Morning Papers - continued

Michael Moore Today

http://www.michaelmoore.com/

2,000 Dead. Military: "It is an artificial mark on the wall" NO. But, the Iraqi Constitution IS an artificial mark on the wall. There is no peace in that country. It's a matter of a timeline of progress to enhance Bush's political agenda at home. But, Bush offers no timeline of progress to the 'Exit Strategy' for the USA military.

U.S. Military Deaths Reach 2,000 in Iraq
By Robert H. Reid / Associated Press
The U.S. military death toll reached 2,000 with the death of an Army sergeant who was wounded by a roadside bomb north of Baghdad and died in Texas last weekend.
A Pentagon announcement Tuesday said Staff Sgt. George T. Alexander Jr., 34, of Killeen, Texas, died in San Antonio, Texas. The death raised the Associated Press tally of military fatalities in the Iraq war to 2,000.
Alexander was wounded Oct. 17 in Samarra, a town 60 miles north of the Iraqi capital. He was assigned to the 1st Batallion, 15th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4646


War Casualties
Advanced Search
This database has been released by military officials. Information on captured or missing is from the military or directly from families. The database lists casualties from all coalition forces.
The military releases this information only after notification of next-of-kin. As a result, this data may not reflect the current casualty totals.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/external/fmmac2.mm.ap.org/war2/adv_search.php?SITE=CALOS&SECTION=MIDEAST


Two Thousand Faces

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/iraq/casualties/facesofthefallen.htm

Majority of Americans now feel Iraq war was wrong: poll
WASHINGTON (AFP) -- For the first time, a majority of Americans believe the Iraq war was the "wrong thing to do", according to a poll published in The Wall Street Journal.
Fifty-three percent of those asked in the Harris Interactive survey felt that "taking military action against Iraq was the... wrong thing to do", against 34 percent who thought it was correct, the newspaper said.
The percentage of people opposing the US-led invasion of the country in March 2003 was up from a figure of 49 percent in a parallel poll in September, rising above 50 percent for the first time since the surveys began.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4644


A message from Cindy Sheehan
2000, Why?
Not One More
A message from Cindy Sheehan
Civil disobedience becomes a sacred duty when the State becomes lawless and corrupt. Mahatma Gandhi
Unfortunately the 2000th American death in Iraq is tragically coming up too soon. In addition to the wasted young lives in Iraq, 246 of our brave men and women have been killed in Afghanistan. Our troops and the war in Afghanistan get even less attention than Iraq, if possible.
I am in Washington, DC now and along with a coalition of peace groups and local activists, we will be holding vigils at the White House for the rest of the week from 12 noon to 8 PM.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=526


Out of Respect for Casey Sheehan, one of the Two thousand. It should never happen again !! Cindy and her supporters are NOT wrong.

Powell "(Saddam) has not developed any significant capacity of WMD....

... He is unable to project any conventional weapons against his neighbors.

Rice for NSA on CNN with John King :: "We are able to keep weapons from him."

Click on the Video

http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/powell-no-wmd.htm

THE STORY IN 2001 WAS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

In February 2003, Powell said: "We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more."

But two years earlier, Powell said just the opposite. The occasion was a press conference on 24 February 2001 during Powell's visit to Cairo, Egypt. Answering a question about the US-led sanctions against Iraq, the Secretary of State said:

We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq...

WE DON'T BELONG IN IRAQ.

WE NEVER DID !!!

Parks' quiet courage helped change the world
By Jannell McGrew
Montgomery Advertiser
Related Links
Nation mourns mother of civil rights movement
Rosa Parks, the world's beloved mother of the civil rights movement, is dead but her spirit lives on.
The woman whose quiet strength broke the back of Jim Crow law never will be forgotten. She died of natural causes in her Detroit home October 24, 2005. Young and old have been impacted by her legacy and millions will pause this week to reflect on her contributions.
"The contributions she made to this city, this state and this nation will forever live so that those persons unborn will be able to read about her and realize there was a quiet, passionate, considerate woman who lived in Montgomery and who was determined to enjoy her constitutional rights even though it meant going to jail," said civil rights attorney Fred Gray, who served as Parks' attorney nearly 50 years ago.

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051025/NEWS/510250339/1001

Rosa Parks Photo Gallery

http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=DS&Date=20051025&Category=NEWS&ArtNo=1025001&Ref=PH&Profile=1001

Montgomery Boycott

http://www.montgomeryboycott.com/

1995 Interview

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/par0int-1

Arrest Report. Timeline.

http://xroads.virginia.edu/~UG03/dumlao/civilrights/L4.html

Indictments in CIA leak case ‘about to be handed down’
By Caroline Daniel / Financial Times
Indictments in the CIA leak investigation case are expected to be handed down by a grand jury on Wednesday, bringing to a head a criminal inquiry that threatens to disrupt seriously President George W. Bush's second term.
On Tuesday night, news reports, supported by a source close to the lawyers involved in the case, said that target letters to those facing indictment were being issued, with sealed indictments to be filed today and released by the end of the week.
Those in legal jeopardy may include Lewis “Scooter” Libby, vice-president Dick Cheney's chief of staff, and Karl Rove, Mr Bush's chief political strategist.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4654

Leak Counsel Is Said to Press on Rove's Role
By Richard W. Stevenson and Anne E. Kornblut / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - With the clock running out on his investigation, the special counsel in the leak case continued to seek information on Tuesday about Karl Rove's discussions with reporters in the days before a C.I.A. officer's identity was made public, lawyers and others involved in the investigation said.
Three days before the grand jury in the case expires and with the White House in a state of high anxiety, the special counsel, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, appeared still to be trying to determine whether Mr. Rove had been fully forthcoming about his contacts with Matthew Cooper of Time magazine and Robert D. Novak, the syndicated columnist, in July 2003, they said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4655


Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Notes Show
By David Johnston, Richard W. Stevenson and Douglas Jehl / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 — I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby’s testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4637


Bushies take aim at probe
By Kenneth R. Bazinet / N.Y. Daily News
WASHINGTON - President Bush's damage-control handlers are plotting a sophisticated war room offensive to fight back against possible indictments in the CIA leak probe.
Trying to change the subject yesterday, Bush announced a new Federal Reserve chairman and convened his cabinet to signal business as usual at his beleaguered White House.
Behind the scenes, however, Team Bush was finalizing its campaign to discredit and undermine special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald's conclusions, sources told the Daily News.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4645


CIA Leak Linked to Dispute Over Iraq Policy
As Grand Jury Term Nears End, Officials' Critique of Administration Gains Attention
By Glenn Kessler / Washington Post
The alleged leaking of a CIA operative's name had its roots in a clash over Iraq policy between White House insiders and their rivals in the permanent bureaucracy of Washington, especially in the State Department and the CIA.
As the investigation into the leak reaches its expected climax this week with the expiration of the grand jury's term, the internal disputes have been further amplified by a recent string of speeches and interviews criticizing the administration's handling of Iraq, including by former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and State Department diplomats, and other officials involved in the early efforts to stabilize Iraq.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4639


THE HORSE SAYS MOO
The investigation of the White House leak hits a fever pitch as reports suggest the forged Niger documents are getting special attention.
As the White House prepares to smear Fitzgerald as an untrustworthy hack with no authority (For example: "He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things."), the Washington Post reports the special counsel's inquiry has been exhaustive and dignified.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/mustread/index.php?id=525


Journalists' Hotel in Baghdad Attacked
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Three massive vehicle bombs exploded Monday near the Palestine Hotel, home to many Western journalists, killing at least 20 people. Dramatic TV pictures showed one of the bombers driving a cement truck through the concrete blast walls that guard the hotel, then blowing up his vehicle.
Iraq's national security adviser, Mouwafak al-Rubaie, said the attack — which appeared well-planned — was a "very clear" effort to take over the hotel and seize journalists as hostages.
One of the car bombs exploded near the police position on the northeast side of Firdous Square, where a statue of
Saddam Hussein was toppled in April 2003 shortly after the fall of Baghdad, and more than 100 yards east of the hotel. Security officials said a third bomb struck the area around the same time. All three were believed to be suicide attacks.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051024/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_051024135857;_ylt=AiWXJV4DZ_up7EtfonJUpgBX6GMA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl


A Horse for Rumsfeld, but, Whoa, There's a Snag
By THOM SHANKER
Published: October 23, 2005
ULAN BATOR, Mongolia, Oct. 22 - Mongolia has 131 soldiers in Iraq, and on Saturday it received an official American statement of gratitude from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld.
Mr. Rumsfeld came to Ulan Bator to deliver that message personally, and he was given a horse.
In dazzling sunlight on the grounds of the Mongolian Defense Ministry, Mr. Rumsfeld took the reins of the calm gelding and said, "I am proud to be the owner of that proud animal." He immediately announced that he would name the horse Montana, because the dusty plains and mountains that ring the Mongolian capital reminded him of that Rocky Mountain state.
The entire exchange recalled an ancient era of alliance and conquest, when a warrior's word was law and the long knives were carried in the open.
The horse, a rich latte hue with a mane and tail the color of dark-roast coffee, was described by local officials as a traditional domesticated Mongolian breed.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/international/asia/23rumsfeld.html


Civil Rights Pioneer Rosa Parks Dies at 92
By Bree Fowler / Associated Press
DETROIT -- Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92.
Mrs. Parks died at her home during the evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years.
Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4642


Republicans Testing Ways to Blunt Leak Charges
By Richard W. Stevenson & David Johnston / The New York Times
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 - With a decision expected this week on possible indictments in the C.I.A. leak case, allies of the White House suggested Sunday that they intended to pursue a strategy of attacking any criminal charges as a disagreement over legal technicalities or the product of an overzealous prosecutor.
Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the special counsel in the case, is expected to announce by the end of the week whether he will seek indictments against White House officials in a decision that is likely to be a defining moment of President Bush's second term. The case has put many in the White House on edge.

http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=4627

WELCOME TO WITHDRAWMIERS.ORG
WithdrawMiers.org has been established to urge the withdrawal of Harriet Miers from consideration as a nominee for Associate Justice on the United States Supreme Court.
WithdrawMiers.org will serve as a clearinghouse for information related to the nomination along with tools for leaders, activist groups, and the general public to contact U.S. Senators and the White House to express the shared belief that Ms. Miers’ nomination should be withdrawn.
This website was created by a growing coalition of advocates and other individuals that believe the best interests of the country and the Supreme Court would be served by the withdrawal of Ms. Miers.

http://withdrawmiers.org/


About the campaign
HomeFromIraqNow.org is a national campaign to end the war in Iraq by using binding statewide ballot initiatives around the country to pressure the administration to bring our troops home now.
We are currently in the process of placing a binding initiative on the November 2006 ballot in Massachusetts to allow the voters to decide if the Massachusetts National Guard should be in Iraq. The initiative has two provisions.
The governor is required to prevent any further deployment of Massachusetts National Guard troops to Iraq, and to use all legal means available under state and federal law to fight for the recall of all Massachusetts National Guard troops currently in Iraq.
The governor may not deploy the National Guard to any foreign destination without approval of the state legislature.
(To read the exact language of the ballot initiative, click here.)

http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/about


How you can help
HomeFromIraqNow.org is doing something that no other campaign has done before. We are using the ballot initiative process - direct grassroots democracy - to allow people to vote on the war in Iraq. And we're doing it over the Internet.
Our first step is to get our initiative on the ballot in Massachusetts. To do that, we need to have 100,000 signatures of Massachusetts voters in our hands by November 15, 2005. Here's what you can do to make this happen:
Send us your signature
If you are registered to vote in Massachusetts, send us your signature!

http://www.homefromiraqnow.org/help


Times Picayune

State's cease-fire on evictions ends
Landlords flood courts; hearings to start next week
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Matt Scallan
East Jefferson bureau
After riffling through a thick stack of papers, Charles Wilson pulled out a sheet, marched briskly up to a house, knocked and yelled "Constable!" Hearing no answer, he taped the summons for an eviction hearing to the front door, retreated through the trash-strewn yard and repeated the sequence at a house across the street -- and again at two homes around the corner and down the block.
After a 59-day eviction moratorium ordered by Gov. Kathleen Blanco in the wake of Hurricane Katrina expired Tuesday, landlords pressed Wilson and other constables across much of the New Orleans area to remove tenants so they can repair storm-damaged rental properties.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030617122200.xml


Levee team runs into wall
It reports no access to key records, staff
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Mark Schleifstein
Staff writer
A team of engineering experts rushing to complete a preliminary report on the reasons behind levee failures that flooded much of the New Orleans area after Hurricane Katrina said it has been hampered by the Army Corps of Engineers' failure to provide documents and access to local corps employees.
"This makes me sad," said Robert Bea, who is part of a National Science Foundation team of University of California-Berkeley professors investigating the levee failures. "My first plea to them was to stand tall, come forward, bring out the information.
"When my wife won't talk to me continually, I know something's wrong," he said.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030665022200.xml


Katrina blows away 224,000 local jobs
N.O. area's unemployment rate hits record 14.8% in September
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By Ronette King
Business writer
The unemployment rate in the New Orleans area reached a staggering 14.8 percent in September, a modern record, as the metropolitan area lost 38 percent of its jobs in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore, according to figures released Tuesday by the state Labor Department.
What's more, the unemployment picture has likely worsened since September, some experts said, mainly because employers have laid off workers in more recent weeks.
The hurricane and subsequent flooding ruined a large chunk of the area's housing stock and businesses. In terms of the near-complete dispersal of workers, there has been nothing like Katrina.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030662322200.xml


FEMA drafting trailer park map
Uptown, West Bank sites on initial list
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
By James Varney
and Martha Carr
Staff writers
Federal officials released a map Tuesday showing existing and proposed sites for temporary trailer parks in New Orleans, a guide that could spell re-entry to city life for more than 2,000 families, although the plan is subject to major revisions, according to some city officials.
The map, which includes only two sites already under construction, comes more than eight weeks after Hurricane Katrina battered the city and surrounding parishes, and fails to settle questions about the pace of the housing-restoration effort. In the face of a laggardly timeline, officials insist housing within city limits is critical because even roofers need a roof over their heads.

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113030624922200.xml


Map of Recovered Bodies

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/katrina/pdf/102305/1023A14.pdf

Raw audio: Nagin on reconstruction, Saints, Election '06 and more
New Orleans is "limping" in its efforts to rebuild from Hurricane Katrina, hampered by the lack of a clear strategy at all levels of government, Mayor Ray Nagin told an editorial board of The Times-Picayune on Thursday morning.

http://www.nola.com/weblogs/nola/


Free tickets for Voodoo Music Fest today
Producers of this Saturday's Voodoo Music Experience at Riverview Park behind Audubon Zoo are giving away pairs of tickets at the park from noon to 2 p.m. today, while supplies last.
No tickets will be available for purchase; the show is a "tribute" to relief workers, etc. Today's event may be the final general public giveaway.
The two-day music festival, initially scheduled for City Park on Halloween weekend, was moved to Memphis, Tenn., in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.
But producers decided to schedule Voodoo in both cities: as a free, invitation-only concert for police, firefighters, military and National Guard members, and rescue personnel on Saturday at Riverview Park behind Audubon Zoo, and as a ticketed event on Sunday at AutoZone Park in downtown Memphis.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_10_26.html


The China Daily

US death toll in Iraq rises to 2,001
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 20:56
A U.S. soldier died in a vehicle accident in southern Iraq, the U.S. military announced Wednesday, bringing the American military death toll to 2,001. The soldier died near Camp Bucca, a U.S. detention center, on Tuesday, the same day the U.S. death toll in Iraq reached 2,000.

The 14th of Ramadan Mosque is seen in the background as US soldiers survey the scene of Monday's suicide car bombs attack, in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005. The US death toll has reached 2,000 since the Iraq conflict began in 2003. [AP]
Some Iraqis sympathized with U.S. forces over the somber milestone. But others noted that many more Iraqis had died in the conflict and said they hope the U.S. "occupiers" will soon go home.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488042.htm


Iraqi death toll much higher than US
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 08:59
The number of Iraqis who have died violently since the U.S.-led invasion is many times larger than the U.S. military death toll of 2,000 in Iraq.
In one sign of the enormity of the Iraqi loss, at least 3,870 were killed in the past six months alone, according to an Associated Press count.
One U.S. military spokesman said it is possible the figure for the entire war could be 30,000 Iraqis, which many experts see as a credible estimate. Others suspect the number is far higher, since the chaos in Iraq leaves the potential for many killings to go unreported.
The losses are far larger than most analysts and Pentagon planners expected before the war and mean Iraqi civilians are bearing most of the suffering.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487910.htm


Gitmo hunger striker wants tube removed
(AP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:19
A detainee on a hunger strike at the U.S. prison for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay wants a judge to order the removal of his feeding tube so he can be allowed to die, one of his lawyers said Tuesday.
Fawzi al-Odah of Kuwait asked his lawyers during a meeting last week to file court papers seeking the removal of his feeding tube "out of desperation" over his imprisonment without charges, attorney Tom Wilner said.
"He is willing to take a stand if it will bring justice," Wilner said.
The lawyers have not filed the motion because they first want al-Odah to get the approval of his family and to consult with doctors and psychological specialists not affiliated with the U.S. government, Wilner said.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487940.htm


US to transfer nuclear reactor tech to China
By Fu Jing (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:44
A senior US official yesterday expressed repeated commitment to transferring nuclear reactor technologies to China. China has drafted ambitious plans to use nuclear power to alleviate growing energy shortages.
Administrator of the US National Nuclear Security Administration, Linton Brooks, told China Daily: "There is no reason why the (reactor) technology should not be transferred to a country like China."

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487855.htm


Compulsory test mulled for PVC food wrapper
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:13
China's quality watchdog said Tuesday that it is considering subjecting PVC food wrappers to compulsory import and export testing.
Liu Zhaobin, spokesman for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China, said China will step up efforts in the supervision of the trade and production of the product.
Liu noted that some PVC food wrappers available on the domestic market contain DEHA, a plastic banned from food packing by Chinese law .
DEHA, which was used to add plastic or other materials to make or keep them soft and pliable, can enter human body with food after being heated at a temperature of more than 100 Celsius or encountering fatty food.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487938.htm


Fresh bird flu case in China, India on alert
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-26 15:42
Fears of avian flu spreading deepened on Wednesday after China reported another outbreak in poultry and India said it was testing blood samples from 10 dead migratory birds.
There has been a spate of fresh cases in Asia and on the western edge of Europe ahead of the winter, when experts say the deadly H5N1 strain thrives best.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488021.htm


Bird flu conference defers to WHO for preparedness
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:35
Health ministers and experts from 30 countries gathered to discuss the threat of avian influenza agreed Tuesday a coordinated international effort is needed to stop a possible pandemic, but offered no measures and little help for poorer countries.
At the end of two days of meetings, delegates said in a statement they had taken "important steps towards security long-term, sustained political and institutional engagement to address global pandemic influenza preparedness."

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487951.htm


Rosa Parks' lifetime struggling for equality
(China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:51
Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern US civil rights movement, has died at age 92.
Rosa Parks, pictured in 1999, the petite black seamstress whose defiance aboard a city bus nearly 50 years ago sparked the US civil rights movement and helped Martin Luther King Junior gain national prominence, died at the age of 92 at her home in Detroit, Michigan.[AFP]
Parks died at her home on Monday evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years.
Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of US history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."
At that time, segregation laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodation throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighbourhoods in the North.
The Montgomery, Alabama, seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, was riding on a city bus on December 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487798.htm


Alibaba aquires entire assets of Yahoo! China
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 21:26
China's largest e-commerce website Alibaba on Tuesday announced it had successfully acquired the entire assets of Yahoo! China and gained one billion US dollars of investment in the merger.
This is the largest merger-acquisition (M&A) deal in China's Internet business.
According to an agreement signed by Alibaba and Yahoo! China on Aug. 11, all of Yahoo! China's assets go to Alibaba, including its search technology, the website, its communication and advertising business, and 3721.com, a Chinese language search engine.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488045.htm


Google adds to China team
(AFP)
Updated: 2005-10-26 09:52
SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Google increased its focus on China by hiring a sales veteran to lead the US Internet search powerhouse's marketing strategy in that country, the company announced.
A woman works on her computer as the logo of web search engine Google is seen on the wall.[AFP/File]
Johnny Chou will "establish and lead Google's sales and business development operations in Greater China," the Silicon Valley company said in a written release.
Chou was hired away from UT Starcom, where he was president of that company's China operations for nine years, according to Google.
"The leadership and experience that Johnny Chou brings to Google will be an invaluable asset to Google's plans for developing its business operations in China," said Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of Google's Worldwide Sales and Field Operations.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487965.htm


Travel between mainland, Taiwan facilitated
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-10-26 21:45
From Tuesday on, Taiwan residents have two more places to go to apply for re-issue of their five-year-term permits to enter and exit the Chinese mainland if the permits are lost or have expired.
The two places newly authorized by China's Ministry of Public Security to handle such affairs are Shanghai and Jiangsu in east China, where there are large numbers of Taiwan businessmen.
Earlier, such permits were issued only by agencies in four places, namely Hong Kong, Macao, Fuzhou and Xiamen.
If the permits are lost or have expired, the holders have to go to the first three cities to apply for re-issue.
The mainland has lately taken a series of measures to simplify the procedure and facilitate travel between the mainland and Taiwan, aiming to boost the affinity of the Chinese people across the Taiwan Straits.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_488046.htm


Anniversary of Taiwan's recovery celebrated
By Cao Desheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-10-26 05:41
China yesterday commemorated the 60th anniversary of the recovery of Taiwan from Japanese colonial rule, with a pledge to firmly oppose any "independence" move on the island.
Historical facts "indisputably" prove that Taiwan is an inalienable part of Chinese territory, Jia Qinglin, chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, said at a celebratory gathering in Beijing.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487848.htm


Behind Koizumi's Shrine visit
wchao37 (bbs.chinadaily.com.cn) Updated: 2005-10-19 10:12
The visit was another poisonous dart against her East Asian neighbors.
Koizumi visited the Yasukuni Shrine on October 16, 2005 -- the day that China's Shenzhou VI safely landed at a designated site in the Inner Mongolian plains bringing a five-day orbital flight to a successful conclusion. The stubborn man with the American Gigolo-Richard Gere hairdo apparently has thoughts other than peace in mind on that date.
The girly man who specializes in the one-envelope-two-letters approach in Sino-Japanese relations is the embodiment of irreconcilable Japanese sentiments today -- petty, selfish, myopic, insolent, seclusive, weird, combative, jealous, and maniacal.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/19/content_486176.htm


Koizumi still hopes for summit with China
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-10-26 07:54
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, amid criticism from China about his visit to a shrine that honors war criminals, expressed a wish Tuesday to hold summit talks with China on the sidelines of upcoming international meetings.
Koizumi's visit to the Yasukuni shrine Oct. 17, his fifth since taking office in April 2001, prompted China to cancel some official contacts with Japan, including a scheduled visit by Japanese Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura to discuss relations between the two trading partners.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-10/26/content_487868.htm


The Cheney Observer

Are Evangelicals EVER a part of the same country the rest of us are? Jeb Bush could have had the same issues as Louisiana and as Mississippi and Alabama did if "Wilma" had dessimated levees that his brother neglected to repair because the Ninth Ward was nothing but Black Poor Folks. You know Jeb the same, the very same people who you disenfranchised in 2000 to insure Georgie's election.

Jeb Bush takes aim at Louisiana's hurricane effort
BY CARLOS SADOVI
Chicago Tribune
NAPLES, Fla. - While applauding state and local efforts to deal with the onslaught of Hurricane Wilma, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush took the opportunity Monday to blast what he said were Louisiana's failed attempts to deal with Katrina.
Bush said that unlike Louisiana, Florida organized local efforts to bring people to shelters and to transport evacuees.
"In Florida, we consider it a high priority and it's a bottom-up system," Bush said Monday at the Collier County emergency response offices. "In Louisiana, it was left for the federal government to fill the void, and you can see the consequences." Bush is the brother of President Bush, whose administration has been criticized for a slow, disorganized response after Katrina struck Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama in late August.

http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/12987281.htm


Cheney Told Aide of C.I.A. Officer, Lawyers Report
By DAVID JOHNSTON, RICHARD W. STEVENSON and DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: October 25, 2005
This article is by David Johnston, Richard W. Stevenson and Douglas Jehl.
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 - I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday.
Notes of the previously undisclosed conversation between Mr. Libby and Mr. Cheney on June 12, 2003, appear to differ from Mr. Libby's testimony to a federal grand jury that he initially learned about the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, from journalists, the lawyers said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/politics/25leak.html?hp&ex=1130212800&en=ba1361e3bd1bec47&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Cheney's Colorado Visit Seen As A Boost For GOP
By Steven K. Paulson, Associated Press Writer
Vice President Dick Cheney came to Denver Monday in a show of support to Republican congressional candidate Rick O'Donnell for a race both Democrats and Republicans see as crucial in next year's election.
Cheney said several important issues have come down to one or two votes, and he wants to keep the seat in Republican hands.
"The president and I need good partners," Cheney told a crowd of about 150 in a room at Invesco Field at Mile High Stadium. Campaign officials said the fundraiser brought in about $100,000.
Cheney praised incumbent Bob Beauprez, whose gubernatorial bid has created an opportunity for O'Donnell, as a loyal Republican. He said he was counting on O'Donnell's support.

http://cbs4denver.com/topstories/local_story_297231344.html


Frustrated Scowcroft Assails Neo-Cons, Cheney
Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, Oct 24 (IPS) - One week after a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell issued a blistering attack on foreign policy-making in the George W. Bush administration, Brent Scowcroft, who served as national security adviser under Bush's father, assailed neo-conservatives who persuaded the president to go to war in Iraq.
In an interview with The New Yorker magazine, Scowcroft, whose relations with the Bush administration have been badly strained since he publicly warned against invading Iraq seven months before U.S. troops crossed over from Kuwait, argued that the invasion was counter-productive.
"This was said to be part of the war on terror, but Iraq feeds terrorism," Scowcroft told the magazine, adding that the war risked moving public opinion against any new foreign policy commitments for some time, just as the Vietnam War did during the late-1970s and through the 1980s.

http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=30755


Cheney aide passed Plame's name to Libby, Hadley, those close to leak investigation say
Jason Leopold and Larisa Alexandrovn
With the possibility of indictments just days away, sources close to the investigation into who outed covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson have provided RAW STORY a more detailed account into how and why Plame's name was leaked and what role the Pentagon and the vice president's office played.
Those close to the investigation say that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been told that David Wurmser, then a Middle East adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney on loan from the office of then-Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs John Bolton, met with Cheney and his chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby in June 2003 and told Libby that Plame set up the Wilson trip. He asserted that it was a boondoggle, the sources said.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheney_aide_passed_Plames_name_to_1024.html


New York Times Reports Dick Cheney Leaked CIA Operative Name
The New York Times is reporting that Vice President Dick Cheney was an Executive branch source of the illegal leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame Wilson's name.
The Times reports in its October 25, 2005 edition, "I. Lewis Libby Jr., Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, first learned about the C.I.A. officer at the heart of the leak investigation in a conversation with Mr. Cheney weeks before her identity became public in 2003, lawyers involved in the case said Monday." The Times also reports that Mr. Cheney received Wilson;s name from CIA Director George Tenet.

http://usliberals.about.com/b/a/2005_10_24.htm


Blogosphere Brims with Cheney Resignation Rumors, Rice to Be New VP
The blogosphere abounds with Cheney-Rice rumors, in the wake of the Valerie Plame Wilson-CIA leak investigation....
From blogger Fred Alan...."Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice."
From Paul Bedard of US World & News Report, via RadioBlogger...."Some folks are wondering well, if this is true, and Cheney gets hit, well my gosh, he's going to have to resign.

http://usliberals.about.com/b/a/2005_10_24.htm


KARL ROVE, Lewis Libby Indictments Could "Out" Fake Intelligence
Por Clayton Hallmark - Monday, Oct. 24, 2005 at 7:39 PM
The Washington, DC, grand jury of US Attorney Fitzgerald will obtain indictments in the outing of CIA's Valerie Plame sometime this week, sources say, and one could be George Bush's closest advisor, Karl Rove.....In Alexandria, VA, the grand jury of Paul McNulty, investigating Israeli espionage against the US, has indicted a neocon Pentagon analyst, Larry Franklin and continues its work.....With these and other probable indictments, there will be trials that will EXPOSE FIXED INTELLIGENCE and ISRAELI MANIPULATION that pushed us into war.....Also, Italian officials promise to request in coming weeks the extradition of CIA man Bob Lady, a key figure in the IRAQ BETRAYAL. See how these events are converging.

http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2005/10/339590.php


Following the capital follies is hard when 'facts' change
By Bill McClellan
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
10/24/2005
Karl Rove is a terrific fellow who is being hounded by a partisan Democratic prosecutor who seems to think that outwitting Democrats ought to be a crime. Wait. That's not Rove. That's Tom DeLay. Or maybe it's Rove, too. Except the partisan prosecutor in the Rove case seems to be a Republican.
It's all so confusing. Happily, the truth generally sorts itself out during the course of a trial, and so with DeLay, at least, we should know something soon. He has already been indicted. I saw him on the news just the other day. He was standing on the courthouse steps. He said he looked forward to the truth coming out and he said he wanted a speedy trial. Of course, that was confusing, too, because if you want a speedy trial, you can ask for one, and DeLay's attorney had just done the opposite. He had asked for a change of judge and a change of venue, and those requests pretty much assured there won't be a speedy trial.

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/columnists.nsf/billmcclellan/story/F4CF6F71CFF01EEA862570A40032A069?OpenDocument


White House leak decision to be handed down this week
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The World Today - Monday, 24 October , 2005 12:33:00
Reporter: Edmond Roy
ELEANOR HALL: To the United States now, where the Bush administration is bracing for a decision which could implicate the Vice President's office in a criminal law suit.
After a 22-month investigation into who leaked the name of a CIA agent to the media, Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald is expected to announce this week whether he will seek indictments against senior White House adviser Karl Rove and Vice President Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff, Lewis Libby.
The Bush administration is already reeling from the resignation of its former House Majority leader, who's facing corruption charges, but an indictment for two such senior White House staff could have even more serious ramifications, as Edmond Roy reports.
EDMOND ROY: It's a complicated web of who said what to whom and involves the New York Times, the White House staff and the CIA. What began as a minor irritant for George W. Bush's second term in office could well end up becoming a defining moment in his presidency.
At the heart of the case are two of the senior most members of the White House staff, Karl Rove, who arguably was President George W. Bush's trusted adviser; Lewis Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's adviser; Judith Miller, reporter for the New York Times; and Valerie Plame, the CIA agent whose identity was leaked to the media.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2005/s1489320.htm


Frist's trusts not completely blind
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist appears to have known more about his stake in his family's hospital company than he previously disclosed, a report says.
Managers of the trusts that the Tennessee Republican once described as "totally blind," regularly informed him when they added new shares of HCA Inc. or other assets to his holdings, documents obtained by The Washington Post show.
Since 2001, the trustees have written to Frist and the Senate 15 times detailing the sale of assets from or the contribution of assets to trusts of Frist and his family, the newspaper said.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051024-20440200-bc-us-frist.xml

Frist memo defends U.S. spending spree
WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (UPI) -- U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist is circulating a memo that defends sharp increases in government spending, which he attributes to the war on terror.
The memo concedes there has been "unnecessary and wasteful spending" in the past five years by the Republican Congress, but says "In a $2.5 trillion budget how could there not be?"
It cites two main factors for the spending spike -- anti-terror efforts at home and abroad, and Hurricane Katrina, the Washington Times reported.
Costs for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have surpassed $290 billion, while Katrina, "the worst natural disaster in this country's history," has cost $71 billion.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/upi/?feed=TopNews&article=UPI-1-20051024-11110400-bc-us-budget.xml

HERE WE GO AGAIN !!!

Bush says military action against Syria "last resort"
Tue Oct 25, 2005 5:24 AM ET
DUBAI (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said military action was a last resort in dealing with Syria and he hoped Damascus would cooperate with a probe into the killing of former Lebanese premier Rafik al-Hariri.
"A military (option) is always the last choice of a president," he told Al Arabiya television in an interview aired on Tuesday when asked about a U.N. investigation that implicated Syrian officials in the killing of Hariri.
"I am hoping that they will cooperate. It (military action) is the last -- very last option," he said. "But on the other hand, you know -- and I've worked hard for diplomacy and will continue to work the diplomatic angle on this issue."
Reuters obtained a transcript of the Bush interview, conducted in Washington on Monday, from Dubai-based Al Arabiya.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2005-10-25T092437Z_01_MOR531158_RTRUKOC_0_US-BUSH-SYRIA.xml


The 10 Ways Bush Screwed New York
A presidential potpourri of cuts, blunders, stonewalls, deceptions, and distractions
by Wayne Barrett, special reporting by Daniel Magliocco
photo: Jake Price
Here's a welcome from New York 9-11 Veterans for Truth, a big hello for Republicans from a city hit by a couple of swift jets 35 months—not 35 years—ago. It's matched by just as friendly an insistence that the convention focus on how Bush-Cheney responded to our riverbank assault, rather than on an ancient Mekong attack, where the first test of courage was being there. With the president scheduled to barely show up here all week, wouldn't it be respectful if the delegates and media actually got around town to see just what he's done to us since the bullhorn bravado of 2001? They could start with NYPD Blue, that All-American army deployed all over midtown. There are actually 5,879 fewer city cops than in 2000, partly due to the nearly 90 percent Bush cuts in Bill Clinton's COPS programs. Even with the post-9-11 invention of homeland security funding, NYC is getting $61 million less in federal public-safety subsidies than it did before our cops became America's front line. Bush's 2005 budget proposes even more cuts. Though most conventioneers would prefer to forget it, George W. Bush has slashed the troop strength that host committee hero Rudy Giuliani put on duty.

http://villagevoice.com/specials/0543,50thbarrett2,69312,31.html


Scandal amid service
Tuesday, October 25, 2005
last updated October 25, 2005 2:15 AM
The man at the center of a massive political scandal that threatens senior members of the Bush administration with criminal charges spoke to a capacity crowd at Kresge Auditorium last night. Ambassador Joseph Wilson, whose wife’s identity as a covert agent was allegedly leaked to the media by senior Bush officials, spoke to students about the potential indictments of administration members, his thoughts on America’s role in Iraq and his background in public service.
Wilson drew gasps from the crowd when he revealed that today’s New York Times will implicate Vice President Dick Cheney as a source of the smear campaign that he says ruined his wife’s career.

http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page=content&id=18286&repository=0001_article


As the Buck Screeches to a Halt
Posted by Douglas Anthony Cooper on October 25, 2005 04:21 PM (See all posts by Douglas Anthony Cooper)
Filed under: Politics, Culture/Tech: Sports, Politics: Law, Politics: U.S. - Scroll down to read comments on this story and/or add one of your own.
Douglas Cooper
Book from Hyperion Books
Release date: February, 1998
"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things."
No, that's not an assessment of George W. Bush. It's the beginning of the smear campaign against the prosecutor: the quotation is from "a White House ally... referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald."
I'm not the first to note the irony that the White House, which is being prosecuted for a smear job, is beginning to resort to just that tactic in response. They have to; they're not much good at anything else. But a smear campaign without Rove is like the Astros sans Clemens -- here you have a talent that comes along maybe once in a generation. Rove is the Great One, the Gretzky of Libel; can you imagine anyone else cooking up that bit about McCain's illegitimate black child? Perhaps he'll continue to orchestrate the slander from his cell, but it won't be easy.

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/10/25/162117.php>


W pals bushwhack CIA leak prosecutor
BY THOMAS M. DeFRANK and MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU
WASHINGTON - As the White House and Republicans brace for possible indictments in the CIA leak probe, defenders have launched a not-so-subtle campaign against the prosecutor handling the case.
"He's a vile, detestable, moralistic person with no heart and no conscience who believes he's been tapped by God to do very important things," one White House ally said, referring to special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald.
Fitzgerald was tapped nearly two years ago to find out whether anyone in the White House broke a federal law by blowing the cover of CIA operative Valerie Plame after her husband, Joseph Wilson, debunked administration claims about Saddam Hussein's nuclear activities.
President Bush recently praised Fitzgerald on NBC's "Today" show, saying: "The special prosecutor is conducting a very serious investigation. He's doing it in a very dignified way, by the way, and we'll see what he says."

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wn_report/story/358657p-305630c.html


Clinton takes on Cheney
Vote: Hillary in 2008?
Would you vote for Hillary Clinton if she ran for president in 2008?
U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (Getty Images Photo)
BY GLENN THRUSH
WASHINGTON BUREAU
October 26, 2005
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton yesterday blamed Vice President Dick Cheney for bungling U.S. energy policy - and proposed a $20 billion-per-year tax on oil profits to subsidize clean-fuels development.
Tapping growing anger over skyrocketing fuel costs, Clinton (D-N.Y.) criticized oil companies for reaping billions in profits from hurricane-driven price spikes.
She also laid partial responsibility for rising prices on Cheney, the former head of industry giant Halliburton, who chaired a secretive White House energy task force in 2001. "The vice president basically sets energy policy in America," Clinton told a meeting of alternative energy development investors. "And it's not been to the benefit, I think, of our long-term or short-term interests, and I hope that can change."
"Senator Clinton should go ask her husband and his administration why they never passed a comprehensive energy bill," responded Brian Nick, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/nation/ny-ushill26q4484720oct26,0,2869947.story?coll=ny-nationalnews-headlines


The New York Times

Report From the Polar Ice
Polar scientist David Barber and his team conduct studies on the Hudson Bay ice near Churchill, Manitoba, in this clip from "New York Times Reporting: Arctic Rush." The television program was produced alongside articles in the Times and broadcast on the Discovery Times channel and the CBC.

http://www.nytimes.com/video/html/2005/10/24/science/highbandwidth/windowsmedia/20051025_ARCTIC_VIDEO.html


No Escape: Thaw Gains Momentum
By ANDREW C. REVKIN
Published: October 25, 2005
In 1969 Roy Koerner, a Canadian government glaciologist, was one of four men (and 36 dogs) who completed the first surface crossing of the Arctic Ocean, from Alaska through the North Pole to Norway.
Andrew C. Revkin/The New York Times
LOSING GROUND Sea ice near the North Pole. Bright Arctic Ocean ice reflects sunlight, but open dark water absorbs it, warming in the process. As more ice melts, more open water could amplify the warming trend.
Now, he said, such a trek would be impossible: there is just not enough ice. In September, the area covered by sea ice reached a record low. "I look on it as a different world," Dr. Koerner said. "I recently reviewed a proposal by one guy to go across by kayak."
At age 73, Dr. Koerner, known as Fritz, still regularly hikes high on the ancient glaciers abutting the warming ocean to extract cores showing past climate trends. And every one, he said, indicates that the Arctic warming under way over the last century is different from that seen in past warm eras.
Many scientists say it has taken a long time for them to accept that global warming, partly the result of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could shrink the Arctic's summer cloak of ice.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/science/earth/25arctic.html


Marathon Victory Puts White Sox on Brink of Title
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: October 26, 2005
HOUSTON, Oct. 25 - As night crept into morning, Paul Konerko could sense what would happen. Even the longest game in World Series history was bound to end eventually, and the winner of Game 3 would have a huge psychological lift.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/sports/baseball/26series.html?hp&ex=1130385600&en=ce1a070c7e2af568&ei=5094&partner=homepage


White House Gamble Pays for a Princeton Professor
By LOUIS UCHITELLE and EDUARDO PORTER
Published: October 25, 2005
Even before President Bush named Ben S. Bernanke as chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers this spring, Mr. Bernanke decided to gamble. He sold his home in New Jersey last year and told friends that, instead of returning to a tenured professorship at Princeton University, he was taking a chance that President Bush would elevate him from obscurity as a Federal Reserve governor to a top political appointment.
Mike Theiler/European Pressphoto Agency
"If I am confirmed to this position, my first priority will be to maintain consistency and continuity with the policies established during the Greenspan years," Ben S. Bernanke said today.
ASK THE EXPERTS
A panel of economists will answer questions about the nomination of Ben S. Bernanke as Fed chairman and the challenges facing the central bank. Questions can be sent to dispatches@nytimes.com. Answers will be posted at nytimes.com/business.
Doug Mills/ The New York Times
"If I am confirmed to this position, my first priority will be to maintain consistency and continuity with the policies established during the Greenspan years," Ben S. Bernanke said today.
The gamble paid off. If the Senate confirms him, Mr. Bernanke will arguably become the most powerful economic leader in the world. Not since Arthur Burns, the Federal Reserve chairman from 1970 to 1978, has a university professor run the nation's central bank.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/25profile.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=85c199b3d7b04f60&ei=5094&partner=homepage


After Ravaging Florida, Wilma Slows Over Atlantic Ocean
By ABBY GOODNOUGH
and JENNIFER BAYOT
Published: October 25, 2005
NAPLES, Fla., Oct. 25 - Hurricane Wilma weakened as it tracked northeastward into the Atlantic Ocean today, but only after thrashing neighborhoods on both of South Florida's coasts, shattering high-rise windows, pushing seawater over much of the Florida Keys and knocking out power to an estimated 3.4 million homes and businesses.
Alan Diaz/Associated Press
Windows were ripped off the Colonial Bank building in downtown Miami. More Photos >
The National Hurricane Center said in a 5 p.m. advisory that the storm was expected to slow from its current pace of 53 miles an hour and to turn east-northeast over the next 24 hours, a motion that the center said "should keep the center of Wilma well offshore of the northeastern United States."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/national/25cnd-wilma.html?hp


Infinity Outlines Plan to Replace Howard Stern
By LORNE MANLY and JEFF LEEDS
Published: October 25, 2005
A little more than two months before Howard Stern takes his lucrative but polarizing morning show to satellite radio, his current employer, Infinity Broadcasting, announced plans today to replace him with a regional slate of hosts, including the former Van Halen singer David Lee Roth and the comedian Adam Carolla.
Mr. Roth, whose show will be heard on the east coast, including New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Pittsburgh, is a newcomer to radio. Mr. Carolla, who has television shows on Comedy Central and TLC, has enjoyed success at the co-host of the "Loveline," a nationally syndicated radio show. His new morning show will be broadcast in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix, Portland and Las Vegas, and his former partner, the late-night talk-show host and comedian Jimmy Kimmel, will serve as a creative consultant to the show as well as an adviser to Infinity.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/business/media/26cnd-infinity.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=14c730449d504151&ei=5094&partner=homepage


President of American University Agrees to Resign
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
Published: October 25, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - Embroiled in a controversy over accusations of lavish spending, the president of American University, Benjamin Ladner, has agreed to resign in a $3.7 million deal with the university's board of trustees that has angered former board and faculty members and students.
Rather than dismiss him outright and offer nothing, as many people connected with the university had urged, the board awarded Mr. Ladner a severance package that includes a one-time payment of $950,000, relief from repaying about $1 million in premiums on a life insurance policy and the right to collect deferred compensation of $1.75 million, which he would have had to relinquish had the board forced him out.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/education/25cnd-college.html?hp&ex=1130299200&en=b8fc3347c61c9e25&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Developing Lands Hit Hardest by 'Brain Drain'
By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: October 25, 2005
Poor countries across Africa, Central America and the Caribbean are losing sometimes staggering portions of their college-educated workers to wealthy democracies, according to a World Bank study released yesterday.
The study's findings document a troubling pattern of "brain drain," the flight of skilled middle-class workers who could help lift their countries out of poverty, some analysts say. And while the exact effects are still little understood, there is a growing sense among economists that such migration plays a crucial role in a country's development.
The findings are based on an extensive survey of census and other data from the 30 countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which includes most of the world's richest nations.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/25brain.html


Top Suspect in Drug Ring Is Extradited to the U.S.
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Published: October 25, 2005
An Afghan identified as one of the world's most wanted drug kingpins, who has been linked to the Taliban and once boasted that selling heroin to Americans was a form of jihad, has been extradited from Afghanistan to face drug smuggling and other charges, federal officials in New York announced yesterday.
The suspect, Baz Mohammad, 47, was accused of leading an organization that smuggled heroin worth $25 million into this country in a 15-year operation that controlled poppy fields in Afghanistan, heroin refining plants there and in Pakistan, and a trafficking network that reached around the world to the streets of New York, Washington, Chicago and other American cities.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/nyregion/25heroin.html


Dancing With the Devils in the Dominican Republic
Alex Quesada/Polaris, for The New York Times
On Feb. 27 in La Vega, the Dominican celebrations culminate in a grand parade featuring diabolical costumes. Audio Slide Show
By SETH KUGEL
Published: October 23, 2005
A SMALL, pothole-laden city in the central valley of the Dominican Republic, anchored by a concrete-pillared, irregularly shaped cathedral whose decidedly ugly look takes some time to grow on you, La Vega isn't high on the to-do list of most travelers. There are no beaches, a few tolerable hotels, some unremarkable restaurants and, for 11 months of the year, no real reason to go there.

http://travel2.nytimes.com/2005/10/23/travel/23dominican.html


Envoy in Mideast Peace Effort Says Israel Is Keeping Too Tight a Lid on Palestinians in Gaza
By GREG MYRE
Published: October 25, 2005
JERUSALEM, Oct. 24 - James D. Wolfensohn, the special envoy for nations active in Middle East peacemaking, has criticized Israel for failing to ease restrictions on Palestinian movement into and out of the Gaza Strip, where residents currently face greater difficulties in traveling than before Israel's withdrawal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/international/middleeast/25mideast.html


Five Killed in Bombing at Israeli Market
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: October 26, 2005
Filed at 11:06 a.m. ET
HADERA, Israel (AP) -- A Palestinian suicide bomber on Wednesday struck a food stand in the central Israeli town of Hadera, killing five people, wounding at least 30 and leaving a path of destruction at an open air market, police and rescuers said.
In a phone call to The Associated Press, the Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility, saying it was to avenge the killing of Luay Saadi, leader of the group's military wing in the West Bank. Saadi was killed in a shootout with Israeli soldiers closing in on his hideout in the Tulkarem refugee camp on Monday.
Wednesday also marked the 10th anniversary of the assassination of Islamic Jihad chief Fathi Shekaki outside a Malta hotel in a mission widely attributed to Israel.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-Israel-Blast.html?hp&ex=1130385600&en=7b92d975b1bb6385&ei=5094&partner=homepage


Millions in Florida Are Still Without Basics
Barbara P. Fernandez for The New York Times
Miami police officers sought yesterday to control a crowd trying to enter the Orange Bowl in hopes of getting water and 10,000 bags of ice there.
By ABBY GOODNOUGH and JOSEPH B. TREASTER
Published: October 26, 2005
MIAMI, Oct. 25 - South Florida was a coast-to-coast mess on Tuesday as millions of people remained without power, huge lines formed for basic supplies and drivers wove through packed, debris-strewn streets with no traffic signals.

HOW TO HELP A partial list of relief organizations and other information on the Web.
YOUR STORY Share your experiences via e-mail or in this forum.
Despite Gov. Jeb Bush's assurances that recovery from Hurricane Wilma would proceed smoothly after lessons learned from seven previous storms, the government response looked frayed. In Broward and Miami-Dade Counties, people lined up for ice and water only to learn that government deliveries of both were late.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/national/nationalspecial/26wilma.html


Bush Nominee for Pentagon Is Under Attack
By ERIC SCHMITT
Published: October 26, 2005
WASHINGTON, Oct. 25 - The senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee vowed Tuesday to defeat President Bush's choice for chief Pentagon spokesman, citing an op-ed article the nominee wrote in April accusing American television networks of aiding Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.
The comments by the senator, Carl Levin of Michigan, during and after a committee hearing to consider the nomination of J. Dorrance Smith to be assistant secretary of defense for public affairs, cast serious doubt on Mr. Smith's chances to win approval by the full Senate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/26/politics/26pentagon.html


That Haze Over Titan? Scientists Suspect Erupting Geysers or Volcanoes
H.G. Roe/California Institute of Technology
Midlatitude clouds on Saturn's moon Titan over three days in late 2004 as seen by the Keck telescope. A huge storm was seen near its south pole in October.
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
Published: October 25, 2005
By finding the likely solution to one puzzle about Saturn's largest moon, Titan, astronomers think they have come upon an explanation for another: how Titan sustains an atmosphere rich in methane.
New observations by the Cassini spacecraft and ground-based telescopes have focused on trying to understand the peculiar patterns of clouds on Titan. Clouds are rare there, except over the south pole and in the midlatitudes of the southern hemisphere.
The polar clouds are stormy and persistent, with lifetimes of weeks. The other clouds, at a latitude the equivalent of the one that crosses New Zealand and Argentina, appear and rain out methane in a matter of hours or a few days as they stretch out downwind. But why almost exclusively near 40 degrees south latitude?

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/25/science/space/25tita.html

The Arab News

Galloway Throws US Senate a Challenge
Agence France Presse
LONDON, 26 October 2005 — British MP George Galloway challenged the United States yesterday to charge him with perjury after he was accused of lying to a Senate committee over the UN oil-for-food program in Iraq.
Galloway, a strident opponent of the Iraq war, said he was “completely bemused” by fresh allegations that he personally solicited and received eight oil vouchers from Saddam Hussein’s regime between 1999 and 2003.
During sworn testimony in May the left-winger told a US Senate subcommittee investigating the oil-for-food scheme that he never benefited from the controversial program.
Speaking on BBC radio yesterday, Galloway said: “I did not lie under oath in front of the Senate committee.” He said he had not seen the latest allegations from the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, which he accused of being “cavalier with any idea of process and justice.”

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=72297&d=26&m=10&y=2005


Syria Could Launch Its Own Probe
Dahi Hassan, Arab News

DAMASCUS, 26 October 2005 — Syria yesterday welcomed a suggestion from the head of a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that Damascus launch its own probe into the killing.
“We in Syria have no reservations whatsoever regarding the suggestion by Mr. Detlev Mehlis that Syria could launch its own investigation in the killing of Hariri,” Syrian Foreign Ministry legal adviser Riad Al-Doudi said.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=72298&d=26&m=10&y=2005


Bluetooth Clip Shows Teacher Beating Student
Ebtihal Mubarak, Arab News
JEDDAH, 26 October 2005 — A recently made Bluetooth clip being circulated in a number of Internet forums has produced resentment and anger among Saudis. The clip shows a teacher brutally beating an 11-year-old boy with a wire.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1&section=0&article=72301&d=26&m=10&y=2005>

Iraqis Approve Charter
Agencies
Iraqi soldiers celebrate the approval of the constitution in Najaf. (AFP)
BAGHDAD, 26 October 2005 — Iraq’s constitution, a post-Saddam Hussein milestone for the nation, has been adopted despite strong opposition from disaffected Sunni Arabs, officials announced yesterday.
“It is an accomplishment for all Iraqis,” said commission spokesman Farid Ayyar in announcing the results 10 days after the landmark referendum on a charter that lays down a democratic future for the violence-wracked country.
Nationwide, 78 percent of Iraqis voted for the constitution, the commission said, while opponents failed to muster a two-thirds majority against in at least three of Iraq’s 18 provinces which would have meant its rejection.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4&section=0&article=72296&d=26&m=10&y=2005

Editorial: The Voice of Iraq
26 October 2005
ALL interested parties will try to extract the message that most suits them from the overwhelming endorsement of the new Iraqi Constitution which was announced yesterday by the UN officials supervising the vote. However, regardless of any spin, the plain fact is that first the interim parliamentary elections and now the constitutional referendum have taken place, despite dire predictions that the men of violence would sabotage the process. The stage is now set for final parliamentary elections in early December at which point Iraq will have, on paper at least, completed its rapid transformation from a single-party dictatorship to a pluralist democracy.

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7&section=0&article=72305&d=26&m=10&y=2005

continued …

Morning Papers - Concluded

The Boston Globe

Rosa Parks
October 26, 2005
IT WAS Dec. 1, 1955, when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Ala., a city where segregation and racism danced freely and legally in the streets and blacks were supposed to sit in the back.
Thanks to Parks, who died at home in Detroit on Monday at the age of 92, the back of the bus has never been the same. Now people sit there because they want to or because there are no other seats. This change helped free America from its worst self.
Parks was arrested that day. She could also have been beaten or killed. Instead, events veered toward justice. As Taylor Branch writes in his book ''Parting the Waters: America in the King Years 1954-63," Edgar Nixon, a civil rights activist, asked whether Parks would be willing to fight the charges. He had been looking for an opportunity to sue the bus company, and he wanted an upstanding plaintiff who would inspire sympathy and respect.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/10/26/rosa_parks/


Northeaster leaves 70,000 without power
Storm disrupts airports, roads, but flooding is minor
By Raja Mishra and Adrienne P. Samuels, Globe Staff October 26, 2005
An early season northeaster churned through New England yesterday, less powerful than forecast but still potent enough to leave 70,000 homes and businesses temporarily without power, to disrupt travel at airports and on highways, and to whip up enough wind and rain to cause moments of chaos in coastal towns.
Driven by remnants of Hurricane Wilma, the storm arrived in early morning with high winds that made for a difficult commute with rains falling almost horizontally at times.

http://www.boston.com/news/weather/articles/2005/10/26/northeaster_leaves_70000_without_power/


Tax breaks for seniors get support
Relief on property bills advances in Legislature
By Scott S. Greenberger, Globe Staff October 26, 2005
Thousands of Massachusetts homeowners who are at least 65 years old would get a break on their property taxes under a measure moving forward on Beacon Hill.
The legislation is designed to help seniors, many on fixed incomes, who are straining under rapidly growing tax bills, as residential property values continue to explode across the state. Governor Mitt Romney, Senate President Robert E. Travaglini, and House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi all have vowed to lessen the tax burden on seniors.
''They're in dire straits; they really are," said Pat Larkin, the director of the Westwood Council on Aging, and cochairwoman of a property tax relief task force formed by the Massachusetts Councils on Aging. Larkin said many of the seniors in Westwood bought their homes decades ago, when property values, and taxes, were far lower. Some are being forced to sell houses they have lived in for decades, she said.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/10/26/tax_breaks_for_seniors_get_support/


Grieving families find little peace
By Thomas Farragher, Globe Staff October 26, 2005
There are 2,000 of them now.
Two thousand Purple Hearts. Two thousand knocks on the door. Two thousand flags folded smartly into triangles.
Modern warfare is waged with laser-guided weapons and the sophistication of satellites, but its symbols of loss endure.
And as the toll of US military deaths in Iraq reached the 2,000 mark yesterday, six of the families who cherish those symbols -- medals and ribbons and tokens of condolence -- say they are resolved to preserve the legacy, and memory, of the men and women who died in a war that most Americans, polls say, have turned against.
Across the months and years, their sense of loss still aches and echoes. Sometimes it is as inescapable as the picture on the mantel. Sometimes it creeps in, catching them unawares.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2005/10/26/grieving_families_find_little_peace/


The colonel's critique
October 26, 2005
THE RECENT scalding criticism of the Bush administration by Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to former secretary of state Colin Powell until last January, should be welcomed for its patriotic intent and its therapeutic value. Speaking last week to a Washington think tank, Wilkerson lamented that a ''cabal" led by Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld engaged in secret decision-making that inflicted grave harm on the country.
Wilkerson's castigation is good to have out in the open not merely because of the particular blunders he attributes to Cheney, Rumsfeld, and their collaborators, or because of his unfavorable comparison of President Bush with his father as a steward of US foreign policy. Wilkerson is justified in excoriating the cabal for its conduct of the war against Saddam Hussein, its refusal over four years to negotiate with North Korea, and its unnecessarily belated support of the European diplomatic effort to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2005/10/26/the_colonels_critique/


Suicide car bomber kills 1 soldier in Indian Kashmir
October 26, 2005
SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - A suicide bomber rammed a explosives-laden car into a bus carrying troops in Indian Kashmir on Wednesday, killing one soldier and wounding 15 others, a security spokesman said.
The attack on a bus carrying Border Security Force (BSF) troops took place in the Lawaypora area on the outskirts of Srinagar, Kashmir's main city, a BSF spokesman said.
Separatist violence has continued in Kashmir despite the region being struck by a deadly earthquake this month which killed 54,000 people, mostly across the frontier in Pakistani Kashmir.

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2005/10/26/suicide_car_bomber_kills_1_soldier_in_indian_kashmir/


Bird watchers sought as bird flu sentries
By Chris Tomlinson, Associated Press Writer October 26, 2005
LAKE NAIVASHA, Kenya --Most mornings James Njenga launches his motorized canoe on Lake Naivasha to show tourists some of the most spectacular birds in East Africa. These days he has a second duty: serving as a sentry against bird flu.
In addition to looking for African spoonbills, fish eagles and marsh harriers, Njenga now looks out for three kinds of migratory ducks suspected of carrying avian flu: the northern pintail, the garganey and the northern shoveler.
"They come every year, though I haven't seem them yet this year," said Njenga, a top bird guide for the Great Rift Valley Lodge with a decade of experience on Kenya's lakes. "But they are coming, they always do."

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/10/26/bird_watchers_sought_as_bird_flu_sentries/


Rare Asian black-tailed gull found in Vt.
By Lisa Rathke, Associated Press Writer October 25, 2005
MONTPELIER, Vt. --When Julie Hart went down to the Charlotte beach last Tuesday she was in search of a strong cell phone signal, not birds. But while scanning the water for loons, geese and other migrating water birds, Hart noticed a darker gull among the typical ring-billed gulls on Lake Champlain.
Through binoculars, she noticed an unusual marking: red on the gull's bill.
Hart, 26, of Chester, called a friend who she describes as an amateur ornithologist, and they speculated about what the bird could be. Then they called Ted Murin, a local birdwatching expert, and the three collectively checked their guidebooks.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/25/rare_asian_black_tailed_gull_found_in_vt


Bird flu could hit U.S. next year
Birds sit on rocks in "Rio de la Plata" after of a storm in Montevideo, Uruguay, Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2005. The Uruguayan government worries that bird flu could more likely be brought by migratory birds entering Uruguay. (AP Photo/Marcelo Hernandez)
By Joseph B. Verrengia, AP Science Writer October 25, 2005
DENVER --As bird flu is spread continent-to-continent by wild birds, the seasonal migration that is normally one of nature's wonders is becoming something scary.
Could bird flu reach North America through migrating birds? Biologists in Alaska and Canada are keeping an eye out and say it's possible by next year.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/diseases/articles/2005/10/25/bird_flu_could_hit_us_next_year/


Half of coral reefs could be destroyed
October 25, 2005
BANGKOK, Thailand --Nearly half of the world's coral reefs may be lost in the next 40 years unless urgent measures are taken to protect them against the threat of climate change, according to a new report released Tuesday by the World Conservation Union.
The Swiss-based organization called for the establishment of additional marine protected areas to prevent further degradation by making corals more robust and helping them resist bleaching.
"Twenty percent of the earth's coral reefs, arguably the richest of all marine ecosystems, have been effectively destroyed today," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the agency's marine environment program who helped write the report "Coral Reef Resilience and Resistance to Bleaching."

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/25/half_of_coral_reefs_could_be_destroyed/


Russian Cabinet OKs 9-year space program
October 25, 2005
MOSCOW --The Russian Cabinet on Tuesday approved a nine-year government program to expand its space programs, backing the ongoing development of the new Clipper spacecraft as well as building Russia's segment of the international space station.
In its statement, the Federal Space Agency did not say how much funding the programs would receive.
But it said the government plans include a new project called the Phobos-Grunt, which will be sent to the Martian moon of Phobos to collect soil samples. By the end of 2006, the space agency will begin work on preparations for a manned trip to Mars.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/25/russian_cabinet_oks_9_year_space_program/


PUT UP THE SOLAR PANELS !!!! It will cut down on energy demands !! There is a nearly $300 billion war in the Middle East that doesn't make a great deal of sense EITHER !!!!

NASA scraps plan to wrap hanger in panels
October 25, 2005
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. --NASA has scrapped plans to wrap a decommissioned hangar in solar panels after a contractor deemed the project impractical.
NASA said Monday the panels would not generate enough energy to justify the $40 million cost of installing them.
"It's disappointing," said Sandy Olliges, NASA's director of environmental safety and mission assurance. "We just thought we would try it and see what happens. It's not worth anybody's while to do it."

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2005/10/25/nasa_scraps_plan_to_wrap_hanger_in_panels/


Generic drugs could have saved us $20B
By Theresa Agovino, AP Business Writer October 25, 2005
NEW YORK --Consumers, their employers and health plans in the commercial market could have saved more than $20 billion last year through increased use of generic drugs, according to a new report by Express Scripts Inc., a pharmacy benefit manager.
The study examined six major classes of drugs including antidepressants and cholesterol-lowering medications and was based on a sample of roughly 3 million Express Scripts commercial members. Government programs such as Medicaid, the health plan for the poor, were not included in the study.

http://www.boston.com/yourlife/health/aging/articles/2005/10/25/generic_drugs_could_have_saved_us_20b/


Haaretz

All this mess with Syria is stirring the pot every place. Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah are the same beliefs with different leaders. Any reason is going to spark violence again. Poor diplomacy doesn't help. Hezbollah has a extensive vested interest in the Syrian leadership. They will literally have to stop their violence, which I would think the other Arab nations would see as beneficial, if the Syrian government is removed. Syria put themselves in a very precarious position. But, to some extent it was impossible for Syria to avoid that role with such a high population of Hezbollah both in that country and Lebanon. Israel is going to be a difficult country to deal with until the Syrian circumstances resolve.

Islamic Jihad vows to avenge killing of West Bank leader
By Nir Hasson, Arnon Regular and Jonathan Lis
Islamic Jihad yesterday threatened to avenge Monday's killing of senior West Bank leader Luay Sa'adi as tens of thousands of Palestinian mourners buried him yesterday morning in Tul Karm.
Sa'adi was killed during a shootout with Israel Defense Forces troops, sparking a new round of violence.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/637745.html


Hamas: Free prisoners, or we'll abduct more Israelis
By Arnon Regular, Haaretz Correspondent
Hamas will increase the number of kidnappings of Israelis if Israel does not release Palestinian prisoners, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Mahmoud Zahar, told Haaretz this week.
He added that the group will not extend its participation in a cease-fire among Palestinian organizations beyond the end of 2005 if the Palestinian Authority reneges on its promise to hold elections in January.
Speaking at his home in Gaza, rebuilt after an Israeli Air Force targeted assassination attempt in October 2003 - in which his son and bodyguard were killed - Zahar granted his first comprehensive interview with Israeli media since last year's targeted killing of Hamas leaders Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/637776.html


Defense panel head: Hamas reaching military parity with PA
By Aluf Benn and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and The Associated Press
MK Yuval Steinitz, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, on Wednesday called on Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz to tell the Egyptians that Cairo was not meeting its obligation to keep Palestinians from smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip. He warned that the arms reaching Gaza were helping Hamas reach military parity with the Palestinian Authority.
Mofaz was to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Wednesday to discuss reopening the Rafah border crossing. Egyptian Intelligence and Defense Ministers Omar Suleiman and Mohamed Hussein Tantawi will also attend the meeting.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/637717.html


IAF missile hits Gaza in wake of rocket fire; crossings reopened
By Nir Hasson, Arnon Regular and Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
The Erez and Karni crossings in the Gaza Strip were reopened Wednesday, two days after they were closed in the wake of rocket fire from the Strip, Israel Radio reported.
Early Wednesday, an Israel Air Force aircraft fired at least one missile at an open field in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, about two hours after Palestinian militants launched a homemade rocket into the Negev town of Sderot.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/637737.html


Lift the siege of Gaza
Supporters of disengagement in Israel and around the world feel cheated. After the determined and sensitive withdrawal from the Gush Katif settlements, the government of Israel is avoiding the necessary follow-up steps, and is imposing a choking air, sea and land blockade against the Gaza Strip's residents.
This complaint has been voiced not only by the Palestinians, but also by James Wolfensohn, the Quartet's envoy for disengagement, in a letter last week to the Quartet's foreign ministers and the United Nations secretary-general.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/637766.html


Israel says admission of Mossad activity in NZ was typing error
By Reuters
Israel on Wednesday blamed a clerical error for a government statement that appeared to admit that the Mossad intelligence agency had been operating in New Zealand last year.
The arrest in Auckland of two Israelis who confessed to trying to obtain a New Zealand passport fraudulently soured diplomatic ties. Israel apologised over the incident but made no comment on Wellington's charges that the men were spies.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/638047.html


Israel worried about possible new Russia-Syria arms deals
By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent
Israel has expressed concern over Russia's intention to sign new arms deals with Syria, following the already completed deal to provide Syria with SA-18 anti-aircraft missiles. Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, who is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday, will tell him of Israel's objection to the sale of more weapons to Syria, a political source in Jerusalem said Tuesday.
The source said Syria was undermining the stability in the area. "Any cooperation with [Syria], especially when it comes to sensitive issues such as the supply of weapons, will cause more instability," the source added.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/637727.html


Report: Assad vows Syrians linked to Hariri murder will face trial
By Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and The Associated Press
Facing mounting pressure over alleged Syrian links to the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, Syrian President Bashar Assad has promised that any Syrian found "by concrete evidence" to have been involved in the murder will stand trial, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.
Assad's comments, in a letter to the United States, Britain and France dated Sunday, is Syria's first substantive answer to charges leveled in a preliminary United Nations report into the assassination, which concluded that senior Syrian officials were involved in the murder.
According to the Washington Post, Assad wrote that, "I have declared that Syria is innocent of this crime, and I am ready to follow up action to bring to trial any Syrian who could be proved by concrete evidence to have had connection with this crime."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/637774.html


AIPAC lobbyists ask Israeli diplomats to testify
By Yossi Melman
Two lobbyists implicated in the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) scandal submitted a request Monday to have Israeli diplomats in Washington testify in their hearings.
Attorneys Steve Rosen and Keith Weissman, who are facing charges of disclosing confidential information to Israel, asked the court to summon the diplomats.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/637750.html


Forbes

Special Report
Communicating

http://www.forbes.com/2005/10/18/communication-networks-language-cx_mn_de_comm05land.html?partner=commentary_newsletter


New Zealand Herald

Stranding sends whale rescuers back to same spot
26.10.05 1.20pm
HOBART - A third pod of whales has stranded in southern Tasmania at the same spot where up to 70 pilot whales beached themselves yesterday.
Rescuers are working to save 14 whales at the southern end of Marion Bay, east of Hobart.
Dozens of volunteers and Parks and Wildlife officers managed to save 11 whales last night after two pods of pilot whales - which are actually dolphins - beached themselves on the northern and southern ends of Marion Bay.
It is not known what caused the beaching, but service spokeswoman Ingrid Albion told the ABC today that only one whale needed to get into trouble to cause a stranding.
"They use sonar so they can get confused when they come into sandy beaches," she said.
"Only one of them has to get in trouble and make a wrong turn and they'll actually call the rest of the pod to them."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352105


Here we go !!!

Israeli warplanes and artillery pound Gaza area
26.10.05 10.00pm
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded an area of northern Gaza today in response to Palestinian militants firing a rocket into Israel's southern town of Sderot.
No casualties were reported in any of the incidents, part of a flare-up of violence this week that has been one of the worst since Israel quit the Gaza Strip last month.
The violence has threatened to unravel an eight-month-old cease-fire and has cast a shadow over international hopes of a revival of Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking since the Jewish state withdrew from Gaza after 38 years of occupation.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352187


US, France threaten sanctions on Syria
26.10.05 3.00pm
UNITED NATIONS - The United States and France have circulated a Security Council draft resolution threatening economic sanctions if Syria fails to cooperate with a UN probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
The draft says Syria must detain for questioning any official a UN investigation wants to interview in or outside the country. In invokes Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which makes council decisions mandatory for all UN members.
The sanctions threat invokes Article 41 of the UN Charter, which can include "complete or partial interruption of economic relations" and "severance of diplomatic relations."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352124


Anti-war groups to mark 2000th US military death in Iraq
26.10.05 1.00pm
WASHINGTON - From New York's Times Square to a lawn outside an old government building in Hawaii, American anti-war activists prepared to mark the 2,000th US military death in Iraq with prayer, candlelight and protest.
In more than 300 events set for Wednesday, one day after the milestone number was reported, those who oppose the war in Iraq plan to gather at war memorials, federal buildings and in New York, on a city street corner - as well as at such landmarks as Rockefeller Plaza and a recruiting station in Times Square.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352072


Cheney faces investigation in Plamegate
26.10.05 1.00pm
By David Usborne
NEW YORK - The name of Vice President Dick Cheney surfaced unexpectedly yesterday in the probe into who might have leaked the identity of the undercover CIA operative Valerie Plame to journalists, increasing the pressure on the White House as the special prosecutor in the case prepares to file possible criminal charges.
The man who has increasingly been at the heart of the investigation - Mr Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby - reportedly gave written notes to the prosecutor, Patrick Fitzgerald that revealing that he first heard of Ms Plame from his boss.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352115


Iraq war forces Western military rethink
26.10.05
By David Clarke
LONDON - Western military powers are being forced to rethink strategy because conflict in Iraq has shown the limits of their conventional armies, said the International Institute of Strategic Studies.
In its annual report on global military might, "The Military Balance", the London-based think-tank said strategists had hoped new technology would let them target enemies accurately from ships and planes, avoiding protracted ground battles.
But it said conventional armies have been sucked into messy conflicts, often in towns, where they face enemies invulnerable to the advanced gadgetry that was supposed to dissipate the fog of war and herald a new era in warfare.
"Iraq, Afghanistan and Chechnya demonstrate the limitations of modern conventional forces in complex environments that demand more of them than traditional warfighting," wrote Editor Christopher Langton in the introduction.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352033


Man found guilty of murder is son of convicted killer
26.10.05 1.00pm
Demis Peter Paul, convicted yesterday of murdering a Palmerston North toddler while on home detention, is himself the son of a convicted killer.
Police sources in Taranaki confirmed Paul is the son of Jan Yorke, a prostitute who used the trade name Velvet.
Yorke is serving a minimum 13 years for the 1995 killing of her lover's wife, Nicola Goodwin, and the attempted murder of another woman, in Taranaki.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10352107


Crime, corruption delay EU membership for Romania and Bulgaria
26.10.05 3.00pm
By Stephen Castle
STRASBOURG - Romania and Bulgaria were yesterday told their membership to the EU will be delayed unless they step up their fight against corruption, human trafficking and organised crime, and also make efforts to boost food security.
In two highly critical reports, the European Commission listed a host of failings and suggested that the nations' accession to the EU, due in 2007, may be put back by a year.
The tough language is designed partly to spur the two nations on to greater efforts and dispel any complacency in the run-up to EU membership.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352126


Trump paid US$25,000 per-minute
26.10.05 6.20am
Donald Trump was paid US$1.5 million ($2.13 million) for an hour-long lecture to entrepreneurs - about US$25,000 a minute.
The realty mogul turned reality TV star urged listeners to be aggressive and remain suspicious of advisers. "Get the best people and don't trust them," he said at the Learning Annex event in New York.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352011


Nasty bosses could be the death of you
26.10.05
CHICAGO - That nasty boss in the window office could be slowly killing you.
Researchers in Finland have found in a study of British workers that those who felt they were being treated fairly had a much lower incidence of heart disease, the leading cause of death in Western society.
"Most people care deeply about just treatment by authorities," study author Mika Kivimaki of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health wrote in this week's Archives of Internal Medicine. "Lack of justice may be a source of oppression, deprivation and stress."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10352010


Russian on trial for killing air controller
26.10.05 10.20am
ZURICH - A Russian who lost his wife and two children in Germany's worst aviation disaster has gone on trial in Switzerland for killing the air traffic controller he held responsible.
Vitaly Kaloyev, 48, lost his family when a DHL cargo plane and a Russian passenger jet collided in Swiss-controlled airspace over southern Germany on July 1, 2002.
He is charged with the premeditated killing of Peter Nielsen, the only air traffic controller on duty at the time.
Under Swiss law this charge ranks between murder and manslaughter and carries a maximum sentence of 20 years.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352063


Pacific's children at risk as Aids spreads
26.10.05
By Angela Gregory
Children are being overlooked in the spread of HIV/Aids in the Pacific, which is heading towards a generalised epidemic in the region, says Unicef New Zealand.
A global campaign was kick-started in Auckland yesterday to highlight the children who are increasingly bearing the brunt of the disease, the same day the Pan Pacific HIV/Aids conference opened in the city.
Unicef NZ executive director Dennis McKinlay said the disease was taking a stranglehold in the Pacific with a sharp increase in cases and potential for exponential growth.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352049


West failed to stem bird flu says researcher
26.10.05
By Martin Johnston
Western countries have failed Asia in its attempts to control the bird flu epidemic now threatening poultry flocks in Europe, a Massey University researcher says.
Professor Roger Morris, an epidemiologist, said yesterday that the influenza outbreak could have been confined to Asia and controlled if the West had provided the assistance sought.
"The global community has failed to respond adequately to calls for help in stemming spread of the disease."
The H5N1 strain of influenza has led to the deaths of millions of birds and more than 60 people. The virus does not spread easily between people, but experts fear it could change to do so, causing a global pandemic that kills millions of people.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352050


Private companies begin hunt for Tamiflu stockpiles
26.10.05
By Jeremy Laurance
Private firms in Britain are arranging stockpiles of Tamiflu, the anti-viral treatment for avian flu, as the drug's manufacturer said panic buying had almost exhausted the National Health Service's supply.
The Government has ordered 14.6 million Tamiflu courses at a cost of 200 million ($500 million), delivered at the rate of 800,000 courses a month.
Tamiflu maker Roche said: "We are in discussion with a number of corporations but they have requested their details are kept confidential. Our priority is to fill the Government's order."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352016


Best way 'to foil pandemic' is focus on Asia
26.10.05
MOSCOW - Russia confirmed more bird flu cases yesterday, raising fears it could spread over Europe, but a United Nations official said the best way to stop it was for donors to pay up and fight it where it began, among Asian fowl.
The latest case in Russia killed 12 hens at a dacha in Tambov, 400km southeast of Moscow. Authorities culled 53 birds and imposed a quarantine.
Tests confirmed some birds carried the H5N1 avian flu strain which can infect humans, though not yet pass between them. More dead birds were found and taken for tests in Germany, Croatia, Hungary and Portugal as suspect cases multiplied. But the numbers involved in Europe are still small and no humans there have been infected, unlike Asia where 61 people have died.
A World Health Organisation official, Shigeru Omi, said Europe still had good prospects of stopping H5N1 reaching its tame bird population because it had reacted faster and more openly.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10352018



The weather in Antarctica (Crystal Ice Chime) is warm:

Scott Base

Clear

-6.0°

Updated Wednesday 26 Oct 9:59PM

The weather at Glacier Bay National Park (Crystal Wind Chime) is:

36 °F / 2 °C
Partly Cloudy

Humidity:
81%

Dew Point:
30 °F / -1 °C

Wind:
Calm

Pressure:
29.50 in / 999 hPa

Visibility:
10.0 miles / 16.1 kilometers

UV:
0 out of 16

Clouds:
Few 4100 ft / 1249 m
Few 4800 ft / 1463 m
(Above Ground Level)

end