, while dividing America.
Whenever Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had a choice between seeking political advantage at home or acting in a bipartisan fashion to buy more unity, time and space to do all the heavy lifting needed in Iraq, they opted for political advantage.
When Franklin Roosevelt fought World War II, he made a conservative Republican, Henry Stimson, his secretary of war and did all he could to hold the country together. The Bush- Cheney team, by contrast, summoned us to D-Day and then treated it like it was just another political wedge issue, whenever it suited them.
It has not worked. As Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, put it: “You cannot govern like Winston Churchill some of the time and like Grover Norquist most of the time.”
Democrats need to be careful, though, that they don’t let their rage with the hypocrisy of Mr. Bush make them totally crazy, and blind them to the fact that they — we — still need a credible plan to deal with the very real threat to open societies posed by Islamist terrorism. But I understand that rage. After all, who can ask more soldiers to sacrifice their lives in Iraq for an administration that wouldn’t even sacrifice its politics?
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/opinion/16friedman.html
The New Zealand Herald
Firefighters gain on California island wildfire
SAN FRANSCISCO - Evacuated residents of California's Santa Catalina Island began returning to their homes overnight after firefighters said they were gaining control over the blaze, which has consumed more than 1,619 hectares.
"We have 41 per cent containment," Capt. Andrew Olvera of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.
"The weather is in our favor, with 40 per cent-plus relative humidity and low wind speeds so everything is looking pretty good," Olvera said.
The fire burned about 1,700 hectares on the resort island and destroyed one home and six nonresidential buildings, Olvera said.
No serious injuries were reported from the blaze, which remains under investigation. Contractors working at a radio station may have started the fire accidentally, Olvera said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10439410
Photos: LA fire controlled but landmark park charred
LOS ANGELES - A wildfire that swept through a landmark Los Angeles park, forcing authorities to evacuate the zoo and a wealthy Hollywood Hills neighbourhood, was brought under control today by fire crews taking advantage of a break in hot winds.
But with white smoke still drifting over the charred foothills of Griffith Park and temperatures rising above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, firefighters kept an eye on the wind as they smothered remaining hot spots.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10438975
Big area of Antarctica melted, satellite finds
WASHINGTON - Vast areas of snow in Antarctica melted in 2005 when temperatures warmed up for a week in the summer in a process that may accelerate invisible melting deep beneath the surface, Nasa said today.
A new analysis of satellite data showed that an area the size of California melted and then re-froze -- the most significant thawing in 30 years, the US space agency said.
Unlike the Arctic, Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula, where ice sheets have been breaking apart.
Son Nghiem of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado in Boulder measured snowfall accumulation and melt in Antarctica from July 1999 through July 2005.
They found evidence of melting in several areas, including high elevations and far inland in January of 2005, when temperatures got as high as 41degC.
"Increases in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely could have an impact on larger scale melting of Antarctica's ice sheets if they were severe or sustained over time," Steffen said in a statement.
"Water from melted snow can penetrate into ice sheets through cracks and narrow, tubular glacial shafts called moulins," Steffen added.
"If sufficient melt water is available, it may reach the bottom of the ice sheet. This water can lubricate the underside of the ice sheet at the bedrock, causing the ice mass to move toward the ocean faster, increasing sea level."
REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440020
Plea to rescue the forests
OTTAWA - Canada's vast forests should be protected much more than they are now to preserve wildlife and water and to fight global warming, a group of 1500 scientists from around the world said yesterday.
The scientists say Canada's Boreal Forest, stretching from the Alaskan border and running north of the plains all the way to Newfoundland on the Atlantic, is one of the largest intact forest-and-wetland ecosystems remaining on earth.
The mainly coniferous forest is the single largest terrestrial carbon storehouse in the world, which helps stem the greenhouse effect.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439887
Anti-smacking bill becomes law
Green MP Sue Bradford's controversial child discipline bill was tonight passed by Parliament, with only seven MPs voting against it.
The bill removes from the Crimes Act the statutory defence of "reasonable force" to correct a child, meaning there will be no justification for the use of force for that purpose.
The legislation also carries an amendment agreed earlier by Prime Minister Helen Clark and National leader John Key that says the police have the discretion not to prosecute complaints against a parent where the offence is considered to be inconsequential.
The bill was passed today almost two years after it was introduced in June 2005. The at times acrimonius debate on the bill has seen Parliament and the public sharply divided between the bill's supporters and its opponents.
But with the compromise amendment, most of that opposition faded away.
The Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill was tonight given its third reading by a vote of 113 to seven.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440080
United Future MP quits party over smacking bill
Gordon Copeland said today felt like his wedding day but it actually marked his divorce from United Future.
At a press conference today Mr Copeland posed for the cameras before saying he was leaving United Future because of his opposition to the bill being passed tonight changing the law around smacking.
He quipped that the cameras going off reminded him of his wedding before stating he was re-forming the Future New Zealand Party which United Future was previously allied with.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440050
Currency: Dollar ends unchanged after brief flirtation
The New Zealand dollar ended little changed today after a brief flirtation above US74c.
It rose to US74.06c early this morning but ended unchanged from yesterday at US73.75c. The market was quiet.
New housing data showing no let up in house price inflation which increased the risk of another rate risk, economists said. That was likely to put further upward pressure on the kiwi.
ANZ economists said the Reserve Bank could not afford to let momentum within the economy continue given the prevalence of inflation pressures.
"The Reserve Bank needs to make certain of reining the current momentum in the economy this time around.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10440084
Ivory trade alive in cyberspace
LONDON - The elephant, the world's largest land mammal, is being threatened with global extinction by a "rampant trade" in ivory on the eBay online auction site, animal welfare campaigners say.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare says it conducted a survey in Britain, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States and tracked more than 2200 elephant ivory items listed on eBay websites.
It found more than 90 per cent of the listings breached even eBay's own wildlife policies.
International wildlife trade laws differ from country to country and are often complex, but according to the international fund, in general it is illegal to sell carved or uncarved ivory unless it is antique and accompanied by a proof-of-age certificate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439903
Rwandans accused of NZers' murder seek asylum in US
Three Rwandan rebels who confessed to the murders of a group of Western tourists, including two New Zealand women, are now seeking political asylum in the United States.
The three men were extradited to the US in 2003 after being charged with the murder of two American citizens among the eight tourists.
However, a US judge threw out the case earlier this year after saying the three men's confessions to the 1999 killings had been obtained through torture.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440015
US says Russia cannot veto missile defence
MOSCOW - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today Russia could not veto American plans to build a missile defence shield in Europe but added that the two countries had agreed to tone down their rhetoric.
Recent harsh remarks have revived memories of the Cold War, capped by a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany, when he seemed to compare US foreign policy to that of the Third Reich.
After meeting Putin at his residence, Rice told reporters "the rhetoric is not helpful, it is disturbing to Americans who are trying to do our best to maintain an even relationship."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440028
Yachting: Team New Zealand win again with ease
Team New Zealand went two-nil up on the Spanish, and Oracle evened the score with Luna Rossa, in the second day of the challenger series semifinals in Valencia.
In some ways the second round of the semifinals resembled the first day of racing.
BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa had a humdinger of a battle which saw the Americans pull off a stunning come-from-behind 13 second win.
In comparison Emirates Team New Zealand's win over Desafio Espanol was straightforward, sailing a smart, conservative race to beat Desafio Espanol by a comfortable 40 seconds.
Skipper Dean Barker won the start. Team New Zealand started on the left, crossed over to the right, nailed the first shift and were gone.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10439995
Napster music available on Motorola phones
NEW YORK - Napster said today it agreed to make its music subscription service available on Motorola's mobile phones.
Napster and Motorola will develop promotional efforts for North America, the United Kingdom and Germany designed to let consumers listen to Napster's music on many Motorola music-enabled handsets.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
- REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10439998
Microsoft declares war on free software
NEW YORK - We all love to get something for free. Including, of course, software.
We're talking high-quality stuff - not junk - that can be downloaded free off the internet and then copied at will.
Well, US software behemoth Microsoft, facing life in an ever-competitive and ruthless marketplace, has today declared "enough!"
Microsoft has made its broadest challenge to date against open-source software, including Windows rival Linux, claiming that such programs violate 235 Microsoft patents and saying it will seek license fees.
The world's largest software maker said that various open-source packages violate patents it holds in areas related to graphical user interface, email programs and other technology.
"The real question is not whether there exist substantial patent infringement issues, but what to do about them," said super-lawyer Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft vice president of intellectual property and licensing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10440007
Law Society urges ACC to abolish physiotherapist pay scheme
An ACC system that dictates a set number of physiotherapy visits for different injuries should be thrown out, says the New Zealand Law Society.
In a hard-hitting submission to a ministerial inquiry into how physiotherapists are paid by ACC, lawyers also recommend that the Endorsed Provider Network, which they believe has created two tiers of physiotherapists, be abolished.
"The current systems employed by ACC ... have shifted the emphasis from the claimant's rights to proper treatment in the interests of rehabilitation, to management of treatment and cost containment," says the submission, put together by a committee of accident compensation law experts.
Submissions are being heard before QC David Goddard in Wellington this week. The lawyers are not planning to speak at the hearings, but released their submission to the Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10439909
System costly and inefficient: report
5:00AM Wednesday May 16, 2007
WASHINGTON - Americans get the poorest health care and yet pay the most compared to five other rich countries, says a report released yesterday.
Germany, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all provide better care for less money, the Commonwealth Fund report found.
"The US health care system ranks last compared with five other nations on measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and outcomes," the non-profit group which studies health care issues said in a statement.
Canada rates second worst out of the five overall. Germany scored highest, followed by Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
"The United States is not getting value for the money that is spent on health care," Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis said.
The group has consistently found that the United States, the only one of the six nations that does not provide universal health care, scores more poorly than the others on many measures of health care.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10439889
World in brief: What happened today
PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal - Portuguese police have identified a suspect in their investigation of the kidnapping of a four-year-old British girl but do not have enough evidence for an arrest, police said today.
Police were following a strong lead to find Madeleine McCann, who disappeared 12 days ago from her bedroom in a resort hotel in the Algarve, they said.
"The judicial police continue to follow the strongest lead and we hope that in the short term there will be more developments," chief inspector Olegario Sousa told a news conference.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439997
Three suspects released in 7/7 bomb case
2:15PM Wednesday May 16, 2007
LONDON - Three people arrested last week in connection with the suicide bombings in 2005 on London's transport system, including the widow of ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, have been released without charge, police said.
A fourth man, aged 34, who was also arrested last Wednesday remained at a London police station after officers were granted a warrant to detain him until May 21.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440051
Hicks a 'very lucky man' - prosecutor
1:25PM Wednesday May 16, 2007
The American military prosecutor who prepared the case against David Hicks says the self-confessed supporter of terrorism got off lightly.
Hicks is expected to be brought back to Australia within the next week to serve out the balance of his nine-month sentence at Adelaide's Yatala prison.
Colonel Mo Davis says Hicks is lucky to be flying home from Guantanamo Bay and lucky to be facing only a nine-month sentence.
"He got off lightly, I think if you look at comparable sentences for similarly situated individuals prosecuted in the US, he's a very lucky man," he said.
- RADIO AUSTRALIA
US evangelist who blamed 9/11 on liberals and gays dies (video)
WASHINGTON - US evangelist Jerry Falwell, a leader of the religious right who battled in the political arena against abortion and homosexuality, died today after collapsing in his Virginia office.
Falwell, 73, was found unconscious in his office and was taken to a nearby hospital. He had a history of congestive heart problems.
"Dr. Falwell was found unconscious without a heartbeat at his office today at Liberty University around 11:30 a.m. by his associates," Dr. Carl Moore, his personal physician, told a news conference.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439996
Trouble in wake of East Timor election
8:15AM Wednesday May 16, 2007
Gangs torched houses and fought in East Timor, wounding about 14 people, as violence broke out following last week's presidential elections, police said yesterday.
The country's ruling party, whose candidate lost last week's polls, said its members were attacked by those of the winner, Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta. Police declined to say who the victims were.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439945
Samoa head of state's funeral on live TV in NZ
2:00PM Wednesday May 16, 2007
The funeral of Samoa's head of state Malietoa Tanumafili II will be shown live by Maori TV.
The state funeral is at 9am on Saturday and the broadcast will be screened live on a big screen at Auckland's Aotea Square.
A memorial service is also being held at Malaeola Community Centre off Tidal Road, Manukau City, Auckland, on Friday at 7pm.
- NZHERALD STAFF
France's Chirac bids farewell in TV address
10:40AM Wednesday May 16, 2007By Jon Boyle
Jacques Chirac. Photo / Reuters
PARIS - Jacques Chirac urged France in a final televised address as president today to remain united and true to values that made it a force in Europe and an advocate for world peace.
Chirac said he was proud of his record after 12 years in office and said he planned to devote himself to campaigning for sustainable development and dialogue between cultures.
Fellow conservative Nicolas Sarkozy succeeds him on Wednesday and Chirac, 74, wished him well.
"United, we have all the assets, all the force, all the talent to impose ourselves in this new world that is developing before our eyes," said Chirac, who stood behind a lectern.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440017
Hotel bomb kills 24
Wednesday May 16, 2007
A bomb planted in a hotel reception area killed at least 24 people and wounded 30 in the Pakistani city of Peshawar yesterday, a provincial official said.
Twenty-seven dead in Pakistani clashes
A man wounded in the violence waits for an ambulance. Photo / Reuters
7:25AM Sunday May 13, 2007By Aamir Ashraf
KARACHI - Twenty-seven people were killed and 100 wounded in Karachi on Saturday in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists as Pakistan's suspended top judge tried to hold a rally with his supporters.
The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9 has outraged the judiciary and the opposition and has blown up into the most serious challenge to President Pervez Musharraf's authority since he seized power in 1999.
In the worst political clashes in Pakistan for years, heavy gunfire erupted in several parts of Karachi as gunmen battled and smoke billowed from more than 100 burning vehicles.
Musharraf, speaking to a rally of tens of thousands in Islamabad, condemned the violence but ruled out declaring a state of emergency saying the people were with him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10439448
One million Turks protest ahead of early elections
11:48AM Monday May 14, 2007By Paul de Bendern
People wave flags from the roof of their house as the waterfront is covered by thousands of Turks during an anti-government rally in Izmir. Photo / Reuters
IZMIR, Turkey - At least a million people took to the streets in Turkey's third city today for the fourth major rally in a month against the Islamist-rooted government ahead of elections in July.
Organisers, who accuse the government of seeking to undermine separation of religion and state in the overwhelmingly Muslim country, hoped the protest would unite the fragmented opposition ahead of the parliamentary polls.
People flocked to Izmir from across Turkey, undeterred by a bombing in the port city that killed one man and injured 14 on Saturday. It was not clear who was behind the market attack.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10439618
Shiite-Sunni team turn airwaves blue
12:00AM Tuesday May 15, 2007
Journalists at Iraq's Independent Radio and Television Network risk being killed by militants. Photo / Reuters
Iraq war
Bush appoints new Iraq war 'czar '
Tales from the frontline
Rafed Mahmood, a Shiite driven from his home by al Qaeda, and his Sunni friend have started a radio and television network in Iraq.
They say they are aware of the risks in a country where about 65 media workers were killed in 2006 and those working with US forces are especially vulnerable.
"Some of us may die. That may be the cost of freedom," Mahmood, 29, said in a speech at the opening ceremony in late March.
Mahmood and his friend Samir Kamis, a 29-year-old Sunni journalist, say they want to do something about the sectarian violence that threatens to pitch Iraq into civil war.
"Bullets and laws alone cannot stop the violence," Mahmood said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10439651
US states ask MySpace for details on sex offenders
11:00AM Tuesday May 15, 2007
BOSTON - Eight US attorneys general today demanded that MySpace hand over to authorities the names and addresses of thousands of convicted sex offenders they say are using the social networking website to contact children.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal along with his counterparts in seven other states made the demand in a letter to the unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
He said that he learned of the large number of sex offenders on the site as a result of a company investigation, but did not make clear his source.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439788
Life still left in Taleban after leader killed
5:00AM Tuesday May 15, 2007By Kim Sengupta
Mullah Dadullah's death was of symbolic significance. Photo / Reuters
Mullah Dadullah's well-deserved reputation as the most feared of the Taleban commanders was earned on the back of savage and symbolic acts of violence but his death also had symbolic significance.
By repeatedly declaring that he was the overall military chief of Taleban forces in Afghanistan, the group's main link to al Qaeda and the architect of the suicide bombing campaign, Dadullah made himself an obvious and high-priority target for Nato and President Hamid Karzai's Government.
But although the killing of Dadullah was of positive propaganda value at a time when not much had been going right for Karzai and his Western backers, it is unlikely to lead to any immediate change to the Afghan insurgency.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10439706
Dozens of Taleban killed in Afghan south – official
KABUL - Western and Afghan troops have driven the Taleban from a southern area after a week-long battle in which more than 70 militants were killed, an Afghan security official said.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months after the traditional winter lull and an upsurge of fighting last year, the bloodiest since the Taleban's removal in 2001.
In the latest incident on Saturday local time, a roadside bomb killed at least eight Afghan police outside the southern city of Kandahar, provincial police chief, Esmatullah Alizai said.
There were no casualties among Afghan and Western troops in the fighting in Nahri Saraj of neighbouring Helmand province, scene of a series of operations by foreign-led forces in recent weeks, the security official said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=359&objectid=10439466
Bin Laden alive, keeping low profile - Afghan rebel
2:30PM Monday May 14, 2007
DUBAI - An anti-US Afghan rebel leader said he had information that Osama bin Laden is alive but keeping a low profile by not issuing statements, according to a video aired today.
The al Qaeda leader's long silence has fuelled speculation that the world's most-wanted fugitive may have died.
"Based on information I have, I believe Osama is alive," said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose forces operate in southeastern Afghanistan near Pakistan, in the undated video broadcast on Al Arabiya television. His remarks were dubbed into Arabic.
"I also believe that it is good that he ... does not appear in the media, and that it is wise that no statements or tapes are issued even after a long while," said Hekmatyar, without elaborating.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10439628
Al Qaeda says it has missing US soldiers
BAGHDAD - Thousands of American troops searched today for three US soldiers missing in Iraq after an ambush in which al Qaeda said it seized "crusader" forces, while a suicide bomber killed 50 people in the Kurdish north.
The self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, a group led by al Qaeda, said in an internet posting it was holding soldiers who survived an attack south of Baghdad in which the US military said four US troops and an Iraqi army translator were killed.
That attack and the suicide truck bombing came as President George W. Bush deploys 30,000 more US troops due in Iraq in June in what is seen as a final push to halt a slide into all-out civil war between majority Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=359&objectid=10439588
Take that, suckers: science gets one up on mosquitoes
Scientists in Italy say they have identified a potential weapon against malaria that lives inside the mosquitoes that spread it - their internal bacteria.
Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite, kills at least a million people annually. Most of the victims are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
With attempts to eradicate mosquitoes or create a vaccine so far unsuccessful, the Italian scientists set out to find any bacteria that lived symbiotically inside the pests.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439884
Editorial: Blair legacy - prosperity and honour
Ten years is a long time to lead any democratic country. Tony Blair, who has announced the date he will hand over to a successor, July 2, has led Britain almost as long as Baroness Thatcher did and longer than any Labour Prime Minister before him. Like Helen Clark in this country, also the first of her party to win three successive elections, Mr Blair will be counted a success deservedly for what he did not do more than what he did.
He did not reverse the economic reforms he inherited. He did nothing that put the country's new prosperity at risk and in fact enhanced it by the mere fact he was a Labour Prime Minister, credibly using comforting social sentiments to maintain the country's course. He was not primarily an economic leader; it seemed to be part of a pact with his old rival and now near-certain successor, Gordon Brown, that economic policy would be the preserve of the Chancellor.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10439491
Cosmic crash proves existence of dark matter - Nasa
9:35AM Wednesday May 16, 2007By Will Dunham
A photo from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a ghostly ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster. Photo / Reuters
WASHINGTON - A hazy ring of dark matter spawned by a colossal cosmic crash eons ago offers the best evidence to date that vast amounts of this mysterious stuff reside in the universe, scientists said today.
Images taken by Nasa's orbiting Hubble Space Telescope allowed astronomers to detect this ring of dark matter created by the collision of two galaxy clusters 5 billion light-years from Earth.
"This is the strongest evidence yet for the existence of dark matter," astronomer Myungkook James Jee of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore told reporters.
Astronomers believe dark matter -- as opposed to ordinary matter making up the stars, planets and the like -- comprises about 85 per cent of the universe's material, but evidence of it has been difficult to come by.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440009
continued...
'There is a suspect'
Portuguese police have identified a suspect in their investigation of the kidnapping of a four-year-old British girl, police said on Tuesday.
"There is a suspect," in the case, said a spokeswoman for the judicial police, without giving any further details.
A British man was on Monday released after being questioned by Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of four-year-old Madeleine McCann as forensic officers search his family's villa, media reports say.
The police spokeswoman did not say on Tuesday whether it was the same man who was a suspect.
Robert Murat, who is in his 30s, was taken to a local police station for an interview, London's Daily Telegraph reported.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/there-is-a-suspect/2007/05/15/1178995105660.html
Hicks's transfer drawing closer
May 15, 2007 - 7:34AM
David Hicks's Australian lawyer, David McLeod, has arrived in Miami ahead of his client's transfer to Australia from his cell at Guantanamo Bay.
Adelaide-born Hicks pleaded guilty to material support for terrorism after spending more than five years at the Cuban prison for enemy combatants of the US war on terrorism.
He will soon be transfered to South Australia to serve a nine-month prison term and will be released at the end of the year.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hickss-transfer-drawing-closer/2007/05/15/1178995110615.html
Hicks won't sell story: Mori
David Hicks has vowed not to sell his story, write a book or profit in any other way after he is released from prison at the end of the year.
Hicks is due home next week from Guantanamo Bay where he has been held prisoner for more than five years.
After being convicted recently for providing material support for terrorism, he will return to Adelaide and serve out his sentence in Yatala Prison.
He is due for release on December 30 and has been banned from talking to the media until March 30.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/hicks-wont-sell-story-mori/2007/05/15/1178995120962.html
Gone so long: Tasmanians home among the gumleaves
IT MAY be the skeleton of the 19th century Tasmanian Aborigine Mitaluraparitja, or of his kinsman Pintawtawa. A closer check of the scant records could tell.
Whoever it was, the bones came home to Tasmania yesterday; home from London in two boxes with the remains of 17 other Aborigines, more than a century after they were robbed from their resting place.
The two men were among dozens to die and disappear in unmarked graves at Wybalenna, the place on Flinders Island that the former premier Jim Bacon labelled a concentration camp, a place of genocide.
The body was dug up by George Augustus Robinson, the official colonial protector of Aborigines, who ran the Wybalenna camp in the 1830s.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/gone-so-long-tasmanians-home-among-the-gumleaves/2007/05/14/1178995079815.html
Deputies stand by their sheriff
Sure, the resignation of Tony Blair as Prime Minister of Britain means that George Bush and his Administration have lost their closest friend in Europe. However, his predicted replacement does not seem likely to junk the Labour Government's foreign policy.
Last Friday Gordon Brown, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, said that while he accepted mistakes had been made in Iraq, nevertheless Britain "will keep obligations to the Iraqi people". He made the telling point that "these are obligations that are part of UN resolutions; they are in support of a democracy".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/deputies-stand-by-their-sheriff/2007/05/14/1178995072496.html
Dam plan holds water if it's about extra revenue
Sydney's April rainfall was 43 per cent above the long-term average. During these rainy days more than three times our daily water consumption was lost from our roofs and streets, allowed to run straight into our rivers and out to sea. A little fell in the dam catchments, some fell on the Central Coast and raised one dam to 95 per cent full.
In Sydney, dam levels are hovering at about 38 per cent, or 32 per cent in reality, if you ignore Sydney Catchment Authority "fudge-figures" in use since April last year whereby it adds 6 percentage points to storage capacity by accessing deep water at Warragamba Dam.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/opinion/dam-plan-holds-water-if-its-about-extra-revenue/2007/05/14/1178995072502.html
Miners and banks drag market lower
The Australian stock market closed lower today as weaker prices for base metals pulled back major mining stocks.The big banks were also lower.ABN Amro Morgans senior client adviser Roger Chandler said the local market was weaker after a mixed performance by United States markets overnight and lower metal prices."The weak stocks were in the banking sector, which have had an enormous run, and the metals prices have put BHP (Billiton), Alumina and Rio (Tinto) down. You take the banks and those three and that accounts for most of the market (pullback),'' Mr Chandler said.He said investors were waiting for some stability to return to metal prices, which fell "savagely'' overnight.At the 4.15pm close, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 53.9 points at 6291.2, while the all ordinaries lost 49.4 points to 6297.3.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/miners-and-banks-drag-market-lower/2007/05/15/1178995118326.html
Murdoch vows independent board in Dow Jones bid
Media baron Rupert Murdoch is offering to create "an independent, autonomous editorial board" for The Wall Street Journal if his News Corporation bid for parent company Dow Jones & Co succeeds, a letter released today showed.
The letter addressed to its controlling Bancroft family and published in the Journal was aimed at overcoming resistance to the $US5-billion ($6 billion) hostile takeover offer.
Murdoch wrote in the letter that News Corp would be "an ideal partner for Dow Jones", and that his group "would be dedicated to building upon the more than 100-year heritage of your great company".
In an effort to overcome concerns about maintaining journalistic integrity, Murdoch said he would "establish an independent, autonomous editorial board exactly along the lines of what was established at The Times of London".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/business/murdoch-vows-independent-board-in-dow-jones-bid/2007/05/15/1178995110998.html
Bancrofts offered seat on News Corp. board
Bloomberg News
Published May 15, 2007
NEW YORK -- Rupert Murdoch wrote to Dow Jones & Co.'s Bancroft family offering them a seat on News Corp.'s board if they accept his company's $5 billion takeover offer. In a 1,200-word letter to the Bancrofts dated May 11, Murdoch also said he would establish an autonomous editorial board for The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones' other publications if they approve the deal. Murdoch is seeking to persuade at least some of the Bancrofts to accept his $60-a-share offer. Family members representing 52 percent of the voting power of Dow Jones rejected Murdoch's offer. "Please let me assure you that, first and foremost, I am a newspaper man," Murdoch wrote in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg News. "I don't apologize for the fact that I have always had strong opinions and strong ideas about newspapers; but I have also always respected the independence and integrity of the news organizations with which I am associated."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0705140537may15,0,5960055.story?coll=chi-business-hed
BBC in shouting match with Scientologists
A BITTER row has erupted between the BBC and the Church of Scientology after an experienced reporter lost his temper on camera and screamed at a senior member of the controversial group for 30 seconds.
The BBC has been forced to defend itself against claims in a Scientology DVD that it orchestrated a demonstration against the group in which a "terrorist death threat" was allegedly made. The group's adherents include the Hollywood actors John Travolta, Tom Cruise and Anne Archer.
John Sweeney, a journalist for Panorama, has also had to apologise for his outburst after he was filmed shouting furiously at Tommy Davis, a Scientologist.
Sandy Smith, the investigative program's editor, has denied that it organised a protest against the group.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/tv--radio/bbc-in-shouting-match-with-scientologists/2007/05/14/1178995077235.html
No Moore mister nice guy
A controversial documentary about Oscar winner Michael Moore, which is creating hot debate in North America, was partly funded by Australian money.
The film, Manufacturing Dissent, explores Moore's life and questions some of his ethical practices during the making of documentaries including Bowling For Columbine and Fahrenheit 911. Although the filmmakers were initially supporters of Moore who simply wanted to explore his remarkable career, the documentary eventually turns nasty, claiming Moore has fudged some facts in his famous docos to drive home his agenda.
Moore, who is considered the most powerful documentary maker in the world, is said to be outraged by the film's emerging profile on the documentary circuit.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/film/michael-moore-documentary-stirs-controversy/2007/05/13/1178994981636.html
Travel warning for Germany
Australian travellers are being warned to exercise caution if travelling to Germany, which may be at an increased risk of a terrorist attack.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade tonight reviewed its travel advice for Germany, alerting travellers that the German government had warned terrorist attacks might be possible.
"German government public statements continue to note the possibility of terrorist attacks in Germany," DFAT said on its website.
"The German Interior Ministry has said the threat has become more serious.
"On 20 April 2007, the United States Embassy issued a warden message advising that US diplomatic missions and installations are increasing security in response to the heightened terrorist threat.''
Travellers to France also have been advised to be careful following the French presidential election which was won by conservative Nicolas Sarkozy.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/travel-warning-for-germany/2007/05/09/1178390369810.html
New-look train rolls out of Melbourne
The new look Overland Train will roll out of Melbourne today for the first time after a $4 million makeover.
The interstate passenger service connecting Melbourne and Adelaide has been refurbished under a joint project between the South Australian and Victorian governments and Great Southern Railway.
Victorian transport minister Lynne Kosky said passengers could now look forward to a more comfortable journey.
"The refurbishment includes new seating with more leg room in two classes of sit up service, fully refurbished carriage interiors plus a new cafe carriage that will provide passengers with a comfortable and thoroughly modern travel experience," she said.
The Overland is Australia's longest running interstate passenger train.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/newlook-train-rolls-out-of-melbourne/2007/05/08/1178390268049.html
Iraq deemed too dangerous for Harry
Britain's Prince Harry will not be sent to serve in Iraq after military commanders decided it would be too dangerous, Britain's Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday.
"I have decided today that Prince Harry will not be deployed to Iraq," General Sir Richard Dannatt told reporters.
Harry, 22, the third in line to the throne and a junior officer in the army, had been due to be deployed to Basra, in southern Iraq, with his Blues and Royals regiment in the coming weeks as part of the latest British troop rotation.
Harry has repeatedly said that he wants to be deployed with his men, but Ministry of Defence officials have expressed concern that he could become a target for Iraqi insurgents, endangering himself and those serving under him.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/iraq-deemed-too-dangerous-for-harry/2007/05/17/1178995248011.html
Climate threat in military's sights
THE Australian Defence Force has identified climate change as a national security threat for the first time, as it predicted the military would become more involved in stabilising failing states than fighting conventional wars.
Outlining its vision for the future of the armed services to 2030, the force has also foreshadowed an era where crises flare more suddenly while its adversaries, including terrorists and insurgents, become more cunning and capable.
Launching the document - Joint Operations for the 21st Century - the Chief of Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, said the military faced security challenges it had not envisaged before, specifically "climate change and the impacts of global demography".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/climate-threat-in-militarys-sights/2007/05/17/1178995242497.html
Israelis traumatised in Sderot
Schools shut down and residents huddled in bomb shelters as another massive barrage of rockets came crashing down on the terrified border town of Sderot,, threatening to provoke a massive Israeli ground offensive in Gaza.
It hit 20 months after Israeli troops withdrew from the coastal strip.
The attack came a day after rockets injured five residents, including a mother and her children. Several homes have been destroyed as was any remnant of a sense of security.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Israelis-traumatised-in-Sderot/2007/05/16/1178995240984.html
Quit Iraq by March, say Democrats
HILLARY CLINTON and Barack Obama have backed legislation to cut off funding for most combat operations in Iraq by March 2008, the first time the top two Democratic presidential candidates have endorsed a firm deadline to end the war.
The announcements, made separately on Tuesday, underscore the powerful influence of the anti-war movement on the Democratic primaries.
John Edwards, the former vice-presidential candidate who trails senators Clinton and Obama in national polls - but leads in the crucial first caucusing state of Iowa - has called for an immediate withdrawal of US forces.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/quit-iraq-by-march-say-democrats/2007/05/16/1178995237328.html
NASA satellite spots evidence of Antarctic warming event
NEW YORK: Satellite analysis has shown that in 2005 masses of unusually warm air pushed to within 500 kilometres of the South Pole and remained long enough to melt surface snow across 400,000 square kilometres.
The week-long warm spell was detected by scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA, and the University of Colorado, Boulder. Air with a temperature of up to 5 degrees persisted across three broad swathes of West Antarctica long enough to leave a distinctive signature of melting - a layer of ice in the snow.
The evidence of melting was detected by a NASA satellite, the QuickScat, that uses radar to distinguish between snow and ice.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/environment/nasa-satellite-spots-evidence-of-antarctic-warming-event/2007/05/16/1178995237318.html
More Nazi persecutions come to light but secrets remain
BERLIN: Electronic copies of documents from a closely guarded Nazi archive will soon be available for the first time since the end of World War II, following an agreement by the 11 countries that govern the archive.
The decision gives historians access to a vast repository of information - most mundane, some revelatory - about the 17.5 million people who passed through concentration camps or were otherwise victimised during and immediately after Nazi rule.
The archive has long allowed access only to the families of Holocaust victims. Scholars complained they were being denied access to a vital historical record.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/more-nazi-persecutions-come-to-light-but-secrets-remain/2007/05/16/1178995237338.html
Bindi crowned queen of Aussie tourism
Pint-sized entertainer and wildlife warrior Bindi Irwin has been voted the favourite face of Australian tourism.
A survey, conducted over the past five weeks by online travel directory TotalTravel.com, asked 1,609 participants who they thought would make the best ambassador for the industry.
Eight-year-old Bindi, daughter of the late Steve Irwin, was the clear winner, with 38 per cent voting her the queen of Australian tourism.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/news/bindi-crowned-queen-of-aussie-tourism/2007/05/16/1178995204485.html
Australia ecotourism leader
Australia and Costa Rica are good examples for the multibillion-dollar world ecotourism business, which is growing at about 30 per cent a year and in need of tight quality controls, experts said.
Ecotourist destinations, ranging from environmentally friendly Thai beach resorts to jungle lodges in Kenya, now attract about 15 per cent of the global tourist market, leaders of The International Ecotourism Society (TIES) said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/australia-is-ecotourism-leader/2007/05/15/1178995121904.html
Tourism blossoms in Kenya
Lunchtime at an upmarket Kenyan safari lodge in what should be the slow off-season, and the dining room is packed with tourists from all over the world.
Chattering excitedly in many languages as they watch antelope, buffalo and a giraffe grazing just a short distance away across a stone terrace, they are driving an unprecedented boom in a key sector of east Africa's biggest economy.
Kenya made $800 million from tourism in 2006, making the industry its best hard currency earner ahead of horticulture and tea. This year, the tourist board expects revenues to top $1 billion for the first time.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/tourism-blossoms-in-kenya/2007/05/14/1178995040878.html
Asia Pacific tourism expected to rise
Tourism should bring the Asia Pacific region $110 billion in revenues over the next three years, with much of that coming from travellers in the region, according a report released Thursday.
China is expected to lead the way, gaining $36 billion in tourist dollars, according to the report from the Pacific Asia Travel Association or PATA.
American and Canadian tourists numbers to China are projected to rise by 13 per cent, while tourists from India going to China are expected to jump 15 percent.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/asia-pacific-tourism-expected-to-rise/2007/05/11/1178390516558.html
Barrier reef's tourism award 'a major coup'
The Great Barrier Reef has taken out one of world tourism's most coveted awards.
The reef - the world's largest living organism - was voted the best destination by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) as part of its Tourism for Tomorrow awards, at a ceremony in Lisbon, Portugal, overnight.
Describing the win as a "major coup", Queensland Tourism Industry Council (QTIC) chief executive officer Daniel Gschwind said the award was considered the foremost accolade for sustainable tourism.
He said the reef topped more than 130 entries from 40 countries across seven continents.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/barrier-reefs-tourism-award-a-major-coup/2007/05/12/1178899158216.html
Tourism strategy gets thumbs up
An increase in overseas arrival figures are proof that the national tourism strategy is delivering benefits to the industry, experts say.
Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) figures released yesterday show 3.1 million international tourists visited Australia in the past six months, an increase of 4.7 per cent.
In March 2007 alone, international tourist numbers totalled 524,200, an increase of 10.1 per cent on the same time last year.
Tourists also spent an extra $1.8 billion in Australia in 2006.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/tourism-strategy-gets-thumbs-up/2007/05/10/1178390434100.html
Rare koala twins new ambassadors
They may be Australia's cutest icons, but these twins are 100 per cent made in China. Koala joeys Little Michelle and Little Amanda have captured international attention after finally emerging from their mother's pouch to greet their adoring fans this week at China's Xiangjiang Safari Park in Guangzhou.
Experts say the marsupials are the first twins to be born in captivity since the early 1960s, when twin koalas were born at Sydney's Taronga Zoo.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/travel/rare-koala-twins-born-in-captivity/2007/05/15/1178995116690.html
The New York Times
QUOTATION OF THE DAY on January 19, 2004"In a perfect world, caucuses would be a very good way of figuring out which of the candidates has been persuasive. But what started out as a person-to-person, humanized event has gotten to be very organized and professionalized."
GARY HART
Scientists Back Off Theory of a Colder Europe in a Warming World
OSLO — Mainstream climatologists who have feared that global warming could have the paradoxical effect of cooling northwestern Europe or even plunging it into a small ice age have stopped worrying about that particular disaster, although it retains a vivid hold on the public imagination.
The idea, which held climate theorists in its icy grip for years, was that the North Atlantic Current, an extension of the Gulf Stream that cuts northeast across the Atlantic Ocean to bathe the high latitudes of Europe with warmish equatorial water, could shut down in a greenhouse world.
Without that warm-water current, Americans on the Eastern Seaboard would most likely feel a chill, but the suffering would be greater in Europe, where major cities lie far to the north. Britain, northern France, the Low Countries, Denmark and Norway could in theory take on Arctic aspects that only a Greenlander could love, even as the rest of the world sweltered.
All that has now been removed from the forecast. Not only is northern Europe warming, but every major climate model produced by scientists worldwide in recent years has also shown that the warming will almost certainly continue.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/science/earth/15cold.html?ex=1179892800&en=5ec657d7dca8373b&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Strong Winds May Spread New Jersey Wildfire
A wildfire sparked by a flare that an F-16 jet dropped over southern New Jersey on Tuesday afternoon continued to burn through thousands of acres of brush and pine forest today, fueled by strong gusts of wind that fire officials worried might pick up throughout the day.
The fire ignited more than 20 square miles of brush along the border between Ocean and Burlington Counties, forcing authorities to shut down parts of major highways and evacuate about 2,500 homes. There were no reports of injuries, but several mobile homes were damaged by fire, and heavy smoke permeated the air. Firefighters erected containment lines around the fire and said that as of this afternoon about 30 percent of the blaze had been contained. Forecasts called for rain and thunderstorms this afternoon, but there was also concern that strong winds — reaching as high as 20 miles per hour — might cause the flames to spread.
“We certainly hope for rain but we believe at a minimum that we’re going to get additional winds,” Lisa Jackson, the commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, said at a news conference this afternoon. “The longer the winds are relatively mild, the longer those burns will set in.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/nyregion/16cnd-fire.html?hp
President Intervened in Dispute Over Eavesdropping
WASHINGTON, May 15 — President Bush intervened in March 2004 to avert a crisis over the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping program after Attorney General John Ashcroft, Director Robert S. Mueller III of the F.B.I. and other senior Justice Department aides all threatened to resign, a former deputy attorney general testified Tuesday.
Mr. Bush quelled the revolt over the program’s legality by allowing it to continue without Justice Department approval, also directing department officials to take the necessary steps to bring it into compliance with the law, according to Congressional testimony by the former deputy attorney general, James B. Comey.
Although a conflict over the program had been disclosed in The New York Times, Mr. Comey provided a fuller account of the 48-hour drama, including, for the first time, Mr. Bush’s role, the threatened resignations and a race as Mr. Comey hurried to Mr. Ashcroft’s hospital sickbed to intercept White House officials, who were pushing for approval of the N.S.A. program.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/washington/16nsa.html?hp
Gonzales Pressed Ailing Ashcroft on Spy Plan, Aide Says
WASHINGTON, May 15 — On the night of March 10, 2004, a high-ranking Justice Department official rushed to a Washington hospital to prevent two White House aides from taking advantage of the critically ill Attorney General, John Ashcroft, the official testified today.
One of those aides was Alberto R. Gonzales, who was then White House counsel and eventually succeeded Mr. Ashcroft as Attorney General.
“I was very upset,” said James B. Comey, who was deputy Attorney General at the time, in his testimony today before the Senate Judiciary Committee. “I was angry. I thought I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/15/washington/15cnd-attorneys.html?ei=5070&en=c81d70b7a98294fe&ex=1179892800&adxnnl=1&emc=eta1&adxnnlx=1179342272-ZokzWjExbUz6RBsBIy7TsA
Bush Opens Door to Wolfowitz’s Resigning
WASHINGTON, May 15 — The Bush administration, shifting strategy in the face of mounting opposition to Paul D. Wolfowitz, opened the door Tuesday to his resigning voluntarily as World Bank president if the bank board dropped its drive to declare him unfit to remain in office.
But the administration’s new approach — outlined in a telephone conference call between the Treasury Department in Washington and economic ministries in Japan, Canada and Europe — appeared to gain few immediate supporters, various officials said.
Indeed, bank officials said the board seemed determined on Tuesday evening to endorse the findings of a special committee that Mr. Wolfowitz broke bank rules, ethics and governance standards in arranging for, and concealing, a pay and promotion package for his companion, Shaha Ali Riza, in 2005.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/washington/16wolfowitz.html
Palestinian Violence in Gaza Kills at Least 16
JERUSALEM, May 16 — The violence among Palestinians in Gaza accelerated today, with at least 16 dead in fighting between forces loyal to the Fatah faction and those of Hamas, both of which sit together in a unity government that appears to be fracturing.
In a fourth day of factional gunfights that have killed more than 40 people, Hamas forces continued to hit symbols of Fatah power in Gaza City before declaring a unilateral cease-fire tonight.
At dawn today, about 200 armed men of the Hamas military wing mortared and then occupied the house of a senior Fatah commander, Gen. Rashid Abu Shbak, who controls three main security services. General Shbak and his family were not at home — most senior factional leaders are not living at home these days in Gaza — but six of his bodyguards were shot dead and part of the lavish house was set on fire.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/middleeast/16cnd-mideast.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
Poppy Fields Are Now a Front Line in Afghan War
KABUL, Afghanistan — In a walled compound outside Kabul, two members of Colombia’s counternarcotics police force are trying to teach raw Afghan recruits how to wage close-quarters combat.
Using wooden mock AK-47 assault rifles, Lt. John Castañeda and Cpl. John Orejuela demonstrate commando tactics to about 20 new members of what is intended to be an elite Afghan drug strike force. The recruits — who American officials say lack even basic law enforcement skills — watch wide-eyed.
“This is kindergarten,” said Vincent Balbo, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration chief in Kabul, whose office is overseeing the training. “It’s Narcotics 101.” Another D.E.A. agent added: “We are at a stage now of telling these recruits, ‘This is a handgun, this is a bullet.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/world/asia/16drugs.html?hp
In Jihadist Haven, a Goal: To Kill and Die in Iraq
ZARQA, Jordan — Abu Ibrahim considers his dead friends the lucky ones.
Four died in Iraq in 2005. Three more died this year, one with an explosives vest and another at the wheel of a bomb-laden truck, according to relatives and community leaders.
Abu Ibrahim, a lanky 24-year-old, was on the same mission when he left this bleak city north of Amman for Iraq last October. But he made it only as far as the border before he was arrested, and is now back home in a world he thought he had left for good — biding his time, he said, for another chance to hurl himself into martyrdom.
“I am happy for them but I cry for myself because I couldn’t do it yet,” said Abu Ibrahim, who uses this name as a nom de guerre. “I want to spread the roots of God on this earth and free the land of occupiers. I don’t love anything in this world. What I care about is fighting.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/04/world/middleeast/04bombers.html?ex=1179460800&en=47818f3fd21d9dec&ei=5070
THE STRUGGLE FOR IRAQ: THE INSURGENCY; BLAST IN BAGHDAD KILLS AT LEAST 20 OUTSIDE U.S. POST
By EDWARD WONG; NEELA BANERJEE AND JOHN H. CUSHMAN JR. CONTRIBUTED REPORTING FOR THIS ARTICLE.
Published: January 19, 2004
A powerful truck bomb exploded at the main gate of the American occupation headquarters here on Sunday morning, killing at least 20 people and wounding at least 60 others, military officials said.
It was one of the worst suicide bombings in Iraq since a truck bomber struck the Baghdad headquarters of the United Nations in August, killing 23 people. The United Nations will review the issue of Iraq on Monday, when top American and Iraqi officials will visit officials in New York for an important meeting.
At least 18 of the dead were Iraqi civilians, and it was difficult initially to identify the nationalities of the other two, military officials said. Many of the wounded were Iraqis waiting to enter the compound to go to work. No Americans were killed, though several soldiers received minor wounds.
Though guerrilla fighters have occasionally lobbed mortar rounds into the heavily fortified American headquarters, a wide zone that contains the former Republican Palace and other buildings of Saddam Hussein's deposed government, this was the first car bomb attack in the area.
The attackers appeared to be sending a pointed message by striking at the heart of the American authority in Baghdad one day before senior American and Iraqi officials were to meet at the United Nations about resistance from a powerful Shiite cleric to plans for the scheduled transfer to sovereignty on June 30.
Mainly because of security concerns, the United Nations has not returned to Iraq since it suffered the devastating suicide bombing in August, and it is unclear how the attack will affect the New York talks.
The bomber drove a white Toyota pickup truck loaded with 1,000 pounds of Soviet-made plastic explosives into the line for vehicle inspections, then detonated it at about 8 a.m., just 50 feet from the gate, military officials said.
The blast destroyed six or seven nearby vehicles and set four ablaze. It shook buildings more than a mile away, and the wind carried the acrid smell of smoke across the Tigris River into downtown Baghdad.
Dozens of American soldiers surrounded the wreckage as firefighters struggled to put out the flames. At 8:40 a.m., at least three cars still lay smoldering, and a mangled white bus sat in the middle of the avenue.
Bodies lay on the ground surrounded by debris as ambulances raced in. Most of the dead were Iraqis who had been sitting in cars at the busy intersection outside the gate, said Col. Ralph Baker, commander of the Second Brigade of the First Armored Division. Concrete blast walls helped protect Iraqis standing at the checkpoint, who suffered wounds rather than death in many cases. He added that the fact that the explosion was outside the perimeter was considered a security success.
American officials have used the walled-off area, called the green zone, since the fall of Baghdad in April. Because the compound is so large and the gate is at its very northern perimeter, at the west end of a bridge spanning the Tigris, the attack was obviously aimed at Iraqis working for the Coalition Provisional Authority and its allies rather than at any distinct military target.
The attack ''was clearly timed to claim the maximum number of innocent victims,'' L. Paul Bremer III, the top American administrator here, said from the United States in a written statement. ''Once again, it is innocent Iraqis who have been murdered by these terrorists in a senseless act of violence.''
People with dazed expressions and blood on their faces and clothing staggered east across the Jumhuriya Bridge. Weesam Kadhum, 22, a civil engineer working in a building just 300 feet outside the main entrance, said he had seen shrapnel flying.
''Suddenly there was this bright light, and small pieces rained down from the sky,'' he said. ''I ran to my house across the street. I didn't want to stop running. I've only now realized that I don't have any blood or injuries on me.''
His 4-year-old son, Wadah, was wounded slightly by flying glass as the blast shattered the windows of Mr. Kadhum's two-story home and those of other nearby buildings.
In Al Karama hospital, Ahmed Ali, lying half-naked in a bed with a shrapnel wound to his torso, said he had been among 200 people standing at the gate to be let into the compound. ''I felt as if a storm had hit,'' said Mr. Ali, 23, who does maintenance for water pumps in the compound. ''There was a huge blast and smoke and fire everywhere. Then the Americans began shooting.''
Colonel Baker disputed his account, though, saying American soldiers did not open fire.
In the meeting on Monday in New York, American and Iraqi officials are expected to try to persuade the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, to send a delegation here to lend legitimacy to caucus-style elections for a transitional assembly. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the most influential Shiite cleric in Iraq, renewed a call for direct elections on Jan. 11, hobbling the plans.
Many United Nations officials have complained, with regard to the coming meeting, that they were deliberately kept at a distance during the planning stage and are now being asked to validate a process from which they were excluded.
The United Nations withdrew from Iraq after the bombing in August, whose victims included Mr. Annan's senior envoy here, Sergio Vieira de Mello.
The bombing on Sunday was the deadliest single attack in Baghdad since the attack on the United Nations, which has said it is reluctant to return until security improves.
In Tikrit, a homemade bomb being transported in a white Mercedes-Benz late on Saturday night accidentally exploded and killed two men, one of them a relative of Mr. Hussein, The Associated Press reported, quoting an American commander. A third man was seriously wounded. The men were apparently rushing to attack an American patrol when the bomb went off.
Right after the explosion in Baghdad, soldiers parked a tank in the middle of the Jumhuriya Bridge to seal off one main road leading to the American headquarters.
Jasim Muhammad, a 32-year-old taxi driver with dried blood on his face, gazed vacantly at his shattered red Volkswagen Passat, which sat on the west end of the bridge several hundred feet from the blast site.
Mr. Kadhum, the civil engineer, stared at his home, voicing a sentiment that has become all too familiar among Iraqis. ''Of course we're scared living here,'' he said, ''but where can we go?''
The Battle for Baghdad
Baghdad bureau chief John F. Burns discusses the financing behind the Iraqi insurgency.
http://nytimes.feedroom.com:99/?fr_story=a0e968172769a6b2388f258decdeb0272d201561
At a Film Festival, France Is Again Center of the World
CANNES, France, May 15 — Standing in the lobby of the Hôtel Splendid, just a few blocks from the center of the Cannes Film Festival, Pierre Rissient, a kind of cinematic ambassador without portfolio and something of a local institution, paused to critique the festival’s official souvenir bag.
Every year, the festival gives moviegoers a “gimme” bag to facilitate the schlepping of its sundry guides, catalogs and promotional materials. This year’s version is colorfully printed with dozens of names of past winners of the Palme d’Or, including luminaries of world cinema like Roman Polanski, Akira Kurosawa and Michelangelo Antonioni. But Cannes is traditionally a place of controversy as well as adulation. Mr. Antonioni was booed when he presented “L’Avventura” in 1960, and a gaudy piece of swag can provoke argumentative passion as surely as a jury’s vote or an auteur’s vision. “Roland Joffe should not be here!” Mr. Rissient said, with indignation. Welcome to Cannes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/movies/16cann.html
Girth and Nudity, a Pictorial Mission
BEFORE we begin, let’s get one thing out of the way: Yes, Leonard Nimoy is more than happy to do it — the Vulcan salute, the gesture that launched a thousand spaceships. He does so easily, effortlessly: palm outward, fingers extended, the index and middle finger smashed together, the ring finger and pinky touching, the thumb sticking out on its own.
“People ask me all the time,” Mr. Nimoy said, carrying saucers of coffee and tea into his art-filled living room off Central Park West. He placed them next to galleys of his forthcoming photography book, which sat near a copy of “Carnal Knowing: Female Nakedness and Religious Meaning in the Christian West,” by Margaret R. Miles, and a folder of news clippings on obesity.
“You see what I have here, about the health guidelines for models?” he asked, pointing a long, tapered finger toward the file.
The basso profundo voice was unmistakable, his words occasionally clipped with his native Boston accent. “They now have to have at least a certain weight to qualify,” Mr. Nimoy added. He looked pleased. This is a subject that speaks to him.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/fashion/13nimoy.html?ex=1179892800&en=beda4a60a0530309&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Wiccans Keep the Faith With a Religion Under Wraps
DUMFRIES, Va. — Above the woman’s fireplace hangs her wedding picture, taken in a Lutheran church years ago. Below it, on the mantelpiece, is a small Wiccan altar: two candles, a tiny cauldron, four stones to represent the elements of nature and a small amethyst representing her spirit.
The wedding portrait is always there. But whenever someone comes to visit, the woman sweeps the altar away. Raised Southern Baptist in Virginia and now a stay-at-home mother of two in this Washington suburb, she has told almost no one — not her relatives, her friends or the other mothers in her children’s playgroups — that she is Wiccan.
Among the most popular religions to have flowered since the 1960s, Wicca — a form of paganism — still faces a struggle for acceptance, experts on the religion and Wiccans themselves said. In April, Wiccans won an important victory when the Department of Veterans Affairs settled a lawsuit and agreed to add the Wiccan pentacle to a list of approved religious symbols that it will engrave on veterans’ headstones.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/us/16wiccan.html?ex=1179979200&en=bc8bec94f68a2aef&ei=5070&emc=eta1
Bausch & Lomb Accepts $4.5 Billion Takeover Bid
Bausch & Lomb, a troubled leader in the eye care industry, said today that it had accepted a $4.5 billion takeover offer from investment groups controlled by Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm known for backing a wide range of health care companies.
The offer was for $65 a share in cash. But the structure of the deal, which included a relatively modest $40 million breakup fee if Bausch can find a more attractive offer in the next 50 days, suggested that Bausch believed competing bidders could emerge. So did the early reaction on Wall Street — the shares opened at $67.71, up more than 10 percent from their closing price Tuesday of $61.50.
But analysts warned that the price also reflected the plight of the large number of short-sellers who had gambled in recent weeks that Bausch shares would fall. The buyout offer forced them to race to buy shares to cover their positions to limit their losses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/business/17bauschweb.html
Tyco to Pay $3 Billion to Settle Investor Lawsuits
By FLOYD NORRIS
Published: May 16, 2007
Tyco International, whose two top executives were imprisoned for fraud, has agreed to pay almost $3 billion to settle class-action lawsuits brought by investors, the company announced yesterday.
The settlement, described as the largest payment ever by a company in such litigation, seeks to help put to rest one of the nation’s most notorious cases of fraud. Tyco investors may be in a position to recover even more money because they would also share in any proceeds from litigation still outstanding against L. Dennis Kozlowski, the former Tyco chief executive, and two other former executives, and against the company’s former auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The settlement came as the company, a wide-ranging conglomerate, is seeking to split into three parts and is involved in separate litigation with bondholders who contend that they are not being offered sufficient compensation for the change in corporate structure.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/business/16tyco.html
China Urges U.S. Not to Punish All Food Exporters
SHANGHAI, May 16 — China has urged the United States not to take punitive action against this country’s exporters of agricultural goods even though Chinese officials have determined that two Chinese companies intentionally contaminated American pet food ingredients with an industrial chemical.
The government said this week it had shut down the two companies and detained several company officials for their role in setting off one of the largest pet food recalls in United States history.
The announcement, which was released late Monday on the Web site of the country’s quality inspection watchdog, appeared just days after investigators from the federal Food and Drug Administration ended a two-week-long visit to China seeking to determine how an industrial chemical called melamine got mixed into pet food ingredients.
“We hope the American side will accurately and objectively deal with problems among individual companies and not take stringent measures against other Chinese companies producing the same type of products,” the government statement read.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/17/business/worldbusiness/17food.html
The Unkept Promise on Voting
Congress has done a terrible job of regulating electronic voting: It allowed A.T.M.-style voting machines to proliferate without requiring them to produce a paper trail that can be audited to ensure that the results are accurate. That has meant wasted time and money for the states, confusion for voters, and questionable election results. Fortunately, the nation’s delinquent lawmakers have a chance to set things right — through a bill introduced by Representative Rush Holt, Democrat of New Jersey, that would finally impose a paper trail requirement. There are some details that need fine-tuning, but Congress should move quickly to pass it.
After the 2000 election debacle, Congress gave the states large grants to replace faulty voting machines, including the kind that produced hanging chads. But in too many cases, states and localities rushed to buy electronic voting machines that do not produce paper records. Voters have to trust the numbers they spit out on election night, but the numbers cannot be independently verified, and that is unacceptable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/opinion/16wed1.html
Bringing Lobbyists to Heel
It’s crunch time for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to deliver on the Democrats’ vow to rein in power lobbyists who sully Congress by purchasing privileged access with outsized campaign donations. There are worthy remedies, but members are balking. If the House resorts to mere cosmetic changes, the Democrats will risk the same voters’ ire that cost the Republicans control last year.
The keystone of lobbying reform has already been passed by the Senate: the requirement that lobbyists disclose details of how they buy insiders’ clout — think Jack Abramoff — by soliciting donations from countless clients and delivering them to grateful lawmakers in eye-popping megabundles. The House must match the Senate in requiring full disclosure of these bundling operations and full details of who gives what to whom at pay-per-view fundraising galas that are the staple of Washington’s social life.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/opinion/16wed3.html
Failing by Example
If you want to know why we are losing in Iraq, go back and read this story that ran on the front page of The Times on Saturday. It began like this:
“Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion was no longer hers. ‘You have a Monica problem,’ Ms. Ashton was told. Referring to Monica M. Goodling, a 31-year-old, relatively inexperienced lawyer who had only recently arrived in the office, the boss added, ‘She believes you’re a Democrat and doesn’t feel you can be trusted.’ Ms. Ashton’s ouster — she left for another Justice Department post two weeks later — was a critical early step in a plan that would later culminate in the ouster of nine United States attorneys last year.
“Ms. Goodling would soon be quizzing applicants for civil service jobs at Justice Department headquarters with questions that several United States attorneys said were inappropriate, like who was their favorite president and Supreme Court justice. One department official said an applicant was even asked, ‘Have you ever cheated on your wife?’ Ms. Goodling also moved to block the hiring of prosecutors with résumés that suggested they might be Democrats, even though they were seeking posts that were supposed to be nonpartisan.”
What does this have to do with Iraq? A lot. One benchmark the Bush team has been urging the Iraqi government to meet is to rescind its broad “de-Baathification” program — the wholesale purging of Baathists after the fall of Saddam — which has alienated many Sunnis and hampered national reconciliation.
But while the Bush team has been lecturing the Iraqi Shiites to limit de-Baathification in Baghdad, it was carrying out its own de-Democratization in the Justice Department in Washington. We would feel that we had failed in Iraq if we read that Sunnis were being purged from Iraq’s Ministry of Justice by Shiite hard-liners loyal to Moktada al-Sadr — but the moral equivalent of that is exactly what the Bush administration was doing here. What kind of example does that set for Iraqis?
And this wasn’t only a Washington problem. Read Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s outstanding “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” which details the extent to which Americans recruited to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad were chosen, at times, for their loyalty toward Republicanism rather than expertise on Islamism. “Two C.P.A. staffers said that they were asked if they supported Roe v. Wade and if they had voted for George W. Bush,” he wrote.
But this degree of partisanship — loyalty over competence — was destructive in a much bigger way. It also deprived the Bush team of the support it needed when things in Iraq didn’t turn out to be as easy as it expected.
Only a united America could have the patience and fortitude to heal a divided Iraq — and we simply don’t have that today. Why? Because George Bush and Dick Cheney asked everyone to check their politics at the door when it came to Iraq, because victory there was so important — everyone but themselves. They argued that the war in Iraq was the central front of the central struggle of our age — an unusual war, a war against terrorism and the pathologies that produce it — but then they indulged in the most rancid politics as usual at home.
They actually thought they could unite Iraq, while dividing America.
Whenever Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney had a choice between seeking political advantage at home or acting in a bipartisan fashion to buy more unity, time and space to do all the heavy lifting needed in Iraq, they opted for political advantage.
When Franklin Roosevelt fought World War II, he made a conservative Republican, Henry Stimson, his secretary of war and did all he could to hold the country together. The Bush- Cheney team, by contrast, summoned us to D-Day and then treated it like it was just another political wedge issue, whenever it suited them.
It has not worked. As Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic, put it: “You cannot govern like Winston Churchill some of the time and like Grover Norquist most of the time.”
Democrats need to be careful, though, that they don’t let their rage with the hypocrisy of Mr. Bush make them totally crazy, and blind them to the fact that they — we — still need a credible plan to deal with the very real threat to open societies posed by Islamist terrorism. But I understand that rage. After all, who can ask more soldiers to sacrifice their lives in Iraq for an administration that wouldn’t even sacrifice its politics?
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/05/16/opinion/16friedman.html
The New Zealand Herald
Firefighters gain on California island wildfire
SAN FRANSCISCO - Evacuated residents of California's Santa Catalina Island began returning to their homes overnight after firefighters said they were gaining control over the blaze, which has consumed more than 1,619 hectares.
"We have 41 per cent containment," Capt. Andrew Olvera of the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.
"The weather is in our favor, with 40 per cent-plus relative humidity and low wind speeds so everything is looking pretty good," Olvera said.
The fire burned about 1,700 hectares on the resort island and destroyed one home and six nonresidential buildings, Olvera said.
No serious injuries were reported from the blaze, which remains under investigation. Contractors working at a radio station may have started the fire accidentally, Olvera said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10439410
Photos: LA fire controlled but landmark park charred
LOS ANGELES - A wildfire that swept through a landmark Los Angeles park, forcing authorities to evacuate the zoo and a wealthy Hollywood Hills neighbourhood, was brought under control today by fire crews taking advantage of a break in hot winds.
But with white smoke still drifting over the charred foothills of Griffith Park and temperatures rising above 80 degrees Fahrenheit, firefighters kept an eye on the wind as they smothered remaining hot spots.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=68&objectid=10438975
Big area of Antarctica melted, satellite finds
WASHINGTON - Vast areas of snow in Antarctica melted in 2005 when temperatures warmed up for a week in the summer in a process that may accelerate invisible melting deep beneath the surface, Nasa said today.
A new analysis of satellite data showed that an area the size of California melted and then re-froze -- the most significant thawing in 30 years, the US space agency said.
Unlike the Arctic, Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula, where ice sheets have been breaking apart.
Son Nghiem of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California and Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado in Boulder measured snowfall accumulation and melt in Antarctica from July 1999 through July 2005.
They found evidence of melting in several areas, including high elevations and far inland in January of 2005, when temperatures got as high as 41degC.
"Increases in snowmelt, such as this in 2005, definitely could have an impact on larger scale melting of Antarctica's ice sheets if they were severe or sustained over time," Steffen said in a statement.
"Water from melted snow can penetrate into ice sheets through cracks and narrow, tubular glacial shafts called moulins," Steffen added.
"If sufficient melt water is available, it may reach the bottom of the ice sheet. This water can lubricate the underside of the ice sheet at the bedrock, causing the ice mass to move toward the ocean faster, increasing sea level."
REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440020
Plea to rescue the forests
OTTAWA - Canada's vast forests should be protected much more than they are now to preserve wildlife and water and to fight global warming, a group of 1500 scientists from around the world said yesterday.
The scientists say Canada's Boreal Forest, stretching from the Alaskan border and running north of the plains all the way to Newfoundland on the Atlantic, is one of the largest intact forest-and-wetland ecosystems remaining on earth.
The mainly coniferous forest is the single largest terrestrial carbon storehouse in the world, which helps stem the greenhouse effect.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439887
Anti-smacking bill becomes law
Green MP Sue Bradford's controversial child discipline bill was tonight passed by Parliament, with only seven MPs voting against it.
The bill removes from the Crimes Act the statutory defence of "reasonable force" to correct a child, meaning there will be no justification for the use of force for that purpose.
The legislation also carries an amendment agreed earlier by Prime Minister Helen Clark and National leader John Key that says the police have the discretion not to prosecute complaints against a parent where the offence is considered to be inconsequential.
The bill was passed today almost two years after it was introduced in June 2005. The at times acrimonius debate on the bill has seen Parliament and the public sharply divided between the bill's supporters and its opponents.
But with the compromise amendment, most of that opposition faded away.
The Crimes (Substituted Section 59) Amendment Bill was tonight given its third reading by a vote of 113 to seven.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440080
United Future MP quits party over smacking bill
Gordon Copeland said today felt like his wedding day but it actually marked his divorce from United Future.
At a press conference today Mr Copeland posed for the cameras before saying he was leaving United Future because of his opposition to the bill being passed tonight changing the law around smacking.
He quipped that the cameras going off reminded him of his wedding before stating he was re-forming the Future New Zealand Party which United Future was previously allied with.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440050
Currency: Dollar ends unchanged after brief flirtation
The New Zealand dollar ended little changed today after a brief flirtation above US74c.
It rose to US74.06c early this morning but ended unchanged from yesterday at US73.75c. The market was quiet.
New housing data showing no let up in house price inflation which increased the risk of another rate risk, economists said. That was likely to put further upward pressure on the kiwi.
ANZ economists said the Reserve Bank could not afford to let momentum within the economy continue given the prevalence of inflation pressures.
"The Reserve Bank needs to make certain of reining the current momentum in the economy this time around.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/3/story.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=10440084
Ivory trade alive in cyberspace
LONDON - The elephant, the world's largest land mammal, is being threatened with global extinction by a "rampant trade" in ivory on the eBay online auction site, animal welfare campaigners say.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare says it conducted a survey in Britain, Australia, China, Germany, the Netherlands, France, Canada and the United States and tracked more than 2200 elephant ivory items listed on eBay websites.
It found more than 90 per cent of the listings breached even eBay's own wildlife policies.
International wildlife trade laws differ from country to country and are often complex, but according to the international fund, in general it is illegal to sell carved or uncarved ivory unless it is antique and accompanied by a proof-of-age certificate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439903
Rwandans accused of NZers' murder seek asylum in US
Three Rwandan rebels who confessed to the murders of a group of Western tourists, including two New Zealand women, are now seeking political asylum in the United States.
The three men were extradited to the US in 2003 after being charged with the murder of two American citizens among the eight tourists.
However, a US judge threw out the case earlier this year after saying the three men's confessions to the 1999 killings had been obtained through torture.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10440015
US says Russia cannot veto missile defence
MOSCOW - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today Russia could not veto American plans to build a missile defence shield in Europe but added that the two countries had agreed to tone down their rhetoric.
Recent harsh remarks have revived memories of the Cold War, capped by a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin last week commemorating the defeat of Nazi Germany, when he seemed to compare US foreign policy to that of the Third Reich.
After meeting Putin at his residence, Rice told reporters "the rhetoric is not helpful, it is disturbing to Americans who are trying to do our best to maintain an even relationship."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440028
Yachting: Team New Zealand win again with ease
Team New Zealand went two-nil up on the Spanish, and Oracle evened the score with Luna Rossa, in the second day of the challenger series semifinals in Valencia.
In some ways the second round of the semifinals resembled the first day of racing.
BMW Oracle and Luna Rossa had a humdinger of a battle which saw the Americans pull off a stunning come-from-behind 13 second win.
In comparison Emirates Team New Zealand's win over Desafio Espanol was straightforward, sailing a smart, conservative race to beat Desafio Espanol by a comfortable 40 seconds.
Skipper Dean Barker won the start. Team New Zealand started on the left, crossed over to the right, nailed the first shift and were gone.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/4/story.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=10439995
Napster music available on Motorola phones
NEW YORK - Napster said today it agreed to make its music subscription service available on Motorola's mobile phones.
Napster and Motorola will develop promotional efforts for North America, the United Kingdom and Germany designed to let consumers listen to Napster's music on many Motorola music-enabled handsets.
Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.
- REUTERS
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10439998
Microsoft declares war on free software
NEW YORK - We all love to get something for free. Including, of course, software.
We're talking high-quality stuff - not junk - that can be downloaded free off the internet and then copied at will.
Well, US software behemoth Microsoft, facing life in an ever-competitive and ruthless marketplace, has today declared "enough!"
Microsoft has made its broadest challenge to date against open-source software, including Windows rival Linux, claiming that such programs violate 235 Microsoft patents and saying it will seek license fees.
The world's largest software maker said that various open-source packages violate patents it holds in areas related to graphical user interface, email programs and other technology.
"The real question is not whether there exist substantial patent infringement issues, but what to do about them," said super-lawyer Horacio Gutierrez, Microsoft vice president of intellectual property and licensing.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10440007
Law Society urges ACC to abolish physiotherapist pay scheme
An ACC system that dictates a set number of physiotherapy visits for different injuries should be thrown out, says the New Zealand Law Society.
In a hard-hitting submission to a ministerial inquiry into how physiotherapists are paid by ACC, lawyers also recommend that the Endorsed Provider Network, which they believe has created two tiers of physiotherapists, be abolished.
"The current systems employed by ACC ... have shifted the emphasis from the claimant's rights to proper treatment in the interests of rehabilitation, to management of treatment and cost containment," says the submission, put together by a committee of accident compensation law experts.
Submissions are being heard before QC David Goddard in Wellington this week. The lawyers are not planning to speak at the hearings, but released their submission to the Herald.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10439909
System costly and inefficient: report
5:00AM Wednesday May 16, 2007
WASHINGTON - Americans get the poorest health care and yet pay the most compared to five other rich countries, says a report released yesterday.
Germany, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada all provide better care for less money, the Commonwealth Fund report found.
"The US health care system ranks last compared with five other nations on measures of quality, access, efficiency, equity, and outcomes," the non-profit group which studies health care issues said in a statement.
Canada rates second worst out of the five overall. Germany scored highest, followed by Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
"The United States is not getting value for the money that is spent on health care," Commonwealth Fund president Karen Davis said.
The group has consistently found that the United States, the only one of the six nations that does not provide universal health care, scores more poorly than the others on many measures of health care.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=204&objectid=10439889
World in brief: What happened today
PRAIA DA LUZ, Portugal - Portuguese police have identified a suspect in their investigation of the kidnapping of a four-year-old British girl but do not have enough evidence for an arrest, police said today.
Police were following a strong lead to find Madeleine McCann, who disappeared 12 days ago from her bedroom in a resort hotel in the Algarve, they said.
"The judicial police continue to follow the strongest lead and we hope that in the short term there will be more developments," chief inspector Olegario Sousa told a news conference.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439997
Three suspects released in 7/7 bomb case
2:15PM Wednesday May 16, 2007
LONDON - Three people arrested last week in connection with the suicide bombings in 2005 on London's transport system, including the widow of ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, have been released without charge, police said.
A fourth man, aged 34, who was also arrested last Wednesday remained at a London police station after officers were granted a warrant to detain him until May 21.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440051
Hicks a 'very lucky man' - prosecutor
1:25PM Wednesday May 16, 2007
The American military prosecutor who prepared the case against David Hicks says the self-confessed supporter of terrorism got off lightly.
Hicks is expected to be brought back to Australia within the next week to serve out the balance of his nine-month sentence at Adelaide's Yatala prison.
Colonel Mo Davis says Hicks is lucky to be flying home from Guantanamo Bay and lucky to be facing only a nine-month sentence.
"He got off lightly, I think if you look at comparable sentences for similarly situated individuals prosecuted in the US, he's a very lucky man," he said.
- RADIO AUSTRALIA
US evangelist who blamed 9/11 on liberals and gays dies (video)
WASHINGTON - US evangelist Jerry Falwell, a leader of the religious right who battled in the political arena against abortion and homosexuality, died today after collapsing in his Virginia office.
Falwell, 73, was found unconscious in his office and was taken to a nearby hospital. He had a history of congestive heart problems.
"Dr. Falwell was found unconscious without a heartbeat at his office today at Liberty University around 11:30 a.m. by his associates," Dr. Carl Moore, his personal physician, told a news conference.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439996
Trouble in wake of East Timor election
8:15AM Wednesday May 16, 2007
Gangs torched houses and fought in East Timor, wounding about 14 people, as violence broke out following last week's presidential elections, police said yesterday.
The country's ruling party, whose candidate lost last week's polls, said its members were attacked by those of the winner, Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta. Police declined to say who the victims were.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439945
Samoa head of state's funeral on live TV in NZ
2:00PM Wednesday May 16, 2007
The funeral of Samoa's head of state Malietoa Tanumafili II will be shown live by Maori TV.
The state funeral is at 9am on Saturday and the broadcast will be screened live on a big screen at Auckland's Aotea Square.
A memorial service is also being held at Malaeola Community Centre off Tidal Road, Manukau City, Auckland, on Friday at 7pm.
- NZHERALD STAFF
France's Chirac bids farewell in TV address
10:40AM Wednesday May 16, 2007By Jon Boyle
Jacques Chirac. Photo / Reuters
PARIS - Jacques Chirac urged France in a final televised address as president today to remain united and true to values that made it a force in Europe and an advocate for world peace.
Chirac said he was proud of his record after 12 years in office and said he planned to devote himself to campaigning for sustainable development and dialogue between cultures.
Fellow conservative Nicolas Sarkozy succeeds him on Wednesday and Chirac, 74, wished him well.
"United, we have all the assets, all the force, all the talent to impose ourselves in this new world that is developing before our eyes," said Chirac, who stood behind a lectern.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440017
Hotel bomb kills 24
Wednesday May 16, 2007
A bomb planted in a hotel reception area killed at least 24 people and wounded 30 in the Pakistani city of Peshawar yesterday, a provincial official said.
Twenty-seven dead in Pakistani clashes
A man wounded in the violence waits for an ambulance. Photo / Reuters
7:25AM Sunday May 13, 2007By Aamir Ashraf
KARACHI - Twenty-seven people were killed and 100 wounded in Karachi on Saturday in clashes between pro-government and opposition activists as Pakistan's suspended top judge tried to hold a rally with his supporters.
The suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry on March 9 has outraged the judiciary and the opposition and has blown up into the most serious challenge to President Pervez Musharraf's authority since he seized power in 1999.
In the worst political clashes in Pakistan for years, heavy gunfire erupted in several parts of Karachi as gunmen battled and smoke billowed from more than 100 burning vehicles.
Musharraf, speaking to a rally of tens of thousands in Islamabad, condemned the violence but ruled out declaring a state of emergency saying the people were with him.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10439448
One million Turks protest ahead of early elections
11:48AM Monday May 14, 2007By Paul de Bendern
People wave flags from the roof of their house as the waterfront is covered by thousands of Turks during an anti-government rally in Izmir. Photo / Reuters
IZMIR, Turkey - At least a million people took to the streets in Turkey's third city today for the fourth major rally in a month against the Islamist-rooted government ahead of elections in July.
Organisers, who accuse the government of seeking to undermine separation of religion and state in the overwhelmingly Muslim country, hoped the protest would unite the fragmented opposition ahead of the parliamentary polls.
People flocked to Izmir from across Turkey, undeterred by a bombing in the port city that killed one man and injured 14 on Saturday. It was not clear who was behind the market attack.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10439618
Shiite-Sunni team turn airwaves blue
12:00AM Tuesday May 15, 2007
Journalists at Iraq's Independent Radio and Television Network risk being killed by militants. Photo / Reuters
Iraq war
Bush appoints new Iraq war 'czar '
Tales from the frontline
Rafed Mahmood, a Shiite driven from his home by al Qaeda, and his Sunni friend have started a radio and television network in Iraq.
They say they are aware of the risks in a country where about 65 media workers were killed in 2006 and those working with US forces are especially vulnerable.
"Some of us may die. That may be the cost of freedom," Mahmood, 29, said in a speech at the opening ceremony in late March.
Mahmood and his friend Samir Kamis, a 29-year-old Sunni journalist, say they want to do something about the sectarian violence that threatens to pitch Iraq into civil war.
"Bullets and laws alone cannot stop the violence," Mahmood said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=301&objectid=10439651
US states ask MySpace for details on sex offenders
11:00AM Tuesday May 15, 2007
BOSTON - Eight US attorneys general today demanded that MySpace hand over to authorities the names and addresses of thousands of convicted sex offenders they say are using the social networking website to contact children.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal along with his counterparts in seven other states made the demand in a letter to the unit of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
He said that he learned of the large number of sex offenders on the site as a result of a company investigation, but did not make clear his source.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439788
Life still left in Taleban after leader killed
5:00AM Tuesday May 15, 2007By Kim Sengupta
Mullah Dadullah's death was of symbolic significance. Photo / Reuters
Mullah Dadullah's well-deserved reputation as the most feared of the Taleban commanders was earned on the back of savage and symbolic acts of violence but his death also had symbolic significance.
By repeatedly declaring that he was the overall military chief of Taleban forces in Afghanistan, the group's main link to al Qaeda and the architect of the suicide bombing campaign, Dadullah made himself an obvious and high-priority target for Nato and President Hamid Karzai's Government.
But although the killing of Dadullah was of positive propaganda value at a time when not much had been going right for Karzai and his Western backers, it is unlikely to lead to any immediate change to the Afghan insurgency.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10439706
Dozens of Taleban killed in Afghan south – official
KABUL - Western and Afghan troops have driven the Taleban from a southern area after a week-long battle in which more than 70 militants were killed, an Afghan security official said.
Violence has surged in Afghanistan in recent months after the traditional winter lull and an upsurge of fighting last year, the bloodiest since the Taleban's removal in 2001.
In the latest incident on Saturday local time, a roadside bomb killed at least eight Afghan police outside the southern city of Kandahar, provincial police chief, Esmatullah Alizai said.
There were no casualties among Afghan and Western troops in the fighting in Nahri Saraj of neighbouring Helmand province, scene of a series of operations by foreign-led forces in recent weeks, the security official said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=359&objectid=10439466
Bin Laden alive, keeping low profile - Afghan rebel
2:30PM Monday May 14, 2007
DUBAI - An anti-US Afghan rebel leader said he had information that Osama bin Laden is alive but keeping a low profile by not issuing statements, according to a video aired today.
The al Qaeda leader's long silence has fuelled speculation that the world's most-wanted fugitive may have died.
"Based on information I have, I believe Osama is alive," said Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, whose forces operate in southeastern Afghanistan near Pakistan, in the undated video broadcast on Al Arabiya television. His remarks were dubbed into Arabic.
"I also believe that it is good that he ... does not appear in the media, and that it is wise that no statements or tapes are issued even after a long while," said Hekmatyar, without elaborating.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=340&objectid=10439628
Al Qaeda says it has missing US soldiers
BAGHDAD - Thousands of American troops searched today for three US soldiers missing in Iraq after an ambush in which al Qaeda said it seized "crusader" forces, while a suicide bomber killed 50 people in the Kurdish north.
The self-styled Islamic State in Iraq, a group led by al Qaeda, said in an internet posting it was holding soldiers who survived an attack south of Baghdad in which the US military said four US troops and an Iraqi army translator were killed.
That attack and the suicide truck bombing came as President George W. Bush deploys 30,000 more US troops due in Iraq in June in what is seen as a final push to halt a slide into all-out civil war between majority Shi'ites and Sunni Arabs.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=359&objectid=10439588
Take that, suckers: science gets one up on mosquitoes
Scientists in Italy say they have identified a potential weapon against malaria that lives inside the mosquitoes that spread it - their internal bacteria.
Malaria, a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite, kills at least a million people annually. Most of the victims are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
With attempts to eradicate mosquitoes or create a vaccine so far unsuccessful, the Italian scientists set out to find any bacteria that lived symbiotically inside the pests.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10439884
Editorial: Blair legacy - prosperity and honour
Ten years is a long time to lead any democratic country. Tony Blair, who has announced the date he will hand over to a successor, July 2, has led Britain almost as long as Baroness Thatcher did and longer than any Labour Prime Minister before him. Like Helen Clark in this country, also the first of her party to win three successive elections, Mr Blair will be counted a success deservedly for what he did not do more than what he did.
He did not reverse the economic reforms he inherited. He did nothing that put the country's new prosperity at risk and in fact enhanced it by the mere fact he was a Labour Prime Minister, credibly using comforting social sentiments to maintain the country's course. He was not primarily an economic leader; it seemed to be part of a pact with his old rival and now near-certain successor, Gordon Brown, that economic policy would be the preserve of the Chancellor.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/category/story.cfm?c_id=171&objectid=10439491
Cosmic crash proves existence of dark matter - Nasa
9:35AM Wednesday May 16, 2007By Will Dunham
A photo from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a ghostly ring of dark matter in a galaxy cluster. Photo / Reuters
WASHINGTON - A hazy ring of dark matter spawned by a colossal cosmic crash eons ago offers the best evidence to date that vast amounts of this mysterious stuff reside in the universe, scientists said today.
Images taken by Nasa's orbiting Hubble Space Telescope allowed astronomers to detect this ring of dark matter created by the collision of two galaxy clusters 5 billion light-years from Earth.
"This is the strongest evidence yet for the existence of dark matter," astronomer Myungkook James Jee of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore told reporters.
Astronomers believe dark matter -- as opposed to ordinary matter making up the stars, planets and the like -- comprises about 85 per cent of the universe's material, but evidence of it has been difficult to come by.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10440009
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