"The Transcript" of Norman, Oklahoma
http://www.normantranscript.com/
FEMA awardsgrant to area firefighters
The Norman Transcript
Noble, Slaughterville, Lexington, Cedar Country join forces to apply for communications funding
By Melissa A. Wabnitz
Transcript Staff Writer
They aren't held together by duct tape and luck, but many of the handheld radios used in day-to-day operations of the Noble Fire Department aren't exactly top-of-the-line. In fact, said Noble Chief Gary Bonner, many of them are downright dangerous.
"The problem is that when we get into hills and try and dispatch, the signal can't make it over that," Bonner said. "Say we're at a fire or a car wreck or nearly anything like that where we're working on something and we're away from our trucks. Most of the problems we've run into with these radios is that if we're trying to dispatch out, we have to leave the scene, walk back to the truck and then call out. You can't just do that when you're with a patient at a wreck or when you're handfighting a fire."
http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_124005718
Some assembly required
By Althea Peterson
The Norman Transcript
By Althea Peterson
Transcript Staff Writer
Like a jigsaw puzzle, it just did not look complete until the last piece was in place.
After several hours of construction, when "A T. rex named Sue" finally had her skull in place, Sam Noble Oklahoma Natural History Museum's Great Hall crowd broke out in applause. Children on field trips, museum staff and the general public gathered during the final moments of construction Tuesday afternoon to watch as the final piece of the dinosaur's cast fit into place with the assistance of a forklift.
http://www.normantranscript.com/homepage/local_story_123004345?keyword=topstory
Bob Sullivan takes business approach to state leadership
The Norman Transcript
By Althea Peterson
Transcript Staff Writer
The race for Oklahoma governor includes three candidates who have law backgrounds and one with a business background.
Will it take a business chief executive to be Oklahoma’s chief executive? One candidate for governor said he thinks so. Bob Sullivan, an oil businessman from Tulsa, is one of three Republican candidates, including State Senator Jim Williamson and U.S. Representative Ernest Istook, who is looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Brad Henry.
In an interview with The Transcript, Sullivan said he was born in Illinois, but “got to Oklahoma as fast as he could” when he was 4 months old. He is the owner of Sullivan and Co. in Tulsa and also started Lumen Energy Corp. He said he believes working with business itself is the best prerequisite for working with business at a state level.
http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_124004508
Festival opens Friday for 32nd season
The Norman Transcript
Transcript Staff
More than 100 artists and dozens of food vendors from throughout the country will begin setting up shop at Andrews Park today in preparation for Friday’s opening of the 32nd May Fair Arts Festival.
The show, sponsored by the Assistance League of Norman, will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the park, on Daws Avenue north of the Norman Public Library. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
“We’re confident this year’s May Fair is going to be the best ever,” said May Fair co-chair Maureen Crook. “May Fair always attracts many of the best artists and craftsmen from across the state and the nation. Norman continues to gain a reputation as regional center for art and creativity. Visitors from across the Southwest find May Fair weekend is the perfect time to explore the rich variety of fine arts in Norman and get a touch of the Old West.”
http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_124003928
Weather Synopsis...Thunderstorms will overspread areas to the west of Interstate 35 through 3 am...before expanding farther eastward toward morning, as an upper level disturbance arrives. Marginally severe storms with quarter size hail and 60 mph winds are possible, along with frequent lightning and heavy rain. Thunderstorm chances continue Thursday as well.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/enhanced.php
The weather for Enid, Oklahoma
Oddly cool for this time of year.
Tonight
Chance Of T-Storm
Low 51°F
Mostly cloudy. Chance of thunderstorms in the evening...Then thunderstorms likely after midnight. Lows in the lower 50s. Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph shifting to the east after midnight. Chance of thunderstorms 60 percent.
Thursday
Chance Of T-Storm
High 69°F
Mostly cloudy with thunderstorms likely. Cooler. Highs in the upper 60s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of thunderstorms 70 percent.
Thursday Night
Chance Of T-Storm
Low 49°F
Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 40s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph.
Friday
Chance Of T-Storm
High 65°F
Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s. Northeast winds around 10 mph.
Friday Night
Chance Of T-Storm
Low 49°F
Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 40s. Northeast winds around 10 mph.
Saturday
Chance Of T-Storm
High 65°F
Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s.
Saturday Night
Chance Of T-Storm
Low 50°F
Partly
http://www.weathercentral.com/weather/us/cities/ok_enid.html
The Enid News and Eagle
http://www.enidnews.com/
Rain a boost for farmers
Staff and wire reports
The most significant rainfall in Ok-lahoma in months has boosted prospects for some farmers and ranchers and has helped fill depleted lakes.
Some parts of Oklahoma received up to 7 inches of rain over the weekend. Light rain fell in northern Oklahoma Monday, and thunderstorms were spreading across the state Tuesday.
In northwest Oklahoma, most areas received rain Friday. The Mesonet weather-reporting site at Breckinridge recorded 3.81 inches of rain Friday — the most in the area. Watonga reported 2.07 inches.
Other Mesonet rain figures Friday in the area were: Alva, .75; Cherokee, .32; Fairview, 1.16; Freedom, 1.24; Kingfisher, .74; Lahoma, 1.56; Marshall, 1.43; Medford, 1.41; and Woodward, .29.
On Saturday, Kingfisher and Marshall received .92 and .77 of an inch, respectively.
The rain’s benefits are mixed, according to Roger Don Gribble, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service northwest area agronomist.
For the area wheat crop, the rain “probably will be of very little help,” he said.
“Basically, the crop is too far along.”
The rain, though, could create some problems as far as weeds in wheat.
Wheat stands, because of the prolonged drought, aren’t that good, Gribble said. Usually, full stands of wheat help reduce the threat of weed pressures by keeping sunlight from reaching the ground. Since wheat stands are thin this year, the sunlight will reach the ground and “weeds could become a problem,” he said.
That means farmers may have to use a pre-harvest treatment to battle weeds.
“That’s another cost these guys will have to bear,” Gribble said.
Other agriculture officials echoed his thoughts. The rain came too late to boost Oklahoma’s sagging winter wheat crop, which normally is worth more than $300 million, said Sam Knipp, spokesman for the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.
However, other crops grown in the area should see more benefits from the rain, Gribble said.
Those who planted soybeans early will see benefits from the recent rain. However, those farmers who plan to plant soybeans after harvesting wheat will need more rain to see any benefits, Gribble said.
Grain sorghum and alfalfa crops will be boosted by the rain, Gribble said.
A “huge benefit” will be seen by ranchers who have cattle out on native grass pastures, he said. The grass really needed rain.
“My spirits, and the spirits of the other farmers I saw over the weekend were greatly lifted,” said Scott Dvorak, a fourth-generation cattle producer from Perry who also grows wheat, corn and soybeans.
“For cattle, it’s really a great deal,” he said. “It’s a blessing to get this rain right now and make the grass grow.”
The moisture also should help farmers planting corn this spring for fall harvest, Knipp said.
“There’s an old saying on the farm about a $1 million rain. That’s what this one was,” Knipp said.
“It really changed the mood of farmers overnight. ... The rain will really, really give these guys a chance for a spring crop. That’s a chance they didn’t have five days ago,” he said.
The rain will help alfalfa hay growers statewide, who typically begin to cut the crop in May, said Jack Carson, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
The 2.42 inches of rain that fell in Oklahoma City over the weekend was the highest two-day total since last June, National Weather Service spokesman Daryl Williams said. Tulsa County received 2.86 inches of rain, Muskogee got 2.63 inches and McAlester got 3.36 inches.
The rain boosted lake levels as summer season approaches.
Lake Hulah in northeast Osage County gained more than 10 feet since start of weekend rain. Keystone Lake near Sand Springs will gain about 10 feet. Lake Texoma gained about 11⁄2 feet to move about a foot above normal.
Other lake levels remain far below normal.
At Lake Eufaula, the water is about 41⁄2 feet below normal. During the drought’s peak, the lake was about 8 feet below normal, he said.
Associate Editor Kevin Hassler contributed to this story.
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_123004833.html
Officials: Business incubator project alive in Legislature
By Robert Barron Staff Writer
As the legislative session winds down, funding for a small business incubator at Autry Technology Center still is awaiting approval.
Jim Strate, Autry Tech superintendent, said the incubator project is alive and will be a part of budget negotiations between the House and Senate.
Strate would not say the bill is facing problems in either chamber, but he reiterated it is in the process. He is hopeful it will benefit when appropriations are made.
“It’s not hung up anywhere, it’s just in the process,” he said. “I’m optimistic. It’s still very favorable.”
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124014521.html
Words of support prompt Roggow to rethink retiring
By Robert Barron Staff Writer
State Rep. Curt Roggow said he is humbled by support he has received since announcing he will not seek re-election to a fifth term.
So much so, he said Wednesday he is thinking over his decision.
“I’ve been visiting with a lot of people in the last couple of days, people who came to my office and stopped me to talk,” he said. “At a reception Tuesday night, a lot of friends across the state of Oklahoma did not want me to leave.”
Among those urging Roggow to stay are Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Gary Jones, chairman-elect Tom Daxon and Enid Mayor Ernie Currier.
Roggow, R-Hillsdale, represents District 41.
“I’m extremely disappointed at Curt’s decision not to run for re-election,” Currier said. “I would like for him to change his mind because he’s already proven himself as a leader, and his presence will only further benefit Enid and the surrounding communities.”
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124014445.html
Nerves, experience mix at annual Tri-State Music Festival
By Scott Fitzgerald Staff Writer
Fourth-grader Josh Brennan didn’t exhibit nervousness moments before he took the floor Tuesday with other members of the Hillsdale Christian School show choir.
When asked if he was nervous, Brennan clenched his fist and twisted it slightly, a movement that aptly described participating in Tri-State Music Festival competition for the first time.
Nearby was sixth-grader Katelin Moore, who practiced a few of her dance steps.
Was she nervous?
Not really, she answered. A year ago, she and other show choir members lined up in the same spot in the Northern Oklahoma College Enid Gantz Center to perform.
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124011024.html
St. Paul’s church sets fundraiser auction Saturday
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 1626 E. Broadway, will host an auction beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday. Lunch will be available. Proceeds will be applied to St. Paul’s Work Program.
Those wishing to help can bring donated items to the church between 7 and 9 a.m. through Saturday.
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124013933.html
Lady Blazers state champs in academics
By Teresa Brakhage Lahoma correspondent
Cimarron Lady Blazers are the Class 2A softball state academic champions. They will be presented with a trophy at the state finals today at Hall of Fame Park in Oklahoma City. The girls had a combined grade point average of 3.72.
------------------------------------
The Lady Blazers track team advanced to the state meet Friday and Saturday in Mustang. Cortney Brakhage, Chasity Romero, Shamika Thompson and Shanelle Griffin will compete in the 800-meter and 400-meter relays. Romero will compete in the 100-meter 200-meter dashes. Kirsti Duncan also is a participant.
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124013747.html
Anger should be focused on lawmakers
By Cindy Allen Commentary
Well, it’s been a long time coming.
More than a million immigrants — legal and illegal — and their supporters took to the streets and stayed away from jobs May 1 to protest what they consider harsh measures to bring illegal immigration under control.
As a nation, we’ve ignored illegal immigration for a long time, at least since the last time amnesty was granted back in the 1980s. We’ve watched the census figures and the statistics that have shown Hispanic populations increasing dramatically in the United States.
We’ve all known these vast increases in the population have not all occurred legally. We all know there is a system for legal immigration into the United States and that process takes time.
Many Americans have participated in the flow of illegal immigrants to the country. We just can’t blame big companies wanting a cheap work force. Many of us have hired immigrants as yard workers, housekeepers or day laborers. How many asked for documentation? Not many, I’d guess.
So, we shouldn’t be surprised this clash would some day come. Only the threat of terrorism has awakened our lawmakers to the problems illegal immigration poses. Our borders are porous and our will is weak, but in the back of our mind, we all wonder how many terrorists we have unwittingly let into our country due to our complacency in allowing illegal immigration to spiral out of control.
So, what was accomplished with this May 1 boycott?
Well, just about everyone is mad, now. The main effect of the boycott is it has driven a wedge further between groups of people. And that’s the last thing we need in this nation.
Instead of Hispanics focusing their anger on “gringos” or legal American citizens focusing their anger on “illegal” residents, how about we all come together and work toward getting our lawmakers to finally and fully address the problem?
Most of the folks who come here from Mexico or South American countries are trying to obtain a better life, and they see the United States as a beacon of opportunity. And that’s a good thing.
But, what is the United States doing to hold these countries south of our border accountable for their economic policies that drive their people to the United States? It appears these countries encourage their citizens to flee to the United States, work illegally and send the money back to family in their home country.
It sounds drastic, but I’d be willing to entertain a complete shutdown of the U.S.- Mexico border for a three-month period. And I mean both ways. No one comes in, no one goes out. That certainly would get everyone’s attention, particularly Mexico and South American countries that depend on tourism for much of their economy.
During this time-out, the United States, Mexico and South American countries could sit down and hash out policies that would reform economic policies on both sides of the border. Certainly we have enough policy makers and bureaucrats to make such a task a three-month priority.
Also, perhaps our country needs to take an honest look at our immigration process. Is it too cumbersome or unreasonable? Does it meet the objectives we want as a nation? Let’s listen to people who have tried to go through the process and have found unfair obstacles in their way. If there are legitimate problems, let’s fix them.
But, lets stop all this talk of boycotts and rallies because that alone will not accomplish anything other than to raise the ire of everyone. It’s time to focus on fixing the problem, and that lies squarely on the shoulders of our lawmakers in Washington D.C.
http://www.enidnews.com/opinion/local_story_124012129.html?keyword=topstory
Tsunami Warning Lifted after 7.8 quake
The South Pacific quake prompted warnings for as far away as Fiji and New Zealand, but the alerts were lifted after a tsunami of less than 2 feet was recorded. (May 03)
http://video.ap.org/v/en-ap/v.htm?f=201264&g=23e7db5d-faa4-4d2e-bec4-f7fab6503691&p=&t=s59
‘Dreamer’ good prelude to thoroughbred season
Rexton Kuchinsky, Commentary
Since the “Run for the Roses” is just around the corner — what better way to get into the mood than to watch a good movie about a horse. To make it even more interesting, this story is based upon a true event. The movie is “Dreamer,” starring Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Kris Kristofferson and Elisabeth Shue.
Russell plays Ben Crane, a down-on-his-luck horse trainer. Fanning plays his 10-year-old daughter, Cale. Ben trains horses for a stable owned by Palmer, played by David Morse. The stable’s prize filly, Sonador (Spanish for Dreamer) unfortunately breaks her leg in the race. Ben, in a dispute with Palmer, decides not to put the horse down, but instead uses his severance pay to buy her and bring her home.
It is here that the magic begins as Sonador brings a once dysfunctional family back together and in turn the family nurses the thoroughbred back to health. Kristofferson plays Pop Crane. Shue plays Lily, Ben’s wife. When they almost lose Sonador in a claiming race, Ben decides to give Cale controlling ownership of the horse. Cale, in turn, decides to train her further and enter her in the Breeder’s Cup.
http://www.enidnews.com/entertainment/local_story_118000152.html?keyword=topstory
The Houston Chronicle
KILLINGS IN MEXICO
Fear for women's safety spreads
Is the violence of Juarez being repeated? Victims' advocates see chilling parallels to unchecked killings in six other cities
By MARION LLOYD
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Foreign Service
CHIMALHUACAN, MEXICO - In the past eight months, the raped and strangled bodies of young, working-class women have been turning up in construction sites in this dust-choked slum outside the Mexican capital.
The spate of violence itself is terrifying. But residents fear it's a sign of something even worse.
"We ask ourselves, is this the beginning of another Ciudad Juarez?" said Emerenciana Lopez, a human rights activist in this grim satellite community of 500,000 built alongside the capital's trash dumps and a reeking sewage canal.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839399.html
Zogby poll on legal status goes against tide
By GEBE MARTINEZ
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - A poll conducted for a group that wants immigration restricted shows that two-thirds of American voters agree with its goal and that only 43 percent favor a Senate bill that would let most illegal immigrants apply for legal status.
The poll, conducted by Zogby International for the Center for Immigration Studies, runs counter to recent surveys by news organizations that show voters favoring a Senate plan to provide "earned legalization" for about 10 million illegal immigrants.
In the latest Zogby survey, 69 percent responded favorably to the House bill, which was described as a plan "that does not increase the number of people allowed into the country legally." A virtually equal portion said legal and illegal immigration should be reduced.
The poll interviewed 1,008 likely voters between April 17 and April 24 and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Support for the Senate bill was lower in the poll for the Center for Immigration Studies because the bill was described as doubling the number of green cards "in the future from 1 to 2 million a year," said research director Steven Camarota.
Experts generally agree with the green card estimate.
"When you tell them that, they don't like that," Camarota said of the proposed legalization plan. "They say, 'What?' "
The poll's methodology was faulted by Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Public Research, which is urging passage of the Senate bill.
"If you look at polling done by all the major polling organizations this past month, voters do think that illegal immigrants here should have a chance to earn their way to citizenship," Jacoby said. "There's been a sea change in public opinion."
The Zogby survey overlapped with an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, conducted April 21-24, in which 61 percent favored letting illegal immigrants stay if they pass a security check, pay taxes and meet other conditions similar to those listed in the pending Senate bill.
Pollsters have been closely tracking voter sentiment on the immigration issue, especially since late March, when immigrant rights activists began staging marches that have drawn about 2 million people across the country.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/3839349.html
Demographics show immediate boost in Latino voting unlikely
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - The masses of young Hispanics who have been turning out for protests against immigration legislation pending before Congress once again have raised the prospect that Latino voting power finally will erupt, although demographic realities still appear to trump the demonstrators' passion.
Hispanics have been the fastest-growing major population segment in Texas since 1990, adding at least 3.5 million people.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3780403.html
Backlash grows after immigration protests
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — While a series of marches focused much of the nation's attention on the plight of illegal immigrants, scores of other Americans quietly seethed. Now, with the same full-throated cry expressed by those in the country illegally, they are shouting back.
Congressional leaders in Washington have gotten bricks in the mail from a group that advocates building a border fence, states in the West and South have drawn up tough anti-immigrant laws, and ordinary citizens, such as Janis McDonald of Pennsylvania, who considers herself a liberal, are not mincing words in expressing their displeasure.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3836971.html
Migrants, Border Patrol fear deadliest summer yet for border crossers
Associated Press
SASABE, Mexico — Wearing tight jeans and a glittery "bebe" T-shirt, the 17-year-old scrambled out of a packed van as the temperature edged toward 90 degrees in this barren stretch of the U.S.-Mexican border.
Carrying no hat or sunscreen, the teenager who called herself Adriana Brenda said the longest hike she'd taken was through a shopping mall. But here she was, ready for a three-day trek across the desert.
She carried two gallons of water — enough, experts say, to keep her hydrated for two hours.
As temperatures rise, the U.S. Border Patrol and aid groups are gearing up for what they fear could be one of the deadliest summers for migrants sneaking into the United States.
The U.S. Senate is debating a bill that could lock the border tighter than ever, and activists fear the flow of migrants is moving to an even hotter and more remote section of desert than the current favorite, an area south of Tucson, Ariz., where hundreds of people have died since 1994.
The desert around Tucson is crawling with 2,400 U.S. Border Patrol agents. Rifle-bearing civilians known as Minutemen are also keeping watch.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3836961.html
Youths rally beside immigrant parents
Thousands skip school to voice their support
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Shoulder to shoulder with their parents and schoolmates, legions of young people have turned out for the nationwide immigrants-rights rallies, some motivated by the predicaments of their families, others by a sense that their voices matter.
"Even we have been surprised by the recent level of activity by young people — the sheer numbers, the passion," said Marco Davis, director of youth leadership development for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3839351.html
Minuteman tour off to rough start
Efforts to recruit black members are met with protests in Los Angeles
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Leaders of the Minuteman Project began a cross-country tour Wednesday to seek support for tighter border security, launching a caravan to the nation's capital from a heavily black neighborhood where many residents shouted at the civilian patrol group to go home.
Minuteman leaders started the trip from a black neighborhood as part of a push to attract more blacks as members.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3839352.html
Anthem angst
Despite Bush's English-only stance, Spanish is old tradition
By CLAUDIA FELDMAN and EYDER PERALTA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
President Bush has spoken out against the translated version of the national anthem, saying it should be sung in English only. If so, that's actually a break with American tradition, says Walter Kamphoefner, a history professor at Texas A&M University.
The Library of Congress archives dozens of versions of the anthem, including a couple in German and a Spanish translation commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education in 1912.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3839009.html
First lady agrees, then disagrees about singing anthem in Spanish
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Laura Bush has a knack for making it known when she doesn't agree with her husband.
But on the subject of belting out The Star-Spangled Banner in Spanish, it's not clear whether the first lady is in President Bush's camp or not.
A Spanish-language variation of the national anthem, called Nuestro Himno, which means "Our Anthem," debuted last week.
It stirred controversy because it rewrites some of the English version.
President Bush fed the debate with a terse "No, I don't" when asked last week whether the anthem holds the same value when sung in Spanish.
"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English," he said. "And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3839480.html
State is late on its payments — and it's not paying
It has a surplus of $8 billion, but red tape keeps 600 claimants empty-handed
By TERRI LANGFORD and POLLY ROSS HUGHES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
When a Texas jury awarded Patti King $250,000 in 2000 for the sexual harassment she suffered while working for the state prison system, she knew she wasn't going to get the money that day.
But she didn't think she would be waiting years for the state to pay up.
On Wednesday, King inched closer to collecting her judgment, which with six years of interest, court costs and fees totals more than $640,000 because the state never paid the original jury award after it withstood appeal.
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee passed a measure to pay the judgment.
But the committee failed to take action on nearly $8 million in other outstanding "miscellaneous" claims that haven't been paid for years, including things such as nursing home services and road construction projects that cities paid for because they were to be reimbursed later by the state.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839476.html
'Forever' postage stamp in the works
No need to buy any 2- or 3-cent extras to meet postage increases
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Call it the stamp that just keeps on delivering.
The Postal Service is planning a "forever" stamp that would remain valid for mailing a letter despite future rate increases.
That means folks could say goodbye to those annoying 2- or 3-cent stamps that have to be added to letters every time rates go up. Sheets, rolls, books or loose stamps in the drawer would still be good.
Forever.
The idea for the special stamps, which would be sold at the same price as other first-class stamps, was included in proposals Wednesday that would also raise stamp prices 3 cents — to 42 cents — next year.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839126.html
Postal Service wants another raise
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Postal Service said today it wants to raise the price of a first-class stamp by 3 cents — to 42 cents — and proposed a "forever" stamp that people could use as hedge against future rate increases.
The changes would take effect in the spring of 2007 if approved by the independent Postal Rate Commission.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/3837501.html
Police think suspect may be a serial killer
HPD detectives say 2 local deaths bear similarities to Fort Bend case
By ROSANNA RUIZ and ERIC HANSON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
After taking the lives of two young women, the killer posed the bodies of his victims in their bathtubs.
Those morbid poses, considered the calling card or "signature" of the killer, led Houston police to suspect Edward George McGregor in the grisly slayings of Danielle L. Subjects, 28, and Mandy R. Rubin, 25, both of Houston.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839479.html
MOUSSAOUI LIFE TERM STUNS MANY IN COURT
Jury apparently believed convicted terrorist played a minor role in 9/11
By NEIL A. LEWIS
New York Times
ALEXANDRIA, VA. - A federal jury rejected the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday, apparently concluding that he had played only a minor role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The verdict seemed to stun most in the courtroom, notably Justice Department prosecutors who had relentlessly urged the jurors that Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in April 2005, should be executed for his role in the deaths and destruction caused by the Sept. 11 attacks.
The jury appeared to have considered several mitigating factors, even giving weight to his troubled upbringing in a dysfunctional Moroccan family in France leading to a childhood in orphanages. Jurors left the courthouse without speaking, but court officials read aloud details of what factors the jurors had voted to consider.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839478.html
Convicted al Qaeda Terrorist Facing Death Penalty Sentencing TrialUnited States v. Zacarias Moussaoui aka Shaqil, aka Abu Khalid al Sahraw
http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism/cases/index.html
Property values hit home for taxpayers
Another strong year in real estate means many are being taxed more
By BILL MURPHY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Property values that gave taxpayers the blues and helped keep governments in the black aren't rising as fast as a few years ago, but plenty of Harris County homeowners still are getting bad news about their 2006 taxes.
Market values on single-family homes, as determined by the Harris County Appraisal District and contained in notices mailed to homeowners in the past month, rose on average nearly 7 percent. That's up from 4 percent in 2005 appraisals, but below the 12 percent average recorded in 2001.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839513.html
Radar Map
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/
SHORT TERM FORECASTNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX316 AM CDT THU MAY 4 2006TXZ091>095-100>107-115>123-129>135-141>148-156>162-174-175-041030-ANDERSON-BELL-BOSQUE-COLLIN-COMANCHE-COOKE-CORYELL-DALLAS-DELTA-DENTON-EASTLAND-ELLIS-ERATH-FALLS-FANNIN-FREESTONE-GRAYSON-HAMILTON-HENDERSON-HILL-HOOD-HOPKINS-HUNT-JACK-JOHNSON-KAUFMAN-LAMAR-LAMPASAS-LEON-LIMESTONE-MCLENNAN-MILAM-MILLS-MONTAGUE-NAVARRO-PALO PINTO-PARKER-RAINS-ROBERTSON-ROCKWALL-SOMERVELL-STEPHENS-TARRANT-VAN ZANDT-WISE-YOUNG-316 AM CDT THU MAY 4 2006.NOW...A LINE OF STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE FROM A MINERAL WELLS TOCOMANCHE LINE AND REACH A DENTON...FORT WORTH...TO GOLDTHWAITE LINEBY 530 AM. WIND GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH...SMALL HAIL...VERY HEAVYRAINFALL...AND CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING WILL ACCOMPANY THESTRONGEST STORMS. THE LINE OF STORMS WILL MOVE EAST AT 35 MPH.A LARGE AREA OF RAIN WITH EMBEDDED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TOAFFECT LOCATIONS BEHIND THE MAIN LINE OF STORMS. SOME PONDING OFWATER ON ROADWAYS IS LIKELY...ESPECIALLY WEST OF A JACKSBORO TOPALO PINTO LINE.RAIN AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BEGIN TO IMPACT LOCATIONS EAST OFINTERSTATE 35 AFTER 6 AM.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=hgx&wwa=all
The Houston/Galveston National Weather Service 2006 Hurricane Workshop, presented by CenterPoint Energy, will take place on Tuesday, May 30, from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, Texas.
The 2005 Hurricane Season will go down as one of the most disastrous seasons on record. Numerous long-standing records were broken, including the costliest hurricane on record when Hurricane Katrina struck South Florida and the middle Gulf Coast states at the end of August. Katrina killed more than 1,300 people. With Katrina fresh on the minds of citizens in Southeast Texas, Hurricane Rita became a serious threat to our area less than one month later. Although Rita eventually made landfall just to our east in the Texas-Louisiana border area, massive evacuations, along with a shortage in gasoline and other supplies, occurred across Southeast Texas.
This workshop will consist of a main session with several keynote speakers along with numerous breakout sessions that will cover the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Other hurricane related topics will also be covered. A vendor area will also be available for companies involved in hurricane preparedness and hurricane protection.
Stacy Stewart, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, will be the workshop's featured speaker. Mr. Stewart will talk about the active 2005 season and discuss some of the meteorological reasons that the United States had so many landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes. Mr. Stewart will also offer some projections on the 2006 Hurricane Season and what we can expect for the Atlantic Basin.
The Houston/Galveston National Weather Service Hurricane Workshop will move from the Pasadena Convention Center to the George R. Brown Convention Center for 2006. This change in venue is being made possible by the City of Houston. The City of Houston is donating space at the George R. Brown Convention Center to hold this very important workshop.
For the second year in a row, CenterPoint Energy will be the presenting sponsor for the workshop. CenterPoint Energy, the company that maintains the electrical lines throughout the Greater Houston area, is very involved in helping the Houston area prepare for and recover from major hurricanes.
We look forward to seeing you at the 2006 Hurricane Workshop!
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/tropical/workshop06.htm
Daily Mail and Guardian
Could it be that the British have moved in?
New front line in the war on terror
04 May 2006 07:11
As hideouts go, the Shawal Valley in northern Pakistan is a militant's dream. Lonely goat trails wind through a rocky 40km corridor that nudges the Afghan border. Its fiercely conservative tribesmen and forbidding high-walled compounds have sheltered Taliban fighters and probably al-Qaeda fugitives.
Last weekend Brigadier Imtiaz Wyne, a Pakistani army commander, stood on the top of one of its highest peaks and declared his 5 000 troops had tamed the wild valley -- almost. "This border is sealed," he said, pointing to a line of observation posts along the border.
But the cornered militants were fighting back, he admitted. His soldiers had suffered five major attacks in the previous month; on one occasion a captured soldier was gruesomely mutilated before being executed.
"They are a mix -- foreigners, locals, Afghan Taliban, criminals," said the officer. "It's difficult to say who is the leader, but ultimately it is al-Qaeda."
A vicious mini-war has erupted between the Pakistani army and the "Pakistani Taliban" in North Waziristan, a turbulent tribal area that has moved to the front line of the Pakistani and US "war on terror". Every day sees fresh violence between the army and militants -- a loose coalition of radical clerics, tribal leaders and al-Qaeda fighters.
The biggest upset occurred in early March, when 1 500 self-styled Taliban assaulted a military base in the main town, Miran Shah. The ensuing four-day battle involved artillery and helicopters gunships and left 145 militants dead, 25 of them foreigners, according to the army figures.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270716&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Huge Pacific earthquake sparks tsunami panic
Chris Foley Wellington, New Zealand
04 May 2006 08:32
A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 7,8 rocked the island nation of Tonga on Thursday, triggering a panic evacuation in a New Zealand town after tsunami warnings were briefly issued for the South Pacific.
Although the warnings were withdrawn within two hours, hundreds of people in the New Zealand coastal town of Gisborne, more than 2 200km from the quake's epicentre, fled their homes.
"Most of the coastal communities in Gisborne evacuated," regional civil defence controller Richard Steele told national radio.
"Things got a bit out of control."
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said a "great" quake, initially measured at magnitude 8,0, struck at 4.26am (15.26pm GMT Wednesday) in the middle of the islands that make up Tonga.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270727&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Twenty-seven missing after ship sinks off SA
Fran Blandy Johannesburg, South Africa
04 May 2006 07:46
Twenty-seven people are still missing after their ship sunk off the coast of Port Alfred, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Thursday.
"The Fortune Express [a bulk carrier] has launched a lifeboat and her crew are continuing to search for survivors," said search and rescue coordinator Mark Hellenberg.
An Air Force C-130 was due on scene at first light on Thursday.
All 33 crew on the Alexandros T abandoned ship on Wednesday night when the vessel began breaking up. Despite all crew standing by to abandon ship, only five people made it to life rafts.
The Fortune Express was only two nautical miles from the scene and rescued the five crew from a life raft.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270719&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Blowin' in the wind: DJ Dylan makes radio debut
04 May 2006 07:46
Early morning, somehow, does not seem to be Bob Dylan's natural time of day. Nevertheless, the legendary singer-songwriter made his debut as a radio DJ on Wednesday at 10am on America's east coast, which is 7am on the west coast -- although anyone expecting a peppy, caffeinated rundown of the day's news, perhaps with some traffic updates, would have been disappointed.
There was lots of weather, though. The Theme Time Radio Hour -- "with your host, Bob Dylan" -- will take a different theme each week, showcasing songs selected from his personal record collection, and Wednesday's topic was the weather.
The result was an eclectic stew of blues, pop, easy listening, jazz and rock, featuring Fats Domino, Judy Garland and Stevie Wonder, to name just a few. But the show's celebrity presenter will not be playing his own songs, so his own forays into meteorology -- Blowin' in the Wind and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, among others -- were absent.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270720&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Jury spares Moussaoui from death penalty
Stephen Collinson Alexandria, Virginia, United States
04 May 2006 08:32
A United States jury rejected the death penalty for al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and ruled he should be jailed for life without parole for his role in the September 11 attacks conspiracy.
The verdict handed down on Wednesday was a setback for the US government which threw enormous resources into pressing for the execution of the only person charged in the United States over the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington in which almost 3 000 people died.
True to his stormy and unpredictable character, Moussaoui shouted "America you lost ... I won", as he was led from the court. Judge Leonie Brinkema will formally pronounce the sentence in court on Thursday morning.
Relatives of the September 11 victims expressed mixed emotions. Many were just happy that the trial was over.
"I am glad to see this will be the last day that Mr Moussaoui is in the headlines," said Carrie Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, was a passenger on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.
"He deserves to rot in jail," she added.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270725&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Boeremag accused still on the run
Pretoria, South Africa
04 May 2006 07:46
Police have worked through the night in the search for two Boeremag treason trial accused who escaped from the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.
"They have been working through the night but at this moment in time there have been no new developments," said Director Sally de Beer, national police spokesperson.
Herman van Rooyen (33) and Rudi Gouws (28) went missing during the lunch hour recess. One of them had allegedly bankrolled the organisation.
"We have launched a massive search to track down these two, and are investigating the circumstance under which they went missing," De Beer said earlier.
Van Rooyen was caught in Pretoria in December 2002 in a bakkie allegedly rigged with 384kg of explosives and two bags of nuts and bolts for shrapnel.
At the time it was speculated that the car bomb was meant for a soccer game between Kaizer Chiefs and Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270721&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Republicans push to end monarchy in UK
Deborah Haynes Leeds, United Kingdom
03 May 2006 11:59
Britain's Prince Charles may have a fight on his hands when the time comes to inherit the crown from his elderly mother, Queen Elizabeth II, if a growing band of republicans has its way.
The movement wants to swap the monarchy for an elected head of state, effectively making Charles and the rest of the royal family redundant.
Standing in its way, however, is this centuries-old institution, which is still loved by millions of loyal subjects.
Republic, the pressure group demanding an end to Britain's hereditary based system of privilege and wealth, admits it has its work cut out. But, in a sign of a rising, albeit still meagre, support-base the organisation held its first spring conference in the northern English city of Leeds on Saturday to discuss campaigns and policy.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270698&area=/insight/insight__international/
The dangers of drinking too much water
Experts now believe that drinking too much water when exercising poses a far greater risk to health, reports Peta Bee in London
rink as much as you can to avoid dehydration’’ has become a mantra. But some sports-medicine experts now believe that drinking too much water when exercising poses a far greater risk to health.
Overdosing on water causes changes in blood dilution that trigger the potentially fatal condition hyponatremia. A recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine confirms the problem is on the rise. Researchers claim that, during the 2002 Boston marathon, 13% of the runners drank enough to send their blood-salt levels plummeting to an abnormal low.
How does the danger arise? During intense exercise, the kidneys can’t excrete excess fluid, so if someone keeps drinking, the water is leeched into the body’s cells. The more they drink, the more is retained, especially in the highly water-absorbant brain cells. With no room to expand, the brain pushes against the skull, compressing the brain stem. Eventually, primary functions such as breathing and heartbeat are shut down. “Water intoxication can result in dizziness, respiratory problems or worse. Some people collapse into a coma. In the worst cases, it can kill,” says Dr Dan Tunstall-Pedoe of St Bartholemew’s hospital, London, and medical director of the London marathon.
http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2006/2006apr/060428-water.html
The Christian Science Monitor
Bible's profile at the Capitol touches a chord
By Gail Russell Chaddock Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – Bible reading wasn't on the itinerary. But when Hun Jang stepped off a Washington tour bus this week and heard scripture coming from the west lawn of the US Capitol, he walked over to see what was going on.
Volunteers at the 17th Annual US Capitol Bible Reading Marathon invited the South Korean soldier to the podium. He began at Proverbs 5 - "My son, attend unto my wisdom ..." - using a Korean Bible, one of 84 translations on hand. "I feel really good when I am reading the Bible," he says. "I feel something full in my mind."
The 90-hour marathon, which will include readings by about two dozen members of Congress and their staffers, is a lead-up to Thursday's National Day of Prayer. President Harry Truman signed the day into law in 1952 as an interfaith event. But in recent years, evangelical Christian groups have taken the lead in organizing activities around the day, especially those located near seats of government. And in Washington, as in real estate, location counts.
Critics say that evangelical groups and their allies in Congress are staging events like the Bible Marathon near centers of power as a bid to link secular Washington to Christian ideals.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p01s03-uspo.html
Episcopalians face key votes over gays
An election Saturday of a California bishop may force the hand of the US church, set to decide its stance in June.
By Jane Lampman Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Several Christian and Jewish denominations have been divided over issues of homosexuality, but none has come as close to schism as the global Anglican community, and its US branch, the Episcopal Church.
For three years since the US church approved the ordination of a gay bishop, the worldwide Anglican Communion has sought ways to avoid a devastating split. It has called on the church to express regret and to refrain from such steps in the future.
Next month, the church's 2006 general convention will meet and decide on a response, but parishioners in California could force its hand as early as this weekend. The Diocese of California votes Saturday to elect a new bishop and, in what some view as a provocative step, three of the seven nominees are gay or lesbian pastors living in committed relationships.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p02s01-ussc.html
Iran, US share Afghan goals
But Iran could use leverage in Afghanistan to create trouble for US, some warn.
By David Montero Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
HERAT, AFGHANISTAN – The smooth blacktop roads and 24-hour electricity of Herat set this Afghan commercial capital apart as a model of stability in a country still struggling to get on its feet. Much of the wealth in this western city, with its tree-lined streets and handsome shops, is credited to the largesse of Iran.
The Shiite republic, one of Afghanistan's greatest trading partners, has a visible hand here, building roads and schools, and keeping shops afloat with electricity and goods. What's more, these projects represent only a fraction of the $204 million Iran has spent in aid, ranking it among the top donors to post-conflict Afghanistan.
Even though the US and Iran are locked in an international struggle over Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, the long-time foes have worked together well in Afghanistan, a place where they have common ground. Pushing Iran against the wall through sanctions or war could deal a setback to the recovery here, the first battlefield in the war on terror, some observers say.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p06s02-wosc.html
Officials target Hong Kong public radio
Pro-Beijing forces say that the station, which patterns itself after the BBC, is not respectful enough.
By Robert Marquand Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
HONG KONG – A quiet battle over whether the only free and independent broadcaster on the land mass of China will remain so is intensifying. Over a 77-year span, Hong Kong public radio has dished out a blend of credible news and cultural programming in three languages, served as a link between expatriates and the Hong Kong street, and has gained increasing editorial autonomy and respect in China's most sophisticated city.
Yet that is exactly what bothers influential pro-Beijing forces who wish media to more fully trumpet government policies. Many of them see Radio Television Hong Kong, or "RTHK" as it is popularly known, as an irritant at best and a damaging critic at worst - allowing a broad range of opinion, including mild satire and programs that may challenge official proposals, all at taxpayer expense.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p07s02-woap.html
How Moussaoui's sentencing trial ended with 'life'
The federal judge in the case is expected to formally sentence him Thursday morning.
By Warren Richey Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Despite what at times appeared to be his best efforts to convince the jury that he deserved to be executed, Zacarias Moussaoui must now endure the rest of his life behind bars.
The only person ever charged in the United States with involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks may well have earned the status of Islamic martyr among Al Qaeda members and supporters had he been executed. But the nine men and three women on the jury at his death-penalty sentencing trial in Alexandria, Va., declined to help him along that route.
After 40 hours of deliberation spanning seven days, the jury announced Wednesday that death was not the appropriate punishment for Mr. Moussaoui.
Instead, Moussaoui will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The federal judge in the case is expected to formally sentence Moussaoui on Thursday at 10 a.m.
The action by the jury represents a partial rejection of the government's theory that Moussaoui deserved a death sentence even though he was in US custody on Sept. 11, 2001. Prosecutors argued that he was just as responsible as the hijackers for the death and destruction of the attacks because he had preknowledge of 9/11 plot, but failed to disclose details of the plan to FBI agents upon his arrest in August 2001. Had he told the truth to the FBI, the Al Qaeda plot would have been foiled, prosecutors said.
http://www.csmonitor.com/earlyed/earlyUS0503a.html
Reporters on the Job
• What's Up with Jill?: Readers have asked us: Whatever happened to Jill Carroll after her US homecoming?
In the Monitor
Jill is currently recovering from her ordeal and writing about her 82 days in captivity in Iraq.
While there have been dozens of Western hostages taken in Iraq, including other journalists, Jill is one of the few Arabic-speaking correspondents who have spent this much time observing how insurgents operate - often without them knowing what she was hearing or seeing. Her captivity was a terrifying experience, but she also got a rare look inside one of the most hard-line Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq. Stay tuned for the upcoming series.
Nearly 1,000 readers have generously contributed to the Allan Enwiya Fund. Allan, Jill's interpreter in Iraq for two years, was killed in her abduction. He is survived by his wife and two small children. Members of his family, at risk in Iraq as Christians, have been moved by the Monitor out of the country. They are applying for US government permission to join their extended family in the US. The fund, including a contribution from the Monitor, will help Allan's family start a new life.
The fund address:
The Allan Enwiya Fund
C/O The Christian Science Monitor
One Norway Street
Boston, MA 02115
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0503/p06s02-wogn.html
Cultural snapshot
BOXED IN: Playwright Katherine Giovenali takes notes in a plastic box near Sydney Harbor. As part of a three-day celebration of The Playworks, an Australian women's playwright organization, a series of women writers are spending an hour inside the box while recorded extracts from Gabrielle Macdonald's play, "The Colour of Glass," are played.
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0503/p06s02-wogn.html
The New York Times
Moussaoui Given Life Term by Jury Over Link to 9/11
By NEIL A. LEWISPublished: May 4, 2006
ALEXANDRIA, Va. May 3 — A federal jury rejected the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday, with some jurors concluding that he played only a minor role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Multimedia
The verdict, calling for life in prison, seemed to surprise most people in the courtroom, notably Justice Department prosecutors who had relentlessly urged the jurors that Mr. Moussaoui should be executed for his role in the attacks.
Jurors left the courthouse without speaking about their reasoning. But the verdict form they filled out indicated what factors they had considered as they decided Mr. Moussaoui's fate, including his troubled upbringing in a dysfunctional immigrant Moroccan family in France, and extended periods in orphanages.
The decision means that the sole individual charged in a United States courtroom in connection with the worst attack on American soil will spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement in a federal prison in Colorado with no possibility of release.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/us/04moussaoui.html?hp&ex=1146801600&en=706db5f9a7ef7ab0&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Due Process
Published: May 4, 2006
The jury in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has determined that he should spend his life in jail rather than be executed for his role in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. This seems like the best possible outcome. For all his bombast, Mr. Moussaoui had no direct role in the 9/11 attacks. And it is good to know that he will not achieve a fanatic's martyrdom.
The most important thing about the Moussaoui trial, however, was that it happened. The proceedings — including the jury deliberations — were long and difficult, but they were also fair and in accordance with the rules of American justice.
That is not the story for hundreds of other people, many far less complicit than Mr. Moussaoui, who are languishing in the prison at Guantánamo because the United States rounded them up haphazardly during the Afghan war and plunked them down in Cuba without any clear plan on what to do with them over the long run.
So far only 10 of the 490 people still stashed away in Guantánamo have ever been charged with anything. The rest were hauled up before military proceedings that were a joke, if the available transcripts are any indication, to determine whether they should continue to be held without any rights or process under the phony label of "unlawful enemy combatant" that the Bush administration concocted after 9/11 for just this purpose. This is not even a half-hearted stab at a day in court, and it leaves hundreds of people under indefinite, illegal detention.
Among them are about 150 prisoners whom the government says it would like to send home because they pose no threat to the United States, but feels it can't. Some, like the Uighurs — Chinese Muslims — would face possible prison or torture if sent back to countries without basic regard for human rights. The Bush administration has put itself in a bizarre situation when it is forced to worry about the humane treatment of people it whisked off to Guantánamo without any serious attempt to determine who they were, much less what crime they may have committed. They were then held without charges, many under abusive conditions that sometimes amounted to torture, for more than three years.
The Moussaoui trial was a messy process, marked by embarrassing lapses on the part of the prosecution, court fights about what information the defense could have access to and the weird demeanor of the defendant himself, which threatened at times to make the whole exercise seem ridiculous. It summarized, in the end, almost all the things about playing by the rules that the hard men who surround the president dislike.
But it worked. The whole world was able to watch this country's judicial system struggling gamely and fairly toward a proper conclusion, upholding the principle that even semideranged outsiders who claim to rejoice in the deaths of more than 2,000 innocent civilians deserve their day in court.
Meanwhile, the bitter fruits of the fast, easy, tough route are hidden away on a military base. It seems apparent now that many of them are simply luckless men who were in the most utterly wrong place in the world at the worst possible time. Those who may be something more sinister cannot be tried because their rights have been so compromised during their imprisonment. They are damaged goods, their very presence staining the honor of the country that imprisoned them, willy-nilly, because it seemed the easiest thing to do at the time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/opinion/04thur1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/
Shooting own docuemntary footage, N.E. soldiers blaze a path
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff May 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- ''It'll be a better country in 20 years because we were there," Army Sergeant Stephen Pink declares on camera before adding, almost in a whisper, ''I hope."
That is how the Kingston native, 24, sums up his yearlong tour in Iraq with the New Hampshire National Guard. It also captures the essence of the gripping documentary film that he and fellow soldiers from New England filmed with digital cameras packed in their rucksacks.
The battlefront documentary has taken on a new twist in ''The War Tapes," the first of its kind to be filmed by soldiers themselves. The 94-minute film, to be released next month, traces Pink, Specialist Michael Moriarty, a native of Beverly, and Sergeant Zack Bazzi of Watertown as they chronicled their 2004 deployment in the vicious Sunni Triangle -- on camera and via e-mail exchanges with director Deborah Scranton, who outfitted five soldiers in the unit with 10 digital cameras in what she called ''virtual embedding."
The odyssey of Charlie Company and the trials of their loved ones back home captivated the film industry at its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last week, where it received standing ovations from audiences. The military community, too, is embracing the documentary for its unvarnished glimpse of the war in Iraq -- both the good and the bad.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/04/the_war_in_close_up/
As Iraqis convene, violence surges
Parliament forms rules committee
By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times May 4, 2006
BAGHDAD -- A spike in violence left dozens of Iraqis dead yesterday even as the first working session was convened of the nation's new parliament, a body aimed at stemming bloodshed by drawing Iraq's disparate ethnic and religious groups into the political arena.
In the restive Sunni Arab-dominated city of Fallujah, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden belt set off a blast amid a crowd of aspiring police recruits, killing 18 Iraqis and injuring 20, police and hospital officials said. The US military said in a statement that at least seven civilians were killed and 13 wounded in the attack.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/05/04/as_iraqis_convene_violence_surges/
When a smoke causes fire
May 4, 2006
OF ALL THE deaths the tobacco industry shares blame for, some of the most preventable are those caused not by lung cancer or emphysema but fire. For years, the tobacco companies have known that a simple change in cigarette paper design could keep dropped cigarettes from smoldering and starting fires. A bill that has been approved by the state Senate would, if passed by the House and signed by Governor Romney, require that all cigarettes sold in this state meet a ''reduced ignition" standard.
In the past, the tobacco companies resisted the change, fearing that their customers would dislike the taste of these cigarettes and stop buying them. The experience of New York State has disproved that argument. It inaugurated a law requiring that cigarettes meet an extinguishing standard in mid-2004, and data on sales and taxes show no drop in consumption. There was also no jump in prices, undercutting another industry argument against the change.
Even before the New York law, Philip Morris had produced a version of its Merit brand using tiny bands in the wrapping to slow down burning. Once New York demonstrated the feasibility of requiring safer cigarettes, two other states -- Vermont and California -- passed similar laws, and a bill in Illinois needs only the governor's signature. A national law mandating reduced ignition cigarettes would save the most lives, but Congress has failed to pass such legislation.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/05/04/when_a_smoke_causes_fire/
Why Kent State is important today
By Michael Corcoran May 4, 2006
THIRTY-SIX years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen shot 13 college students at Kent State University who were protesting US incursions into Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War. Nine victims survived, including one who is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Four students -- Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Bill Schroeder, and Sandy Scheuer -- were killed.
The students were unarmed, and the closest was more than 60 feet away from the Guard at the time of the shooting. There was no warning shot; the National Guard never issued an apology; and no one ever spent a day in jail for the killings despite the fact that the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, appointed by President Nixon in 1970, found the shootings to be ''unwarranted and inexcusable."
Yearly, since the tragedy, Kent State students, alumni, and others have met on the anniversary of the shooting to reflect and remember. Alan Canfora, who was shot by the Guard, says, ''The students today act as the conscience of the college, and the country . . . just like the students did in 1970."
This year's memorial will come, as the last three have, in the midst of a war that has become increasingly divisive. While the memory of Kent State and other violent clashes from that time between protesters and authorities did not deter the incumbent president from leading the country into another unpopular war, it is important to honor Kent State's spirit of dissent and what it taught about the bloody consequences of intense division.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/04/why_kent_state_is_important_today/>
The Washington Post
Jurors Reject Death Penalty For Moussaoui
By Jerry Markon and Timothy DwyerWashington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A01
Al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui will spend the rest of his life in a maximum security prison for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks after a federal jury rejected the government's four-year quest to secure his execution for the deadliest terrorist strike on U.S. soil.
After weeks of listening to harrowing testimony from 9/11 family members, hearing heartbreaking emergency calls and watching painful footage of victims jumping to their deaths, the anonymous jury of nine men and three women methodically deliberated for 41 hours over seven days before reaching its verdict yesterday
Pasted from <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050300324.html
Security Council Is Given Iran Resolution
Pressure Builds to End Tehran's Nuclear Efforts
By Colum LynchWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A18
UNITED NATIONS, May 3 -- Britain, France and Germany presented the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday with a draft resolution that urges states to restrict nuclear trade with Iran and requires Tehran to halt enriching uranium or face "further measures," a veiled reference to possible sanctions.
Russia and China immediately signaled they will oppose the U.S.-backed resolution, which demands that Iran halt nuclear research and development activities, and stop construction on a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak because it could be used to produce weapons-grade fuel. The resolution calls on governments to prevent the transfer to Iran of all "items, materials, goods and technology" that could be used to enrich or reprocess nuclear fuel or advance the Islamic state's missile programs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302137.html
U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Thinks Locally
By Pamela ConstableWashington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A18
MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan -- While the world may be wondering whether U.S.-led troops will ever find Osama bin Laden, Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry has his eye on smaller, more immediate tasks.
During a day in remote Laghman province last week, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan immersed himself in the daily concerns of local residents: the lack of a market road for farmers, the danger of bomb attacks against schools, the remoteness of the national government in Kabul.
"The real soldiers in Afghanistan are not necessarily wearing uniforms," Eikenberry said in a brief speech to Afghans in this provincial capital northeast of Kabul. "They are providing health care, teaching your families, building the community."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302372.html
Another Way for Iraq?
By David S. BroderThursday, May 4, 2006; Page A25
On Monday, to mark the third anniversary of President Bush's appearance on the USS Lincoln to announce that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada issued a news release in which Bush's text was set in contrast to barbed reminders of everything that has gone wrong in Iraq since that boast.
It was a rhetorical low blow, apparently aimed at further weakening public support for the war but offering no alternative strategy for ending it.
That same morning, another senator, Joe Biden of Delaware, set forth a much more useful and responsible approach in a speech to the World Affairs Council in Philadelphia; in a New York Times op-ed written with Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations; and in a phone interview with me as he drove from Philadelphia to Washington.
Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is a supporter of the war who -- like John McCain -- has been a consistent critic of the administration's military strategy and diplomacy. This week, after his sixth trip to the war zone, he said that the threat of sectarian violence -- an incipient civil war between Shiites and Sunnis -- has become so great that the United States must redefine its political goals in Iraq. Instead of betting everything on the creation of a unified government in Baghdad, Biden said, we should encourage the development of separate but linked regional authorities in northern Iraq for the Kurds, in southern Iraq for the Shiites and in central Iraq for the Sunnis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302201.html
Post Office Hopes Idea Of 'Forever Stamp' Sticks
First-Class Rate Would Be Locked In
By Christopher LeeWashington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A01
Nothing lasts forever -- except, just maybe, the cost of mailing a letter.
After increasing rates 13 times in 32 years, the U.S. Postal Service proposed a way yesterday for consumers to lock in the price of a first-class stamp, which officials want to raise by 3 cents, to 42 cents, next year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050301039.html
The Daily American of Somerset County, Pennsylvania (Shanksville, Pennsylvania)
http://www.dailyamerican.com/
County residents mixed on casino
By JUDY D.J. ELLICH
Daily American Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006 12:15 AM EDT
^enlarge^
Most who attended the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hearing Wednesday at the Quality Inn in Somerset Borough on a proposed slots casino at Seven Springs Mountain Resort stood by the applicant.
Many of the speakers worked at the resort, owned homes there or had professional connections with the applicant.
“When we heard that Seven Springs was applying for a slots license our reaction was that it is a natural fit,” said Scott K. Rodgers, who has been a homeowner at the resort for more than 20 years and longtime patron of the resort.
Only one of the speakers, many who were homeowners with families, voiced concerns that the family-oriented resort would be compromised by bringing a casino into its midst.
A Somerset County resident for nearly 40 years, Lois Brant questioned the possibility of a gambling casino being too tempting for underage gambling in a resort that welcomes youth.
“There is no question that gambling introduces an increase in crime,” she said, adding she obtained her information from the U.S. Department of Justice.
http://www.dailyamerican.com/articles/2006/05/03/news/thursday/news01.txt
Bridge begins journey to trail
By JUDY D.J. ELLICH
Daily American Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006 12:15 AM EDT
^enlarge^
On Tuesday, a big yellow crane will lift the Wells Creek Bollman Bridge from where it rests atop CSX Transportation property near the Salisbury Viaduct and deposit it on the ground nearby Long Road.
From there, the 135-year-old bridge will be disassembled for shipping to a new home on the Allegheny Highlands Trail section of the Great Allegheny Passage where it will be reassembled.
“Our goal is to work on the Bollman Bridge relocation over the summer and have it in place on the trail this year,” Somerset County Trail Coordinator Brett Hollern said.
The Bollman Bridge was constructed in a cast and wrought iron style. There are only 75 bridges in the United States that are constructed in that style, according to a list compiled by the Historic American Engineering Record.
The bridge is believed to be one of the last remaining bridges of the Pittsburgh Division of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Hollern said.
“We have been trying to get it moved for three years,” he said.
The first phase of the relocation project has had many issues that delayed the project. The issues dealt with who owned the bridge, and once that was settled, how much state and local officials needed to pay. The first phase cost about $104,000 to complete.
http://www.dailyamerican.com/articles/2006/05/03/news/thursday/news02.txt
continued …
April 30, 2006. Iapush, Washington. 
April 29, 2006. Buffalo River at the Carver Bridge at Newton City, Arkansas.
April 29, 2006. At the Carver Bridge the flood stage of the Buffalo River. It is part of the Buffalo River System. This picture taken at Newton City, Arkansas
RIA Novosti
Earthquakes continue to rock Russia's Far East
MOSCOW, May 2 (RIA Novosti) - A series of earthquakes continued to rock the northern part of the Kamchatka peninsula with another earthquake of 4.4 magnitude on Richter scale registered Tuesday, emergency situations ministry said.
The ministry said the earthquakes in sparsely populated Koryak area, which is nine time zones from Moscow, damaged about 380 houses and 25 administrative facilities in the three villages with a population of over 4,000 people that have been hit the hardest.
"In all, 1,062 people, including 542 children, have been evacuated from the emergency zone," the ministry said.
The series of earthquakes began April 24 with a 7.8-magnitude quake, the strongest since 1900, which damaged several buildings and facilities in the town of Tilichiki, including a school, a kindergarten, and an airport runway. It also cut power and water supplies in several villages.
Another quake, with a magnitude of 6.2, hit the same area hours later on that day and minor tremors were also subsequently reported.
President Vladimir Putin ordered the Emergency Situations Ministry to do everything necessary to eliminate the effects of the earthquakes.
The ministry has already delivered to the region about 190 metric tons of aid, including food and heaters.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060502/47096112.html
Kazakhstan demands action against U.S. diplomat over car scandal
02/ 05/ 2006
ASTANA, May 2 (RIA Novosti) - Kazakhstan's Foreign Ministry said Tuesday it has sent a note to the U.S. Embassy demanding action be taken against a diplomat who almost crashed into President Nursultan Nazarbayev's car.
On April 23 in Almaty, the Central Asian country's largest city, the driver of a car owned by the adviser to the U.S. Embassy's military attache allegedly ignored traffic police orders to keep to the curb as the presidential motorcade passed. The driver caught up with the motorcade, and made a sharp turn after drawing level with Nazarbayev's limousine, almost causing a collision.
Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashikbayev said, "Because of this incident, the Foreign Ministry has sent a note to the U.S. Embassy demanding that appropriate action be taken against the diplomat."
"We expect a response from the U.S. Embassy to our diplomatic note, after which a decision will be reached through consultations with the American side," he said.
The spokesman said the ministry had acted on the basis of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, and urged all diplomatic representatives in the country to respect local laws, to avoid such incidents.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney is set to visit the Central Asian republic this week for talks on a range of issues with senior officials.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20060502/47120188.html
Air strike on Iran will cause extremism wave in Arab world
MOSCOW, April 30 (RIA Novosti) - An air strike against Iran will cause a huge wave of extremism in the Arab world, a former prime minister and the head of the Russian Chamber of Industry and Commerce said Sunday in an interview with an Israeli newspaper.
Iran broke a two-year moratorium on nuclear research in January for what it claimed were energy-generating purposes, arousing fears around the globe that the country could be secretly trying to create weapons-grade material.
"An air strike on Iran would no doubt lead to very serious consequences in the entire region," Yevgeny Primakov, on a visit to Israel on the invitation of the Israeli Association of Industrialists, told the Jerusalem Post.
"This could cause a huge wave of extremism in the Arab world and in this situation it would be very difficult for the current regimes in Arab countries to stay in power. That is why, Russia is full of resolve to take all possible diplomatic efforts to prevent this scenario and at the same time take steps so that Iran does not create nuclear weapons," said Primakov who is also a Middle East expert.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20060430/47061544.html
Iran says it has enriched uranium to 4.8%
TEHRAN, May 2 (RIA Novosti) - Iran has enriched uranium-235 to 4.8%, the country's vice president and head of the Atomic Energy Organization said Tuesday.
Gholamreza Aghazadeh told the Iranian news agency ISNA that Iran was not planning to enrich uranium to more than 5%, as this level was enough to produce nuclear fuel [for a power station].
A report by IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei on the Iranian nuclear problem was presented in the IAEA board of governors and the UN Security Council in late April. It said Iran had managed to enrich uranium-235 to 3.6% at the Natanz research center 1,000 miles from the Israeli border, using a cascade of 164 centrifuges, and was building two more.
However, experts said uranium should be enriched to at least 80% to create nuclear weapons.
Aghazadeh said 3,000 centrifuges would be installed by March 21, 2007 at a uranium-enrichment plant in Natanz.
Aghazadeh also said Iran had opened a uranium-concentrate field and would announce a tender for the construction of two new nuclear power plants within two months, adding that $200 million would be paid in advance to the tender's winner.
"If the tender does not occur due to certain reasons, the money will be used to complete the construction of the Bushehr NPP," he said.
http://en.rian.ru/world/20060502/47120755.html
Black Sea crash plane was in good condition - aviation official
YEREVAN, May 3 (RIA Novosti) - An Airbus passenger jet that crashed into the Black Sea Wednesday morning with the loss of everyone on board had been carefully maintained and was in good technical condition, Armenia's civil aviation expert said Wednesday.
In all, 113 passengers and crew were killed when an Airbus belonging to Armenian airline Armavia and bound from Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to the popular Russian resort of Sochi crashed early in the morning.
Artyom Movsisyan, the head of Armenia's main civil aviation department, said the A-320 had undergone complete technical overhaul in April 2006, and experts from Sabina Technics company had given a positive conclusion on its technical condition shortly before the takeoff.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060503/47154548.html
Court upholds ex-Yukos CEO Khodorkovsky 8-yr sentence
MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti) - The Moscow City Court again upheld Wednesday an eight-year prison sentence given to Yukos founder Mikhail Khodorkovsky for fraud.
"The reply to our appeal says that there is no reason to review the verdict," said Khodorkovsky's lawyer Genrikh Padva.
Padva said the defense had already appealed with the Supreme Court of Russia, the highest court in the Russian judiciary.
"We have appealed with the Supreme Court on the same grounds: we are asking for the sentence to be overturned as [it is] illegal and unsubstantiated," Padva said.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060503/47148574.html
Russia starts withdrawing materiel from base in Georgia
TBILISI, May 3 (RIA Novosti) - Russia began pulling out weapons and equipment from one of its Soviet-era military bases in Georgia early Wednesday in accordance with a bilateral agreement, the South Caucasus republic's Defense Ministry said.
Under an agreement signed on March 31, Russia is to withdraw from two bases in Georgia - Akhalkalaki and Batumi - by 2008. The pullout from Akhalkalaki in the south of the country is to be completed by December 2006.
The Russian military began dismantling the Akhalkalaki base at about 1 a.m. Moscow time (9 p.m. GMT Tuesday) and the first batch of equipment and materiel has been withdrawn, the ministry said. The equipment is being withdrawn to Tsalka in eastern Georgia and some of it will be redeployed to a Russian base in neighboring Armenia later.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060503/47152758.html
Burger King prepares to expand into Russia - paper
MOSCOW, May 3 (RIA Novosti) - Burger King Holdings, a U.S. fastfood chain, is in talks with Russian restaurants with an eye to expanding into the country, a respected business daily said Wednesday.
Vedomosti cited an executive with a local fastfood market leader as saying that the Moscow-based Shokoladnitsa coffeehouse chain, which controls 14-15% of the local market, had the best chances of obtaining a Burger King franchise.
"We are interested in cooperating with them, but everything will depend on the contract," a top Shokoladnitsa manager told the paper, adding that the terms of a possible deal had not been brought up at a meeting that had already been held.
Burger King Holdings HQ in Florida declined to comment on the company's plans in Russia, saying the business was in for a quiet period. The world's second largest fastfood chain has restaurants in 65 countries, and is 34% owned by Texas Pacific Group, and 30% by Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs each.
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060503/47152892.html
Russian academic sees first nuclear fusion power plant by 2030
19/ 04/ 2006
NIZHNY NOVGOROD, April 18 (RIA Novosti) - The world's first thermonuclear power plant could be built by 2030, the head of Russia's Kurchatov Nuclear Research Center said Wednesday.
Yevgeny Velikhov told a press conference after receiving the 2006 Global Energy prize along with Japanese researcher Masaji Yoshikawa and French scientist Robert Aymar that the experience of building an international thermonuclear reactor in France would be used to design a thermonuclear power plant.
Velikhov and his colleagues were given the award for developing the fundamentals underpinning the international thermonuclear power reactor known as the ITER project in the southern French town of Cadarache. It was devised to prove that a thermonuclear power plant was possible.
The concept emerged when the Soviet Union suggested that the four most advanced parties in the study of thermonuclear reactions - the U.S.S.R., the U.S., Europe and Japan - create a so-called "tokamak" reactor, a doughnut-shaped chamber to confine incandescent plasma that no material can withstand in a magnetic field. The thermonuclear fusion of hydrogen isotopes, deuterium and tritium, proceeds in the plasma.
http://en.rian.ru/science/20060419/46619996.html
Leading Russian scientist receives British award
24/ 03/ 2006
MOSCOW, March 24 (RIA Novosti) - A prominent Russian scientist received a prestigious British award Friday for his achievements in a sphere that has made a significant contribution to seemingly diverse fields ranging from the aviation and chemical industries to agriculture.
British Ambassador Tony Brenton handed the Gold Tribology Trust Medal to Professor Dmitry Garkunov, who became the fifth Russian scientist to receive this most important award in the branch of engineering that focuses on the interaction of surfaces in relative motion, their design, friction, wear and lubrication.
Garkunov, who already has several Russian state prizes to his name, opened a new branch in tribology and made two important discoveries in the field of selective transfer and metal hydrogen wear. His inventions are widely used in engineering, as well as many other spheres.
http://en.rian.ru/science/20060324/44764935.html
GLONASS system to open for Russian consumers in 2007 - minister
ZHELEZNOGORSK, Siberia, March 21 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's defense minister said the country's global navigation satellite system would be available to domestic consumers for military as well for civilian purposes by the end of 2007.
"Work on the intensification [of the system] will soon be complete and the program will be adopted in the immediate future," said Sergei Ivanov, who is also deputy prime minister, during a visit to one of Russia's leading space-industry manufacturers.
The Reshetnev Research and Production Center in the central Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk is the developer of the GLONASS global navigation satellite system, which comprises radio navigation satellites that track objects on land, at sea and in space.
Ivanov said Russian space technologies remained the best in the world and that GLONASS is the best proof. But he added that the project "needs decisions to be corrected so that the technological cycle corresponds to the country's economic and financial capabilities."
http://en.rian.ru/russia/20060321/44610141.html
Russia declares war on neo-fascism
Interethnic strife has come into the foreground in present-day Russia as one of its worst social problems. Murdered or battered foreign students and Central Asian guest workers no longer make front-page news - they are part of our daily routine. The Sova human rights center, for one, has registered over a hundred violent attacks on ethnic grounds since the beginning of the year.
There is another, related aspect of the Russian routine: fascist organizations are reviving to unblushingly disseminate ideas condemned long ago by the Nuremberg trial. They are trying to adapt those man-hating ideas to the Russian ways. Skinheads are the most spectacular of neo-fascist leagues. These youth mobs victimize people outside the titular ethnos, to whom they refer as "non-Russians" - a term that has an extremely derisive coloring in their vocabulary.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060428/47019509.html
Unites States hinders Russia's chemical disarmament
A third chemical weapons destruction facility will be commissioned in Russia in Maradykovsky, Kirov Region on the Volga, in the middle of 2006. It has a stock of 6,890 metric tons of aviation bombs with organophosphorus nerve and blister chemical warfare agents (CWA).
The facility for the destruction of lewisite was commissioned in Kambarka (Udmurtia, in the Western part of the Middle Urals) in December 2005. Its warehouses contain 6,349 metric tons of lewisite (15.9% of all of Russia's prohibited chemical weapons). As of early April, more than 50 tons of lewisite have been destroyed there.
A total of 1,143.2 metric tons of yperite, lewisite and yperite-lewisite mixture have been destroyed in Gorny (Saratov Region on the Volga), where Russia's first CWA destruction facility was commissioned in December 2002.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060427/46979333.html
Possibilities of energy dialogue
Russia's energy strategy is coming to the fore on the global agenda, especially in 2006 when Russia assumed the rotating chair of the Group of Eight industrialized nations. Global energy security is one of the key issues on the agenda of the G8 summit. It would be absurd not to discuss it with Russia, the biggest oil and gas exporter in the group with a major influence on the world market situation.
This global issue can be divided into several tasks. The current situation on the global market is noted for four crucial aspects.
First, the energy requirements of the emerging Asian countries are growing rapidly (up to 45% of the prospective increment in the global oil demand).
Second, the divide between oil and gas consumption and production in the industrialized countries is growing. By 2020, Europe will import 60-70% of its gas requirements, whereas the majority of Asian giants already import more.
Third, this process is compounded by the inadequate oil refining and transportation infrastructure and the limited additional possibility of oil production.
And fourth, the global trade in "black gold" is insufficiently transparent.
Taken together, this puts the light on the issue of energy security, which Russia has raised not only as a domestic problem, but primarily as a common problem of reliable energy provision to the world's countries and nations, and therefore a problem of the international community as a whole.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060425/46902706.html
Chernobyl exploded USSR
The world media will mark with many publications the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster (April 26, 1986). This is only natural since this is a truly tragic date, and the aftermath of this drama is still affecting the lives of many people. Radioactive dust settled down not only on the territory of the former U.S.S.R., but also in Poland, Bulgaria, Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Britain and some other countries. Only France, Spain and southern Italy were fortunate thanks to the prevailing winds.
Many publications on Chernobyl justifiably focus on the safety of atomic power engineering. Nobody wants its repetition. In many countries Chernobyl slowed down the advance of atomic power engineering, deteriorated the world energy crisis, and caused a boost of prices on energy carriers.
It is alarming, though, that quite a few publications on Chernobyl are undisguised stove piping reflecting the struggle for the market of nuclear technologies. For some rivals, the Chernobyl tragedy is just an excuse to tell the potential buyers that Russian nuclear technologies are unreliable.
The timing and purpose are awkward, and, besides, this is simply untrue.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20060425/46894873.html
The Chicago Tribune
Man executed on disproven evidence, experts say
By Maurice Possley
Tribune staff reporter
Published May 2, 2006, 6:26 PM CDT
Four of the nation's top arson experts have concluded that the state of Texas executed a man in 2004 based on scientifically invalid evidence, and on Tuesday they called for an official reinvestigation of the case.
In their report, the experts, assembled by the Innocence Project, a non-profit organization responsible for scores of exonerations, concluded that the conviction and 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham for the arson-murders of his three daughters was based on interpretations by fire investigators that have been scientifically disproved.
"The whole system has broken down," Barry Scheck, co-founder and director of the Innocence Project, said at a news conference at the state Capitol in Austin. "It's time to find out whether Texas has executed an innocent man."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060502willingham,1,4261058.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Plane skids off O'Hare runway
By Jon Hilkevitch
Tribune transportation reporter
Published May 2, 2006, 6:29 PM CDT
Smoke was seen coming from the landing gear of an American Eagle plane that landed at O'Hare International Airport Tuesday afternoon and slid off a runway, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
American Eagle Flight 4348, carrying 40 passengers and three crew members from Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport in Bentonville, ended up in grass about 25 feet off the side of a runway, officials said.
No injuries were reported. Passengers and crew were evacuated and bused to the terminal, according to the Chicago Department of Aviation.
Air-traffic controllers in O'Hare tower saw puffs of smoke streaming from the landing gear as the Embraer 145 regional jet landed, said FAA spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-060502-plane-off-runway,1,6704430.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Obama and O'Brien
Sen. Barack Obama (D-Il) is the latest name to be added to Conan O'Brien's guest list.
The senator from Illinois will be a guest on "Late Night With Conan O’Brien" on May 12, on the last of four shows the late-night show will tape from the Chicago Theatre.
The guest list so far for O’Brien’s Chicago shows is as follows:
Tuesday, May 9: Sean Hayes from “Will & Grace”
Wednesday, May 10: Dave Chappelle, Common
Thursday, May 11: John C. Reilly
Friday, May 12: Sen. Barack Obama, Wilco
By the way, I’ve gotten many e-mails and queries from readers about the logistics of O’Brien’s visit -- people who received ticket confirmations by e-mail want to know when and where they should line up on show days, and others want to know what time they should arrive at the theater in order to have a chance at getting a standby ticket.
http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2006/05/obama_and_obrie.html
Two 'Sopranos' Cast Members Charged
By TOM HAYS
Published May 2, 2006, 6:11 PM CDT
NEW YORK -- It would be enough to give Tony Soprano agita. Continuing a string of off-screen run-ins with the law, two more fringe characters from "The Sopranos"_ the television mob boss's favorite chef and his muscle-bound bodyguard -- have been charged in separate criminal cases.
John Ventimiglia, who plays temperamental chef Artie Bucco on the HBO hit, was arraigned Monday on drunken driving, drug possession and other charges after officers spotted him weaving in and out of traffic.
A criminal complaint alleges that when police pulled him over, the actor had bloodshot eyes, slurred speech and smelled of booze. His blood-alcohol content was 0.12 -- the legal limit is 0.08 -- and he was carrying a zip-lock bag with cocaine residue, the complaint said.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/sns-ap-sopranos-arrests,1,2935858.story?coll=chi-news-hed
EU Nations Outline U.N. Iran Resolution
By ANGELA CHARLTON
Associated Press Writer
Published May 2, 2006, 6:20 PM CDT
PARIS -- European nations, backed by the United States, outlined Tuesday a planned U.N. Security Council resolution to give "mandatory force" to the atomic watchdog agency's demands that Iran halt uranium enrichment, officials said.
U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns dismissed any possibility of direct talks with Iran but said he had not "given up hope on diplomacy." He also predicted Europe would agree within three months to support sanctions against Iran over its nuclear activities, which Washington suspects are aimed at manufacturing atomic weapons.
"Diplomacy has to be hard-edged. Isolation is what we believe will work best," Burns said Tuesday.
"Within a month or two or three, you are going to see international support for sanctions," he added.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-iran-nuclear,1,474133.story?coll=chi-news-hed
Third 80 degree due Wednesday; more extended warmth to follow weekend chill
Published May 2, 2006
The Chicago metro area could be headed for its third 80(degrees) temperature of 2006 Wednesday--and may be treated to a more prolonged period of warm weather next week. Sinking air beneath the "nose" (leading edge) of a pocket of powerful jet stream winds combined with the approach of a cold front sets the stage for temperature-boosting compressional warming Wednesday. The area's first 80 (degrees) this year arrived 10 days earlier than the 135 year average, hitting on April 13. An 80 (degrees) high Wednesday--a good bet if predicted spells of sunshine occur before late day or nighttime thunderstorms arrive--wouldn't be without historical precedent. The area's third 80 (degrees) of the year has typically occurred on or about May 7. May is Chicago's third fastest warming month of the year, second only to March and April. Normal highs over the coming 30 days surge from 65 (degrees) to 75 (degrees). At Midway Airport, May has hosted an average of 16 days of 70s and 7 days in the 90s since records began at the South Side site in 1928. Strong cooling accompanies late-week/weekend northeast winds, but warmth returns next week.
Sources: NWS-Chicago, USDA Dr. Jim Angel, Midwestern Regional Climate Center
WGN-TV/Thomas Valle, Andrew McCawley, Drew Renner
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0605020205may02,1,2314173.column?coll=chi-news-hedCircus comes to Navy Pier for the summer
By Chris Jones
Tribune theater critic
Published May 2, 2006, 3:19 PM CDT
In a major change of direction for its long-troubled Skyline Stage semi-outdoor venue, Navy Pier's operators are sticking a circus show there for the entire summer. It will perform as many as 12 times a week.
Opening June 7, "Cirque Shanghai" will be an assemblage of Chinese acrobatic, aerial and contortion acts, put together for the pier by a company called International Special Attractions Limited, which specializes in packaging Chinese acts for the American market.
The show -- which was created solely for this summer Chicago engagement -- is billing itself as not so much a circus as an entire theatrical attraction, replete with the explorer Marco Polo leading the audience on an adventure through China. With the help of some local artists, the show is being assembled and rehearsed in China.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/chi-060502cirque-story,1,7436891.story?coll=chi-entertainmentfront-hed
Learning curve for black men and black boys
By Tim King, the founder and chief executive officer of Urban Prep Academies, a non-profit education organization that is opening Urban Prep Charter Academy for Young Men--Englewood Campus in the fall
Published May 2, 2006
When I was growing up, the conversation around the dinner table frequently centered on school. "What did you learn today?" "How much homework do you have?" "When is your next test?" One question I don't remember being asked was: "Are you going to college?" In my family, graduating from college was a given; an understood step toward adulthood.
For most Chicago public high school students, the desire to attend college exists but actually graduating is not the reality, especially for black boys.
A recently released study by the Consortium for Chicago School Research indicates that fewer than 7 percent of freshmen entering Chicago public high schools will earn a college degree by their 25th birthday. This statistic hits African-American and Latino students the hardest since these groups make up more than 85 percent of public school students in Chicago. Dig deeper into the numbers and you find that only 2.5 percent of black male students make it through college--just about 1 in 50.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/chi-0605020211may02,1,2100408.story?coll=chi-opinionfront-hed
The SeaWorld touch
By Toni Salama
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 30, 2006
ORLANDO -- I was out in deep water, over-my-head deep, my left hand grasping Yoshi's dorsal fin and my right hand on her right flipper. Her skin was an iridescent gray, smooth and rubbery like an inner tube, but not cold to the touch. Not cold at all.
The dolphin trainer asked, "Are you ready?" And I nodded.
Then, on signal, Yoshi and I were off in a splash, taking an Orlando thrill ride of a different sort.
Being a bit on the young side, Yoshi wasn't as long as the older dolphins, so I took care to keep my feet clear of her tail as we sped toward another trainer and the shallow end of the man-made lagoon--the ride of a lifetime finished in less than a minute.
The one-on-one dolphin swim is the crowning experience at Discovery Cove, the high-dollar-and-worth-every-penny sister property to SeaWorld Orlando. Together, the two establishments satisfy that human impulse many of us have to reach out to other creatures, particularly to sea mammals, without all that ocean in the way.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/travel/chi-0604300296apr30,1,2221008.story?coll=chi-homepagetravel-hed
The LA Times
Medicare in Poor Financial Health, Trustees Say
Its problems will eventually be worse than Social Security's, an annual report warns. But some observers see a manufactured crisis.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Joel Havemann, Times Staff Writers
May 2, 2006
WASHINGTON — The financial condition of Medicare is growing progressively worse and its problems will eventually eclipse those of Social Security, the trustees of the government's two biggest social programs reported Monday.
But the warning, for all its urgency, appeared unlikely to spur major action on such a sensitive issue in an election year. Far from cutting back, Congress and the president have expanded Medicare with the creation of the prescription drug benefit.
Phttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-medicare2may02,0,6020447.story?coll=la-home-headlines
The New Zealand Herald
Climate change science stands up to scrutiny, says Fitzsimons
02.05.06
Green Party leader and climate change spokeswoman Jeanette Fitzsimons says the science around global warming has already stood up to rigorous scrutiny.
"I think science should always be challenged and there should be rigorous debate, but there has already been that within the IPCC [the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]," Ms Fitzsimons said.
She said there were often reasons why some people or groups played it down.
"There are some very entrenched vested interests that don’t want to change ... they’re just not credible any longer," she said. "Supposing the sceptics were right, what would we have lost by trying to prepare to reduce our greenhouse emissions?"
Ms Fitzsimons said there would be financial costs but it would help make the economy more efficient.
"What do we lose if the sceptics are wrong and we sit around and do nothing? We lose everything," she said.
Government climate change spokesman Pete Hodgson summed up the coalition in a sentence and said he didn’t want to go into it further.
"These people present a viewpoint that is now diminishing as fast as the Arctic ice-cap," he said.
- NZPA
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10379856
Glacial 'roof' melting
03.05.06 7.20am
Glaciers in western China's Qinghai-Tibet plateau, known as the "roof of the world", are melting at a rate of 7 per cent a year because of global warming.
The figure is drawn from data at China's 681 weather stations over four decades.
The Tibet weather bureau shows that average temperatures there have risen by 0.9 deg since the 1980s.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/search/story.cfm?storyid=000C7645-406D-1457-831C83027AF1010F
Thousands of species on edge of oblivion
02.05.06
By Barrie Clement
More than 26,000 species of animals, birds, plants and fish will this week be added to the list of those in serious danger of extinction.
Thousands of species, including the common hippopotamus, are to be added or moved up the so-called "red list" drawn up by the World Conservation Union (IUCN).
Around 20 per cent of sharks are in increasing danger of extinction, the study says.
The giant devil ray, similar to a manta ray, is often accidentally caught in nets intended for tuna and other fish.
David Sims, senior research fellow at the Marine Biological Association Laboratory at Plymouth, said that one of the main problems with sharks and rays was that they bore live young so that they reproduced more slowly.
"Global fisheries are having a massive effect on population. Some of the nets they use could engulf St Paul’s Cathedral," he said.
The new research by the IUCN is the result of two years’ work by scientists all over the world and adds to the picture revealed in the union’s last report in 2004 which said that 15,589 species faced extinction - 7266 animals and 8323 plants and lichens.
While the latest analysis confirms the plight of the polar bear - because climate change threatens its Arctic habitat - more surprising was the threat to the common hippo, sought-after by poachers for the ivory in its teeth.
One of the creatures predicted to die out is the Yangtze River dolphin or Baiji. It is thought that just 30 remain and that the chances of breeding-age pairs meeting is extremely low.
Chris Butler-Stroud of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said the animal was effectively extinct.
The endangered species in the 2004 report included a third of amphibians and half of all fresh water turtles.
At least 15 species had died out over the previous two decades and a further 12 survived only in captivity.
Many more, however, are thought to have become extinct without having been recorded.
A conservative approach to declaring species lost means that others not yet formally classed as extinct have probably died out.
Among 3330 species newly assessed as threatened in 2004 were the fabulous green sphinx moth, from the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, and the African begonia from Cameroon.
Most of the new additions in 2004 were amphibians, joining the red list after the Global Amphibian Assessment that revealed that one in three species of frog, toad, newt and salamander was under threat.
The Jambato toad from Ecuador, the golden toad from Costa Rica and the kama’o bird from Hawaii were among the species declared extinct over the past two decades.
Between 1.6 million and 1.9 million species are known to science, but the total is usually estimated at between 10 million and 30 million - and many of those described and classified are poorly understood.
- INDEPENDENT
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10379818
Tropical temperatures shift plant evolution into overdrive
02.05.06
By Errol Kiong
Auckland researchers have shown that evolution occurs twice as fast in the tropics as in areas further from the equator - which may explain why warmer places contain greater ecological diversity.
It may also explain the huge difference in evolution rates between New Zealand kauri and Borneo kauri.
The findings are published today in the US science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"This is very exciting research into evolutionary trends and the implied polarity across the latitudes is of great interest," said one of the researchers, Shane Wright of Auckland University.
"The research may explain why the tropics contain such a great richness of species, and further research is required to understand what is driving the difference - smaller population sizes or warmer temperatures and higher metabolic rates," said Dr Wright, who co-authored the paper with his biological sciences colleague Jeannette Keeling, and Len Gillman from the Auckland University of Technology.
The researchers found that tropical plant species had more than twice the rate of molecular evolution as closely related species in temperate regions.
The biggest difference found in the rate of evolution was between New Zealand and Borneo kauri.
The researchers compared the genetic information of 45 common tropical plants with similar species in more temperate geographical areas, including 27 NZ species.
The tropical plants, from areas including Borneo, New Guinea, northeast Australia and South America, were found to have evolved much faster than those from higher latitudes such as North America, southern Australia, Eurasia and New Zealand.
To ensure the focus was on the effect of climate, the plant pairs were always from the same forest layer and were of the same shape and size. All species were from rainforests, to ensure that the temperature rather than rainfall was the variable.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10379863
Errol Kiong
Science and health reporter, NZ Herald
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Parents key to keeping children moving
03.05.06
By Errol Kiong
A new study has found school-driven physical activity is keeping children active, while parents need to do more to get youngsters off the couch.
With the aid of pedometers, Auckland University of Technology PhD scholar Michele Cox studied the number of steps 91 children at St Mary’s School in Northcote took during and after school on a regular school day.
Overall, the children exceeded the recommended guidelines for their age. On average, boys racked up 2600 steps above their 13,000 guideline, and the girls took 2000 steps more than the 11,000 recommended.
The most active children did most of their physical activity outside school, but the reverse was true for the least active group.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/story.cfm?a_id=225&ObjectID=10380018
Pair warned they face jail over gecko thefts
Wednesday May 3, 2006 4.00pm
A man and a woman who stole three valuable geckos from Orana Park, Christchurch, face a possible prison sentence after admitting the charges today.
The pair say they wanted the reptiles as pets rather than for on-selling.
But Christchurch District Court Judge Michael Green warned them that he was granting bail only so that they could attend a restorative justice conference with Orana Park representatives.
"Bail is not an indication you will not be jailed," he told Nicholas John Ormandy and Sally Somers Stirton. They will be sentenced at a Crown sentencing session next month.
The sessions are reserved for more serious cases and give the Crown solicitor's office a chance to make submissions on what the sentence ought to be.
Ormandy, 20, an installation installer, and Stirton, 30, a dancer, had been jointly charged after the geckos -- two Northland green geckos and a rough gecko -- were found at their home in the Christchurch suburb of Richmond three weeks ago.
They had been charged with entering a building with intent to commit a crime -- effectively a burglary -- but this charge was changed to theft of two of the geckos today.
The value of one of the animals was given as $3000.
They admitted two charges of theft, and one of being in possession of absolutely protected wildlife.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Ash Tabb said the pair had gone to the gecko enclosure on April 9, when Ormandy moved the cage and Stirton placed a gecko into her handbag. They were back two days later to get another gecko for it to breed with, and took another two in the same way.
Defence counsel Craig Fletcher said the animals had been in good condition when they were found and returned. They had been taken to be pets rather than for on-selling.
Ormandy and Stirton had co-operated with the police and were not a flight risk. They accepted that imprisonment was the likely outcome.
He asked for bail so that the pair could attend a restorative justice conference at which they will discuss the crime and its effects with Orana Park staff.
The sentencing judge will receive a report on the conference.
Orana Park has increased security since the thefts.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10380100
Warning issued on magnetic toy set
Wednesday May 3, 2006 3.00pm
An Auckland-based importer has issued a safety alert about magnetic building toys that may have loose magnets.
Harvey Wholesale Ltd says the magnets in some Magnetix toys had become dislodged and could pose a hazard for small children.
If more than one magnet was swallowed, they may create a significant hazard to the digestive system, the company said in newspaper advertisements published today.
Owners of Magnetix sets were urged to check them and ensure any loose magnets were kept away from children.
Any faulty parts should be sent to the company's Auckland base for a replacement or refund.
Harvey Wholesale Ltd could be contacted on 0800 222 219 for further information.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10380063
Pope could be poised to sanction condoms
03.05.06 1.00pm
By Peter Popham
ROME - The Catholic Church is on the brink of a historic change of approach over condoms which could bring hope to millions in Africa and other parts of the developing world devastated by Aids.
"We are conducting a very profound scientific, technical and moral study," said the head of the Vatican Council for Health Pastoral Care.
The church is expected to give a guarded, provisional blessing to the use of condoms by married couples when one of them suffers from Aids, as a way of protecting the health of the other partner.
It is only a technical concession, based on two ancient principles, but, against the background of the stolid refusal by church authorities to countenance even the slightest deviation for more than a generation, it amounts to a revolution.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380093
Family of 14 stuck in three-bedroom home
Wednesday May 3, 2006 1.00pm
The Government is being accused of failing to act on overcrowding after a Northland family with 14 people living in a three-bedroomed house sought help.
Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia said Atareiria HeiHei approached Housing New Zealand 10 months ago asking for support to house her family.
Mrs HeiHei then wrote to Housing Minister Chris Carter in February, claiming nepotism was behind another family getting a state home, which she said was being used as a holiday home.
She told National Radio today her three sons were in one bedroom, while her and her husband plus one grandchild were in another bedroom. Her two daughters and another grandchild were in the third bedroom and some other family members were sleeping on mattresses on the floor in the lounge, she said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10380070
Objections to China bishop
03.05.06 5.20am
China is poised to appoint another bishop to its state-run Catholic Church despite Vatican disapproval. A priest in the Communist Party-approved church in Anhui is to be consecrated a bishop, a vice-chairman of the Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association, Liu Bainian, said.
Liu Xinhong's appointment is opposed by the Vatican, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported.
It comes just days after a senior official in the Government-approved church, Ma Yingling, was appointed bishop of Yunnan in the face of objections from Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen and reported disapproval from the Holy See.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380013
Darfur crisis puts Sudan top of 'failed states' list
03.05.06 4.00pm
By Daniel Howden
The humanitarian crisis in Darfur, which is now spilling over into neighbouring Chad, has pushed Sudan to the top of the Global Index of Failed States.
The report - compiled by the American magazine Foreign Policy and the think-tank Fund for Peace - was published as diplomats from Britain and the US flew to Africa to push for a peace settlement in Darfur.
African nations made up six of the top 10 failed states in the study and the regional impact of the Darfur crisis was reflected in Chad's presence at number six.
The US trade representative, Robert B Zoellick, and Britain's International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, made unexpected arrivals at the talks in Nigeria in an attempt to pressure rebels and the Sudanese government into striking a deal before a midnight deadline last night.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10380101
Darfur talks miss second deadline
03.05.06 1.00pm
By Estelle Shirbon
ABUJA - Peace talks on Sudan's Darfur region would continue tomorrow, US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said, as a deadline for reaching an agreement slipped for a second time.
The government of Sudan has accepted an 85-page draft settlement designed to end fighting that has killed tens of thousands. However, three Darfur rebel factions refuse to sign, saying they are unhappy with the proposals on security, power-sharing and wealth-sharing.
"I will be here tomorrow, beyond that I don't know," Zoellick told reporters after a day of back-to-back meetings with the parties in the Nigerian capital Abuja, venue of the talks.
"One of the points I made in my discussions today was that people needed to sharpen their focus because this had to be solved very soon," Zoellick said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380083
US immigration impasse remains despite protests
03.05.06 1.00pm
By Donna Smith
WASHINGTON - A nationwide boycott by Hispanic groups and others seeking rights for illegal immigrants was unlikely to help break a US Senate impasse on an overhaul of immigration laws, Republican lawmakers said today.
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants and their supporters walked off their jobs and held protests around the country yesterday in a display of economic might aimed at persuading Congress to pass a law giving them a chance of citizenship.
"It didn't really affect what goes on the floor of the Senate," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Tennessee Republican.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380088
Britain cracks down on rogue treasure hunters
03.05.06
LONDON - Britain has launched a crackdown on rogue treasure-hunters in an effort to protect the country's ancient heritage.
Faced with a growing number of priceless artefacts appearing for sale on internet, museums, metal detectorists and archaeologists in England and Wales have agreed a new code of conduct.
The voluntary code comes after massive looting of a Roman-Celtic temple at Wanborough in Surrey in the mid-1980s and as customs officers seize ever more antiquities being smuggled out of the country.
"This code represents a major step forward," said Mike Heyworth of the Council for British Archaeology.
"Most detectorists are only interested in finding and preserving local antiquity ... and to make a positive contribution to our historical knowledge," he told reporters at the British Museum.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380033
'After the opium harvest, it's jihad'
03.05.06
By Tom Coghlan
"Would the British let us send soldiers to take over their country?" The mood among the group of men on the banks of the Helmand River was menacing. All claimed to be Taleban fighters.
"If one Talib is in a village, the infidels bomb the whole village and kill innocent people," their leader went on.
"The British should come and fight us face to face and stop using their planes. They have been here three times and been nicely beaten three times," he added, referring to ill-fated British imperial adventures of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
"If there were two million foreign soldiers, we would defeat them if they fought us face to face."
British forces officially took over the volatile Taleban stronghold of Helmand yesterday for what the commander in charge admitted would be a "challenging mission".
The American Stars and Stripes was lowered at the main base in Lashkar Gar and the Union flag raised alongside the Afghan flag on another day of violence in south Afghanistan.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10379986
Suicide bomber attacks Iraqi governor, 3 dead
03.05.06 9.20am
RAMADI, Iraq - A suicide car bomber attacked the motorcade of the governor of the restive Iraqi province of Anbar today, killing three bodyguards, hospital sources and local residents in the regional capital Ramadi said.
Governor Maamoun Sami Rasheed was wounded and was being treated at a US medical facility, an aide said after the attack in the centre of the city, a stronghold of Sunni Arab rebellion 110 kilometres west of Baghdad.
Local people who said they had seen the attack, close to the main court building, said a car drove at three civilian cars being escorted by US Humvee patrol vehicles and exploded, damaging some of the limousines.
The US military made no immediate comment.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380054
German hostages released in Iraq
03.05.06 12.20pm
By Karin Strohecker
BERLIN - Germany's Foreign Ministry said today that two German hostages held in Iraq since January had been freed after more than three months in captivity.
"I am very pleased to inform you that the two kidnapped men from Leipzig, Rene Braeunlich and Thomas Nitzschke, have been freed today," Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said in a statement.
Steinmeier said they hostages were expected to return to Germany tomorrow. He said they were unharmed after their ordeal and appeared to be in stable condition.
"After spending more than three months under inhumane conditions they are in German care," added Steinmeier, who was on an official visit to Chile.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10380087
Young Americans can't find Iraq on map
03.05.06 3.20pm
By Andrew Buncombe
WASHINGTON - The US may be the world's only true superpower but global domination does not equal global knowledge.
A new survey shows young Americans have what can only be described as shoddy geography skills, with six out of 10 unable to locate Iraq on a map and almost half incapable of pointing to the state of Mississippi.
Traditionally, the US has bowed to the idea of isolationism, hoping that geography in the form of vast oceans can help act as a protection from other nations.
But the survey suggests that such an attitude- both culturally and in terms of interest in overseas travel - is having a woeful impact on Americans' ability to learn about the wider world.
The survey shows that, despite having invaded Iraq three years ago, six out of 10 Americans aged 18 to 24 cannot locate the country.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10380077
Baghdad 'ready to take over in two years'
03.05.06 1.20pm
By Anne Penketh
Iraqi forces are expected to become fully responsible for security in Iraq in two years, even though it could take up to a decade to curb militias, a senior British official has predicted.
"It is perfectly credible to think in a two-year timescale that we could get to a position where essentially the Iraqis are totally responsible for all the security in Iraq," the official said.
But he added: "It could be longer, it could be quicker."
He said he was not laying down a timetable for withdrawal of the 8,000 British troops, which is to take place in coordination with the Iraqi government, depending on the security conditions in the country.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10380091
'It's not working,' Ohio man tells executioners
03.05.06 11.20am
By Jim Leckrone
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A double murderer was put to death in Ohio today but not until after one of his veins had collapsed, causing the condemned man to sit up and tell his executioners, "It's not working," officials said.
The Ohio Department of Corrections said Joseph Clark, 57, was pronounced dead at 11.26 am EDT (2.26am NZT) following an injection of lethal chemicals at the Southern Ohio Correctional Institution in Lucasville.
Spokeswoman Andrea Dean said the execution was delayed about 90 minutes because technicians had trouble initially finding a site in Clark's arm for the intravenous line carrying the chemicals.
Then shortly after the poisons were supposed to have been pumping into his body, she said, he sat up saying, "It's not working. It's not working."
Officials determined that a vein had collapsed. Curtains were closed to block witnesses' view until technicians found a vein in his other arm. They were then parted to reveal him dying, witnesses said.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10380076
Israel's new government prepares to take office
02.05.06 1.20pm
By Megan Goldin
JERUSALEM - Israel's new government will take office on Friday after Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert formed a coalition to carry out his plan to redraw Jewish settlement lines in the occupied West Bank.
"The Knesset will convene… to vote on the new government's guidelines and to swear it in," a parliamentary official said as coalition deals reached by Olmert's Kadima party and the policy points were filed in the legislature.
Olmert's governing coalition will control at least 67 seats in the 120-seat chamber, a majority narrower than he had sought in several weeks of negotiations with political parties.
He was forced to seek partnerships, signing agreements with centre-left Labour, the ultra-Orthodox Shas faction and a pensioners' party, after centrist Kadima led the pack in the March 28 election but fell short of a parliamentary majority.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10379904
Gaza journalists get threats over Hamas coverage
02.05.06 2.20pm
By Nidal al-Mughrabi
GAZA - A handful of Palestinian journalists have reported receiving death threats for their critical coverage of the Islamic militant group Hamas since it began running the government in March, a press group said today.
The Palestinian Journalists' Union said seven journalists in the Gaza Strip, mostly sympathetic to President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party, had received threats by email, phone or fax -- made in Hamas's name -- to harm or kill them for their coverage.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri denied the group had threatened journalists, saying the calls were a fraudulent attempt to "damage Hamas's image". He urged security forces to investigate.
The threats came amid a struggle for sway over the Palestinian Authority and its security forces that pits the moderate Abbas, favoured by Israel and Western powers, against Hamas, which beat Fatah in a parliamentary election in January.
"We are taking these threats seriously, although we do not think the Hamas movement has a policy to threaten journalists," said Sakher Abu Own from the Journalists' Union, which represents journalists in the West Bank and Gaza.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10379908
Iran threatens to attack Israel
03.05.06 9.15am
By Edmund Blair
TEHRAN - Iran threatened today to attack Israel in response to any "evil" act by the United States and said it had enriched uranium to a level close to the maximum compatible with civilian use in power stations.
The defiant statements were issued shortly before world powers met in Paris to plan their next moves after Tehran rejected a UN call to halt uranium enrichment.
Senior officials from the UN Security Council's permanent members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany discussed how to curb an Iranian programme that Western nations say conceals a drive for atomic warheads.
Iran denies the charge and refuses to back down from what it calls its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380059
Iran says Russia and China will not back sanctions
03.05.06
TEHRAN - Iran's foreign minister was quoted yesterday as saying that Russia and China had officially informed Tehran they would not support sanctions or military action over the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.
UN ambassadors from the United States, Britain and France are expected to introduce a UN Security Council resolution this week that would legally oblige Iran to comply with UN demands that it halt all uranium enrichment work.
When asked how far Russia and China, veto-wielding permanent members of the council, would support Washington, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told the Kayhan newspaper:
"The thing these two countries have officially told us and expressed in diplomatic negotiations is their opposition to sanctions and military attacks.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380019
Toxic gold sludge buries China village, 17 missing
02.05.06 4.20pm
BEIJING - Seventeen people are missing after a landslide at a gold mine in northwest China engulfed their homes, Xinhua news agency reported.
It said five villagers were in hospital after a cascade of toxic gold tailings buried their homes following the collapse of a dam wall at the mine in Shaanxi province today.
"The local government has taken emergency measures to prevent the poisonous content in the tailings, including sodium cyanide, from polluting the environment," Xinhua said.
Workers were raising the height of the dam to increase its capacity when the accident took place.
Separately, the death toll from a coal mine blast on the weekend, also in Shaanxi, has risen to 30, Xinhua said. Another two miners were still missing.
China's mining industry is the world's deadliest. Official figures showed that in 2005 some 3,300 coal mine blasts, floods and other accidents killed nearly 6,000 people, while about 1,900 disasters at other types of mines claimed more than 2,300 lives.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10379943
Painting pictures of a new China
03.05.06
By Clifford Coonan
BEIJING - Red Flag-waving Chinese soldiers, muscle-bound peasants, nudes, dancing girls and women soldiers, and scores of Mao pictures, sculptures and photographs. Whatever would the Great Helmsman have thought?
China's Cultural Revolution, which began 40 years ago this month, is a theme running through this year's Dashanzi International Arts Festival in Beijing. A lot of the work confronts some of the horror of those 10 years of Communist mania which saw thousands of intellectuals and artists attacked and humiliated.
The Communist Party are still in power of course. In the run-up to the festival, which began on Saturday, the Culture Ministry removed more than 20 paintings with political content.
Around 500,000 people are expected to visit the festival at Factory 798, which has the semi-official status of being "illegal, but tolerated".
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10379980
St Petersburg - the new Detroit
03.05.06
By Andrew Osborn
MOSCOW - Gone are the days of the Lada and the Yugo in Russia - the country's second city, St Petersburg, is driving ahead with its plan to become the "new Detroit" after clinching deals for Nissan, Ford and Toyota factories.
Low labour costs, generous tax breaks and proximity to Europe's markets have attracted the companies to the city - and feisty female Governor, Valentina Matvienko, a confidante of President Vladimir Putin, says she is in talks with another foreign firm for a fourth factory.
As factories in West Europe are wound down or shut because of high labour costs, production is moving east, and Russia, particularly St Petersburg, is hoping that Europe's loss will be its gain.
The US$200 million ($315 million) Nissan factory will be completed in 2009, initially creating 750 jobs and 50,000 cars a year.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10379978
Malnutrition kills 10 children every minute
03.05.06 2.20pm
By Maxine Frith
Ten children die every minute as a result of malnutrition, more than a quarter of children in developing countries are underweight and suffer disease because of their poor diet, and in some areas almost half of all under-fives are malnourished, a new United Nations report says.
Unicef warns that the slow progress on reducing nutritional problems among children means that several key Millennium Development Goal (MDG) targets may now be missed.
Ann Veneman, executive director of Unicef, said: "The lack of progress to combat malnutrition is damaging children and nations. Few things have more impact than nutrition on a child's ability to survive, learn effectively and escape a life of poverty."
The first MDG, agreed by the world's leaders, pledged to halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger by 2015.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&ObjectID=10380090
It's raining witch-doctors
03.05.06 6.20am
Witch-doctors or shaman are being hired to prevent everything from riots to volcanic eruptions in catastrophe-prone Indonesia.
Government officials say they hired 60 rainmakers who are being credited with magically inducing a downpour that drenched a protest of up to 100,000 workers in Jakarta.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380014
US trade chief says WTO deal 'within reach'
03.05.06
GENEVA - US trade chief Rob Portman said yesterday he believed a deal in long-troubled global free trade negotiations was "within reach".
The United States trade representative, who is in Geneva for a series of meetings after negotiations missed another deadline at the end of April, spoke briefly to journalists after talks with World Trade Organisation (WTO) head Pascal Lamy.
"We believe it's within reach. We believe that there is a way for us to get to 'yes' and to come up with a successful conclusion of the round," he said.
Several trade ministers are in Geneva in a show of support for the WTO's Doha round, which, after more than four years and a number of missed deadlines, risks collapse if it does not achieve a big breakthrough before the end of July.
Portman, who is due to change jobs shortly, gave no further details and it was not immediately clear whether he had heard anything new since his arrival in Geneva late on Monday.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380025
Wife's message judged too sensitive for trapped miner
03.05.06
BEACONSFIELD - A heartfelt message from a woman to her husband trapped in a Tasmanian mine has been considered too sensitive to be played to him.
Rachael Webb recorded the message to be played down a pipe to her husband Brant, who has been trapped 925m underground for eight days with fellow miner Todd Russell.
The idea was to lift his spirits but the mine's psychologist advised against playing it to him, it was reported on the news.com website yesterday.
Mrs Webb was told that the message may have the opposite effect than intended at this stage.
Michael Kelly, Mr Webb's father-in-law, said: "We just thought it would be nice if Rachael could give him some encouragement because the next 48 hours are going to be critical."
Mr Kelly did not say what his daughter's message contained.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10380026
Women break bra-chain world record
02.05.06 3.20pm
PAPHOS, Cyprus - Women on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus created the world's longest chain of bras yesterday, linking together nearly 115,000 of the garments covering 111 km, organisers said.
The group of Dutch, British and Cypriot organisers took nearly nine hours to create the chain at the harbour in the resort of Paphos, following a year of painstaking planning.
Their success will shove Singapore, which had held the record since 2003 with 79,000 bras, off the top spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Women from as far afield as Alaska, Brazil, Martinique and Iran contributed bras to the record attempt, aimed at raising awareness of breast cancer.
Even the British solders based in Cyprus took part helping organisers move the bags of bras and lay the chain.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10379944
Presence of humans reverses evolution of finch
03.05.06 1.00pm
By Steve Connor
Humans are causing evolution to slip into reverse for one of the species of finches that is said to have inspired Charles Darwin after he returned from his famous visit to the Galapagos Islands.
Scientists have found that one of "Darwin's finches" living in the remote Pacific archipelago has begun to lose the distinguishing trait that could be causing it to split into two different species.
The medium ground finch is normally found in two distinct forms - individuals with a larger beak or those with a smaller beak - but when humans come to live alongside the finch, this "bimodal" beak size tends to disappear.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10380051
Neurological deficits linked with stress disorder
03.05.06 1.00pm
Subtle neurologic deficits appear to predispose some individuals to the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to combat experiences, according to a report in the Archives of General Psychiatry.
Previous studies have linked neurological deficits to PTSD, but it was unclear if the deficits were part of the disorder or they were there before the disorder developed, representing a vulnerability factor, senior author Dr. Roger K. Pitman, from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and colleagues note.
To sort this out, the researchers tested for mild neurologic deficits or "soft signs" in 25 Vietnam veterans with PTSD, 24 veterans without PTSD, and in the veterans' identical twins who had not been exposed to combat. Forty-five neurologic soft signs were evaluated and rated in severity from 0 (none) to 3 (most severe).
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&ObjectID=10380068
Napster offers free music to beat iTunes
02.05.06 1.00pm
By Yinka Adegoke
NEW YORK - Napster Inc., the one-time renegade music download service, has returned to its roots with a new Web service which offers fans the chance to listen to over 2 million tracks for free.
The new service launched today at Napster.com is supported by advertising and follows months of negotiations with record companies. Napster will split advertising revenue with the record companies based on the number of times one of their artists' songs is played.
The new service, which comes in addition to Napster's existing subscription service, also allows users to send direct links of chosen tracks to friends. Users can listen to songs up to five times on the free site before having to pay.
"We have built this new Napster.com as an open platform," said Chief Executive Chris Gorog in an interview.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10379891
Rescued DoC rangers set out again for volcano island
20.03.06
By Errol Kiong
The five conservation rangers evacuated from Raoul Island after a volcanic explosion believed to have claimed the life of their colleague are heading back to the island.
Jim Livingstone, Morgan Cox, Melanie Nelson, Evan Ward and Lynda McGrory-Ward are returning to help recovery operations and to assess the damage from Friday morning's eruption. Their colleague, Mark Kearney, 33, is feared dead after being caught in the eruption.
The five were joined by three colleagues, including Raoul Island programme manager Mike Ambrose, on board the RV Braveheart, which left Tauranga for the island at 9.30pm on Saturday.
Also on board are two police officers and two scientists.
Ms McGrory-Ward's father, Greig McGrory, said he was not worried that she and Mr Ward, her husband, had gone back.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/story.cfm?a_id=225&objectid=10373492
Sewage not the only possible cause of norovirus says council
21.03.06
By Errol Kiong
An outbreak of norovirus that caused the closure of nine Bay of Islands oyster farms cannot be blamed conclusively on a council-run sewage treatment plant, the High Court at Auckland has heard.
The oyster farmers are seeking $12 million from the Far North District Council as compensation for loss of earnings, general damages and remediation costs after their farms were closed in 2001 when traces of the norovirus carried in human effluent were found.
The farmers - who have not been able to reopen their farms - have identified several sources of pollution in the Waikare Inlet, but largely blamed the council-operated sewage plant at Kawakawa.
The defence opened its case yesterday with lawyer David Heaney, representing the council, saying the farmers have not proven conclusively that the norovirus originated from the Kawakawa treatment plant.
There were many other potential sources, he said. Highest on his list were the area's septic tank and onsite disposal systems. Mr Heaney said another possible source was boaties discharging their tanks into the water.
There had been some suggestion the virus strain found on the farms was not one commonly found in New Zealand, indicating it might have originated from a boat. Opua was known to be a customs clearance port, he said.
The Kawakawa plant's discharge outlet was over 15km away from the affected farms. "That is an awful long way for these viruses to survive in the open," Mr Heaney said.
A farm in Tiger Bay, which is closer to the treatment plant than the affected farms, was also not affected by an outbreak, he said.
Later that day, the court heard from William Down, the council's assets management coordinator. He read from his brief of evidence that monitoring by the Northland Regional Council had found water quality at the plant's discharge area was better than water quality upstream. Mr Down said it was never an issue nor a requirement to test for norovirus.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/author/story.cfm?a_id=225&objectid=10373637cntinued …
