Morning Papers - continued

Sydney Morning Herald

Wild weather
7 September 2006
Duration 00:46
Wild weather has caused massive delays around Sydney. Shannon Jones braved the gale-force winds to check it out.

http://media.smh.com.au/?sy=smh&category=bulletin&rid=21706&source=smh.com.au%2F&t=7EUCKN&ie=1&player=wm7&rate=1092&flash=1


Good turn ends in storm death
A building site worker died after trying to row out in Sydney's wild weather today to save a yacht being battered in the high winds.
Police say the 38-year-old man's dinghy flipped as he was en route to secure the boat during wild weather on the harbour on Sydney's North Shore.
He had been working on a waterfront building site at Mosman about 8.40am when he saw a boat moored nearby being damaged by the wind, police said.
Even though the vessel in trouble was not his, he launched a dinghy and headed towards the boat to secure it, police said.
The dinghy apparently flipped over, throwing the man into the water, police said.
Passing NSW Maritime boating officers were first on the scene and pulled two men from the harbour, a spokeswoman said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/good-turn-ends-in-storm-death/2006/09/07/1157222228299.html


The Age

City-country divide may grow over water
The divide between Australia's city dwellers and their rural cousins could grow unless action is taken over water supply, a Senate report warns.
The Senate's Rural, Regional and Transport References Committee looked at the impact of rural water usage.
"Rural versus urban usage has emerged as a major issue of concern suggesting that unless these issues are dealt with effectively they will lead to increased bad feelings between growers and city folk," committee chair, Australian Greens senator Rachel Siewert told the Senate.
The inquiry examined the question of development of water property titles, protection of rivers, farming innovation, monitoring of drought and predicting farm water demand and predicting weather and its implications for agriculture.
The study found that the issue is even more difficult due to the "uncertainty of the science assessing the resource and predicting the impacts of drought and increased climate variability."
The report also stated the lack of rainfall and therefore water security is a policy challenge whether it be due to drought or climate change.
Senator Siewert said climate change was a topic which had to be addressed.
"Many see this as the elephant in the room. Water policy that is not being acknowledged. While the exact scope of this change may be uncertain and open to dispute it is clear that any significant change in rainfall and temperature patterns could leave a major hole in our water accounting process," the West Australian senator said.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Citycountry-divide-may-grow-over-water/2006/09/07/1157222255529.html


Globe and Mail

Scientists find new global warming threat
SETH BORENSTEIN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — New research is raising concerns that global warming may be triggering a self-perpetuating climate time bomb trapped in once-frozen permafrost.
As Earth warms, greenhouse gases once stuck in the long-frozen soil are bubbling into the atmosphere in much larger amounts than previously anticipated, according to a study in Thursday's journal Nature.
Methane trapped in a special type of permafrost is bubbling up at a rate five times faster than originally measured, the journal said.
Scientists are fretting about a global-warming cycle that had not been part of their already gloomy climate forecasts: Warming already under way thaws permafrost, soil that had been continuously frozen for thousands of years.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060906.wpermaf0906/BNStory/Science/home



Virulent strain of TB discovered in S. Africa
MICHELLE FAUL
Associated Press
Tugela Ferry, South Africa — A deadly new strain of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis discovered in South Africa is likely to have spread beyond the rural area where 52 of the 53 people diagnosed with it have died, the doctor who discovered the super bug said.
The extent of the outbreak in the Kwazulu-Natal region of eastern South Africa is unknown because tests are expensive and specialized, said Dr. Tony Moll.
Dr. Moll identified the strain in tests carried out at King George V Hospital in Durban, the provincial capital about 240 kilometres southeast of Tugela Ferry, where he works at a government hospital.
“Most hospitals don't have such facilities and support,” Dr. Moll said in an interview this week.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060906.wtb0906/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/home



NATO commander calls for reinforcements in Afghanistan
General James L. Jones says coming weeks will be 'decisive'
PAUL AMES
Associated Press
CASTEAU, BELGIUM — NATO's top commander, General James L. Jones, on Thursday called for allied nations to send reinforcements to southern Afghanistan, saying the coming weeks could be decisive in the fight against the Taliban.
Gen. Jones will meet top generals from the 26 NATO nations Friday and Saturday in Warsaw in an attempt to generate troops, planes and helicopters needed for the mission in southern Afghanistan.
Gen. Jones acknowledged that NATO had been surprised by the “level of intensity” of Taliban attacks since the alliance moved into the southern region in July and by the fact that the insurgents were prepared to stand and fight rather than deploy their usual hit-and-run tactics.
However, he was confident that NATO troops could win the battle.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060907.wnato0907/BNStory/International/home



The Fallen in Afghanistan's Canadian Force

World-class runner and former Olympian Private Mark Anthony Graham, a member of 1st Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment, based in Petawawa, Ont., was killed in Afghanistan Monday September 4, 2006, mistakenly hit by fire from a U.S. warplane.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060422.wsoldiergallery0422/PhotoGallery01?slot=1



New maps open up depths of Atlantic Ocean
JEFFREY GOLD
Associated Press
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Although only 325 kilometres off the New Jersey-New York coast, the features of the Hudson Canyon have been largely hidden beneath hundreds of metres of water.
Created by the Hudson River centuries ago, parts of the massive, undersea region rival the Grand Canyon in scale. Now, for the first time, scientists have a vivid picture of what the mysterious region looks like.
A four-year study using high-tech tools has produced maps that will allow scientists to study many things, including whether methane gas trapped in frozen sediment below the sea floor is escaping and exacerbating global warming.
Also of interest is whether gas releases could spark undersea landslides that produce tsunamis. Such landslides could also cleave the undersea phone cables that handle much of the nation's overseas communications, said Peter Rona, a Rutgers University professor who led the team that produced the maps.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060904.wseafloor0904/BNStory/Science/home



The stones of Banff
High in the Rockies, a simple stone cabin represents a heroic effort – and the magnetic pull of the mountains
LISA ROCHON
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
BANFF NATIONAL PARK, ALTA. — I never wanted to be a mountain climber. Never wanted to walk a narrow ledge with nothing to cling to but a crumbling rock wall and thin air. Stupid, I know. But, promise me a stone cabin of unparalleled honesty and defiance that requires one of the toughest scree slogs in the Rockies, and I'm willing to see the intelligence of the argument. Why did I climb up 600 metres of sliding, cascading, hateful rock? Because of the architecture on the mountain.
The Abbot Pass Hut still occupies my dreams and my nightmares. It is a fearsome structure that lords itself over a terrible moonscape. Set impossibly high in the Rockies, its construction in 1923 requiring extraordinary human guts and determination, the hut is a rare work of heroic architecture. There's nothing embellished or frivolous about the cabin, nothing pretty. The thick stone walls of the hut are as unforgiving and sublime as the cliffs that surround it on all sides.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060907.wxrochon07/BNStory/Entertainment/home



From TV starlet to director, via a road less travelled
LEAH McLAREN
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
TORONTO — "No one should have to go through puberty in a period costume," says Sarah Polley, fixing her interviewer with an unnerving, blue gaze that makes it almost impossible to tell whether she's joking. She cracks a smile and the clouds part. "It's really embarrassing."
As she sits in the Café Diplomatico, in Toronto's west end, there is little of the crinoline-clad child star Canadians came to know in the '90s. Tiny and unmade-up in jeans and hooded sweatshirt, Ms. Polley is contemplating her transition from CBC Television's petticoat-sporting darling on Road to Avonlea to full-grown writer/director.
At the not-so-ancient age of 27, she has just completed her first feature film. Away From Her, starring Julie Christie and Gordon Pinsent, will have its gala opening at the Toronto International Film Festival next week. Critics are already humming with delight over the film, which promises to catapult the ever-beyond-her-years actress/director to the first tier of Canadian filmmakers her first time out.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060907.wxpolley07/BNStory/TIFF06/home



A brave opening choice
The Journals of Knud Rasmussen is both an obvious and a wonderfully brave choice as tonight's kickoff gala, RICK GROEN writes
RICK GROEN
Picture this, because it just might happen.
Tonight, 8 o'clock, Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall. The curtain is set to rise on the opening film in what may now be the world's most influential festival. Taking their expensive seats, the dignitaries dignify, the glitterati glitter, the moneyed talk. Then silence and hushed expectation as the kickoff gala -- The Journals of Knud Rasmussen -- begins to unspool.
Tonight, 10 o'clock, the end credits roll. The dignitaries, the glitterati, the moneyed are still silent but no longer excited. Many politely applaud, some dutifully stand, but most are wondering how in hell the edge got taken right off the evening. What they heard, for the past two hours, is abundantly evident -- lots of unrecognizable Inuit actors speaking in their strange native language. And what they didn't see, for the past two hours, is crystal clear -- barely a hint of action, scarcely more plot and nary a glimpse of a Brad or a Gwyneth or a Scarlett or a Cruise. So what exactly did they witness? Must be art, the frustrated are bound to grumble, because it sure felt like watching paint dry. Now where's the damn party?
So it might go down and, if that's the case, bloody marvellous. The Journals may not be a great movie, but it is a good movie and the perfect one to open any film festival, especially a Canadian festival. Give the TIFF programmers full marks for making a choice that manages to be -- all at once -- completely obvious and politically correct, yet also wonderfully brave and curiously apposite to the whole experience of spending 10 days in the darkened theatres and the glaring spotlights of cinema's modern times.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060907.KNUD07/TPStory/



Bush admits to secret prisons
President defends clandestine program, announces trials for 14 top terror suspects
ALAN FREEMAN
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
WASHINGTON — U.S. President George W. Bush admitted for the first time that the CIA has been operating clandestine prisons as he announced plans to try 14 high-profile terrorist suspects -- including the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks -- who have been held at the secret jails.
After his administration spent months steadfastly refusing to confirm the existence of the widely criticized "black sites," Mr. Bush not only acknowledged that terrorists had been "held and questioned outside the United States" by the Central Intelligence Agency but he praised the program as one that had broken up several plots and kept "potential mass murderers off the streets before they were able to kill us." The presumed terrorists, including suspects in the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000 and the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, have already been transferred to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba where 455 other suspects are also being held.
Mr. Bush strongly defended the clandestine program, saying it had saved lives and remained "vital to the security of the United States and our friends and allies." While admitting that procedures used in the detention centres were "tough," Mr. Bush denied any use of torture. "It's against our laws and against our values."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060907.wxbush07/BNStory/International/home



Blair's word expected today on when he'll quit
HAMIDA GHAFOUR
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
LONDON — British Prime Minister Tony Blair is expected to speak out today about the timing of his resignation, a day after he struggled to contain a growing rebellion by party dissidents who are demanding that he quit as soon as possible.
With Internet betting firms taking wagers from fevered gamblers on Mr. Blair's departure date, the Prime Minister held meetings with his heir apparent, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown, and warned 15 rebel Labour lawmakers that their protest could ruin the ruling party's prospects in the 2009 election.
"It is with the greatest sadness that I have to say that I no longer believe that your remaining in office is in the interest of either the party or the country," junior defence minister Tom Watson wrote in a letter of resignation to Mr. Blair. Up to now, Mr. Watson has been a loyal Blairite and he is the highest-ranking dissident. Eight junior government officials were among 15 officials who signed a separate document saying that "without an urgent change in the leadership of the party, it becomes less likely that we will win election."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060907.wxblair07/BNStory/International



Pedophile who breached parole five times out of jail again
SHANNON KARI
Globe and Mail Update
VANCOUVER — A pedophile who repeatedly breached his long-term supervision order has been released from prison and is living in an undisclosed location in British Columbia.
Shaun Joshua Deacon, 40, was released last week following an Aug. 28 National Parole Board ruling.
Mr. Deacon had been back in prison since June when he refused to tell his supervisors at a halfway house in Kelowna about new keys in his possession.
In its decision to release Mr. Deacon, the parole board reprimanded him and added a condition that he not possess pictures of children under the age of 16, after one was found on his computer.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20060906.bc-pedophile07/BNStory/National/home



The Sierra Vista Herald

Nuclear courier accused of theft, fraud
U.S. Video
Advertisement
AMARILLO, Texas (AP) -- A former nuclear materials courier with top secret clearance was indicted Wednesday on charges that he used his position to obtain restricted items and sell them over the Internet.
Joe Allen Sizemore, 41, of Amarillo, was charged with wire fraud, theft of government property and possession of unregistered firearms, U.S. Attorney Richard B. Roper announced Wednesday in a news release.
Roper said Sizemore was expected to surrender to federal authorities and make his initial court appearance within the next two weeks.
No telephone listing for Sizemore could immediately be found in the Amarillo area.
Sizemore worked as a nuclear materials courier for the Office of Secure Transportation under the Department of Energy and was assigned to the Pantex Plant, a nuclear weapons assembly and disassembly facility near Amarillo.
Couriers transport nuclear weapons and obtain body armor, night scopes and weaponry restricted to government and law-enforcement officials. They agree to return equipment the DOE that has been provided to them during their employment, according to Roper's statement.
From July 2003 until August 2005, Sizemore prepared purchase requests of restricted items on DOE letterhead and submitted them to his supervisors, who signed them, according to the indictment. After he received the items, he posted them for sale on the Internet, prosecutors say.
Authorities recovered two submachine guns when they searched Sizemore's home in October, according to the release. The fully automatic weapons are required by law to be registered in the National Firearms Registry.
Sizemore had worked at Pantex since 1990 and had top secret clearance, according to a previous report published in the Amarillo Globe-News.
© 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Learn more about our Privacy Policy.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NUCLEAR_COURIER_FRAUD?SITE=AZSVH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-07-00-28-06



Army general recalls Katrina aftermath
By GREG BLUESTEIN
Associated Press Writer
FOREST PARK, Ga. (AP) -- When civilian officials couldn't get a grip on Hurricane Katrina's devastation, it was Lt. Gen. Russel Honore who took charge, leading federal troops to help rescue thousands still stranded in New Orleans days after the storm.
The cigar-chomping three-star general, whose leadership in the drowning city earned him the praise of even the government's harshest critics, has since settled back to his chief duty: Training National Guard and Reserve soldiers for their deployment to Iraq and Afghanistan.
But as the face of the military's role in disaster recovery - and a Louisiana native - Honore has a personal stake in New Orleans' future, returning recently for anniversary ceremonies and keeping tabs as the city tries to build a better New Orleans.
"Better is always harder," Honore said with a sigh while seated behind his office desk at Fort Gillem, just south of Atlanta. "Better costs more. Better takes time."
When Katrina made landfall, the veteran soldier - who once commanded troops in Korea and prepares troops to deal with explosives in Iraq - approached the storm as he would a cunning enemy that cut supply lines and communications with one fell swoop.
Honore soon became an icon of leadership, a walking caricature of a take-charge soldier whose growling one-liners and commanding presence didn't just compel his soldiers into action, but civilians as well.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_GENERAL?SITE=AZSVH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-07-04-17-07



Mont. firefighters battling blaze, bees
By SUSAN GALLAGHER
Associated Press Writer
HELENA, Mont. (AP) -- Firefighters battling a wildfire that has blackened nearly 290 square miles and burned 26 homes faced a new challenge, authorities said Wednesday: bees.
The blaze that started with lightning on Aug. 22 has forced hundreds to evacuate. After being grounded by smoke for a day, firefighting helicopters returned to work Wednesday, pouring water on the fire that was 45 percent contained.
Bee stings among firefighters have surged to as many as 50 a day, information officer Joan Dickerson said. Some of those stung required medical attention.
"We've had a couple of our leaders taken to the hospital," she said, but added that she had no explanation for the surge in stings.
An evacuation order for 265 homes remained in effect, three days after it was issued. An alert for evacuation readiness covered another 20 homes.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/W/WILDFIRES?SITE=AZSVH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-07-02-36-30




Ex-Ill. gov gets 6 1/2 years in prison
By MIKE ROBINSON
Associated Press Writer
AP Photo/CHARLES REX ARBOGAST
U.S. Video
CHICAGO (AP) -- Former Gov. George Ryan, who was acclaimed by capital punishment foes for suspending executions in Illinois and emptying out death row, was sentenced Wednesday to 6 1/2 years behind bars in the corruption scandal that ruined his political career.
"When they elected me as the governor of this state, they expected better, and I let 'em down and for that I apologize," the 72-year-old Republican said in court before hearing his sentence.
Federal prosecutors had asked for eight to 10 years in prison. Defense attorneys argued that even 2 1/2 years would deprive Ryan of the last healthy years of his life.
"Government leaders have an obligation to stand as the example. Mr. Ryan failed to meet that standard," U.S. District Judge Rebecca R. Pallmeyer said.
Ryan and about a dozen members of his family stood stoically as Pallmeyer imposed the sentence. He said "involuntary separation" from his wife of 50 years, Lura Lynn, would be "excruciating."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/G/GOVERNORS_TRIAL?SITE=AZSVH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-07-04-39-41



Fugitive named to '15 Most Wanted' list
By CAROLYN THOMPSON
Associated Press Writer
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A fugitive suspected of killing a state trooper and wounding two others has been named by federal marshals to their "15 Most Wanted" list while a two-state manhunt continues.
The search for Ralph "Bucky" Phillips, a career thief who broke out of an Erie County jail in April, has become one of the largest in New York history.
Authorities believe Phillips has been helped by numerous people since his escape, but has also broken into unoccupied hunting cabins in New York and Pennsylvania and stolen about 15 cars to remain one step ahead of police, authorities said.
Phillips may have spent 11 days hiding out in a western Pennsylvania home last month, slipping back into New York at least once to steal 41 guns from a gun shop, authorities said Wednesday.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TROOPER_SHOT?SITE=AZSVH&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-09-07-03-41-49



Border apprehensions down again in county
By Jonathan Clark
Herald/Review
TUCSON — Border Patrol apprehensions of illegal immigrants in Cochise County were down 32 percent to 5,996 last month as compared with August 2005, the agency’s Tucson Sector reported Wednesday.
The figure suggests a continued decline in local illegal border crossings since the start of the year, although August’s drop in apprehensions was less significant than the 50 and 48 percent declines registered in June and July, respectively. The Border Patrol attributes the decline in local apprehensions to a buildup of manpower and technology in the area, once a focal point for illegal entry into the United States.
According to Tucson Sector spokesman Sean King, Cochise County’s three Border Patrol stations in Naco, Douglas and Willcox counted a combined total of 699 agents on Oct. 1, 2002. By Oct. 1, 2005, that number had risen to 964.
In terms of disrupting drug trafficking, the Border Patrol confiscated 1,327 pounds of marijuana in Cochise County last month as compared with 3,319 pounds in August 2005, King said.

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2006/09/07/local_news/news5.txt



Newly revised Army manual released
BY BILL HESS
Herald/Review
FORT HUACHUCA — A new Army field manual emphasizes soldiers involved in human intelligence collection are bound by the Geneva Convention, even when it comes to the detention of individuals considered unlawful enemy combatants.
Army Field Manual 22-2.3, which was released Wednesday, doesn’t just apply to soldiers. Sailors, airmen, Marines and civil service and contract employees involved in intelligence collection, including interrogation of detainees, will have to comply with the 384-page document, said Maj. Gen. Barbara Fast, who commands the Intelligence Center and Fort Huachuca, the military’s home of human collection training. The manual “is very consistent with (U.S.) Sen. (John) McCain’s view about detainees,” she said.
McCain, who was tortured by the North Vietnamese while he was a prisoner of war for years during the Vietnam War, is an outspoken critic of improper interrogation procedures.
Last year, the Arizona Republican led the charge for a bill to define and limit interrogation techniques that may be used against terrorism suspects.

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2006/09/07/local_news/news2.txt



Who among us shall mourn their loss?
To the Editor:
Two brown bears, a cub and a sow, died Tuesday. Not from natural causes, or even the result of the unfettered process of natural selection. It was from the barrel of a gun, fired by people society has hired to protect us from our lazy way, and personal preferences about which animals shall live or die.
The residents of Ramsey Canyon issued the assassination order for these bears, so they did not have to spend the money to bear-proof trash cans, or alter their schedule for putting trash cans out the night before, rather than the morning of, trash collection, both proven methods for discouraging bears according to the Arizona Department of Game and Fish. What about those same people who, wanting to see wildlife, decide to feed wildlife, especially hummingbirds, because their right to personal enjoyment trumps the right of other species to live, since the bears are only interested in a little food? In this case, the bears that are tempted to grab a feeder are put in the path of a bullet. The loss of two bears is not very big in the great scheme of things, unless one reaches ever so slightly for the underlying meaning behind the human action. Among those hidden meanings might be ignorance, a total disregard for the natural laws that keeps all life in balance and the ignorance that loss of one species might just somehow be connected to our own well being. Perhaps we might consider our arrogance, assuming that our role on the planet is to dominate all life. Or, maybe the most fundamental of all motivations might be the “me first” philosophy, which has become the new foundation for our personal decisions.
Regardless, the death of blameless animals will likely continue, as long as people move to the fringes of towns and villages and fail to adopt a way of life that is harmonious with living with wildlife, insisting instead that they will impose city values on their rural location. We can all expect this same scenario to play out again, in Ash Canyon, Miller Canyon, Carr Canyon and Three Canyons. The major question remains that at what point, if it is not our own conscience that bothers us over the loss of animals and their habitat, do we start to become dimly aware that our own survival is at risk from our continued ignorance, arrogance and self-centeredness.
J. Mack
Sierra Vista

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2006/09/07/local_news/features_and_opinions/letters_to_editor/letter1.txt



Shame on residents, state agents for bears' deaths
To the Editor:
After reading about the Game and Fish Department killing two bears and now a resident shooting and wounding one, I had to write.
First of all, I am not a tree-hugger or any kind of environmentalist. I am, however, a person who thinks that the bears are the ones that own the land near Ramsey Canyon Inn. Wildlife has been there long before people decided to build up in that area. If residents do not like seeing wildlife then I suggest that they move to the city. I can only assume that since the Game and Fish has taken to killing bears then the residents of that area now feel free to kill them any time they see one roaming the area. Whatever happened to the Game and Fish using tranquilizers on the bears and then moving them to another area? All I can say is shame on the Game and Fish Department and the residents of that area.
Scott French
Sierra Vista

http://www.svherald.com/articles/2006/09/07/local_news/features_and_opinions/letters_to_editor/letter2.txt


The New Zealand Herald

Two new breast cancer treatments being trialled
1.00pm Monday September 4, 2006
Around 40 New Zealand breast cancer patients are hoped to be taking part in an international drug trial which aims to improve medication used to prevent recurrence of the disease.
The trial will compare two new inhibitors - treatments which effectively starve breast cancer cells of oestrogen, preventing the disease from recurring in post-treatment breast cancer patients.
Research nurse Jenni Scarlet is co-ordinating the trial from Waikato and Auckland Hospitals, and said it was hoped about 5000 women worldwide would take part.
The trial would not suit all breast cancer patients -- the women must be post-menopausal, and have already received treatment for the disease.
The trial is being funded by pharmaceutical research company Novartis.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10399636



UK police investigate alleged terrorism training network
1.00pm Monday September 4, 2006
LONDON - British police investigating an alleged terrorist training network searched 17 homes in London on Sunday and were granted more time to question 14 suspects, they said.
The police also searched a sprawling Islamic school in southern England for a second day.
A court gave the police until Wednesday to question three of the 14 people arrested this weekend as part of the investigation, the police said in a statement.
The police were given permission to detain the remaining 11 until Friday, by which time they must decide to charge or release them or seek more time to question them.
"Searches are being carried out at 17 residential premises in south, east and north London," a police spokeswoman said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10399639



Sudan asks African Union force to leave Darfur
9.45am Monday September 4, 2006
By Opheera McDoom
KHARTOUM - Sudan on Sunday asked African Union forces monitoring a shaky truce in its violent Darfur region to leave the country by September 30, as Khartoum launched a new offensive threatening a return to full-blown war.
Khartoum has defied the international community and rejected a UN Security Council resolution passed on Thursday to deploy more than 20,000 UN troops and police to Darfur to replace the cash-strapped and ill-equipped AU mission.
Instead Khartoum has moved thousands of troops to North Darfur and launching a new offensive against rebels who did not sign an AU-brokered peace deal in May, according to the AU, rights groups and Washington.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10399615



Mexican leftist vows to set up parallel government
1.00pm Monday September 4, 2006
MEXICO CITY - Mexico's leftist opposition leader has said he will never recognise his right-wing rival as president and vowed a "radical transformation" of the country by setting up a parallel government.
Mexico's electoral court is almost certain to confirm the ruling party's Felipe Calderon as president-elect this week, but Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador insists he was robbed in the July 2 election.
"We will never accept usurpation nor recognise a president-elect who is illegitimate," the former mayor of Mexico City told a rally of thousands of supporters in the capital's main square on Sunday.
"We are going for deep change, root change, because that is what Mexico needs," he said. "It is a radical transformation. We are going for the construction of a new country that is fair and honourable."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10399612



Annan tells Iran Holocaust is undeniable
7.20am Monday September 4, 2006
TEHRAN - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan told Iranians the Holocaust was "an undeniable historical fact" today after meeting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who caused outrage in the West when he said it was a "myth".
Annan also condemned an exhibition of Holocaust cartoons in Tehran that was staged by an Iranian newspaper in retaliation for the September publication of caricatures of the Muslim Prophet Mohammad in Danish and other European newspapers.
Those drawings angered many Muslims and prompted attacks on European embassies, including missions in Iran.
"I think all of us in this room remember the uproar the Danish cartoons created particularly in this region," Annan said, adding that the right to freedom of expression had to be exercised with sensitivity and responsibility.
"I think the tragedy of the Holocaust is a sad and an undeniable historical fact so we should really handle that, accept that fact and teach children what happened in World War 2 and ensure that it is never repeated.
"We should be careful not to say anything that is used as an excuse for incitement to hatred or violence," he said.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10399600



Austrian captive 'felt like battery hen' [+video]
1.00pm Thursday September 7, 2006
By Tony Paterson
BERLIN - Her blonde hair swept under a headscarf and eyes showing emotions of suffering and quiet defiance, Natascha Kampusch, the teenager held prisoner in an underground cell for eight years, appeared on Austrian television last night and told how she had imagined cutting her captor's head off with an axe to escape.

Kidnapped child held captive for eight years [+pictures]

It was the moment Austria had been waiting for.
Ever since Natascha, 18, made her escape from her kidnapper, a 44-year-old communications technician on 23 August, offers for an interview with her had risen to more than a million euros.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10400154



European Parliament calls for end to seal slaughter
1.00pm Thursday September 7, 2006
The European Parliament has adopted a proposal designed to halt the annual slaughter of hundreds of thousands of seals in Canada and Russia.
The declaration, signed by 373 MEPs, calls for the European Commission to immediately introduce legislation banning the trade in seal body parts and products.
South-East England's Green Party Europe MP, Caroline Lucas proposed the ban after it emerged that more than a million wild harp and hooded seals had been slaughtered in Canada in just the last three years – and over a hundred thousand in Russia .
Canada's government says the "hunt" helps the local economy and keeps the seal population in check.
Dr Lucas said: "More than 20 years after the EU banned the import of fur products from the very youngest seal pups, hundreds of thousands of seals pups annually – most just a few weeks old – are clubbed on the ice floes or shot from moving boats as they attempt to flee. Many are skinned alive.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10400187



Mexico vote gives Bush new 'amigo' in Latin America
Thursday September 7, 2006
By Catherine Bremer
MEXICO CITY - Felipe Calderon's election victory in Mexico gives the US government a much-needed conservative ally in Latin America, where it has lost influence in recent years as a string of leftist leaders took power.
For months, it seemed that Washington would have to work with a combative Mexican leader in Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, a fiery leftist who led opinion polls and promised to end two decades of US-backed economic reforms.
But Calderon won a narrow victory and Mexico's electoral court named him president-elect on Tuesday local time, throwing out Lopez Obrador's accusations of massive fraud.
Like outgoing President Vicente Fox, Calderon will be a counterweight to leftists in countries like Venezuela, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina who are challenging US interests.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400199


Smelter 'poisons 2000 villagers'
Thursday September 7, 2006
HONG KONG - Two thousand Chinese villagers are being treated in hospital for lead poisoning which they say was caused by a local smelting plant, the South China Morning Post said.
The villagers, including 300 children, had travelled from their northwestern province of Gansu to a hospital in Xi'an in neighbouring Shaanxi because hospitals near their three villages had insisted they were fine, the newspaper said, quoting the local Huashang Daily.
"We don't trust local hospitals because they said our lead concentration levels were normal, so we travelled to somewhere further away," Liu Jiangtao, from Hui county, was quoted as saying. "Everyone from our village has gone there."
One county officials said only two villages were close to the lead smelter and the county was still probing how many were poisoned. Another said only two villagers had been found to be sick and the smelter was shut down last month.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400120



Death penalty imposed on four of Bali Nine, says paper
1.00pm Wednesday September 6, 2006
Indonesia's supreme court has imposed the death penalty on four of the 'Bali Nine' convicted Australian drug smugglers, an Australian newspaper has reported.
The court is said to have handed down the heavier sentences after an appeal by prosecutors.
The Australian government said it had yet to receive confirmation of the report.
A supreme court official in Jakarta said four of the nine appeals had been decided.
A court spokesman, Djoko Sarwoko, told Australia's The Age newspaper "those with life sentences have had their sentences increased to death".
Tan Duc Than Nguyen, 23, Si Yi Chen, 21, and Matthew Norman, 19, were arrested together at the Melasti Beach bungalows in Bali and sentenced to life at their original trial, but that was later cut to 20 years by the island's high court.
Prosecutors then appealed to the supreme court, which - according to The Age - has now given them the death penalty.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400012



Germany says Iran can't be allowed to harm UN
Thursday September 7, 2006
BERLIN - Germany said yesterday Iran could not be allowed to harm the United Nations by pursuing its nuclear programme, but Russia said any economic sanctions must rule out the use of force against the Islamic Republic.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's comments are among the strongest from any European leader since Iran rejected a UN demand for it to halt uranium enrichment in exchange for an offer of economic and political incentives.
"Iran's response is not satisfactory. We won't close the door to negotiations but we the international community won't stand by and watch as Iran harms the rules of the UN nuclear authorities," Merkel told German lawmakers in a speech.
Merkel made clear, however, that military action against Iran was not an option.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400141



World powers to discuss Iran's nuclear defiance
1.25pm Thursday September 7, 2006
BERLIN - Senior diplomats from six world powers meet in the German capital on Thursday to discuss what to do with Iran after it ignored a UN Security Council deadline to freeze its nuclear enrichment programme.
The negotiators from Germany and the five permanent Security Council members - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - were expected to consider the possibility of imposing sanctions on the Islamic republic for continuing to enrich uranium past the August 31 deadline, diplomats said.
Declining to give details about the talks, the first such meeting since the deadline expired, US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told reporters in Berlin he had "no doubt they will be very substantive and very serious".
Diplomats from several countries to be represented at the talks said the United States hoped to use the meeting to persuade Russia and China that it was time to increase pressure on Iran by preparing to ask the UN Security Council to consider sanctions.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400198



Israel to lift Lebanon blockade
11.25am Thursday September 7, 2006
BEIRUT - Israel said on Wednesday it would lift an eight-week-old air and sea blockade against Lebanon on Thursday, handing over control to international forces.
Shortly after the announcement, Lebanon said it had formally asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan - who brokered the end of the blockade - to authorise the deployment of German naval ships to monitor the Lebanese coast.
In New York, UN officials said they expected Germany to lead a contingent of naval ships that was likely to include vessels from other countries. They said French, Italian, Greek and British naval ships would form an interim deployment.
Israel said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had been told by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Annan that "international forces are ready to take over control posts over the sea ports and airports of Lebanon".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400179



Blast hits Yemen arms facility, 2 killed
10.20am Thursday September 7, 2006
ADEN - An explosion hit a Yemeni arms storage facility at the port city of Aden on Wednesday and medical sources said two civilian women were killed.
"The blast was the result of an electrical spark at a storage facility where old weapons are stored at the Jabal Hadid Camp," Aden's Governor Ahmad al-Kahlani told the Yemeni ruling party's electronic newspaper Almotamar.net.
Kahlani said the camp, which is close to the Aden port, was being evacuated when the blast took place.
A medical source at an Aden hospital said two women were killed and a man was wounded in a civilian bus hit by shrapnel from the blast as it passed in the vicinity.
Officials were not immediately available for comment.
Earlier, Civil Defence Colonel Hamoud Adnan al-Harthi said there were no casualties.
The official news agency Saba also quoted an interior ministry official as saying no one was hurt in the incident.
A similar explosion hit the facility in the 1990s without causing any casualties.
Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, joined the US-led war on terrorism after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10400163



UK charges two more over alleged airline bomb plot
12.20pm Thursday September 7, 2006
LONDON - Two more men were charged on Wednesday in connection with an alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners, British police said.
Donald Douglas Stewart Whyte and Mohammed Usman Saddique were charged with intending to commit acts of terrorism intending to "smuggle the component parts of improvised explosive devices onto aircraft and assemble and detonate them on board."
Both are to appear in court on Thursday.
The men were among 25 arrested by British anti-terrorism detectives who said on August 10 they had foiled a plan to use homemade liquid explosives to bring down several airliners on the way from Britain to the United States.
Three other men were later released without charge.
A total of 17 people have now been charged in connection with the alleged plot.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10400176



Airlines and EU official oppose total liquid ban
9.20am Thursday September 7, 2006
BRUSSELS - European airlines and the European Union's justice and security commissioner said on Wednesday they opposed any attempt to ban passengers from carrying all forms of liquids on flights.
EU security experts were meeting on Wednesday and Thursday to make recommendations after Britain said on August 10 it had foiled a plot to blow up US-bound transatlantic airliners. Officials said the plot involved homemade liquid explosives.
Sources close to the meeting said liquids and gels may be banned from hand luggage on flights.
"Prohibiting all liquids on board we see as unrealistic," said Francoise Humbert, spokeswoman for the Association of European Airlines.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10400151



Space shuttle launch postponed again
11.10am Thursday September 7, 2006
CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida - Nasa on Wednesday postponed the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis at least until Friday because of a problem with a power system aboard the ship, officials with the US space agency said.
"We're going to delay at least 24 hours, until Friday," Nasa press secretary Dean Acosta said.
The launch of Atlantis on Nasa's first construction mission to the International Space Station since the 2003 Columbia accident had been planned for 12.29pm (4.29am today NZT) Wednesday.
Engineers detected a voltage spike in a power unit inside one of the shuttle's three onboard fuel cells. The problem was found shortly before the shuttle was to be loaded with a half-million gallons of propellants for launch.
The 113-kg units combine oxygen and hydrogen to produce electricity for the shuttle's systems and water that is used for cooling and for the crew to drink. All three must be operating for the shuttle to fly.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400173



Billions still lack clean water and sanitation, UN says
1.00pm Wednesday September 6, 2006
GENEVA - More than a billion people still have no clean water to drink as the international community falls far behind in its plan to halve their number by 2015, two UN agencies have said.
Six years after the goal was set, 1.1 billion people still have no access to safe drinking water and 2.6 billion lack reasonable sanitation, the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) and World Health Organisation (WHO) said in a joint report.
"The world is in danger of missing targets for providing clean water and sanitation unless there is a dramatic increase in the pace of work and investment between now and 2015," the agencies said.
Unicef and WHO estimate that, in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals, infrastructure must be built to provide sanitation services to a further 1.6 billion people and better access to drinking water for another 1.1 billion.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10399976



Winters 'wiped out whole population'
Thursday September 7, 2006
By Steve Connor
LONDON - Britain has been colonised at least eight times over the past 700,000 years and on seven of these occasions the entire human population was wiped out by intensely cold winters.
This is one of the main conclusions of a five-year investigation into the prehistoric sites of Britain which has shown that the last colonisation occurred less than 12,000 years ago - making Britain a younger country than Australia, which has been continuously inhabited for at least 50,000 years.
"Britain had to be repopulated over and over again. Completely new people had to come back, sometimes with a gap of 100,000 years between these occupations," said Professor Chris Stringer, head of human origins at the Natural History Museum in London.
"Early Britons had to cope with these changes of climate. Often they couldn't and they died out completely. Britain and the British people today are new arrivals. We're products of only the last 12,000 years," Stringer said.
Studies of several prehistoric sites have revealed that the early human inhabitants of Britain lived alongside large mammals such as elephants, mammoths, rhinos and hippos as well as fierce carnivores such as hyaenas and scimitar-toothed cats.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400105



Republicans face life in the twilight zone
Thursday September 7, 2006
By Rupert Cornwall
WASHINGTON - For an idea of the upheaval that may be about to overtake the US Congress, just three words suffice: Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
This is no denigration of the member for California's 8th district in the House of Representatives.
She is as competent, ambitious and driven a politician as they come. But nothing would so perfectly symbolise the twilight of a conservative era as a House led by a woman with a near perfect liberal voting record from the great city of San Francisco, a place that lives in Republican mythology as Sodom and Gomorrah made flesh.
And the chances right now are that it will happen. America's mid-term elections, in which all 435 House seats and a third of the Senate are at stake, are just two months away. A new poll yesterday found the party leading by 53 per cent to 43 per cent in a generic vote for Congress, while Democrats are set to gain several State governorships as well.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400109



Open combat turns hunters into hunted
Thursday September 7, 2006
By Kim Sengupta
LONDON - Reports by two international think-tanks yesterday highlighted failures of United States and British policy in Afghanistan and warned of the deteriorating security situation.
The Senlis Council claimed that the campaign against the Taleban has inflicted lawlessness, misery and starvation on the Afghan people. Thousands of villagers fleeing the fighting and a continuing drought, as well as farming families who have lost their livelihood because of the eradication of the opium crop, have ended up suffering in makeshift refugee camps.
And the influential International Institute of Strategic Studies said that a vital opportunity was lost when the West failed to carry out adequate reconstruction work after the Taleban retreat in 2001. Christopher Langton, the head of the defence analysis department, also said that attempts to impose secular laws on a tribal Pashtun society, without the establishment of security, had not worked.
Dr John Chipman, director-general and chief executive of the IISS, said the British tactic of moving into remote areas in Helmand has "acted as a catalyst for intensifying insurgency by drawing the Taleban into open combat. However, it is also true the insurgency has a new energy and the Taleban see ... troops from the European member states as an opportunity target. Furthermore the Taleban message that the foreign troops are 'occupiers' resonates loudly in the villages of Helmand, Kandahar and Uruzgan.
"The counter-narcotics policy [has] caused tensions between local people, the Government and the [Nato] coalition. The removal of the farmers' livelihood programme runs counter to win 'hearts and minds'. The Taleban capitalise on this contradiction by championing the cause of the farmers."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400130



Aids experts demand sacking of S Africa's health minister
Thursday September 7, 2006
JOHANNESBURG - More than 80 international scientists, including a Nobel laureate, have appealed to South Africa's president to fire his controversial health minister for what they say are "pseudo-scientific" policies on Aids.
Calls for the dismissal of Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang for promoting alternative treatments have grown since last month's global Aids conference in Toronto.
Experts have criticised President Thabo Mbeki's government for underplaying anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs and promoting home-grown Aids treatments such as garlic, beetroot and lemon at the conference.
"To have as health minister a person who now has no international respect is an embarrassment to the South African government," said the letter, dated September 4.
"We therefore call ... for an end to the disastrous, pseudo-scientific policies that have characterised the South African government's response to HIV/Aids."

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400146



Irwin's father says he lost his best mate
Thursday September 7, 2006
SYDNEY - Steve Irwin's father said yesterday he lost his best mate when the TV naturalist known as the "Crocodile Hunter" died in a freak diving accident, adding that his son would hate the fuss of a state funeral.
In the first public comments by Irwin's family since his death on Monday while diving off Australia's northeast coast, Bob Irwin thanked his son's many fans from Australia and around the world for their messages of condolence.
"Steve and I weren't like father and son, we never were," Bob Irwin told reporters outside Australia Zoo, the animal park in tropical Queensland state known to his son's millions of viewers around the world.
"We were good mates. I'll remember Steve as my best mate ever," he said.
Irwin, 44, died after the serrated barb of a stingray's tail pierced his heart.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10400140



Friends vow to continue Irwin's work
1.00pm Wednesday September 6, 2006
By Sam Benger
It's the man behind the myth that "Crocodile Hunter" Steve Irwin's friends and staff will miss most, but all are determined to keep his legacy burning bright.
The website for the charity established by Steve and wife Terri to help injured animals, Wildlife Warriors, was unable to keep up with demand yesterday.
It continually crashed as people attempted to log on and leave messages of support and donations.
Wildlife Warriors executive manager Michael Hornby said the team was struggling to come to terms with the death of their close friend and benefactor, but the public response had been overwhelming.
"People are coming to the zoo, leaving donations, flowers, the phones are ringing off the hook, I suppose

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=000B565D-F9FB-14FD-B67B83027AF10144


continued ...

Donations pour in to Irwin's wildlife fund

Australian naturalist and animal-lover Steve Irwin has died after being struck in the chest by a stingray's barb.

He'll be missed.

National park could honour Irwin: Beattie

The Queensland Premier, Peter Beattie, says Steve Irwin could be honoured by having a national park named after him.
News of the Crocodile Hunter's death from a stringray barb to the chest yesterday has shocked the Australian and international community.
Mr Beattie, in the final week of his election campaign, said the State Government was in talks with Mr Irwin's family about possible ways to honour him.
"We will make sure there is some form of national recognition," Mr Beattie told reporters.
"We want to make certain that ... there's a fitting long-term tribute to Steve Irwin and it may well be we can do all sorts of things like name a national park, we could have particular awards, all sorts of things.
"But I would like to talk that through with the family first and that's what we will do."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/national-park-could-honour-irwin-beattie/2006/09/05/1157222119174.html


Irwin's family rejects state funeral offer

Father of 'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin would not have wanted a state funeral because he was "an ordinary bloke" and wanted to be remembered that way.The hugely popular naturalist died in a freak stingray attack on Monday. In the first comments by his family since his death, Bob Irwin thanked his son's many fans for their messages of support.Bob Irwin, who moved his family to the fringe of the Outback in the 1970s to open a reptile park that inspired his young son's obsession with wildlife, said he was deeply saddened by his son's death but that he died doing what he loved."There were many things that could have gone wrong," Irwin said in a news conference that was broadcast live across Australia.Steve knew the risks (of what) he was doing, and he wouldn't have wanted it any other way, added his father. (AP)

http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?slug=Irwin's+family+rejects+state+funeral+offer&id=92762

Lion seeking physical fitness while taking natural behaviors out on a bungy ball

Morning Papers - concluding

Zoos


Steve Irwin was ordinary bloke, says dad
AFP
Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:12 IST
BEERWAH (Australia): Australia's famed Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin would not want a state funeral as he was "just an ordinary bloke", his grieving father Bob said on Wednesday.
Fighting back tears, the weather-beaten, khaki-clad man told an impromptu news conference that his son had been his "best mate" and funeral arrangements would be up to his widow Terri.
Bob Irwin was speaking to reporters outside his son's Australia Zoo in this small northeastern town, where a massive shrine of flowers, notes and personal mementoes has been laid by thousands of fans of television's wildlife warrior.
The premier of northeastern Queensland state, Peter Beattie, had offered to provide a state funeral for Irwin amid the astonishing global outpouring of grief for the ebullient star.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1051448



Indianapolis Zoo welcomes baby iguanas
Aug 31, 2006 06:46 AM EDT
Indianapolis - The Indianapolis Zoo is welcoming some new arrivals.
Two baby iguanas were hatched at the Zoo on Tuesday and a third was born Wednesday. It is the first time the rare Jamaican iguanas have been bred successfully outside Jamaica.
One additional baby could hatch from this group of eggs, and the zoo has a second group of 20 viable eggs that are scheduled hatch in one to two weeks.
The zoo is also waiting for the arrival of a baby elephant. Ivory is expected to give birth sometime in the next few weeks.

http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=5348749&nav=9Tai



Zoo unveils exotic rodents
By BRENDAN BOUFFARD
The State News
JOLIE MYERS · The State News
A Patagonian cavy drinks from a stream Wednesday at Potter Park Zoo. The exhibit was just reopened after dogs killed most of the zoo's cavies in June. The Toronto Zoo donated five cavies to join a sole survivor of the early summer attack.
After a voyage of more than 300 miles, five new Patagonian cavies are on display at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing.
The cavies, which were quarantined for the past month in the zoo, were first shown to the public last week.
The long-legged rodents, a relative of the guinea pig, look similar to a cross between a miniature deer and jackrabbit. With their long legs, cavies are able to jump 6 feet high.
Gerald Brady, director of the Potter Park Zoo, said the cavies are enjoying their new home.
"When you have a new exhibit, or a new animal, you get such a big boost in attendance," Brady said. "All of the other cavies in the U.S. are very rare."
The animals were donated to the Lansing zoo by the Toronto Zoo earlier this summer.

http://www.statenews.com/article.phtml?pk=37358



Dalton Zoo sets new visitors record
Published on 30/08/2006
POPULAR: Crowds have flocked to South Lakes Wild Animal Park
DALTON Zoo has enjoyed a bumper summer after the hot weather helped trade soar up to 30 per cent.
South Lakes Wild Animal Park is reporting its best summer ever with visitors from across the north of England and Scotland helping it smash all previous attendance records.
People came through the gates of South Lakes Wild Animal Park in their thousands, breaking every record set in the park’s 12-year history. Endangered species across the globe also reaped the rewards with donations to the zoo’s conservation charities at a record high.
Although the zoo is reluctant to divulge exact figures for fear of tipping off competitors, education and marketing manager Karen Brewer said this summer was the “best ever”.
She said: “This is the busiest summer we have ever had, confirming the popularity of South Lakes Wild Animal Park as the region’s leading family attraction.
“Not only are so many new people coming but the comments and feedback from visitors have been fantastic.”
View this story and the latest newspaper in full digital reproduction, just like the printed copy at www.nwemail.co.uk/digitalcopy
Other stories from this category that may interest you:
Congratulations to David and all the staff at Dalton Zoo. Everyone concerned deserves all the best for their endevours over the summer period. Its good to see a local business to so well when so many things are trying to make things difficult.
Allan Crook , Perth
8/31/2006 9:51:12 AM

http://www.nwemail.co.uk/news/viewarticle.aspx?id=406294



Crane delivers Auckland Zoo's first spring arrival
Thursday, 31 August 2006, 3:42 pm
Press Release: Auckland Zoo
31 August 2006
Crane, not stork, delivers Auckland Zoo's first spring arrival
Auckland Zoo has been surprised with a pre-spring arrival. A brolga chick hatched on August 28, marking the Zoo's first 'spring' arrival for 2006 and signalling the start of a busy and exciting season at the Zoo.
Auckland Zoo Curator, John Rowden, is sure the yet-to-be-named brolga chick is the first spring arrival for the Zoo. "It's very exciting," says John. "Spring is my favourite time of the year at the Zoo. Springtime at the Zoo means a flurry of activity and new 'babies'. We also get to see the progress being made in our native breeding programmes - all really great stuff."
"We're really lucky to have these silver-grey cranes. They are native to Australia, yet we are the only Zoo in Australasia that has an active breeding pair," says John.
The brolgas are not the only birds preparing to hatch either. Auckland Zoo, in conjunction with the Bank of New Zealand and Department of Conservation, is preparing for several new kiwi chicks to hatch over the next few months.
The BNZ Save the Kiwi Trust's Operation Nest Egg (O.N.E.) programme has been running for 10 years and Auckland Zoo has released over 135 healthy kiwi chicks back into the wild.
Indications are that the 2006/2007 season is going to be just as busy for the North Island brown kiwi. There are currently 13 eggs in various stages of their 75-day incubation period, with more eggs expected to arrive at the Zoo during spring.
In the wild, predators kill over 95% of kiwi chicks within their first six months of life. However, rearing them in captive facilities like Auckland Zoo before re-introducing them to the wild dramatically increases their chances of survival.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/SC0608/S00070.htm



Santa`s Reindeer... Sort of, at Dakota Zoo
Chris Gallegos
8/30/2006
Even though some stores may have their Christmas decorations out, .it`s not time for Christmas just yet. Reindeer are synonymous to the winter holiday, but did you know they are also very adaptable to the summer heat?
I found myself in the midst of a reindeer family on my last visit to the zoo and found out that these three really can`t fly.
"Terry, how did you first decide to have reindeer here at the zoo?"
"This is a species that just works well into our system here. They do very well in our winter times. They really thrive in the cold weather," said Terry Lincoln, Director of the Dakota Zoo. "They`ve got special hair, their follicles are hollow, so they are able to withstand temperatures of 80, 90 degrees below zero with no problem and they are about the best insulation factor of any animal out there."
"I see that we have a baby reindeer, who was just born, correct?"

http://www.kfyrtv.com/News_Stories.asp?news=2875



Tiny Menagerie Is Told to Find a New Zoo
Animal Guys, based in a residential area of Altadena, are notified by L.A. County officials that they don't have the right permit to operate.
By J. Michael Kennedy, Times Staff Writer
August 31, 2006
One thing that bothers the Animal Guys is that they have no idea who ratted them out.
Not that they knew they were doing anything illegal — until now.
ADVERTISEMENT
For years, they've been openly running their animal operation in the back of an Altadena home, just a stone's throw from the Angeles National Forest.
Their vans have "Animal Guys" emblazoned on the side.
But now it looks like they will have to move everything, including the lynx, the bobcat, the python, the fox and the alligator.
All because of a pesky zoning law.

http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-zoo31aug31,1,3622041.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-california&ctrack=1&cset=true



Men arrested for white rhino poaching
10.20am Wednesday August 30, 2006
JOHANNESBURG - Two men posing as tourists booked into a South African lodge, drove off to view the wildlife - and proceeded to shoot two endangered white rhino bulls and hack off their horns, officials said.
The men were arrested after pulling off their audacious crime in the famed Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park and have been linked to a national syndicate targeting the endangered animals, South African conservation officials said on Tuesday.
"It's the first time we've ever had poachers posing as tourists in one of our game parks," said Jeff Gaisford, spokesman for KZN Wildlife, the conservation arm of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government.
The suspects, who cannot be named until they appear in court, had four rhino horns, three illegal firearms, ammunition and knives that were believed to have been used to remove the rhinos' horns when they were arrested last Wednesday.
They had been under surveillance because of intelligence provided by the police but were not followed for a three-hour period to prevent them from becoming suspicious. During that time they are believed to have shot the animals.
News of the arrests could only be released yesterday because of the "sensitivity" of the police investigation, KZN Wildlife said in a statement, adding that further arrests were expected.
There have been no recorded rhino poaching incidents in KwaZulu-Natal for several years, though there have been periodic reports of the practice elsewhere in the country.
The suspects had booked into the upmarket Hilltop Camp at Hluhluwe-Imfolozi with commanding views of the rugged park, which became a refuge for the white rhino a century ago when only a few dozen were left.
Conservation efforts allowed the white rhino to storm back from the brink of extinction. The southern sub-species now numbers over 11,000 but is still considered to be endangered by some environmentalists.
There are around 3700 of the smaller but more aggressive African black rhinos, whose numbers are also recovering.
The animals are hunted illegally for their horns, which fetch high prices in Yemen, where they are prized for making dagger handles, and in the Far East, where they are coveted for their supposed medicinal qualities.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10398790



Dead cats, dog, malnourished animals found in apartment
August 30, 2006
CONWAY, N.H. --Police found dead cats and a dog and other animals in poor health in an apartment and arrested a woman in Concord on five counts of cruelty to animals.
Kara Steinhilber, 22, who had lived in the Conway apartment, was released late last week on $5,000 bail and was not allowed to possess or care for any animals. She is scheduled to be arraigned on Sept. 19.
Conway Police were asked to do a check on the animals. Other residents at the complex told her that animals in the apartment hadn't been cared for in some time. As she entered the apartment, an animal control officer found a dog who hadn't had food or water for some time. She also found two dogs in a crate, one of them dead and the other barely alive.
Dead cats later were found in a carrier in the apartment.
Each charge is a misdemeanor punishable up to one year in prison and a $2,000 fine.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2006/08/30/dead_cats_dog_malnourished_animals_found_in_apartment/



For now, Senate big enough for Lieberman and Lamont
By Andrew Miga, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
WASHINGTON --Rivalry or not, the Senate is big enough for Joe Lieberman and Ned Lamont.
For now.
Congress returns for business Tuesday, and Lieberman, the Democrat now running as an independent, will be back for committee assignments, defense legislation and perhaps party meetings.
Close by will be Lamont, who upset Lieberman in the Aug. 8 primary, seizing the Democratic nomination for the Connecticut seat. Lamont plans to meet Wednesday with party leaders, union leaders and business groups.
"I'm not spending much time in Washington, but I think it's important I at least get introduced down there," Lamont said. "A lot of people down there have a certain interest in this race so I figured some of them are saying stuff about me and I might as well meet them."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/08/30/for_now_senate_big_enough_for_lieberman_and_lamont/



Alaska wolf control program faces battle
By Mary Pemberton, Associated Press Writer August 30, 2006
ANCHORAGE, Alaska --Alaska's wolf-killing program to boost moose and caribou numbers is facing a new legal challenge.
Two conservation groups filed a lawsuit in Superior Court alleging that the program, in which more than 550 wolves have been killed, is based on faulty science and violates state law.
Defenders of Wildlife and the Alaska Wildlife Alliance asked the court last week to halt the program authorized in 2003 by the state Board of Game. A similar court challenge launched by the Connecticut-based group Friends of Animals was not successful in putting an end to the program.
But in that case, Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason had ruled that the Game Board had not followed its own rules in approving the programs and had not considered all alternatives besides aerial killing. The Game Board responded with new regulations that satisfied the legal shortcomings and resurrected aerial wolf control in all five areas.

http://www.boston.com/news/science/articles/2006/08/30/alaska_wolf_control_program_faces_battle/



New zoo tipped to do a roaring trade
31 August 2006
It is a higgledy-piggledy patch of trees, open fields, ponds
and ramshackle buildings.
But in just nine months it could be doing a roaring trade as Norfolk's newest tourist attraction - Cromer Zoo, mark two.
And, while full details of the wildlife that could be on display are not yet being revealed, there will be
jaguars, flamingos, parrots and monkeys. Detailed plans have now been submitted for the zoo, on 10acres of land owned by Benji Cabbell-Manners between Hall Road and Roughton Road on the edge of the town.
Among the proposals are a plant house, at least 20 animal enclosures, a cafe with a veranda overlooking the largest pond, a shop, and a host of new trees planted on the fringes of the site to mask it.
Ken Sims, who runs Thrigby Hall Wildlife Gardens, near Yarmouth, is the man behind the bold plan to bring a zoo back to Cromer for the first time in 23 years.
The last one opened in 1962 at the top of Howards Hill, and was run by former circus tiger trainer Alex Kerr and his wife Olga, the daughter of Coco the Clown.
It closed on Christmas Day 1983 because of crippling overheads and low winter visitor numbers.
The new zoo's director is Jim Irwin-Davis, whose CV includes work at London Zoo, a decade with the Nigerian wildlife department, managing a wildfowl collection in Surrey, four years in Bahrain, and 17-and-a-half years as curator of Lord Harewood's bird garden in Yorkshire.
Mr Irwin-Davis said wildlife surveys had been carried out, but had not flagged up anything of particular interest on the site.
A bat survey had found Natterer's and Daubenton's bats using a derelict lime kiln as a winter hibernation location, and Mr Irwin-Davis said the building would be conserved to protect the mammals.
The land already has planning consent for a change of use to a zoo, and the drawings will be considered byNorth Norfolk District Council.

http://www.northnorfolknews.co.uk/content/northnorfolknews/news/story.aspx?brand=NNNOnline&category=news&tBrand=NNNonline&tCategory=news&itemid=NOED31%20Aug%202006%2010%3A41%3A09%3A063



Cash setback 'won't stop new zoo plan'
he Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has been denied a £250,000 lottery grant which would have allowed it to carry out a detailed feasibility study for the giant futuristic glasshouse planned at Cuningar Loop between Dalmarnock and Rutherglen.

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/hi/news/5056583.html



Italian Cultural Day at the Toronto Zoo
Visitors flock from all over the GTA, one luck family wins a one-year membership
A zebra may run with the same power, speed and gracefulness as a professional soccer player sprinting down the pitch, but it will forever be indifferent to participating in the 'beautiful game.'
As part of its marketing plan to increase attendance, the Toronto Zoo held an Italian Cultural Day on Sunday, placing several soccer balls inside the cages of several species - none of whom seemed the least bit interested in going anywhere near the small, round objects. The animals - from bunny rabbits to hyena's to lions - were oblivious to the soccer balls in much the same way they are usually oblivious to the flashing lights of cameras going off all around them.

http://www.corrieretandem.com/viewstory.php?storyid=6579




MNR Doesn't Enforce its Own Rules

WSPA is shocked at the MNR's response to its zoo complaint

Attention: Assignment Editor, City Editor, News Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor
LONDON, ONTARIO, NEWS RELEASE--(CCNMatthews - Sept. 5, 2006) - The World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) is disappointed with the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) response to their zoo complaints. The WSPA submitted a 10 page complaint on July 5, 2006 highlighting the deplorable and disgusting conditions native animals endure at three southwestern zoos (Lickety Split Zoo, Greenview Aviaries Park and Zoo, and Pineridge Zoo).
"We're disgusted that the MNR considers a fox in a box an appropriate environment for our native wildlife," said Melissa Tkachyk, Campaigns Officer. "Clearly they're not concerned how animals are cared for within Ontario zoos."
The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act states: "Animals enclosures in which animals are on public display should be of a size which enables animals to:
A) Exercise natural behaviours to facilitate public education and interpretation.
B) Achieve a distance from the public and other specimens at which the animals are not psychologically or physically stressed.
C) Achieve a full range of body movement and physical movements normally performed."
The MNR response to our complaint: "no violations of the current conditions relating to animal enclosures were identified."
WSPA is appalled by this response. "Why can't the MNR see what visitors have been complaining about for years? Since this story was reported on in July, people have been writing letters to us, the government and the newspapers voicing their concern," said Tkachyk.
Through WPSA's investigation, it found the fox at Lickety Split had no room to run and no place to escape. At Greenview Aviaries, three bobcats were kept in a small cage with patio blocks and again no room to run. At Pineridge, some of the cages weren't locked and visitors could reach into the cages of dangerous animals. This is an issue the MNR didn't even address in its letter. Is the public's safety not a concern to our government?
WSPA is calling on the Premier and MPP's to fix this problem because the MNR isn't fit for the job.
/For further information: WWW.ONTARIOZOOS.CA/

http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=610594



Group says it will continue crusade against roadside zoos
Tue, September 5, 2006
Spokesperson says she is shocked the government found no violations
By RANDY RICHMOND, LONDON FREE PRESS REPORTER
Angry animal-rights activists will appeal to provincial politicians after a Ministry of Natural Resources investigation found nothing wrong with conditions at three area zoos.
“Clearly the Ministry of Natural Resources is not following its own regulations,” Melissa Tkachyk, campaigns officer for the World Society for the Protection of Animals said Tuesday.
“I am shocked.”
The ministry’s own regulations require zoos to keep animals in enclosures that allow them to “exercise natural behaviours” and “achieve a full range of body movements and physical movements normally performed,” she said.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/News/Local/2006/09/05/1803838.html



Rescued elephant befriends camel at ranch
11:39 PM CDT on Tuesday, September 5, 2006
By GARY REAVES / WFAA-TV
Fund for Animals, which was founded in 1967, created Cleveland Amory Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison as a refuge for wild animals suffering from man's inhumanity. With more that 1,300 animals, the ranch homes animals ranging from burros from the Grand Canyon to chimps rescued from research labs.
But some may say no animal at the ranch has a story more poignant than the 20-year-old African elephant named "Babe."
Babe is a refugee from the circus world and was originally captured as a baby in Africa. Richard Farinato, the ranch's director, said he believes she injured her foot while being shipped across the ocean, which made her poorly suited for circus work where at times elephants have to be intimidated into submission so humans can control them.
"In some cases, electric shock [is used], in some cases repeated beatings, chain her down and beat her until she accepts what you want us to do," Farinato said.
Her misshapen legs and feet, one is bent at a weird angle, make her looks as though she walks on her ankle.

http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/wfaa/latestnews/stories/wfaa060905_mo_babeelephant.6e875bb2.html



Rocky Mountain windfall
By BILL RADFORD THE GAZETTE
The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo has something to roar about: a gift of $1.46 million, the largest donation from an individual in the zoo’s 80-year history.
Zoo officials announced the donation Tuesday, along with a matching gift from the El Pomar Foundation. The money is to be spent on developing the zoo’s next major exhibit, Rocky Mountain Wild, scheduled to open in spring 2008. The exhibit, intended to connect zoo visitors with the wild heritage of the Rocky Mountain region, is to include moose, grizzly bears, mountain lions, lynx, North American river otters and bald eagles.

http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1321234



Walk was a real bear
This health kick I'm on is going to kill me.
I came to that conclusion recently as I was walking up Coleman Avenue near the Tanglewood Nature Center -- alone except for my portable CD player -- and saw a black bear about 100 yards in front of me.
Yes. A B-E-A-R And not a charming little yellow one with its head stuck in a honey jar or a large, jolly one singing in a country jamboree at Disney World.
No. This one was large, furry and possibly crabby.
I've seen bears before, but that's been at zoos, where there's plenty of space and a large fence between us.
There was no fence separating this bear and me, and definitely not what I'd call enough space, either...

...As I walking down the hill, instead of thinking how well that potentially dangerous situation worked out for me and counting my blessings, I had the following reflection: "Stupid bear. I had to turn around early. He totally screwed up the number of miles I was going to do today."
Fortunately, I snapped out of that pretty quickly. Walking is supposed to be good for you, not endanger you.
I thought about the absurdity of what had just run through my mind as I finished my trek in my own well-populated neighborhood.
A few days later, I hopped in my car and checked out another route, far away from the bear. I figured I'd give him his space if he'd give me mine.
After all, I don't want this health kick to kill me.
Molly McCarthy is the education writer for the Star-Gazette. The Gen-X lifestyles column appears Fridays.

http://www.stargazettenews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060901/COLUMNIST30/609010301



Siring problems
Star-Telegram
The federal bill grabbing the attention of horse lovers and animal rights activists bans the "shipping, transporting, moving, delivering, receiving, possessing, purchasing, selling, or donation of horses and other equines to be slaughtered for human consumption, and for other purposes."
The "other purposes" aren't outlined in HR 503, which is scheduled for a House vote on Thursday, but the result of this bill's passage would be to shut down an industry that provides a practical public service: disposal of the remains of dead horses.
It must be acknowledged up front that lots of Americans will never be convinced that allowing the slaughter of horses for sale as meat -- for carnivores in zoos, canines at home or connoisseurs in Cannes -- is a public service.

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/opinion/15416038.htm



School kids should stay out of zoos

Attention: Assignment Editor, City Editor, News Editor, Government/Political Affairs Editor
TORONTO, ONTARIO, LETTER TO EDITOR--(CCNMatthews - Sept. 1, 2006) - Letter to editor,
As students return back to school, parents should be aware their kids could be at risk if the class takes a trip to the zoo. There are no safety regulations, which is why the Minister of Education should prohibit school outings to roadside zoos to protect the health and safety of our school children.
After investigating the conditions of 11 Ontario roadside zoos this summer, I was appalled that visitors are exposed to a number of safety risks. As many zoos do not have appropriate barriers, children were able to put their hands in the cages housing dangerous animals. Tigers were housed behind low, flimsy fences and some of the cages were not even locked.
These conditions shouldn't surprise us as anybody can open a zoo and wouldn't have to abide by welfare or safety regulations. One doesn't even need a permit to keep dangerous animals like lions and tigers in their backyard.
The past dozen years have seen a number of people injured in Ontario by captive animals such as tigers and lions and even small children have been bitten by monkeys. Not only can these bites and wounds be painful but they can also lead to the transmission of diseases.
With the lack of provincial standards that ensure the public's safety at Ontario zoos, WSPA is asking the Minister to ensure that schools don't visit unsafe zoos.
/For further information: www.ontariozoos.ca/

http://www.ccnmatthews.com/news/releases/show.jsp?action=showRelease&searchText=false&showText=all&actionFor=610453



Byculla zoo still awaits recognition
DNA Correspondent
Friday, September 01, 2006 23:29 IST
CZA official says local authorities haven’t been abiding by the rules.
While zoo officials at the Jijamata Udyan and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) have plans to modernise the zoo and provide better infrastructure for the animals, the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) remains unconvinced.
In fact, the CZA, which has stipulated stringent guidelines for zoos to follow, is yet to recognize Byculla zoo. It was reported that the London Society of Zoo, Bernard Harrison & Friends Ltd, along with a company based in the US and one in Haryana had shown an interest to partner the BMC in upgrading the zoo. The project was estimated to cost Rs130 crore and a budgetary provision of Rs25 crore had already been made this year.

http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?NewsID=1050627



SC seeks reply on overcrowded zoos
[ 2 Sep, 2006 0218hrs IST
PTI ]
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday sought replies from the Central Zoo Authority (CZA) and states on a petition filed by a NGO, which said there was an urgent need to limit the number of animals in zoos in view of lack of space.
A Bench comprising Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal and Justices C K Thakker and R V Raveendran issued the notices to CZA and state governments on a PIL filed by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).
Appearing for the petitioner, counsel Raj Panjwani said zoos were suffering due to lack of space, unavailability of veterinary doctors, absence of infrastructure and qualified personnel. The NGO had recently drawn the court's attention to animals living a life of forced celibacy in 163 zoos in the country.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1949034.cms



Aussie seahorse at Anglesey zoo
Aug 29 2006

AUSTRALIAN seahorses have been added to a collection of the species at the Anglesey Sea Zoo.
Hippocampus whitei (or White's Seahorse) now form part of a conservation project at the sea zoo.
The fish were obtained from Bio Services at the Weymouth Sea Life Park because the Anglesey tourist attraction had only one White's seahorse on display.
Anglesey Sea Zoo plays an active part in researching seahorse husbandry and campaigns for greater protection for the creatures in their natural habitat.

http://icwales.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200wales/tm_objectid=17642888&method=full&siteid=50082&headline=aussie-seahorse-at-anglesey-zoo-name_page.html



Ball is the pride of the zoo
By Peter Trute
August 30, 2006 12:00
IT'S a long way from the African grasslands, but Taronga Zoo's new lion enclosure already has the feeling of home for its occupants.
Taronga's African lions - dad Jambo, mum Kuchani and their three-year-old offspring Asali and Johari - went on show in their Serengeti-inspired exhibit yesterday.
Planted with native grasses and succulents, the enclosure recreates the African savannah where that is the lions' natural environment but without the dangers of poachers and encroaching agriculture.
However not all the enclosure is as you'd find it in the wild.
One man-made addition was a "bungee ball'' dangling from a tree, which soon became the object of Jambo's attentions.
Carnivore keeper Justine Powell said the bungee ball was designed to help the cats exercise, as was the climbing tree.
"Lions can leap up to 12m so the new bungee ball enables them to exercise the amazing jump and lunge of their natural hunting ability,'' she said.
"The climbing tree has definitely been a huge success, with all the lions climbing their way up it and leaving their claw marks in the bark.''

http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/story/0,22049,20296265-5006009,00.html



L.A. County Officials Say Backyard Zoo Must Go
(CBS) LOS ANGELES County officials say a Siberian Lynx, a squirrel monkey and more than 100 other other wild animals that have been living in a backyard in Altadena for the last eight years must go.
Paul Hahn and David Riherd run Animal Guys Inc., an education and entertainment company, from the backyard of Riherd's parents’ home with Los Angeles city permits, the Pasadena Star-News reported.
The Animal Guys and their menagerie of 120 animals have appeared on MTV, the Discovery Channel and "The
Tonight Show."
The men, who met at Cal State Northridge, were unaware they needed county permits to operate the private zoo, according to the newspaper.
According to county zoning laws, the zoo can't operate in a residential area.

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_241124513.html



Brew at the Zoo
By DCist contributor Celeste Dawn Mitchell
Two thousand of the khaki crowd's finest came out to party Thursday at Friends of the National Zoo's Young Professionals' (or FONZ YP's, if you will) sold-out Brew at the Zoo. Proceeds went toward its Asian elephant conservation project. Just in case patrons forgot they were partying for a cause, four-ounce fill-lines on souvenir mugs intimated that this was a classy tasting affair, not a frat kegger.
Though ticket prices were nearly on par with the price of a Nissan Pavilion show, music was an ambient enhancement and not a focal point. Nonetheless, Arlington country-folk-rockers The Hickories performed "1965" and other tunes from their debut EP for those who chose to ditch the beer lines and grab a spot on the grass.

http://www.dcist.com/archives/2006/08/29/brew_at_the_zoo.php



Zoo's baby elephant gets a name
Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - The Saint Louis Zoo's new baby Asian elephant will be know as Maliha.
The name, which means "strong" and "beautiful" in Hindi, received nearly 8,000 of the more than 20,000 votes cast by mail and online from a field of five names, Zoo officials said Tuesday.
The 341-pound elephant was born Aug. 2 to mother Ellie and father Raja.
Twice as many people offered suggestions for Raja's name, which means "king," when he was born 13 years ago. Maliha is the first baby elephant at the zoo since Raja, but this time the zoo narrowed names to five that had Asian heritage and let people vote.
Voters chose from Sundari (beautiful woman); Nisha (night); Maliha; Sashi (moon) and Jaya (victorious).
Another Asian elephant sired by Raja is due at the zoo in February.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/15391952.htm



Oregon Zoo intent on big cat's return
Wildlife - Officials are working out what it will take, and cost, to bring lions back to the zoo
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
WADE NKRUMAH
What's a zoo without the king of the jungle? For now, the Oregon Zoo's only wild cats are cougars, leopards, ocelots and tigers.
But Tony Vecchio, zoo director, said he's eager for lions to return, hopefully by summer 2009. But like everything else, it's a matter of money.
He said finding money would fall to the Oregon Zoo Foundation, a nonprofit fundraising group. The foundation's development committee would create a plan to seek support from corporations, foundations and individuals, he said.

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/portland_news/1156904741219130.xml&coll=7



Zoo executives dedicated, caring
Aug. 30, 2006. 01:00 AM
Metro Toronto Zoo
I am writing this letter to address the comments and articles that a few misinformed people have attempted to levy against Metro Zoo in the treatment of its animals.
I have been a senior adviser on the Aboriginal Board at the Metro Zoo for more than four years now and I have also been on the immediate property most of my life. In that time I have had a wonderful working relationship with the Executive Officer Calvin White and the Zoo's Project Manager Paul Harpley and Bill Rappley. Their continued dedication and never-ending work is real proof that the huge decisions regarding all animals are being made by experienced, dedicated, hard-working and deeply caring people.
Thanks to the wonderful direction of the executive officers, the Metro Zoo is the first zoo in this country to take the patience and time to work directly with First Nations and their elders to build the Aboriginal Knowledge Trail. After more than two years of many meetings, and with very careful planning, the Aboriginal Knowledge Trail winds all around the North American animals exhibit of animals that have a spiritual connection with First Nation peoples. Ironically, this project is situated right where our ancestors lived in the past.
I have spent a great deal of time on the zoo's property and have got to know most of the people who work there and I can say, without a doubt, that I have personally never met a better group of hard-working, dedicated people whose main objective is the love and caring of animals, which requires such a delicate balance in keeping up their health and nutrition and spiritual well-being.

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1156888230074&call_pageid=970599119419



Tiger Cubs to Go on Display at National Zoo
Aug 30th - 6:17am
WASHINGTON - The public won't have to wait much longer to see the new Sumatran tiger cubs at the National Zoo.
The new cubs -- two females and a male -- will go on display at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday.
The names of the three new cubs will also be announced on that morning as part of a celebration that will include talks by keepers, arts and crafts, and displays of tiger toys and artifacts.
The cubs were born May 24 and were the sixth litter of Sumatran tigers ever born at the zoo and the third litter for 13-year-old tiger Soyono.
Sumatran tigers are the smallest of nine tiger subspecies, three of which have already become extinct.
As adults, the male cub will weigh about 265 pounds and the females about 200 pounds. Sumatran tigers are endangered -- fewer than 500 are believed to exist in the tropical forests of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
(Copyright 2006 by WTOP and The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
WASHINGTON - The public won't have to wait much longer to see the new Sumatran tiger cubs at the National Zoo.
The new cubs -- two females and a male -- will go on display at 9:45 a.m. on Saturday.
The tiger cubs will go on display on Saturday. (Photo courtesy of National Zoo)
The names of the three new cubs will also be announced on that morning as part of a celebration that will include talks by keepers, arts and crafts, and displays of tiger toys and artifacts.
The cubs were born May 24 and were the sixth litter of Sumatran tigers ever born at the zoo and the third litter for 13-year-old tiger Soyono.
Sumatran tigers are the smallest of nine tiger subspecies, three of which have already become extinct.
As adults, the male cub will weigh about 265 pounds and the females about 200 pounds. Sumatran tigers are endangered -- fewer than 500 are believed to exist in the tropical forests of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=596&sid=897233



A zoo outing fit for children of all ages
By Jason Cannon
Last Saturday, Lizzie, Tiffany and I made our first trip to the Birmingham Zoo as a family.
Lizzie had never been. To her, exotic animals are drawn in vibrant colors on rigid cardboard pages in alphabetical order, so I was looking forward to letting her see the real thing up close.
I didn't really know what to expect. I hadn't been to the zoo in more than 10-years and I certainly hadn't been with a 2-year-old, but I figured it would be a positive experience. Lizzie loves animals.
Lizzie does an impression of a monkey that's almost as good as the real thing. And her cow is Broadway material.
We jumped out of the car and Lizzie was in heaven, even from the parking lot.

http://www.clantonadvertiser.com/articles/2006/04/11/opinion/columnists/9-column.txt



Zoo continuing Safari Slumbers, looking for docents
The Clarion-Ledger
The Jackson Zoo is continuing its overnight sleepover program, Safari Slumbers, this fall. It’s aimed at scout troops, church youth groups, family groups and more.
Three programs are offered: Mississippi Nights, Rain Forest Dreams and Africa After Dark, featuring a behind-the-scenes tour, chats with zookeepers and an up-close visit with an animal guest. Other activities may include stargazing, a sunrise tour, night hike and camp fire stories.
Sleeping would be indoors, on the floor of the zoo’s education building.
The cost is $35 per person and includes a pizza dinner and continental breakfast. A minimum of 10 people is required for booking a group.
The Jackson Zoo is also looking for docents. Docent training classes will be held 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturdays from Sept. 30 through Nov. 11.
To learn more about the program, join the Docent Safari 9 a.m. to noon on Sept. 16 at the zoo.
For more information, to book a group for Safari Slumbers or to find out more about the Docent Safari, call (601) 352-2586.

http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060830/FEAT05/60830022



You Can Now Visit The Zoo In Oshkosh For Free
(WFRV) OSHKOSH Since 2002, the Zoo at the Menominee Park Zoo has been charging an admission fee. Now, thanks to the generosity of an Oshkosh couple, it looks like those days are over.
Tom and Penny Harenburg donated $65,000 to the Zoo for this year, to eliminate the Zoo's $1.00 for children and $2.00 for adults entrance fees.
It will also cover a portion of zoo upkeep and improvement costs.
The Harenburgs are also working with the Oshkosh area Community Foundation, to set up an annual fund to make sure those admission fees never return.

http://wfrv.com/local/local_story_101170914.html


continued ….

Title of Artwork, "Angel's Day Off"

Check with Mike Moore's website.

It's interesting, American Airlines is censoring 'in flight' movies and won't allow any viewing of a documentary by Michael Moore. Like why did they have to single him out over anyone else? It's a political directive. I am wondering if there is special considerations for it from the White House? Were loan consideration, interest rates and the like affilitated with this? I think it's weird.

Boycott American Airlines.

Tell them what you think ! (click on)

I did.

I want a real response from the CEO of American Airlines. What kind of airline is this that carries the name of my home and won't allow selections I value? Freedom is choice. Why not just allow speeches by Bush to play while showing the virtues of killing Iraqis? To censor media ANYWHERE is to limit democracy. I'll never fly American Airlines again ! Ever. In my life !

If they believe in freedom then they believe in choice !

Perhaps, American Airlines should take note that the men who destroyed their aircraft and killed their passengers and employees were under the direction of Osama bin Laden, last known to be in Afghanistan and the mountains bordering Pakistan at Tora Bora. It was that war we needed to fight not the diversionary and illegal war in Iraq.

But, don't care about that, right?

Doesn't the CEO of American Airlines, Gerard J. Arpey (click on) care about the people that fly with him enough to protest the fact Osama bin Laden is still at large? Evidently, not. Politics out weighs patriotism at American Airlines.

I'll be back tomorrow.