Alcoholism
Fighting alcoholism with a pill
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
By Jane Spencer, The Wall Street Journal
A major shift is under way in the treatment of alcoholism.
Since the disease was first recognized by the medical establishment more than a half century ago, alcoholics seeking treatment have essentially had two options: traditional psychotherapy or abstinence support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous. Although a handful of medications have been available -- including Antabuse, which makes people nauseous when they drink -- they have had limited success and are prescribed to a fraction of patients seeking treatment.
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05235/558538.stm
Contra Costa grant to fight homelessness, alcoholism
County hopes $1 million will help solve often-related problems
By Rebecca F. Johnson, STAFF WRITER
The federal Department of Housing and Urban Development is handing out a dozen grants nationwide — including one to Contra Costa County — to tackle the often-related problems of chronic homelessness and alcoholism.
The nearly $1 million grant is expected to assist about 40 people over the next two years by providing both housing and alcohol treatment services in the county.
This is right in line with our 10-year plan for ending homelessness — coming up with permanent solutions, said Cynthia Belon, county director of homeless services.
http://www.insidebayarea.com/trivalleyherald/localnews/ci_2965392
Mother 'drunk' after deserting son
By Cath Hart
August 24, 2005
Vivian Alvarez ... found "drugged and drunk" by police
WRONGLY deported Australian Vivian Alvarez was found by police "drugged and drunk" the day after she abandoned her four-year-old child at a Brisbane daycare centre.
The intervention was one of two occasions that police dealt with Ms Alvarez in the two days after she failed to collect her son from the Brisbane City Hall childcare facility on February 16, 2001.
The information is contained in a Queensland Police Missing Persons Bureau report sent to the Homicide Investigation Group in April 2003, two years after Ms Alvarez had been wrongly deported to The Philippines by the Immigration Department
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,16363072-28101,00.html
Labor Day push on to catch drunk drivers
By GRANT BOXLEITNER
GBOXLEITNER@NEWS-PRESS.COM
Published by news-press.com on August 24, 2005
Law enforcement officers throughout Southwest Florida will aggressively target drunk drivers beginning this weekend and continuing through Labor Day weekend.
The DUI sobriety checkpoints and other special operations will be held in conjunction with the national "You Drink, You Drive, You Lose" highway safety campaign, which continues through Sept. 5.
The Lee and Charlotte county sheriff's offices plan to conduct a sobriety checkpoint sometime this weekend, beginning Friday. Fort Myers police scheduled their own DUI checkpoint somewhere within the city limits on Labor Day weekend.
http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/NEWS01/508240445/1075
Drunk driving incidents increasing
OUR VIEW
One has to wonder what it takes to get drunk drivers off the road.
Incredibly, more than 83,000 Indiana drivers have been convicted of drunken driving at least twice since getting their Indiana driver’s licenses.
The Indianapolis Star reported that sobering statistic in a story over the weekend.
Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles records show that as of last Friday, more than 275,000 — or nearly 6 percent — of the state’s 4.9 million drivers have at least one conviction; 83,168 have two or more, and 6,310 have four or more.
Got that? Nearly 6 percent of the individuals holding a state driver’s license have been convicted at least once of driving while intoxicated.
http://www.madisoncourier.com/main.asp?SectionID=4&SubSectionID=253&ArticleID=25593&TM=59872.25
Court records: Ex-mobster shows up drunk for meeting
NORTH PLATTE, Neb. (AP) -- Former New York mobster Henry Hill reportedly showed up drunk for a meeting with his probation officer and now risks going to jail.
Hill, portrayed by Ray Liotta in the 1990 mob movie "Goodfellas," had been charged with two felony counts of possessing meth and cocaine.
As part of a plea bargain, Hill pleaded no contest on Aug. 8 to a charge of attempted possession and was found guilty.
http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2005/08/24/news/nebraska/96d4fd93a7e28bcf8625706700097761.txt
Tennant Creek liquor ban fails to reduce alcoholism
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The World Today - Wednesday, 24 August , 2005 12:46:00
Reporter: Anne Barker
ELEANOR HALL: The town of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory is divided over its liquor laws.
A few years ago, the Liquor Commission banned the sale of takeaway alcohol at some times of the week, but residents resent the restrictions and others say that levels of violence and drink related disease have not improved since the laws were changed.
This report from North Australia Correspondent Anne Barker.
(Sounds of men shouting)
ANNE BARKER: Tennant Creek is a hard drinking, hard living town
This once prosperous mining town has one of the highest rates of alcohol consumption in Australia - 20 litres a year of pure alcohol for every resident, which is two-and-a-half times the national average
Drunkenness and alcohol abuse both contribute to a high level of domestic violence and ill health.
And before the liquor laws changed, pub fights were a fact of life on Thursday and Friday nights
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1445156.htm
Drug therapy holds promise for treating alcoholism
by Tom Crann, Minnesota Public Radio
August 24, 2005
St. Paul, Minn. — Public safety officials have long recognized the adverse effect of alcohol on the roads, and this weekend Minnesota officials are intensifying enforcement of the new .08 blood alcohol limit for drivers.
At the same time, medical professionals have also recognized the adverse affects of alcohol on the body -- it's estimated about 1 in every 13 adults abuses alcohol, and more than 100,000 Americans die of alcohol-related causes.
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/2005/08/24_newsroom_alcoholism/
Binge drinking can cause more than a bad hangover in pregnant women. Along with other forms of alcohol abuse, it puts fetuses at risk for fetal alcohol syndrome -- the most common preventable cause of mental retardation and birth defects in the Western world.
(I-Newswire) - University of Iowa researchers who seek to reduce fetal alcohol syndrome cases -- which annually number nearly 8,800 in the United States -- have received a major grant to study how a certain pathway in the brain protects against the toxic effects of alcohol. The two-year, $387,187 grant is funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Fetal alcohol exposure damages the nervous system and can cause irreversible brain dysfunction, including mental retardation, epilepsy, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, said the project's principal investigator, Bahri Karaçay, Ph.D., associate research scientist in pediatrics in the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine.
http://i-newswire.com/pr43773.html
Alcoholism / Substance Abuse
Anxiety Sensitivity
Those Sensitive to Anxiety More Likely to Drink
People who experience anxiety in stressful situations are more likely to turn to alcohol to relieve their anxiety symptoms, according to research at Dalhousie University.
Those who experience symptoms such as "butterflies," rapid breathing, or an increased heart rate in the face of a stressful situation are described as having high anxiety sensitivity (AS), according to the study, and they are more likely to "sooth" their anxiety by drinking.
http://alcoholism.about.com/library/weekly/aa001214a.htm
The Sin of Sins
by Irina Sandul
24 August 2005
Empathy for the plight of women alcoholics in Russia is rising far more slowly than their numbers.
MOSCOW, Russia Masha, a long-legged former journalist, died last year at the age of 30. For seven years Masha never left her Moscow home without a bottle of vodka. “This is always with me,” she used to say, pulling a small bottle of Russkaya from the pocket of her miniskirt. Her day used to start with a deciliter of vodka, watching television and brooding about where to have another drink. Before turning to vodka Masha did heroin. “Drinking is better,” she used to say. Not long after, Masha died after overdosing on heroin.
http://www.tol.cz/look/TOL/article.tpl?IdLanguage=1&IdPublication=4&NrIssue=130&NrSection=3&NrArticle=14414
We have had approximately one downed aircraft per day.
Downed Planes
Plane Crash in Venezuela Leaves 160 Dead
By IAN JAMES
Associated Press Writer
Published August 16, 2005, 3:43 PM CDT
CARACAS, Venezuela -- A plane carrying vacationers home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashed Tuesday in western Venezuela after reporting engine problems, killing all 160 people on board, officials said.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-82 was headed from Panama to Martinique when its pilot requested permission to make an emergency landing just after 3 a.m., saying there was trouble with both engines, said Col. Francisco Paz, president of the National Civil Aviation Institute.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-venezuela-plane-crash,1,3093338.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Airline crash in Venezuela kills all 160 aboard
By Patrick Markey, Reuters August 16, 2005
CARACAS, Venezuela --CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - A Colombian charter jet carrying tourists home from Panama to Martinique crashed in Venezuela on Tuesday after its engines failed, killing all 160 aboard in one of the country's worst air disasters.
The West Caribbean airways MD-82 aircraft was en route to the French Caribbean island when it reported engine trouble and diverted to an airport in Venezuela. It crashed at a cattle ranch near Venezuela's border with Colombia, authorities said.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/latinamerica/articles/2005/08/16/france_all_passengers_dead_in_venezuela_crash/
Coroner: Young child survived Greek crash
By DEREK GATOPOULOS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
A firefighter pauses to look at the wreckage of the Cypriot Helios plane on the third day of the investigations into the three missing bodies. The crash Sunday on a hillside in Grammatiko, 40 kilometers north of Athens, Greece killed all 121 passengers on board. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
ATHENS, Greece -- A 5-year-old boy who was aboard the Cypriot airliner that crashed in Greece was still alive after the plane slammed into a mountainous area north of Athens, a coroner said Wednesday.
An autopsy on the boy's body showed he had inhaled soot from a fire sparked by the crash, said Nikos Kalogrias, part of a six-member team of coroners involved in the investigation into Sunday's crash, which left all 121 people aboard dead.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Greece%20Plane%20Crash
Black boxes may solve crash mysteries
By Leslie Miller, Associated Press Writer August 18, 2005
WASHINGTON --Aviation experts say the sophisticated flight data recorder on the Helios Airways jetliner that crashed in Greece should answer at least some of the questions that have perplexed investigators.
Because so much about the crash doesn't add up, the digital flight data recorder, or DFDR, takes on greater importance as investigators piece together evidence. They'll also look for clues in the wreckage pattern, autopsies, radar tapes, witness reports and photographs taken by fighter pilots who trailed the doomed Boeing 737-300.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/18/black_boxes_may_solve_crash_mysteries/
Months of warnings preceded jet crash
By Alkman Granitsas in Athens
August 19, 2005
Mourning … Pambos Haralambos, the wife of the co-pilot, holds her son during a funeral for victims.
Photo: Reuters
Fresh revelations about the fate of the doomed Helios Airways flight 522 show that Cypriot authorities issued warnings about the fleet months before the crash that killed all 121 people on board.
One letter from Cypriot aviation authorities to Helios, dated March 17, charged that "there have been no technical and flight checks on the aircraft of the company".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/months-of-warnings-preceded-jet-crash/2005/08/18/1123958181943.html
Crash bodies flown back to Spain
The coffins are due to arrive in Spain later on Thursday
The bodies of 17 Spanish soldiers killed in a Puma helicopter crash in Afghanistan are on their way home.
Defence Minister Jose Bono, who visited the scene of the crash, is returning with the bodies on a flight from the western city of Herat.
Investigators say strong winds probably caused the crash.
Some press reports quoting a soldier on board said the helicopters had come under fire, and a Taleban commander said his men shot the helicopter down.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4162508.stm
Poisoning ruled out in Greece plane crash
Greek Justice Minister Anastasios Papaligouras, right, and chief Athens Coroner Fillipos Koutsaftis, left, hold envelopes with the toxicological tests of six people who were aboard the Cyprus Helios Boeing 737-300 that crashed into a mountainside Sunday, killing all 121 people on board, in Athens on Friday, Aug. 19, 2005. Koutsaftis said that toxicological tests on the remains of co-pilot, three flight attendants and two passengers from the crashed Cypriot jetliner showed they were not rendered unconscious by breathing carbon monoxide. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
By Elena Becatoros, Associated Press Writer August 19, 2005
ATHENS, Greece --Carbon monoxide did not knock out some of the passengers and crew of a Cypriot airliner before it crashed in the Greek mountains, coroners said Friday, deepening the mystery as to what caused the disaster that killed all 121 people on board.
Chief Athens coroner Fillipos Koutsaftis said tests were carried out on the remains of the co-pilot, three female flight attendants, an infant and an adult who were on the flight that went down Sunday about 25 miles north of the Greek capital.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/08/19/poisoning_ruled_out_in_greece_plane_crash/
Cyprus crash victims had no dangerous carbon monoxide
August 19, 2005
ATHENS (Reuters) - The first toxicological tests on victims of a Cyprus airliner crash showed no dangerous levels of carbon monoxide in their blood, the investigation's chief coroner said on Friday.
The finding would appear to eliminate the possibility that dangerous gases leaking inside the plane incapacitated or killed those aboard.
Coroner Philippos Koutsaftis said of six victims examined, five, including the co-pilot, had no signs of carbon monoxide while a stewardess had a minimum level of 7 percent, which was not considered dangerous.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/08/19/cyprus_crash_victims_had_no_dangerous_carbon_monoxide/
Carbon monoxide poisoning ruled out in Cyprus crash
By Brian Williams August 19, 2005
ATHENS (Reuters) - Tests on victims of a Cyprus airliner crash showed no carbon monoxide poisoning on Friday, which appeared to rule out one theory for the disaster.
Investigators hope tests will shed some light on why the pilot, co-pilot and many passengers on the Helios Airways Boeing 737 apparently fell unconscious before the plane crashed near Athens last Sunday killing all six crew and 115 passengers.
One theory for Greece and Cyprus's worst air disaster was faulty air conditioning or a fire releasing poisonous carbon monoxide fumes.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/europe/articles/2005/08/19/carbon_monoxide_poisoning_ruled_out_in_cyprus_crash/
Cyprus starts to bury its dead from air tragedy
Charlie Charalambous
AFP
August 17, 2005
TRIBUTE: Relatives and locals pay tribute in front of the tail of a Cyprus Helios airliner at Grammatiko village, northeast of Athens. Autopsies on six victims suggested crew and passengers were unconscious when the Helios Airways Boeing 737 plunged to earth on Sunday killing all 121 on board.
(REUTERS)
NICOSIA -- A grief-stricken Cyprus started to bury the first of its air crash victims Wednesday after a Cypriot plane plunged into a hillside outside Athens killing all 121 on board.
The majority of those on Sunday's doomed Helios Airways flight ZU 522 were Cypriots, making it the worst air disaster to befall the island.
The local press has been full of tragic stories about whole families wiped out and young children left orphaned.
"Today is the first funeral after the tragic events of the crash in Greece," said Health Minister Andreas Gavrielides.
http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20050817-010257-9579r
Plane crashes in Peruvian jungle
A number of injured have been rescued from the crash site
A passenger plane has crashed in Peru's Amazon jungle, with at least 40 of the 100 people on board known to have died.
The Tans Boeing 737-200 was on an internal flight from the capital, Lima, to the city of Pucallpa when it made an emergency landing during a storm.
At least 50 people are reported to have survived the crash, with many being treated in hospital.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4178868.stm
OA PASSENGER PLANE LANDS SAFELY IN ATHENS
Athens, 24 August 2005 (18:15 UTC+2)
The Olympic Airlines passenger plane on flight OA147 from Athens to Brussels that had reported a mechanical problem concerning its wheels shortly after take off has returned safely to Athens. Already, the plane's passengers are boarding another OA plane to continue their trip to Brussels.
Its captain had requested to be allowed to make an emergency landing and Athens' “Eleftherios Venizelos” International Airport was placed in a state of partial readiness as the incident was not regarded an urgent one.
The Boeing 737-300 aircraft with 124 passengers and a 7-member crew had taken off at 4:20 pm from Athens' “Eleftherios Venizelos” International Airport and a few minutes later its captain reported a problem in one of its wheels.
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=541630
MECHANICAL PROBLEM ON AN OA AIRCRAFT
Athens, 24 August 2005 (17:49 UTC+2)
Mechanical problem was reported by an Olympic Airlines passenger plane on a flight from Athens to Brussels.
The aircraft took off at 4:20 pm from Athens' “Eleftherios Venizelos” International Airport and a few minutes later its captain reported that its wheels would not lock.
The aircraft is headed back to Athens for an emergency landing.
The airport was placed in a state of partial readiness as the situation is not regarded as urgent.
http://www.mpa.gr/article.html?doc_id=541625
Baby 'survives' Peru crash in mother's arms
August 25, 2005 - 10:00AM
A baby survived the crash of a Boeing 737 in the arms of its mother, who died when the plane crashed into the Peruvian jungle, media reports said.
Rescuers found one-year-old Juan Carlos Rengifo crying in the arms of his mother, who was killed when the plane of the Peruvian government airline TANS crashed in a swamp 800 kilometres north of the capital of Lima.
According to survivors, the plane was hit by extreme turbulence and winds from a heavy tropical storm shortly before it was to land for a stopover at the Pucallpa airport on its way from Lima to the Amazon capital of Iquitos.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/baby-survives-peru-crash-in-mothers-arms/2005/08/25/1124562952356.html
There has been chemical plant explosions on a regular basis.
Chemical plant explosions
Parents concerned as children return to classes near BP
Three incidents of the past year are on their minds
By DINA CAPPIELLO
Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle
TEXAS CITY - It could have been a typical first day of school. Buses idled at the curb. A crossing guard directed traffic. Parents walked hand-in-hand with children sporting shiny new sneakers and bulging backpacks.
Yet, over their shoulders, at the top of one of BP refinery's many flare towers, a flame flickered.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/ae/music/jump/3311770
Texas City BP America Plant Explosion Kills 15
March 23, 2005, at 1:30 p.m., residents of Texas City, Texas and the surrounding area felt the earth shake as the BP America isomerization unit exploded. The massive explosion killed fifteen and injured over a hundred others. The extent of property damage to businesses and homes in the vicinity has not been fully assessed yet.
The isomerization unit is where the octane of gasoline is raised. According to officials, it took nearly two hours to extinguish the blaze before they could begin tending to the injured. Many of the injured were taken to the University of Texas Medical Center in Galveston, Texas or Mainland Hospital. One critically injured patient was LifeFlighted to Hermann Hospital after first being taken to Mainland Hospital. About 1,800 BP employees work at the 1,500-acre plant in Texas City, an area near Galveston, along with numerous other private contractors.
State and Federal investigators began trying to piece together the cause of the explosion on Thursday, March 24, 2005. The United States Chemical Safety Board will take the lead in this investigation as they have in other chemical plant explosions including the recent explosion at the Marcus Oil Chemical Plant. In representing area residents near the Marcus Oil Chemical Plant, the firm of Houssiere, Durant & Houssiere, LLP, along with their expert witnesses, is experienced in working with the Chemical Safety Board.
BP: Wrong type of pipe caused plant explosion
Blast, fire last week was at same plant where fatal incident occurred
TEXAS CITY, Texas - The installation of the wrong type of pipe spool is believed to have caused last week’s explosion and fire at the same BP plant where 15 people were killed in March, company officials said Monday.
An 8-inch section of heavy steel pipe, located between a compressor and heat exchanger on the Resid Hydrotreater Unit, failed on Thursday. No one was injured during the resulting blast and blaze.
The section failed because workers installed the wrong type of steel pipe spool on the outlet of the heat exchanger, BP spokesman Ronnie Chappell said.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8796070/
Group wants powerful acid out of BP’s plant
Galveston County Daily News
Sunday 27 March 2005
Group wants powerful acid out of BP’s plant
By Laura Elder
(See original article)
TEXAS CITY — BP’s operations in the United States have the worst safety record in the industry, according to a consumer advocacy group that wants tons of dangerous acid removed from the energy giant’s Texas City refinery.
The Texas Public Interest Research Group, which last year released a report on accidents ranging from small oil spills to explosions at U.S. refineries and chemical plants, is calling for the removal and ban of hydrofluoric acid at the company’s Texas City refinery and other facilities across the nation.
The Austin-based advocacy group, in a 2004 analysis, said BP’s U.S. chemical plants and refineries had more than 3,565 accidents since 1990. That makes the London-based company No. 1 in accidents in the nation, the advocacy group said.
800,000 Pounds
Last week’s explosion at BP’s Texas City oil refinery, which killed 15 people and wounded nearly 100 more, has bolstered the advocacy group’s longtime effort to replace the use of hydrofluoric acid, one of the strongest and most corrosive acids known, with a safer alternative at refineries and plants in Texas. Hydrofluoric acid is used to refine gasoline.
BP officials declined Friday to immediately respond to the advocacy group’s assertions, saying the company’s focus was on families affected by the deadly disaster.
“Our focus needs to stay with the families and the situation,” said Marti Gazzier, a BP spokeswoman.
Following Wednesday’s explosion, the consumer group called for the energy giant to remove 800,000 pounds of hydrofluoric acid from its Texas City refinery.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pollution/2217.html
Fireworks explosion in Kansas kills two
August 18, 2005
CRESTLINE, Kan. --An explosion killed two people and injured at least four others Thursday at a commercial fireworks storage site, the Kansas Highway Patrol said.
Neighbors said a single loud explosion was followed by several smaller blasts that shook homes in Crestline, a small town in southeast Kansas.
Deputy State Fire Marshal Carl McNorton said the blast at a large facility owned by Jakes Fireworks occurred as workers were handling fireworks stored in large containers and trailers.
Calls seeking comment from Jakes Fireworks headquarters in Pittsburg, about 20 miles away, were not immediately returned.
McNorton said agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms and Tobacco and the Kansas Highway Patrol were at the scene.
Chris Perez said he was working at his home near the entrance to the site when the explosion shook his house. When he reached the scene, he saw a trailer on fire and two men walking away with serious burns.
Jakes Fireworks sells fireworks wholesale in all 50 states and several countries, marketing products under names including World Class Fireworks, Piedmont Fireworks and Fireworks Spectacular, which produces large, public displays throughout the country.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2005/08/18/fireworks_explosion_in_kansas_kills_two/
Plant explosion rocks Romulus
Chemical fire at waste recovery firm forces evacuations as blaze leaps from tank to tank.
By Oralandar Brand-Williams, George Hunter and Francis X. Donnelly / The Detroit News
ROMULUS -- Hundreds of residents from Romulus and Wayne hoped to return home today after a massive overnight fire at a nearby chemical plant.
The residents spent the night at two high schools and a church hall as authorities waited for the blaze at E.Q. Resource Recovery Inc. to burn itself out.
Michael Woods, 55, of Wayne spent the night with about 30 other evacuees in the lunchroom of Romulus High School, worrying about his wife, who refused to leave their home when officials told them to evacuate.
http://www.detnews.com/2005/metro/0508/10/A01-276524.htm
CHEMICAL PLANT EXPLOSION: No alarm sounded to warn workers
A hissing noise got them to evacuate
August 12, 2005
BY BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
A hissing noise emanating from a huge tank of ammonia and quick thinking among the workers led the employees to flee a Romulus chemical plant just before a series of explosions rocked the facility, setting off a fire and resulting in evacuations of neighborhoods surrounding the plant.
In the first comments from any of the eight people working at EQ Resource Recovery Inc. at the time of the blasts, one of the workers said Thursday no alarm sounded before the explosion Tuesday night as earlier reported.
http://www.freep.com/news/locway/exevac-bar112e_20050812.htm
Federal authorities say soot from chemical explosion poses no hazard
August 16, 2005, 5:17 AM
ROMULUS, Mich. (AP) -- Final tests reveal that there is no danger in the ash and other material that fell on several neighborhoods last week following a chemical plant fire in suburban Detroit, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said.
"There is no health concern to the residents," said Jason El-Zein, chief of response for the Michigan district of the EPA, during a Monday news conference at Romulus City Hall. "They don't need to alter their activity in any way."
http://www.freep.com/news/statewire/sw119901_20050816.htm
OSHA cites PolyCarbon Industries for plant explosion
August 17, 2005
LEOMINSTER, Mass. --Federal authorities have proposed a $3,000 fine for the company where a chemical explosion blew the roof off a small pharmaceutical research lab here.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration said Polycarbon Industries did not keep the workplace free of fire and explosion hazards, according to OSHA's Aug. 10 "serious violation" citation and notification of penalty.
The March 22 blast left one worker with a minor burn on his hand. Nine nearby homes were evacuated, and there was significant structural damage to the lab. The state ruled on March 28 that the explosion was an accident.
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/08/17/osha_cites_polycarbon_industries_for_plant_explosion/
Texas chemical plant explosion injures 4
BY DEBRA DENNIS AND JEFF MOSIER
The Dallas Morning News
FORT WORTH, Texas - (KRT) - A chain of explosions rocked a Fort Worth chemical company Thursday, injuring four people, shaking buildings and prompting the evacuation of some local businesses and schools.
As the fire burned itself out Thursday evening, plans for a large-scale clean up at Valley Solvent & Chemicals were in the works, monitored by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Fort Worth health officials said the risk to residents' health was small, but advised those nearby to stay indoors with windows closed and air conditioners off.
http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/12248824.htm
Chemical plant explosion injures seven in Beijing
http://english.people.com.cn/200501/18/eng20050118_170996.html
Explosion at Illinois gas co. injures 3
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NORTH PEKIN, Ill. -- An explosion and fire at a gas company injured three men Thursday and forced the evacuation of nearby homes and businesses.
"It was loud, and the yellow fireballs - it just went boom, boom, boom," said John House, whose business is located across the street from the company.
It was not immediately clear what started the fire at the Hicksgas company, which sells propane gas and grills.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apus_story.asp?category=1110&slug=Gas%20Company%20Fire
end
Sunday, August 28, 2005
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Dumpster Diving
I could not believe my ears nor eyes the other day when I saw a report that glamourized an activity called "Dumpster Diving."
There are ?social workers? actively teaching people how to raid dumpsters for food that is not spoiled to provide groceries and/or supplement their refrigerators.
WHAT????????
Where is this country headed?
We are desperately on the "W"rong path !!!!
There are ?social workers? actively teaching people how to raid dumpsters for food that is not spoiled to provide groceries and/or supplement their refrigerators.
WHAT????????
Where is this country headed?
We are desperately on the "W"rong path !!!!
Miscellaneous - Speaking of Childhood Obesity
The topic of Childhood Obesity is a serious one. There has been an outbreak of Type II diabetes among children across the nation. We can blame lifestyle as well as safety concerns from increasing activity while losing vital physical education programs to Bush Cuts in support to schools. While school systems across the country are stressed for funding to meet "No Child Left Behind" regulations they sadly sacrifice vital gym classes as there is no TEST for competency for Physical Competency to pass to the next grade.
Add to that one other item. There is a 'side effect' little understood yet regarding stimulants. Over long term use they actually cause weight gain. Stimulants like amphetamines drive neuroactive chemicals such as Dopamine. Dopamine works on receptors in adipose tissue increasing resistance to the metabolism of the the adipose tissue. While most amphetamines are known for anorexia there is a unusal result coming out in some studies that attribute presistant fat to dopamine resistance.
MOST PHARMACISTS KNOW OF THIS SIDE EFFECT EVEN IF THEY DON'T COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND THE MECHANISM, which is related to Cholinergic and Adrenergic receptors.
ADDERALL TABLETS
(Shire US)
5 mg
7.5 mg
10 mg
12.5 mg
15 mg
20 mg
30 mg TABLETS
AMPHETAMINES HAVE A HIGH POTENTIAL FOR ABUSE. ADMINISTRATION OF AMPHETAMINES FOR PROLONGED PERIODS OF TIME MAY LEAD TO DRUG DEPENDENCE AND MUST BE AVOIDED. PARTICULAR ATTENTION SHOULD BE PAID TO THE POSSIBILITY OF SUBJECTS OBTAINING AMPHETAMINES FOR NON THERAPEUTIC USE OR DISTRIBUTION TO OTHERS, AND THE DRUGS SHOULD BE PRESCRIBED OR DISPENSED SPARINGLY.
DESCRIPTION
A single entityamphetamine product combining the neutral sulfate salts of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine, with the dextroisomer of amphetamine saccharate and 6, I-amphetamine aspartate.
Add to that one other item. There is a 'side effect' little understood yet regarding stimulants. Over long term use they actually cause weight gain. Stimulants like amphetamines drive neuroactive chemicals such as Dopamine. Dopamine works on receptors in adipose tissue increasing resistance to the metabolism of the the adipose tissue. While most amphetamines are known for anorexia there is a unusal result coming out in some studies that attribute presistant fat to dopamine resistance.
MOST PHARMACISTS KNOW OF THIS SIDE EFFECT EVEN IF THEY DON'T COMPLETELY UNDERSTAND THE MECHANISM, which is related to Cholinergic and Adrenergic receptors.
This country must return to priorities of value and not that of impoverishment. Since when do our children come last in priority in this nation?
ADDERALL TABLETS
(Shire US)
5 mg
7.5 mg
10 mg
12.5 mg
15 mg
20 mg
30 mg TABLETS
AMPHETAMINES HAVE A HIGH POTENTIAL FOR ABUSE. ADMINISTRATION OF AMPHETAMINES FOR PROLONGED PERIODS OF TIME MAY LEAD TO DRUG DEPENDENCE AND MUST BE AVOIDED. PARTICULAR ATTENTION SHOULD BE PAID TO THE POSSIBILITY OF SUBJECTS OBTAINING AMPHETAMINES FOR NON THERAPEUTIC USE OR DISTRIBUTION TO OTHERS, AND THE DRUGS SHOULD BE PRESCRIBED OR DISPENSED SPARINGLY.
DESCRIPTION
A single entityamphetamine product combining the neutral sulfate salts of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine, with the dextroisomer of amphetamine saccharate and 6, I-amphetamine aspartate.
Sour Milk Sea by George Harrison
If your life's not right, doesn't satisfy you
Don't get the breaks like some of us do
Better work it out; find where you've gone wrong
Better do it soon as you don't have long
Get out of sour milk sea
You don't belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what's going on there
If you want the most from everything you do
In the shortest time your dreams come true
In no time at all it makes you more aware
Very simple process takes you there
Get out of sour milk sea
You don't belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what's going on there
Looking for release from limitation?
There's nothing much without illumination
Can fool-around with every different cult
There's only one way brings result
Get out of sour milk sea
You don't belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what's going on there
Don't get the breaks like some of us do
Better work it out; find where you've gone wrong
Better do it soon as you don't have long
Get out of sour milk sea
You don't belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what's going on there
If you want the most from everything you do
In the shortest time your dreams come true
In no time at all it makes you more aware
Very simple process takes you there
Get out of sour milk sea
You don't belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what's going on there
Looking for release from limitation?
There's nothing much without illumination
Can fool-around with every different cult
There's only one way brings result
Get out of sour milk sea
You don't belong there
Get back to where you should be
Find out what's going on there
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Natural Disasters
A killer bolting out of the blue
When lightning strikes -- a random, capricious and far more likely occurrence than most people expect -- there's simply no good place to be outdoors.
By Vernon Loeb, Times Staff Writer
FOR the Boy Scouts this summer, lightning struck twice.
In late July, Scouts from St. Helena, Calif., were huddled beneath a tarp in Sequoia National Park during a sudden hail storm when a bolt of lightning hit their hastily strung shelter. A Scout and a leader were killed, and six others were injured.
http://www.latimes.com/travel/outdoors/la-os-lightning16aug16,0,4625756.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=hppromo
60 reported injured in Japan earthquake
By ERIC TALMADGE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Assisted by railway workers, passengers walk on a railway track after getting off from a stranded bullet train near Sendai Station in Sendai Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005 shortly after a powerful magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck northeastern Japan. The quake injured at least 60 people, triggered a small tsunami, collapsed buildings, knocked out power and shook skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo, 300 kilometers (186 miles) to the south. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
SENDAI, Japan -- The earthquake was powerful enough to sway skyscrapers 185 miles away in Tokyo. And with an estimated magnitude of 7.2, it had the potential to cause catastrophic damage. But this time, Japan got lucky.
No one died in the quake that rocked a wide swath of northern Japan on Tuesday. The scene of the worst damage was an indoor pool where part of the roof caved in, injuring a couple dozen swimmers, many of them young children.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Japan%20Earthquake
ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE OFF ANZIO COAST, 2.1 ON RICHTER SCALE
(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Aug.23 - A second earthquake struck Rome's area just before dawn, after the one which occurred yesterday afternoon. It was about 5 am, and this time only scientific apparatuses recorded it: it measured 2.1 on the Richter scale, and the epicentre was again a few miles off Anzio's coast, at a depth of 20-30 km. The quake was expected, it's the usual aftershock. Prof. Enzo Boschi, president of the National Geophysics and Vulcanology Institute, and his assistants, had already predicted it yesterday, not alarmed, because they were sure it would be weaker than yesterday's one, which measured 4.5, felt even in Rome, and which alarmed the people living on the coastline. (AGI) .
231142 AGO 05
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200508231142-1037-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia
Earthquake drill held at area dam
By BARBARA ARRIGONI - Staff Writer
The Enterprise-Record got a rare close look at the East Park Dam in northwestern Colusa County Tuesday, when the Bureau of Reclamation held an emergency drill that imagined a failure of the dam. Usually the public and press are barred from the structure completed in 1910. The dam, upstream from Stony Gorge and Black Butte dams, is part of the bureau's Orland Project. Here, water flows beneath the dam and down a mossy spillway Tuesday. (Bill Husa/Enterprise-Record)
All Chico E-R photos are available here.
WILLOWS - What if there was an earthquake that affected East Park Reservoir - and subsequently Stony Gorge and Black Butte reservoirs in Glenn County?
To test its emergency action plan, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation conducted what was called a functional exercise Tuesday where East Park Reservoir fails following a mild earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.
http://www.chicoer.com/local_news/ci_2967732
Tokyo prepares for big earthquake
TVM 23-08-2005
Tokyo prepares for a big earthquake.
The Tokyo government today offered its residents advice on how to make their homes earthquake-proof, contact relatives through phone bulletin boards during an emergency and stock up on emergency goods in preparation for a large-scale tremor.
The event, in downtown Tokyo, kicked off disaster drills week and follows on the heels of two large earthquakes in recent weeks which have shaken the Japanese capital.
The event is an annual one, but this year, residents are more aware of the potential devastation of earthquakes after one rocked Niigata Prefecture last October injuring more than 3,000 and killing 40.
http://www.maldivesinfo.gov.mv/news.php?newsid=8874
New Research Hones Earthquake Model for Los Angeles Basin; Scientists Identify Five Southern California Faults With Underestimated Seismic Hazard
EL CERRITO, Calif., Aug. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Using computer models compiled by the Southern California Earthquake Center, a pair of University of Massachusetts researchers have made a significant leap in understanding the tectonic puzzle of the Los Angeles Basin.
The new research, published in the latest issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, the premier scientific journal dedicated to earthquake research, also shows that the seismic hazard along five Southern California faults may be underestimated.
The study, "How Sensitive Are Fault-Slip Rates in the Los Angeles Basin to Tectonic Boundary Conditions?" makes significant progress in the extensive and ongoing effort to model the earthquake dynamics of the L.A. Basin. An accurate model will allow better assessment of Southern California's earthquake hazard and better, more cost-effective risk-reduction solutions.
http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050823.065948&time=08%2007%20PDT&year=2005&public=0
No takers for Kutch herbal oral care unit
Sumantra Das / Gandhidham August 24, 2005
Seven months have passed since the launch of Vibrant Gujarat 2005 but no major oral care products company has come forward with even an expression of interest to invest in the earthquake-hit Kutch region's proposed herbal toothpaste and tooth powder manufacturing project.
The total oral care products market size was worth several thousand crores in India and had been growing at 8 to10 per cent every year.The proposed project was offered as an opportunity to all the oral care product manufacturers.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=198144
Earthquake shakes Southern Flinders Ranges
Residents in the Southern Flinders Ranges, north of Adelaide, have reported a strong earthquake in the region.
The earthquake happened just after 1:00pm ACST.
It was followed by three aftershocks.
Gordon Jones from Wilchata Station, 20 kilometres north-east of Carrieton, says he has experienced earthquakes in the area before, but this one was particularly strong.
"I was on the phone at about seven or eight minutes past one and the house shook very violently," he said.
"[The earthquake was] very quick and sudden and very loud and then in the next quarter of an hour there were three aftershocks, not quite so strong."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1445242.htm
Turkey, Greece hit by moderate earthquake
08.24.2005, 06:14 AM
ANKARA (AFX) - A moderate earthquake was recorded this morning in the Aegean Sea near Turkey's northwest coast, but there were no reports of damage.
Istanbul's Kandilli Observatory said the tremor at 6:06 am (0306 GMT) registered 5.1 on the Richter scale, Anatolia News Agency reported.
However, Athens Observatory's Geodynamic Institute reported the quake, with its epicentre between the Greek islands of Lemnos and Lesbos, measured 4.4.
http://www.forbes.com/finance/feeds/afx/2005/08/24/afx2190099.html
Showers and thunderstorms in Southeast
8/24/2005, 10:09 p.m. CT
The Associated Press
(AP) — Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed across parts of the Southeast on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and flash flooding, while dry conditions prevailed in much of the Midwest and West.
Charleston, S.C., received nearly 3 inches of rain. Clemson, S.C., and Hatteras, N.C., each received about 2.5 inches.
Strong storms also developed across the southern Plains and parts of the Mississippi Valley, causing frequent lightning, strong winds, large hail and heavy downpours. Baseball-size hail pounded parts of Higgins, Okla. Wind gusts of 65 mph were recorded in parts of Kansas.
Elsewhere, high pressure brought partly cloudy skies and fair conditions to the Great Lakes, the Ohio and Tennessee valleys and much of the Northeast.
In the West, showers and thunderstorms formed across the High Plains, the central and southern Rockies and the Desert Southwest, but the rainfall remained light. An inch of snow accumulated in West Glacier, Mont.
Mostly sunny skies and warm conditions prevailed in the Pacific Northwest, the Great Basin and California.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday ranged from a low of 30 degrees in Meacham, Ore., to a high of 106 degrees in Palm Springs, Calif.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-1/1124935766144260.xml&storylist=national
Ganahl: Rain Possible On Friday
Cool Temperatures Continue
UPDATED: 3:19 pm EDT August 24, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Central Ohioans can enjoy the dry weather for a few more days.
4 Warn Storm Team meteorologist Jym Ganahl is calling for clearing conditions overnight, with a low of 56.
Thursday will have high clouds, with a high of 84.
Ganahl said there will be a chance of pop-up thundershower on Thursday. The high will be 82 and the low will be 63.
Saturday will have a better chance of thundershowers in the morning. The high will be 81. The low will be 66.
Sunday will be partly cloudy, with a high of 83. The low will be 65.
Ganahl is calling for partly sunny conditions on Monday, with a high of 85 and a low of 66.
Stay with the 4 Warn Storm Team and refresh nbc4i.com for additional weather information
http://www.nbc4i.com/weather/4889250/detail.html
Lightning strikes in Buford area
from staff reports
LAWRENCEVILLE- Tuesday afternoon's thunderstorms kept Gwinnett County Fire Fighters busy. Department spokesman Thomas Rutledge says most of the activity was in the Buford area.
Just before 4:15 p.m., firefighters responded to a lightning strike at a home on Lake Seminole Drive in Buford. Rutledge says they found a smoke odor inside the residence but no fire. No obvious damage was detected by firefighters.
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=95363
Counseling, benefit concert, school supplies planned for tornado victims
Associated Press
WRIGHT -- Counselors, a coal company and several bands have offered to help victims of a tornado that killed two people and destroyed 60 homes here Aug. 12.
Two representatives of the National Organization for Victims Assistance planned to visit Wright to offer mental health services on Wednesday and Thursday. Public sessions were scheduled for victims as well as counselors, social workers, teachers and clergy.
Kennecott Energy, which mines coal in the area and employs many Wright residents, planned to donate 110 backpacks full of school supplies in time for the first day of school.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/08/24/build/wyoming/38-tornado-aid.inc
Floods in Dominica leave two dead, more than 30 missing
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 09:53:04
HAVANA, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Heavy rains in the north of the Dominican Republic caused the overflow of a river, leaving two people dead and more than 30 missing, local authorities said Wednesday.
According to reports from the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, 30 houses were also destroyed in the floods.
Francisco Alvarez, mayor of the northern city of Tamboril, saida neighborhood, mainly inhabited by Haitian immigrants, was destroyed in the floods.
Two women drowned and at least 25 people were injured in the floods, he said.
Meanwhile, Francisco Arias, civil defense director of the northern region, said the government started to distribute food, clothing, mattresses, blankets and other materials for 1,200 families affected by the floods. Enditem
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3400144.htm
Hurricane kills six in Uruguay
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 09:51:08
MONTEVIDEO, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- A hurricane of 175 km per hour killed six people and caused serious damage in south and east Uruguay, according to official sources on Wednesday.
The wind tore roofs and brought down trees and posts along the Uruguayan coasts on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, causing casualties and water-supply interruption and blackouts.
n the country's capital, Montevideo, the fall of a radio-broadcasting antenna in the poor neighborhood of Cerrito killed two people.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3400133.htm
The World According to Walmart
Wal-Mart Says Oil Prices Held Down Profits for Quarter
By ROBEN FARZAD
Published: August 16, 2005
Citing high oil prices, Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, announced its smallest quarterly profit growth in four years and warned that its third-quarter earnings would fall short of analyst estimates, disappointing Wall Street.
The company said that in its second quarter, which ended July 31, earnings rose 5.8 percent to $2.8 billion, or 67 cents a share, compared with $2.7 billion, or 62 cents a share, in the quarter a year earlier.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/16/business/16cnd-walmart.html
Wal-Mart signs string of deals to upgrade image
By Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — In a bid to boost fall and holiday sales, Wal-Mart (WMT) has signed a string of new — and some seemingly unusual — deals.
A Wal-Mart ad in the fall fashion issue of 'Vogue' touts this 'free-spirit' look.
The world's largest retailer just launched a major fall ad campaign in the fashion bible Vogue, signed a multiyear music deal with country crooner Garth Brooks that might include exclusive products and linked with pop music's Destiny's Child for a holiday promotion.
The ties with A-list brands and personalities come as Wal-Mart puts an increased emphasis on its clothing and music offerings. "We've chosen to focus on those areas," says Chief Marketing Officer John Fleming, adding, "We're looking to align with partners that are relevant to our customers."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2005-08-25-wal-mart_x.htm
Wal-Mart Suspect Said Mentally Disturbed
Thursday August 25, 2005 2:46 AM
AP Photo AZRD105
By JOY HEPP and MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press Writers
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - A man accused of gunning down two Wal-Mart employees in a store parking lot - reloading and continuing to fire into the men after they fell - didn't appear to know either victim and had no known vendetta against the company, authorities said.
Court papers released Wednesday indicated the suspect, Ed Liu, 53, was mentally disturbed but gave no further details.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5231808,00.html
Wal-Mart raises sourcing target from India to $300 m
Raghuvir Badrinath / Bangalore August 25, 2005
The Indian textile story is singing. Wal-Mart, the global retail chain, is upwardly revising its sourcing targets from India driven largely by textiles.
The company’s sourcing from India has been growing 30 per cent year on year for the past three years, and it now says it intends to grow this by 40 per cent for the current financial year.
The global major has so far sourced goods worth about $1.2 billion and intends to source goods worth a little over $300 million this fiscal.
A Wal-Mart India spokesperson confirmed this and remarked that textiles from Indian are the major growth driver for the company.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=198225
Unions Plan to Target Wal-Mart Worldwide
By Alonso Soto
Reuters
CHICAGO -- Representatives from some 900 unions said Tuesday that they would start organizing workers in several countries to pressure multinational companies like retailer Wal-Mart for better benefits and wages.
"We're trying to use globalization to raise working standards," Stephen Lerner, a director with the Service Employees International Union, said on the sidelines of an international union convention held in Chicago. "Global companies have global responsibilities," he added.
Union leaders representing 15.5 million workers are meeting this week from Monday to Thursday under the banner of Union Network International, a Swiss-based federation, to devise strategies to organize workers to press for better pay, health care and other benefits.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/25/256.html
U.S. Stock-Index Futures Decline as Oil Gains; Wal-Mart Falls
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures declined as oil prices rose and before economic reports that may spur concern higher energy costs are slowing the economy.
Shares of DuPont Co., the third-biggest U.S. chemical maker, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, dropped.
The price of oil ``takes away some of the upside for investing in equities,'' said John Haynes, who helps manage $11.5 billion as U.S. equity strategist at Carr Sheppards Crosthwaite Ltd. in London. ``There must come a tipping point for the consumer, where a sufficient part of their purchasing power is removed.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=axjxSVpd9ees&refer=top_world_news
Genetics
Myriad Genetics shares rise on upgrade
AUG. 24 1:38 P.M. ET Myriad Genetics Inc. shares rose Wednesday after Merrill Lynch upgraded the company to a "Buy" rating, citing strong predictive medicine growth and an expected price increase.
The Salt Lake City, Utah-based company -- which uses gene maps to analyze family histories for diseases -- is expected to show strong predictive medicine revenue with an anticipated price hike of 7 percent starting early next year. Merrill Lynch also said gross margins are expected to improve further.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8C6B1800.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db
Before the Bell - Myriad Genetics, RF Micro rise
Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:27 AM ET
(Adds RF Micro, updates prices)
NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters) - RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD.O: Quote, Profile, Research) shares rose 5.4 percent before the bell on Wednesday after Lehman Brothers raised its rating on the mobile phone chip maker to "overweight" from "neutral," MarketWatch reported on its Web site.[ID:nBNG13017]
RF Micro shares rose 33 cents to $6.49 on the Inet electronic brokerage system after closing at $6.16 on Nasdaq.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=hotStocksNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20050824:MTFH75091_2005-08-24_12-27-31_N24370666:1
Kimberly Garrison Why is your workout not working?... & more questions
THANK YOU for the e-mail comments, suggestions and questions. This week's column answers some of your most frequently asked questions.
The secret to fit abs
Q: What is the secret to getting sexy abs? I do a series of abdominal exercises for 30 to 45 minutes for four to five days a week and still I don't see so much as a ripple.
- John W.
A: Ahhhh... the abs, America's most coveted body part. Well, John, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news first... you'll never get the six-pack or lose those love handles doing ab exercises alone. There is no single exercise to give you a slamming six-pack.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/12459741.htm
end
A killer bolting out of the blue
When lightning strikes -- a random, capricious and far more likely occurrence than most people expect -- there's simply no good place to be outdoors.
By Vernon Loeb, Times Staff Writer
FOR the Boy Scouts this summer, lightning struck twice.
In late July, Scouts from St. Helena, Calif., were huddled beneath a tarp in Sequoia National Park during a sudden hail storm when a bolt of lightning hit their hastily strung shelter. A Scout and a leader were killed, and six others were injured.
http://www.latimes.com/travel/outdoors/la-os-lightning16aug16,0,4625756.story?coll=la-home-headlines&track=hppromo
60 reported injured in Japan earthquake
By ERIC TALMADGE
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Assisted by railway workers, passengers walk on a railway track after getting off from a stranded bullet train near Sendai Station in Sendai Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2005 shortly after a powerful magnitude-7.2 earthquake struck northeastern Japan. The quake injured at least 60 people, triggered a small tsunami, collapsed buildings, knocked out power and shook skyscrapers as far away as Tokyo, 300 kilometers (186 miles) to the south. (AP Photo/Kyodo News)
SENDAI, Japan -- The earthquake was powerful enough to sway skyscrapers 185 miles away in Tokyo. And with an estimated magnitude of 7.2, it had the potential to cause catastrophic damage. But this time, Japan got lucky.
No one died in the quake that rocked a wide swath of northern Japan on Tuesday. The scene of the worst damage was an indoor pool where part of the roof caved in, injuring a couple dozen swimmers, many of them young children.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Japan%20Earthquake
ANOTHER EARTHQUAKE OFF ANZIO COAST, 2.1 ON RICHTER SCALE
(AGI) - Rome, Italy, Aug.23 - A second earthquake struck Rome's area just before dawn, after the one which occurred yesterday afternoon. It was about 5 am, and this time only scientific apparatuses recorded it: it measured 2.1 on the Richter scale, and the epicentre was again a few miles off Anzio's coast, at a depth of 20-30 km. The quake was expected, it's the usual aftershock. Prof. Enzo Boschi, president of the National Geophysics and Vulcanology Institute, and his assistants, had already predicted it yesterday, not alarmed, because they were sure it would be weaker than yesterday's one, which measured 4.5, felt even in Rome, and which alarmed the people living on the coastline. (AGI) .
231142 AGO 05
http://www.agi.it/english/news.pl?doc=200508231142-1037-RT1-CRO-0-NF11&page=0&id=agionline-eng.oggitalia
Earthquake drill held at area dam
By BARBARA ARRIGONI - Staff Writer
The Enterprise-Record got a rare close look at the East Park Dam in northwestern Colusa County Tuesday, when the Bureau of Reclamation held an emergency drill that imagined a failure of the dam. Usually the public and press are barred from the structure completed in 1910. The dam, upstream from Stony Gorge and Black Butte dams, is part of the bureau's Orland Project. Here, water flows beneath the dam and down a mossy spillway Tuesday. (Bill Husa/Enterprise-Record)
All Chico E-R photos are available here.
WILLOWS - What if there was an earthquake that affected East Park Reservoir - and subsequently Stony Gorge and Black Butte reservoirs in Glenn County?
To test its emergency action plan, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation conducted what was called a functional exercise Tuesday where East Park Reservoir fails following a mild earthquake and subsequent aftershocks.
http://www.chicoer.com/local_news/ci_2967732
Tokyo prepares for big earthquake
TVM 23-08-2005
Tokyo prepares for a big earthquake.
The Tokyo government today offered its residents advice on how to make their homes earthquake-proof, contact relatives through phone bulletin boards during an emergency and stock up on emergency goods in preparation for a large-scale tremor.
The event, in downtown Tokyo, kicked off disaster drills week and follows on the heels of two large earthquakes in recent weeks which have shaken the Japanese capital.
The event is an annual one, but this year, residents are more aware of the potential devastation of earthquakes after one rocked Niigata Prefecture last October injuring more than 3,000 and killing 40.
http://www.maldivesinfo.gov.mv/news.php?newsid=8874
New Research Hones Earthquake Model for Los Angeles Basin; Scientists Identify Five Southern California Faults With Underestimated Seismic Hazard
EL CERRITO, Calif., Aug. 23 (AScribe Newswire) -- Using computer models compiled by the Southern California Earthquake Center, a pair of University of Massachusetts researchers have made a significant leap in understanding the tectonic puzzle of the Los Angeles Basin.
The new research, published in the latest issue of the Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, the premier scientific journal dedicated to earthquake research, also shows that the seismic hazard along five Southern California faults may be underestimated.
The study, "How Sensitive Are Fault-Slip Rates in the Los Angeles Basin to Tectonic Boundary Conditions?" makes significant progress in the extensive and ongoing effort to model the earthquake dynamics of the L.A. Basin. An accurate model will allow better assessment of Southern California's earthquake hazard and better, more cost-effective risk-reduction solutions.
http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20050823.065948&time=08%2007%20PDT&year=2005&public=0
No takers for Kutch herbal oral care unit
Sumantra Das / Gandhidham August 24, 2005
Seven months have passed since the launch of Vibrant Gujarat 2005 but no major oral care products company has come forward with even an expression of interest to invest in the earthquake-hit Kutch region's proposed herbal toothpaste and tooth powder manufacturing project.
The total oral care products market size was worth several thousand crores in India and had been growing at 8 to10 per cent every year.The proposed project was offered as an opportunity to all the oral care product manufacturers.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=198144
Earthquake shakes Southern Flinders Ranges
Residents in the Southern Flinders Ranges, north of Adelaide, have reported a strong earthquake in the region.
The earthquake happened just after 1:00pm ACST.
It was followed by three aftershocks.
Gordon Jones from Wilchata Station, 20 kilometres north-east of Carrieton, says he has experienced earthquakes in the area before, but this one was particularly strong.
"I was on the phone at about seven or eight minutes past one and the house shook very violently," he said.
"[The earthquake was] very quick and sudden and very loud and then in the next quarter of an hour there were three aftershocks, not quite so strong."
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200508/s1445242.htm
Turkey, Greece hit by moderate earthquake
08.24.2005, 06:14 AM
ANKARA (AFX) - A moderate earthquake was recorded this morning in the Aegean Sea near Turkey's northwest coast, but there were no reports of damage.
Istanbul's Kandilli Observatory said the tremor at 6:06 am (0306 GMT) registered 5.1 on the Richter scale, Anatolia News Agency reported.
However, Athens Observatory's Geodynamic Institute reported the quake, with its epicentre between the Greek islands of Lemnos and Lesbos, measured 4.4.
http://www.forbes.com/finance/feeds/afx/2005/08/24/afx2190099.html
Showers and thunderstorms in Southeast
8/24/2005, 10:09 p.m. CT
The Associated Press
(AP) — Scattered showers and thunderstorms developed across parts of the Southeast on Wednesday, bringing heavy rain and flash flooding, while dry conditions prevailed in much of the Midwest and West.
Charleston, S.C., received nearly 3 inches of rain. Clemson, S.C., and Hatteras, N.C., each received about 2.5 inches.
Strong storms also developed across the southern Plains and parts of the Mississippi Valley, causing frequent lightning, strong winds, large hail and heavy downpours. Baseball-size hail pounded parts of Higgins, Okla. Wind gusts of 65 mph were recorded in parts of Kansas.
Elsewhere, high pressure brought partly cloudy skies and fair conditions to the Great Lakes, the Ohio and Tennessee valleys and much of the Northeast.
In the West, showers and thunderstorms formed across the High Plains, the central and southern Rockies and the Desert Southwest, but the rainfall remained light. An inch of snow accumulated in West Glacier, Mont.
Mostly sunny skies and warm conditions prevailed in the Pacific Northwest, the Great Basin and California.
Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Wednesday ranged from a low of 30 degrees in Meacham, Ore., to a high of 106 degrees in Palm Springs, Calif.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
http://www.nola.com/newsflash/national/index.ssf?/base/national-1/1124935766144260.xml&storylist=national
Ganahl: Rain Possible On Friday
Cool Temperatures Continue
UPDATED: 3:19 pm EDT August 24, 2005
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Central Ohioans can enjoy the dry weather for a few more days.
4 Warn Storm Team meteorologist Jym Ganahl is calling for clearing conditions overnight, with a low of 56.
Thursday will have high clouds, with a high of 84.
Ganahl said there will be a chance of pop-up thundershower on Thursday. The high will be 82 and the low will be 63.
Saturday will have a better chance of thundershowers in the morning. The high will be 81. The low will be 66.
Sunday will be partly cloudy, with a high of 83. The low will be 65.
Ganahl is calling for partly sunny conditions on Monday, with a high of 85 and a low of 66.
Stay with the 4 Warn Storm Team and refresh nbc4i.com for additional weather information
http://www.nbc4i.com/weather/4889250/detail.html
Lightning strikes in Buford area
from staff reports
LAWRENCEVILLE- Tuesday afternoon's thunderstorms kept Gwinnett County Fire Fighters busy. Department spokesman Thomas Rutledge says most of the activity was in the Buford area.
Just before 4:15 p.m., firefighters responded to a lightning strike at a home on Lake Seminole Drive in Buford. Rutledge says they found a smoke odor inside the residence but no fire. No obvious damage was detected by firefighters.
http://www.accessnorthga.com/news/hall/newfullstory.asp?ID=95363
Counseling, benefit concert, school supplies planned for tornado victims
Associated Press
WRIGHT -- Counselors, a coal company and several bands have offered to help victims of a tornado that killed two people and destroyed 60 homes here Aug. 12.
Two representatives of the National Organization for Victims Assistance planned to visit Wright to offer mental health services on Wednesday and Thursday. Public sessions were scheduled for victims as well as counselors, social workers, teachers and clergy.
Kennecott Energy, which mines coal in the area and employs many Wright residents, planned to donate 110 backpacks full of school supplies in time for the first day of school.
http://www.billingsgazette.com/index.php?id=1&display=rednews/2005/08/24/build/wyoming/38-tornado-aid.inc
Floods in Dominica leave two dead, more than 30 missing
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 09:53:04
HAVANA, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- Heavy rains in the north of the Dominican Republic caused the overflow of a river, leaving two people dead and more than 30 missing, local authorities said Wednesday.
According to reports from the Dominican capital of Santo Domingo, 30 houses were also destroyed in the floods.
Francisco Alvarez, mayor of the northern city of Tamboril, saida neighborhood, mainly inhabited by Haitian immigrants, was destroyed in the floods.
Two women drowned and at least 25 people were injured in the floods, he said.
Meanwhile, Francisco Arias, civil defense director of the northern region, said the government started to distribute food, clothing, mattresses, blankets and other materials for 1,200 families affected by the floods. Enditem
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3400144.htm
Hurricane kills six in Uruguay
www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-25 09:51:08
MONTEVIDEO, Aug. 24 (Xinhuanet) -- A hurricane of 175 km per hour killed six people and caused serious damage in south and east Uruguay, according to official sources on Wednesday.
The wind tore roofs and brought down trees and posts along the Uruguayan coasts on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, causing casualties and water-supply interruption and blackouts.
n the country's capital, Montevideo, the fall of a radio-broadcasting antenna in the poor neighborhood of Cerrito killed two people.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2005-08/25/content_3400133.htm
The World According to Walmart
Wal-Mart Says Oil Prices Held Down Profits for Quarter
By ROBEN FARZAD
Published: August 16, 2005
Citing high oil prices, Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, announced its smallest quarterly profit growth in four years and warned that its third-quarter earnings would fall short of analyst estimates, disappointing Wall Street.
The company said that in its second quarter, which ended July 31, earnings rose 5.8 percent to $2.8 billion, or 67 cents a share, compared with $2.7 billion, or 62 cents a share, in the quarter a year earlier.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/16/business/16cnd-walmart.html
Wal-Mart signs string of deals to upgrade image
By Laura Petrecca, USA TODAY
NEW YORK — In a bid to boost fall and holiday sales, Wal-Mart (WMT) has signed a string of new — and some seemingly unusual — deals.
A Wal-Mart ad in the fall fashion issue of 'Vogue' touts this 'free-spirit' look.
The world's largest retailer just launched a major fall ad campaign in the fashion bible Vogue, signed a multiyear music deal with country crooner Garth Brooks that might include exclusive products and linked with pop music's Destiny's Child for a holiday promotion.
The ties with A-list brands and personalities come as Wal-Mart puts an increased emphasis on its clothing and music offerings. "We've chosen to focus on those areas," says Chief Marketing Officer John Fleming, adding, "We're looking to align with partners that are relevant to our customers."
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/retail/2005-08-25-wal-mart_x.htm
Wal-Mart Suspect Said Mentally Disturbed
Thursday August 25, 2005 2:46 AM
AP Photo AZRD105
By JOY HEPP and MICHELLE ROBERTS
Associated Press Writers
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) - A man accused of gunning down two Wal-Mart employees in a store parking lot - reloading and continuing to fire into the men after they fell - didn't appear to know either victim and had no known vendetta against the company, authorities said.
Court papers released Wednesday indicated the suspect, Ed Liu, 53, was mentally disturbed but gave no further details.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5231808,00.html
Wal-Mart raises sourcing target from India to $300 m
Raghuvir Badrinath / Bangalore August 25, 2005
The Indian textile story is singing. Wal-Mart, the global retail chain, is upwardly revising its sourcing targets from India driven largely by textiles.
The company’s sourcing from India has been growing 30 per cent year on year for the past three years, and it now says it intends to grow this by 40 per cent for the current financial year.
The global major has so far sourced goods worth about $1.2 billion and intends to source goods worth a little over $300 million this fiscal.
A Wal-Mart India spokesperson confirmed this and remarked that textiles from Indian are the major growth driver for the company.
http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage.php?storyflag=y&leftnm=lmnu1&leftindx=1&lselect=1&chklogin=N&autono=198225
Unions Plan to Target Wal-Mart Worldwide
By Alonso Soto
Reuters
CHICAGO -- Representatives from some 900 unions said Tuesday that they would start organizing workers in several countries to pressure multinational companies like retailer Wal-Mart for better benefits and wages.
"We're trying to use globalization to raise working standards," Stephen Lerner, a director with the Service Employees International Union, said on the sidelines of an international union convention held in Chicago. "Global companies have global responsibilities," he added.
Union leaders representing 15.5 million workers are meeting this week from Monday to Thursday under the banner of Union Network International, a Swiss-based federation, to devise strategies to organize workers to press for better pay, health care and other benefits.
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2005/08/25/256.html
U.S. Stock-Index Futures Decline as Oil Gains; Wal-Mart Falls
Aug. 24 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stock-index futures declined as oil prices rose and before economic reports that may spur concern higher energy costs are slowing the economy.
Shares of DuPont Co., the third-biggest U.S. chemical maker, and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, dropped.
The price of oil ``takes away some of the upside for investing in equities,'' said John Haynes, who helps manage $11.5 billion as U.S. equity strategist at Carr Sheppards Crosthwaite Ltd. in London. ``There must come a tipping point for the consumer, where a sufficient part of their purchasing power is removed.''
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=axjxSVpd9ees&refer=top_world_news
Genetics
Myriad Genetics shares rise on upgrade
AUG. 24 1:38 P.M. ET Myriad Genetics Inc. shares rose Wednesday after Merrill Lynch upgraded the company to a "Buy" rating, citing strong predictive medicine growth and an expected price increase.
The Salt Lake City, Utah-based company -- which uses gene maps to analyze family histories for diseases -- is expected to show strong predictive medicine revenue with an anticipated price hike of 7 percent starting early next year. Merrill Lynch also said gross margins are expected to improve further.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8C6B1800.htm?campaign_id=apn_home_down&chan=db
Before the Bell - Myriad Genetics, RF Micro rise
Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:27 AM ET
(Adds RF Micro, updates prices)
NEW YORK, Aug 24 (Reuters) - RF Micro Devices Inc. (RFMD.O: Quote, Profile, Research) shares rose 5.4 percent before the bell on Wednesday after Lehman Brothers raised its rating on the mobile phone chip maker to "overweight" from "neutral," MarketWatch reported on its Web site.[ID:nBNG13017]
RF Micro shares rose 33 cents to $6.49 on the Inet electronic brokerage system after closing at $6.16 on Nasdaq.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=hotStocksNews&storyID=URI:urn:newsml:reuters.com:20050824:MTFH75091_2005-08-24_12-27-31_N24370666:1
Kimberly Garrison Why is your workout not working?... & more questions
THANK YOU for the e-mail comments, suggestions and questions. This week's column answers some of your most frequently asked questions.
The secret to fit abs
Q: What is the secret to getting sexy abs? I do a series of abdominal exercises for 30 to 45 minutes for four to five days a week and still I don't see so much as a ripple.
- John W.
A: Ahhhh... the abs, America's most coveted body part. Well, John, I've got good news and bad news. The bad news first... you'll never get the six-pack or lose those love handles doing ab exercises alone. There is no single exercise to give you a slamming six-pack.
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/12459741.htm
end
Katrina Warning
conti2005 - 12:41 AM ET August 27, 2005
(#58255 of 59958)Impeach Bush and Cheney ! Rove is their 'Front Man'
Just so you know the extreme the current system of "Katrina" actually is.
This is a UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite. Current real time.
( These satellites no longer apply to these observations. )
http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_hem.ht [...]
If you will direct your attention to the Gulf of Mexico you will see the 'vortex eddy' named Hurricane Katrina.
Kindly note the ACTUAL size of this system. It extents from the most southern point at the bottom of the picture over South America. The 'fringe' of the system extends west to the equator and travels with the equator. However, it also swings north.
If you take your cursor and followo the very fringes of this system it will take you out to the Pacific about two inches west on this picture then the 'light' color 'white' swings north and then over the border of Mexico and the USA it swings northeast.
Now if you have followed that, you'll see the 'center of the storm' over the Gulf and that 'sorta' Tornado like STRUCTURE in the middle of the Gulf. That is the path of Katrina. Katrina is an eddy. If you accept that premise then what you need to understand it that it will be sucked along that path right up into that vortex.
If you can follow the white clouds from Mexico to northwest Texas, Oklahoma into Missouri and then takes a dip into Tenneessee, where it again returns in a northward pattern to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Circle awaits there.
This satellite won't stay like this long but it certainly is a very clear indication that the 'picture' one is looking at on the television screen is nothing compared to the entire system and then people don't understand why the 'locals' aren't more specific about the storm.
(The satellite no longer applies to these observations.)
http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_hem_loop.html
The fleeting reality of Global Warming.
Ain't just a hurricane.
(#58255 of 59958)Impeach Bush and Cheney ! Rove is their 'Front Man'
Just so you know the extreme the current system of "Katrina" actually is.
This is a UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite. Current real time.
( These satellites no longer apply to these observations. )
http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_hem.ht [...]
If you will direct your attention to the Gulf of Mexico you will see the 'vortex eddy' named Hurricane Katrina.
Kindly note the ACTUAL size of this system. It extents from the most southern point at the bottom of the picture over South America. The 'fringe' of the system extends west to the equator and travels with the equator. However, it also swings north.
If you take your cursor and followo the very fringes of this system it will take you out to the Pacific about two inches west on this picture then the 'light' color 'white' swings north and then over the border of Mexico and the USA it swings northeast.
Now if you have followed that, you'll see the 'center of the storm' over the Gulf and that 'sorta' Tornado like STRUCTURE in the middle of the Gulf. That is the path of Katrina. Katrina is an eddy. If you accept that premise then what you need to understand it that it will be sucked along that path right up into that vortex.
If you can follow the white clouds from Mexico to northwest Texas, Oklahoma into Missouri and then takes a dip into Tenneessee, where it again returns in a northward pattern to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Circle awaits there.
This satellite won't stay like this long but it certainly is a very clear indication that the 'picture' one is looking at on the television screen is nothing compared to the entire system and then people don't understand why the 'locals' aren't more specific about the storm.
(The satellite no longer applies to these observations.)
http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_wv_hem_loop.html
The fleeting reality of Global Warming.
Ain't just a hurricane.
Friday, August 26, 2005
August 25, 2005. Incoming !! Some storm, huh? They should have known. I told them it was the eddy of an ionic vortex. It was CLOSE to picking up velocity when it approached Florida. These are different. These aren't hurricanes. They are vortex eddies. Entirely different properties in that they are feed by the system they are a part of. Far more unpredictable.
Morning Papers - It's Origins
Jailed Journalists
Independent journalists demand liberty for jailed colleague
HAVANA, August 22 (www.cubanet.org) - Colleagues of Oscar Mario González Pérez, an independent journalist held by police for the past month, have issued a public appeal for his release.
"The world should not allow Cuba to continue jailing journalists just because they are journalists," said a public statement.
"If this man is condemned to prison, as occurred with other colleagues in 2003, the number of journalists serving long sentences in Cuba will be increased to 22," the statement said.
Those signing were Amarilis C. Rey, Tania Díaz Castro, Ernesto Roque, Juan González Febles, Beatriz del Carmen Pedroso, Ana Rosa Veitía, and Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/ago05/23e4.htm
PAKISTAN: Sindh bans three newspapers, editor jailed
New York, August 23, 2005—The government of the southern province of Sindh banned three Karachi-based weekly newspapers last week accusing them of creating “sectarian extremism and hatred.”
Officials withdrew the publication permits of the three weeklies on August 15 because they published “objectionable material” that caused “danger to public safety/order.”
Police had already raided the offices of Zarb-i-Islam, Friday Special, and Wajood on July 19, shutting down the publications and arresting several journalists including Wajood editor and publisher Mohammad Tahir, who is still in jail.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Pak23aug05na.html
Reporters told they face jail
Christine Caulfield
24aug05
A JUDGE has warned two senior Herald Sun journalists they could be jailed for refusing to reveal the name of a source who blew the whistle on a controversial federal government policy.
Reporters Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus will be formally charged with contempt of court after declining to give evidence identifying the source of documents revealing a $500 million rebuff to war veterans.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16364526%255E2862,00.html
Journalists under threat
Michael DeGolyer
August 25, 2005
Press freedom is slipping just when it is most needed to ensure healthy governance
The Chief Executive must have felt like Daniel entering the lion's den Wednesday when he ventured among journalists at the Foreign Correspondents' Club. Escaping harm after being thrown into a den of starving lions is so rare it made it into the Bible as divine intervention.
The biblical story has the hero walking unhurt among ravenous beasts. But Daniel did not try to eat with the lions. That might have made things turn out differently, especially since Daniel, like Donald, was intended as the main course.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Opinion/GH25Df01.html
Film directors and writers call for release of jailed journalist
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday August 25, 2005
The Guardian
More than two dozen prominent European film directors, writers and journalists have published an open letter calling for the release of Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter who is today spending her 50th day in jail for refusing to identify confidential sources.
The film directors Pedro Almodovar and Wim Wenders, the German writer Günter Grass and the former BBC reporter Kate Adie were among the 27 signatories of the letter, which called Miller's imprisonment "more than a crime: it's a miscarriage of justice".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1555907,00.html
Europeans join campaign to free jailed US journalist
Leading figures from the arts and media in Europe have joined forces to appeal to Washington for the release of Judith Miller, the veteran New York Times reporter who yesterday marked her 50th day in prison for refusing to testify in the inquiry into the leaking of the identity of the CIA operative Valerie Plame.
"At a time when the most extremist ideas are gaining ground, and when growing numbers of reporters are being killed or taken hostage, arresting a journalist in a democratic country is more than a crime: it's a miscarriage of justice," the group said. Its 27 members include the Spanish film director, Pedro Almódovar, the German literary Nobel laureate, Gunther Grass, and the former chief BBC reporter, Kate Adie.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article307976.ece
… isms
Jewish group denounces video on Auschwitz
By JOCELYN GECKER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PARIS -- An Internet video that depicts the Nazi death camp Auschwitz as a rave party drew sharp criticism Wednesday from a Jewish rights group, which urged authorities to have it removed from European Web sites.
The three-minute video titled "Housewitz" - a pun on house music and Auschwitz - casts Nazi soldiers as DJs. It alternates black-and-white still photos of Holocaust atrocities with color images of youths at an outdoor party. And it advertises a "Free taxi ride home," showing a wheelbarrow full of corpses.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Auschwitz%20Video
Gender-segregated classes for visiting Saudi professors spark faculty complaint
By Zinie Chen Sampson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:03 p.m. August 10, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. – The creation of gender-segregated classes at Virginia Tech for visiting faculty from Saudi Arabia is drawing complaints from professors, who say a state-supported school shouldn't promote discrimination.
King Abdulaziz University paid Virginia Tech $246,000 to design and operate the faculty development program this summer.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050810-1503-virginiatech-saudis.html
Seminar On Gender Issues Continues
Luanda, Aug 10 - The seminar on gender issues that started Tuesday in Luanda under the NGO "Angola2000", continues today its work of sensitising members of various organisations on human rights matters.
The seminar is also to inform the participants on the importance of resolution of conflicts through dialogue and endeavour to secure women with full representation and participation in decision making in various sectors of activity.
On the first day of the meeting, the participants discussed issues related to gender discrimination at workplace, at home, society and women role in the society. Sixteen NGOs are attending the seminar.
http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=364340
Gender equality taking root
Females must believe in themselves, says commission, which has also helped to educate men
August 10, 2005
By Linda Mbongwa and Poloko Tau
The lives of women have improved since the birth of the new South Africa - but the struggle continues as fresh challenges present themselves.
Chana Mojake, CEO of the Commission on Gender Equality, (CGE), said the commission dealt with between 500 and 700 complaints from the public concerning issues of equality every year.
She was speaking in Johannesburg on the eve of Women's Day.
In the past, Mojake said, men used to dominate both at home and in the workplace, but through the commission's efforts to advance gender equality, most women now knew about their rights.
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2831544
Nadia in tears after Oz housemates discuss gender
Filed: 19:39, Aug 10 2005 by Neil Wilkes
Nadia was left in tears on her first night in the Aussie Big Brother house after the issue of her gender was raised.
All three remaining housemates - Greg, Tim and Vesna - had had suspicions that Nadia was not born as a female but Vesna decided to confront the question as the four sat in the jacuzzi.
As she stuttered around the subject, Greg cut to the chase and asked: "Are you a transexual, Nadia?"
http://bigbrother.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds8505.html
Women can transform state of gender relations
RECENTLY I was invited to Mendi by “Meri I Kirap Sapotim” (MIKS) group to conduct a session on freedom and empowerment to a group composed mainly of women.
The workshop was part of an NGO’s efforts to create greater awareness of the limited preferential voting (PLV) system, while bolstering women’s rights, good governance and active public participation.
This workshop was held in anticipation for the coming Mendi by-election.
http://www.thenational.com.pg/0811/column6.htm
Society's ambivalence about nudity emerges in reactions to art
‘Sensation still works on people. So there is always someone who aims for that first time.'
August 24, 2005 ㅡ The price for nudity was more severe than anyone had expected. Late last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Kim Un-gyu, an artist and middle-school art instructor who posted a nude photo of himself and his pregnant wife on his Web site, violated the country's anti-pornography laws. A few days later, two punk rock musicians from The Couch who exposed themselves during a live television broadcast were arrested for violating public performance laws.
While the two incidents stirred media outrage for challenging social norms over public nudity, many in the cultural sphere argued that the cases should have been handled differently, taking into account the artists' intentions in using nudity and their way of displaying it.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200508/23/200508232028293139900091009101.html
Study: Race disparity during traffic stops
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writer August 24, 2005
WASHINGTON --Black, Hispanic and white motorists are equally likely to be pulled over by police, but blacks and Hispanics are much more likely to be searched, handcuffed, arrested and subjected to force or the threat of it, a Justice Department study has found.
The study, by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, was completed last April and posted on the agency's Web site after Bush administration officials disagreed over whether a press release should mention the racial disparities.
Traffic stops have become a politically volatile issue as minority groups have complained that many stops and searches are based on race rather than on legitimate suspicions.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/24/study_race_disparity_during_traffic_stops/
WRETCHED SETTLERS.
DO ANYONE NEED THAT KIND OF HATE?
NO, of course not.
Transparent Sham in Gaza
Fawaz Turki, disinherited@yahoo.com
So the wretched settlers — all 8,500 of them who had occupied 20 percent of Gaza’s choice land to build their colonies on — have pulled out, leaving a desolate landscape of rubble and garbage behind. But whatever you do, hold the celebrations, and think not of what has changed, but what has not. The settlers may have folded their tents, as it were, and headed north — for many, to settle on expropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank — but the military occupation remains very much in place, determining the economic and social future of the strip.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=68933&d=24&m=8&y=2005
Hydro One denies racial discrimination
Canadian Press
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
CREDIT: (CP file photo/Frank Gunn)
Hydro One adamantly denies allegations it's firing workers based on race.
TORONTO -- Hydro One is strongly denying suggestions by the union that represents its striking engineers that it fired a group of young employees based on their ethnicity.
“There have been several allegations from (the union) that we're trying to go after certain ethnic groups or new immigrants,” spokesman Peter Gregg said Wednesday after the union alluded to discrimination in its latest salvo against the utility.
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=dda6b4eb-c411-488c-a39c-2a84c89be480
Indian lawyer fights race discrimination
Nabanita Sircar
London,
An Indian lawyer is fighting a race discrimination case at an employment tribunal against Mudassar Arani, who is the solicitor for a terror suspect for a UK bomb plot. The suspect has given evidence in support of his solicitor.
Ms Arani, representing terror suspect Omar Rehman, who also represents cleric Abu Hamza, has been accused of being a foul-mouthed racist bully who exploits poorly paid employees.
Her former paralegal Jitendra Sharma, 40, has told Watford Employment Tribunal that Arani made his life a misery because he was Indian.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_1471059,00430004.htm
Fresno State Responds to Lawsuit
August 24, 2005 — Fresno State is responding to the lawsuit filed by fired women's basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein.
The lawsuit against the university claims Johnson-Klein has been the victim of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and inappropriate touching.
Fresno State has not yet been served with the lawsuit, but in a short statement, the school said Stacy Johnson-Klein was terminated after a careful investigation.
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/news/082405_nw_johnson_klein.html
Crime big worry for ethnic groups
A photo of slain dairy owner, Bhagubhai Vaghela on stage at a meeting to express the Asian community's safety concerns in Auckland. Picture / Paul Estcourt
25.08.05
Law and order and immigration are top issues among New Zealand's ethnic communities this election, although a new voter dynamic is emerging among the young, writes
Errol Kiong.
An old scab was ripped open to bleed afresh with the killing of Auckland minimart worker Bhagubhai Vaghela in June.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10342302
Global Warming
Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit
By DAVID KRAVETS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 24, 2005; 9:52 PM
SAN FRANCISCO -- Environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they back financially contribute to global warming, a judge has ruled.
A coalition of environmental groups sued two government agencies that provide loans and insure billions of dollars of U.S. investors' money for development projects overseas. Many are power plants that emit greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide that are believed to be a leading cause of global warming.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082402080.html
Court allows suit linking U.S. aid, global warming
Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:00 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Two environmental groups and four U.S. cities may sue U.S. federal agencies which finance overseas projects which they say contribute to global warming, a federal judge has ruled.
The two federal agencies -- Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank of the United States -- had asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to dismiss the lawsuit.
It was brought by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the cities of Boulder, Colorado, Santa Monica, California, Oakland, California and Arcata, California.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-08-25T010105Z_01_N24507450_RTRIDST_0_LIFE-GLOBALWARMING.XML
N.H. still ranks low in efforts to reduce global warming
By COLIN MANNING
:N.H. Statehouse Writer
statehouse@fosters.com
PORTSMOUTH -- New Hampshire is still at the “back of the class” when it comes to its efforts for reducing global warming.
A coalition of environmental groups released its global warming report card on Tuesday with New Hampshire receiving a C-, once again giving the state the dubious distinction of having the lowest grade in New England. While the grade was the lowest of the six New England states, New Hampshire did improve on the previous year's grade of a D+. Meanwhile, Maine had one of the better scores in the region with a B-. It marked a noticeable improvement for Maine which last year received a C.
http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/NEWS0202/50824062/-1/CITIZEN
Global warming: The flaw in the thaw
Campaigners have seized upon the world's shrinking glaciers as proof of global warming. But there is more to it than that, reports Fred Pearce
A SNOW-CAPPED mountain on the equator? "Impossible," declared the learned gentlemen of the Royal Geographical Society in London. In 1848, the Swiss missionary and explorer Johannes Rebmann had become the first European to gaze upon the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro. But when his account reached London, some of the society's members refused to believe him. One even suggested that Rebmann's eyesight must be deficient.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18725141.500
Meteor dust obscures climate change views
By Deborah Smith, Science Editor
August 25, 2005 - 7:16AM
When a meteor the size of a small house exploded with the force of an atomic bomb high above the remote Antarctic coast last year there was no one to witness the fireball or hear the sonic booms.
The nearest people in Antarctica were 900 kilometres away, too distant to observe what would have appeared like a second sun streaking across the cold afternoon sky.
"Only the penguins would have seen it," said Andrew Klekociuk, of the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/meteor-dust-obscures-climate-change-views/2005/08/25/1124562946827.html
Nine states plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions
Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:31 PM BST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials in nine Northeastern U.S. states have reached a preliminary agreement to cap and then cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by 10 percent by 2020, a Delaware official said on Wednesday.
If the agreement is made final, it would be the first of its kind in the United States. The Bush administration has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a greenhouse gas reduction plan that has been adopted by more than 150 other countries.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-08-24T193155Z_01_DIT422372_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT-EMISSIONS-DC.XML
end
Independent journalists demand liberty for jailed colleague
HAVANA, August 22 (www.cubanet.org) - Colleagues of Oscar Mario González Pérez, an independent journalist held by police for the past month, have issued a public appeal for his release.
"The world should not allow Cuba to continue jailing journalists just because they are journalists," said a public statement.
"If this man is condemned to prison, as occurred with other colleagues in 2003, the number of journalists serving long sentences in Cuba will be increased to 22," the statement said.
Those signing were Amarilis C. Rey, Tania Díaz Castro, Ernesto Roque, Juan González Febles, Beatriz del Carmen Pedroso, Ana Rosa Veitía, and Julio César Gálvez Rodríguez.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y05/ago05/23e4.htm
PAKISTAN: Sindh bans three newspapers, editor jailed
New York, August 23, 2005—The government of the southern province of Sindh banned three Karachi-based weekly newspapers last week accusing them of creating “sectarian extremism and hatred.”
Officials withdrew the publication permits of the three weeklies on August 15 because they published “objectionable material” that caused “danger to public safety/order.”
Police had already raided the offices of Zarb-i-Islam, Friday Special, and Wajood on July 19, shutting down the publications and arresting several journalists including Wajood editor and publisher Mohammad Tahir, who is still in jail.
http://www.cpj.org/news/2005/Pak23aug05na.html
Reporters told they face jail
Christine Caulfield
24aug05
A JUDGE has warned two senior Herald Sun journalists they could be jailed for refusing to reveal the name of a source who blew the whistle on a controversial federal government policy.
Reporters Michael Harvey and Gerard McManus will be formally charged with contempt of court after declining to give evidence identifying the source of documents revealing a $500 million rebuff to war veterans.
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,16364526%255E2862,00.html
Journalists under threat
Michael DeGolyer
August 25, 2005
Press freedom is slipping just when it is most needed to ensure healthy governance
The Chief Executive must have felt like Daniel entering the lion's den Wednesday when he ventured among journalists at the Foreign Correspondents' Club. Escaping harm after being thrown into a den of starving lions is so rare it made it into the Bible as divine intervention.
The biblical story has the hero walking unhurt among ravenous beasts. But Daniel did not try to eat with the lions. That might have made things turn out differently, especially since Daniel, like Donald, was intended as the main course.
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/stdn/std/Opinion/GH25Df01.html
Film directors and writers call for release of jailed journalist
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday August 25, 2005
The Guardian
More than two dozen prominent European film directors, writers and journalists have published an open letter calling for the release of Judith Miller, a New York Times reporter who is today spending her 50th day in jail for refusing to identify confidential sources.
The film directors Pedro Almodovar and Wim Wenders, the German writer Günter Grass and the former BBC reporter Kate Adie were among the 27 signatories of the letter, which called Miller's imprisonment "more than a crime: it's a miscarriage of justice".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1555907,00.html
Europeans join campaign to free jailed US journalist
Leading figures from the arts and media in Europe have joined forces to appeal to Washington for the release of Judith Miller, the veteran New York Times reporter who yesterday marked her 50th day in prison for refusing to testify in the inquiry into the leaking of the identity of the CIA operative Valerie Plame.
"At a time when the most extremist ideas are gaining ground, and when growing numbers of reporters are being killed or taken hostage, arresting a journalist in a democratic country is more than a crime: it's a miscarriage of justice," the group said. Its 27 members include the Spanish film director, Pedro Almódovar, the German literary Nobel laureate, Gunther Grass, and the former chief BBC reporter, Kate Adie.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article307976.ece
… isms
Jewish group denounces video on Auschwitz
By JOCELYN GECKER
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
PARIS -- An Internet video that depicts the Nazi death camp Auschwitz as a rave party drew sharp criticism Wednesday from a Jewish rights group, which urged authorities to have it removed from European Web sites.
The three-minute video titled "Housewitz" - a pun on house music and Auschwitz - casts Nazi soldiers as DJs. It alternates black-and-white still photos of Holocaust atrocities with color images of youths at an outdoor party. And it advertises a "Free taxi ride home," showing a wheelbarrow full of corpses.
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apeurope_story.asp?category=1103&slug=Auschwitz%20Video
Gender-segregated classes for visiting Saudi professors spark faculty complaint
By Zinie Chen Sampson
ASSOCIATED PRESS
3:03 p.m. August 10, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. – The creation of gender-segregated classes at Virginia Tech for visiting faculty from Saudi Arabia is drawing complaints from professors, who say a state-supported school shouldn't promote discrimination.
King Abdulaziz University paid Virginia Tech $246,000 to design and operate the faculty development program this summer.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/nation/20050810-1503-virginiatech-saudis.html
Seminar On Gender Issues Continues
Luanda, Aug 10 - The seminar on gender issues that started Tuesday in Luanda under the NGO "Angola2000", continues today its work of sensitising members of various organisations on human rights matters.
The seminar is also to inform the participants on the importance of resolution of conflicts through dialogue and endeavour to secure women with full representation and participation in decision making in various sectors of activity.
On the first day of the meeting, the participants discussed issues related to gender discrimination at workplace, at home, society and women role in the society. Sixteen NGOs are attending the seminar.
http://www.angolapress-angop.ao/noticia-e.asp?ID=364340
Gender equality taking root
Females must believe in themselves, says commission, which has also helped to educate men
August 10, 2005
By Linda Mbongwa and Poloko Tau
The lives of women have improved since the birth of the new South Africa - but the struggle continues as fresh challenges present themselves.
Chana Mojake, CEO of the Commission on Gender Equality, (CGE), said the commission dealt with between 500 and 700 complaints from the public concerning issues of equality every year.
She was speaking in Johannesburg on the eve of Women's Day.
In the past, Mojake said, men used to dominate both at home and in the workplace, but through the commission's efforts to advance gender equality, most women now knew about their rights.
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=2831544
Nadia in tears after Oz housemates discuss gender
Filed: 19:39, Aug 10 2005 by Neil Wilkes
Nadia was left in tears on her first night in the Aussie Big Brother house after the issue of her gender was raised.
All three remaining housemates - Greg, Tim and Vesna - had had suspicions that Nadia was not born as a female but Vesna decided to confront the question as the four sat in the jacuzzi.
As she stuttered around the subject, Greg cut to the chase and asked: "Are you a transexual, Nadia?"
http://bigbrother.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds8505.html
Women can transform state of gender relations
RECENTLY I was invited to Mendi by “Meri I Kirap Sapotim” (MIKS) group to conduct a session on freedom and empowerment to a group composed mainly of women.
The workshop was part of an NGO’s efforts to create greater awareness of the limited preferential voting (PLV) system, while bolstering women’s rights, good governance and active public participation.
This workshop was held in anticipation for the coming Mendi by-election.
http://www.thenational.com.pg/0811/column6.htm
Society's ambivalence about nudity emerges in reactions to art
‘Sensation still works on people. So there is always someone who aims for that first time.'
August 24, 2005 ㅡ The price for nudity was more severe than anyone had expected. Late last month, the Supreme Court ruled that Kim Un-gyu, an artist and middle-school art instructor who posted a nude photo of himself and his pregnant wife on his Web site, violated the country's anti-pornography laws. A few days later, two punk rock musicians from The Couch who exposed themselves during a live television broadcast were arrested for violating public performance laws.
While the two incidents stirred media outrage for challenging social norms over public nudity, many in the cultural sphere argued that the cases should have been handled differently, taking into account the artists' intentions in using nudity and their way of displaying it.
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/200508/23/200508232028293139900091009101.html
Study: Race disparity during traffic stops
By Michael J. Sniffen, Associated Press Writer August 24, 2005
WASHINGTON --Black, Hispanic and white motorists are equally likely to be pulled over by police, but blacks and Hispanics are much more likely to be searched, handcuffed, arrested and subjected to force or the threat of it, a Justice Department study has found.
The study, by the department's Bureau of Justice Statistics, was completed last April and posted on the agency's Web site after Bush administration officials disagreed over whether a press release should mention the racial disparities.
Traffic stops have become a politically volatile issue as minority groups have complained that many stops and searches are based on race rather than on legitimate suspicions.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/08/24/study_race_disparity_during_traffic_stops/
WRETCHED SETTLERS.
DO ANYONE NEED THAT KIND OF HATE?
NO, of course not.
Transparent Sham in Gaza
Fawaz Turki, disinherited@yahoo.com
So the wretched settlers — all 8,500 of them who had occupied 20 percent of Gaza’s choice land to build their colonies on — have pulled out, leaving a desolate landscape of rubble and garbage behind. But whatever you do, hold the celebrations, and think not of what has changed, but what has not. The settlers may have folded their tents, as it were, and headed north — for many, to settle on expropriated Palestinian land in the West Bank — but the military occupation remains very much in place, determining the economic and social future of the strip.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=68933&d=24&m=8&y=2005
Hydro One denies racial discrimination
Canadian Press
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
CREDIT: (CP file photo/Frank Gunn)
Hydro One adamantly denies allegations it's firing workers based on race.
TORONTO -- Hydro One is strongly denying suggestions by the union that represents its striking engineers that it fired a group of young employees based on their ethnicity.
“There have been several allegations from (the union) that we're trying to go after certain ethnic groups or new immigrants,” spokesman Peter Gregg said Wednesday after the union alluded to discrimination in its latest salvo against the utility.
http://www.canada.com/national/nationalpost/news/toronto/story.html?id=dda6b4eb-c411-488c-a39c-2a84c89be480
Indian lawyer fights race discrimination
Nabanita Sircar
London,
An Indian lawyer is fighting a race discrimination case at an employment tribunal against Mudassar Arani, who is the solicitor for a terror suspect for a UK bomb plot. The suspect has given evidence in support of his solicitor.
Ms Arani, representing terror suspect Omar Rehman, who also represents cleric Abu Hamza, has been accused of being a foul-mouthed racist bully who exploits poorly paid employees.
Her former paralegal Jitendra Sharma, 40, has told Watford Employment Tribunal that Arani made his life a misery because he was Indian.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/5983_1471059,00430004.htm
Fresno State Responds to Lawsuit
August 24, 2005 — Fresno State is responding to the lawsuit filed by fired women's basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein.
The lawsuit against the university claims Johnson-Klein has been the victim of gender discrimination, sexual harassment and inappropriate touching.
Fresno State has not yet been served with the lawsuit, but in a short statement, the school said Stacy Johnson-Klein was terminated after a careful investigation.
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/news/082405_nw_johnson_klein.html
Crime big worry for ethnic groups
A photo of slain dairy owner, Bhagubhai Vaghela on stage at a meeting to express the Asian community's safety concerns in Auckland. Picture / Paul Estcourt
25.08.05
Law and order and immigration are top issues among New Zealand's ethnic communities this election, although a new voter dynamic is emerging among the young, writes
Errol Kiong.
An old scab was ripped open to bleed afresh with the killing of Auckland minimart worker Bhagubhai Vaghela in June.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10342302
Global Warming
Federal Judge OKs Global Warming Lawsuit
By DAVID KRAVETS
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 24, 2005; 9:52 PM
SAN FRANCISCO -- Environmental groups and four U.S. cities can sue federal development agencies on allegations the overseas projects they back financially contribute to global warming, a judge has ruled.
A coalition of environmental groups sued two government agencies that provide loans and insure billions of dollars of U.S. investors' money for development projects overseas. Many are power plants that emit greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide that are believed to be a leading cause of global warming.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/24/AR2005082402080.html
Court allows suit linking U.S. aid, global warming
Wed Aug 24, 2005 9:00 PM ET
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Two environmental groups and four U.S. cities may sue U.S. federal agencies which finance overseas projects which they say contribute to global warming, a federal judge has ruled.
The two federal agencies -- Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Export-Import Bank of the United States -- had asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to dismiss the lawsuit.
It was brought by Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the cities of Boulder, Colorado, Santa Monica, California, Oakland, California and Arcata, California.
http://today.reuters.com/investing/financeArticle.aspx?type=bondsNews&storyID=2005-08-25T010105Z_01_N24507450_RTRIDST_0_LIFE-GLOBALWARMING.XML
N.H. still ranks low in efforts to reduce global warming
By COLIN MANNING
:N.H. Statehouse Writer
statehouse@fosters.com
PORTSMOUTH -- New Hampshire is still at the “back of the class” when it comes to its efforts for reducing global warming.
A coalition of environmental groups released its global warming report card on Tuesday with New Hampshire receiving a C-, once again giving the state the dubious distinction of having the lowest grade in New England. While the grade was the lowest of the six New England states, New Hampshire did improve on the previous year's grade of a D+. Meanwhile, Maine had one of the better scores in the region with a B-. It marked a noticeable improvement for Maine which last year received a C.
http://www.citizen.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050824/NEWS0202/50824062/-1/CITIZEN
Global warming: The flaw in the thaw
Campaigners have seized upon the world's shrinking glaciers as proof of global warming. But there is more to it than that, reports Fred Pearce
A SNOW-CAPPED mountain on the equator? "Impossible," declared the learned gentlemen of the Royal Geographical Society in London. In 1848, the Swiss missionary and explorer Johannes Rebmann had become the first European to gaze upon the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro. But when his account reached London, some of the society's members refused to believe him. One even suggested that Rebmann's eyesight must be deficient.
http://www.newscientist.com/channel/earth/mg18725141.500
Meteor dust obscures climate change views
By Deborah Smith, Science Editor
August 25, 2005 - 7:16AM
When a meteor the size of a small house exploded with the force of an atomic bomb high above the remote Antarctic coast last year there was no one to witness the fireball or hear the sonic booms.
The nearest people in Antarctica were 900 kilometres away, too distant to observe what would have appeared like a second sun streaking across the cold afternoon sky.
"Only the penguins would have seen it," said Andrew Klekociuk, of the Australian Antarctic Division in Hobart.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/science/meteor-dust-obscures-climate-change-views/2005/08/25/1124562946827.html
Nine states plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions
Wed Aug 24, 2005 8:31 PM BST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Officials in nine Northeastern U.S. states have reached a preliminary agreement to cap and then cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants by 10 percent by 2020, a Delaware official said on Wednesday.
If the agreement is made final, it would be the first of its kind in the United States. The Bush administration has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, a greenhouse gas reduction plan that has been adopted by more than 150 other countries.
http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-08-24T193155Z_01_DIT422372_RTRIDST_0_SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT-EMISSIONS-DC.XML
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