The Indystar
Today's editorial
Danger lurks within America's borders
Our position: While focusing on foreign terrorism, nation must not lose sight of domestic threats.
The recent indictment of four men who planned to attack synagogues, National Guard recruitment centers and an Israeli consulate office in Los Angeles should serve as a reminder that not all terrorist threats stem from Middle Eastern radicals.
Some are homegrown.
Authorities need to pay particular attention to the nation's prisons, where a mixture of black and white supremacist groups, gangs and radical Muslims blend into a stew of dangerous allies against America.
The groups often share similar anti-Semitic and anti-government views, along with a penchant for violence.
A federal grand jury in California indicted the four men Aug. 31, accusing them of plotting terrorist attacks against the U.S. At least two members of the group met as inmates in state prison in California. Authorities said they have found no evidence tying the men to foreign terrorist organizations.
The 9/11 attacks shifted the nation's focus from domestic terrorism to foreign threats. But danger from domestic groups remains real, as does the possibility of links between domestic and foreign terrorists. While there is no evidence that Arab terrorists have conducted joint operations with any domestic groups, there have been communications between American and Muslim radicals, as well as alliances among black and white separatist organizations.
"Prisons continue to be fertile ground for extremists who exploit both a prisoner's conversion to Islam while still in prison, as well as their socio-economic status and placement in the community upon their release," FBI Director Robert Mueller warned a Senate Intelligence Committee.
Authorities say domestic terrorists are more likely to target a Midwestern city than New York or Washington. That makes Indianapolis vulnerable.
The Oklahoma City bombing taught that terrorists don't always come from outside the nation. Sometimes the most dangerous are lurking within.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050912/OPINION/509120319
State to aid Gary's efforts to keep branch open
Hundreds of Gary residents, including Willie Cain (left) and Jonathan Boose, staged a Statehouse protest today against the closing of the Gary BMV branch. The Daniels administration said it would work with the city as it explores options for keeping the branch open. -- Charlie Nye / The Star
By Mary Beth Schneider
Temporarily satisfying a couple hundred Gary residents protesting at the Statehouse, Gov. Mitch Daniels' administration said it would work with Gary to find a way to keep open a full-service license branch there.
Bureau of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Joel Silverman met early today with Gary Mayor Scott King and Democrat legislators from Lake County, and reiterated that the branch will close Saturday. He has proposed keeping open a mini-branch, with one employee handling drivers' license and state ID card requests, at a local mental health center.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050912/NEWS01/50912012
State extends air pollution alert
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By Tammy Webber
tammy.webber@indystar.com
Hoosiers in urban areas should limit outdoor activities at least through Tuesday because of ongoing air pollution, state environmental officials said.
Stagnant weather has trapped microscopic bits of soot dust and liquid droplets near the ground, leading the state to extend alerts for the northwest Indiana, Indianapolis, Evansville, Fort Wayne, Terre Haute and Louisville, Ky., areas.
Children, the elderly and people with heart and breathing problems are at highest risk for health problems because the tiny particles can lodge deep in the lungs and cause breathing and cardiac problems.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050912/NEWS01/50912017
Plane crashes in field, catches fire; 4 dead
Wabash -- A plane crashed in a bean field Saturday night and flipped, killing four people returning home from a dinner trip, Indiana State Police said.
The pilot and his three passengers all died at the scene, the Wabash County coroner's office said. Three of the four were members of a Lagro family.
Police identified the dead as John Swan, 56; Kathy Swan, 54; James Swan, 25; and Vanessa Baer, 22, North Urbana. Family members said John Swan was flying the plane.
Police found the plane, a 1967 Piper Cheyenne Six, about 9 p.m. in a field in southern Wabash County. Investigators said preliminary findings showed the plane's right wing hit the ground and broke off along with the front gear. The plane then flipped onto its top and caught fire.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050912/NEWS01/509120418
Martha comes back like true diva
On the rise: Martha Stewart is aggressively trying to reclaim her good name. Her talk show debuts at 9 a.m. today on WISH . -- Frank Franklin II / Associated Press
By David Carr
The New York Times
Two years after trying to scrub Martha Stewart, the person, out of Martha Stewart, the brand, Martha Stewart, the business, has a new strategy: Martha Stewart, every day.
"I always disagreed with the separation of the name and the brand and the person," Stewart said, with a bit of a laugh at the fact that she is all three. "To build on that name and brand is one thing. To divorce the name and the brand from the person was not an approach that I agreed with."
Stewart, who is now free of her court-mandated monitoring bracelet, is chopping away at the substantial list of chores that piled up for the 10 months while she was in prison and under house arrest.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050912/LIVING/509120302
EurasiaNet
RUSSIA ADAPTS POLICY TO ADDRESS RIFT WITHIN CIS
Igor Torbakov 9/12/05
Russian policy makers are striving to develop a post-CIS paradigm, in which Moscow distinguishes between "loyal" and "disloyal" neighbors and uses its economic power, namely is energy resources, to reward the Kremlin’s friends and to punish its antagonists within the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Despite an attempt to put an optimistic spin on the latest CIS summit in late August, most Russian policy makers have concluded that the CIS is no longer salvageable as an institution that can advance the Kremlin’s political and economic agenda in the former Soviet space. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. At the summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the creation of a panel of experts that would consider ways to revamp the organization in a manner more satisfactory to the Kremlin. But even while that proposal moves forward, Russian officials and experts are mulling alternatives that would enable Russia to more efficiently expand its economic reach in the region.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav091205a.shtml
A BASE OR NOT A BASE FOR AZERBAIJAN?
Alman Mir Ismail 9/12/05
As the Azerbaijani parliamentary election campaign gathers pace, local media speculation is building about the possible establishment of a US military facility in Azerbaijan.
Both US Ambassador to Azerbaijan Reno Harnish and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev have firmly dismissed the possibility that the US would open a permanent military base on Azerbaijani territory. "I have said this before, and I repeat: ‘Azerbaijan will not host American military bases on its territory," the president said on August 19 while visiting the Agsu, Gabala and Oguz regions. Harnish has similarly denied that Washington has made Aliyev any official request for bases. "[W]e are not going to locate our military bases in the territory of Azerbaijan," the US ambassador told Azerbaijani journalists on August 26, the Russian-language newspaper Zerkalo reported Harnish as saying.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav091205ru.shtml
KAZAKHSTAN’S LEADER CLEARS THE DECKS FOR ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL RUN
Ibragim Alibekov 9/09/05
Kazakhstan has pushed up its presidential election date to December 4, and the incumbent, Nursultan Nazarbayev, seems perfectly positioned to secure a third, seven-year term.
Nazarbayev, who has presided over Kazakhstan’s boom economy since the country gained independence in 1991, was formally nominated on September 9 by the Otan Party. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The presidential vote was originally scheduled for 2006, but parliament on September 7 decided to move up election-day. Nazarbayev’s main challenger in the election is expected to be Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, a leader of the For a Just Kazakhstan opposition movement.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav090905.shtml
GERMANY TAKES LOW-KEY APPROACH TOWARD UZBEKISTAN
Anja Schoeller-Schletter 9/07/05
While Uzbekistan has made a highly publicized decision to evict US military forces from an airbase at Karshi-Khanabad, it does not appear that Tashkent will take similar action against German troops stationed at a facility near Termez, along the Uzbek-Afghan border.
The German government has maintained a low-key approach toward Uzbekistan since the Andijan events in May. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Germany’s reticence is partly explained by the fact that political leaders have been preoccupied with the country’s looming parliamentary elections. Polls show that Gerhard Schroeder’s incumbent Social Democratic Party-Greens coalition will be hard-pressed to retain power in the September 18 vote.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav090705.shtml
TURKMENISTAN BASE RUMOR LIKELY PART OF A RUSSIAN DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN
Stephen Blank 9/07/05
A EurasiaNet Commentary
Russian media outlets continue to publish articles claiming that the United States may establish a military base in Turkmenistan. The circumstances surrounding the media reports suggest that Russia is carrying out a disinformation campaign designed to exert pressure on Turkmenistan to adhere to Moscow’s geopolitical line in Central Asia.
The Russian media reports about the possible US base in Turkmenistan began to surface in late August, following Turkmenistan’s decision to de-emphasize its membership in the Commonwealth of Independent States. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Helping to stoke the base rumors was an August 23 visit by US Gen. John Abizaid, chief of the US Central Command (CENTCOM), to Ashgabat.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav090705a.shtml
REPORT: NO BIG GAINS TO ARMENIA IF TURKEY LIFTS BLOCKADE
Haroutiun Khachatrian 8/09/05
A controversial report by an Armenian research and consulting group claims that reopening the Armenian-Turkish border would have a much smaller impact on Armenia’s economy than commonly believed.
The report was presented July 13 by the Armenian-European Political Legal Advice Center (AEPLAC), a prominent think tank sponsored by the European Union. It contended that Armenia would see its economy expand by only $20-23 million annually, or just 0.67 percent of its current Gross Domestic Product, if Turkey decided to lift its 12-year blockade of the Armenian border. Over the next five years, Armenia’s GDP would see an additional 2.7 percent increase over the country’s level in 2004.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/business/articles/eav080905.shtml
UZBEKISTAN: ANDIJON AND THE ’INFORMATION WAR’
Daniel Kimmage 9/11/05
A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL
The horrific violence that struck Andijon in May unfolded in the space of 24 hours. But the struggle to define the event -- to reveal the facts and to explain their significance -- continues. Inside Uzbekistan, the struggle to define Andijon has been fierce, pitting Uzbek officialdom and the media and means at its disposal against a limited number of nongovernment media and a small community of activists who have no other access to the broader public. The result has been, to quote Uzbek President Islam Karimov, an "information war" that has already claimed its first casualties and is poised to provide the troubling backdrop to whatever will happen next in Uzbekistan.
As presented by President Karimov, government spokespeople, and journalists in state-controlled media, the core of the official story is that a group of armed religious extremists tried to foment an Islamist coup in Andijon. The terrorists seized government buildings, took hostages, tortured and murdered officials, and finally initiated a violent confrontation with the security forces that had surrounded them. The ensuing bloodshed claimed 187 lives, the Uzbek Prosecutor-General’s Office maintains.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/pp091105.shtml
DISSENT OVER LAND REFORM MAY PORTEND UNREST IN MONGOLIA
12/20/02
Activists in Ulanbataar say that 2003 could be a pivotal year in Mongolia, with intense debate arising out of discontent with a law on land privatization that is due to take effect in May. Organizations and opposition parties are gearing up to fight a new land policy that critics say discriminates against the rural poor by delivering outsize payments to large landholders. Experts who do not necessarily oppose this new policy also see it as cause for worry. The government’s handling of land legislation, these people say, raises questions about the future of democracy in Mongolia.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/rights/articles/eav122002.shtml
THE CIS: THE END OF THE ROAD?
Sergei Blagov 8/29/05
The Commonwealth of Independent States appears near the end of its existence. Even if the organization does survive, it will do so in a significantly different form, political analysts say.
Established amid the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, the CIS has largely failed to fulfill its potential as an institution for the promotion of closer political and economic links. Many member states have been unable to set aside concerns that Russia, the organization’s dominant partner, wants to use the CIS as a vehicle for the preservation of Moscow’s influence in the former Soviet space. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. As a result, agreements among member states routinely went unimplemented.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav082905.shtml
KAZAKHSTAN’S LEADER CLEARS THE DECKS FOR ANOTHER PRESIDENTIAL RUN
Ibragim Alibekov 9/09/05
Kazakhstan has pushed up its presidential election date to December 4, and the incumbent, Nursultan Nazarbayev, seems perfectly positioned to secure a third, seven-year term.
Nazarbayev, who has presided over Kazakhstan’s boom economy since the country gained independence in 1991, was formally nominated on September 9 by the Otan Party. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. The presidential vote was originally scheduled for 2006, but parliament on September 7 decided to move up election-day. Nazarbayev’s main challenger in the election is expected to be Zharmakhan Tuyakbai, a leader of the For a Just Kazakhstan opposition movement.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav090905.shtml
NAGORNO-KARABAKH: PEACE ON THE HORIZON?
Haroutiun Khachatrian 8/17/05
Armenian leaders are hopeful, but cautious as they approach what could prove to be pivotal talks concerning the future of the Nagorno-Karabakh territory.
Armenian President Robert Kocharian will try to break the existing deadlock in the Karabakh talks when he meets Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev August 26, amid a summit of Commonwealth of Independent States member states. As a prelude to those discussions, Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian and Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov are expected to hold talks in Moscow on August 23.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav081705b.shtml
AFGHAN HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES: A CHANCE FOR CHANGE
Ahmed Rashid 8/04/05
A EurasiaNet Commentary
An extraordinary series of reports by Afghan and international experts on the 27 long years of bloody human rights abuses in Afghanistan are for the first time placing enormous pressure on the Afghan government, the US administration in Afghanistan and the United Nations to take steps against the perpetrators, many of whom remain in positions of influence and power.
Until now, the US and Afghan governments have begged off starting any process of accountability of war criminals for a variety of reasons, including the lack of a judicial system in Afghanistan. However, a verdict in an extraordinary trial at the Old Bailey in London may show a way out.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/civilsociety/articles/eav080405.shtml
AFGHANISTAN: NATO LOOKS TO EXPAND MISSION AFTER SEPTEMBER ELECTIONS
Ron Synovitz 9/05/05
A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has completed the deployment of an additional 2,000 troops to support Afghanistan’s upcoming parliamentary elections. With a total of 11,000 troops across the country, ISAF is now larger and more widely deployed than it has ever been during nearly four years of UN-backed political reforms known as the Bonn Process. In addition, NATO’s top commander says the alliance is now planning for an expanded role that would merge UN-mandated security assistance with US-led combat operations.
NATO’s top commander, US General James Jones, says the alliance is now "correctly poised and sized" for its security mission during Afghanistan’s parliamentary elections on September 18.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/pp090505.shtml
PAKISTAN SAYS DEAD MILITANTS HAD KAZAKH PASSPORTS
7/18/05
A EurasiaNet Partner Post from RFE/RL
The Pakistani military suggested today that a group of militants killed in a firefight near the Afghan border yesterday were Kazakh nationals, while a Kazakh diplomatic source insisted it is too early to be certain that they were Kazakh citizens.
Pakistani military spokesman Major General Shaukat Sultan announced the Kazakh connection in a statement today in Islamabad to AFP.
But a spokesman for the Kazakh Embassy in Islamabad, Yernur Tuyaqbaev, told RFE/RL’s Kazakh Service today that it is too early to be certain whether or not those killed are Kazakh nationals.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/pp071805.shtml
INITIAL RESULTS OF AFGHAN GOVERNMENT ANTI-DRUG CAMPAIGN ARE POSITIVE - REPORT
Claudio Franco 9/08/05
Amid an upswing in violence in Afghanistan ahead of parliamentary elections, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has reported encouraging news on the Afghan government’s efforts to curb narcotics production.
Clashes between security forces and Islamic militants have intensified in recent weeks, as Afghanistan prepares to hold long-anticipated parliamentary elections September 18. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. In early September, for example, a joint operation mounted by US and Afghan troops in southern Kandahar Province resulted in the deaths of 13 militants and the capture of 44 others.
http://www.eurasianet.org/departments/insight/articles/eav090805.shtml
The New York Times
Covering New Orleans: The Decade Before the Storm
By BYRON CALAME
Published: September 11, 2005
THE early coverage of the devastation of New Orleans revealed a depth of poverty and a troubled levee system that caught many by surprise. As a national newspaper with high aspirations, The New York Times assumes a responsibility to alert its readers to significant problems as they emerge in major cities such as New Orleans.
Poverty so pervasive that it hampered evacuation would seem to have been worthy of The Times's attention before it emerged as a pivotal challenge two weeks ago. And the inadequacies of the levee system deserved to be brought to the attention of readers more clearly long before the storm hit.
Yet a look back over the past 10 years of Times coverage of New Orleans in its news columns raises serious questions about how well the paper helped readers recognize and understand these two major problems that have compounded the devastation and tragedy of the storm.
Poverty emerged as a life-and-death issue as Hurricane Katrina approached the city on Sunday, Aug. 28, and it became clear that many poor residents didn't have cars in which to evacuate. To make matters worse, many poor residents lived in low-lying areas where flooding arrived the soonest and rose the highest.
As we're now being reminded almost daily, more than two-thirds of the residents of New Orleans are black, and about one in four citizens lives in poverty. The Times has noted that in the Lower Ninth Ward neighborhood, which was inundated by the floodwaters, 98 percent of the residents are black and more than a third live in poverty.
"As a close reader of The Times and of poverty trends," S. M. Miller, of Brookline, Mass., told me in an e-mail last week, "I was surprised to learn of the poverty conditions that prevailed in New Orleans. ... Why didn't the economic-social-racial conditions in New Orleans get some attention in the paper?" His conclusion: "The Times let us down."
Indeed, over the past decade Times readers would have been hard-pressed to find a news headline about the poverty in the midst of the city that brings to the minds of many Americans the revelry of Mardi Gras and Bourbon Street. A search of substantive Times news articles about New Orleans since September 1995, conducted with the help of a researcher for the paper, found none that focused on the city's poor and the racial dimension of poverty. And there were only two articles about the city - both feature stories - that contained a few paragraphs on poverty and race.
Poverty's presence was vividly described in a November 2000 feature article in the Weekend section. "Poverty persists, cheek by jowl with wealth, much of it inherited," the article said. "A block or two from mansions with palm-shaded gardens stand crude unpainted bungalows fronting on crumbling streets, more reminiscent of the third world than dot-com America." It added: "Most of the poor, in a city almost three-quarters black, are African-American." Unfortunately, however, finding these words required reading to the 16th paragraph of the 3,700-word article.
A 1996 Sunday Magazine profile of the city's police superintendent noted that more residents of New Orleans lived in poverty then than in any other large American city except Detroit. The article suggested that the ghettos of New Orleans "have been ignored for decades because even though black politicians have controlled City Hall since 1978, African-Americans have never broken the white hold on economic power." These insights didn't come until the 12th paragraph of the 3,400-word article.
What readers would have been more likely to find in The Times's past decade of news coverage of New Orleans were stylishly written articles about the city's charm, cuisine and colorful characters. While some of those articles dealt with crime in the city's predominantly black neighborhoods, the issue of poverty was seldom explored in any depth.
Levees obviously remain a central issue in the crisis. As experts expected, Katrina showed that a Category 4 or 5 hurricane would send water over the top of the city's levees and flood its below-sea-level "bowl." But the breaches in levees and canal walls made things dramatically worse and raised broader questions about the area's flood control system.
What had The Times's news columns provided over the past decade to help its readers understand the New Orleans levee system? One major article that focused on levees. The 2,100-word article on the front of the Science section in 2002 made clear that a Category 4 or 5 hurricane would send water over the top of the levees. While the public editor's focus is on news coverage, there was also an Editorial Observer commentary in 2002 that took a detailed look at the problem, based on reporting in New Orleans. But neither the news article nor the editorial commentary prepared readers for the possibility of breaches in the levees or canal walls.
The article in the Science section did paint a prescient picture: "Water cascading over the levee wall ... is just one part of the nightmare, the experts say. Draining the city after the storm moves away may take weeks, they point out. The city would be trapped inside the levees, steeped in a worsening 'witches' brew' of pollutants like sewage, landfill waste, chemicals and the bodies of drowned humans and animals."
Given the dimensions of poverty in New Orleans and the city's dependence on a levee system, The Times's news coverage of these problems over the past decade falls far short of what its readers have a right to expect of a national newspaper.
Sources and Motives
When anonymous sources are used in articles, The Times's policy calls for telling readers as much as possible about their motivation. At the same time, however, named sources are showing up in the paper without relevant background information that would help readers assess their comments. In a similar vein, readers also deserve to know relevant facts about Op-Ed page contributors and individuals who write letters to the editor.
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the City Council, a May article reported, had agreed to adopt proposed legislation that would establish so-called potty parity for restrooms in certain public places. The proposal, now enacted, requires the affected establishments to provide women with roughly two bathroom stalls for each stall or urinal available to men.
This assessment appeared in the fourth paragraph of the article: " 'I think it's very important, because New York City tends to set the standard, as they did when they banned smoking, which was immediately followed in many other jurisdictions,' said John F. Banzhaf III, a professor of public interest law at George Washington University who has studied the issue."
Saying Mr. Banzhaf has "studied the issue" suggests that he was a detached expert. In fact, Mr. Banzhaf has been a party to at least one formal complaint filed with the Department of Education about a public facility on a college campus and has been referred to as the "Father of Potty Parity." Readers absolutely deserved to know this.
This problem can exist in the opinion pages, too, even though the expectations of readers coming to those pages should be a little different. In a recent Op-Ed article about Internet companies and revolutionary technology, "Irreplaceable Exuberance," the author identification line read simply: "Henry Blodget, a former Wall Street analyst, writes frequently for Slate."
Missing was the fact that Mr. Blodget has been barred from the securities business for life under a 2003 agreement with the Securities and Exchange Commission. He had also paid a $4 million fine. It wasn't enough, it seems to me, for Mr. Blodget to remark in a parenthetical aside well down in his article, "This was an unfortunate theory of mine - one that, along with some e-mails that caught the notice of the Securities and Exchange Commission, helped my Wall Street career go the way of eToys."
Finally, there's the Book Review section's egalitarian treatment of its letters to the editor. Its policy is to use just the letter writer's name and city, eschewing titles and other claims to fame. The Aug. 21 issue published several letters that quarreled with a recent cover essay on possible media bias by Richard A. Posner.
One of the more robust letters - in both its passion and its length - was signed by plain Bill Keller, New York. It was, indeed, the same Bill Keller who is executive editor of The Times. Several readers have asked why notice was not taken of his special position.
"After all," said Peter M. Knapp, of Pembroke, Mass., "he was writing as a twice-vested insider on a matter, published in his own newspaper, about his profession." He added, "If there was ever a case for 'disclosure,' this certainly is it."
The public editor serves as the readers' representative. His opinions and conclusions are his own. His column appears at least twice monthly in this section.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/opinion/11publiceditor.html
Sydney Morning Herald
Synagogues burn as Gaza changes hands
By Ed O'Loughlin Herald Correspondent in Gaza
September 13, 2005
Ablaze … Palestinian militants watch the former Israeli settlement of Kfar Darom burn.
Photo: AFP
In the dark hours before dawn yesterday the last Israeli tank reversed out of its bulldozed position somewhere in Gaza, at Netzarim or Elei Sinai or Kfar Darom, perhaps for good.
At 2 am, tracer bullets darted over Gaza City, as Palestinian soldiers saluted the fires that were springing up against the southern sky. The settlements were burning; after 38 years of at best strained coexistence, the Israelis were gone.
Jubilant Palestinians planted flags on the rubble of Jewish settlements and set synagogues ablaze. "This is a day of happiness and joy that the Palestinian people have not witnessed for a century," the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, said.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/synagogues-burn-as-gaza-changes-hands/2005/09/12/1126377257159.html
continued …
Tuesday, September 13, 2005
Morning Papers - concluding
The Sydney Morning Herald
History revised: Saddam vanishes from schoolbooks
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
September 13, 2005
New syllabus … a class at the Akal primary school in southern Baghdad.
Iraq's children have returned to school for the start of a fresh academic year with a new syllabus that has all but erased Saddam Hussein from its history.
After two years of debate, the education department has completed textbooks to replace those that portrayed the past purely from a Baathist view.
However, in a tribute to the sensitivities of post-Saddam Iraq, the revised version of history is, on some subjects, as partial and shot through with gaps as the old.
Baghdad no longer wins the Iran-Iraq war nor confronts the evil of Zionism alone. Primary schools will not have to teach reading with phrases such as "I love Saddam".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/history-revised-saddam-vanishes-from-schoolbooks/2005/09/12/1126377257168.html
Rise of China good for all, says Howard
By Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent in New York
September 13, 2005
The rise of China as an economic and political power was good for the world, the Prime Minister, John Howard, told an Asia Society lunch in New York.
At a time when the US-China relationship remains tense, especially over Taiwan and the imbalance of trade in China's favour, Mr Howard said China's rise would inevitably place stress on the international system.
"But to see China's rise in zero-sum terms is overly pessimistic, intellectually misguided and potentially dangerous," he said. "It is also a negation of what the West has been urging in China for decades now."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rise-of-china-good-for-all-says-howard/2005/09/13/1126377262936.html
Belfast rioters shoot at police on second day of violence
September 13, 2005
Impasse … a Protestant marcher confronts police in west Belfast. Later, rioters fired on security forces.
Photo: AP
Dublin: Protestant mobs rioted for a second consecutive night in Belfast and in towns on the city's outskirts on Sunday, seriously injuring 32 police officers in the province's worst violence in seven years.
Crowds of men wearing masks or hooded sweatshirts pulled over their faces terrorised citizens and attacked the security forces. Cars were set alight at intersections, closing a motorway into Belfast.
The 2000-strong force of police officers and British soldiers were bombarded with homemade explosives and bottles of flaming petrol while they held rioters back at main intersections.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/belfast-rioters-shoot-at-police-on-second-day-of-violence/2005/09/12/1126377257162.html
Katrina rattles the glasses in Monaco
By Lisa Murray
September 13, 2005
Executives from the world's biggest insurance companies have descended on Monte Carlo for their annual reinsurance conference.
While the set theme for the five-day event is "terrorism", most executives are focused on natural disasters, with estimates of insurance losses from Hurricane Katrina swelling to as much as $US60 billion ($77.8 billion).
That would make Katrina, which late last month ravaged the US states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana and flooded the city of New Orleans, the industry's costliest ever hurricane.
But Australia's biggest international insurer, QBE, is confident it will emerge from this year's hurricane season relatively unscathed, although the season still has six weeks to go.
Analysts and credit rating agencies agree.
Macquarie Research Equities expects QBE's losses from Katrina to be less than $125 million, much less than the losses being flagged by its peers. Morgan Stanley reckons Katrina could end up being a positive for the stock as it will push up commercial premium rates. In hotel rooms around Monte Carlo, rate negotiations are already starting with Katrina fresh in peoples' minds.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/katrina-rattles-the-glasses-in-monaco/2005/09/12/1126377257249.html
Allianz warns Katrina may cost $A772m
September 10, 2005 - 7:29AM
Europe's biggest insurer, Allianz AG, has warned that its exposure to Hurricane Katrina could be as much as 470 million euros ($A772.39 million), but it still expects to reach its 2005 profit target of four billion euros ($A6.57 billion).
The Munich-based company said that Hurricane Katrina, which struck the US Gulf Coast last month and is expected to result in approximately 30 billion euros ($A49.3 billion) in insured damage from Florida to Louisiana, could be the costliest natural disaster in the insurance industry's history.
Risk Management Solutions, a Newark, California-based consulting firm, has estimated the overall damage from Katrina in terms of insured losses to be between $US20 billion and $US35 billion ($A26.28 billion and $A46 billion).
http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/10/1125772718551.html
US reels as hurricane claims $68 billion
September 9, 2005 - 12:02PM
The US Congress has approved $US51.8 billion ($A68 billion) in Hurricane Katrina emergency funding, even as politicians begin to fret loudly over the staggering costs of the relief effort.
The huge aid bill, which passed overwhelmingly today in both the House and the Senate, is the second tranche of Katrina emergency funds passed after the US legislature last week approved an initial $US10.5 billion ($A13.8 billion) emergency package.
But with estimates of the costs of Katrina now approaching $US200 billion ($A262.78 billion), Republicans and Democrats expressed reservations about the runaway spending, and called for the appointment of an official to oversee and manage Katrina-related federal aid.
http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/09/1125772674451.html
Hail to the chief
September 13, 2005
Suddenly, China holds the levers of the world economy - and Washington is worried, writes Hamish McDonald.
WANG Xiaoyun is the face of China that fascinates and alarms the United States. A mathematics professor at Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, she recently startled US security circles by breaking a key US Government data encryption formula called SHA-1.
In the arcane world of high-level encryption and code breaking, SHA-1 is an algorithm for creating what is known as a "hash" - a single number representing a larger body of information. Wang's work exposed an unsuspected weakness in what was thought an almost unbreakable code.
Although Washington is increasingly worried by purposeful hacking into its secret databases that originates in China, Wang is no electronic spy, and wanted to present her findings to a meeting of US cryptographers in California last month.
But despite applying weeks in advance, Wang couldn't get a US visa in time to attend; nor could eight of the nine other Chinese researchers who applied. An associate, also Chinese but living in the US, presented her paper.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hail-to-the-chief/2005/09/12/1126377257226.html
Summit unlikely to finalise UN reform
By Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent in New York
September 13, 2005
The United Nations summit of world leaders due to get under way tomorrow looks almost certain to go ahead without an agreement on a final document on major UN reform, and on aid development targets aimed at eradicating world poverty.
More than 150 leaders are to attend the summit, which marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the UN at the end of World War II.
The leaders were expected to consider a draft document drawn up by ambassadors of a working party from 30 member countries, including Australia's ambassador to the UN, John Dauth, based on recommendations in a report commissioned by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan and presented to the UN General Assembly six months ago.
The recommendations are far-reaching and include reform of the UN Secretariat, heavily criticised in the Volcker report into the Iraq oil-for-food program, expansion of the Security Council, including new permanent members, an agreed definition of terrorism and reform of the discredited Human Rights Commission.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/summit-unlikely-to-finalise-un-reform/2005/09/12/1126377257165.html
Miami Herald
Last two dolphins of some 70 stranded in Keys hit open sea
By TERESA BRADLEY
tbradley@herald.com
The last two of nearly 70 rough-toothed dolphins stranded on shallow shoals off the Middle Keys last March hit the open sea once again today, released about 19 miles off Key Largo by a group from the Marine Mammal Conservancy.
About two dozen volunteers sponged and sprayed the sea mammals with ocean water during a one-hour-and-fifteen-minute boat ride out to sea. Cheering and clapping when the dolphins finally slipped from their deckside foam cushions and into the water, volunteers watched as the pair darted about the boat and away.
They both hit the water at the same time, dove and swam around the boat a couple laps, said Andy Newman, spokesman with the Keys Tourism Council who was onboard to witness the release. At one point, they started coming back to the boat, but then they set off to the east-southeast together.
In early March, nearly 70 rough-toothed dolphins beached themselves in the shallow waters off the coast of Key Vaca -- many sick, disoriented and starving. Nearly 30 died.
Of 12 dolphins rescued there and treated by the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo, two were released off Virginia Key in late April, and seven more off Key Largo in early May. One calf was sent to a marine mammal facility in the Florida Panhandle, Newman said.
Unlike the bottlenose dolphin made familiar by Flipper, round-toothed dolphins are a more angular, primarily deep-water species unused to shallow waters and the food supply found there, said Dr. Robert Stevens, one of three volunteer veterinarians on board for today's release.
But like their well-known cousins, round-toothed dolphins are a highly social species. They travel in ''pods'' so tightly knit that when a few members fall ill or end up in shallow waters, healthy dolphins tend to tag along.
''The bottom line is when that happens, the healthy animals go with them, and then face issues of getting overheated and beaten up by the surf,'' said Stevens. ``Oftentimes the sick ones bring in the healthy ones, and they end up getting sick too.''
That close-knit instinct can help in the healing process, even as it puts some dolphins in harm's way, Stevens added. ''They seem to derive some confidence and security from having more of their species around,'' he said. ``It's good to have a number of them to treat together.''
The two dolphins released today, known among volunteers by their identification numbers R134 and R372, were found to have had a high white blood cell count, indicating abnormal levels of bacteria in their bloodstream. They were treated regularly over the past five months with antibiotics and antiparasite drugs for tapeworms, lungworms and roundworms, Stevens said.
In recent weeks, the pair were tagged with satellite and tracking transponders set to locate them after their release. The devices will fall off within six weeks, Newman said, enough time to ensure that the dolphins make it back out to the open sea.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12626098.htm
Weakened Ophelia rests near Carolina coast
PAUL NOWELL
WILMINGTON, N.C. - Ophelia kept up its teasing dance along the coast of the Carolinas on Monday, dropping slightly in strength from hurricane to tropical storm as it barely moved toward land.
Although Ophelia was centered more than 200 miles offshore, nonresidents were ordered to leave one of North Carolina's Outer Banks islands and 300 National Guard troops were sent to mustering points along the coast. School systems in five counties closed, even though the storm's eye was predicted to remain offshore until Wednesday.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12620531.htm
Spy convict faces deportation to Cuba, lawyer says
A convicted Cuban spy who belonged to the now-dismantled Wasp Network faces deportation and would be the third forced to leave the country.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
Marisol Gari, an Orlando woman convicted of spying for the Cuban government, has been detained for possible deportation back to the island, her Miami attorney says.
Louis Casuso told The Herald his client was detained two weeks ago and is now being held at a detention facility outside Miami-Dade County in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which carries out deportation orders.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12621317.htm
Hurricane worries: Is this the new normal?
BY DOUGLAS HANKS III
woes have never been a secret. From the University of Miami Hurricanes to the cyclonic swirl that decorated the stage for MTV's recent Miami broadcast, fierce storms are probably the region's most famous liability.
But what if the downside gets worse? If predictions of newly active hurricane seasons come true, where will that leave the Sunshine State's reputation as a tropical getaway and balmy place to own real estate?
It's a question getting more and more attention as images of spinning hurricane patterns and devastation dominate the national media.
''I'm hearing -- and I'm sure a lot of baby boomers are -- that we could be in a period of heightened hurricane activity for 20 years,'' said Jack McCabe, a real estate analyst in Deerfield Beach. ``I think a lot of folks are going to consider: Do we really want to invest a lot of money in real estate in areas prone to that?''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12605803.htm
U.S. response as seen elsewhere
BY TRUDY RUBIN
A trip to Paris earlier this month made me painfully aware of the global impact of Hurricane Katrina.
The tardy national response to the suffering and death in New Orleans shocked both those who admire and those who criticize the American superpower. It caused foreigners to ask whether America is indeed a power in decline. If it can't protect its own, how can it aspire to lead others?
The Bush administration, which seems to believe its own spin, may not recognize the damage done to America's image. It should be paying attention. Unless reversed, the foreign perception of American incompetence will further erode America's influence and interests abroad.
The question I was asked repeatedly at a conference in Paris was: ''How could this happen in the world's most powerful country?''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12625390.htm
The New Zealand Herald
Bush tries to repair hurricane damage to his presidency
13.09.05 1.00pm
By Andrew Gumbel
NEW ORLEANS - Facing the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, George Bush took his first close-up tour of a devastated New Orleans in what appeared to be as much a political damage limitation exercise as an opportunity to size up the physical damage from Hurricane Katrina.
The tour came as the death toll climbed past 400, including 45 bodies found in a New Orleans Memorial Medical Centre hospital which was evacuated a week ago after it was surrounded by floodwaters, AP reported.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345341
US says LA and Melbourne threat 'propaganda'
13.09.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - A videotape threatening al Qaeda attacks on Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, appears to be a propaganda ploy from the militant network, timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, US officials said.
The videotape, aired on Sunday by ABC News, featured an American-sounding man with a concealed face whom officials believe to be Adam Yahiye Gadahn, an Islamic convert from Southern California wanted for questioning by the FBI.
"Yesterday, London and Madrid," the masked man says, referring to the mass-killings from bombings of trains in London and Madrid.
"Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing. And this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint and compassion."
An American speaker may have been chosen to issue the threat against Los Angeles to make the message appear more ominous, officials said. Concerns about local cells supporting al Qaeda have been heightened by the July 7 bombings in London, in which four British Muslims killed themselves and 52 other people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345342
Los Angeles grid stabilised after widespread outage
13.09.05 10.30am UPDATE
The electricity system in Los Angeles has been stabilised and is returning to normal, said a spokesman for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council.
A widespread power outage hit Los Angeles today, knocking out electricity to thousands of customers, snarling traffic and stranding high-rise office workers in elevators or trains as officials scrambled to determine the cause.
Authorities declared a state of emergency shortly after the 12.35pm PDT (7.35am NZT) blackout, which struck a wide swath of the city in seemingly random patches.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345317
Foxx leads Katrina aid efforts
13.09.05
Jamie Foxx, working on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, says when the going gets tough, celebrities need to get giving.
"The reason you have to do this is you have to let them know that you're real," Foxx said after a visit to Houston's Astrodome, where cots have been set up for victims.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345219
Signs of life in New Orleans, restrictions relaxed
13.09.05
By Kieran Murray
Signs of renewed life spread in New Orleans yesterday even though flood waters from Hurricane Katrina still swamped parts of the city and the hunt for the dead was far from over.
President George W. Bush spent the night aboard a military ship docked off New Orleans and was to tour the devastated city and visit areas in Mississippi later in the day.
The death toll from the storm climbed past 400, but the figure was far lower than initial fears that thousands had died in New Orleans alone.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345264
Bride and groom in trouble for kissing
13.09.05 8.20am
An Israeli couple who were getting married in India could be in trouble with police for kissing publicly at a Hindu holy place, reports say.
Hindu priests blew a fuse when the couple kissed on the banks of the holy Lake Pushkar in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.
"It spoiled the prayers. The wedding became a farce because of this unholy act," said pandit S. N. Garg.
The pandits have filed a complaint with police under an archaic law that treats kissing at religious places as a vulgar act. Those found guilty can be jailed for three months.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345259
Report says UK search powers aimed at blacks and Asians
13.09.05 1.00pm
By Marie Woolf
A fresh row over stop and search powers has erupted after it emerged anti-terrorist police have received orders singling out blacks and Asians.
Civil liberties campaigners and black groups have reacted furiously over official orders to the British Transport Police which says terrorist suspects are of "Asian, West Indian and East African origin." They have urged the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate.
Officers patrolling on the tube and train network, have been told not to "use stereotypical images of terrorists when deciding whether or not to use their powers of stop and search."
But the Operational Order, issued after the 7 July attacks, which the Independent has seen, adds: "It should be noted, however, that recent suspects have included individuals of Asian, West Indian and East African origin, some of whom have British Nationality."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345334
Radio Marigny gives New Orleans new heartbeat
13.09.05
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - As you round a corner in the club land district of Marigny, the silence of New Orleans is suddenly interrupted by blasting rock and bossa nova.
From a rickety wooden home, musician Kenny Claiborne and bartender Joshua Nascimento, are trying to breathe a bit of life back into a city devastated by Hurricane Katrina by turning their balcony into what they call "Radio Marigny."
Using power from a generator and the biggest speakers they could find, they have been broadcasting whatever their few remaining neighbors request or they themselves want to hear to drown out the roar of helicopters and military trucks that has replaced New Orleans' more usual sounds of jazz.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345222
Nicaragua's Miskito Indians sent food aid
12.09.05 2.20pm
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - The United Nations says it will send emergency food aid to thousands of Miskito Indians threatened with famine in a remote corner of Nicaragua after a plague of rats plundered their crops.
The UN will send 130 tonnes of food to 14 Indians near the Coco River who face food shortages because of the rodents, whose numbers have been boosted by snake-hunting, said World Food Programme representative Krystyna Bednarska.
"At the moment the crops are affected by a plague of rats which have destroyed 100 per cent of the rice crop, 50 per cent of the maize crop and some manioc," she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345203
Belfast accusations fly after riots
12.09.05 1.00pm
By David McKittrick
BELFAST - The air in Belfast, which on Saturday was thick with loyalist petrol bombs and blast bombs, was yesterday filled with recriminations following one of the city's worst nights of rioting for years.
The city drew breath following a lawless night in which police and troops came under sustained attack after the authorities refused to allow a controversial Orange parade to pass through a nationalist area of West Belfast.
Following an Orange call for supporters to take to the streets, disturbances broke out across County Antrim, with violence in the towns of Ballyclare, Carrickfergus and Larne, as well as the north Belfast suburbs of Glengormley and Rathcoole.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345188
Iraq constitution no nearer
12.09.05 1.00pm
BAGHDAD - Iraqi politicians have failed to conclude negotiations on a draft constitution and it remains unclear when a final text may be printed, less than five weeks before a referendum, Iraqi and UN officials said.
"We don't know when they'll finish," Nicholas Haysom, the United Nations official charged with the printing, said. "We'd like it as soon as possible."
Last week, Haysom said he expected the National Assembly formally to endorse a final text on Sunday, after making an amendment in talks that followed parliament's adoption of the draft on August 28. Any later, he had said, and it would be a "challenge" to get five million copies out to the electorate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345194
N Korea hardens stance ahead of nuclear talks
12.09.05 4.20pm
By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL - Six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes open on Tuesday in Beijing with Pyongyang having hardened its stance on its right to have a civilian programme -- a key sticking point in the discussions.
The talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States headed into a recess on August 7 after failing to settle even on a statement of principles during 13 days of discussions in Beijing.
Since then, North Korea has stepped up its rhetoric on what it says is its inherent right to a peaceful nuclear programme and delayed the original late-August date for restarting the talks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345205
Oracle to buy rival Siebel
13.09.05 1.10pm
SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp said it would buy rival Siebel Systems Inc in a deal that values Siebel at US$5.85 billion ($8.41 billion) and gives Oracle a stronger foothold in the robust niche of customer management software as it challenges industry leader SAP of Germany.
Oracle, hunting for takeovers in a consolidating software market, will buy Siebel for US$10.66 per share, a 16.8 per cent premium to Siebel's closing share price of US$9.13 on Friday. The agreement is worth US$3.61 billion after subtracting Siebel's US$2.24 billion in cash.
Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said the acquisition would immediately boost profits and help the Redwood Shores, California-based software maker close the gap with SAP -- the leading provider of business application software for large companies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10345344
This is Bush's Pre-emption. This will cause aggression by other nations before the USA could pull this off and Bush knows that and desires it SO HE HAS A REASON. The aggression of Pre-emption is aggression enough for any nation at this point. The USA is no longer a safe place to live. It's a target. Find your country of origin. Leave the USA to the Neocons.
Pentagon plans strike-first nuclear policy
12.09.05 1.00pm
By Rupert Cornwell
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has drawn up a new strategy, built on the 2002 "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive military strikes, that would allow the US to make first use of nuclear weapons to thwart an a WMD attack against the country.
Under the scheme, developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff but yet to be ratified by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, commanders would be able to request permission from the President to use nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.
According to the Washington Post, one possibility is an enemy that is using, or "is about to use" weapons of mass destruction against US military forces or civilian population.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345189
Astronomers detect distant cosmic explosion
13.09.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - Astronomers have detected a cosmic explosion at the very edge of the visible universe, a 13-billion-year-old blast that could help them learn more about the earliest stars.
The brilliant blast - known as a gamma ray burst - was probably caused by the death of a massive star soon after the Big Bang, but was glimpsed on September 4 by Nasa's new Swift satellite and later by ground-based telescopes.
The explosion occurred soon after the first stars and galaxies formed, perhaps 500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang explosion that scientists believe gave birth to the cosmos. The current scientific estimate for the age of the universe is 13.7 billion years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345335
continued …
History revised: Saddam vanishes from schoolbooks
By Oliver Poole in Baghdad
September 13, 2005
New syllabus … a class at the Akal primary school in southern Baghdad.
Iraq's children have returned to school for the start of a fresh academic year with a new syllabus that has all but erased Saddam Hussein from its history.
After two years of debate, the education department has completed textbooks to replace those that portrayed the past purely from a Baathist view.
However, in a tribute to the sensitivities of post-Saddam Iraq, the revised version of history is, on some subjects, as partial and shot through with gaps as the old.
Baghdad no longer wins the Iran-Iraq war nor confronts the evil of Zionism alone. Primary schools will not have to teach reading with phrases such as "I love Saddam".
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/history-revised-saddam-vanishes-from-schoolbooks/2005/09/12/1126377257168.html
Rise of China good for all, says Howard
By Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent in New York
September 13, 2005
The rise of China as an economic and political power was good for the world, the Prime Minister, John Howard, told an Asia Society lunch in New York.
At a time when the US-China relationship remains tense, especially over Taiwan and the imbalance of trade in China's favour, Mr Howard said China's rise would inevitably place stress on the international system.
"But to see China's rise in zero-sum terms is overly pessimistic, intellectually misguided and potentially dangerous," he said. "It is also a negation of what the West has been urging in China for decades now."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/rise-of-china-good-for-all-says-howard/2005/09/13/1126377262936.html
Belfast rioters shoot at police on second day of violence
September 13, 2005
Impasse … a Protestant marcher confronts police in west Belfast. Later, rioters fired on security forces.
Photo: AP
Dublin: Protestant mobs rioted for a second consecutive night in Belfast and in towns on the city's outskirts on Sunday, seriously injuring 32 police officers in the province's worst violence in seven years.
Crowds of men wearing masks or hooded sweatshirts pulled over their faces terrorised citizens and attacked the security forces. Cars were set alight at intersections, closing a motorway into Belfast.
The 2000-strong force of police officers and British soldiers were bombarded with homemade explosives and bottles of flaming petrol while they held rioters back at main intersections.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/belfast-rioters-shoot-at-police-on-second-day-of-violence/2005/09/12/1126377257162.html
Katrina rattles the glasses in Monaco
By Lisa Murray
September 13, 2005
Executives from the world's biggest insurance companies have descended on Monte Carlo for their annual reinsurance conference.
While the set theme for the five-day event is "terrorism", most executives are focused on natural disasters, with estimates of insurance losses from Hurricane Katrina swelling to as much as $US60 billion ($77.8 billion).
That would make Katrina, which late last month ravaged the US states of Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana and flooded the city of New Orleans, the industry's costliest ever hurricane.
But Australia's biggest international insurer, QBE, is confident it will emerge from this year's hurricane season relatively unscathed, although the season still has six weeks to go.
Analysts and credit rating agencies agree.
Macquarie Research Equities expects QBE's losses from Katrina to be less than $125 million, much less than the losses being flagged by its peers. Morgan Stanley reckons Katrina could end up being a positive for the stock as it will push up commercial premium rates. In hotel rooms around Monte Carlo, rate negotiations are already starting with Katrina fresh in peoples' minds.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/katrina-rattles-the-glasses-in-monaco/2005/09/12/1126377257249.html
Allianz warns Katrina may cost $A772m
September 10, 2005 - 7:29AM
Europe's biggest insurer, Allianz AG, has warned that its exposure to Hurricane Katrina could be as much as 470 million euros ($A772.39 million), but it still expects to reach its 2005 profit target of four billion euros ($A6.57 billion).
The Munich-based company said that Hurricane Katrina, which struck the US Gulf Coast last month and is expected to result in approximately 30 billion euros ($A49.3 billion) in insured damage from Florida to Louisiana, could be the costliest natural disaster in the insurance industry's history.
Risk Management Solutions, a Newark, California-based consulting firm, has estimated the overall damage from Katrina in terms of insured losses to be between $US20 billion and $US35 billion ($A26.28 billion and $A46 billion).
http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/10/1125772718551.html
US reels as hurricane claims $68 billion
September 9, 2005 - 12:02PM
The US Congress has approved $US51.8 billion ($A68 billion) in Hurricane Katrina emergency funding, even as politicians begin to fret loudly over the staggering costs of the relief effort.
The huge aid bill, which passed overwhelmingly today in both the House and the Senate, is the second tranche of Katrina emergency funds passed after the US legislature last week approved an initial $US10.5 billion ($A13.8 billion) emergency package.
But with estimates of the costs of Katrina now approaching $US200 billion ($A262.78 billion), Republicans and Democrats expressed reservations about the runaway spending, and called for the appointment of an official to oversee and manage Katrina-related federal aid.
http://smh.com.au/articles/2005/09/09/1125772674451.html
Hail to the chief
September 13, 2005
Suddenly, China holds the levers of the world economy - and Washington is worried, writes Hamish McDonald.
WANG Xiaoyun is the face of China that fascinates and alarms the United States. A mathematics professor at Beijing's elite Tsinghua University, she recently startled US security circles by breaking a key US Government data encryption formula called SHA-1.
In the arcane world of high-level encryption and code breaking, SHA-1 is an algorithm for creating what is known as a "hash" - a single number representing a larger body of information. Wang's work exposed an unsuspected weakness in what was thought an almost unbreakable code.
Although Washington is increasingly worried by purposeful hacking into its secret databases that originates in China, Wang is no electronic spy, and wanted to present her findings to a meeting of US cryptographers in California last month.
But despite applying weeks in advance, Wang couldn't get a US visa in time to attend; nor could eight of the nine other Chinese researchers who applied. An associate, also Chinese but living in the US, presented her paper.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/hail-to-the-chief/2005/09/12/1126377257226.html
Summit unlikely to finalise UN reform
By Michael Gawenda Herald Correspondent in New York
September 13, 2005
The United Nations summit of world leaders due to get under way tomorrow looks almost certain to go ahead without an agreement on a final document on major UN reform, and on aid development targets aimed at eradicating world poverty.
More than 150 leaders are to attend the summit, which marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the UN at the end of World War II.
The leaders were expected to consider a draft document drawn up by ambassadors of a working party from 30 member countries, including Australia's ambassador to the UN, John Dauth, based on recommendations in a report commissioned by the Secretary-General Kofi Annan and presented to the UN General Assembly six months ago.
The recommendations are far-reaching and include reform of the UN Secretariat, heavily criticised in the Volcker report into the Iraq oil-for-food program, expansion of the Security Council, including new permanent members, an agreed definition of terrorism and reform of the discredited Human Rights Commission.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/summit-unlikely-to-finalise-un-reform/2005/09/12/1126377257165.html
Miami Herald
Last two dolphins of some 70 stranded in Keys hit open sea
By TERESA BRADLEY
tbradley@herald.com
The last two of nearly 70 rough-toothed dolphins stranded on shallow shoals off the Middle Keys last March hit the open sea once again today, released about 19 miles off Key Largo by a group from the Marine Mammal Conservancy.
About two dozen volunteers sponged and sprayed the sea mammals with ocean water during a one-hour-and-fifteen-minute boat ride out to sea. Cheering and clapping when the dolphins finally slipped from their deckside foam cushions and into the water, volunteers watched as the pair darted about the boat and away.
They both hit the water at the same time, dove and swam around the boat a couple laps, said Andy Newman, spokesman with the Keys Tourism Council who was onboard to witness the release. At one point, they started coming back to the boat, but then they set off to the east-southeast together.
In early March, nearly 70 rough-toothed dolphins beached themselves in the shallow waters off the coast of Key Vaca -- many sick, disoriented and starving. Nearly 30 died.
Of 12 dolphins rescued there and treated by the Marine Mammal Conservancy in Key Largo, two were released off Virginia Key in late April, and seven more off Key Largo in early May. One calf was sent to a marine mammal facility in the Florida Panhandle, Newman said.
Unlike the bottlenose dolphin made familiar by Flipper, round-toothed dolphins are a more angular, primarily deep-water species unused to shallow waters and the food supply found there, said Dr. Robert Stevens, one of three volunteer veterinarians on board for today's release.
But like their well-known cousins, round-toothed dolphins are a highly social species. They travel in ''pods'' so tightly knit that when a few members fall ill or end up in shallow waters, healthy dolphins tend to tag along.
''The bottom line is when that happens, the healthy animals go with them, and then face issues of getting overheated and beaten up by the surf,'' said Stevens. ``Oftentimes the sick ones bring in the healthy ones, and they end up getting sick too.''
That close-knit instinct can help in the healing process, even as it puts some dolphins in harm's way, Stevens added. ''They seem to derive some confidence and security from having more of their species around,'' he said. ``It's good to have a number of them to treat together.''
The two dolphins released today, known among volunteers by their identification numbers R134 and R372, were found to have had a high white blood cell count, indicating abnormal levels of bacteria in their bloodstream. They were treated regularly over the past five months with antibiotics and antiparasite drugs for tapeworms, lungworms and roundworms, Stevens said.
In recent weeks, the pair were tagged with satellite and tracking transponders set to locate them after their release. The devices will fall off within six weeks, Newman said, enough time to ensure that the dolphins make it back out to the open sea.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12626098.htm
Weakened Ophelia rests near Carolina coast
PAUL NOWELL
WILMINGTON, N.C. - Ophelia kept up its teasing dance along the coast of the Carolinas on Monday, dropping slightly in strength from hurricane to tropical storm as it barely moved toward land.
Although Ophelia was centered more than 200 miles offshore, nonresidents were ordered to leave one of North Carolina's Outer Banks islands and 300 National Guard troops were sent to mustering points along the coast. School systems in five counties closed, even though the storm's eye was predicted to remain offshore until Wednesday.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12620531.htm
Spy convict faces deportation to Cuba, lawyer says
A convicted Cuban spy who belonged to the now-dismantled Wasp Network faces deportation and would be the third forced to leave the country.
BY ALFONSO CHARDY
Marisol Gari, an Orlando woman convicted of spying for the Cuban government, has been detained for possible deportation back to the island, her Miami attorney says.
Louis Casuso told The Herald his client was detained two weeks ago and is now being held at a detention facility outside Miami-Dade County in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which carries out deportation orders.
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12621317.htm
Hurricane worries: Is this the new normal?
BY DOUGLAS HANKS III
woes have never been a secret. From the University of Miami Hurricanes to the cyclonic swirl that decorated the stage for MTV's recent Miami broadcast, fierce storms are probably the region's most famous liability.
But what if the downside gets worse? If predictions of newly active hurricane seasons come true, where will that leave the Sunshine State's reputation as a tropical getaway and balmy place to own real estate?
It's a question getting more and more attention as images of spinning hurricane patterns and devastation dominate the national media.
''I'm hearing -- and I'm sure a lot of baby boomers are -- that we could be in a period of heightened hurricane activity for 20 years,'' said Jack McCabe, a real estate analyst in Deerfield Beach. ``I think a lot of folks are going to consider: Do we really want to invest a lot of money in real estate in areas prone to that?''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12605803.htm
U.S. response as seen elsewhere
BY TRUDY RUBIN
A trip to Paris earlier this month made me painfully aware of the global impact of Hurricane Katrina.
The tardy national response to the suffering and death in New Orleans shocked both those who admire and those who criticize the American superpower. It caused foreigners to ask whether America is indeed a power in decline. If it can't protect its own, how can it aspire to lead others?
The Bush administration, which seems to believe its own spin, may not recognize the damage done to America's image. It should be paying attention. Unless reversed, the foreign perception of American incompetence will further erode America's influence and interests abroad.
The question I was asked repeatedly at a conference in Paris was: ''How could this happen in the world's most powerful country?''
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/opinion/12625390.htm
The New Zealand Herald
Bush tries to repair hurricane damage to his presidency
13.09.05 1.00pm
By Andrew Gumbel
NEW ORLEANS - Facing the lowest approval ratings of his presidency, George Bush took his first close-up tour of a devastated New Orleans in what appeared to be as much a political damage limitation exercise as an opportunity to size up the physical damage from Hurricane Katrina.
The tour came as the death toll climbed past 400, including 45 bodies found in a New Orleans Memorial Medical Centre hospital which was evacuated a week ago after it was surrounded by floodwaters, AP reported.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345341
US says LA and Melbourne threat 'propaganda'
13.09.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - A videotape threatening al Qaeda attacks on Los Angeles and Melbourne, Australia, appears to be a propaganda ploy from the militant network, timed to coincide with the fourth anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the United States, US officials said.
The videotape, aired on Sunday by ABC News, featured an American-sounding man with a concealed face whom officials believe to be Adam Yahiye Gadahn, an Islamic convert from Southern California wanted for questioning by the FBI.
"Yesterday, London and Madrid," the masked man says, referring to the mass-killings from bombings of trains in London and Madrid.
"Tomorrow, Los Angeles and Melbourne, Allah willing. And this time, don't count on us demonstrating restraint and compassion."
An American speaker may have been chosen to issue the threat against Los Angeles to make the message appear more ominous, officials said. Concerns about local cells supporting al Qaeda have been heightened by the July 7 bombings in London, in which four British Muslims killed themselves and 52 other people.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345342
Los Angeles grid stabilised after widespread outage
13.09.05 10.30am UPDATE
The electricity system in Los Angeles has been stabilised and is returning to normal, said a spokesman for the Western Electricity Coordinating Council.
A widespread power outage hit Los Angeles today, knocking out electricity to thousands of customers, snarling traffic and stranding high-rise office workers in elevators or trains as officials scrambled to determine the cause.
Authorities declared a state of emergency shortly after the 12.35pm PDT (7.35am NZT) blackout, which struck a wide swath of the city in seemingly random patches.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345317
Foxx leads Katrina aid efforts
13.09.05
Jamie Foxx, working on Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, says when the going gets tough, celebrities need to get giving.
"The reason you have to do this is you have to let them know that you're real," Foxx said after a visit to Houston's Astrodome, where cots have been set up for victims.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345219
Signs of life in New Orleans, restrictions relaxed
13.09.05
By Kieran Murray
Signs of renewed life spread in New Orleans yesterday even though flood waters from Hurricane Katrina still swamped parts of the city and the hunt for the dead was far from over.
President George W. Bush spent the night aboard a military ship docked off New Orleans and was to tour the devastated city and visit areas in Mississippi later in the day.
The death toll from the storm climbed past 400, but the figure was far lower than initial fears that thousands had died in New Orleans alone.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345264
Bride and groom in trouble for kissing
13.09.05 8.20am
An Israeli couple who were getting married in India could be in trouble with police for kissing publicly at a Hindu holy place, reports say.
Hindu priests blew a fuse when the couple kissed on the banks of the holy Lake Pushkar in the northern Indian state of Rajasthan.
"It spoiled the prayers. The wedding became a farce because of this unholy act," said pandit S. N. Garg.
The pandits have filed a complaint with police under an archaic law that treats kissing at religious places as a vulgar act. Those found guilty can be jailed for three months.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10345259
Report says UK search powers aimed at blacks and Asians
13.09.05 1.00pm
By Marie Woolf
A fresh row over stop and search powers has erupted after it emerged anti-terrorist police have received orders singling out blacks and Asians.
Civil liberties campaigners and black groups have reacted furiously over official orders to the British Transport Police which says terrorist suspects are of "Asian, West Indian and East African origin." They have urged the Commission for Racial Equality to investigate.
Officers patrolling on the tube and train network, have been told not to "use stereotypical images of terrorists when deciding whether or not to use their powers of stop and search."
But the Operational Order, issued after the 7 July attacks, which the Independent has seen, adds: "It should be noted, however, that recent suspects have included individuals of Asian, West Indian and East African origin, some of whom have British Nationality."
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345334
Radio Marigny gives New Orleans new heartbeat
13.09.05
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana - As you round a corner in the club land district of Marigny, the silence of New Orleans is suddenly interrupted by blasting rock and bossa nova.
From a rickety wooden home, musician Kenny Claiborne and bartender Joshua Nascimento, are trying to breathe a bit of life back into a city devastated by Hurricane Katrina by turning their balcony into what they call "Radio Marigny."
Using power from a generator and the biggest speakers they could find, they have been broadcasting whatever their few remaining neighbors request or they themselves want to hear to drown out the roar of helicopters and military trucks that has replaced New Orleans' more usual sounds of jazz.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345222
Nicaragua's Miskito Indians sent food aid
12.09.05 2.20pm
MANAGUA, Nicaragua - The United Nations says it will send emergency food aid to thousands of Miskito Indians threatened with famine in a remote corner of Nicaragua after a plague of rats plundered their crops.
The UN will send 130 tonnes of food to 14 Indians near the Coco River who face food shortages because of the rodents, whose numbers have been boosted by snake-hunting, said World Food Programme representative Krystyna Bednarska.
"At the moment the crops are affected by a plague of rats which have destroyed 100 per cent of the rice crop, 50 per cent of the maize crop and some manioc," she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345203
Belfast accusations fly after riots
12.09.05 1.00pm
By David McKittrick
BELFAST - The air in Belfast, which on Saturday was thick with loyalist petrol bombs and blast bombs, was yesterday filled with recriminations following one of the city's worst nights of rioting for years.
The city drew breath following a lawless night in which police and troops came under sustained attack after the authorities refused to allow a controversial Orange parade to pass through a nationalist area of West Belfast.
Following an Orange call for supporters to take to the streets, disturbances broke out across County Antrim, with violence in the towns of Ballyclare, Carrickfergus and Larne, as well as the north Belfast suburbs of Glengormley and Rathcoole.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345188
Iraq constitution no nearer
12.09.05 1.00pm
BAGHDAD - Iraqi politicians have failed to conclude negotiations on a draft constitution and it remains unclear when a final text may be printed, less than five weeks before a referendum, Iraqi and UN officials said.
"We don't know when they'll finish," Nicholas Haysom, the United Nations official charged with the printing, said. "We'd like it as soon as possible."
Last week, Haysom said he expected the National Assembly formally to endorse a final text on Sunday, after making an amendment in talks that followed parliament's adoption of the draft on August 28. Any later, he had said, and it would be a "challenge" to get five million copies out to the electorate.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345194
N Korea hardens stance ahead of nuclear talks
12.09.05 4.20pm
By Jon Herskovitz
SEOUL - Six-party talks on ending North Korea's nuclear weapons programmes open on Tuesday in Beijing with Pyongyang having hardened its stance on its right to have a civilian programme -- a key sticking point in the discussions.
The talks among the two Koreas, China, Japan, Russia and the United States headed into a recess on August 7 after failing to settle even on a statement of principles during 13 days of discussions in Beijing.
Since then, North Korea has stepped up its rhetoric on what it says is its inherent right to a peaceful nuclear programme and delayed the original late-August date for restarting the talks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345205
Oracle to buy rival Siebel
13.09.05 1.10pm
SAN FRANCISCO - Oracle Corp said it would buy rival Siebel Systems Inc in a deal that values Siebel at US$5.85 billion ($8.41 billion) and gives Oracle a stronger foothold in the robust niche of customer management software as it challenges industry leader SAP of Germany.
Oracle, hunting for takeovers in a consolidating software market, will buy Siebel for US$10.66 per share, a 16.8 per cent premium to Siebel's closing share price of US$9.13 on Friday. The agreement is worth US$3.61 billion after subtracting Siebel's US$2.24 billion in cash.
Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison said the acquisition would immediately boost profits and help the Redwood Shores, California-based software maker close the gap with SAP -- the leading provider of business application software for large companies.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10345344
This is Bush's Pre-emption. This will cause aggression by other nations before the USA could pull this off and Bush knows that and desires it SO HE HAS A REASON. The aggression of Pre-emption is aggression enough for any nation at this point. The USA is no longer a safe place to live. It's a target. Find your country of origin. Leave the USA to the Neocons.
Pentagon plans strike-first nuclear policy
12.09.05 1.00pm
By Rupert Cornwell
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has drawn up a new strategy, built on the 2002 "Bush doctrine" of pre-emptive military strikes, that would allow the US to make first use of nuclear weapons to thwart an a WMD attack against the country.
Under the scheme, developed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff but yet to be ratified by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, commanders would be able to request permission from the President to use nuclear weapons in a variety of scenarios.
According to the Washington Post, one possibility is an enemy that is using, or "is about to use" weapons of mass destruction against US military forces or civilian population.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345189
Astronomers detect distant cosmic explosion
13.09.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - Astronomers have detected a cosmic explosion at the very edge of the visible universe, a 13-billion-year-old blast that could help them learn more about the earliest stars.
The brilliant blast - known as a gamma ray burst - was probably caused by the death of a massive star soon after the Big Bang, but was glimpsed on September 4 by Nasa's new Swift satellite and later by ground-based telescopes.
The explosion occurred soon after the first stars and galaxies formed, perhaps 500 million to 1 billion years after the Big Bang explosion that scientists believe gave birth to the cosmos. The current scientific estimate for the age of the universe is 13.7 billion years.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10345335
continued …
Morning Papers - concluded.
The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is:
Scott Base
Clear
-25.0°
Updated Tuesday 13 Sep 8:59AM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime / Never ice by the way.) is"
54 °F / 12 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
82%
Dew Point:
48 °F / 9 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.07 in / 1018 hPa
Visibility:
2.0 miles / 3.2 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Mostly Cloudy 300 ft / 91 m
Overcast 1600 ft / 487 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Scott Base
Clear
-25.0°
Updated Tuesday 13 Sep 8:59AM
The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime / Never ice by the way.) is"
54 °F / 12 °C
Overcast
Humidity:
82%
Dew Point:
48 °F / 9 °C
Wind:
Calm
Pressure:
30.07 in / 1018 hPa
Visibility:
2.0 miles / 3.2 kilometers
UV:
0 out of 16
Clouds:
Mostly Cloudy 300 ft / 91 m
Overcast 1600 ft / 487 m
(Above Ground Level)
end
Monday, September 12, 2005
September 12, 2005. Halifax, Canada. Photographer states :: This obviously appears to be a funnel cloud. Picture One of 2. It's wierd because there was a small thunderstorm, and it was cold! Like only 6 or 7 degrees Celcius, or about 38-40 Fr. And from this small short lived storm came this funnel cloud. It only lasted about a minute or two and never did reach the ground, but i was shocked! Cool though!
UNISYS Water Vapor Satellite 12 hour loop - click here
September 12, 2005.
I get a bit romantic about water vapor satellites.
Water is what allows life to exist on Earth. Surface water in the way of headwaters, brooks, streams, rivers, lakes, bays, fjords and oceans is where water comes in contact with the chemicals of Earth and the interaction is magical. Earth is a rock and without water it could never sustain life. So to love water in it's proper place on Earth is to love life.
People worship water all the time. I see it a lot in Wilmington. Beach goers, surf, swim, lie at it's edges for hours and hours in a culture that is COMPLETELY 'of self' in every way. Sun tans, strolling, skills with the surf with 'belly boards' or 'surf boards' or 'paragliding' is all about physcial competency mixed with emotions of excitement, danger and fearless pursuit.
If one has a chance to watch children with water they are fascinated by it. Part of the way we as humans learn about our Earth is by repeated exposure to it's physics in ways people don't even think about. With an infant it's a bath. Confusion at first, eventually setting down to a warm and soothing time out of the cradle or a parent's lap. As a child grows water becomes a toy, splashing. Splashing is a POWER. A parent cannot control a child from splashing. A child begins to feel power over their environment by extracting reaction from parents by splashing water EVERYWHERE !!!
So, I could on and on about couples and far away romantic places and what do they dream about? The beach. Water is used a great deal in religious rituals whether one believes or not there is still the 'splashing' quality that is life and sometimes the life after. To life, there is Christian Baptism. To death there is the Hindu Ganges. Water is everywhere in culture.
So, this is my water vapor today along the western hemisphere facing the east coast of North America. There is "Ophelia," the turbulence of the Pacific and the 'hurricane' over the Arctic Ocean.
UNISYS Infrared Satellite 12 hour loop - click here
September 12, 2005. UNISYS Infrared GOES EAST satellite. "Ophelia" is clearly seen as an eddy off the Artic Ocean Vortex. Noted is a very accelerated 'hurricane' at the 1 o'clock position of this satellite. Click on title to view 12 hour loop. Also noted is the realatively 'quiet' Gulf of Mexico as in opposition of the Pacific Ocean of North America. By North America, I mean all of North America clean on down to Panama.
The vortex eddy called socially "Hurricane Ophelia"
September 12, 2005.
The Eddy of the Arctic Ocean Vortex, "Ophelia."
I did a drive around to take a look at the periphery of the storm. over Wilmington and eastern NC. It's interesting.
The last 'True Hurricane' I was able to experience in it's duration was "Dennis" in 1999, our first year in Wilmington.
This time I have a different perspective as October 4, 2002, the year the vortices manifested, has brought a very overt understanding of the dynamics that accompany Earth Heating under a human induced carbon dioxide blanket which is regional in many ways and not necessarily global.
The cloud patterns I witnessed today have exact likeness to what I coined as "Heat Transfer Systems" that travel from the equator to the Arctic Circle on any given day in these dynamics.
And why should it not?
These are 'eddied storms' off an Arctic Ocean Vortex that carries the same 'purpose' as the 'Heat Transfer System' clouds will deliver the same results, but, by different methods. The 'streams of heat' transfer heat to the Arctic Ocean resulting in sublimination of the ice from the air. The 'eddies' are an accelerated mechanisms that rapidly deliver heat to the oceans resulting in 'melitng' of the ice from underneath.
The only difference with these storms is that they are concentrated convection systems. So regardless of 'streams' of heat or 'eddies' of heat the purpose and mechanisms seem identical. The eddies are far more ferocious and deadly because they have high energy (heat calories) that drive them, but, in the long run these systems no matter their manifestation will be the end to biotic Earth.
Commemorating September 11, 2001.
One third of the USA is currently equivalent to a Third World Nation. (Creating it's own population open to become terrorists.)
The country is lead by Fundamentalist Incompetents who have created lies and deceptions invading a country, namely Iraq, for it's oil assets. The invasion has not really panned out because the people of Iraq, lead by a Sunni Resistance Movement, truly object to the presence of Americans in their country. Violence within Iraq has persisted from the initial anarchy and show no signs of relenting.
The USA is cannabalizing it's own natural resources in an attempt to 'stay the course' with Bush Cronies rather than mobilizing state of the art technologies to define it's energy and transportation needs.
Afghanistan is still the primary source of Poppies in the world and the violence within Afghanistan continues spinning off warlords such as the Ubeck that funded the Uzbecks who attacked Beslan, Russia. The former Soviet Satellites, such as The Ukraine, have attempted to achieve 'democracy' in free elections but those attempts are failing (Due to the lack of substantial investments in their new infrastruture. Basically, all these so - called democracies are left to fend for themselves and can't do it. The USA has a long and rather proud history of investing in burgeoning freedom but this administration cannot afford it and doesn't believe in social programs abroad. Bush is failing at his own priorities). To some extent Russia's initiatives to maximize global stability regardless of Bush's Global Lawlessness (Creating chaos increases the possibilty of insurgency within a nation. If that should happen in a nation such as Georgia which has oil/gas assets it would be advantageous to Halliburton for the USA to take an aggressive stand for invasion to 'STABILIZE' the situation. It's a strategy. It kills citizens of that country. It creates a possiblity for a change in government but as Iraq as an example it isn't a good strategy.) has been twarted but it would appear not for long.
Basically, Osama bin Laden has gotten away with it while the USA spins on it own axis of evil uncontrollably due to an administration that maintains control by using Osama bin Laden as an icon of fear.
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